Elvish Explanations

Once, when John was about 12 years old, he had told his mother a story about how he accidentally crashed into a ditch while riding his bike. He had told her how, in trying to get out of the ditch, he couldn’t retrieve his bike as it was being swallowed up by the thick mud at the bottom of the ditch. His mother didn’t buy the story, which was good seeing as it was the first time he had ever lied to his mother. He did actually crash into a ditch, but that was only after fellow 12 year old Frank Dickinson Junior had run him off the road with his own bike and stole John’s bike after John got out of the ditch.

John had learned some very important things that day. After his mother gave him the whole “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed” speech sending John through a major guilt trip, he learned that lying to those who cared for him was never helpful in the long run. Second, he learned that Frank was always going to be a jackass. Finally, he learned the “Your story is bullshit” look, as to notify him when his stories got too fantastical to be any sort of believable.

This was the first time someone gave him that look for a story that was completely true.

“Bullshit.”

“Yeah, figured that was probably coming. Look, you may not believe me, but that story is true.”

“Oh no, don’t get me wrong. I think your story is at least mostly true, if not a bit embellished at points. But I just think it is bullshit.”

John was, understandably, confused. “So… You think my story is true and also… bullshit?”

“No, it’s just… Uggghh!” Talia exclaimed, pacing back and forth as she went over John’s story in her head. “Look, first off, you have video game powers, which is just bullshit. You get to learn skills and see how weak opponents are and don’t take wounds because, what, you are a gamer? That is bullshit. Then you, apparently, talk to Freaking GAIA, a goddess who won’t even talk to our wisest elders! You, a gamer, have just skyrocketed past some of my people’s best soothsayers just because you played video games a lot! Bullshit! AGAIN! Third, you mastered six runes-”

“Five, technically. One is just in two different forms.”

“Okay, five runes, which still doesn’t help your story, especially when half of them are Nordic runes! Nordic runes haven’t been inscribed in a millenia! Once again, Bull-SHIT”

Talia gave a small sigh and sat back down next to John, running a hand through her blonde hair. “It just seems like cosmic unfairness. People like me and my family work for years to master what little magic and skills we have, but you for some reason are just given a pair of skills that allow you to surpass us all today.”

“I… Um… I’m sorry?”

Talia sighed, turning to look at John. “It's not your fault, so don’t apologize. It's just the will of Gaia. Or as my grandmother would have said, Det är guds vilja, inte människans vilja.”

“Is that some form of elvish?”

Talia gave a small laugh despite her clear annoyance, before shaking her head. “No, no. It’s Swedish. It means ‘By the will of the gods, not the will of man’. My family used to live in Sweden a… long time ago before they moved back to Alfheim.”

“A long time ago but only two generations? Just how old are you?”

Talia gave him a sly look, her annoyance at John’s story evaporating and being replaced with what seemed to be a permanent smile at John’s dorky nature. “Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a woman her age?”

John blanched. “Oh shit! I just…. I mean, I didn’t… I was just…”

Talia laughed, giving John’s arm a small squeeze. “Don’t worry, John! I’m just teasing. Yeah, we Ljósálfr tend to live pretty long lives. I’m turning 128 in a couple months.”

“... Bullshit.”

“Copy cat.”

“Yeah, but I’m using it properly. You CANNOT be 127! You look barely older than me, and I’m only 18!”

“Gaia above, I forgot how short your human lives are. Yeah, we aren’t considered adults till we hit at least 100. I don’t get to move out from my parents’ place till I gain my own professional craft or wed.”

John shook his head, running a hand through his hair. This girl he was pretty sure he was starting to develop a crush on was… John did some quick math in his head. Gods above, she was over 7 times his age.

Talia noticed the concerned look on his face. “Hey, you alright in there?”

John shook his thoughts loose and looked back to her. “Um, yeah. Yeah. Sorry, just… Can’t believe people live to be that long. It’s… Well… Pretty astounding.” He gave a nervous chuckle before adjusting his new glasses on his face. “Um… Lets, uh, switch topics. You promised to give me an explanation to the terms from earlier.”

Talia nodded, loosening her armor. Now, about 5 minutes ago John would be a bit more okay with this. But seeing as he was looking at a half naked 127 year old woman, he was a little creeped out while being very turned on.

‘Focus, John. Stop looking at her beautiful creamy skin and figure and pay attention to the very important information she is giving you.’

Talia gave a sigh of relief at not being choked by her armor anymore. “Well, my name is Talia Hálfdanardóttir, as I said before. I am the daughter of Frida Bragadóttir and Hálfdan Leifson. I am an Ljósálfr, which humans would classify as a ‘Light Elf’. This is Alfheim, which is the land of the light elves.”

“Wait, hold on. Light elf. Okay, what does that mean?”

“... Are you fucking joking? Are you really saying that you don’t know what a fucking elf is? That might be one of the dumbest-”

“No, I know what a fucking elf is.” John rolled his eyes. “I mean, like, what kind of elf. Are you more like a high elf or a wood elf in D&D? Or are you all secretly Santa’s elves?”

Talia giggled again, despite herself. “Oh, right, right.” Talia pondered for a moment, looking off in the distance. “Um… Think… Think the elves from Lord of The Rings. Actually, assume a lot of what Tolkien wrote was correct. Anyway, so this is Alfheim, one of the nine worlds on Yggdrasil.” John raised his hand quickly. Talia gave a small sigh. “I was just about to explain Yggdrasil.” John lowered his hand.

She gave a small shake of her head. “Dork. Okay, Yggdrasil is the world tree. It’s… well think of it as a highway to traverse between worlds. Now, I don’t know how others traverse the worlds, or if there are only nine, but how the Ljósálfr and others do it is by going on the branches of the world tree. Does that make sense?”

John thought about what she said for a moment or two. “So… Is it an actual tree?”

“Yes. It's a giant tree that exists in the area between the worlds.”

“And Alfheim is one of the branches.”

“Yep. Alfheim is closer to Asgard, which is in the top branches of Yggdrasil. You come from what we call Midgard, which is at the base of the tree.”

“Wait, I’m from the bottom of this mystical tree?”

She shakes her head, a small smile on her face. “No, you are at the base. Where the tree meets the ground. The bottom of the tree is Hel, at the roots. Plus, if you were so low on the tree you would probably have seen Nidhogg at least once or twice.”

“Seen who? Is he that guy you mentioned earlier?”

“No, Nidhogg is a dragon at the base of Yggdrasil. He is constantly nipping away at the roots of the tree while Veðrfölnir and an eagle he rests on are at the top of the tree creating winds to rip the tree apart.”

“Why are they destroying the tree if its the way between the worlds?”

“I was getting to that. Ratatoskr, that's who I mentioned earlier, he constantly riles up the two by carrying the insults they have for each other up and down the tree.”

“These names sound really really… Norse.”

“Well, yeah. The Norse kinda helped to create us and we helped create the Norse. It’s… it's very complicated. It goes to historical magical theory, which is a class I honestly couldn’t give less of a shit about.”

Wow. John really really wished he paid more attention to the information Mr. Enkleman gave in class now. He had no idea these ancient Norse myths were actually right.

WeLl It WoUlD hAvE bEeN mOrE wEiRd If ThEy WeReN’t CoRrEcT. aFtEr AlL, i ClEaRlY eXiSt.

-S

John quickly closed the window, despite Surtr having a point. It was a point in a really hard to read message, but a good point nonetheless. He just never really let it sink in that all this was really… well, REAL. Thor, Odin, Loki, and all those other Norse myths were actually real stories.

“Wait, if you are real, and Surtr and those other gods-”

“Please don’t mention the giant. He’s… not well liked around here. Hell, you are probably going to want to keep under wraps that your first couple of runes are from Surtr.”

John raised an eyebrow, but nodded. “Right. Anyway, if they are all real… Is Ragnarok going to happen?”

Talia nodded somberly. “Yep. One day, the world is going to be destroyed and a lot of gods and people will die.”

“Thats… thats really depressing.”

“Not really.” Talia slowly moved over to sit next to John. ”Think about it this way. You, me, everyone we know will die one day. It’s a sad fact, but it’s going to happen. But, we don’t have to let that thought consume us. We keep living our lives accepting that it will happen, but continue to make our lives worth something. Ragnarok will happen, but it's just a part of life.” She gave a smile and pushed against John with her shoulder. “Plus, hey, it's a pretty badass end. That's actually what I was doing out here. I was practicing for when Ragnarok comes.” She gestured over to a sword, leaning up against a tree with streaks of blood on it. “I wanted to get in some practice at my swordsmanship today.”

John gave her a small, sly smile. “Oh really? Well it might help your sword skill a little to not cut your gut with the blade and bleed profusely, needing a mage like me to help you. Just a little.”

She gave a short laugh and pushed John playfully. “Oh shut up! I didn’t cut myself with the sword I will have you know! I just… Miscalculated where a boar’s tusk would be when he charged me.”

John cocked his head quizzically. “A boar? Where? What happened to it?”

Talia pointed off to the sword again, and as John took another look, he could see that nearby the tree was a very dead hairy pig.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. I was… out hunting when I saw that boar. Actually, I didn’t see him till he was really close, so that’s how he got me with his tusk. If I had seen him before, I totally could have killed him before he got a scratch on me. He… uh… just got the drop on me.”

“...You were out hunting with a sword?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you Mr. Elven Hunting Master? Yes, I was out with a sword. I just… didn’t want to hunt with a bow today.”

John was about to mention how stupid that sounded, how hunting with a bow sounded infinitely better than hunting with only a sword, but before he could say a thing, Talia quickly sprung to her feet, offering John a hand.

“But anyway, we’ve been sitting here long enough. C’mon, my family will want to meet you. It’s been forever since we’ve seen a runic mage.”

John took her hand and slowly stood up. He gave Talia a small grin, who returned it before she turned to head towards her sword and dead boar.

John walked over to her. “Do you need some help with the boar?”

“N-no! I mean, uh, I messed up in killing it, so it’s not really good. Plus… uh… it’s a sick boar. Yeah. I already took the tusks so I can claim the kill as my own, so it’s all good. The predators of the forest should take care of the sick carcass. Yep.”

John raised an eyebrow. ‘A sick boar that was able to sneak up on her, a hunter, who only has a sword to hunt with.’ John did not claim to be a master of hunting, but he wasn’t fucking stupid. However… He just met this girl. He didn’t want to assume the worst about her. He figured he could talk to her later about it, but for now he just smiled and walked alongside the beautiful girl.