Whitney Writes…

“Have they said when he is coming yet?” Visenya asked curiously as she plucked a handful of snowberries, popping them into her mouth.

Beside her, Asha snorted. “Mam says he should be here by the end of the next moon cycle.” She gave a roll of her eyes. “But I’ll believe that when he’s here and kisses me square on the lips,” Asha added. Her mother was notoriously poor at planning things that required logistical smarts. But then, just as suddenly as the pessimism overtook Asha, a look of pure fantastical whimsy washed over her youthful face. “Can you imagine, Nya? Me, betrothed.” Asha sighed dreamily, linking her arm through her cousins.

“The last of the girls to be married off,” Visenya observed. “Whatever will Auntie do with herself now?”

“Focus on finding Ason a wife, I imagine.” Asha sighed dreamily once more, “Mam also says he’s very handsome. I wonder how many babies we shall have?”

“You certainly move fast,” Visenya laughed. “You haven’t even met him yet. What if he’s repulsive? Or worse… an idiot.” She glanced behind them, the girls were falling behind. Dawdling, no doubt. “Girls,” she called firmly, “please keep up! We don’t want the wolfies having a snack now do we?”

Asha smiled at her cousin; they both had their newest nieces strapped to their chests in their little swaddle slings. They had dreamed of this as girls, being wed and having babies alongside one another. Asha imagined this is what it would be like. “You’re so good with children,” Asha said casually, “I wonder when Treebeard is going to find you a husband?”

Visenya snorted, nearly choking on her snowberries. “Please, my father has far more important things on his mind than marrying me off.” She smoothed down little Nymeria’s soft, downy hair. “Sometimes,” she continued, “I think these girls are all I shall ever have.”

“Don’t say such things, Nya!” Asha scolded, snipping off a branch of juniper berries with her dagger. “Unless…” she paused, turning to look at Visenya excitedly, “does Treebeard mean for you to be the new Tribe Mother?” Asha twirled her dagger casually around her slender fingers as she nibbled the bluish berries. “Auntie Dyra hasn’t taken an apprentice yet… but surely he doesn’t intend you.” She eyed Visenya. “You could do so much more for the tribe.”

“You aren’t telling me anything I don’t already know, Asha,” Visenya sighed. She rolled her eyes at her cousin. “Asha… Mairead’s face is covered in snot,” she observed, pointing at the baby strapped to Asha’s chest.

Asha giggled and pulled the wrapping from the face of her youngest niece, who was only a few months younger than Nymeria, and wiped her little face clean. “D’you think Nym and Read will be as close as you and I?” Asha asked.

“Who knows,” Visenya sighed and shrugged, “I would imagine they would be closer with their own cousins. But, you never know with our family.”

The girls continued on, gathering berries that they both ate and stored in the pouches on their hips, in companionable silence, their nieces trailing along behind them. Some were picking flowers, others were eating berries as well, and others were tracking the prints of Asha and Visenya, pretending they were great hunters.

“I have too seen him!” Elsa hissed loudly.

“I don’t know if I believe you,” Tauriel scoffed.

“Nobody’s seen him and lived,” Lorien agreed with her twin.

“He rides a ghostly horse, too!” Elyf exclaimed.

“Well, duh,” Meav said rudely, rolling her eyes, “he’s called the Headless Horseman.”

“Yeah, well, did you know his horse is white?” Elyf taunted.

“All ghosts are white,” Tauriell snorted.

“Everybody knows that,” Lorien added with a giggle.

“Alright, girls,” Asha cut in, turning to face their herd of six little girls. “We are out here to forage for berries for the tribe, not to argue about who’s seen the Headless Horseman.” She squeezed little Mairead’s soft, baby-fat hand. “Besides, everyone knows his horse is black.”

She quickly turned away from the girls to an erruption of sound and rejoined Visenya. Asha couldn’t see them behind her, so she grinned at her cousin. Visenya made a wide-eyed, awestruck face and glanced from her little nieces to Asha and back again. She’s seen him, she mouthed to the girls and whirled to catch up to Asha.

The two teenagers suppressed their giggles as they bent their heads to one another and linked arms as they continued to the juniper grove ahead. “You shouldn’t mess with their little minds like that,” Visenya whispered to her cousin through a laugh.

“They just believe so easily,” Asha said. She peeked back over her shoulder at them. “Keep up, girls,” she reminded.

“Coming, Auntie!” Meav called, cluitching her twin, younger cousins’ hands and hurried forward.

“Ducklings?” Visenya called back to her own.

“Here, Nya,” Arwyn piped from between Elsa and Elyf.

Visenya stopped in her tracks, jering Asha’s arm and causing both babies they carried to let out little squawks of indignity. “Where’s Ynara?” Visenya asked, looking to Elsa and Elyf. Asha covered her eyes from the sun, looking back the way they had come as well as surveying the nearby rocky slopes.

“I don’t see her,” Asha murmured.

“Ynara!” Visenya called, her voice echoing against the rocks.

Asha gently placed her hand on her cousin’s arm. “Shh,” she hushed, “look up, Nya.” Visenya followed Asha’s gaze and spotted the small bits of rock and shale that were sliding down the slope to their left that had caught her cousin’s eye. Asha watched as Visenya closed her eyes, her brows rising, no doubt using her inhuman magical abilities. Visenya’s eyes shot back open, wide with a fear Asha had never seen before. The sound of metal chinking on metal spurred Asha to wave frantically at the girls to come quietly to her.

“Mother Nirn, help us,” Visenya breathed. She began to frantically fumble with the straps of the sling that held six-month-old Nymeria. “Asha,” she hissed, “take Nym.”

Asha swallowed her rising terror. “Of course, Nya,” she said in a hushed tone. What is it? What did you see?”

“We’re nearly surrounded,” Visenya said softly, wary of all the little up-turned faces watching them. “I don’t know who they are, but they mean us harm and have already heard us.”

“Nords?” Asha asked.

“I don’t know, Asha,” Visenya hissed, finally handing Nymeria to her cousin. “Go to the grove, hide, and guard the girls with your life.”

“Of course,” Asha breathed, she felt that hadn’t even needed to be said. “What about you?”

“I have to find Ynara.” Visenya glanced worriedly around them. “Hurry, Asha; I’ll cast a cloaking spell over the grove and maybe I can buy you and the girls some time to get away.”

Asha nodded numbly, swallowing her protests at her cousin’s risk. She knew if Visenya didn’t do anything, the rest of them would stand no chance to get away unharmed. She gathered the six girls to her and herded them towards the grove as she attempted to get Nymeria’s sling fastened to the opposite side of her breast as Mairead. Where on Nirn could Ynara have gotten to, she wondered. Nya would have noticed if she’d been gone long…

“What is it, Auntie?” Lorien squeaked, sensing Asha’s mounting anxiety.

“Bad men are coming,” Asha answered truthfully but in a light tone, “we must hide from them.”

“But what about our auntie,” Elsa begged.

“She’ll be just fine, girls,” Asha said reassuringly, “you’ve seen your auntie’s powers. She can handle a couple of naughty Nords.”

“They are spectacular,” Elyf chimed in dreamily.

“Yes, now come, we must be as quiet as little bats, my pets,” Asha whispered. They all knelt in an overgrown area of brush; the girls circled Asha, each taking the hand of the girl next to them. Whenever they had practiced situations like this, Asha usually kept the girls all behind her, with Ynara, the eldest, bringing up the rear. But with Ynara gone, the girls had improvised and Asha found it an acceptable, for now, modification.

“I want my mama,” Arwyn whimpered.

“It’s ok,” Meav said soothingly, “your auntie will protect us and mine will defend us. We’re perfectly safe.” Meav turned her piercing little gaze up to Asha. “Right, Auntie?”

Asha smiled warmly at the girls, caressing Arwyn’s cheek, “That is exactly right, Meav,” she whispered. “All shall be well, my little sweets. Nya has the blood of a Briar Heart in her veins, she shall see us all safe.”

“But my mama,” Arwyn said again.

“You’ll be in her arms soon enough,” Asha said. “Now, everyone hush.”

They waited in silence with baited breath. Asha could barely see Visenya’s slender form through the juniper trees. Both Mairead and Nymeria were getting restless and squirming. Asha began to dread they would cry. She chanted a slow plea to Mother Nirn to herself that they would calm and stay quiet. The twins, all four, were fidgeting. Asha did not want anything to happen, but if something didn’t happen soon, the girls were going to lose all sense of danger and do what they wished.

Suddenly, a shrill scream pierced the air, followed by sobbing. Asha’s blood turned to ice: Ynara.

Tauriel tugged on the hem of Asha’s fur and both babies jerked back to alertness.

“Steady, girls, quiet now,” Asha warned gently, her own body rigid with fear. They’re closer than I thought, she thought.

“But Ynara,” Arwyn whimpered once again.

“If you do not hush, Arwyn, I swear by Mother Nirn, I shall stuff your little mouth with moss,” Asha vowed with a disconcerting smile to the child.

Arwyn stared, wide-eyed in terror at her, shrinking back in Meav’s lap, her mouth clamped shut.

“Auntie,” Meav said breathlessly.

“Don’t you start now,” Asha snapped.

“Asha!”

Asha nearly jumped out of her skin, Visenya had somehow appeared beside her in the grove. “Damn you, Nya,” Asha swore, “what are you doing here?”

“Come with me,” Visenya said in a low voice, “they have Ynara.”

“I gathered,” Asha said. She bit her lip and unstrapped both babies, handing one to Meav and one to Lorien. “Do not move,” she whispered sternly to the girls.

She pulled herself up and followed her cousin through the low brush. Asha only glanced back once to assure herself that the girls were invisible. Visenya had done well with her spell to hide them. The pair crouched behind a boulder and Visenya pointed towards the other side of it.

“They’re just over the next ridge,” Visenya whispered. “The one on the left has Ynara. Shoot them. Then take her back to the grove, and then bring all the girls back home. Tell them what we’ve seen here. This area is no longer safe.”

“What about you?” Asha demanded, noticing that very lacking information in Visenya’s plan.

“I’ll catch up, don’t wait for me, I’ll hold them off for as long as I can,” Visenya said, her voice only caught once.

Asha began to shake her head.

“I’ll be right behind you, Asha” Visenya said firmly. “I promise.”

Asha nodded, ignoring the burning sensation in her eyes. “Ok then” she said simply. She peeked around the boulder’s edge. “Nya…” she hissed warily, “there are more than twenty soldiers out there.”

“I’ll handle them,” Visenya said firmly. “Just do your part.”

Asha stared at her cousin. Her best friend since birth. They had been what the tribe called milk sisters. Following the death of her own mother, Visenya had nursed alongside her cousin, from her aunt. The two were always together. They did everything together. Even though Visenya had still been holding fast to her claim that her father would never marry her off, Asha had still held on to the thought that they would wed side-by-side. Have their first babies together. There was so much she wanted to say…

“Asha,” Visenya cut in, gripping her hand, “don’t you dare say goodbye to me right now.” Her eyes looked as though they were burning just like Asha’s. “I’m coming home after this.”

Asha nodded then. She flung an arm around her cousin’s shoulders, hugging her tightly and kissing the top of her head. “I love you, Nya,” she whispered as she pulled her bow from it’s hoist on her back, and an arrow from her quiver and rose to her feet. She crept silently out from behind the boulder, dodging behind a large bush and quietly nocked her arrow as she awaited Visenya’s distraction.

Asha fixed the short, dark skinned man clad in leather armor with the sigil of the Empire on his helm in her sights and awaited the signal she knew would come from Visenya. They had grown up wary of Nords, but terrified of Imperials. Out of the corner of her eye, Asha could see her cousin being enveloped in a cloud of purple static lightning bolts. The air crackled around her, Asha could feel the magic being sucked from the air around her, leaving a strange, dry feeling. Only a little longer, and Visenya would be ready.

There was a nudging at the edge of Asha’s consciousness; it was time. She loosed the arrow and watched as it embedded itself in the neck of the soldier gripping Ynara’s arms. A stream of lightning bolts, ice shards, and fireballs rained down on the encampment of soldiers at the same moment as Asha’s arrow hit it’s mark. She smiled in satisfaction at she and Visenya’s teamwork. Asha watched as Visenya emerged from her hidden spot, completely encased in her magical element cocoon.

Visenya was diverting their attention, this was Asha’s moment. But her heart skipped a beat, Visenya had said nothing about herself being bait. She swallowed her panic. “Ynara!” Asha cried. Without hesitation, the girl bolted in the direction the arrow had come from, heading right for Asha. “Good girl,” she whispered.

When Ynara reached her, Asha wrapped the terrified little girl tightly in her arms and held her close. “I’ve got you,” she said softly into Ynara’s hair. “You’re safe now.”

Asha took Ynara’s hand and quickly guided her back to the juniper grove where the other girls were still hidden. They all breathed a collective sigh of relief at the sight of Asha and Ynara.

“We’ve got to go, girls,” Asha said in a hushed tone as she took Nymeria’s sling and handed it to Ynara. “Can you carry your cousin?”

“Of course,” Ynara said, her usually confident tone still shaken.

“Good,” Asha nodded, taking Mairead and readjusting her sling. “Come on, girls,” she said, waving them onward. “Ynara in front, single file, hold hands, stay quiet and as low as you can, and I’ll be in the back,” she instructed.

The girls all linked their little hands and they began the long trek back up the mountainside to their tribe. Asha found her mind constantly wandering back to Visenya and wondering how she was fairing. When would she suddenly appear behind her and scare her half to death? Surely she would be alright. She wouldn’t have insisted Asha leave her behind otherwise. Asha breathed deeply, stroking Mairead’s hair absent-mindedly, trying desperately to keep herself calm.

There was a rumbling from behind the small troop, followed by a thunderous boom. Asha halted and turned to look. Swirling up to the heavens was a vortex of flames, lightning and ice. A smattering of dark, unnatural clouds was appearing surrounding the top of the vortex. Asha’s breath caught in her throat and her blood turned to ice. She didn’t need to see the clearing to know that that powerful vortex of magic was centered on Visenya.

“What is that?” Elsa asked fearfully, her voice shaking.

“I don’t know,” Asha lied.

“That Nya?” Arwyn demanded.

“I do not know,” Asha lied again. She swallowed her fear and turned back to the girls. “Come on,” she urged gently, “we’ve got to keep moving. We’re racing Nya back home.”

By taking an extremely round-about route, largely to ensure no soldiers were tracking them, but also in hopes that Visenya could have taken a more direct route and beaten them back, Asha and the girls arrived back to the tribe just past sun-down. The large fire at the center of camp was chaotic before they even noticed Asha and the girls stumble into the firelight. Asha’s sisters and cousins were all fretting over the whereabouts of their daughters. Asha and Visenya were never out past dark with the little ones.

The first to spot Asha and her brood was Isla, Asha’s eldest sister. The young woman let out a piercing shriek, followed by a: “Thank Mother Nirn!” as Meav ran to her. She held out her arm for her other daughter, Mairead, and Asha obligingly handed the babe off. Her sisters and cousins were all asking Asha a million questions a minute. Where had they been? Why were they late? Did they have any idea how worried they had all been?

It wasn’t until Treebeard, the Briar-Heart of the tribe, arrived in the midst, towering above the rest of his kin with his massive, deer-head headdress, and slammed his staff against the stone, that anyone realized something other than the girls’ lateness may be off.

“Where is my daughter?” He boomed above the din, “Where is my Visenya?” Lightning crackled overhead, a direct connection to the shaman’s displeasure and concern.

Asha began to shake. She had not had time to think of this encounter, but she knew she had been fearing it. Treebeard would be irate. He would be furious with Asha for having left Visenya. He would banish her. Their tribe never left anyone behind.

Tears were streaming down Asha’s face when she felt her mother’s hands rest gently upon her shoulders. A calming presence instantly enveloping her. Her mother did not have to say anything, her aura was enough of a comfort to Asha and before she could think, the entire afternoon’s encounter was streaming out of her. When she said “imperial soldiers” a hushed gasp went through the tribe and she saw Treebeard stiffen before her. The muscles on his chest rippled as he went rigid. She could sense the rage rising in him. Could see the way that briarheart of his began beating faster through the gaping scar that never quite healed in his chest.

When she finally fell silent, nothing left to say, Treebeard tapped his staff upon the stone twice.

“You returned my granddaughters, and those of my sister, safely,” he said. “And you? You are unharmed?” His voice was far gentler than Asha had expected. She nodded dumbly, unable to speak again. “You have acted with great bravery this night, Asha. I am forever in your debt. Rest, have a good meal, leave everything else to me.”

Asha found she wanted to stay and listen to what else Treebeard was going to say as he summoned his warriors to him, but her mother was already turning her away, towards their yurt. “What will he do, Mama?” Asha asked softly, fear causing it to shake.

“He shall go to war,” her mother said darkly.