Two Brothers and the Wyrmling

[LithiumSedai 5750]

═══════・✦・═══════ ═══════・✦・═══════ ((I Know You, Bayard Wu))
═══════・✦・═══════ A WALDENIAN FOLK TALE - ADAPTED BY CONRAD A. VANDERRECHT ═══════・✦・═══════
	n the days of yore, in the far northern reaches of the once-home of our ancestors, in lands distant even from the farthest sentry towers of Altburg, there once was a realm called Edelpreis, and over it ruled a noble and wise High King. He reigned for many years, and when his time came to an end, on his deathbed he summoned his sons, Sighelm and Adalbert, and divided the lands of Edelpreis in two, entrusting each son with their own domains to rule.
And though each wished to have the realm as one under himself, their brotherly love was far too great to quarrel with one another on a day of mourning, and they heeded their father’s wishes and agreed that the crown would one day be carried by the worthier of the two, and that until then each would rule as lord in their own stead, taking good care of the land and its people.
═══════・✦・═══════   But after seven years of their rule, on the day that the first snow silvered the earth, and the waters froze in their riverbeds soon afterwards, an ice-wrought Wyrmling, covered in scales as black as the night, came down from the northern mountain heights. The accursed offspring of the Great Wyrm had long envied the High Crown of Edelpreis, and hungered for the noble blood of its sons; in cursed breath, withering trees to glass, it demanded the sacrifice of a lord, for otherwise the land would be beset by an eternal winter. With this threat, the Wyrmling returned to await its tribute.
═══════・✦・═══════   The lordly brothers were known as knights of great renown, and had once in their youth driven the Wyrmling from the border cliffs of Edelpreis. They swore a solemn oath upon the gravestone of their father to vanquish the beast for good, together and on their own, so that no noble blood of their vassals would be spilled, and so that no other warrior nor peasant would suffer the creature’s wrath. With their longswords in tow, shielded, mailed and belted, they then set off towards the northern border, cheered on by the common folk, and rode into the heart of the mountains on the winter solstice.
═══════・✦・═══════   The Wyrmling awaited their arrival in its lair amidst the high peaks, coiled around a cairn of Waldenian skulls. A fierce battle then commenced, and the ringing of steel against scale and the screeching of the Wyrmling echoed in its dreadful cave. In a concerted assault, Sighelm deflected the Wyrmling’s icy breath and its razor-sharp claws with his shield, made of thrice-blessed northern oak, and Adalbert then thrust forth his mighty blade, passed down from the first High King to his descendants, and lodged it deep between the beast’s scales - so deep that it cried out a terrible shrill, and its black blood stained the stones of its lair.
═══════・✦・═══════   But an even blacker envy seized Sighelm’s heart. Though he was the elder brother, and the lands in Edelpreis which he ruled were rich with the bounties of the earth and well-fortified, Sighelm had come to desire the love and respect Adalbert’s people had for their lord who was pure of heart, and soon also came to fear that his brother would one day surpass him in knightly renown and earn the High Crown by his deeds; even now, in battle, the glory of the final strike and the songs of triumph seemed destined for Adalbert.
═══════・✦・═══════   Sighelm then let his shield fall low and turned his face away from Adalbert, and the Wyrmling, enraged to have been brought so close to its demise, then fell upon Adalbert with all its strength, seizing him in its jaws and mercilessly tearing him apart. Sighelm fled from the beast’s lair, and returned alone to the lands of Edelpreis, of which he was now the sole lord. Even now he feared to outright take the High Crown for himself, but he declared to the people that Adalbert’s death had been the will of the Divine. The blood of the purest was chosen to stave off the eternal winter, and no man was fit to question that will. A shadow then befell the grieving folk, and none dared raise their voice but in mourning. Sighelm believed this to mean their acceptance, and thought he would soon assume the throne of his father.
═══════・✦・═══════   But when the year turned and the winter winds howled once more, the Wyrmling returned. Fattened by the blood of wayward Elfen wanderers in autumn, the beast did not rest idly, and soon carved a path of frost and sorrow through Edelpreis before it reached the high courts of Sighelm in the capital city. This time it sought no lesser nobility, and in a shrill voice as cold as death named Sighelm’s blood as its price for mercy. Dressed in mail and carrying his oaken shield, Sighelm emerged from his halls to face the Wyrmling in battle once more, and his people watched from the ramparts.
═══════・✦・═══════   Soon it became clear that one man could not achieve what would have been a hard-fought victory for even two knights. Undeterred by a single blade, and carrying in its maw Adalbert’s sword of the High Kings, the Wyrmling tore right through Sighelm’s shield, whose blessings faltered in this grave hour, and seized the lord. Sighelm cried to his people for help, and begged for the townsfolk to protect their liege. But the people of Edelpreis stood as petrified, for it was known by all that Adalbert’s demise was not the will of the Divine, but the desire of Sighelm’s envy. Now the sole claim to the High Crown rested in the Wyrmling’s clutches, and without hesitation the beast ripped Sighelm apart upon the stones where he had once played as a boy beside his brother.
═══════・✦・═══════   Thus the House of Edelpreis was plucked out root and stem, and a blizzard of everlasting darkness enveloped the far north, proving the Wyrmling’s promises false. Even many years later, in the southern lands, when the nights grow long and the first snowfall litters the ground, old women tell their grandchildren of the fall of Edelpreis:
“Blood spilled by an envious brother serves none but the eternal winter, and the hunger of the Wyrm cannot be sated by any sacrifice.”    ═══════・✦・═══════