POV: Valyria Dollen, daughter of Heath.
Date: Mörsugur 19th, 598. (Alt: 1st January, 599 AD.) Location: Götaland (Ancient Sweden.)
Papa's newer creations are out of hand again. I walked to our other family and told all about the deer. Grandpa Gorm and Uncle Leif covered their faces, while others kept quiet.
It is hard to know what to learn and what not to learn. They want me to be independent, when I already am a smart girl. I wish to make my own children, who have souls and can think like them! And hopefully a brother may come soon through the other Bus golems.
I watched many while Papa is being cleaned, they had magic, they had logic, why is there no thoughts? Why is their head empty? Too many answers, too little knowledge. "I want a brother." Valyria says while looking at a walking Bus that was patrolling the grounds. "I can tell very well you do, Valyria." Egill comments from behind her. "It will take time, you are very special, after all." As Egill barely reached up to her waist, he patted her hand instead while her arms were down. "How was your talk with Agnarr and Hervor?" He further questions.
"It was goood, though they kept on hiding." Valyria's partial understanding was met with confusion from Egill. "Hiding where?" He quizzes. "Under a blanket, I was kept out of their room after. Why were they naked?" Egill's nose razzed, a noise of mixed snorting and hissing.
"*Hggh*Know not to barge in rooms, Valyria. Knock first before entering." He catches a breath after a few Model seconds pass. "Adults show love to those not mired by blood in our culture, if they are in relationships that are beyond friends. You are too young to be told still, so wait until Heath believes you are ready." Egill sees Valyria hold her tongue. "What is wrong?" Egill frowns, hoping it is not anything serious. "I have heard from Papa, about Þórr and his 'care' for his wife and children." Valyria's tone made Egill flinch.
"Is that 'love'?" Valyria had red eyes, knowing this question was a test to others around them with her boundless curiosity. 'Heath should never have told her.' "No, his is an evil reaction that shows that even with his strength, he is a small, weak man." Egill responded.
"And his mentality will force others into great peril, he is a merciless tyrant. And nothing more." He continued, now putting a hand on his chest. "Let me tell you, Valyria." Both sat down, keeping themselves open to another story. "While many others see him as a protector of our people, he put on that title as a 'mask' for selfish reasons. He only does it when necessary to reach a goal of greater power. His massacring of the Jötunn is one such example. Or another, my cousin's demise." Egill's response was met with a questioning gaze.
"Why does he do it?" Her extropection was met with partial silence, before Egill responded. "If what Heath's understanding in faith magic is to true, his powers come from destructive outcomes of war and of the most torrential weather by belief, that alters his personality."
Egill calls a golem that is walking for a drink, which it shines its eyes green before it walks off. "One can overcome this nature through tempering and self-restraint. But, he has never had a reason, for he was raised in our warrior culture over thousands of years to dominate." He saw the Auto quickly bring over his usual, a mixed berry sparkling prosecco. "It is all he has ever known, to take what he believes is his, and not to share, while he is short-tempered, he can be cunning, and wait over entire mennskr lifetimes to covet the items he seeks." He sips.
"*Smacks lips*Tastes sweeter, should ask them to tone it down. . . Anyway, you must understand he is much like Iūpiter (Jupiter), or Ζεύς (Zeus). As Heath would put it, egotistical and self-obsessed. And we cannot control or help him, only punish him at this point."
He sipped the last bit of prosecco left. "You were not there for those lessons, right. . . Instead, think of Pushkin from The Equaliser, a war profiteer who gains greater power and influence while having everyone he rules over be governed with the fear of destruction." He passed the glass to the Auto while thanking, it flashed its eyes blue before walking off. "Do not trust such people, because they will use your emotions against you. He was one of the original threats Heath prophesied before we refocused on the Dökkálfar. *Breathes out*"
They look at each other for a moment before being grounded together. "Well, that was a serious talk. How about we play some board games, huh?" He pats Valyria's shoulder, yet she does not move. "Come on, Valyria, let us get up." He pushes himself up with his legs.
"Are there others like that here?" Valyria asks, eyes shining a dangerous red light that shows her high emotion like the previous time. "No, not that I have been looking, but if there are, Gorm or Heath are smart enough to tell, but for the common folk, it would be hard to tell, as they would learn to hide their urges to equals or those greater than themselves." He yawns and covers his mouth, showing how out of touch he was with this conversation. "Come, let us play some chess, I believe I can beat you soon enough!" He silently laughs to himself.
She gets up. "More work for Papa." She says to herself, in obvious annoyance and hesitance. "Once that sociology stinger appears, I will play it quickly." Now following him, they reach Egill's room and he takes out the chess game out of storage.
"Since you won 3 games in a row last time, I will play white this time!" Both sort their pieces to the right positions. "Ready?" Egill saw the nod, and he clicked the 20-Model-minute timer. Egill began with a strong D4, which was met with a feint of G6, he then made an E3, that was followed on by a Bg7, then an F4 to Nf6, Valyria saw what he was trying to do, a pointed stone wall manoeuvre. Egill moves to G3, she counters to D5. Egill is none the wiser, continuing with his move of C3, Valyria does a castling!
Swapping her King and Knight pieces provided her greater board coverage. I will not explain the rest of the game, but it continued for another 17 moves, which led to Valyria winning in 22. Overall, Egill has done better than before, with their previous game at 16 total moves.
Valyria raises her hand for them to shake on it. "Good game, I have gotten better." He plays a fair loser. "You have, Uncle." She smiles toothily. "Another game, or how about a different board?" Valyria tapped her chin, a smaller distinction to Heath's cupping of his bearded one.
"Snakes and ladders?" Valyria's request was met with a nod, with both of them putting away the pieces into the foldable chessboard. They continue this for a few Model hours, with a split of 70 to 30, her being the majority winner. "You are really good at planning, Valy!" Egill commends. "Valy?" Valyria asks. "A new nickname I was thinking up on." He puts away the checkerboard now. "I like it." She says to herself. "So, another game?" Egill asks while grabbing the bowl of sweet plum slices. A new product from the collected seeds.
"I want to see if Papa is alright." Valyria gets up and grabs a slice, tasting the new sweet delicacy. "Mm." Egill pulls a wide, comical mouth with squinted eyes, knowing Heath would probably still be busy with the number of deer there were.
"I have an idea." Egill walks off to the false window and turns it on. "Your father would still be busy, so I suggest we instead turn to a distraction." He switches it until there is a jungle scene, which matches a scene from Heath's memories from when he was in the central African Congo. Adaptive visual wildlife and noises are fully incoming. "Let us watch through this window and I'll tell you about the different animals from what Heath had explained." He now moves to the large false leather sofa and tries to lift up one side.
"*HUPP*Help me out here." It budges upwards, and Valyria grabs it instead from the middle and lifts it above her head. "Showoff." She sets it down gently with a small *Thud* before both of them sit down in front of it. They sit down, feeling the strong, yet comforting surface.
They wait a moment, hearing the scenery until they see a brush upon the leaves of the trees and the snapping of branches up high. There, they see the first creature around, (Nahan's) Partridge, it's brown, earthy colouration making it appear camouflaged against the shade. It stayed in the canopy, uncommon for a bird of its type to be so high, yet it was still there. It went through in a planned arc, knowing the best branches to bridge until it is fully hidden from view in another brush. Egill explained what he knew of their diets and mannerisms.
This repeated for many other species that were introduced to this small simulation of its habitat, guinea and waterfowls, allies, grebes, grouse and pheasants, there were so many types of birds shown that if one had an imperfect memory, it may be hard to count.
In the underbrush, there were also smaller creatures like lizards and snakes, common for this part of the area, Egill remembered the information from the wildlife runic injector and explained which were venomous and non-venomous, poisonous and non-poisonous in the process. They were at this for another extra Model hour before they found a larger animal that walked in a quadrupedal manner: The Duiker antelope, it's dark fur working with the light of the leaf crown cover to keep itself hidden from ambushers at equal or greater heights.
Valyria got up, wishing to study it closer, but the window reacted with having such features. Knowing they are skittish, it made it run off in this simulator. "Aw, it looked cute." She pouted. She stood there fully still as not to further startle any further creatures that may go through.
The next large creature took a while, and this time, it was the African golden cat, a small, agile little being who's spotted surface worked well to ambuscade small prey. It walked through, its eyes fully dilated to allow as much information of this location as possible before noticing Valyria standing, in a square window in the air, it stares at her before slowly moving back, knowing that such a large creature would be a threat to it. Either way, Valyria had a good look at it, and she enjoyed how large its eyes and tail were.
Another few minutes, and now it was something that surprised her, a bonobo! A female with a cub being carried along its back, crawling through the Cowpea vines and climbing over obstacles when necessary. "Who is that, Uncle?" Valyria asks, pointing.
"Do not point, Valy. They are bonobos, and they see any such gestures like that and smiling with teeth as threats. Crouch low and do not give direct eye contact." Egill says while snacking on more of the plum slices. She nods and does the same. "The baby seems hungry, I wish I could give food." As soon as that was said, a bundle of Forest bitterberry appeared in front of the window, and was tossed gently off to them. The bonobo paused, looked towards where it was thrown and saw the two beings eating their own food.
With Egill and Valyria appearing much larger than itself, it understood it would more than likely be lower in the pecking order, and with such a gift, it shows respect by lowering its head, raising it again and grabbing the bundle during the sit down.
"I see, it accepts our offering and wishes to eat with us." He did not know the window had such a feature and would remind himself for next time. He knows it is only a simulation, yet it just feels so lively. They eat together for a moment in a small harmony, until the Bonobo mother hears something that could only picked up by Valyria from their side, and they and their baby gets carried off in a hurried manner. "I heard something. What could it be?" Valyria hears it having 4 feet with the way it pats against the live podzol. Lightfooted, yet heavy.
A larger cat, the leopard, prowls. Appearing very hungry with its thinner lower abdominal ridge, it sniffs the passing grass, and follows the scent of the bonobo, ignoring the two in the window. "What was that?" Valyria asks, worried for the apes that scampered through.
"The leopard, an apex ambush predator that is capable of climbing trees. It appeared starved with how the Greater omentum was thinner by the legs." Egill appears apologetic to the bonobos, yet it knows it was simply their life cycle. "I will wish that the bonobos live to sit by us again." They understood the straits, so a bit of silence continued. They hear no fight or risk, so they assume they either moved away or they were able to escape. Either way, Egill did not wish to see a possible outcome.
"So, what should we do now?" He asks her, walking ahead to turn off the window as to move away from something possibly traumatic. "How about another scene where Papa has been?" Her resolve to see nature shone, and Egill obliged.
The next nature view was of the South African plains, a relatively flat stretch of land that had little in the way of plant life, but had great geological landforms interspersed. They repeated this process, seeing the different creatures that dotted the landscape from the top of Mafadi, the tallest point of their location. They were able to spot 12 different animal species before a knock was heard from their door. "I will go get it." Egill says, knowing she is enjoying the live animal show. It was Gorm, Leif and Sigrid, with Fróði, Tryggvi, Ragnvaldr and Loyís.
Never mind, there is also Arne, Åge, Birger, Hreinn and Kåre as the whole group. "If what you wonder is if there will be more, Jorg, Bjorn and Marja." Leif says as the front of the group. "May we come in?" He asks, in case it may be a bad time. "Of course!" Egill smiles widely.
"Oo, hello!" Valyria waves while standing, yet still in rapt focus for any other creatures seen through the screen. "She is Valyria. She is currently looking at finding different creatures through the false window." He introduces her to the 4 newly introduced people.
Fróði, the one who still has a healing tongue, rather than being able to introduce himself, walks up to Valyria with open arms, ready for a hug. But as soon as he sees how tall she was, boy was he surprised for being fully engulfed in incredibly long, yet slender arms. "Yeah, I am tall." She comments, almost reading his thoughts from his expression. The other 3 came around, only wanting a handshake. "Your father the same height as you?" Loyís wonders. "He is a size shifter, seen him get smaller, so I believe so?" Valyria tilts her head slightly.
"And all of you healed well! Nice to see a good job by Papa." She gives a smile that is getting similar by the day to Heath's characteristic one. "Yes, it was. My eye that was gouged feels tingly. They said it was regrowing and that I may get my vision back." Tryggvi mumbles.
His voice was still coming back after the trauma he had endured, while Ragnvaldr was entirely mute like Fróði, except due to an injury to his brain instead of tongue. Though, they are trying their best with how fantastical and caring the people have been and their treatments. And in only a few hours, they are entirely desensitised with the sudden influx of so much information, so they are simply following the flow currently. The others gave their sympathies from when they were first introduced as well.
Heath's voice was starting to be heard in the background, obviously irate. "-LINE, I TOLD YOU TO NOT BREAK MY TRUST AND YOU BLEW IT!*CLICK*" Heath closed the door not enough for it to be a slam, yet it was still obviously louder than normal.
Sad moaning, like those of a loss of a family member could be heard in the background by the deer people. "Over there is the newly named 'anthropomorphised' people Heath has made, you will see them if we go out together." The four new people nod, no longer viewing it as an abnormality with the continuance of life. They walk out and see a group of 127 deer congregated around his door, looking remorseful in their actions. Heads drooped low and arms crossed within themselves, as if trying to give a hug.
They all walk ahead to greet them. Seeing the mass pause to take note of them. "Agostino and Sophia?" The two's heads peek over, seeing it was Gorm who had asked, they part their group to provide a clear walkway and to communicate directly.
"So." Gorm held his hands together. "These are Fróði, Tryggvi, Ragnvaldr and Loyís. Ones who had been newly healed by Heath" He pointed to each of them, which gave their own ways of unique greeting. "And may I ask, what did you do to make him so irate?" They saw them start to shift and straighten themselves, their tails stood straight up and their eyes were forward, contrite yet unshrinking. "We did not know any way to thank Heath at the time, so we were meaning to give him a cleaning, a custom of ours to show familial love."
Agostino's sentence was met with a rotating nod, asking him to continue. "One rule he gave was that he did not want us to clean below his waistline." Agostino glared at his older cousin, Aella. "She felt the need to treat him as a foal and clean his legs as well." . . .
"Now everyone is being avoided due to her misdeeds." He closes his eyes and silently breathes in, hoping to calm himself. The mennskr look to each other in befuddled solidarity.