Songs of the Reaver Clans, vII

Volume Two

[Note from the author: This next song was imparted to me as embellished prose, as some ancestor of the clan had lost the tune when it was his turn to remember, causing the original words to be forgotten as well. I think this highlights the need for scholastic interest in recording these traditions before they are lost to us forever.]

"Jhunal, you are too clever for usefulness, but you are clever. Where is this mull we have reached?" asked Shor.

"Farfromfarfromhere," replied Jhunal, casting sly runes of smirks. At this Tsun raised his hand and beat the wretch, once, twice, until Stuhn caught his hand at the third. The smirk-runes bit at them both, enraging the brothers with envenomed barbs of cleverness, as wide-eyed Jhunal smiled blankly at them.

"Yes, that is very clever," continued Shor "But my issue will be the most fierce, most mighty, most praised race ever to spring from gods. I must be sure they are granted the fiercest, mightiest, [plumpest?] of all the heights and depths. So I ask you again."

"In truth, reality is sideways-sideways. Existence does not fall up, nor emptiness down, but rather they fall together to the sides. That is how we can sail between the two," said Jhunal, twisting his fingers into the true signs. Barely had he finished these words when Kyne, screaming all the while, whipped the sea into salty scourges and flayed the skin from him.

"I see that it does not do to be too clever," mused Shor, observing this "for you will be beaten and humiliated and, worst of all, be not very helpful. It falls to warriors, then, to establish our dominion in this Sky over any we might encounter. Onward, beloved clan of mine! Let us follow these footprints I just now see before me in the sand!"

Each of Shor's clan saw a set of footprints before them and, taking care to step within each print (because they knew it was lucky), travelled sideways for the first time, away from Sovngarde's hull and towards the great dark mass of the unknown.

"Oho!" cried Shor "This isn't the great dark mass of the unknown at all... it is a great mass, to be sure, and it is both dark and unknown, but look how tangible it is! Look how it bites at our bodies, not our courage, and burns our hair, not our hearts. No, before us is some fiery serpent."

"It is a dragon," said Jhunal, and cast the wise bones, to which Mara pulled out his tongue.

"Ohoho!" cried the serpent, whose name was Alduin "You return so soon! Well, I am still full from the last world, full to bursting (my gullet burns with more than fire), so you will have much time to enjoy this one. I will return to sleep now, but remember that when I awake I will devour all you have created, and that the struggles of mortals and gods alike come to nothing." At this he farted, and in it Shor's clan could hear the last hopes of the last world disappear forever.

Turning away from sleeping Alduin, Shor faced his clan and said "I remember now. Knowing that it is good, we build the world-hall here and fill it with the Sky-children who sailed with us in Sovngarde, but after forever has passed the loathsome serpent awakens and eats all, and only we who escape aboard Sovngarde return to rebuild once again. I understand that all we can ever do is folly, but that we must toil and overcome until that final day arrives."

At that, a cheer came up from Shor's clan, and as one they raised the world-hall's first post, and named it Sky-Throat.