Thread: Blood & Fur [BurningWillows/DementedRabbit]

Eira Inkeridttir, daughter of the infamous Inkeri and her loving partner and mate, Grimr, was just cleaning her dagger from her latest kill. The arrow had pierced its chest from her bow, but it was her dagger that ended the young elk's life, and would serve to feed her family for a fortnight. She sheathed her blade and pulled at the rope tied to her belt, kneeling as she bond its legs together for easier travel, the wind pulling at her hood, threatening to expose her fiery red locks to the cold winter air. Tugging the ropes tight she sighed, then heaved the beast across her back, carrying it by its antlers so only its rump rubbed the snow. She tugged her hood down tighter, keeping her ears from the bitter cold and breathed out warm air. She had been hunting for hours, and easily traveled a mile North hunting the elk, but she had won. With a triumphant yet tired smile she started on her way home, knowing very well the forest in these lands, like the back of her hand. Her white leather snow boots crunched in the snow, tied tightly to her feet to keep the bitter cold out. The skirt of her dress was sullied from hours of leaning or kneeling in the mud and snow, but it was an old hunting dress anyways, faded dark green, with stitching that had begun to fray. She would have to ask her mother to resew it, or her father to replace it. Eira was freshly eighteen years of age as of a week past. Her gift had been a small ritual book from her mother, a beginner's guide to the magic within her blood. Inkeri was a shaman, and a profoundly skilled one at that. It was why she had moved her mate and two children to the middle of the forest, safe from any clan. Here she could practice her magic in privacy, and grow it. When Eira was only a wee child she would watch her mother work and want to mimic her, but she had been told it was not time. Every few years she would ask, and her mother would tell her to wait, that she would come into her own when she was ready. Iskeri believed she was now, and Eira prayed to the gods above she could prove her mother right. Patting the small book tucked in a pouch on her hip, her bronze colored eyes surveyed the trees, watching for signs of life. On a sunny day they often seemed more gold, and on the cloudiest of days, they could be mistaken for brown, but Eira had dazzling striking eyes of bronze, just like her father. Her younger brother, and only sibling, looked striking more like their mother, despite the fact no magic coursed in his viens. It had only past down to her daughter, to Eira. She reached the bottom of a hill that blocked her view from her home, knowing when she reached the top she could see the crest of the roof of their cozy cabin in the distance. Holding the elk tight she started the up climb, her muscles neither tiring nor sore under such weight. For like most in these lands, she was a werewolf, blessed with strength and senses, yet cursed with blood lust and undying servitude to the moon. As she reached the top she let the elk go, taking a breather and drinking from her waterskin. She looked out over the horizon at home, trying to pick it out of the trees. It wasn't that hard today...the billow of smoke was a dead giveaway. What? NO! She stared at the dark smoke as it billowed and rose in plumes, and suddenly the elk became her last priority. She left it in the snow, knowing it would preserve it long enough if this was just a false alarm. Picking up her skirts she rushed down the hill and into the thick of the forest, knowing her path well enough that she could run at her full speed, which was faster than any human could. It easily shaved off half her run home, though that still took a good length of time. In it, all she could do was panic and worry that something terrible had happened, or that she was making a fool of herself rushing back to find it was nothing more than an accident, or a bonfire for their dinner. The more she thought about it, the more she convinced herself she was simply paranoid, but it did not slow her run. Not only she heard a voice. Oi! Is that the last of them? No! She had a daughter, ripe of age I heard. Eira stopped in her tracks, hiding behind a tree and peeking out. She was still too far from her home, but the voices were unfamiliar and strange, and their scents were too close to ignore. She hid as they passed by, then continued on her travel, slower now and carefully quiet. As she got near enough for the trees to break and the sight of her home came into view, she had to throw a hand to her mouth to stifle the scream in her throat. The cabin she had known since she could walk as home was burnt to the ground, embers still hot and smoke still billowing. Tears pricked her eyes and she stepped towards it, praying her family had not been inside. But another voice from around the corner spoke up and she nearly fell as she hid behind a large pine, listening. Were they all in there? No, we got word there was a fourth member of the she-witch's family, a daughter. She turned of age. She could hear the perverted smile on his lips just from his words, I could use an untouched cunt for myself. Where's the little wolf? Out. She wasn't in the area or the home. Just the she-witch and her mate, and their boy. May all three burn in their after-life. And so will her daughter if she doesn't kneel for me. Eira shuddered, holding herself and crying silently. Her family. Dead. And she hadn't been here to even try and save them. Mother how did this happen? Why did these men attack? Why did you not defend yourself? Your family? They didn't smell like anyone she knew, none of the wolves who traveled to visit Inkeri. The nearest clan had a long and good standing with them, sending their sickly or their needy to her mother to help them. These men did not smell of these lands or of the clan though. They must be from another. But mother warned me never to trust other clans or strangers. They will try and make the worst of us. She stared on at the burning cabin, at the home she had always known, wondering where in the rubble her family lay, scorched and perished, without her goodbyes? She was so focused on the cabin and the men chatting behind her, she did not see another stepping through the trees till he cried out, HEY! Her eyes snapped up and locked on to him, and for a moment time stopped as her heart jumped to her throat and she realized her mistake. Then, from out of nowhere he produced a horn, polished and cleaned from some creature they ate long ago and blew into it, calling to his fellow men that he found her. She grabbed her hood and tugged it tightly down as she raised her skirts and flew up, peeling off into the trees, two of the men already hot on her trail, soon to be much more. She glanced over her shoulder, staring at their odd armor and unfamiliar crest and knew she had been right. This was a distant clan, come to...what? Invade these lands? Rape and pillage? Eira didn't want to find out. Instead she raced on, her lungs beginning to burn, her legs already tired from the day's activities, but she ran on, eastward, towards the only safety she knew. The clan. If she reached them in time, maybe, hopefully someone would help her. Protect me mother. Give me the strength to make it there. Let me live so I may avenge you, my family.