Coldness. It was the first sensation felt when woken in this world. A child caressed and held by the onslaught of snow in the middle of winter. Darkness was the first thing seen when his eyes opened. Night had arrived long ago, moving into the North for the season and refusing to budge. The wind had greeted him softly, tickling his cheeks and singing quietly. It was perhaps the softest greeting the boy had received. It beckoned him to rise, to follow it to somewhere better, and so he obeyed. Weakness was the first thing his body screamed as he sat up, the fresh snow crying under his shifted weight, trying to pull him back down. He stood, nonetheless.
His eyes adjusted; when he looked up, the child was greeted by a myriad of little lights in the sky. The wind told him they were called the stars. He smiled softly at them, wishing he could stand there and admire them longer, but the wind called for him and so he obeyed.
He continued to walk until he had tripped and fallen. When he looked to see what had tripped him, he noticed that he had fallen over a small, dead animal. It was mostly covered by the snow. It had limbs similar to his- except its were all purple, black, and stiff, and was adorned by furs.. The child reached down, feeling the odd objects covering the animal's frozen feet. When he tried to pull it off, the foot broke off as well, stuck in the shoe. The boy fished out the foot, letting it drop to the snow, and tried on the shoe. Fortunately, it fit, so he removed the other one with better luck.
The wind told him to take off the furs that adorned the animal as well and wear them unless he wished to end up similarly. The boy did as told, but as he put on the thin tunic, a larger, living version of the deceased animal approached him, shining a star that sat upon a stick at him in confusion. The animal looked at the deceased and back at him, emotion filling his being.
The stranger screamed at him, but the child couldn't understand why. Frozen with fright, the boy trembled and began to cry, but the animal didn't care. It hit the child with a blunt object repeatedly, despite the wind's roaring pleas, until the boy stopped crying- and stopped moving altogether.
The child laid there for hours, motionless. The wind screamed its sorrows, racing about for help. The snow protected his body with a soft, cool blanket. The stars witnessed it all, feeling so overwhelmed with sorrow it began to weep.
When he finally moved again, the elements rejoiced, hugging and kissing the boy. The child wept, hiding his face in his cold hands. He couldn't understand why that thing had attacked him and it frightened him to think that there were other such animals lurking around. He merely desired to sink back into the snow, to let it take him back to the void that had held him captive beforehand. Yet, the elements forced him back up, having him continue his pointless journey.
Not too far away from his deathbed, was a cluster of huts surrounding a bright star that danced in the middle of them. Unsure, the boy crept closer still. It wasn't much of a difference, but the village felt oddly different than out in the dark snow. This was his first time experiencing warmth.
Distracted by the odd setting, the boy didn't realise when an animal- similar to the one that had murdered him in the snow- approached him with a friendly smile. The child yelped in fear and scurried away, wanting to avoid such danger again. He'd only caught a glimpse of this animal, but it had appeared to be similar to the one that had murdered him- the wind finally told him that this was a woman and what he had seen earlier was called a man. The boy asked the wind if he was one of these men and women, and the wind answered truthfully. 'No,' it whispered to him, 'but you appear the same as them therefore you must learn their ways to make them believe you are the same. You live for many more moons than them, an eternity compared to them. Now, go back, that woman will not harm you.'
The boy nodded nervously and returned to where he previously was, but the woman was no longer there. Where he met her, there was a small amount of food left, but the boy didn't understand hunger so he left it and searched for the kind woman who had left it.
She was in a hut nearby, threading something through her hair. Seeing the small child, she invited him in. The boy was happy to hear she spoke the same language as the wind; it immediately helped him feel more at ease. She giggled softly at seeing how dirty he was and offered the boy a mirror to see himself.
He had wavy blond hair that stuck up in the randomest spots and was matted in the others. His skin was pale with light tints of blue from where the cold had caressed him, and lastly, his eyes were the dark blue of the sky that had first greeted him. The boy smiled at himself, ecstatic to finally know what he looks like.
The woman asked of the boy's name as she gingerly washed and combed out the child's messy hair. As the boy didn't know of such things, he tried to ask the wind, but the wind was nowhere to be found in the enclosed hut. The woman had noticed the scared confusion on the boy's face and offered to give him a name- to which the child had happily agreed to. The woman thought for a few moments before deciding and informing the child that he was to be called Njord.
All was well until her husband returned. Seeing the peculiar child that was neither his nor any other citizens', he broke out into a rage. He reached for the boy to do who knows what, but the caring woman pushed him out of the way, yelling for him to run. The large man yelled about how 'they didn't have food for any strange, dirty child that was probably bringing bad fortune to their already deteriorating village'.
Njord sprinted from the scene and out of the town. He continued running all the way into the woods where he could be safe from the humans- as the wind called them. Eventually slowing to a stop, Njord searched for somewhere to hide so he could rest his aching limbs. As he walked, Njord felt a wet stinging in his arm and legs; looking down, he saw that somewhere along the way, he'd gotten cuts that were most likely from one of the many low branches he had to run through.
Njord sighed, feeling his eyes water from how overwhelmed he was by everything. He was scared, cold, and hurting all over. The closest thing he could find to a hiding spot was a little crevice at the base of a tree that was just big enough for him to curl up in. He hid in his tunic, holding himself as he tried to sleep in the unbearable conditions.
It felt like he'd slept decently, but Njord had no way of being able to even tell how long he'd slept since he has not yet been introduced to the concept of time nor to night and day since he still only knows the cold, harsh polar nights.
The first thing the boy was aware of when he woke up was soft, quiet whispers. Opening his eyes, Njord saw, at first, colourful, little orbs of soft light. When his eyes adjusted to the unusual light, the child could make out the shapes of little flying humans. Seeing the boy was awake, one of them introduced them all as fairies then individually introduced themselves. He began to fix his tunic so that he was wearing it properly, the fairies offered Njord berries to eat and a water-filled flower to drink from. Although, Njord still didn't understand the concept of basic needs.
The fairies giggled at the boy. "Silly boy, you must eat and drink or else you won't last very long," one of them informed him (although they probably couldn't tell Njord different from the humans).
Njord blushed shyly as the fairies laughed at him. So, he tried it, and was surprised at first by the sweetness of the food and refreshingness of the water. He thanked the fairies and asked in a quiet voice if they could help him find somewhere safe and warm. They told him that the only place like that was south and that they couldn't travel that far, but they pointed Njord in the correct direction to follow.
Thanking his new friends, Njord soon left, returning to being his solitude that was occasionally interrupted by a just as shy deer or bird. Sometimes, the wind would speak with him, but most of the time, he was alone. Along the way, he did meet many kind, and some hostile, creatures. The pixies would pull at his hair and tease him, and a few trolls chased him (such occurrences actually happened enough that Njord began to walk around with a broken branch to defend himself with), but the friendlier creatures would give him gifts and teach him many important things- such as how to speak to the rest of nature. Njord had to admit, all-in-all, this was quite the fun adventure, and every day he went without getting in some human's way felt like a blessing (although, he knew it was inevitable, as the wind had told him).
Eventually, he had finally reached the sea of the south. The ocean was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, with its dark, crystal blue waters that leaped onto the pure, white sands. When Njord had arrived, it was still night. He could easily make out many villages along the coastline by their abundant fires- which helped him know where to avoid. The child sat on the cool, rough sand, decently far from the settlements. So mesmerised by the water's beauty that shined like the stars in the darkness, Njord didn't realise how tired he had become before now and soon fell asleep on the shoreline.