She laughed throatily.
"Perhaps in another life I was once Elsbeth Fontenay."
Theobald eyes narrowed.
Throughout his childhood in the iron woods pack he'd heard stories about female healers whose spirits returned after death to aid the living. He gulped and reached out his hand. He tried to touch her cloak but his hand phased through as though her entire being was made of nothing but smoke.
"You're a Volva, aren't you?"
She tilted her head backwards to let the flames illuminate her face. There was a small smile on her lips. She looked just like he remembered.
" What troubles you, Theobald?"
He shook his head.
"You're dead, how could I sense you, how do you remember me?"
Her smile broadened and her eyes twinkled with amusement.
"What troubles you, Theobald?"
He sighed deeply and switched to a more comfortable position. Scooting closer to the brilliant purple flame he narrated in explicit detail all that had happened since he and Fenrir had left the Iron woods. Elsbeth listened intently, the smile never leaving her face.
Theobald watched her as he spoke, trying to ascertain what the spirit was thinking but her face gave away nothing but her obvious interest in his narration. The Volva remained silent for a good while after he was done talking. Theobald shifted uncomfortably, he found the silence unnerving, having grown accustomed to starting and sustaining lengthy one-sided conversations with his ward.
As if sensing his unease, Elsbeth spoke. "You still haven't told me what it is that weighs strongly on your mind."
She smiled expectantly at him.
Theobald ran his fingers through his beard. "Fenrir weighs strongly on my mind, almost all of my thoughts are on him!" The exasperation in his tone was mirrored on his face. "With each passing year the lad retreats further into his own mind. He's done things that cause me nightmares. When we left the pack I was convinced that if I tried hard enough to be everything he needed me to be then he'd be alright and for a while he was, Elsbeth."
He was breathing hard. Elsbeth stared at him as though urging him to continue. He did.
"Then one night he woke up in a cold sweat and ever since he's lived like the world stole something from him. He's spent every waking moment searching, yearning, aching for something. Oh Elsbeth, the moon have mercy on me, the things he's done, the things I helped him do."
Memories danced before his eyes and he shook his head, as though doing so would keep away the images that would haunt him till the day he died.
"All for what?, he's still as lost as he was maybe even more so. Whatever it was that he's looking for still continues to elude him." Tears stung his eyes as his heart ached for his ward.
"He's losing his mind Elsbeth. And I can't do anything for him."
The look on Elsbeth's face was a mix of compassion and amusement. She leaned forward.
"What would you have me do Theobald?"
He groaned. "I'd have you give him his speech back then, or at least some semblance of happiness! It's the least you owe him after you ripped him out of his mother's corpse!!". He was breathing hard now, his exasperation having made way for an even greater anger. Elsbeth was still smiling gently at him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that." Theobald was suddenly apologetic.
Elsbeth grinned "But you did."
He sighed deeply and rose to leave, she did same.
"I wish you great happiness Theobald. Tell your ward to go to the boundary of the Iron woods on the night of the first crescent moon, there he would find what he seeks, do so and he would be given speech."
Theobald stared at the Volva in shock. Before he could reply, a familiar scent filled his nostrils. All his senses jolted to life.
The change didn't pass unnoticed. Elsbeth smiled lazily at him. "A human? You always had unusual tastes Theobald."
Suddenly she was gone, the purple flame flickered for a few moments before it disappeared as well. In the next moment, a figure draped in a cloak came into Theobald's vision. The newcomer stalked forward slowly, then stopped. Theobald walked up to the intruder until only a hair's breadth separated them.
A slender feminine arm extended from beneath the cloak and drew back the hood, revealing a face that Theobald has come to cherish.
Light brown eyes stared back at him mischievously, pale pink lips twisted slightly with a ghost of a smile. The lust speared Theobald so strongly he closed his eyes and exhaled. He ran his fingers through her long hair. Its color always fascinated him, dark red, like freshly drawn blood. The human woman stood calmly before him, she made no protest as his other arm reached around her waist and pressed her firmly against him. His fingers gently massaged her scalp and she leaned back and purred. The lust tightened further, almost choking him.
He released a breath he didn't know he had been holding back.
"Bertille, what are you doing here?"
Her brow arched. "I live here Theobald. The question is what are you doing here, it's a long way from the Skollheim."
Theobald blanked, he had only been out for a stroll, how far had he walked?
He let his hand fall from her hair and clasp her waist. Unable to resist, he leaned forward and kissed her lips. Unwilling to be distracted, she pulled back from the kiss before it could escalate into anything else.
"Be honest with me pooch, what are you doing here? This a long way from Skollheim territory and you've already paid me a visit this month. Or am I to assume you came all this way just to see me again?" She spoke in a disinterested manner but it was obvious that the woman was rather happy to see him.
Theobald thought about the message he had to relay to his ward, there will be time enough for that. He offered no resistance as Bertille silently urged him unto a pathway that led to the home he had built for her.
The sun peeked slightly over the hills in the horizon, its brilliant rays dyeing the sky in a myriad of orange, chasing away the night.