MIAKODA
A few weeks had passed since the Winchesters had rolled into town and Miakoda got introduced to Evdokiya. That wouldn't mean that the two were any closer than they were since the brothers were here. She got it. Sort of. Humans were weird about age differences and people in positions of power potentially abusing it. Miakoda got that. Had seen it a few times in school herself. But her Wolf, the Alpha in her, wanting to nurture and take care of the Bulgarian…something, who was still so jumpy around anyone.
Fuck, why were Wolves tactile creatures, honestly?
Catching Vincent Danvers' scent, Miakoda caught his attention and the man veered off from where he'd been nattering with another girl that she didn't have in any of her tutorials.
"Yeah, Doc?" Vincent asked, in his old timbre, gravity-defying curls tamed back in a high bun at the back of his head.
She took a sip of coffee. "Would you be able to stay back after this? It's nothing bad, just a little extra credit stuff in exchange for helping another student?"
Vincent nodded, a more relaxed air settling about his shoulder then. "Yeah sure, means that my final grade won't be crap after midterms."
Miakoda rolled her eyes goodnaturedly. He had always been a perfectionist. "Your last essay was good, Vince. Relax a little; I haven't even written the exam yet."
He let out a slightly high laugh; tension was still strong in his scent. "Your unit isn't the one I worry about, Doc. But yeah I can stay back. You're my only class on Thursdays."
"Don't you also have a D and D campaign going as well?"
"I like Thursdays." He shrugged.
She grinned. "My brother used to love playing it. I got into it too, to be honest." Miakoda checked her watch. "Go sit down. I'm about to start in about five."
"Cool." He nodded and slid into the free seat beside his boyfriend.
Miakoda relaxed a bit after she'd sorted that issue out. It wasn't as though Evdokiya was a bad student per se, she wasn't, the woman just wasn't used to writing in academia. It was understandable. Those who had been out of the academic world, whether due to just not knowing if they wanted to further their education or if they wanted to 'cushion their resume', university writing took a while to get a handle on. Fortunately for Evdokiya, due to Vincent's perfectionist attributes, she should do just fine.
Miakoda didn't look up but her Wolf clocked and tracked where Evdokiya sat – up at the back, to the far right of the auditorium, near the side exit – as the Bulgarian slipped in minutes before she started. 11 o'clock on the dot, Miakoda picked up the clicker and stepped away from the lectern.
"Who here did the reading?" A majority of hands went up. "Alrighty then, so you all have a grasp on the next people we're going to be discussing, which your next assignment is going to be on but I'll go over the outline for your assignment next week. The buff and bearded people of Scandinavia, the Vikings."
A picture of Marvel Comic's Thor in all his thick-lined glory came up on the screen. "I, myself, am very much looking forward to the movie coming out next May." That got a few whoops. She wandered up to the right-hand steps, talking casually.
"The outline for today's lecture is how their rune system, otherwise known as these little dudes," Miakoda clicked over and an image of the Younger Futhark runes came up, "which is called the Younger Futhark runes. Little bit of background on these dudes – no, Mr Carmichael, you cannot quote me in your assignment, even if you reference this lecture, so don't ask me – this is known as the 'offspring' so to speak of the Elder Futhark system which was used predominantly between 100 and 800 AD and had 24 characters. Younger Futhark, however, was used by the Scandinavian Vikings in the 8th and 12th centuries and had a lower amount of characters at 16."
She changed the slide and the Younger Futhark runes gained translations beside them. "I could've just asked you all to just translate them in your own time but I'm nice and it's not important or crucial for you all to know."
As the double period slot flew by, Miakoda had gone into depth on how the Younger Futhark runes had been more used to just write on stones as markers for people rather than for them to be used as actually lettering to write down stories.
"Professor?" Daniel raised his hand when she slowed for a minute.
"Yes?"
"Why did their stories get passed down by word of mouth and not by writing?"
Miakoda scratched her face. "It wasn't so much as they didn't want their stories and beliefs to be strictly for them, the Vikings, in general, were supposedly just a more orally based people. For them, passing down the tales of Thor, of Loki, of the Valkyrie, it was just seen as normal, the way your parents may have passed down scary stories to you when you're were children. The Younger Futhark, as I said before, was just more of a name tagging system or as a way of memorialising the stories. In Scandinavia today, there are thousands of the rune stones found in random fields. They, themselves, were more of a story based people than most expect."
"Were they illiterate?"
Miakoda shook her head. "No actually. Going on what I just said, a majority of their stories were actually written down by scribes come the 13th century. This alphabet was supposedly widely understood, they were probably just procrastinating like a majority of you lot do."
She smoothly directed the conversation back to the subject at hand and gradually the lecture came to a smooth end. "Next week, I'll go over the basics for your next assignment. Your tutors will go over last week's stuff in more detail as per usual."
"Bye Professor!" some called out and she waved goodbye to them in return before catching Evdokiya before she went out the door from beside her? Instead of just going out near the one up the back? Humans honestly.
When she introduced both of them to each other, Miakoda could smell the slight indignation coming from Evdokiya, as well as the awkwardness and wariness that just seemed to be integral to the Bulgarian's overall scent if she was being honest. Inviting them out to coffee – Miakoda had made sure that Evdokiya's schedule was free, she wasn't an asshole – went a little bit awkward, to begin with, but fingers were crossed.
Taking them to Capital One seemed like a no brainer to Miakoda. She stopped there when she had time to get breakfast and there was free wi-fi. Plus it had cheap food and great coffee. Leaving her two humans to try and get comfortable with each other, Miakoda took out her reusable cup – it was white with a blue lid and an R2-D2 band around it, she got it online – and waited for her turn.
"The usual, Doc?" said Sarah, a cybersecurity major from MIT, taking her mug from her but leaving the lid.
"Thanks, Sarah." She smiled, paying for her drink and pastry.
Taking the hot chocolate from the girl at the drinks side, she made her way over to where the humans sat, catching the end of the conversation, along with the fact that Evdokiya's scent went muted again. Her Wolf picked up her head. "I'm fine…just, just fine."
Miakoda slid into the seat beside Vincent, not wanting to crowd Evdokiya, setting her bag on the ground. "I've ordered for myself, so which one of you wants to go next?"
"I will!" Evdokiya near fell over herself to get her stuff and Miakoda kept an ear on her before turning to Vincent.
"What happened?" she murmured, tearing her pastry up a bit into smaller bites.
Vincent shook his head a bit, "It was like when Danny gets visions," Daniel was a Seer from the French Quarter, his lineage went back centuries, "but different, not like she was Seeing the future but something. Has it happened before?"
"Yes." Miakoda nodded softly, "You heard what happened to her? She's coming into her powers, I haven't quite worked out what she is yet but I don't even think she knows what she is either. Her scent gains a filter every time she gets a vision but she doesn't seem harmed. It's rather strange if I'm being completely honest."
Vincent looked at her, eyes a little earnest. "You have any idea?"
She gnawed on her lip, glancing over to see the Bulgarian in question staring at the menu, heart racing anxiously in her chest. "I think it might have something to do with Past lives or echoes of them but I'll get back to you and let you know when I do, okay?"
Coffee had soon turned into lunch before they went for a bit of window shopping. It was early evening when Miakoda dropped Evdokiya off at her place and left her there. She could hear a cat meowing. She wondered what it was.
Miakoda shook her head a little as she did a u-turn and made her way back to her place. There was still that overlaying tension and she didn't like it. It wasn't coming from Evdokiya however; it was like it had just settled around her territory. She didn't like it. The last time it felt like this…it didn't end well.
She couldn't, however, just phone up the Winchesters or the police. "'Yeah, sorry Dean, could you come check this out? Why? Oh, because I just think my house is about to be set alight with me in it. How do I know that? Oh, the same thing happened to my family years ago, that's how.'" She muttered to herself as she turned the radio off with a slight growl, "Yeah, that'll go down so well with the Winchesters."
Miakoda couldn't help but wonder what had been going on with the brothers. She'd kept track of some weird shit going on and had noticed that there had been strange stuff happening recently in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She had thought about letting them know about said weird shit but when it had calmed down less than a week later, Miakoda had a feeling that they'd sorted it out.
Pulling the Jeep into the garage beside her bike, Miakoda put her laptop bag on the bottom of the stairs before heading into the library. With what she'd told Vincent, she remembered one of the books she'd taken out the night before. However, noticing how freaked out Evdokiya looked recently, she couldn't help but fire a text off to the woman. Remember, I'm here if you need to talk about things. I know life's been a bit weird lately. It'll be okay.
A few hours went by till her stomach prompted Miakoda to get up and actually make dinner instead of just day-dreaming about it. Absently, she put on the news as background noise for when she started to make dinner but put the knife down when the news anchor caught her attention.
"There has been an influx of cases of swine flu across America recently," they began and Miakoda frowned, "Not only that but the CDC has told us that there have also been startling cases of the bubonic plague in some states on the West Coast…"
"The hell…" she muttered before grabbing her laptop and Skypeing Elias.
The Ancient One – one of the oldest vampires in existence – popped up on her screen, dark face slightly troubled himself. "Bubonic Plague?"
"The Apocalypse, my child," he said gravely, steepling his fingers, "it has begun."
