Look Like The Innocent Flower [Solo][Development]

[Coci Heavenshield]

..but be the Serpent under't.

Unnatural the eyes of this old woman, sparkling green orbs set in a face marked with age. Her back bent, legs tired and skin as rough as the ground around her and only a whisp of hair frame the picture. There is a fearsome within the flame that is reflected in her eyes. For she has been sitting here at the edge of this life and the next for far too long. Only briefly did her eyes move for it is coming..



Banishment had not sat well with Velkar. Thousands of years passed and he had been left alone. Even those dullards, the Valkyri had turned their backs on him, forbidding him and anyone from speaking his name, or depicting him in art. There was much time in which Velkar grew his hatred for his father, unable to believe that his father would place the Valkyri above him, those worthless lumps of molded clay that could only scratch in the dirt in order to survive. Above him! His son and God, it was inconceivable.

Gods create men and women for pleasuring, sport, and vanity, molding them in their own likeness and to give the Gods purpose for themselves. Why else would you do it? For a God is no God unless there are worshipers. Velkar had lost his disciples, his father saw to that. The rage built within him until one day, the release and Velkar screamed. The scream reverberated around the walls of Great Hall, throughout Beornskald it's citizens cowered in fear, the less Gods hearts turned to ice, his mother Runa wept, his father Odiir .. smiled.

As the years passed trapped on this ice bound world, Velkar stood at the Gateway of the Dead guiding the spirits of those fallen from the realm of men into the that of the Gods. Unable to walk through it himself. It was a lesson of course, Odiir always had a purpose behind his decisions, but it was a torturous lesson that was hard learned. The Valkyri are still dullards in his eyes but it was the children that turned his heart. There is humanity in Velkar, humility? not a lesson learned.




The old woman leaned forward, scratching in the dirt with her stick, the words etched in the ground clear enough .. 'devour me'. And above the old woman, a large shadow loomed over her, venom dripping from it's fangs, mouth agape and it struck ..

 

[Coci Heavenshield]

The great Hrothwûrm opened it's mouth and swallowed the old woman whole. She could feel the constriction against her body, tight and cracking her bones, squeezing the life out of her. The momentum of the beast's muscles pushing her further down into the gut to be devoured over time. The burning of the stomach juices broke her skin before it would do anything else but there was one thing left, one chance that she could do in order to survive. She still had her stick.

She waited until the beast loosed it's grip ready to squeeze again and at that point she would strike, ramming the point of her stick into the side of the beast with all her strength, time and again causing much pain as possible. The Hrothwûrm roared with it, tossing it's head thrashing about distracted by this sudden assault from within.

The old woman did not stop, would not stop until the beast became so enraged with pain, it would strike at itself. Plunging it's fangs into the lower part of it's own body, piercing the scales only it could do. The deadly venom causing through it's blood began to paralyse it, attacking it's own nerve system and in retaliation the beast coiled around the great giant swords slowly died.

At the Gateway of the Dead, the spirit of the Hrothwûrm entered Beornskald and with it. Velkar.

The curse was broken, the transfiguration of the old woman now vanished and standing naked in the golden fields of Beornskald, Velkar stood proud in all his glory. He let out a long sigh as a smile formed on his lips, stretched his back as if waking from a long sleep and he never felt so alive as on this day.

 

[Coci Heavenshield]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFawgUfNXP8​

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A soft breeze touched his skin, the skin of his true self. He had shed that of the old woman, like a serpent does and what remained of her was still within the belly of the beast that now took to the glades of Beornskald. Velkar stretched out his arms closed his eyes and summon his power for the first in along time and within his palms the might of power swirled in a ball of green light ready at his command. Taught to him by his mother, the fuel of him delivered once more and glorious purpose entered his heart again.

Around him, this clothes materialised, the royal attire, his armour and through the air flew his sceptre coming back to it's master. The cold of the metal graced his hand, and the blue crystal of power glowed, his sceptre a means by which to channel power, one avenue at least, and a weapon most feared by many of his people.

His family knows his true nature, but others? most consider him evil. A misunderstanding perhaps, one that might have merit, considering his actions over the cause of time, but not really. He would give his life for Beornskald as much as his brother would, or even his father for that matter. They just don't it. None of them ever found it in their hearts to ask him, to really understand him. So be it.

He was not about to tell them. After all he was a man that would give them one truth and two lies.. which one would be which? they never learned the game that well. He turned his gaze to the great halls of Beornskald, the gates standing tall and proud just as he remembered .. it was time to go home. Mother would welcome him, father?

Hmmm, your son has changed father.. . Whether it was going to be for the better in his father's eyes was yet to be seen. And only Velkar would decide his fate from now on.

to be continued ...