Halthor, upon his pony, followed the woman in blue along the path as the dog pranced beside her. The dog gave a cheerful sounding yip and the woman looked down at the dog. "I see," she said, "And what happened?" The dog yipped and then growled. Halthor shook his head at the sight of a person conversing with a dog. He recalled his own annoyed mutterances at the animal earlier in the day but honestly thought someone would be half mad to think that the dog of all animals could understand anything more than basic commands.
"Elwis thinks you're a bit of a buffoon but good hearted," the woman who named herself Blue Lady said with a chuckle. "He also thinks that your better with the hammer than the axe. I know nothing about the former but if you are the one who was prophecied to come, then the hammer was waiting for you all this time." Halthor gave the dog an annoyed look. Apparently the dog had a name and somehow this unearthly woman who shone beneath the dim shadows of the trees knew it, knew the dog's low opinion of him, and more about this prophecy he was stuck in.
"My Lady," he said in his most courteous tone of voice, "If the hammer was waiting for me, for whom is the axe waiting for? And what is this prophecy? Prophecies are dangerous things to be caught up in." Her blond hair shone and she seemed untouched by the cold, though she wore but summer weight clothes. Halthor on the other hand was shivering from the cold, annoyed with the wind whistling past his ears and thankful that at least his beard kept his face somewhat warm when the wind wasn't in his face. "I have come a long way and have farther to go. Ancient evil hunts me and I am in danger beyond any I have ever known. My only kinsman is dead. Aside from the dog ... Aside from Elwis and this pony, I have no allies that I know of except for those whom the gods put on my path," he continued, trying to keep his frustration out of his voice, "Pray, tell me what I must know to complete this quest and return home."
The Blue Lady stopped walking and turned to look at him. She suddenly seemed more intimidating despite her deceptively small build. Perhaps it was the pale blue light that shone in her eyes. Perhaps it was the stern expression on her face. Either way, Halthor suddenly wondered if he had made a grave mistake. "Halthor, son of Alaric the builder and Sigrid the fair, you have no home but that which the gods give you," she said, "You shall have no home but that which the high ones give until you complete your quest. The soul eaters pursue you to steal the shard you carry. You shall gaurd it with your life until it is given into the hands of Count Olerand and it is passed unto his heir and then the child born to bear it."
Halthor reined up short when she stopped walking. The pony tossed its head and whickered. It was the first noise it had made since morning. The Blue Lady looked at it severely. "He must know if he is to carry it to the correct person. Failure means the end of ages for it is among the last of the soul shards in the world," she said sternly as though correcting an errant servant. The dog whined and she looked down at the dog. Her expression softened. "I know, you have both waited long for him. I know he is not the hero you expected. But he is the one who Father had chosen."
"The last child of my Father shall be born at the close of this age. She will reunite the soul shard with the great shard of the world that should have been," the Blue Lady explained, "You are but a pawn in Father's plan against the Defiler. I am only a guide. I would pity you for your place in this, but greater things await you than you would have had if you remained in Starhaven." Halthor looked up at the trees. The wind moaned and sighed through the high branches of the evergreens. A holly tree with berries blood bright shook its branches in a hard gust. "Come, we have not much farther to go," the elf-woman said. Halthor stared at her as she walked several steps forward on the path.
"You are one of the Good Folk," he said. The Blue Lady rolled her cornflower blue eyes and gave him an exasperated look. Somewhere a wolf howled and Halthor's awe of the fact that he had met a second demigod was overshadowed by a desire to find safety. Halthor looked over his shoulder to see if the place they started from was still visible behind them, suddenly concerned that one of the shadow creatures may have found his path. He stared with amazement when he saw hills rolling away behind him and no sign of the wood he had begun on the evergreen path in. He was instead at the edge of a clearing on the top of a high hill where he saw a river winding between the lower hills below and a smudge at the riverside where smoke arose. "Is that Weck-in-Wood?" he asked quietly.
The Blue Lady took hold of the pony's bridle and urged it forward upon the path again. Suddenly, a road lined with evergreens of every kind surrounded him. "Do not go off the path," she said sharply. "I shall take the lead and guide you. The hour of dusk is drawing near. Even upon the trodden paths, you are not safe from the soul hunters." Halthor sat meekly upon the pony as his guide lead him forward what seemed only a few dozen footfalls. She stopped and there before them was a glade at the edge of another forest. A traveler's rest was there but it was not like the others he had seen. Where the others had been built of wood, this was built of stone. A sturdy wooden door was at the entrance, not a mere flap of leather to be pegged down against the wind. On the leeward side of the building was a pile of wood. Dusk was beginning to fall and the sky had just begun to take on the faint orange that heralded the rose of twilight.
"Quickly, you haven't much time," the woman with blond hair and dressed for summer said as she looked about them. Halthor dismounted and began to take his belongings off of the pony. "No," the elf-woman commanded, "Wood. Fetch wood and start a fire. I will bring these in." Halthor walked up to the pile of wood and pulled out a hefty armload. As he muscled it into the traveler's rest, he saw that the building could have been someone's cottage if one actually lived in the deep wood. He knelt at the cold fireplace and started stacking wood to make a fire. As he fussed with his tinderbox, the Blue Lady carried in some of his goods. It was once he actually had gotten a fire successfully started that he turned away. The last of twilight was beginning to fade from the sky.
He picked up a burning brand to carry as a torch to bear in more wood when the woman in blue stopped him. "The fire will burn until dawn. The hearth fire of my home does not go out when I am in it," she said. Halthor stared at her. He mutely replaced the wood back on the fire and sat down on the chair that was carved in one piece from a massive chunk of wood. "The spring where the river begins is in this glade. I have hidden it, but it is here. You will not want for water, or food. Like you, I eat." She then stood and got down an iron pot from a shelf that it rightly shouldn't have been sitting upon with more ease than Halthor expected. As the Blue Lady went from crock to crock she took a bit of this and that. She dropped items into her pot and then set it over the fire. "Good pot, boil a bit and make us a bite," she commanded the pot.
To Halthor's amazement, the pot was suddenly seething with a roiling boil and the savory smell of stew arose from it. "That'll be ready in a minute. I'm afraid I haven't wine. Sweet water, however, I have aplently." Halthor looked at the woman standing fireside. For a moment, he felt as he did when he was a small child sitting by his mother. The golden haired woman seemed talled for a moment and he felt a brief sense of a child's security of being home. The moment was fleeting and when it passed, Halthor closed his eyes against the sudden tears that threatened. The elf-woman gave no sign of noticing Halthor's moment of confusing memory and present time as she bustled about setting the small table for their meal.
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