many weeks after she had left behind the stone circle, eivor returned. she was not empty-pawed; a haunch of goat streaked the snow with blood and visceral juices.

her communion was for @Sven and @Ujurak. "i am leaving," she told them, and then gave further tell of forneskja, its direction, and its leadership.

she had done what she had meant to do: bind the worlds of the danes more closely together. from her ruff she pulled two pair of crow-feet and offered one to each young man as remembrance of her devotion.

a last feast and a last hunt. morning light saw the drengr carried off by a ground-eating trot in the direction of her far-off fjord.

and inside her, eivor carried the next of her lineage; she thought fondly of luhtar as snow began to fall, obscuring her tall form from vision.