We made our way through the complex series of ramps and stair wells to the base of the mountain and exited not too far from the large stables that were maintained by the Jotuns who were strongest in Soul.

I walked right in and the burly stable master jumped up and saluted. It would appear yesterday’s events had made it through the grapevine all the way down here.

“We need three Arctos for a journey to the southern outpost.”

The stable master sized me up down then looked over at Galen and then to Strom. He squinted and shook his head. “You two are fine, but the rookie won’t be able to placate one.”

I slowly turned to Strom and arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell me that your Blessing with Soul was too low to subdue a mount.”

“I’ve never really been allowed down here since my Blessing with Soul wasn’t strong enough to effectively work with the Arctos and I’ve never had a reason to leave the mountain so I’ve only ever done training up at the lakes.”

I let out a low growl. “Sink or swim. Bring them and he’ll just make do.” The stable master looked skeptical but I slammed my staff down and there was a small crack of thunder and he went running out the back to do as ordered.

“Are you sure about this?” Galen crept over and whispered to me.

“Not in the slightest but I’m woefully done with his lack of experience and education in his other Blessings at this point. He’s just going to have to get a crash course as we go along.”

“You know, I can hear you.” Strom called from a few feet away.

“I’m aware. Lagertha has been neglectful in rounding out your training.”

“Hey speaking of, why is it that you never show the elder any respect?” Galen mused next to me.

I just smiled and turned at the sensation of an excited aura of Soul approaching. A small Omega came in and waved us to follow him out front.

The stable master was patting down the smaller of three large Arctos. I could feel the aura of Soul he was exuding to help calm the giant animals. A group of Alphas walked up and began to fit them with saddles, a feat that was arduous to say the least considering the animals bulk.

I took note of Strom’s fascination with the animals. “Is this your first time seeing them up close?”

“Well, up close and not trying to rip me in half.”

I couldn’t help but arch a brow at this. So, Lagertha hasn’t been completely neglectful.”

“Not so neglectful to miss this.” The old woman limped out from the stable, trailed by a few of the top ranking Alphas of the mountains.

Strom looked from his Matron to the Arctos and back again. His jaw clenched as he understood they were here to see if he would fail or not in calming the mounts. I watched as he steeled himself for what was going to happen and approached the three white masses of assured death. His Aegis flowed up and around him to solidify in that deep metallic armor and he took a step forward. All three heads snapped in his direction.

“STOP.”

He froze where he was. I shook my head. Jotuns, honestly. Why did Alphas always think with the muscles?

“What are you doing?”

His faceplate slid open. “Trying to make one of them obey me?”

“First of all, you don’t ‘force them to obey’. You’re trying to show them you mean no harm and want to work with them. What part of ‘I mean no harm and want to work together’ includes coming at someone wearing armor? You look like you’re expecting a fight and you’ll get one.”

I knocked on his breastplate. “Send it away.” He looked over at the giant animals unconvinced. I flicked him in the nose, which wasn’t exactly easy considering how tall he was.

He let out a small growl but did as ordered and his armor glowed slightly and melted away.

I took his hand and guided it up towards the animals. “Now, send out your intention with Soul.” I could feel the wavering energy coming off of him. “Don’t be nervous. Your feelings flow through you and to them. Just think what you’d like to say to them and let that go out of you. Just try thinking ‘hi’.” I pushed him forward gently. His small aura was still oscillating with anxiety.

I couldn’t be upset about his nervousness. Most people would be terrified to walk unarmed towards three giant snow-white bears. They were built for one thing, to kill and to kill in sub-zero temperatures.  It wasn’t until after The Awakening did humanity attempt to domesticate the Polar bears, even then, they only could be used for transportation and sometimes hunting partners.

The smaller of the three took a small step in his direction and sniffed at him. She hesitantly took another step forward smelling his hand. She allowed Strom to gently stroke her muzzle. Strom’s eyes widened in surprise. He took another step forward and reached up to scratch at the fur behind her round ears. She let out a little rumble of pleasure and leaned down to nuzzle Stroms neck. He let out a chuckle. “Nice to meet you too.”

“Lesson successful.” I walked up to the other two and they immediately leaned down for their own ear scratches. I pulled out a few biscuits I had from my pack and fed one. Strom looked over at me. “What? I never said you couldn’t bribe them.”

I heard Galen’s smooth laugh from a few steps away. He pulled out a few biscuits of his own to feed to the last Arcto.

The Arcto with Strom stared at him expectantly. He looked panicked for a second before reaching in his sack and pulling out an apple. “Good enough?” It was promptly chomped on and more rumbles of satisfaction. He smiled and scratched behind her ears again. 

The small nimble Omegas flitting about the grounds quickly had the three bears harnessed and ready for travel. They all exuded auras of calm and friendly goodwill that allowed them to deftly work around the large animals without riling them up. I was surprised to see a majority of them possessed Blessings of Earth, the extra strength aided them as they hauled the large harnesses and thick leather straps with ease. They’d toss them up to other Omegas hovering above the animals and they would stabilize the harnesses for their counterparts to secure them under furry bellies. The Arctos just waited patiently as they were fitted with their accessories, it helped that they received rub downs in between straps being laid in place.

“Not many of my Alphas possess strong enough Blessing of Soul to effectively work with the Arcto,” Lagertha came up next to me after noticing my assessment of the situation. “Besides, the Omegas are less threatening and they enjoy petting the giant furballs. Win-win in my estimation.”

I nodded, can’t argue with logic.

I let out a small yelp as two large hands grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up in the air. Galen’s smiling face greeted me. I glared back and whacked him in the head with my staff causing him to let go. I floated up to my saddle and continued to glare at him. He pouted and rubbed his head. “Fine, I’ll ask next time.” I gave him a curt nod and pointed at his own saddle. “Yeah yeah.” He floated up to his own saddle still sulking. I couldn’t help but smile, just as bad as a boy who got his hand smacked out of the cookie jar.

Everything was finally in order and we were mounted up. The terrain ahead would be rough as there were no roads directly up into the mountains or down to Hallow Bastion. Horses wouldn’t be able to deal with not only the cold but the round rocky terrain which is why the Arctos were a necessity as they could climb and lumber over the steep declines, rocks and snow.

I watched as a large group of Alphas gathered in front of us. I was wondering if I would have to go for round two when they began to make their way over to Strom and his mount. They didn’t say anything but reached up to touch his leg or shake his hand in silent farewell.  Jotuns didn’t believe in goodbye, they would be reunited again in the keep of their sovereign either in this life or the next.

Lagertha held up her hand. “Safe journey.”

I nodded my head to her. Strom and Galen placed their arm over their chest in salute. “Until next time Elder.” Galen bit his farewell.

>)*(<

The next few days went by without incident.  We slowly made our way down the mountain range, all the while working on Strom’s Blessings in Wind, Water and Soul. A majority of which was just getting him to become accustomed to using his extra abilities and we would work on the finer details of precision when he got to Hallow Bastion.

After about a week of travel I decided that Strom’s ability to call on his Wind Blessing was sufficient now to begin his Flight training. Galen and I had decided that it was best to take the long slow route back on foot instead of collectively carrying Strom by flight between us. We were strong enough to do that easy enough but the long way allowed us to give the Alpha more in-depth instruction.

We had come  to the ‘lowlands’ as the Jotuns called them, everyone else just called it the ground down here for us closer to sea level. Now we were seeing more open grasslands than uneven hillsides and giant rocks, we’d soon come upon the Southern output of the Jotuns and exchange the Arcto for horses. 

Coming upon a particular large expanse of relatively level ground filled with tall grass and shrubs, was the perfect opportunity to attempt some light hovering for Strom.

I strolled some distance away from the Arcto with Strom in Tow and Galen not too far behind that. “Now, as you have discovered that each Blessing as it’s own properties and feel to it and how you interact with said Blessing in contingent not only on your strength in that Blessing but also your mindset about how each element is viewed.”

Strom gave some thought to this. “So how do I work with Wind?”

“Think of being aloof and easy, just a simple breeze on a sunny day. Your strength in Wind isn’t all that great right now, but you are getting stronger with it. Give it a try.” I took a few steps away from him to allow him room to work up a breeze of his making. Galen was lounging against a log not far away just watching. I had preferred he teach Strom how to bring up his Wind Blessings with his easy going temperament and him being a fellow Alpha, Strom would take to his instruction easily, He had countered that after my display of ruthless battle sense Strom was more afraid of me than him, and for good reason according to the gray-haired Alpha. I could feel his winter-sky eyes on me as I continued my instruction. 

Strom looked around him to make sure he had room to maneuver. Just in case the bushes had somehow snuck up on him, I guess. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and went extremely still. His braids slowed swaying in the wind and there was a distinct lack of breeze. I looked around. I caught Galen’s eye and he had sat up noticing it too,

“Strom, don’t go still, you need to move.” I took a few steps closer to him. This was going badly, instead of calling up a breeze he had gone still and had taken the wind with him. The problem with stopping the wind was that the wind didn’t like being stopped, it is a free flowing element that wanted to just go.

Water is an element that is used to taking a shape given to it, fast and agile, easily adaptable and the Blessing with the highest affinity with anyone weiling it. 

Wind was happy to help, but you hold it back and it held a grudge. 

“Strom, let go! Let the wind go!” I began to quickly run to him, Galen too had gotten up and was rushing over to try and get the other Alpha let go before there was backlash.

Unfortunately, we were too late as an eerie silence fell over the meadow right before a deafening roar and an explosion of wind kicked up. We were all ripped upwards into the air as the wind blasted around us. My voice was lost in the wind as I flailed about trying to reach Strom. He was being thrown high up into the sky spinning out of control.

I felt Galen attempt to take control of the maelstrom and looked over to see him in full Aegis. I aided as best I could but trying to further hold back the wind after it had already been completely stopped was almost impossible at this point. We had to just try and ride it out until it had gotten all the pent up energy out. 

I managed to float myself over to Strom and grab ahold of him and stop his rapid rotation to stabilize him up right.

“Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.” He was shouting over and over again. I could feel him trying to get control over the wind again but his low control over it wasn’t doing anything. He snapped his eyes open and didn’t appear to see me at all in front of him, his Aegis flowed up around him and solidified. “I SAID STOP!” He screamed over the roar of the wind and I felt his power well up and blast out and the wind stopped completely again. 

There was a brief moment of surprise followed by shock as we began to fall out of the sky. There was only a few seconds before things would get bad again. I quickly seized a hold of Strom by the bottom of his helm and spun around and hurled him at Galen who was also falling. I heard the clang of armor meeting armor as they impacted and went flying away just before the wind roared back up and I was ripped out into the sky and flung through the air away from the two Alphas.

With the wind now being held back twice, there was no way I was going to be able to flow my descent and fly. 

All that was left was to just brace for the inevitable impact when I crashed back to the ground.