Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-29461586-20150301192956/@comment-5583506-20150305170831

Valkyrie couldn't sleep very well. She kept having dreams of how Lilja was calling out for her, imprisoned somewhere by Cave-Bear soldiers, where she was probably raped and tortured day after day.

Sturkas Cave-Bear had a lot to answer for. And he would... she would make sure of it...

With Clan Bone Obelisk by her side she would have a majority of forces to unleash upon the Cave-Bears if it should come to open war. So far it was nothing more than a cold war, but a war nonetheless.

Suddenly she was woken up by Lovis. "Matriarch?"

"Hmrm?" groaned Valkyrie in her bed. "What is it?"

The middle-aged Breton had an expression on her face which foretold that she didn't know how to express herself. "Uhm... How should I put this? You have... visitors..."

"What? Now?!"

Lovis swallowed. "Not just any visitors..."

"Then who?"

"Stur... Sturkas Cave-Bear and his sons..."

Valkyrie's eyes shot wide open. Was this still a dream? No one had seen the Cave-Bears since the events of "The Wolf Trap". And just until recently she had been dreaming about how they tortured her sister.

''Perhaps the Gods are merciful after all? To bring them here, to my keep?''

She got out of bed and quickly pulled a nightgown over her head and donned a thick wolf pelt over her shoulders.

"Lovis, my sword", she commanded.

"M-Matriarch... are you sure? I mean... to kill another clanleader within your own hall..."

"My sword", repeated Valkyrie. "I am going to sever that bastard's head and feed it to the wolves."

When the Breton gazed upon her Matriarch's stern expression she didn't dare to argue. She arrived shortly with Frostbite and watched as the young woman pulled it from its scabbard.

Valkyrie then stormed out of her bedroom and down the stairs, dragging the nightgown and the wolf pelt behind her as a mantle. She arrived in the hall and glared at the five men standing in the hall.

''Such insolence! My family's murderers... right here in my very home! How dare they?! HOW DARE THEY?!''

"So, you finally had the courage to show your ugly mug, Sturkas", she growled. "Allow me to do you the favor of cutting it off for you."

"Valkyrie Ghost-Wolf", said Sturkas through his thick, bushy beard. "You have grown since last time I saw you."

Valkyrie nodded as she slowly approached. The tip of Frostbite slammered against the wooden floor with each step she took. "Grown enough to know a dead man when I see him..."

Sturkas shrugged. "Oh, I very much doubt that."

"So, why have you come? Have you come to finish off the mistake you let slip by your ugly nose fourteen years ago, or have simply come because you are tired of running away from me? If the latter's the case, go outside. I'd rather not dirty my floor with your blood."

"Is this the famed hospitality your clan has to offer?" growled Sturkas with his dark brooding voice. "Pathetic. You would be wise not to kill me, you wolf bitch. You seem to have forgotten that I am not exactly alone here."

Valkyrie hadn't forgotten. She was just to preoccupied with Sturkas to even acknowledge his irrelevant sons. There was Armstark, the spitting image of his bear-like father. There was Gylfing, not perhaps the most dreadful of the sons, but a Cave-Bear nonetheless. There was Farvild, at least an eyesight she could get used to. From where he had gotten his good looks was beyond her knowledge.

Perhaps his mother grew tired of having freaks for sons and so decided to bed someone more fair?

And then there was Kettil, "the Mad Bear", they called him.

''They said that he ate my uncle Ulftand's corpse when he killed him. How fitting that this man's corpse will feed my wolves along with the rest of his kin...''

"So, why have you come then?" repeated Valkyrie. "What do you want? If you have come to bargain for your pathetic life, you are too late. Your people murdered my brother... a boy of only twelve."

"Har! I knew it!" scoffed Sturkas and pointed at her accusingly. "It was you who attacked the Wolf Pit! Only someone who have been in the dungeons could know that Hemming Ghost-Wolf was dead! Oh, this is great news! Wait until the other clans hears of this! What will become of your reputation then, Matriarch?"

Valkyrie restrained herself from rendering the greatsword through the man's throat. He deserved it. He took pride in the fact that his men had murdered her brother...

"Was that all? Did you come here to chide me for butchering your staff?" She snickered. "They bled like the pigs they served. Go on then. Tell the clans of what I did. In return I will tell them what you did. I have all the evidence I need. And besides... I have outsiders who have heard your little testimony."

"Outsiders?" scoffed Sturkas.

"Yes, outsiders", repeated a voice from the shadows of the hall as Hist-of-his-Kin came strolling out with his curved blade resting over his shoulders. He smiled mischievously. "I had heard about the thickness of your beard, Patriarch Cave-Bear. Little did I know that the same went for your head."

Sturkas snorted in hatred and glared at Valkyrie. "Argonians? You have employed fucking lizards to help you out?"

"It's actually more of a win-win situation, Sturkas", filled Hist-of-his-Kin in and did some circular motions with his blade. "We help her and she helps us."

Sturkas growled something incoherently.

Valkyrie smirked. "You came here to hear me confess, didn't you, Sturkas? Confess so that you could have something to report to your allies? Or perhaps you came here because you felt it necessary? Maybe I came too close to find out where you kept your hideout?"

The Patriarch of Clan Cave-Bear pulled something from his fur armor and tossed it in front of Valkyrie's feet.

"What's that?" she asked.

"A piece of your sister's dress", grinned Sturkas.

Valkyrie turned pale. "She... she is alive?"

"For now. She was the only one of your family we didn't kill except for you and your rumbling uncle. We thought that she would..." He stopped himself and scoffed for a moment. "... serve as some enjoyment to our men. Would be a shame to kill something so pretty... and soft..."

"Bastards", hissed Valkyrie. "How... how do I know you aren't lying?! How do I know that you haven't killed her as you did with Hemming?"

"I would never kill Farvild's betrothed", chuckled Sturkas.

"Betrothed?!" she exclaimed and shot a glare at Farvild.

The fair son seemed rather uncomfortable to be in her presence unlike the rest of his family. He avoided her annihilating gaze as best as he could.

"I could release her from her engagement however", said Sturkas. "But it would be at a cost."

"What do you want?"

"I want you, Ghost-Wolf. You are too much trouble for me and my kin as of now. Because of your eager hunt for us we have been unable to return to our home and instead have been forced to live in dark caves as our ancestors did. We paid some hefty sums to Clan Gorehound to let them keep us safe and hidden. I want you dead, Valkyrie. You hear me? I want you as dead as the rest of your disgusting wolf pack. However, I can't just kill you on the spot. That would trigger an open war. But I can challenge you to a fair duel."

"Duel?"

"Aye", replied Sturkas. "If you win, I will release your sister and you will stop hunting us. If I win... well... that way I would have killed the last capable member of your clan. The last cub of Bitvarg the Elder would be dead and Clan Ghost-Wolf would be extinct. Your sister would marry Farvild and become Lilja Cave-Bear."

Valkyrie's eyebrows twitched with anger and hatred. She just wanted to kill this man so badly her very nerves were shaking under her skin.

"If I win... I will kill you, Sturkas", she said. "I will kill you and take my sister back..."

He raised his shoulders in ignorance. "It would have been a good battle nonetheless. My dear Armstark would assume my role as Patriarch and we would still have the upper hand. Your clan is finished either way. Even if you win you would have just prolonged the inevitable."

"No. If I win, I may finally settle down and have some peace, knowing Lilja is safe. I will be able to marry and have children of my own and..."

She was interrupted by Sturkas scoffing laughter. "Marry?! You?! Look at you! You are pushing the thirties! Your very personality isolates you from any man you want! There is no one alive who would marry you now, Ghost-Wolf!"

She gasped for breath in an attempt to keep herself from screaming out loud. "I will accept your challenge, Cave-Bear. I will meet you in the Vargine Hall's fighting pit tomorrow, you hear?! I will smear your blood all over the sand and send your rotting head back to your fetid whore of a wife!"

Sturkas snorted. "Don't you dare call my wife a whore! I will meet you there in the morning, Ghost-Wolf! And once I am through with you I will let Kettil have his fun with what remains of your body."

Kettil smirked viciously and licked his lips at the sight of Valkyrie.

Sturkas then stormed off and called for his sons to follow him. "I shall rest easy knowing that I have done my duty by eradicating every last one of you lycanthropic monsters from this world!"

As the hall doors slammed shut behind him, Hist-of-his-Kin made an elegant bow to Valkyrie before he continued to waddle about the darkness of the great hall.

Lovis approached Valkyrie from behind and put a comforting hand on the Matriarch's shoulder. "I heard what he said about you, Valkyrie. It's not true... you are everything a man could desire..."

Valkyrie wished it was true. She knew that she could be difficult company due to her temper, her stubborness and her melancholia. And she knew the world well enough to know that there was no male member of any other clan who would marry her at the age of 26. Marriages were arranged as earliest by the age of at least 20, but she was well beyond those years.

She wiped a tear from her eye and dropped Frostbite to the wooden floor as she lumbered back to her bedchambers. Lovis picked the sword up as best as she could, knowing that only those of the Ghost-Wolf line could carry it with ease.

"You mustn't fight him, Matriarch!" urged the Breton. "If Sturkas wins..."

"... he would just have shortened what would have otherwise been inevitable, Lovis. Clan Ghost-Wolf is a lost cause without Lilja. She is younger than me and more fit to marry and bear children. She is our clan's only hope now."

"Make sure that she is then, Matriarch. Do not lose tomorrow."

"I won't", assured Valkyrie. "I will end this circle of hatred once and for all. I will avenge my family when I plunge Frostbite into that man's dark heart. And I will have Lilja back from the clutches of the Cave-Bears." She sniffed. "Do you... do you actually believe that what he said that they had done to her was true? Do you believe that they have..."

Lovis shook her head. "No. I don't. I believe that those were the words of an evil man who longed to see a reaction. Lilja is and remains untouched."

Valkyrie bit her underlip. "She better be..."