Rattussmackus

Catlaya Colborn breathes a sigh of relief “Nej more strangers in our damn house.”

Claudia de Pelear can’t wait.

"FIRR DA FIRR OORAH!" Cat shouts as she tugs the hay bales all the way home with her chad strength.

Catlaya Karyna Colborn pats her fox, ‘Snuffles’ on the head “They did well.” She hums.

11 minutes ago, Operator_Bugman said:

"Well.. no one was given the wheelchair.."

THE LAST

“Yo ho!” Astrid screams out the window, clasping her hands into tight fists. She remembers her promise that she vowed to keep one day. The ship, so he would stay.

He didn’t stay, he just disappeared one day without a word. She knew he was busy being a pirate but she still missed him, his ring to her was still collecting dust in her drawers.

Astrid fumbles at her wheelchair, spinning it around so she can go back to her room. She feels the walls as she pulls letters and items from her drawers and cupboards, placing them on her lap. She then leaves the house and makes for the aviary, sending each letter off.

It took her about half the day overall for her to do so and she felt tired when she had finished. She lifts her head, nodding gently to herself.

“Ich suppose this is time, hm?” Astrid asks thin air, the wind brushing through her hair and rustling her bandages. That was her answer as she leaves the city and stops short at the lake.

Astrid had already died once, the day she lost the ability to fight.

Astrid takes a deep breath before pushing up on her arms and falling in.

It was slow and painful.

It was what she deserved.

She thought one thing as she passed, the thing she always thought about since she was a small child “Ein vogel zu sein, lebendig und frei.”

But once it was over she was in the father’s halls, searching for the family that could be waiting for her.

Astrid’s will and letters have been prewritten, before the blindness:

All my animals go to my old friend; Bjorn Grandaxe and his family. His Karin; Storm returned to him once more.

Lekarski goes to my best friend and younger brother Ciaran Vildr; A piece of Doc. A piece of our father.

My cane goes to my son; Ivar Black’hil. I hope it serves you well as it did for me.

My tiara goes to my daughter; Aobh Black’hil. You will always be a princess to me.

My collection of blades and my ring go to my old lover; Oliver Black. I loved you and I lost you. I hope it helps you in the long years.

Peter is to go to my old guard; Boots. Keep him tied up, he’s an Orenian.

Finally, my house goes to my youngest son; Hali Black’hil. Keep it safe.

“Ho ho ho” Cat giggles

Princess Claudia de Pelear seemed quite horrified over the missive “What if my kin are next? What if our neutrality gets misunderstood and we too, are slaughtered in the streets?” She folds the missive away and instead dashes off to find her brother.

“It’s Hyspian.” A certain Hyspian princess comments idly upon reading the missive “And tu were just as bad as each other.”

Anastasia squints, hoping that it will help her read the missive better “Ea don’t actually know what’s happening.” She concludes.

Claudia de Pelear shrugs her shoulders before nodding “Done it once already, might as well do it again.” She then proceeds to sign up.

Astrid Eiriksson Ruric hears of her old marshal, nodding her head “It was an honour to serve alongside yeh whilst it lasted. Ich will look past the last few years.”

Esta Buckfort blinks a couple of times “Who is this guy? My twin is also called Esto…a liar maybe?”

The words blurred as she sat in bed that night, reading against the candlelight. Hali slept beside her, a small thing, the only child she felt she had left. 

Astrid sighed gently, deciding it was time to sleep as it was useless to read over blurred words.

A deep breath.

A long sigh.

“Okay open, how is it?”

She opens her eyes on command, still blurred. She shakes her head in defeat, a scoff coming from her “Nothing.”

Nothing. So much so that she was scared. Why her? Why did she have to go through this and not someone else? That was a selfish thought, she decided, clasping her hands together. Why would she want someone else going through this?

But she wants to see her children, the smile on their faces, the tears that stain their cheeks. She wants to see the colour of their eyes. But she can’t.

“I don’t want to see anything at all.” She decides, wrapping the bandage around her eyes. Nothing at all feels better than the hopeful blur.

Astrid was suffering from heartbreak, she was ready to give up everything. Give up on life. She was weak, her left leg paralysed and her right leg slowly going numb and now her eyes were of no use.

Yet, she persisted. She was a mother, a fighter. She would push on through it all, through the blindness, through the paralyses…she would push on.

“With these eyes, I’ve seen death, torture and dispair. With these eyes, I’ve seen pain and anguish. With these eyes, I’ve seen mourning and loss.”

“With these eyes, I’ve seen joy and happiness. With these eyes, I’ve seen new life and spring. With these eyes, I’ve seen flourish and smiles.”

“With these eyes, I may no longer see but with these eyes, I may remember.”

Astrid Magda Blackthorn Eiriksson Henrysson Black Ruric is already partially paralysed so it’s not like she could do much in the Ashguard anyways.

[!] Missives would be posted around Norland and all allied nations.

Clearing up some misunderstandings.

After a long conversation within the confines of King Odin’s office, a conclusion came to be and I was instructed to create a missive clearing up a few things.

One; I am indeed alive and not dead. I posted the missive of me being dead so I would be left alone by people wishing to kill me. I wanted to go home to my children and that’s how I’d do it.

Two; The statements in my previous missive were misguided and harsh. In reality, even if I wanted to fight I couldn’t. I have a disease that could leave me paralysed. I will still not fight and have been removed from the Ashguard so I have no obligation.

Three; I am allowed to continue with the Eiriksson name as per the wish by my father in his will.

Four; I will work for Norland without being in the Ashguard and wait until a job has been opened for me as per the decision of King Odin.

I hope I shall no longer be hunted down for my supposed ‘crimes’.

-Signed,

Her highness, Astrid Magda Blackthorn Eiriksson Henrysson Black Ruric,

Princess of Norland

THREE FATHERS.

=-*-=

First, it was Vater.

She wasn’t sure.

His body sat before her in the grass, she sees it when she sleeps. Cold dead eyes, a perfect mirror of her own.

She imagines an empty field, just the two of them. He smiles gently ‘Mausbar!’ he calls to her and she runs over, small her, three year old her. Then she grows into an older her and he’s lying there lifeless. He always looked so peaceful in the grass, daisies circling his head like a crown.

She never wakes up when she should, allows herself to drop to her knees, screaming over his body. She screams for help but the help never seems to come.

She saw herself in him, her brown hair matched his. 

Mausbar.

Magda would grab at her chest, trying her hardest to breathe on that rooftop, the air around her choking her lungs as she called for him but no one came. Not anymore.

Mausbar.

The word echoes in her brain, it was a cute nickname, something she loved with all her heart but now it was a curse.

Mausbar.

=-*-=

Then it was Father.

Magda walked with a skip in her step towards Alisgrad, well as much joy as one could muster. She was to talk to Doc about her sleep, hopefully she would get more herbal tea for her anxiety.

It was Ciaran who approached her, placed a sudden hand on her shoulder which made her flinch back, recoiling into herself.

“Doc is dead.”

Her stomach lurches, though she should’ve known. Something felt wrong from the beginning, the air was thick with dread and she hadn’t been able to sleep for days.

“Ich am going home.” She turns to leave, she doesn’t want to stay there. It felt like the place had been cursed, everyone was dying or was it her? Did she do this? Is she the reason they’re dying?

Ciaran tells her to wait, that his mother had things for her that Doc wanted her to have.

She sat on the steps to Alisgrad, waiting as she allowed her thoughts to consume her. Why wasn’t she there? Why didn’t she hold his hand as he died? Why didn’t she get to say goodbye?

He left her his violin and a note. She hugged the violin like it was him, so many memories came from that singular instrument. She remembered dancing for him after begging him to sing a song during events, he was meant to guard her but she would throw a tantrum until she got a song and he gave in. A song made for her by him.

Astrid Blackthorn.

She treasured those words like she was told that all the jewels in the world were hers. It made her feel like she belonged, like she was given a home, a family. But her family was dead, he was dead.

She gripped her living doll sheep tightly that night, she slept for the first time in days. She slept like a child.

=-*-=

Finally it was papa.

She was warned he would die but she was mad, he didn’t even want to say goodbye to her or her children.

He never even met her daughter. He never made a move to assure her freedom. He allowed her to be named a traitor, he allowed them to try and hunt her down. To kill her.

There was one memory that lingered, something that stained her memory like blood stains hands, like wine stains white sheets.

“Raise your arm” Astrid raised the wooden sword slightly “And slash!” She slashed the air in one fell swoop and he jumped up, lifting her in the air.

“Very good, my daughter!”

She then remembers the cold steel of his own sword against her neck. There was nothing playful about the action, no more training. No more wooden swords.

“You are no daughter of mine.”

She wasn’t quite sure what to believe, she felt betrayed but she felt the hole of loss. Why couldn’t she stick to the same emotion each time.

She missed him more than anyone could imagine, she missed the head pats and the compliments. What happened?

She became a ruthless warrior, an emotionless killer for him. In her eyes, he wanted a son, a strong man who could lead armies and become the next marshal.

But he got her, a traitor. A coward.

She just wanted him to say goodbye.

She just wanted him to say he was proud.

She just wanted him to say he loved her.

Was that too much to ask?

“He never said gut bye.”

Magda Black sat awake in her bed, she shook her husband Oliver from beside her to which he protested but sat up anyways, listening to her mumble “The air feels thick again, the same thickness Ich felt when Vater died..” He reassured her that it was nothing and that she should go back to sleep. Magda didn’t sleep that night, blissfully unaware that the man she seriously considered a father since she was three years old was dead.

Catlaya Karyna Colborn was not only annoyed that day but soaked and tired. Though she laughed at the story nonetheless.

THE FALL OF A KNIGHT.

____________________________________________________________

[!] An excerpt of the event has been written down by a witness, sent to the people of Norland more specifically her father;

'Astrid stays defiant as the harsh Norlandic winds whip around her head, she grips her sword tightly in her grasp as she stares towards the assailant.

"Why are yeh here?" She shouts over the relentless whistling, snow coating her helmet and the ground at her feet.

"Could ask you the same question." The man calls back, narrowing his eyes "Princess." His words were a tease, a mockery. He didn't say 'Princess' with the idea of respect. He didn't say it so she could feel proud, he knew how much she despised it and he was going to manipulate it.

Astrid was weak and tired, even holding her sword caused great pain to her. Her muscles were deteriorating and she knew it, constantly reminiscing of the days where she would beat her fellow soldiers in spars.

"Princess Astrid Eiriksson Ruric...once the Overseer. Oh how the mighty crumble."

"Ich am nicht ein Ruric, nicht with them."

"You can't change blood no matter how hard you try."

The man suddenly lunges forward, pushing his sword towards her chest which causes something to snap in Astrid, forcing her to lift her sword up and clash their swords together.

"Yeh are meant to wait! Two...it's a two way thing. Yeh...yeh broke it!" She spits, her mind spinning as the line on the floor wasn't there. Where was the line? Where...where was the line?

Astrid draws a line in front of her before lunging one leg back as the other stays straight forward, her opponent gives her a quizzical look to which Astrid answers "Ich draw it to stabilise meinself. It lets mich know that both yeh and Ich want to fight."

Astrid drops her sword beside her, dropping down to her knees "Nein. Ich won't fight yeh, we didn't agree to this." She shakes her head, hands curling into the snow as tears drip down her face.

"Then you will die a coward, you can't even fight." He spits which pulls the air out of her lungs though she says no more as he swings his sword round, slicing into her neck.'

Astrid Black is now reported dead, the killer is still unknown.

____________________________________________________________

“My first question is why did Godric need that much dried kelp?” Catlaya Karyna Colborn looks towards her older brother, suspiciously narrowing her eyes.

this was such a gamer moment !!

Olivia Ash searches for Tony from wherever she is, hoping to reunite with an old lover. Hoping to see another coin trick. Hoping to play another game of heads or tails.

Astrid Black shrugs “Corrupt council, another one to add to the list.”