Cold white charred remains of the wooden huts like powder dried her sword. All around were the bodies of dead warriors. She was only defending herself.
Pearl climbed the steep hill, to find the sword that belonged to her mother. It had broke in an earlier battle. Now she used her own, made by a former lover who made weapons. It was just for her, and out of love, he welded an innocent gemstone from the Tenggis Sea into the hilt.
Everything she owned was broken except for the sweet loving pearl sword. Pearl buried her mother's sword quickly under the soil. Her mother was named Song. The pearl sword was often worn at her bloodied leather belt.
A warrior woman of the forest, trained by masters of the broadsword in the hills, Pearl was the survivor of plague infested towns and villages that she'd lived in for all her thirtyone years. As a teenager, her adoptive family, all her friends and neighbours were killed by plague. Plague rodents poisoned the streams and crops. There were no remaining villagers or townspeople left. She journeyed South and came to Lake Bajkal where she encountered the warriors and swordsmen, who helped her. They later perished of the plague and she was unable to stay there amongst all of the dead. She chose to flee Southwards, in journey of the mysterious "prince" where she felt destined to meet. As a childm she encountered a goddess who told her to do this. She made sure that she never starved to death by consuming whatever she could, and as a wolf during the full moon, this is what she did. Driven by hunger, she struck down lone travellers, animal or human.
Men attacked her, even when she was in her wolf form and was always the winner. As a woman she slay them with her pearl sword. The men left wounds in her body that was deeper than flesh, and she felt dazed for months. Despite that she lived.
Pearl found a burned village, where soldiers had plundered earlier. The people of the village were all dead, some had died of plague. She remembered when men assaulted her before, and felt an intense pain. This was a terrible memory of her giving birth to a stillborn infant, a boy, who was never meant to be in this dark bloody world.
Named after the beautiful stone inside a sea shell that her mother Song found. Swords captured her imagination ever since childhood, when they were happier times with her mother.
Pearl grew into a hardened swordswoman with the training of martial artists. She developed her own intuition of Wolf Seeing without any other human knowing about this. She could see in the dark. She could hear for miles. She could identify someone's emotions without them saying anything. She could smell when illness and plague had started to infect another. She remembered when, as a child, she made her own bow and arrows, and showed this to her mother.
One day, Pearl entered a library in a semi deralict town, and learned about shamanism, the Blue Wolf, gods and spirits of the earth. It was here in this godforsaken place that she found a man in fine golden clothes. He was handsome, young, strong, but dying.
His blood covered sword lay on the floor next to him.
"Woman! Don't stay here!!!" he cried, but he grimaced in agony.
She went to him with a small cup of water.
"Who are you, sir?" she asked.
"I'm a Mongolian prince," he said. "I was attacked in the street by a rabid wolf."
"Rabies and plague are killing everything I love!" Pearl cried. Her mother, adopted family, friends, lover and now her prince.
"If I don't make it promise me that you'll take my sword?" he asked.
Pearl was sad and wept.
The prince died there and Pearl couldn't take his sword. She left the sword next to him and covered both the prince and his sword with a blanket.
"You belong with the sword and can carry it with you into the next life," she said.
Wolves howled in the distance.
"My name is Pearl, but I belong in the forest and the sky," she said, remembering the words of Asena the goddess. "I remember you prince, last night..." when she had been a wolf... then became a woman. Her mouth foamed again. The fever was coming.
She left the library and disappeared among sparks and floating ash from the funeral fires. Her journey was uncertain but she was only a survivor in a dark landscape.
((The Fenrir's Daughters fiction stories belong to author Rayne))
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2016 Rayne Herbert.
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