HuntEir

"HuntEir" is a BOTGD 2 Act 1 thread written on June 8, 2019.
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Hunter Lindholm: Hunter adjusted the straps of his rucksack, calling out a cheery farewell to his recent patient, “Okay, Mrs. Bito! Take the meds once a day, okay? I’ll check up on you in a week.”
A chilly breeze blew his cloak back, and he shivered, tying it closer to himself. The sun was just rising above the horizon, peeking its rays from between the trees and illuminated the hazy mist that surrounded him. 
Let’s go rob the tavern.
“I could go for a bite.” Hunter said out loud, into the empty road.
I want to take money from them, not give them any, ya nerd.
“Nah. I’m good. We got more patients on our rounds.”
Eir rolled over in her mental space with Hunter. But I’m bored.
“Don’t worry, we’ll make today interesting,” he said, vapour swirling around his knees.
It frickin’ better. Ya nerd.
Yun Milae: Said tavern was quiet and dark as the sunrise hours usually were. In the corner, with a glinting naginata propped up beside a cloaked figure, who as bent over something in his lap. A pair of needles flashed and clicked at a leisurely pace, but the complicated stitches formed quickly and neatly. His eyes were focused on the project, but as soon as the sun began to peek through the window across from his seat, catching his eye and making him blink, he rolled it up and tucked it away, like it never existed. He got to his feet and picked up his weapon, leaving a few coins on the table–the barkeep was struggling and he was going to lose his oldest daughter in a few months–and left the tavern. But he didn’t go far. He hung around the front of the building, pulling a long pipe from his side and shielding it from the breeze as he began to light it.
“Seeking a lesser goddess for counsel now, hmm?”
“Lesser though she may be, a goddess she still is, isn’t she?” He put the pipe in his mouth and took a slow draw, squinting out at the fields beyond the village. “There’s no need to be offended,” he added.
“As if I would take offense to advice from an Eir.”
“If you are so much more knowledgeable, tell me what you know.”
She sighed. Her streaming white feathers trembled and fluttered in the biting wind, and she folded her arms, a pale finger tapping against her iron bracer. The birds called as they darted through the sky, and the sound of a distant, rushing river filled the silence.
“Ahh.” He made a noise of recognition around the stem of the pipe in his teeth. “You don’t know anything.”
“Do not get smart with me.”
“Pay better attention to your domain and I won’t have to.” He blew a thin line of smoke and she waved it away from her face as the breeze drifted it past, her dark lips pursing in a frown. “And be glad I am not asking your sister for help instead.”
She snorted and turned her head, keeping her silence. Milae continued waiting.
Hunter: Hunter came down the old road, whistling to himself. He was finally going home tonight after a few days of travel. Being a doctor, a magical one at that, meant some nights were spent away from family, so he was excited for the day to be over.
Hey, look out. Weirdo alert. Eir chimed in his mind. He peeped out from under the brim of his hat, observing the figure that idled by their destination.
“Hush, don’t be rude.” he retorted silently. They approached the stranger, and he tipped his hat politely as a morning greeting when they passed by him.
Milae: Milae nodded in return. “Good morning, doctor. How goes it?” The woman beside him continued towering silently, invisibly, eyeing the man with incredible distaste.
Hunter: “It goes well.” Hunter hummed distractedly. The usual chatter from Eir disappeared for some reason, and he was about to inquire why, when he realized he’d never met this stranger before. “How did you know I was a doctor?”
Milae: “Hm. They don’t usually catch on so fast, do they?” she said wryly, as Milae removed the pipe from his mouth, breathing another cloud into the breezy morning sky. It didn’t matter; this timeline was in shambles anyways. He’d marked it clear for severance. “I suppose you’re right.”
He dipped his head once, slightly, before continuing to speak. “Word of you gets around, Hunter. I actually had a question to ask of you, now that I have run into you.”
Hunter: Hmm… Hunter kept his face pleasant, but warning bells were ringing in his brain. Something was up and he needed to be wary. What do you think?
He was greeted by a silence. It felt like Eir was squinting in his mind, staring at emptiness.
Hunter acknowledged the man, “A question? Who’s asking, if I may?”
Milae: “You may call me Milae.” The goat tapped a hoofed finger against the bowl of the pipe. “Your friend can call mine Urðr.” She looked at him with the barest trace of surprise.
Hunter: If Eir had a physical nose, she would have huffed. Fuc-
“No swearing in my head.” Hunter interrupted her mid retort. He kept himself civil and tried to feign ignorance, “Hello, Milae. What friend?”
Milae: “May I ask you some questions, Eir?” Milae looked like he was staring past Hunter, like he were a ghost. “I promise I won’t be but a moment of your time.”
Hunter: He was taken aback. Not a lot of things surprise Hunter anymore, but Milae kept revealing things that no ordinary stranger would know.
This guy ain’t ordinary, Hunter.
“Yeah…” the doctor answered aloud, “What’s the question?” The back of his neck prickled as it harden, unnoticed, for a millisecond.
Milae: Milae took a few steps forward and peered into Hunter’s eyes with his own animal gaze. He leaned back and folded his arms, but used one hand to point the end of his pipe in Hunter’s face a few times as he spoke, for emphasis. “Hm. You’re not Eir. Will she speak with me for a minute?” He flicked an ear. “If she can, that is. I would like to be sure I am getting my answers from her.”
“A waste of time,” she sniffed. “Selfish little thing.”
Hunter: A little annoyed, Hunter brushed him away with a sweep of his hat, revealing the beginnings of a slightly thinning hairline, “She can hear you just fine. No need for that, you can trust me to relay the message.”
Milae: Twisting his velvet nose, Milae put the pipe between his teeth again and sighed reluctantly. “I would like to know how much she remembers of the goddess Frigga.”
Hunter: Eir narrowed her eyes so forcefully that Hunter subconsciously did the same.
What about- “-Frigga?” Their thoughts and sentences started meshing one. Hel yeah I remember Frigga. She was a- “-bitch.” Hunter didn’t bat an eyelash.
Milae: A victorious rush of adrenaline. Milae’s mouth curled into a small smile. 
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t quite catch that, though I believe I agree with you. I have a slight…problem with her, where I’m from.”
Hunter: “Yeah?” Hunter’s usual friendliness had begun to disappear. A dark flash zipped down the side of his face under his shirt.
Of course you would. “Everyone has a problem with Frigga.” She’s a class A, power hungry- “-asshole that gets whatever the Hel she fucking wants, and she’ll step on anyone to get there.”
“So?” his body moved with ease, “What’s your problem with the Top Bitch, weirdo?”
Milae blinked at Hunter’s rapid change in attitude and broken sentences. “Well,” he began, “first of all, I have no problem with her…yet. It is unfortunate news, but she has not died in Ragnarok. I am from a future where she wishes to seek me out for…something. I have guesses as to what that might be, but nothing certain.” His arms folded a little tighter. Smoke streamed from his nose like a dragon preparing to breathe fire. “Eir, I can see you were incredibly close to Frigga. What would a broken, powerless she-devil such as herself want from a practitioner of seidr?”
Hunter: Hunter experienced the oddest of whiplashes in that moment that flung him backwards, and he felt himself disappear. The amalgamation of their thoughts disrupted their balance, and it shuffled them around. When he opened his eyes, he was in darkness, echoes of what his body hears booming around him. Damn it, Eir!
Hunter, or Eir, rather, grinned cheekily in the physical world. She unfurled her fingers, working the joints and stretching out her muscles. “Ahh, it’s been a while. Be patient, nerd. You’ll get it back soon.”
“Mmm, I’m not surprised,” Eir said aloud, “She’s always been persistent. Like a cockroach.” She scrunched her nose a little as unwelcome memories popped up. Memories that Hunter already knew.
“I can think of reasons, and I can tell ya. But this world ain’t free, goat man. Especially since you’re so chummy with her,” she waggled Hunter’s finger towards emptiness. She couldn’t see her, but she didn’t care. Ugh. Urdr. “So what’s in it for me?”
Milae: “In this world? There is not much I can offer you. Feel free to name your price.” Another pull on the pipe. “But in my world? Frigga takes you, too. Your reward is your own life, along with Hunter’s soul. And perhaps our last chance at stopping her.”
Hunter: Eir was silent for a moment, before she responded quietly, “Of course she does.” She connected the dots in her head so quickly, Hunter could barely keep up. “I’m one of the last remnants of her former power left on the all the realms…”
She rolled her shoulders in exasperation, “Is there no timeline in this godforsaken place left where we don’t get fucked over?” She dismissed it with a wave of her hand and pointed towards the tavern, “We want breakfast. Then I’ll tell ya.”
Milae: Milae let the last stream of smoke billow from his nose again, and then tipped his pipe upside-down in the road, tapped it, and stamped out the smoldering contents. “Thank you, Eir. Lead the way.” He was still a bit wary of the goddess–he’d seen firsthand what the other Eirs could do–but the tides seemed to be turning in his favor.
Hunter: Eir gulped down the hotcakes at a disgusting speed, crumbs spilling over to the surface.
Can you please eat more normally? Hunter cries, covering his non existent face with his hands in embarrassment.
“I could, but this stupid meatsack of yours is starving and needs sustenance.” Eir grunted, loud enough for Milae to hear. She looked at him, then beyond him, “What?”
Milae: Urðr hummed slightly from where she was leaning on the wall behind Milae and didn’t look up from inspecting her nails. Her massive wings were hidden from sight indoors, leaving her looking more like an intimidating Amazon than a valkyrie. “Hmm? Did it say something to me?” 
Looking heavenward and sighing, Milae began the next row on his crochet work, which still looked complicated enough to not have a clear shape. He had no food in front of him. “Nothing,” he said, his exasperation hidden behind his thick accent. “I have no judgment of a goddess’ eating habits. I care a bit more about their destructive tendencies than anything else, really.”
Hunter: Eir swallowed her last bite, and licked her lips, still squinting at both of them, “Yeah, okay, weirdo goat dude.”
“Okay, what'dya wanna know again? Oh right, Frigga. You and your superpowers,” she stretched out Hunter’s long limbs.
“I’ll bet ya it’s exactly that, though,” she continued, humming to herself the same tune Hunter was whistling, “Seidr. All this is a shitty fate for her. She’d probably want a redo. And she can’t have none of that if she ain’t got no magic. No thread. No abilities. She needs yours to get back on top. Ya say she already has little ole me? Yeah, she’s trying to power up.”
Eir shrugged, “Or maybe she really just wants to kill ya, ya weirdo! She’s crazy. Even for me.”
Milae: “Indeed.” His needles moved automatically as he stared distantly at the tabletop in front of him. “That was my best guess. She can do nothing else without me, then? I would assume I could just avoid her, but somehow she broke free of wherever she now creeps, and stole Hunter’s soul…” He frowned, realizing he’d dropped a stitch, and began to unravel his work to start over. A redo. She wants a redo. “Why Hunter? Why does she not just hunt me down herself?”
Hunter: “Same reason why I can’t see Ms. High and Mighty Bitch over there,” she picked her teeth, answering confidently, “Can’t really do a lot of things when you’ve been stripped to your bare minimum, so she needed Hunter, aka the amazing Eir, byproduct of Frigga’s crazy mind.”
Eir paused for a moment. Something ticked at the back of her mind the moment those words left her lips. “Huh… Wait a minute.” She sat up, a little confused. “No, that’s not right… That’s not why…”
Foreign images rushed by Hunter. He sat up in his mental space, curious. He and Eir shared a body, their memories overlap and mingle. She knows his, and he hers. But these… these were new. A stranger girl. The mighty goddess. A familiar spell.
A contract.
Hunter surveyed the images. What the…
Milae: “What do you mean, that’s not why?”
Milae paused in his needlework, eyes fixated on Hunter. “What do you know, Eir?”
Hunter: Eir? What are these memories? I’ve never seen them. The images changed. It wasn’t the strange girl anymore… No, it was Milae himself. Hunter was watching the goat half breed, as if he saw him out of his own eyes in the memory. As if the person was him.
An orange and pink sunset on a hill. A thirst for adventure. Milae’s lips moved. He was speaking to Hunter… to the owner of the memories. They laughed together.
It changed again. The All Mother returned. The village burned behind. There was a glow, a cry, and a spell. Save Milae.
Eir stared blankly at the half breed in the physical world, question unanswered. Her lips moved, mouthing dangerous words without a voice. Elohim. Essaim.
There was snap, and Hunter blinked. The birds sang their song, the morning fog had cleared and the sky shone in its brightest blue. Milae stared at him, while the doctor absentmindedly echoed the words he heard in the memories, “You think too much.”
Milae: It was dead quiet in the tavern.
Milae’s project had been forgotten. He slowly reached for his weapon and got to his feet, gripping it in both hooves. His scars began to pulse lowly with light.
“What the Hel did you just say to me?”
The amount of unnerved he felt was overwhelming; now he knew how it felt for someone else to speak impossible things to him, things they should never have known. And it scared him. He was trembling intensely; the metal blade of his weapon rattled slightly against the wooden haft. Urðr had now looked up from her hand, her pure black eyes staring directly at Hunter.
Hunter: “Whoa,” Hunter almost leapt out of his chair, suddenly wary of the tense energy around him. I came back at a baaaad time. The hardened skin flashed again on the back of his neck, hairs prickling.
“I… I don’t know, Milae. I’m sorry,” he held out both hands in an attempt calm the situation, slowly inching backwards, “I saw memories, but it was all a blur, I don’t understand it myself. I think they were Eir’s… right, Eir?”
There was a silence. Nothing came from his mind. “Eir?” No answer.
He eyed Milae’s weapon, feeling an odd shiver course through him, “Easy does it…”
Milae: The shaking stilled, and then Milae swept the blade up to Hunter’s throat. “Bring her back,” he said in a low voice. “Let me talk to Eir.”
“Yun Milae.” He ignored her.
Hunter: He activated all his defenses the moment Milae rushed to him, skin turning dark and almost metallic. Thank Hel I bargained for shared control of Eir’s abilities.
“I’m trying! She’s not responding!” Hunter grit his teeth, frantically calling for Eir in his mind. Come on! He’s gonna kill me!
Milae: “Try harder.” His hands were aching around the haft of his weapon. The sudden change in his appearance didn’t faze him in the slightest.
“Stop.”
Hunter: “Come on, Eir…” Hunter urgently called her out loud, “Milae just wants to talk.” He nervously rifled through mental list of spells, as his eyes darted around for a possible weapon he could use. “Eir!”
Milae: Milae spun his weapon and pushed the pole of it up against Hunter’s neck, shoving him into the wall behind him. The table bumped roughly as he pushed up close to the doctor, piercing him with his steady gaze. “Eir…I. Said. Talk.”
Hunter: Hunter choked, his heart thundering in his chest. “This is it… This is how I die… I’ll never see my girls again.”
Oh, stop being so dramatic, nerd. You’ll see them in Hel sooner or later.
There was a harsh, scraping sound as Hunter dragged his arm up Milae’s weapon, sparks flying when two hard materials collided. He turned his wrist to grab it, and shoved the half breed on the chest, right out of the way.
“Okay! I’m here, geez! I was just in the bathroom.” Eir blinked down at him slowly.
Milae: Milae stumbled backwards, the sudden strength of the grip on his weapon tearing it out of his hands. But he stormed right back up to Hunter and grabbed it again, trying to take it back. 
“Don’t joke about this.” He struggled to hold back a veil of tears. “Tell me why you said that.”
Hunter: “I… don’t know…” Eir looked at him seriously.
“I really don’t… It came up in my memories all of a sudden, but I don’t know what to make of it. Hunter saw it, too.” She could feel him nodding inside.
Milae pulled at his weapon, and she let him take it, “Do you want to know what these memories are? Since you seem to know a lot of things…”
Milae: “What memories? There’s more?” He was trembling uncontrollably again. “Tell me. Please.” He couldn’t bear it. He thought he was over this. Now it had dredged up again, somehow, clinging to him like the stubborn burs brought in from weeks of travel.
Hunter: Eir glanced at the wall, then back to him. He didn’t look so good. She took a deep breath, “Okay goat man… Well uh…”
“I was looking at you… you were on a hill, at sunset… looking up at the clouds and talking about some shit like lakes and tall people.” It sounded oddly like the Rebellion, to be honest. Hunter added.
“Yeah yeah,” Eir agreed distractedly, despite no one hearing Hunter’s comment, “And there was a village…” she trailed off, unsure if she should continue.
Milae: A tear escaped down Milae’s muzzle, and then a second, but his gaze begged Eir to keep talking.
Hunter: Eir bit her lip, her usual snark gone, “There was a burning village behind me, and I was running. I was looking for you, I had to find you, I needed to know you were safe… Then I met Frigga.” She stopped there.
Milae: The tears fell thicker, faster. He blinked rapidly, his weapon slowly lowering to point at the ground. He gulped out a single, brief sob.
“No,” Milae gasped softly. “No, no, no…”
“She has her.”
“Why are you seeing this?” he said, struggling to keep his grief in check. “Why would she…why…”
Hunter: Eir rubbed the back of her neck apologetically, “I… don’t know. I blacked out right after the switch with Hunter. I don’t recognize anything. I just… have the memories, for some reason…”
Milae: “Eir.” His voice was shuddering. “Tell me how to break her contract.”
Hunter: “You can’t. Only the gods can break contracts.”
Milae immediately whirled around, beseeching the figure behind him. “Urðr, please–”
“This is why we have been unsuccessful, Yun Milae.” She looked uncharacteristically melancholy, instead of her usual aloof self. “You know this is why.”
“You have to do something!”
“We are not gods, little goat. This is not my territory. Whatever bond they forged is powerful enough to evade you and I through any lifetime.”
He slapped a hoof down on the table next to him, bowing his head, his back to Hunter and Eir. “Gods damn it. Gods damn it all…” His shoulders heaved a few times and he angrily scrubbed at his face, trying to get his breathing under control. 
He suddenly jerked his head up, remembering. “Hel. We need Hel.”
Hunter: “This kinda sucks.” Eir thought to herself
Hunter nodded somberly. He knew exactly what Milae’s predicament was, having gone through it himself all those years ago. Switch.
“Hel can help.” Hunter stepped forward, in control once again, “But a sacrifice must be made. Be prepared.”
Milae: He took a shuddering breath and turned his head towards Hunter, nodding. “Thank you. You don’t know how much…how much this means to me.”
Hunter: “You’re… welcome…” he replied, hesitating, “Sorry we couldn’t be much more help.”
Milae: “You have done plenty.” Turning on his heel, he stepped forward to face Hunter again and pulled a folded-up stack of parchment from his belt and pressed it into his hand. “I don’t know how much this will help. I was going to use it to prove to you that I knew the events of the future…maybe this will be more useful than that.” He kept his eyes downturned, staring at the small booklet of notes. “It is a list of your next patients, their diagnoses and their most successful treatments. You will figure this all out in time, I’m sure, you are an experienced doctor…but…I thought it might help you along faster if you knew what you were about to face ahead of time.”
Hunter: “Oh… my goodness,” he took it from him gently, quickly scanning the information inside, “This… This will help. Immensely. Thank you.”
Hunter hesitated before resting a hand on Milae’s arm, “I hope that it goes well.”
Milae: Milae closed his eyes and enjoyed the brief contact, and then raised his arms to his chest, taking a steadying breath. His scars began to glow. “Me too.”
He was gone.
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:Hunter Lindholm
Category:Yun Milae