Torvi Ulfrigdottir and Ongr Thrashgar
Torvi had easily climbed up into the foliage of a large tree, and was scanning the strange forest behind them, and then all around them. She whispered down to her fellow travelers. "We have lost the bowmen for now. They are skilled with bows...and wield...wield magic."
When Torvi said the word "magic" she said it with venom on her tongue. As though sounding the very word left her mouth sour and dry.
Timm was sitting on some soft purple moss, his back to the crimson bark of a tree. "When you argued for our retreat, I knew something was wrong...but had no idea they had enchanted you."
Torvi grimaced, and began climbing down out of the tree. "Next time I argue for retreat, assume I am enchanted."
Shade walked toward Torvi. "I think its time we talked about...."
Torvi interrupted him. "No."
"No? What question are you answering."
Torvi looked at the man before her. He was small and dexterous. Nothing like the men of her tribe. Nothing like the men she was attracted to. In a way, his size and feminine build repulsed her. "You were going to ask me to enlist Ongr's help. The answer is no."
Shade's tone took on a persuasive lilt. "But, the old boy could carry us right though the troubles. We'd be safe...I can't think the bowmen would be much of a threat to your storm giant friend. Seems like a win-win to me."
Sympos was sitting in the dirt, poking at it with a stick. "Not everything's a game. And if it were, it ends the same for all of us."
Timm smiled. The dirty little man's aphorisms always amused him. "It is not a game. It is a job. A job for which we are going to be paid handsomely. It seems a shame to ignore a possible resource at our disposal. We get to the gate...we shut it...we're due to make a bundle. Have you thought about this Torvi? Forget that this was Shade's idea. Just consider the idea on its own merit."
Torvi turned her muscular form toward Timm, her eyes softening a bit. Her beautiful face, framed in dark wavy hair, and painted in blue war paint, took on a thoughtful look. She towered above the young navigator. A smile crossed her lips. "I will consider it. I think we are out of immediate danger. Let's make camp and I will have an answer for you by morning."
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Timm was on watch, and the other members of the party were trying to sleep. But Torvi was restless. She stood, grabbed Brodhi's axe, and with a nod to Timm, walked into the dark forest to clear her head.
The tall warrior made her way on dark paths, ever aware of possible dangers in the forest around her. The coolness of night on her skin brought her thoughts back to her cold homeland. Instead of soft earth and crunching leaves beneath her feet, she remembered frozen ground and packed snow. Instead of the sounds of animals and insects, she remembered the screaming whine of the wind and creaking ice. Instead of the earthy smell of decay, she remembered the smell of smoldering fires and cave bear meat curing in smoke-houses.
Torvi realized that she was no longer in the fey forest in the Wilds. She was on an icy plateau in Norlund. The wind whipped at her, and her cheeks stung with the cold. Through cold-watering eyes, she saw a gigantic form approaching her from the end of the plateau framed in towering glaciers.
It was Ongr. The ground shook with each step he took toward her. The sky above him crackled with energy, and the winds that whipped at Torvi, seemed to emanate from the storm giant.
Ongr walked to within 30 feet of Torvi, and took a seat in the middle of the great plateau of ice. He gestured for Torvi to walk toward him. As she did, she entered a sheltered space, where the wind and the cold did not seem quite so fierce and punishing.
Torvi's eyes were wide, and filled with sorrow. "Are we in Norlund? Have you brought me to my homeland? The earth-cradle of my dead child? The frozen grave of my beloved Brodhi? Is that what you have done?" Anger pierced her words, and there was a murderous tone there. A tone that made even the storm giant worry a bit.
"No, Torvi Uflrigdottir. No. We are in your memories still. You stand in a dark fey forest in the Wilds of the mainland, but as ever, your mind is still trapped in your homeland. I did not do this. I only visit you here to talk."
Torvi looked around her. Was it true? As far as she had run...as hard as she had tried to escape...was she still trapped in the place of her birth? The land of Ulfrig her loveless father?
"I cannot escape my past. I cannot escape the sorrow of it all.
Ongr reached down with his massive hand, and with the tip of his blue-white finger, he softly touched Torvi's shoulder. "I am no stranger to sorrow, child. I am no stranger to prisons of my own making. I have spent decades beneath the waters of the loch, hiding from the death of my tribe in the all-consuming sun at the Storm Gates. So, perhaps my wisdom is worth nothing. Perhaps I am the last one you should listen to. But, I propose something to you now, that I never thought possible."
The cold of her memories penetrated Torvi's clothing, and sent shivers through her large muscular body. She looked up in the storm giants face, considering his words. "What do you speak of?"
"I was lost child. Wallowing in pain and isolation. And then you showed me kindness. You did not fear me, nor did you pity me. You showed me respect. You showed me honor." The giants great finger shifted slightly, and brushed the golden shell hanging around Torvi's neck. "That is why I gave you this gift."
Tears came to Torvi's eyes. "Great Ongr. Do not play with words. Tell me what you propose. I feel her grave beneath my feet, and can not stand this pain."
Ongr's huge head nodded, the energy in the atmosphere around him crackling in response. "I propose we escape our prisons together. You save me and I save you. And we live free...beyond the bindings of our own contrivance. We live beyond our sorrow...we live beyond pain, and regret, and loss. Come with me...and I will show you."
Torvi looked at his bright blue eyes. They were honest and laid bare to her the vulnerability of the offer being made to her. “But, I cannot just leave! I have a job, and friends, and people who count on me. I can’t just leave….”
Ongr smiled sadly. “Do you plan to take a husband someday? To rebuild the life you had with Brodhi, with another man?”
Torvi shook her head. “No...no.”
Ongr continued. “Do you plan to birth another child?”
Torvi’s heart rose up into her throat. “Never!”
Ongr nodded. “Do your friends understand you pain? Truly understand? Are they family? Do you trust them? Have you ever found true comfort in the world, after the loss of your husband and child?”
Torvi’s head sunk. She liked Sympos, and Timm. The Professor had been kind to her, and she felt loyal to him. But she was a carnival act. A freak among the little people. She took her frustration out on the men who challenged her to combat, but it was little more than a temporary release. Torvi answered simply, “Very little.”
Ongr smiled. “Travel with me, Torvi. I am Ongr Thrashgar, a prince among the storm giant clans. I will take you to the lands of Jotunheim, and we will witness with our own eyes the might of the Storm Forge. When you get homesick for Kempin, I will take you to the Azure Kingdom to see the Storm Gates, and perhaps we will take a side trip to scare the hell out of the King Javiar and his champion Vikos! We will travel to the ice fields of Swaldune, to meet with the Lost and pay our respects to the great demon-killer Wahlquist. I’ll take you to ride with the great Horselords and Weavers of Shronth. We’ll brave the lava fields of the Devil’s Spine, and go to the Mountain of Man to taunt the Red Jackel himself. And when you tire of adventure, we’ll sail for the magical lands of Sona-Nyl, where the seed at the heart of every legend goes to rest, and find their true selves.”
Torvi’s grief was consuming her. She pictured the frozen corpse of her child, stiff and white in its grave. She could see bloody Bodhi, axe hewn and buried in a shallow grave of stone and ice. She saw the cruel face of her father Ulfrig, mocking her from the darkness at her core. “I...I….”
“Travel with me child! We will restore each other. We will see such wonders. We will shake the foundations of this world, and forget our pain in the effort!”
Torvi looked up at Ongr. Her demeanor had changed ever slightly, as though she saw a tiny light piercing the consuming darkness all around her. “Ongr….”
“Yes my child?”
“I will go with you. Let me leave word for my friends, and I will go with you.”
Ongr smiled, his great teeth glistening with ice. Torvi smiled back, forgotten tears freezing into diamonds upon her cheeks.
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