Blood and Elixir - Curse of the Old Gods

Alyssa

All her life, she always thought that the all encompassing ice would never feel foreign to her. It would always be home. It would always be her respite from the civilization. She remembered running here for different purposes. She remembered the nights where she used to just wander on the ice to escape from yet another onslaught of villagers. She remembered just roaming mindlessly, so that she could discover what creatures inhabited this ice.

But right now, right now all the familiarity of the ice was gone. She was running for her life, and she was losing the race. She never really ever was any good at running after all. The ice felt like a white labyrinth, eager to devour her into its nothingness. And that wasn't even the worse part.

She heard them closing in on her.The wolves. The sound of their paws onto the hard ice was reverberating in her ears, and she was trying her best to keep the sound from accelerating her heartbeat. Their grey hair stood ferociously on their hides, and the obsidian of their eyes glinted with bloodlust. These creatures were huge, and she cursed her dead husband just a little for coming up with this mad idea of keeping an army of wolves at bay. She always knew it would come back to bite her somehow, for the creatures of this planet never really fully accepted her.

Any creature that ever called this ice its home was wary of Alyssa. She never really understood why they behaved with her as if she was an alien, but they did. At times when her depression gnawed at her soul, she thought that the creatures of her realm mirrored the merciless people that lived here. Everyone on this realm, she felt at times, hated her existence. Everyone wanted her gone, wanted her to disappear.

The only problem was, she couldn't. She had no place else to call home. But now, it felt like the only place she had was also gone. She was homeless.

Tears threatened to fall from her eyes as she increased her speed. The cold wind harshly hit her face, prickling her emerald eyes. Her breathing was getting laboured as time passed, and she knew her legs would give way soon. The pain jolting in her abdomen wasn't helping either.

She cursed the old gods for what she was worth. She had never heard them be so cruel on anyone in her own life. None of the legends, none of the stories ever mentioned anyone bearing her curse. It seemed they had created her for their own personal amusement, showering wrath on her , every moment of her life.

What did she do wrong? Why was this curse cast on her? She had never wanted anything in her life. She never wanted to hurt a being, yet she couldn't exist without hurting others around her.

She never wanted a family. Never wanted to love a being.Never wanted a child even.

And now here she was, fighting away bloodthirsty wolves for the assassination of the love of her life, with a child in her womb.

A howl pierced the skies, and Alyssa's whole body tensed up.

It wasn't that the creatures were stronger than her. The fact was, if she wanted, and tried really really hard, she could annihilate the creatures. All she'd need to do was command her orbs to kill. And one after the other, she would watch the wolves fall. But that would defeat her purpose. She wanted to disappear. She had taken immense care in making sure she wasn't leaving traces. It still amused her how the wolves got her trail. But nevertheless, they got it.

How convenient of the gutless soldiers of her late husband's army to employ such mindless creatures to do their bidding, she thought.

This wasn't her first time running from the wolves though. They were vicious creatures, but not the smartest ones. The moment they lost your scent, they were as useful as hayheaps. But Alyssa knew if she fought off this group, many more would follow her and then there would be vast destruction. The people of this realm would in turn have more reason to brand her a murderess, passing a verdict that would warrant her death. She would never get near the real culprit then.