Fantasy Project (Unknown Chapter)

Good almost afternoon all!  I wanted to share with you something I worked on this morning.  A phenomenal idea (in my opinion) for an encounter with Gryr popped into my head.  I still have to finish this chapter, but here are the first thousand words of the chapter.  Normally this would be reserved for patreon, but I have to build a following somewhere!  ENJOY!

He was lost.  Luckily, if he was lost, chances are, he lost the Runewalker that was chasing him.  Gryr pressed on though, he couldn’t be certain he got rid of the monstrosity yet.  Pressing on, Gryr forced himself to continue through the dense trees.  Master Taybus had told him to never rest until he was surrounded by four walls.  There were no walls in the woods and Gryr had to rest.  Finding a spot along the river bank, he sat, allowing himself to relax.  The flowing water coursing with life soothed him; slowly it began to ease the tension out of his body.  Gryr took notice how sore he was as his body slowly relaxed.  Simply breathing caused muscles to hurt that he didn’t know existed.  Peacefulness surrounded him, the dense trees of the Norvik Woods had begun to change colors.  The beauty washed over Gryr as his eyes swelled with tears.  He didn’t fight it, Gryr wept, finally able to digest everything that occurred in a mere week.

A crunch of dried fallen leaves snapped Gryr out of his vulnerability.  Scanning the trees, preparing for the worst, he sighed in relief as he watched an elk lazily slink out from behind one of the towering trees to graze.

“Just an elk.”  Gryr laughed at himself.  He forced himself to relax once more, this time Gryr lost himself in the environment.  The trees surrounding him loomed high into the sky.  The red and orange leaves bristled on the branches as the crisp wind flowed through the air.  A few leaves failed to keep hold of their branch and twirled lightly to the floor.  During any other time, the forest floor would be near dark from the monstrous trees blotting out the sun.  Fortunately for Gryr, the crisp air of Autumn had arrived in time to clear the thick leaves from high above.  Gryr closed his eyes, another thing Master Taybus would never allow.  He gave in to the sounds that lived in the woods.

Fallen leaves crunched beneath the weight of the elk that continued to graze and meander about.  The crackling of branches as the wind forced them to bend always calmed Gryr as a young boy.  The stream just feet from him flowed with grace and power.  The water cutting over smooth rocks and pebbles played just over the orchestra of the Norvik Woods.  There was one sound however, that Gryr couldn’t place.  Hidden among the other sounds of the area, a low hum played steadily in his ears.  It seemed to magnify ever so slightly as Gryr turned his head identify its point of origin.

Opening his eyes, Gryr didn’t see anything that would cause this hum.  The sound crept into his chest as he allowed himself to focus on it.  All other sounds faded out of existence, the humming grew louder as Gryr focused on where the Elk was grazing.  The pain in his body went numb as he stood, fixed on the humming.  Walking into the stream, the cold water sharply kissed his legs and waist.  Gryr didn’t flinch, he didn’t feel the cold water, he only felt the hum.  As he emerged from the stream, the elk raised its head and stared at Gryr.  He didn’t stop, he couldn’t stop, the humming was pulling him toward the elk.  Not toward the elk, but beneath it.  As he approached the snow white animal, he raised his arm, holding open his palm he reached for the elk’s nose.  The two touched as Gryr felt something flow through his body.  The elk slowly pulled back, and walked away, seemingly done with its task.

The humming subsided only slightly; the music from the world around him came back into focus.  One thing was different, Gryr didn’t feel tired.  His muscled didn’t protest with every movement and flex.  As he moved his limbs to take account of what just occurred, Gryr noticed a stone roughly buried beneath the earth, where the elk stood.  Slowly, Gryr cleared away the dirt and moss burying the rest of this object.  Sitting in the earth was a rune, carved deep into the stone, the symbol for Life stared up at Gryr.

“Odin’s beard!”  Gryr couldn’t contain his shock.  “Master Taybus won’t believe this.”  He reached down and plucked the stone from the ground.  It was oddly shaped, a near perfect obelisk, it seemed to glow a faint white.  The stone was warm, unnaturally warm for something buried in a cold forest.  Tracing the symbol carved into the stone, Gryr was jolted as a burning pain pressed into his forearm.  Starring at his arm, he watched as the symbol of life began to appear on the inside of his forearm.  Fear and pain forced Gryr to drop the stone as he clutched his pained arm.  Gryr didn’t notice the humming had stopped, until he saw the shattered rune at his feet.

“No…no, no, no!”  Gryr dropped to his knees scrambling to get the pieces of the rune together.

His efforts were pointless.  Gryr hunched over angry, confused and defeated.  Lifting his head, he locked eyes with the elk.

“I’m sorry.  You trusted me and I ruined it.”  Tears streamed down Gryr’s face as the white elk turned and bounced away through the dense trees.

Looking down at the mess he made, Gryr was shocked to see no rune.  There were no pieces, there was no broken obelisk.  Unbelieving what he saw, Gryr noticed there was no pain on his arm.  He turned ghostly white as his eyes searched his forearm and found no symbol.

Gryr’s confusion was cut short as a familiar inhuman roar ripped through the forest.  Peering across the stream, where he had come from, Gryr saw the monstrosity has caught up to him.  The crystalline ice covered Runewalker set its frozen blue eyes on Gryr.

Chills crawled up Gryr’s spine as he was certain the monster smiled.  Forcing himself to forget what happened with the Rune, Gryr got up to run.  He had to move, a regular person without Flicker couldn’t go toe to toe with a Runewalker….(Continue)

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoyed that.  Let me know in the comments if there are any questions you have about Gryr and this world.