Valkyrie In The Making - Beget

"So, I can assume you are not from this village or any other, for that matter." Vali said.

"Why do you assume that?" She asked defensively.

"Well, you had never heard "The Walking of Angantyr", you have never had strong mead, and you have a wide eyed wonderment at everything you see. Therefore, I must deduce that you have never been in a village, even a small one like this."

"This is a small village? But there are so many people!"

"Most are passing through, like yourself, or selling their wares, like myself."

"You aren't selling anything." She snickered after gulping down two more slugs of mead.

"I am. My words, people pay for fantasy." He said, leaning in closer to her.

"I see." She said, attempting to stop the sudden slurring of her words.

"Well, where did you appear from?" He insisted.

"East of here. Two, maybe three days walk. My home was in the woods, by a stream and hills, it was beautiful."

"Was?"

"Was."

"What drove you from a place of such beauty?" He asked as he moved next to her on her bench, sitting so close she could smell the sweet scent of the mead on his breath.

"My mother died, four days ago. A coughing illness. She had been worsening for months, it is good she was released from her pain." She said, dreamily. Relieved by this sudden realization.

"What of your father?"

She backed away from him, closer to the window and looked out.

She saw him, on top of the Great Hall, watching her.

"He has been gone for some time now." She said, thinking, calculating. "Four, possibly five years."

"He left you and your mother?" Vali asked, sounding shocked.

"No. Never. He went with some men to explore the new land to the north. He heard that it was rich, good land and wanted to see it for himself. He was going to send for us if it suited him, but he never returned. Mother kept thinking he would return, but I think he is with her, drinking of Odin's cup." She began to feel tears well up in her eyes. She never spoke of her father, his loss was too much for her to bear, then and now.

"Perhaps he is still alive, I hear that land is hard, but good for those who work." Vali said, gently, not wanting to upset her more.

"I don't think so, but I plan on finding out for sure." She said, looking out the window again, making eye contact with her guide, finally realizing where they were headed.