the axe to cut the teeth

*Sanngriðr* · 02-25-2022, 01:52 AM

Rain. Sanngriðr was grateful for the rain that came to break the stagnant heat of summer. Gods, how grateful she could be for it all. As much as she wanted to see more, to explore more, of their new homeland, she simply couldn’t if it was too hot. Heat, you see, was an ever-present danger to their bloodline. To their people. The Tryggs had a hard time processing heat in their systems, especially Sanngriðr and the shadow himself. Their coats were too warm, too dense, too thick, to allow it to dispel. Overheating could be a death sentence, and it was with that in mind, that they stuck to the north for now. The north really wasn’t bad even. Still, she wanted to get out. She wanted to see more.

Hopefully in the coming year they’d adjust. With any luck, their coats wouldn’t come in so dense next year. They’d take time to adjust, but eventually adjust they would. At least… at least Sanngriðr could hope. A year was a long time. Gods, so much could change in a year. So fucking much. It strikes her that this time last year she was still worried that they’d be caught. Still worried that they’d be captured, all of them. Still worried that she’d be tried for treason– they’d be tried for treason. There had never been a doubt in the valkyrie’s mind that she’d take the bullet for all of them, if it came to that.

Taking a bullet for her family. Hell, that had always been her entire job. That had always been the thing that would pull her through. It was the entire purpose of a skjaldmær, and it was the entire purpose that Sanngriðr had come to embrace. Embrace it all, and embrace she would. She’d be their shield. Putting herself between danger and her siblings was important to her. They’d always come first. Her family always came first. The valkyrie would compulsively put herself last until her dying day. Her bloodline has always been much in the same way… in her mind, she’s simply living up to the expectations of her ancestry.

Rain. She could explore in the rain. Sanngriðr doesn’t allow her alert nature to drop as she crosses southward. Her gaze is careful, keen on the world around her. Though the inside of her head was loud, the sound of rain falling around her is ever so quiet. A grey, dreary sort of day. Really, Sanngriðr liked it more than she cared to admit. Exploring wasn’t typically her way to pass the days, but learning was. The valkyrie needed to learn. She needed to learn everything there was to know about this strange place, and those that lived here. She needed to learn about them if she was going to live among them. Among them, or even as a part of them. Imagine that… a part of something. A part of something that was more than herself, but something other than family. Would she be a resident? A citizen?

Imagine being a citizen. Imagine being able to call somewhere else home. Sanngriðr had so many strange thoughts about it all within her head. Hell, even back in the motherland, she hadn’t really thought of the place as home. Not after her mother’s passing, at least. Nowhere had been home without her. Maybe this really was the time and the place set for a new beginning. Maybe it was the beginning that she’d never even really allowed herself to have. The beginning that had been taken from her by the warring army, and then by her father. Gods, her father… even now she thought of him less and less. That was for the best. Fuck him.

As she crossed into the Veteran’s Plateau, Sanngriðr was greeted by a strange sight and even stranger smells. Chief among them was the tang of iron that hung heavily in the air. Still, it wasn’t necessarily blood. It was something different, something stranger. The scent of wet metal, not blood. Her forehead drew, eyebrows coming nearer to each other. Sanngriðr scowled. What in the name of the gods… what the hell? The scent of it all was amplified by the rain itself. She grumbled softly, processing the information as it came. Maybe it was the smell of blood, or maybe her mind was playing tricks. At this point it could go either way. Either way, she pawed at the damp earth, sniffing as she went. How strange.

Sanngriðr was reminded of the bear that she and Bodin had done combat with. The one that had taken out another wolf, and how they’d been able to smell the carnage on the creature. Though the valkyrie maintained that she’d have been able to handle herself, it certainly would have been close. With the prey doing well this season, certainly better than when they’d arrived, she was certain that predators would only grow in number. As they got into autumn and the herds moved on, she worried about what those same predators would do. They’d be bold, and used to eating well. Sanngriðr would need to arm herself, after all. She’d need to arm all of them, in order to stay safe. They’d be safe as long as they were together.

As she pawed her way through the dirt, looking for any sign of something helpful, the valkyrie caught the tender pad on… on something. Stifling a yelp, she peered at the bottom of her own foot. “Jävla fitta,” the valkyrie swore to herself. Should she have been more careful? Likely. Very likely. Something had sliced into the bottom of her foot, but she scowled and moved on in her search. Posture somewhat hunched, Sanngriðr smeared the injury on the wet grass where it sprung up around her feet. Good enough.

Her search continued. It became more and more clear that this land was strewn with the remnants of the humans. If she was going to be armed against more predators like the bear, and whatever even worse fate was out there for them, then this would be among the best places to search. If she was lucky, she’d come back with something that the craftsmen in the mountains could turn into a weapon she was accustomed to wielding. Truly, if the valkyrie could find what she was after, she’d have an axe like the one she’d learned to use as a child. She’d paid the price of blood for being out here… she was owed a bit of luck, was she not?

Moving the earth with careful paws, pulling the soil away, grumbling to herself. Over and over, sifting through remnants of a civilization that she’d never be able to understand, the valkyrie spent her afternoon. The rain had died off, making way for a cloudy afternoon. Somewhere far in the distance, a rainbow broke the clouds. It would get warm again soon, and Sanngriðr knew that she’d need to leave the battlefield where it lay. The scowl didn’t budge from her features, instead growing more intense. If she couldn’t find the proper arms out here, it was likely she was up shit creek– no paddle.

Glinting in the sunlight as it came on, though, she saw it. It was as she’d turned to leave, but it seemed as if it had been waiting here all along for the valkyrie herself. A corner stuck up from the soil. Her eyes widened for a moment, sparking. Hell yes, Sanngriðr trotted to close the gap, digging the piece free from the ground. This is it, she thought to herself. This was it, and it it was. Her tail wagged at her haunches. From the ground, the valkyrie pulled the head of an axe, weathered but still certainly good enough. With some love, care, and more than her fair share of elbow grease, it would be far more than good enough. The crafters in the mountains should be able to put a new edge on as well, once she’d restored the rest of it. Fucking excellent.

Not bad for an afternoon of work and searching. Not bad at all.

SANNGRIÐR
Kom och hata mig.

wc: 1,354

Login
Username:
Password:	Lost Password?
	Remember me

the axe to cut the teeth

fighting seasonal

Sanngriðr