This is the story of a girl...

[Jorlana]

So I was bored a couple of days this week and this is what I started doing as a result of that. Hope you enjoy it, maybe more to come someday!

Snow fell from the dull gray sky in an obscuring curtain. The wind picked up for a moment, sending snowflakes whirling in tempestuous eddies as it howled across the frigid plains. The storm was fierce, and had been ravaging the area for two days and nights. Across the tundra there was no sign of man or beast, both being more than smart enough to stay somewhere warm until the worst was over…

The small girl knelt by the frozen cadaver of a tree and sobbed into her hands. Small patches of her bright red hair could barely be seen through the shroud of snow that covered her head. It seemed to her that she had been lost for days in the frozen expanse, wandering around in circles in a vain attempt to get back to her village. No matter how far she thought she traveled, she always came back to this fallen tree. She would kick it if she didn’t think her frozen foot would shatter with the impact.

She lifted up her head and scanned the very small area around that she could see, tears streaming down her cheeks. She sighed dejectedly; nothing but snow in all directions. Well, at least this stupid log makes a passable wind break, she thought she hunkered down next to the tree once more, wrapping her bearskin cloak a little tighter around herself.

The furry animal under her shirt squirmed around for a moment and then settled down close to her body. She held the warmth tightly against her chest and hummed softly. The poor little thing, even though she was lost now she was glad she found it.

Its cries had drawn her away from the lake near her village despite her mother’s reminder not to wander too far from the torches. She wasn’t even sure if she had really heard it or not, the tiny, pathetic whimper carried on a howling gust of wind. She had only taken one or two steps away from the lakeshore in the direction of the sound, at first. Maybe it was a half a dozen after all. She stopped, straining to hear the next muffled cry and looking back anxiously toward the torches that were quickly becoming obscured by the falling snow. When it came again, she turned around once more, as if to mark in her mind exactly where the torches were, and then trudged off in the direction of the sound.

A short distance off, or so she thought, she found a small opening in the hillside, quickly becoming covered over by the falling snow. Whatever was making that noise was in there, she was certain. She probed the opening with her hand and felt nothing but cold rock. She had resigned herself to find whatever was making that sad sound and the opening was just barely large enough for her to wriggle into, so she did.

She had only squirmed about a body length down the tight tunnel when she saw something light colored a bit further on. She suddenly realized exactly how bad a plan this was; she had nowhere to hide in this tight space, and no weapon to fight off anything, if it came to that. The sound came again, much more clearly since she was so close to the source. The noise was so small; surely whatever was making it couldn’t possibly hurt her. She continued down the tight tunnel and it widened slowly into a tunnel almost tall enough for her to stand in.

The light colored object was heaped at the very back of the cave, easily within reaching distance; but she hesitated for a few moments, holding her breath. The girl pulled off her walrus skin mittens and reached out slowly with her eyes wide. Her fingers brushed against soft fur, it could only be wolf fur by the texture and color. She was in a wolf’s den! She had to get out of there, right now.

After a panicked moment she realized that the wolf would not have slept through her moving loudly and clumsily into its den, there was something wrong. She reached her hand out again, her fingers trembling slightly. She pushed past the fur toward the body of the wolf and her fingers encountered not warmth, but cold skin, as unyielding as a rock.

Her forehead furrowed and she bit her lower lip as she thought the situation over in her mind. It didn’t make much sense to her. If this wolf was dead, what had she heard? As if in answer to her thoughts a small scuffling sound came from the body of the dead wolf.

The girl moved closer to the back of the den and reached across the dead wolf’s body, searching blindly with her hands. With her left hand she found a small, warm pup nestled between its mother and three dead siblings. She picked up the whining pup and placed it into her lap, checking it for injuries as well as she could with her little training. She didn’t know what her mother was going to say when she came back with the animal, but she would deal with that later. Clearly she couldn’t just leave it here to die with its siblings.

She didn’t have anything to carry the pup in, so she had placed it under her shirt, near the warmth of her body to keep it warm. She worked her way slowly out of the tunnel, being careful not to crush the pup between herself and the rock. Once outside of the cave she walked quickly back toward the village.

Well, she had definitely thought it was toward the village at the time, but it was only toward this stupid log, after all. Once she had found this log, she couldn’t find anything except it no matter how hard she tried. She reached up and wiped the tears from her cheeks before they froze to her face. As she sniffled and shivered she realized just how ridiculous it all was. She was a barbarian, she wasn’t supposed to feel the cold, and certainly wasn’t supposed to get lost within a few minute’s walk of Halas.

She stood up and scanned the area around her again, straining to see her snowshoe prints in the snow to determine which way she had gone before. It was next to useless; the snow was falling so quickly it had filled up almost all of the prints. Maybe she should just wait here after all, her mother had definitely noticed that she had gone missing by now and had sent half of the village out to look for her. Her father might be coming this way right now; she should just sit still and wait. She could feel the cold creeping slowly into her limbs though and knew that it wouldn’t be very much longer before she would not be able to get back up when she sat down.

A bit of movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she whirled around. Standing a few feet in front of her was a huge, white wolf. She looked around frantically, trying to figure out what her options for escape were when something occurred to her. The wolf didn’t move at all, in fact, the wind didn’t even seem to touch it, as if it belonged to another world. The girl stared at the figment with rapt attention. She caught her breath sharply; usually animal spirits only came to non-shamans when they were asleep or dead. No… that was ridiculous, she wouldn’t be so cold if she was dead, and she wouldn’t be able to feel the pin pricking of her freezing feet if she were asleep. What was this?

The little pup whimpered softly and became agitated. The wolf before her lifted its muzzle toward the sky and howled a long, heart-wrenching note. The pup whined once more and then settled against her. Suddenly, she understood, although she didn’t really know how. This was the mother of the pup she held protectively against her stomach. A vision of some kind, come from the next world.

The girl thought the she-wolf was grateful, although she wasn’t sure how she knew. The wolf was grateful that this strange child rescued her remaining pup, and grateful to find her here in the snow unharmed. The she-wolf was very sorry that it couldn’t stay in this world to raise the pups, but it had been called to the next world and that call cannot go unanswered. The other three pups had followed their mother, but this one had something very important to do here and had to remain. The pup was very saddened by this; the girl could feel that now. The weight of duty was a heavy burden to bear. The girl petted the pup softly, to let it know that it didn’t have to bear the weight alone anymore.

The she-wolf turned around and walked slowly away; the girl knew that it wanted her to follow. There was only an instant of hesitation when she wondered if that way led further away from the safety of the village, then she followed as quickly as she could in the deepening snow.

As she walked behind the she-wolf, she seemed to know all sorts of things and she wasn’t sure how. She knew that the pup she carried beneath her shirt was bound to her, and she was bound to it in the same way although she wasn’t sure exactly what that way was. The pup was a female and the first one born of her litter; her mother had named her Shiva. She knew a phrase that she could say and a gesture to make with her hands that would call Shiva to her side no matter where she was. There was a gesture that would make Shiva wait, another that would make her follow, and another that would make her sit. There were so many, and she knew them all.

The she-wolf turned around, and the girl knew that it had to return to the next world now. The pup whined pleadingly, begging her mother to stay with her. The mother wolf raised her muzzle to the sky once more and howled a long note, a forlorn farewell. The she-wolf slowly disappeared before the girl’s eyes, and the note carried until it had vanished completely. The world suddenly seemed so empty, and so huge; the girl was frightened.

A huge form suddenly appeared before her, trudging through the snow toward her and stopping just short of ramming into her. She looked up into the woad-covered face of her uncle Shamus; the shock of her appearance was plain in his expression. He turned his head and shouted in the clipped, guttural syllables of her native tongue.

“Jor! I have found her!” he cried.

There was a commotion behind her uncle and an even larger man pushed him aside and stared down at her.

“Good Spirits be praised, you’re alive!” he exclaimed. He lunged toward her, picked her up off the ground and hugged her tightly to his chest. “I thought for certain we would not find you and then I would have to face your mother.”

The relief of finding her was plain in his voice and the soft chuckle that followed. Jor turned to his brother and told him to run ahead to the village and tell her mother that she had been found and that he was returning right after he brought her to the shaman that was with them to make sure she was all right.

“Lana will be so relieved,” her uncle said, smiling. He turned quickly and strode off into the snow.

Jor started off at a jog and in a few minutes they had found the main body of the search party that had been sent out to find her. He barked a few orders and several of the men smiled and some made the solemn gesture to thank the Spirits for returning her safely. A crude tent was raised quickly and Jor took his daughter inside, a wizened man followed right behind him and closed the flap to keep the wind out. Jor put his daughter gently on the ground and looked her over carefully for the first time since finding her.

The old shaman knelt beside her and took her face in his wrinkled hands. He looked over her skin very closely to see if there was any sign of frostbite. He looked in her eyes to make sure they were clear and not dazed.

“How is she, Ned?” her father asked, unable to bear the silent examination a moment longer.

“I’m not done yet, am I?” old Ned answered back, irritated. “So far she’s fine.”

“Let me see your hands, girl,” old Ned asked gently. It was then that she realized she still clutched the pup protectively to her body. Shiva had not moved or made a sound since Shamus had found her. She lifted one hand to show the old shaman that she still had all of her fingers and they were in fine shape. As he examined her finger the pup shifted under her shirt to try to reposition its weight in her arm. Ned looked into her face and scowled. “What’s this now?”

This wasn’t the way she wanted this to happen, but there was no way around it now. She carefully pulled Shiva out from under her shirt and held the pup out for the men to see. She smiled, hoping they would see how happy she was that she had found her new best friend. “She’s hungry I think. She needs some milk, have you brought any with you, father?”

“Jorlana, what is this, where did you get this animal and why did you bring it here?” her father was frowning at her, his relief at finding her gone in an instant.

She told the whole story as quickly as she could, hoping to bypass his anger in a hurry. She left out the part about the spirit wolf, as she thought her father would think she was making up stories. His scowl never moved; he was still furious. “You should have just left it there to die, Jorlana, that animal is dangerous.”

“Father, she’s not dangerous, Shiva is my friend. She’s a very smart wolf, she would never hurt anyone unless I told her to.”

“She has a name already? Girl, you can’t keep that beast, and that’s final,” he said sternly. Her father never shouted, but this was about as close as he ever came.

Ned began to laugh. Jor looked at him disapprovingly, “What are you on about, old man?”

Ned coughed as he attempted to control his laughter. “A warrior like you can’t be expected to see the obvious sometimes, Jor. That wolf isn’t just an animal, it’s a totem spirit made flesh. Your daughter is a beastlord, only she didn’t come by her powers by magic as most do. The spirit found her.”
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