Jadis' Clan

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Month -1: A Feast of Remembrances

Day 0: The Formation of Clan Asgarth

Day 3: Late One Night

Year 15: No Cost is Too Great


It was his absence that woke her, a void by her side where she had become accustomed to his warmth. Frigg rose slowly, taking in her surroundings. The cave was dark, but not blindingly so. He was nowhere in sight. She pressed down the rising panic. He was by no means helpless. He'd managed to survive before she'd found him, and had faced many dangers since. She stepped forward. If they had been attacked, she would've been awake long before now. She slowly peered around the edge of the cave entrance, cautiously. One could never be too careful... And gave an audible sigh as the only sight that greeted her was Odin's back. He sat perfectly still, his bulb glowing a soft purple in the darkness. She stepped forward, shivering slightly with the chill.
"Odin?" she called out softly.
His frills twitched in acknowledgement, but he stayed silent. She stepped towards him, settling on the ground to his right so that she could look him in the eye then inching a bit closer to share his warmth. She sat still for a moment, taking in the night air, then looked to her silent companion. His face was a study in concentration, his single eye focused intently on a point of light shining in the darkness, too far away to see whether it was the campfire of another fledgling clan too foolish to realize the danger in drawing such attentions to oneself at night, or the bonfire of a Longneck tribe, working themselves into an attack frenzy. Out here, on the edge of the Crystalspine Reaches, either would be just as likely. Frigg looked back to her mate. Whatever it was much too far to be any threat tonight. What could've alarmed him to such a degree that he felt the need to keep a watchful eye on it at this hour?
"It's coming..." he whispered so suddenly that Frigg jumped slightly.
She leaned forward, trying to read his inscrutable features.
“What is? What’s coming?”
He slowly turned toward her, the light from his bulb turning his features ghoulish.
“War,” he stated stolidly. “War is coming.”
Frigg stepped back slightly, alarmed at the finality with which his words were spoken, half expecting an army of rabid harpies to come raining down from the sky. Odin’s foresight was what had expelled him from his home clan. It would be incredibly foolish to ignore it. And yet there was no attack, just the same stillness of the night. All was as it had ever been. Frigg looked again at her mate, her jaw tightening. She had seen these fits come upon him before. When past, present, and future collided into a single, terrifying mass and Odin had no way of distinguishing one from the other.
Gently, she placed a hand to his cheek.
“Odin… We’re safe here.” She looked into his single eye with both of her own. “Nothing will harm us tonight.”
He stared at her for a moment, his expression hard, his body shaking with tension.
“We must be ready,” he whispered.
“We will be,” she soothed. “We will form the greatest clan that the Arcane Flight has ever seen.” She stood.
“But for now… We need our rest. Come back inside.”
She softly guided him back into the cave, settling him into the small sand depression at the back that afforded some modicum of comfort. In moments, the tension faded from his small body and his breathing became deep and regular.
Frigg finally relaxed, allowing herself to recline against the stone wall behind her. Though she had tried to put a brave face on to soothe her mate, in truth his prophecy had shaken her. Their clan was so small, so fragile. It could all end so very quickly. Her claws gouged deep furrows into the stone as she strengthened her resolve. They would persevere. They would survive. They would not fail. They must not fail.
“We will be ready,” she swore to the darkness, to any deity that cared to listen, to Odin, to herself.
“We will be ready.”