With long, purposeful strides Valkyrie crossed into the northernmost point of Boreas. This, she knew instinctively, was the land her grandfather had told her about. He'd compared it to an old cow elk lagging behind the herd. The right hunters would bring it down with ease. With ease she'd take what she liked from this land and its occupants. She'd make her name here and in no time at all the stories of her would flow back home like a river to the sea. Her ancestors would be proud. She paused beside a snow dotted caribou carcass. Valkyrie hadn't killed it, but now, with no other creature in sight, it was hers. She'd make a meal of it tonight and then be on her way. The journey had been long and hard, and she was more than happy to take shortcuts whenever possible. Using her claws to grip the frozen hide, Valkyrie tore into the caribou hungrily. Her pace was languid and unhurried. She neither feared the rightful owner of the kill nor felt the need to rush through the meal and move on to more important things. Everything happened in due time. Today a stolen meal, tomorrow the Finnvi name rose again.

Her mother's violent death had left Alfrun somewhat adrift. Though she had long ago stopped depending upon her mother, and every fiber of her believed that Katja's death in battle had elevated her to Freyja's hall, she still grieved for the woman who had brought the Finnvi name into prominence in these lands. Without her leadership, the world felt empty, all her children drifted away. Runa was no leader, she knew. She was a priestess, not a jarl. Someone would need to rise to bring them back from the ashes, but she was not that person.

She had been unable to find most of her siblings to bring them news of their mother. Since Katja had left to return to her homeland and Yfir had faltered without her, Alfrun had seen little of her siblings. It had been only recently that she had found Asvor's scent, but the scent was part of a pack now and she had yet to approach the pack to seek her out.

She had not been at her customary den in the gorge for some time, but the pelt of the cougar that had reached death's embrace by Katja's jaws made for a comfortable sleeping nest on the ice. She had preserved the pelt with the skull attached at some deep inner prompting, though she did not yet know what purpose the gods wished it to be for. She had tucked it away before venturing out to find food.

Half blind to the physical world, she still found it difficult to hunt so when she had found the elk carcass the night before she had been quick to mark the spot in her memory for a trip there. It seemed that another had the same idea though. A chocolate female was feeding already as Alfrun stepped up to watch her quietly, observing her aura. It had a familiar color and feel to it. She was certain she had never met the young wolf, however. "May I join you?" Alfrun asked in her dreamy way, head tilted to the side in that odd birdlike manner she had, gaze on the female but distant, as though looking deeper than what was visible.

Valkyrie straightened and casually watched the smaller wolf as she approached. Her gaze was open and unapologetic. She saw no need to look away or smile, or do any of those other things others tended to do to put strangers at ease and assure them they were dealing with a friendly, approachable wolf. That Valkyrie wasn't defensive was what passed as 'approachable' in her eyes. If she didn't want someone around she'd make that clear from the start. The stranger was slight, strange and intriguing. The white that interrupted an otherwise uniform coat reminded her quite strongly of a lightning struck tree she'd seen once. Somehow the tree had survived the strike and while it went on to grow and thrive, the branches and leaves on the struck side greyed, then whitened as they succumbed to their injuries. Years later the white limbs had fallen off and the bark had healed, but the scar that ran down it was noticeable from a distance. Valkyrie decided she didn't like the way the woman looked at her. It reminded her of the gaze of her grandfather's sorceress. Valkyrie could remember how, as a child, she'd melted under the old crone's gaze. How it had felt as if she were somehow peeling back the layers of flesh and bone to peer inside her. But that dislike did little more than up her wariness. She saw no reason to be hostile to the female or turn her away. After all, she hadn't put any work into the meal. While she was more than happy to fight over it if she was approached aggressively, that wasn't what this stranger had done and Valkyrie saw no reason to be inhospitable. "By all means. There is plenty of meat left." She would give the stranger time to settle in then see if information could be gleaned from her.

The young woman gave her consent to share the meal, albeit warily, so Alfrun drifted closer in that dreamy, meandering way of hers to face the woman over the elk. She didn't lower her head to the carcass right away, though her stomach complained at her bitterly for the delay. "Young was I once, I walked alone, and bewildered seemed in the way; then I found me another and rich I thought me, for man is the joy of man," she quoted the words of the All-father softly, as they had been passed on to her in the oral tradition, then smiled her disfigured smile. "Heil ok sæll, stranger," she added in greeting, then gave in to her protesting stomach and bent her head to the elk.

Valkyrie was lowering her head and about to eat when words attributed to Odin reached her ears. She straightened and eyed the diminutive woman. Considering the stories her grandfather had told her about her grandmother and the influence she'd had here, Valkyrie shouldn't have been surprised that the strange woman greeted her in her native language or that she could quote a familiar poem. But she was. "Heil ok sæl," she murmured back. Valkyrie's expression was skeptical as she studied the woman a moment longer, but then she too bent her head and began to eat. She wasn't sure what to do with this surprising bit of information. For all her bluster, Valkyrie was still rather young and inexperienced. She would make her name here, but first she had a lot of learning to do. After she'd eaten a few bites she decided it was time to speak and see just what she could learn from the strange little woman. She'd decided to pursue the woman's knowledge of  Hávamál, partially to satisfy her curiosity and partially to get a feel for Boreas' culture. "I didn't expect to hear Odin's sage words so far from home."

They ate in silence for some time, before the young stranger spoke again. Alfrun paused in her meal, lifting her head and tilting it thoughtfully as she watched the younger female. She had recognized the words of the Havamal, had she? That was quite interesting. "It was my mother's family who brought Odin's words to these shores," she said liltingly. "Though there may be others, only my mother's line yet remains. She was sworn to Freyja... But did not hesitate when Odin sought a sacrifice." A tilt the other way, her ears pricking forward with interest though her gaze remained slightly unfocused. "It is unusual to find one who knows the words of Odin," she paraphrased the woman's words back to her with a questioning inflection. Her Othersight told her little of the stranger, yet Alfrun felt the tug of intrigue, the nudging of the gods telling her she needed to know more.

There was no containing the surprise that overcame Valkyrie as the stranger answered her question. She straightened and looked Alfrun over with new eyes. It was likely that other Norsemen had taken up residence here, but only one family could claim first contact. Valkyrie assumed she'd make contact with her father's family at some point, but she hadn't expected to find them so soon. She recovered quickly. This development shouldn't have come as a surprise to her and Valkyrie was a bit ashamed of her initial reaction. Her journey here had been foreseen; the signs leading up to her send off had been favorable and the witch had been confident that her future was woven with success. "Perhaps," she said slowly, "It isn't as unusual as you might think. Before I began my journey to these lands my grandfather's witch was besieged by visions. She saw the roots of a great tree growing into the horizon; one north and one south. They spread until they met and were twined across the sea." Valkyrie studied Alfrun before adding what she hoped would clear things up for the stranger. "My name is Valkyrie Finnvi, my father is Taufr Finnvi, son of Katja Finnvi and Odin by proxy."

As they faced one another over the elk the younger spoke of a vision, and Alfrun felt an electric current creep up her spine, rippling her dark pelt and standing her hackles on edge. Her gaze unfocused as the words tumbled over her, and a faint rumble that was half intrigued growl, half hum sounded deep in her thin chest. "I give you greetings once more, my brother's daughter," she said in that lilting singsong. She blinked, focused on the girl once more. "It would seem that we were fated to meet this day." What else but fate and the will of the gods could you call it when a vision had sent the girl so far alone, and for her to have ventured so far from her own usual haunts to share this meal with a stranger only to have them be Taufr's child? "Odin watches over his children yet, to guide our paws to this place together."

The woman's declaration left Valkyrie breathless. Could it really be? The Norns were smiling down on her today! While she had expected to find her fortune in Boreas, she had expected a struggle at the outset. What she certainly hadn't expected was that she would be so fortunate, so fast. The revelation that she was face to face with her aunt convinced Valkyrie further of her fate (and fortune) in Boreas. What else could this be besides the first piece of many falling into place? Valkyrie grinned at Alfrun. Even if she'd wanted to, she couldn't contain her excitement. Perhaps her display was unbecoming, but she was simply too pleased to care. "So it would seem," she agreed wholeheartedly. "I have so many questions for you, föðursystir." Where to start? She wanted to know everything there was to know about Boreas, about her father, her grandmother, about their family's history here. Perhaps it was best to start small. "Forgive me, but which aunt are you? I know I have a few," she said with a smile.

The youth responded enthusiastically, and Alfrun smiled at the hearty strength in her. She dipped her head, though, when the girl rightly reminded Alfrun that she had not introduced herself. "Of course, I apologize, Valkyrie. I have lost my manners in my excitement." Her calm, dreamy sort of manner perhaps didn't particularly give credence to that claim to a stranger, with the way her gaze tended to drift unfocused as though she were only half there but... well, that was a priestess for you. In fact, she fell quiet again for a moment after she said that, fascinated by the colors that darted and wove around young Valkerie, but she continued again a beat later in that same breathless, misty way. "I am Alfrun Osk Finnvi, daughter of Katja Finnvi and the One-eyed Traveler. I am a gyðja and seiðkona, a priestess and magic-woman of our people and I, young Valkerie," and here her gaze and her soft voice both gained a certain razor-sharpness as her odd eyes focused upon Valkyrie, "I offer to you my services as such as you take up leadership of the Finnvi here." It was clear that was the meaning and intention behind the vision her grandfather's - Laufey, she was certain, not a grandfather of her mother's line unless Taufr had married a distant Finnvi cousin - witch-woman had related. Two great trees of the Finnvi line, one here and one in the far distant Finnvi homeland. She was intrigued about the witch-woman, and longed to be able to travel there to learn more from the woman who had dreamed such a dream - but the body she had been born into was frail and would not carry her such a distance. No, she had been meant for other things.