There were a few things that came up, so I had to deal with those. Hope you enjoy :)

Haakon

Early Dark Age - Rogaland County, Old Norway

"Kraw!"

Haakon's eyes shot open, darting around for the source of the sudden disturbance in his sleep.

Through the blurry haze that was his eyesight, he picked out a small thin black shape perched perhaps ten feet above him, sitting neatly on a snow covered branch.

"Kraw! Kraw!" It spoke to him again. Haakon rubbed his eyes clear of the blur and looked back up at the raven staring down at him. It's head was tilted at an angle, as if it had been curious about him.

"'Morning." Haakon greeted the bird with a smile. Oddly enough, he felt quite comfortable talking to it. It gave him a strange sense of familiarity that he couldn't quite place. "How are you?"

The raven straightened itself, as if it was thinking of an answer to the question. "Kraw!" It said, now looking back at him. I'm doing well. You?

Or so Haakon had guessed it would say. He had no illusions that ravens could speak the English language. Still, he was in a good mood to entertain a conversation with this bird.

"Oh, you know… Just living the dream." Haakon swung his legs out from underneath his covers and looked around their camp.

Elenya was nowhere to be seen. Her small pile of blankets had been ruffled and turned over. Must've gone to grab a bite to eat…

Haakon glanced back up at the stark black raven, its beady purple eyes stared into his soul. "You wouldn't happen to know where I can find a boat?" He asked with an amused smile.

The raven immediately darted its head towards the trees, and quickly lifted itself off the branch and flapped its wings. It skillfully maneuvered the sea of branches up above as it left Haakon's line of sight.

Almost immediately as the bird left, Elenya had re-entered the small grove, holding two white rabbits in one hand, and holding her mask in the other. "Were you talking to that raven?"

Haakon didn't even bother asking her how she knew. The forest was her playground, there wasn't much that happened without her knowledge.

He saw that playful grin on her face that told him everything. Not today, he thought to himself.

Standing up, Haakon shook his head. "He was about to give me directions to a boat. But you scared him off."

"Me? Why me?" Elenya seemed almost startled. "I'm not the one who's built like… erm… Hercules! You're the scary looking one!"

He ignored her half compliment-half insult and continued on. "Look at you, strutting around these woods, holding dead animals in your hand, slinging that shiny pistol…" He stood with his arms folded, like a disappointed parent would. "What's a nice bird like that supposed to think?

Elenya was at a complete loss for words, and after a few moments, she opted to simply march over to the fire pit.

Haakon savored the sweet taste of victory, and decided to sit back down on his makeshift bedding. He basked in the comfortable silence that soon set in.

"That's a bit mean, no?" Lyarra asked him.

She'll be fine.

"Thank you, by the way." He added, watching her carefully.

She directed her mildly frustrated gaze to him. "For what?"

He grinned, pulling back his sleeve and flexing his toned arm, slapping the densely muscled bicep. "You noticed."

Elenya's cheeks suddenly turned a particular shade of pink, she immediately glanced back down at the smoldering fire pit that she had been working on. "You're welcome…" she muttered.

Haakon watched the pale woman as she busied herself with lighting the fire. He still hadn't gotten over how she could do it with a literal snap of her fingers.

It had been three days since they left the cave behind. The weather had cleared up nicely.

Though Haakon wasn't expecting it to get better any time soon, he was glad to finally have some calm to himself.

His companion had grown more comfortable with him in the short time they'd been traveling together, which certainly helped alleviate the boredom they'd mutually feel at times.

Even so, Elenya was still reluctant to do most of the talking between the two of them. Haakon had realized that she was far more of an introverted personality.

But when she did open up to him, in occasionally small moments, she was an unexpected delight, and she had the most terrifyingly sweet laugh. Haakon supposed if he were a more emotional man, that she'd make him weak in the knees.

There was something she was holding back from him though, like she was acting the prudent housewife over a slice of cake… He could tell though that she hid a wild streak about her, even if she seemed to be the overly 'girly' type of person. There was another layer that she hid from him.

Typical of women to avoid confrontation. He figured.

That all said, he knew she was warming to him. Much more than he had expected initially, but she was easy enough to get along with…

Not to mention Elenya was quite pleasant to look at.

They'd come across the occasional hot spring in the past few weeks. Haakon was more than thrilled at the chance to bathe himself, though Elenya was far more shy around him when it came to jumping naked into a steaming hot pool.

He never cared and soon after he'd taken off his rags and cloak and waded in, she'd jump in after him. Though he had his manners, he caught glimpses of her pale, shapely backside. There were moments when Haakon simply wanted to reach a hand over and squeeze the curvy rear.

Her legs were well toned, likely from all the walking and acrobatics she'd done. Her hair would fall into a black curtain of wild ringlets that reached down just below her shoulders, and her neck was tantalizingly soft and supple. It was perfect for kissing and biting.

Haakon would then remind himself that he was already fooling this woman. It wouldn't do to fuck her and then break her heart when that inevitable moment would come. Despite his apparent amorality when it came to how he treated others, he knew he couldn't stand the thought of seeing this kind, beautiful girl crying ugly tears because of him.

By now, she had finished lighting the fire, and now she was getting to work on skinning the rabbits underneath her naked palm. He made his thanks known by tending to the fire, tossing in twigs and making sure it kept going.

Despite her being older than him-at least going by how long they'd both been alive since resurrection- she was distinctly naive, almost charmingly so.

She certainly knew how to sling that pistol of hers out of her holster, twirl it in her finger again and again. She knew how to shoot as well, judging by the blown open heads of the rabbits lying beneath her.

But she didn't know how to spar with him verbally. When it came to the human tongue, Elenya was definitely not quick on the draw. Something which she seemed to hold in high regard.

Funny how much one notices after spending a few weeks' time with another… He smiled to himself. He wondered how often he'd used his powers of observation in his past life, and how he might've developed them…

He even knew that she had erroneously believed his story. She felt far safer in his presence now than she had a week ago.

Despite that, she clearly didn't think that he was harmless, which he figured was the root of her comment about his body just earlier.

She also deeply cared for how he thought of her, something which Haakon didn't reciprocate in the slightest. She wouldn't really fight him on anything if it meant the potential for him thinking less of her.

Haakon was more or less glad of that trait about her. He wasn't in the business of needless drama.

Not unless it served his purposes.

They had begun walking up the creek near their former campsite just after breakfast, towards the late morning.

Haakon kept his eyes on the trees, looking, scanning for something, anything that might be off. Though occasionally he found his gaze drifting now and again back to the flowing water at his feet.

Elenya walked just a few feet in front of him. She doubtless knew the land far better than he did, and Haakon wasn't about to stumble off in any random direction.

The patchy snow pathway and stream led upwards into the township of Hjemelandsvagen.

The highway wasn't an option since the entire road had literally been blown to bits… somehow. The shores nearby were littered with tiny stones the size of berries.

Which meant he and Elenya had to go around it.

Up ahead, there was a catwalk bridge, luckily still in one piece after all this time. Haakon saw the gaping opening in the rusted metal hand railing. Large enough for them to slip through.

Elenya easily climbed the steep hill one nimble step at a time. She was like a cat, with her padded footsteps only sinking lightly into the fresh morning snow. She quickly reached the top of the small incline, ducking underneath the railing with ease.

Haakon followed behind her, though he was slightly frustrated as he nearly fell over more than once. He ignored Elenya's giggling and continued stepping through the snow, feeling his heavy foot sink far to the bottom, and the snow that clung to his boots and trousers.

Finally, he reached the top of the incline, though he realized that he would have to pull himself up instead.

"I can pull you up." Elenya offered a hand.

Haakon shook his head. "I'll be fine."

He gripped the lower bars of the railing. It was scorching cold to the touch, but Haakon gritted his teeth through it all, now wishing he'd taken up Elenya on her offer.

With one jump, Haakon heaved himself up onto the catwalk, feeling his muscles clench and contort as they fought off both gravity and his own weight.

He narrowly slipped through the opening, then standing up and dusting himself off on the metal bridge.

Elenya took that as her queue to continue on, and they began making their way to the edge of the town. Haakon was just about to step within the town limits when he felt her hand lightly touch his arm.

"Wait." the Huntress said stiffly.

Haakon glanced back at her questioningly, but then followed her gaze all the way into Hjemelandsvagen. He heard it.

The town was nothing to write home about, only just a large collection of rundown buildings, most of them looking more or less like cabins or lodges with the exception of a few townhouses and shops. Everything was covered in snow.

However, just hovering where the docks would've been had they not collapsed, was a massive, bulbous looking piece of machinery. It was almost a dull bronze color, with jagged white markings on the sides displaying symbols that Haakon couldn't decipher.

"What is that?" He asked the woman standing next to him.

She shrugged her shoulders. "No clue." Elenya's hands dove into her satchel, quickly withdrawing a spyglass bound in leather. She pulled it back and looked through the small glass tube.

A few moments later she lowered it from her eye. "You've got to be kidding me…"

He held out his hand for the spyglass. Wordlessly, Elenya handed it over to him and shook her head.

Haakon pulled up the spyglass to his right eye, looking through and setting his eyes on the floating machine.

He figured the machine was some sort of vessel or ship, and when he saw its owners, he lowered the glass in his hands. Wait a minute… He raised it again and saw the lanky, gray skinned creatures roaming around beneath the ship.

"What the fuck…" Haakon lowered the spyglass for the last time, handing it back to Elenya. "Have you seen these things before?"

Much to his disbelief, Elenya shook her head. "Not once." She folded the spyglass and shoved it back into her leather brown satchel. "Of course aliens have to show up! Of course!"

Haakon looked back to the town. The ship was still there, hovering above the docks, and piled underneath it was a large teepee of wood set on fire.

"We'll have to go around them." He said. Elenya nodded in agreement, and pointed up to the treeline on top of the hill to their right.

As they made their way up the hill, Haakon occasionally would look back at Hjemelandsvagen. The ship was still there.

Have you ever seen these things before? He had asked Lyarra, hoping she'd come through this once with answers.

"Would you get angry if I said 'No'?" she half giggled in his head. Haakon only squeezed his fist in frustration, though not at Lyarra. He absolutely hated not knowing a single thing about what was going on.

No. He answered. Then another thought entered his mind, How close can you get to them without being discovered?

"Uh, what? Did I just hear you correctly?" Lyarra scoffed. "Did you just ask how close I could get to a group of mean looking aliens without being discovered?"

Haakon sighed. The question was simple enough to understand, wasn't it?

Yes, I did. Want me to ask again?

"But- Do you want me to get killed? Are you serious?"

You won't die if you don't get caught. Haakon shook his head. Have a little faith in yourself.

Lyarra spoke in a hushed, angered tone. "They're aliens that we barely know anything about…"

Which is why I'm kindly asking you to go and gather information on them. Do you think you can do that?

For a moment, he heard nothing from the tiny bauble. Suddenly, it was as if she never existed at all.

"Okay. I'll try." she broke the silence with a defeated tone. "Anything else?"

Haakon smiled. Yes. I want to know what those white markings mean, and if you could get some audio files of them speaking their language, if possible. Good luck.

"Aye, aye Captain." With that, she was gone from his head. He felt her presence begin to get further and further away until it was just him and Elenya.

He took one more glance back at the desolate township of Hjemelandsvagen.

The ugly metallic bronze ship was still there.

It wasn't long after that they'd climbed the hill and went into the forest. Though calling it a jungle would've been more appropriate.

While there weren't thick vines and foliage to tirelessly chop at, the snow had risen significantly, almost up to his thighs, and he was quite tall himself.

Elenya, while much shorter than him, faired far better. Her feet had barely sunk into the snow. Right now, she towered above him as he waded, feeling the cold wetness seep into his breeches.

There were also of course several collapsed trees lying about. Probably due to the storms in the last few weeks, or so Haakon surmised.

Why Norway? He wondered why he'd been in this desolate, cold country to begin with. Why had he decided to live here in his past life? Work? Family? It certainly didn't appeal to him now.

"So…" Elenya suddenly started, the tone of her voice implied she was bored. Haakon glanced up at her with an eyebrow raised. "What are you thinking about?"

Haakon fought the intense urge to shake his head at the useless question. His eyes had briefly flickered up to the sight of Elenya's firm buttocks that were bouncing just a few feet in front of him.

"Just wondering why my life is a series of unfortunate events." The Risen answered with a straight face, refocusing his gaze back on the empty forest in front of him.

Elenya had glimpsed down at him to see his expression, though Haakon didn't glance back up at her. After a few moments, he heard her let out a soft giggle.

"Why?" Was all she asked, her tone significantly lighter than it was before. Now she walked beside him, hands folded behind her back, her feet playfully stepping one foot directly in front of the other. "It can't be all that bad, right?"

He smirked. "Says you. I'm the one wading through the snow."

"Oh come on!" she said indignantly, though her beaming smile told a different story. "That's not what I meant."

Haakon glanced up at the beautiful pale face and locked with the two hazel eyes that gazed back at him, waiting for him to reply. "And what did you mean?"

"Well…" she trailed off, averting her eyes away from his gaze. "You know who you are, you've been alive all this time. I just woke up a few years ago…" she paused, though she didn't notice Haakon turning his head away. "I don't even know who I was…"

Haakon could sympathize. While he might've known more, he only knew surface details about who he'd been. That was far more than Elenya had been given.

He saw her downtrodden expression, then looked at the snow. Another thought entered his mind. He decided to put his plan into action.

"What's that?" he asked, looking off into the distance to their right at nothing in particular. Elenya glanced at him, then the direction he was staring.

She tried to find what he was looking at. "What is it?"

Haakon surged forward, grabbing her legs and sweeping her off her feet with all the strength in his arms. Elenya's eyes had widened as she flailed wildly in the air, letting out a brief cry as she fell back first into the snow. "Agh!"

There was a clean imprint in the thick sleet, an outline of her whole body.

Haakon stood proud, grinning over his handiwork. Though after a few moments, she hadn't come out of the hole. "Elen-"

He felt something hard kick out below at his legs, so strong that it knocked him clean off his feet. He fell back into the snow, sinking down to the forest floor.

The Risen grunted as he slowly sat up in the snowmound. Soon enough, the Huntress stood towering over him. There was a nasty frown written on her face. Not to mention there were flakes of snow peppered in her ruffled black hair.

"Not funny." She crossed her arms and glared daggers at him.

To Haakon, she just looked like a pouting child who hadn't gotten her way. "Looks like the fun police have arrived." he shook his head. "Oh well…"

Elenya flustered, though she didn't say anything. She only offered a hand to help him up.

Another idea entered his mind. He smiled.

Haakon reached up to take her hand. Making sure the grip was solid, he made a show of getting back up, then swiftly jolted backwards, pulling Elenya with him.

"Ah!" she cried again as she soared through the air, landing directly on top of him as they tumbled around in the snowfall.

They quickly stopped rolling. Haakon soon found himself straddled by Elenya's toned thighs on either side of his waist, looking up to see the Huntress holding an incredibly sharp-looking hunting knife above his throat.

They both stared at one another for what felt like hours, neither of them looking away. All the sound in the forest seemed to just blink out of existence.

Through her tousled black ringlets, Haakon could begin to see the faintest traces of a childish grin slowly spread. There you are…

Suddenly, her head jolted upwards, her eyes locking onto something.

"Move!" she shouted, diving away through the snow. Haakon looked up and felt his heart pounding deep in his chest.

Climbing down the tree with a fierce looking spear in all four hands, was one of the gray skinned aliens, glaring down with four hate-filled blue pearly blue eyes.

Haakon quickly got to his feet, his hands shooting down and fumbling with his axe. He managed to draw it before the creature descended from the tree.

Here he was, wading through thigh-high snow and armed only with an axe while the creature that stood across from him wielded a large spear, which he realized had sparks dancing along the wicked sharp edge.

He didn't know where Elenya had gone, but he didn't think that mattered right now. Haakon's main focus was on how best to get that spear away from him.

Haakon figured that moving backwards would only encourage it, so he started moving to the side. Soon enough, the creature began circling too, matching his pace easily.

Its limbs were likely far more fluid and mobile, and it must've been strong if it could effortlessly climb a tree despite gravity pulling it down towards the Earth.

If it's both faster and stronger… His eyes briefly flickered to the forest floor.

The snow! If only he could surprise the foreign beast with a face full of fresh snow… Of course, it might just work!

Underneath his wet cloak, Haakon scooped up as much fresh snow as he could, trying desperately not to give away what he was doing.

The creature broke the silence between them. It lunged forward, its spear arcing towards his chest.

Haakon had to drop the snow and jump backwards. While he managed to dodge the tip of the spear aimed for where his heart was, he couldn't stop the blade from badly slicing his upper left arm.

"Gah!" The sharp blade was a blessing compared to the jolting that he felt violently shake his entire body. It was as if a thousand tiny knives all pierced his flesh consecutively. Rich red blood now trailed in the snow, dripping off the alien's spear.

When the shock subsided, Haakon realized he'd backed away much further than he intended. He was almost a few meters away from the creature. As he suspected, the gray skinned alien was emboldened, its steps quickening slightly.

Haakon could barely feel his left arm, but realized that he could still use it as he felt the cold snow lightly sprinkle against his blood covered fingers.

While the deadly four armed fiend approached, Haakon continued collecting snow. Once he was satisfied with what he had, he brought it close to his chest underneath his now torn cloak.

He slowed his retreat, only just enough to keep the beast on course. He prayed to whatever power that was, that his plan would work.

The alien inched closer now, the tip of its spear just a few feet away. Just a little bit closer and…

It lunged at him again, but miraculously Haakon was much faster. He drew back his cloak and threw the flurry of blood red snow into the creature's face.

The four-eyed brute recoiled instantly, two of its arms clawing at the air around it, as if trying to fight off the snow. "Grrragh!" It shrieked. Haakon took his chance, rushing forward with his axe raised.

He closed the distance, moving past the spear and grappled one of it's flailing arms. Haakon brought his axe down on the creature's chest again and again, hearing the its deafening cries as the blade sunk into its flesh. Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk!

A clawed, three fingered hand had raked down his face but he ignored it, clenching his teeth through the pain. He just kept hacking away until he felt the arm slacken underneath his grip.

Unceremoniously, he shoved the alien away from him, letting it sink back into the snow and down to the forest floor. There was a messily chopped hole in the center of it's thin chest, flaps of gray flesh were seeping with bluish-purple blood.

There was no light behind the creature's eyes. It's insectoid-like mandibled jaws held no life. For all intents and purposes, it was dead.

Haakon stood there, panting. He quickly glanced around to see if there were any more. Much to his surprise, there weren't any others to be seen.

He got to work covering the fiend's corpse with the snow. After all, it may have been by itself, or with a much smaller group than the one he'd seen in Hjemelandsvagen. Scouting party perhaps. He'd rather not have a war band of insect-looking aliens tracking him down.

Lyarra! Did they discover her? Or-

"I'm fine, Haakon." his Ghost answered hastily, likely having returned just a few moments prior. "You were right. They didn't suspect a thing. I think this bunch was just a patrol."

Bunch? Then that would mean…

He quickly snatched up the spear and turned around, scanning the trees for any sign of Elenya. Where is she?

Haakon crossed the thick snow as fast as he could. Right as he turned around a particularly thick tree, he stopped as he felt something cold and sharp touch his neck.

He recognized it as the same knife that had been held above him earlier. Along with the familiar pale hand, Haakon felt the adrenaline begin to die away. "Elenya, it's me."

The black haired girl came out from behind the tree in a hurry, eyes widened in surprise. "Haakon!" she cried, sheathing her knife and throwing her arms around his neck. The impact of her body slamming into his had almost sent him off his feet. "I thought you'd been killed!"

Haakon wrapped an arm around her lithe waist, squeezing her tighter towards him. After a few moments though, he reluctantly separated from her. "There were others?"

She nodded. "Yeah." Pointing to a small ledge that led somewhere out of Haakon's sight. "There's a stream down there. Both are food for the fish now."

He sighed, looking back at Elenya. He decided to change the subject. "You look like shit." he grinned.

Sure enough, Elenya was covered in the same blue-purple blood that he was. Her hair was slick and wet, and there was a long cut running down her right cheek. She smiled indignantly at him "You're the worst!" and slapped his arm.

"Hmph!" Haakon grunted abruptly, clutching his left arm to his chest. He could feel his blood trickling down his skin.

"Sorry!" Elenya drew back his cloak and saw what had caused the pain. "Oh my… Haakon we need to get this bandaged up quickly!"

He only nodded with his teeth clenched. He wasn't in the mood to talk after his companion had slapped him right where he'd been badly cut on the arm.

As Elenya had carefully looped her arm around his waist and helped him through the snow, there was only one thought on Haakon's mind.

If only I had a good drink.