Stryg sat crouched on the ground. He carved sigils in the dirt with a narrow stick he had ripped off from a bush. No matter how hard he tried, the lines were fairly crooked. Still, he thought they looked good enough, or at least legible.
“Is that supposed to be ‘water’ or ‘leaf’?” Lunae said from above him.
Stryg looked up with an annoyed sigh.
The 4-meter-tall goddess towered over him. Her hands were on her hips, and her eyes were staring down at his several lines of sigils.
“...It says ‘wave,’” he mumbled.
“Oh, huh. It’s wrong.”
“N-No, it’s not!” he yelled sheepishly.
Lunae crouched behind him, reached her arm over his shoulder, and pointed at the sigil in question. “The second circle next to the high line should be more to the left. As for the first circle, well, it shouldn’t be a circle at all, it’s an oval.”
“I-I knew that! I was just— trying something new, yeah. For practice.”
He bit his lower lip. “I still can’t hit a target with my bow. And I always lose sparring matches against the other kids, even the 9 and 8-year-olds.”
“What does any of that have to do with writing? You do not need muscle strength to write well. You need precision and a deft hand.”
He unconsciously grabbed the edge of her dress and looked away. “The Mothers said that a useless goblin has no place in a tribe. They are abandoned and thrown out,” he mumbled.
“And you think that if you cannot master this skill either, then I will— abandon you?”
Stryg shrugged glumly.
Lunae stood to her feet and snatched him up into the air. She raised him up above her head like a doll and looked at him with a stern expression. “Are you an idiot?”
“Wha?” He glanced around anxiously. “Uh, I, uh—!”
She shook his tiny body. “You have spent your entire short life venturing into the forest to look for me, always refusing to leave me be, no matter how many times I told you to go away. And now, all of a sudden you care what I think? When has that ever stopped you before? So, I ask again, are you an idiot?”
“I don’t… I don’t know—”
“You are an idiot, very much so. But I forgive you. All babies are idiots.”
“I’m not a baby, I’m already 10 and a half!” Stryg crossed his arms, or at least tried to, it was difficult with Lunae’s hands holding him up by the armpits.
“You’re not a baby?” she smirked.
“No! I’m a man,” he puffed up his chest.
“Okay, little man, then this won’t bother you at all!” She suddenly pulled him close and began to tickle him mercilessly.
Stryg burst into laughter and tried to escape her clutches. “~Nooo, stop! Stop it!~”
“Never!” she kissed his cheeks incessantly and rubbed her nose into his neck.
His tiny feet kicked the air and his hands flailed about as he cried tears of laughter. “~I give up, I give up!~”
Lunae pulled back and grinned, “Feeling better?”
He looked away abashedly, “...Yeah.”
She smiled, “I’m never going to abandon you, little one, do you hear me? Never.”
He looked back at her. “Really?”
“Then,” Stryg swallowed. “Make the Sigte bond with me!”
“What did you say?” Lunae blinked in confusion. She put him on the ground. “What are you talking about?”
“The stories about the wolf pups you talk about. You said the twins made a blood bond together.” Stryg cupped his hands together, “They will always be together no matter what happens.” R𝘢ℕȯᛒĚ𝙎
The image of Solis’ smile flashed in her mind’s eye, of the bond they had once made between them, the bond she had betrayed the day she failed him. Her heart clenched in pain and she struggled to keep her expression still.
“You said you’d never abandon me and I—” he straightened his back and offered her his hand, “I won’t abandon you. So if we make the bond, you and I will be together forever.”
Lunae’s expression turned wry. She sat down on her knees and looked at him with a mix of emotions. Stryg craned his neck up to look at her. Even sitting down she still towered over him by several feet.
“You do not know what you ask of me, little one.”
“But,” he cocked his head to the side, “The pups made the bond.”
“That was different. They were twins, bound together since birth.”
“Yes, you could say that.”
“A pack of two?” Lunae raised her eyebrow.
“Yeah. I’ll protect you and you’ll protect me.”
“You? Protect me?” she chuckled.
The boy nodded sincerely. “When I’m bigger. When you need me. I’ll be there, I promise. I’ll save you, just like you saved me.”
“Oh, little one…” Lunae smiled softly. You’ve already saved me…
“So, will you do it?”
“Are you certain this is what you wish?”
“Yeah!” he nodded eagerly.
“...Very well.” She grabbed his small palm and nicked the skin with her foreclaw.
“Ow!” he yelped and tried to take his hand away but Lunae held his wrist.
“Hold still,” she said and nicked her own palm.
“Be brave,” she replied adamantly. “The world beyond this forest is filled with more pain than this. So be brave, little one, and do not let fear hold you back.”
Dark purple blood, almost black, seeped from her hand. She placed his palm on top of her own and their blood mixed in a swirl of bright scarlet and dark violet.
“Repeat after me,” Lunae ordered, then muttered several unfamiliar words.
Stryg tried his best to copy her speech, but he knew his pronunciation was off, still, he kept mumbling the words as she spoke.
After a few moments of incomprehensible language, Lunae spoke in the common tongue, “One Life Above All Others.”
“One Life Above All Others,” Stryg repeated.
She nodded solemnly and stepped back. “Our blood is one.”
Stryg held his bleeding hand tightly, but smiled through the tears in the corners of his eyes. “Is that all?” he mumbled, trying his best to sound brave.
“Yes, although I did have to change the vows a bit. Usually, the bond is made between lovers or brothers-in-arms. In our case, I adjusted the lines.”
Stryg smiled, though it was marred with pain.
“Let me see,” Lunae said sympathetically. She grabbed his hand and blew on the wound.
A thin layer of frost formed over the cut.
Stryg stared in awe, “It doesn’t hurt anymore!”
“I took the pain away, but I haven’t healed your wound entirely. I am not a goddess of healing, you will have to go and ask your First Mother to look at the cut.”
“Okay. Will it scar?”
He raised his hand to the sky with pride. “So I’ll never forget today!”
“...tryg, Stryg, Stryg!”
Stryg’s lilac eyes shot open, his hand reaching towards the ceiling. He was lying in bed in a room the Silver Mother had prepared for him. He stared at his unblemished palm and felt as if something were missing, but he couldn’t remember what it was.
“Huh…?” He slowly sat up in bed and walked over to the door. “Tauri?”
The breathless orc stood in the doorway. “You’re awake.” She looked him up and down, “Are you okay?”
“You always say that.”
“Well, you look nicer?”
Tauri rolled her eyes and pushed her way into the room. “You want to talk about what happened this morning?”
She sent him a deadpan glance, “Really? You’re just going to pretend like you didn’t appear next to a GODDESS atop the Silver Keep. Wanna explain how that happened? It’s all anyone in the temple, no, the city, has been talking about!”
“I don’t really know what to say…” Stryg sat up on the bed. “I have so many questions and I have no answers. Lunae suddenly appeared to me, carried me to the castle, declared war, and then told me she would speak with her Elects and for me to come back at nightfall.”
Tauri glanced at the darkened window. “Well, you’ve been holed up in your room sleeping all day.”
“Yeah… Where’s Plum?”
“Oh, she’s been sleeping too. There was something really strong in the tea the Silver Mother was serving. Plum spent over 6 hours talking non-stop and then she suddenly crashed onto the nearest piece of furniture. I don’t think she’s going to be waking up any time soon.”
“And First M— And my mother?” he asked hesitantly.
“She hasn’t come out of her room,” she admitted. “The chieftain and the Silver Mother have visited her, but I don’t know anything more.”
Tauri grabbed his hand. “We can talk about it, you know. You don’t have to deal with all of this alone.”
Stryg scoffed softly, “Have you ever dealt with finding out that the person you admired most turned out be your mom and that she’s been lying to you ever since your birth?”
Tauri crossed her arms, “No, but I know what it’s like to have a mom that disapproves of you, no matter how hard you train and no matter how hard you fight to prove you're worthy of your House, or tribe.”
Stryg winced, “Fair enough. Sorry.”
She kicked his leg lightly and inclined her head towards the door. “Just stop wallowing in self-pity and go find out what all of this is about, Aspirant.”
“Aye, commander,” he grinned half-heartedly. He made it to the doorway and stopped. “Do you think… Do you ever get the feeling that you’re forgetting something, but not anything small like a book or belt? Something big.”
“I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like there’s something in front of me, I can’t see it, I can’t touch it, but I know it’s there. I know it. Ever since I came back to Vulture Woods, I feel it at the edge of my sight.” He gripped his chest, “I feel like I’ve lost something precious and I don’t know what it is.” He shook his head, “Sorry, it sounds stupid, never mind. Forget about it.”
Tauri pulled him back by the shoulder and hugged him, “We’ll talk when you get back, okay?”
Stryg closed his eyes and relaxed his shoulders. “Yeah.”