*Nika POV*
*Location: Midgard, Denmark (Baltic Coast) (Future)*
*Year: 4285 BCE (Nika, 15 years old)*
Once my impromptu funeral was done, I began gathering all the equipment, including my father's spear, which was a bit longer than the one I was used to, meaning more training. I also gathered my mother's various books on herbs, magicks that I haven't quite delved into yet, and alchemical books as well that I was...never really interested but it couldn't hurt to have on hand.
During my search, I also found a straight sword and shield bearing a sigil of the sun on it for some reason. Picking it up, it felt strangely...right, like the weapons belonged to me for some reason, even if I favored the spear over a sword or shield. Swinging it around a few times, I found myself in a weird natural flow for some reason, like it felt like one with me, even if I never held these items before, as these weren't my training instruments, the sword and shield I used for training were a bit more blunt rather than sharp more suited for training.
These, however, were actual weapons and meant I had to do a different kind of training now, as the difference between the two was nearly like night and day. Strapping the two instruments to my back alongside my father's spear, and once I had everything, I saw it...a note in my father's handwriting. Picking it up, I did a quick read-over, and it was pretty short overall. The sword and shield were a gift that my mother and father had forged in one of the nearby human settlements.
He said that it was to be my sixteenth nameday gift, but if I was reading this, he said to think of it as something to remember them by, a physical object that was both mine, but also had a bit of them in it as well, a nice little perfect representation of our family and well I now had the same wide open-teeth grin on my face I had when I was a kid, and folding the paper I put it in my pack, something to always remind me of where these weapons came from, and where I came from.
Wiping away the tears, I began to head outside and feel the fresh air, and for some reason, it felt a bit different today. It felt oddly exciting with a hint of water, with not a single cloud in the sky, nor was it hot enough for the snow and ice on the ground to melt. Must've just been me, and as I took my first steps away from the old house, I took one last look at it before going off into the forest.
I could've sworn, though, that I saw a small flower blooming at the place where I buried what remains of my parents. Rubbing my eyes, though I saw nothing there, the next moment, and just kept on grinning, turning back around, heading into the forest, ready to cross the golden line that in all fifteen years of my existence, not until today at least.
Once I began walking through the forest, I could vaguely hear some birds chirping, a lot less than usual, though for some reason. Looking up at the golden trees, I could still feel the magick radiating from them. I always felt something strange about them before, but I was never close enough to fully understand the feeling; alongside this, they also felt...weaker, weaker than before.
That meant that the golden tree lines were forming a defensive circle, which meant that despite being weakened over such a long period of time, my parents always did their best to protect me and do so even now. With that knowledge in mind, I just smiled up at it and put one foot over the line, taking my first step outside, ready to see the wide world.
Only to be trampled on as I fully stepped out of the woods by some animal that was running past it as well. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to respond to the creatures, and hooves as all four stomped on me before running fully past me deeper into the woods. Luckily for me, I was able to get a good look at the back of the creature, and its light brown fur and black hooves, alongside its short tail.
For some reason, it reminded me of that shadow I saw when I was five years old, the way it moved and ran. While I was still grinning and mourning my parents' deaths, I started grinding my teeth in frustration as I now had a goal.
"Let's get a new hunt going."
And that was to hunt this thing down and figure out what the heck just trampled over me, whether I would kill it or not would depend entirely on whether it does something like this again. Pulling my arm back, I readied myself to reveal a neat little trick of this new body of mine, sure my parents taught me all how to fight and how to both magick and magic, but this body had a few tricks of its own I had to self-train to use.
I let my arm loose as it stretched to the top of the tree, as my body, alongside my stuff, was pulled forward, giving a bird's eye view of a small section of the forest. Seeing the creature rush through the forest, dodging and weaving around trees, and jumping over bushes, allowed me a good look at the body.
"A reindeer all the way out here, well now that's going to make this hunt all the more interesting."
*Year: 4280 BCE (Nika, 20 years old)*
Five years, five long years is how long I had been chasing this damned reindeer, I mean at this point I pretty much forgot all about why I was hunting him at this point. How did I know it was a he? Well, I saw him try to court a female and fail almost immediately, pretty sure he got pretty angry after that and began fighting me a little bit.
I think it was about three years ago, and I met him head-on on his huge antlers, clashing with my fist and the fierce look in his eyes clear as day. I think that fight lasted about three days in total, both of us batting heads against one another, never giving the other an advantage, and even if either of us did, well, I was pretty tricky when I wanted to be and the old buck knew its way around the forest so it was pretty much even as we both learn more about one another.
Anyway, after our three-day fight, we went back to our regular routine of him running through the forest trying to lose me permanently, and me experimenting with my rubber-like abilities and cutting down trees with one strong swing to block potential paths. Alongside that, I began using my spear to hang off the side of trees that either had no branches or branches where I needed them to be, using it as a monkey bar to swing back and forth towards another tree.
It was through these seemingly endless hunts that I began to further think of where to go next. My parents taught me about the nine realms, and they sounded so interesting. Sure, I wanted to explore all of Midgard, but the other realms probably had some interesting stuff waiting for me, too.
Right now, though, that didn't matter as I neared my target, who kept turning their back to me, watching me get closer to them with a grin still on my face. Honestly, all in my years hunting this beast, I never understood why, why it had a blue nose, honestly it was the weirdest thing about it, besides the fact it's god-like speed and maneuvering that even gave me a run for my money.
Putting my sword and spear back on my back, and as I jumped from tree to tree, I began stretching my hand backward, gettign ready for one big move to catch this guy. Seeing this, the creature smirked for some reason. I mean, did it know that I was planning to tie it up using my arm as the rope and try to pin it to the ground? No, that was stupid; it clearly knew what I was doing, just as I knew it was going to use this chance to knock me out to try and lose me permanently this time.
We both knew the other too well not to know what the other was thinking at this point, and right the both of us were planning to end it here and now. Whether or not that would actually be how it ends was anyone's guess in all honesty. Letting my hand go, it went right towards its neck, and as it tried to dodge it, I jumped down, helping navigate the hand as it wrapped around its throat, stopping the reindeer.
It buckled forward, tumbling to the ground, and I began to quickly wrap it up using my rubbery body, allowing me to finally catch the odd reindeer. Of course, the animal didn't let me do this willy-nilly, no, it tried its best to fight me off, biting, kicking, and everything else it could think of to get me to let go of it. Seeing me with a wide grin on my face as I walked forward, though, must've calmed it down or made it realize its efforts weren't doing it any good.
Looking down on it, I had a realization, I knew exactly what I wanted from this animal, and it would be its own choice to choose to follow me or not, or, well, more accurately, let me ride it. Picking it up by the neck, it just stared at me, confused at why I wasn't killing it or something. Then, with the goofiest grin on my face, I asked the blue-nosed reindeer one simple question.
"Would you like to travel with me?"
It then stared at me, dumbfounded, somehow able to understand me without having to explain or try to explain anyway.
"Wanna know why, well because we're friends of course, I mean we may have fought a lot but we still spent so much time together that I figured it wouldn't be a problem if we started traveling together, right?" I said, tipping my head to the side with pleading eyes.
The reindeer just looked at me, dumbfounded, before letting a hardy series of happy clicks and grunts, I believe, accepting my proposal. With that said and done, I unwrapped it and well I was worried they would use this chance to run away but oddly enough, they just turned around and stared at me, motioning for me to get on their back.
So that's what I did.