Hello everyone!
I am glad to see that the prologue got a good amount of readers! So here I present to you Chapter One!
A few side notes on this matter however. Neliel'd surname of Odelschwanck in my research is most easy to be split up into Odel and Schwanck. The name Odel comes from the Anglo-Saxon which translates to Wealthy, while Schwanck comes from German, and is in the modern spelling translated to a merry of comical tale. So a Wealthy Merry Tale one could translate this too.
However her surname will have little to do with the plot of the story, but it does narrow down where she might have lived as a human. For those who could gather it from the prologue I set her tale in sorta Medieval time period with raiders invading her hometown. So her roots may lie in old Germanic tribes of that era. (Somewhere between 500-1000 A.D). However I am sure we are all well aware of the many plotholes this would leave us with. Yet I am going to borrow things from the culture and her way in the coming chapters. Perhaps even use it for a better Ressurection, even if the Anglo-Saxon themselves used Javelins like Nel does vs Noitrra.
Well then enough with the small language and history lesson! Enjoy Chapter One!
A few days before the raid:
The soft melody of bone-flute, drum and lyre filling the candle lit hall created a soft and merry atmosphere. Conversation, laughter and the sounds of food and drinks being consumed mixed well with the ballad being played. A tune telling of heroes and monster, facing the odds and winning the day in they end. The hearth burning brightly with flames seemingly also dancing to this added even more so to the whole scene. The rhythmic pounding on the animal skin laid the base of the tune, while the bone-flute softly went for uplifting bird like tones and the lyre's string were softly pecked to move the consumers their hearts. A warm smirk and wavy long brown hair popped up here and there between the tables to take orders, chat with costumers and avoid some groping hands with a playful shake of the head.
It was just after the Harvest Feast and everyone was enjoying more free time now that the harvest was done, the goods either sold or stored for the colder season which would soon decent. The whole town was in an uplifted mood and seemed content to spend more coin in the local tavern of the town, The Green Horn, to prolong the afterfeelings of the festive mindset. Yet also to have an excuse to enjoy the crackling flames the fireplace provided, so they had not to use firewood at home, the company of friends and workers, but also mostly to goggle at the taverngirls at work.
Neliel, or Nel to most townsfolk, was one of those girls who worked hard in the Green Horn. She was known as the local beauty for her bright smile and bright and wide hazel eyes that melted the cold frost of the winter season right out of ones bones. Long strokes of dark brown hair that engulfed her friendly and open face, an almost childlike wonder on her at times. But what most stood at for the male tavern visitors was her well endowed and tall figured, a large rounded bosom most noblewoman would even be jealous off, a tale figure between lean and curvaceous propositions that drew in many eyes to gawk with desire, but what drew the attention the most was her behavior. Her chuckles were soft as the rain on a spring day, and her voice sweet feminine of tone, always smiling and willing to help everyone in the town. She was known for her kindness in the area, and the old man who owned and ran the Green Horn called her the Town's Treasure.
Those days were simple and peaceful, yet all good things did not last to long. As winter crept ever closer and the first expected snow did not came, dire news reached the small town. Invaders from the south planned to use this chance of no snowfall to advance further north before the cold would settle in. Hungry demons they were called, known for the brute way of just leaving scorched earth in their wake behind. The men of the town had to prepare for war, or rather defend their livelihood with the little weapons and armor they had. The only slitter of hope with in the ever darker growing days was that the king would surely send armies to the area to aid in the defense and repel the southern barbarians till spring.
The town went silent the following days after as most young and adult males had left south to create a small reinforced settlement to await both King's men and the invaders. Nel missed the nights with music and the pack-full tavernhall, but she did her utmost best to keep the moral high of those who stayed behind. Checking in daily with the farmer families living around the woods her house was located in. A small meadow near the edge of the wood she shared with her parents and siblings.
And then one day she came home from her shift at the Green Horn hell arrived in her town...
Present:
A loud tortured scream awoke Nel from her slumber, the pain of the burning in her chest still lingering, it made her blood curdle. With loud winch pushing herself up out of the snow, and dusting it off her frame, she got up and peered around the wooded area she had fallen. This time she heard the loud pained scream again, but as she listened closely it was not just one voice. It sounded as if the townsfolk were still there!
Hope swelling within her chest. Could her death be just a dream? Was it still possible to safe her family and the town? Asking these questions to herself she rushed to opening at the edge of the woods that was her home,. but the screams did not emit from the ruined wooden house. What did struck her as odd was the thicker layer of snow laying on the house, as if it had snowed for a week or more. Ignoring this by telling herself that the gods must have compensated by sending more to make up for lost time. Rushing like the northern wind down the path leading to town the hope in slowly began to dim. The invaders had come! But perhaps she still could save those who were tortured by those pigs!
The sight that greeted her was much the same as she remembered it from the time before, yet no more cinders or small flames lingered as the ruined and raided town was just a pile of snow covered ashes, and... frozen corpses pecked clean by scavenger beasts. The odd feeling of her losing the passage of time now really stuck out. It looked as if the fires and raid had occurred weeks or longer ago! How long had she been out?! A loud howling pained screamed ripped her from those thoughts.
She saw chained up like a net to a few lasting wooden support-beams around the ruined location of the inn the old man of the Green Horn. His expression was one of pure rage, spouting curses at nobody around and pulling his bounds. Peering around she saw more townsfolk she knew in the white-covered ruins of her town, chained in the same manner to objects or even their own corpses. Screaming in pain, agony or rage. Men, woman and children unable to let go, and stuck in the sudden moment of pure panic and shock by the ruin left by the invaders from the south. Tears streamed down Nel's face and fell to the frozen ground mixing with the snow.
This is hell. Why did this happen? In her own panic she rushed to the old man, pulling on the chains that kept in ironclad bound to his spot. "I will help you! Calm down!" she shouted while trying desperately to yank the tavernkeeper free! The chains did not budge an inch, and the old man suddenly had eyes for Nel. Flaming embers of rage were his eyes locking into her soft hazel ones.
"YOU!" he sputtered out with spit flying all over the place. "YOU MONSTERS! YOU KILLED US ALL! KILLED THIS PLACE I SPENT MY LIFE BUILDING UP!" he ranted with pure anger zeal at Nel. She tried to explain to the old man.
"Its me! Nel! Calm down! I am trying to safe you!" she cried as more tears fell down her cheeks trying to pull the old man free!
"YOU WILL NOT HAVE THIS PLACE, YOU HEAR ME! OVER MY DEAD BODY YOU BLASTED SOUTHERN DOGFUCKERS! YOU WILL NOT HAVE IT!" the old man rambled on in his blind rage. Slowly it dawned on Nel he did not truly see her for what she was. He was always kind to her and never had shouted at her before. Only a stern glance or to if she did not work hard enough. But why?
Another familiar voice rang loudly in her ears now. Female this time, her chain bound around her mutilated and half-devoured corpse. It was one of the girls she worked with in with the Green Horn, yet it seemed she had the late shift and tried to flee the scene to no avail. Nel rushed over to break the chains with a nearby stone half sticking out of the snow. Slamming it down with loud clanking noises, yet the chain did not burst. She grew more distressed and kept going with no sign of them break or even a small crack.
"Gods! Why?! Why have thee forsaken us in this dark hour!" the brown haired woman pleaded again to the dark grey clouded skies, which promised more snow to come soon.
Going around the town she counted at the very least three dozen souls bound in that net-like chains to the spot they died in. With each and everyone she tried to reason, talk to them to soothe them, help them with there burden. But all she got was rage, grief, despair and sadness aimed at her, but at the same time in general.
Cold and pained she touched the location her heart would be, but protruding from it was that same chain. Yet why was she now bound? Why was she able to walk around freely? Were the gods punishing her for her carefree ways? Torment her with the hellish scenes of endless agony? She had not answers to these questions, and wondered if she ever would.
The passage of time for Nel was becoming even more strange, her feeling for night or day, week or fortnight, it did not matter. She did not feel the cold or anything else. And even if she was able to sleep, the endless screams rising up from the town would have kept her up. She tried endless to break the chains holding her fellow kin, but after just as many attempts gave up. She felt numb, her feelings frozen over just as much as the weather.
Nobody seemed to have come to see if there was anybody alive left back in the town. Meaning that the men that went out with the soldiers of the king perished long before the invaders reached her home. But with this cold season not even merchants would make there way so deep into these lands where the wolfs prowled for food. Now that no human claimed the territory the came to feed on the corpses. A true feast for the beasts of the forest who did not have to hunt and waste energy. At first Nel had tried to scare them away by loudly shouting, but they seemed to ignore her presence at full. Oddly they did seem to take note of however, but did not deem her any threat or be of any interest to them. Then by throwing rocks at them, which did them. However they just ignored her as some pup not knowing her place, just giving her a slightly annoyed growl as they then attended to their free meal again. Nel kept doing this for a while before also giving up on this. The ground was to frozen, so she could not bury her kin or family. Even wondering if she could with their souls rattling on in tortured madness.
However something did change during the blur of moments and passing. The broken chain that had stuck out from her chest caused her increased pain the further and longer she wandered around the lands of the ruins. Small tiny mouth has began to devour a small link of the chain, which had caused her to flinch in torment and pass out again. How long she was out she did not know, but it was long like the first time. The feeling that had stirred within in also began to grow. At the start just an annoying feeling in her gut had grown to what felt like hunger. Or what came close to it. Best put she began to feel more and more empty, and a desire to fill that emptiness. The ache from the shorter growing chain concerned her. What was going to happen to her?
The only way Nel noticed time was passing was by the slowly longer growing days. Meaning that months had gone by since the start of winter, and soon spring would make its entry again. Yet the thought of a warm sun and blossoming new life did not give her any grain of excitement. In those many months nobody had come to safe them. No god nor mortal. No hero from the songs she remembered hearing in the tavern came for there rescue. Not that she believed in those tales anymore after the endless agony of screams. Yet they had died down a bit, going a bit more dormant, as the energy they were able to spend from their souls waned a bit, and needed time to recover. Or perhaps that there was nobody to trigger their violent outbursts.
She had enough, and even with the pain within her chest growing, decided to go out and head south. She wanted answers after waiting for no relief. She decided she needed to something, anything really, before she would go mad like the other tormented townspeople. So somewhere on a cloudy winters morning she set out.
After a days travel or so she came to the bordering river that marked the edge of the forests and went over into small hills with just small thickets here and there. No signs of life, but the scarce wildlife, were noticeable. Despite the area covered in the white blanket she knew the area the men and soldiers might have settled to hold the line from the invaders. And following the river upstream her guess was correct. A large part of the wood area had been cut out and used for fortifications and walls around a ruined camp lain abandoned for a long time. Most of it was covered, but the clear signs of a battle were still sticking out like sore thumbs. Rusted blades, broken and sticking out of all manner of locations, same for arrowheads and other military gear and goods. Yet one thing here was off to her... the hairs on her neck standing up. It was to silent. As if death's grip just recently had passed through here.
The air felt heavier swiftly as if she was in water. In panic she looked around for clues of what would be happening. Was it the gods that finally showed their power? Or perhaps the spirits of slain raiders coming to take her soul to the underworld? She looked down and noticed something odd. A footprint, but not any beast she knew. For starters it was to large to be of any predator that roamed the area. The print in the snow also looked fresh and recent, she knew because in her childhood she spend many days out in the woods with friends. The shape was closed to that of a small salamander she knew, but was what off most of all was the size and it left small lines that had dragged some white powder back as it was heavy and had sharp talons like an avian would. It had to be bigger than any bear she had seen, no twice its size at the least, seemingly as it walked on all fours. The way it had walked, and had pushed snow away to reach the bodies made it look like a scavenger type beast of sorts.
The pressure increased suddenly rapidly as an echoing howl filled the abandoned campsite. The beast was here. Nel tried to hide herself in the remainders of a ripped and burned tent behind some crates within. As she was just about to duke down the monstrous sized scavenger entered. Peeking over from behind the edge of the crate she was greeted by a sight even worse then the demons and dragons of song, a sight not even the most twisted of nightmares could bring forth for the young woman.
A lumbering beast was all it could be called, it features dark and grotesque of skin with no fur. A dark brownish-red for skin, four lizard like paws crouching with its talons scrapping the soil and snow, a long hook-like tail about the length of adult male, and the most pronoun features were a large hole like an empty black void where its heart should have been and where his face should be was just a massive demonic skull covering it. A vision of spiked teeth long then her legs, two sharply shaped holes where red dark embers for eyes glowed with dark intents, shaped in such a way it looked like a missformed toad.
"I ssssmell sssssomething niccce." A voice that sounded like scrapping rocks uttered with an undertone which boded not well for anyone nearby. His red amber socket turning to look around, and from two small holes above its fanged mouth a sniffing sound emitted. Nel was frozen in fear. She could not move from the disbelief and disgust of what the gods had sent to punish her people more.
The red round shapes glowed a tat more brighter as it locked its gaze upon the crates where the brown-haired woman was hiding.
"Ssssmellsss good"