Chapter Two
Outcast Winters
Starla felt herself starting to follow the same path that led to the cut trap. She had been coming back to the trap again and again for the past few weeks. She didn't know why, but she wanted to see that dragon again, even for a second. She wanted to see if the youngling was okay. Starla wanted to know everything about that dragon. She wasn't like other dragons that Starla had heard about. Starla knew it wasn't a good thing but she couldn't help but feel drawn to the dragon… as if they were the same being in two bodies.
She arrived at the location where she had met the white dragon. It was called the Twin Boulders, two massive rocks that were somehow almost identical in every way from every direction. Even their shadows were the same even though they faced slightly different directions. The young Outcast looked around to see if there was even a white scale, but she couldn't find any proof that her encounter with the beautiful creature was real.
Starla left the Twin Boulders to stand as they had for centuries and hurried home as she didn't want to be late to help with getting the Great Hall ready for the first blizzard of the winter. She had been told stories of what winters were like on other islands, mainly from other members of the tribe, but also from Trader Trygve, who was from the far East. He was on the younger side when it came to Traders, but he was very funny and very kind so no one really minded.
Anyway, the winters she had heard about were much, much calmer than the ones that she had lived through. A bad snowstorm every winter or so wasn't nearly as bad as having a couple of blizzards every winter. Because of the guaranteed blizzards every year, the Great Hall was reinforced more than normal Great Halls were, mostly to ensure that the doors and the building could handle the storms that hit every year.
Starla just got to the Great Hall, when her father walked up to her and said: "Seiðmaðr believes that the first blizzard is coming early this year. I need you to go tell the Dowsings that they need to start moving into the Great Hall, I have someone else making sure all the other families get here before the storm hits."
"You got it, Da!" She rushed to the Carpenter store, which the Dowsings lived next to and worked inside of. She got there quite quickly and told Mr. Dowsing about Seiðmaðr's vision. He nodded and called for his family. Before the Dowsings left for the Great Hall, Audor whispered to Starla that Magnus wasn't with them, and Starla, as much as she disliked him, promised to find him. Starla left the Carpenter store and searched the village for the Dowsing eldest. Soon, she came across Anwir, one of the village healers and the daughter of the chief before her father. Chief Vísdómr had chosen her father as his heir because he was brave, strong, and a little crazy. But also because her father did what he thought was best for his people. While Anwir was a well known troublemaker in her youth, which would have been fine if she hadn't gotten vikings hurt in the process one too many times and if she had felt bad for getting people hurt. Starla was told that she had never forgiven her father for making Alvin his heir, and that she even refused to speak to her father, even when he was on his deathbed.
"Hello, heiress," the black hair woman said with a false happy smile.
"Hello, Anwir. Have you seen Magnus?" Starla asked, smiling, although she felt rather nervous around the woman like always.
"Magnus…mmm… I believe I saw him heading towards the Twin Boulders. I think I heard him saying something about wanting to find a dragon to slay in your honor…" the woman hissed, sounding similar to a snake. She gave Starla another one of those cheeky smiles that just creeped her out.
"Thank you, Anwir," the heiress repiled, before running to the path that led to the Twin Boulders. After she turned around however, she missed the evil smirk that flashed across Anwir's face. Starla kept running until she got to the Twin Boulders. She looked around, but didn't see the Dowsing eldest.
"Magnus! Magnus!" Starla called out his name a couple times, before catching her breath and guessing that either he had already returned to the village or that Anwir didn't tell her the truth. She groaned, but turned around, heading back for the village while a pair of bright, moon-blue eyes watched her leave.
Starla was about half-way home when she tripped over a tree root and went rolling down a hill. She landed at the bottom of the hill with a thud and in a little bit of pain. She looked up at the hill she had just fallen down, it was steep and tall. It would take her about half an hour to climb back up it, she had to hurry! When she went to stand up, she fell back to the ground in pain. She looked at her right foot and saw that it was twisted in an unnatural way. She pushed herself up, trying to keep her weight off her injured foot. She sat down and looked back up at the hill, and started screaming for help. She did until her voice was raw and that was when she noticed the grey clouds forming overhead. Then, it started to snow.
Trygve means "trustworthy". I wanted him to be different from Johann and actually be an ally.
Seiðmaðr roughly means "a man who sees".
Anwir means "liar". I think you know why I chose this name for her.
Vísdómr means "wisdom".
