The delicate, pixie-like yearling stared into the molten river thoughtfully. Despite the heat of the cavern, she felt a shiver go down her silver-ticked spine. Such a beautiful and terrible thing to flow beneath the surface of Midgaard. A river of fire.

Movement from the corner of her eye drew her attention, and her Father stepped into Existence beside her. She knew him from her mother's stories, had always known him, the wise one-eyed wolf with the gleam of starshine around his grizzled form. He had always seemed to take a keen interest in her and her siblings though it seemed only she could see him there watching. He watched her now, meeting her gaze calmly, and Alfrun felt the calm like a blanket slowly draping over her body. There was nothing to fear in this place, he was telling her. There was danger, yes, but was not life danger? There was some lesson to learn in the here-and-now.

Comforted by her Father's presence, the yearling allowed her attention to drift as she stared into the river once more, allowed her gaze to blur and lose focus until her mind became immersed in the heat and the light that the river gave off. The gods were speaking to her - she just needed to listen.

ooc: navigation Hell's River

Qualm wasn't sure what brought him to such a place as this. It was dangerous, one step into the wrong place and that molten river could engulf and get rid of him entirely. As such he still had the urge to explore it, the slateish male stepping carefully as the heat radiated off towards him. Then his two different colored eyes spotted a rather small young girl. Only a year old at best, but he shouldn't underestimate someone for their age nor their size. So warily, he plastered a smile on his face and approached. Being careful not to step too close to the beautifully dangerous river and fall. It seemed like, she was busy though. He would hate it if he was interrupting something spiritual or otherwise. Curiosity stung at his soul though as his paws carefully stepped forward after a few moments of silence he decided to speak. "Do you know well of these lands?" he asked gently and gave a smile. Such a place to be in the north and this stranger perhaps she could help him get a lay of the land. That or tell him a bit about what was happening with her. "Talk"

When a voice spoke aloud in the hot cavern, Alfrun blinked with faint startlement. When she said the gods were speaking to her, she had not meant with literal voices - she did not ever hear them with her ears, but simply knew their words. The young godi turned her delicate head to regard the newcomer with curiosity. No god, he, but often the stories spoke of the gods walking among the mortals. Was she not living proof of such an event? She could not dismiss the idea out of hand. She studied the green aura that shimmered around the male, her nose twitching faintly without her knowing. Was he a healer, then? That was, she'd learned, the most likely calling of a wolf with such an aura. Little did she realize that it was the healing herbs she unknowingly scented around him that triggered the vision, her brain in its attempt to fill in her sightlessness giving the scent color. She considered the traveller's words with all due gravity as well. "This cavern?" she asked him with a dreamy sort of distance to her voice. "I've never been in this place before this day. My siblings believe that this is the dwelling-place of Logi." Her attention drifted back to the river of fire, and she blinked benevolently at the roiling red liquid rock. "That may be so. He has not chosen to say." And off-handedly, as though it did not have much bearing on the conversation, she added, "But if you refer to the north... I suppose I am familiar. My birth-pack laid claim to the land just past the entrance to this cavern."

Something about this girl was.... enchanting. He was locked in some sort of trance, although it was probably because she was simply someone important. Wolves learned different thing throughout their lives, this yearling was no different. As he approached her carefully he would smile softly and take a seat kindly next to her. "Logi?" he questioned for a moment. Not knowing of these things, probably a god of some sorts. Qualm had never been the most religious of wolves - he knew briefly of that from what his parents believed in. However he'd like to have no connection to them at all, both of them were traitorous selfish beasts and he refused to be the same. "I see, I was born in the east to a pack called Abaven. I reside in the east still but in a pack called Ivory Ridge." Qualm said to her as he flicked the end of his tail a little bit. "My name's Qualm Rivers. Could you tell me a little about this Logi? I'd like to know please." he was polite and fairly quiet. Not wanting to disturb whatever rested here. The red glaze off from the lava felt hot, but for some reason it did not scare him. As long as he didn't touch it. "Talk"

Alfrun made no move to discourage his presence as the stranger moved to sit beside her, instead simply blinking benignly at his smile. "I have never been away from the north," she observed, tilting her head at the mention of Abaven. "Though when she was alpha my mother was well acquainted with Bass Destruction of Abaven. I have never heard mention of this Ivory Ridge, however," she added with the faintest spark of interest. Wrapped up as she most often was in doings of a mythical bent, quite often the secular world managed to escape her. Since Yfir had been lost to them, she was particularly interested in the rise and fall of packs in general.

He had prompted her for information of a sort that interested her much more, though. Rather than answering him directly she gazed into the molten rock, and her whole demeanor seemed to change. Her fragile body straightened, radiating a sort of calm intensity. Her voice seemed to change as well, the faintly wispy tone dropping into a low, husky sing-song. "Long ago when Thor and Loki traveled together upon Midgaard in search of adventure, they came upon the city of the giants of Jotunheim, called Utgard. The city's king, Utgard-Loki, told them they must prove themselves worthy to stay there. Loki offered himself in a contest of eating, and was set against one of the giants. Between them was placed a trough of meat, and they were to see which could reach the middle first. They both reached it upon the same instant, but while Loki had eaten all the meat from his side, Logi had eaten meat, bones, trough and all." She cocked her head sideways to bring Qualm into view. "The story continues, of course, but you asked of Logi, not of Thor and Loki. To answer you, the giant Loki raced was Logi, the personification of fire."

She hummed softly in her throat, eyes slitting against the heat, and her intensity drained away, leaving her once more the dreamy wisp of a girl staring into the lava stream. "Perhaps this is his dwellingplace after all, for I have neither seen nor heard of any other place that bears a river of fire." Then she stopped, and blinked owlishly at him. She had quite forgotten that he had offered his name, caught up as she was in the telling. "I am Alfrún Ósk Finnvi Katjasdottir," she offered, giving the whole of it to make up for her lack of attention.

The girl seemed very equipped with the spiritual world. At least from what he could describe, almost as if she wasn't all there in her airy ways. It made his attention draw over her black and white body. An adorable frail form, he felt privileged to be speaking to such a woman. She mentioned that she'd never been out of the north though. As the heat nipped at his paws he moved slightly his two different colored eyes falling on the lava there. "I left Abaven with a fellow pack mate to follow her. Needed a new start - Abaven reminded me too much of my mom and dad." He knew he still had a sister there as well. Qualm needed to make sure she was okay, of course when he left Quake had not been in the best situation either. When Alfrun began to tell him a story, it almost felt like he had been born to hear it. His own gods that he had been raised to know condoned the fact all others existed. That meant Logi too, may have resided in this hellfire. Just as he could simply imagine Zakuro doing the same. "Your name is beautiful Alfrun. Mine's got tainted blood on it. I wish I could strip myself of my last name and start over for the future." he stated for a small moment. "Maybe though I could just make it better myself - would you like to explore with me farther down the river? I think it would be a pleasure to have you in my company." he smiled at her. "Talk"

Alfrun blinked at him, a faint smile fluttering over her mangled muzzle. "Thank you. I would be pleased to explore further with you." She stepped up beside him to follow him further down the path the river of fire took, then tilted her head slightly to consider the words he had spoken. "To change your name would not change how your destiny is tied to your family," she told him gravely. "No matter who you are, who your family may be, if you look to the past far enough you will find ancestors who have sullied your family or community's ørlög. It is our birthright and our destiny to better our ørlög, so that the next generation may benefit, and the next, and the next. You are a healer, are you not? I see it in your aura." She smiled again, her eyes going soft and unfocused as she watched the shifting green around him. "You do much for your ørlög in such a thing, to give yourself to your innangard in such a way."