A Yuletide Saga of Sins and Spirits : Part Two



 

((Notes: This story was written for amusement at Christmas. It is IC in the form of visions. It is a spoof of, and inspired by A Christmas Carol‘ by Charles Dickens, and just as much by The Muppet Christmas Carol  by Jerry Juhl and directed by Brian Henson . This particular part also contains references to the animated TV film The Snowman Based on the book by Raymond Briggs

The story contains some references to the earlier story, An All-Hallows Eve Dream

Written in collaboration by the players of Waelden and Yllfa. The banner and screenshots for all parts of the story were taken and edited by the player of Waelden.))

 

A Yuletide Saga of Sins and Spirits: Part One here...

 

 

Changing into her nightdress and letting down her hair, Hild climbed into her soft, comfortable bed. It was still cold, and the sheets and blankets had not yet warmed up enough. She shivered. Oh how she wished she had the warmth of a proper man to cuddle up with on these cold nights. Even Paega, even her husband would do if he ever came home for long enough, but he never did. Hild was a woman of her own mind, though - she needed no man, other than for warming her bed. 

She turned her head on the down-filled pillow, and shot a glance out the window at the field of ice cold stars now visible. What would she really wish for, she wondered? But one made one’s own life. There was no changing the path she had taken now. She could not trust Paega, and Brona was not quite full grown and ready for marriage, and she had to make a living. That meant being hard headed, and warm of smile. She knew that. She couldn’t afford to be thought of as a ‘soft’ woman. 

So Hild turned her head away from the stars, to look at the plain wooden wall of her room instead. She took a quick sip from a bottle she had brought up from the kitchen, and savored the taste upon her tongue. A rich mead it was, that reminded her of summer, and of better days that once were. She put the bottle back and closed her eyes, but only for a moment. 

“Hildfrith!” A male voice boomed out. 

She turned, startled that any man had found his way to her bedchamber. She wasn’t that desperate to be warmed up, and certainly not by a stranger! She glanced around first to find a weapon of sorts, but the bottle was all she had available, and she took it in her hand again and sat up in bed. No intruder would harm her, especially not someone who’s stupid enough to announce his imminent arrival in her very own bedchamber.

She turned to the man. And it was a man, sort of. He was almost transparent, grey, more mist than man. Tall and imposing he loomed over her bed, and a noble figure in life he would have been, a true leader of men - a king, even. He pointed a finger at her.

“Heartless Hildfrith, hoodwinker of households homely, and hungry harrier of hoarded wealth and heinous men, I name thee.”

Hild shook a moment at the surprise, and at the start of the curse. Then her mind filled with thought and memories from nightmares worse than this. Then she laughed heartily, filling her chamber with the sound of womanly disbelief and mockery at the vision. She placed her mead bottle on the floor beside her bed.

“You’re no Thu! I’ve seen much worse than you. Begone, leftover apple pie, and do not bother me again.”

The ‘vision’ remained.  No matter, she thought. She had seen an octopus-like creature with a human face and sharp beak scuttling out of a bucket and over the floor. Not much made her afraid now, especially not the nightly mares that seemed to plague her over and over again.

“Begone I say! Next you will be telling me none of my line will live long!”

The vision remained, and said not a word. He only watched her. She gulped, even as the words escaped her lips, and sat up in the bed, taking a shawl and wrapping it around her shoulders as the cold air and the vision itself made her skin crawl. 

“Who are you? Why do you bother me thus, have I not suffered enough this night?”

The see-through man watched her with eyes like flaming coals. Still he said nothing. 

“Alright, you know Thu too? Talk to me then! Speak your tongue, speak what I have done to deserve this interruption of my well deserved sleep!”

“Thou dost know who I am,” the figure said, through a mouth that reeked of long decay and death. ”I come to warn thee, lesser woman of the Mark though thou be, thy actions will indeed doom thee and thy line, as it did me. For greed begets grief, and thus shall it be coming on wicked wings.”

“Greed? I am not greedy. I only ask that all pay their due and do not come a-begging at my door! I ask that those I employ work hard. I work harder than anyone! And come to that, who are you to lecture me, foolish Fengel?” Hild set back her shoulders. She was actually confident she could best the vision of this long-dead King. She had seen the red eyed talking black goat and lived, and worse! Whatever undigested meal and drink had taken a hold of her on this night, she’d still get her deserved sleep in peace. 

Fengel continued, “Aye. And half-witted Hildfrith, listen well. A fair warning I will give; for one chance will be given thee to set things aright, one chance only. Before this night is out and the stars are again veiled from sight, thou will be visited by three more spirits. Heed well what they show thee, and there may yet be hope for thee.”

Hild chuckled. “That’s going to be Waelden and Yllfa wearing white robes this time, don’t tell me. I’ve seen them in black already, in my dreams. Let them come!” The spirit of Fengel King gave her such a look that she almost hid under her blankets now. His gaze pierced her like arrows; hurting, sticking, judging. For a brief moment, she was afraid. 

Then he was done and gone, like mist dissipates under the morning sun. The room was empty and cold, and all the mist that still lingered was that of her own breath. 

‘It was the apple pie,” Hild thought, ‘or the mead. It was the stress of the fight… eh thing, and of the crowds. It was Brona being careless and lazy.’ She put her head back on the pillow. A good sleep would sort her out. Making herself comfortable she pulled her blankets in just the right position, and let her thoughts drift again to more wondrous things. She would make sure she watched more closely who was at the door in the future. Not that she truly wished ill upon anyone, but coin had to be made, reputation had to be maintained, and once you give out a finger, the hungry will take the whole hand - and the tavern with it. Maybe she would ask for a guard to keep beggars away from now on? She sighed and fell asleep again. 

 

 

There was a tap on the wall that woke her up this time. “Well listen to me then, I haven’t got all night. I’m not a child you know!”

Hild opened one eye. It was Ethel. Of course. Who else could it be, but one of that strange family? 

“Right, I am here to help. I have a lot to say and not much time to say it in, so I expect you to pay attention. No slouching now. We are off on a journey!” 

Hild shook her head, and put it back under the blankets. “If you wanted to help you wouldn’t have gone off gallivanting with your parents to whoever knows where, girl. You would have been cooking. Now away with you, and let me sleep!”

There was silence. Hild kept her head under the blankets. She was not having any more of this ghost nonsense. The blankets were rudely pulled back and Ethel shouted “Get up!” at the top of her girly voice, and yet it boomed like that of a warrior woman that left Hild with a ringing in her ears. She sat up automatically, unused to such behaviour towards her, and certainly not from this young girl, this dream vision, or spirit, whatever it was. A faint memory rushed through her mind of another, earlier time, where someone had shouted such at her. A faint memory of childhood times perhaps, something long tucked away and nearly forgotten? It lingered in her mind for a brief moment, until she looked at Ethel again, who was now sitting on the end of the bed and smiling almost sweetly and kindly to her. The girl’s skin was pale and nearly glowing in the starlight that seeped in through the slits in the window, and it left a twinkle in her eyes. 

“Come on now Hild. I wouldn’t do this for just anyone you know, but Brona is my friend and I think she deserves her mother back. It’s just a short trip after all, it’ll only take an hour or so. Up now, and we go!”

Looking Ethel up and down, Hild wondered where they were going with the girl dressed in a thin and floaty pale colored dress. Even her shoes were no more than dainty slippers. Surely no girl, or woman for that matter, would dress like that upon a cold winter’s night. She sighed, perhaps resigned to her fate of riding nightly mares again, whether she wanted to or not, and nodded to the girl.


“Right. Where are we going?”, she asked. 

Ethel smiled warmly. “That’s the spirit! Bring your shawl but you won’t really feel the cold all the time you are with me and my sunny personality.”

Hild did as she was bid, and also picked up a little spirit of her own in the form of the bottle on the floor. She clutched it closely in her hand, and took a sip of the spirits within. The mead tasted even better this time around. She rose to her feet and stood beside Ethel, who was still strangely afloat above the floor somehow.  

“Where are we going?” she repeated, and Ethel dared a mischievous smile and tilted her head as she answered with her usual carefree voice.

“Oh, only back some thirty years I think. Back to when you were even younger than me! Let's see if we can turn some things around this time, eh?”

Hild laughed heartily. “Oh this sounds like fun. Alright Ethel, you must have a magic touch upon your hands, because I can only go forward in time, not backwards, unless it be in memory.”

Ethel held out a hand to her. “I’ll show you.”, she said and Hild suspiciously took her hand, and yet another swig from her bottle, which left a honeyed taste on her tongue. “Lead on then.”

There was a sudden blast of icy air as the windows flew wide open, as if a strong wind had forced them. The cold went away the instant she held Ethel’s hand, but strangely she felt no heat from the girl’s pale and ghostly skin. Then they both rose from the floor and seemed to be walking through the air itself. Not only was Ethel floating, now Hild was too. She squeaked out a noise that sounded more like a mouse than that of a woman as she couldn’t feel the floor anymore. At the window’s edge two horses waited impatiently. Two see-through horses who pawed at the air with ghostly hooves, and snorted steamy looking breath into the night air. Hild mounted the horse Ethel pointed to, and the ‘bubble’ of warmth still enveloped her even in this freezing winter night. 

“Now away to the north, eh.” Ethel said with a wink. “No standing up or dismounting, keep in your seat, and definitely no smoking. We are ready.” Ethel tutted disapprovingly as she saw the bottle, but said no more of it, to Hild’s great comfort. She might need that bottle more than she thought this night. 

With a gasp of surprise, Hild looked down as they rode off. The ghost horses were soon floating high above Bancross, and she could see the whole village spread out like a carpet under her…. the Mead Hall, the Garrison, the farms and store and the Roaring Dragon itself.

“It looks like a child’s toy! All of Bancross could fit in my hand!” she gasped and laughed in wonder. “We’re flying like birds!” 

Ethel chuckled. “Oww, I hadn’t noticed that before, but you are right. All the folk will be smaller than toys, asleep in their beds. Well, apart from Brona.”

Hild did not answer that. For a moment a small pang of guilt struck her that this midwinter saw her daughter up working into the small hours, and to the brink of exhaustion. But that moment passed, and they flew… over fields and plains, grass and moors. Hild held tight to her mount, pressing her thighs against its seemingly substantial sides, and occasionally grasping at it’s neck or flowing mane, at which it snorted loudly in protest, and threatened to buck her off. There was music in that air, like the stars themselves were singing icily beautiful songs.

“Alright, alright. I will make a wish! I wish I don’t fall off!” Hild grudgingly uttered. 

They passed a crowd of snow-riders also heading north, each with charcoal eyes and a carrot nose. They waved, but were moving more swiftly and were soon out of sight. A few other spirits moved about in the air on missions or whims of their own. Is this what the spirit world looks like, Hild wondered.

Then they were flying over the Entwade, and Hild could see the familiar houses and fields of Snowbourn in the distance. The Entwade river below them looked like little more than the rills children dig in soft earth and sand when it rains, to create little rivers of their own. 

“You were born here I believe,” Ethel turned to look at Hild, as her horse lowered in the air in a sweeping circle in preparation to land. Hild narrowed her eyes a moment.  She wasn’t even that bothered by the descent onto the grass close to the Mead Hall. There was something ‘wrong’ with Snowbourn? The houses looked… different. Trees and bushes were in the wrong places, and there were some older houses that she knew had been torn down in recent years, and yet here they stood still, in all their rotten stature and disrepair.

“Ah yes,” Ethel had noticed Hild’s confusion. “Well we have gone back some twenty eight years, as I told you. This is Snowbourn Past.”

The horses faded into mist as soon as they were parted from their riders. Ethel stretched her arms out, and moved her neck a moment as if relaxing it. She adjusted her dress and cloak, then headed off to one of the side streets with a spring in her steps. 

“I have never been here you know. I lived in Floodwend until recently. But it looks a nice enough place for most folk, eh? And we are here for you anyway. Watch and learn!” 

With that, Ethel walked a little further along the street until she came to a winding side lane. Hild followed close behind, remembering more and more with each footstep towards that house. Then both the guide and the guided stopped in their tracks in front of a building that Hild knew.

It was a poor looking house, with shutters half hanging off their hinges, and a battered door. A woman stood on the steps of the house, her shawl and arms wrapped about her to help keep her warm on the chilly winter’s day. Her dress was old and well used, but not tattered. She still had some pride in her appearance. The auburn hair was swept up in a loose bun at the nape of her neck, but still quite tidy. She looked right through the nearby Ethel and Hild to a small child playing with a rag doll behind them. 

“Now now, Hildy, be careful with that doll. I know you love her but you will hug her to pieces carrying on like that.”

Ethel turned to her companion, about to say something about her own toys, but then was silent. “Lets just watch this out first, eh?” 

Drawing her own shawl around her shoulders in a close imitation of the woman at the door… her own mother, Hild nodded in a subdued manner. “I remember,” she said faintly. There was a tear on her cheek as she watched the scene unfold before her eyes. 

The child turned to her mama, cradling the brown wool haired doll to her closely. “I will be careful mama. And thank you. She is so lovely. But may I go play with the other children now?”

The mother smiled and nodded. “Come back before it’s dark though dear. We have a nice warming pottage for dinner.”

“She made you that doll?” Ethel asked gently.

“Aye, to make me feel safer. My papa was ill that year. He had caught a fever and couldn’t work. My mama took on extra work outside the home, washing and cleaning, to get us food on the table. It was a bad time. He never really recovered. Only lived four more winters.”

Ethel nodded with some understanding of fever from her own young life.

“My mama said he wasn’t that strong a man anyway. She loved him though, and said that was all that mattered.”

“You can be strong as an ox and still the fever can take you. My mama fought like mad to stay with us. But sometimes whatever you have, it’s just not enough.”

Shaking her head, Hild nodded at her younger self, who was about to disappear round the corner of a house, heading for the crossroads. “You want me to see ‘that’ again, don’t you. That time of disgrace?”

“No Hild. I want to show you how you did what you could.” Ethel reached out a hand to draw the older woman along with her. “You have been living in that moment for far too long.”

Rounding the corner of the house the invisible duo moved fast down the lane to a small grassed area, not that far from where the merchants set up on market days. There were nine children in all, both boys and girls, and ranging in age from around seven to twelve winters. The ringleader was a heavier built boy who, though not seeming overloud, was determined to have his own way. Close by his side was his ‘girlfriend’ and her coterie. A couple of lanky looking lads stood to the back. And young Hildy approached them warily. 

“I’ve told you before Hildy pildy, you are not joining our gang.” Said the ‘girlfriend’ spitefully as she got closer. She turned her back on the younger girl. Two of her group did likewise, while the others and the boys looked on with a smirk on their lips.

“You are too young to join us,” said the leader. “Maybe come back in a year or two.” He waved a hand dismissively, and headed off towards the well to draw himself a drink of fresh water.

Young Hild hugged her doll tighter and pressed her lips together. “But you said, you said I could join this winter Jeevika. I won’t be any bother. I just want to play with you.”

Jeevika, one of the outer coterie turned at that. “No I didn’t say that you little liar. You are a weak little girl, from a poor family. You’re useless. Why would we want you?”

With that the other girls turned around, jeering ‘Liar, liar, useless little liar’ at Hild, who stood her ground bravely, but had tears on her cheeks, and a shaking lip. With the back of her hand the girl tried to dry off some of the tears before they froze on her skin. “I’m not a useless liar”, she whispered, more to herself than anyone else.  

Ethel moved closer to the grown up Hild, who also had a tear on her cheek. “That one is a real coward, only wanting to look good to her friends. They are just bullies.” she stated. 

Encouraged by the others, Jeevika suddenly ran forward, snatching the doll by the brown wool hair and swinging it in circles above her head. Hild had no time to react, and no strength in her fingers to keep the doll in her hand from the older, stronger girl. “Hildy’s little baby,” she cried out, then ran after the boy towards the well. And there she dropped the doll down the well, where it hit the water with a little “splash” deep down.

“Noooo, Brona…!” Hildy cried out and stretched out her hands as she fell down on her knees in despair and sobbed with a broken heart. Her beloved doll, her only friend in this cruel world - her little Brona - was lost in the cold, wet darkness of a deep well.

Adult Hild hung her head and sniffed as her own tears ran down her cheek. “I was too small. I was too poor… and I was useless.” she said softly. 

“You still believe that? What you were going through then made you stronger than any of them. They just didn’t want you to know that.”

And Ethel…. Ethel at once became solid of form. She was not more that ghostly visage, she looked more like herself - the Ethel Hild knew. And she went on towards the young, crying girl on the ground. “Do not worry. Let me show you how we deal with bullies, Hildy,” she said to the distraught child, with a grin on her face. 

The group were now all looking at Ethel, wondering who this slightly older girl, who had literally stepped out of nowhere, was and where she came from.  

“You!” Ethel spoke loud and clear as she pointed at Jeevika. “Bully girl. What sort of person are you that anyone would want to play with you? You are two faced, a false friend. Telling Hildy you want to play with her when the others are busy, making false promises to her.” 

Jeevika’s jaw dropped in shock and fear of the sudden accusation, which she knew deep inside was true. She was indeed a coward, and she backed away to what she thought was the safety of the group. Now the ‘girlfriend’ stepped forward to meet the challenge, knowing she would be backed by the lads to put this strange lass in her place again. 

“Who are you? Some sort of lost princess or something, or a pauper who has stolen a fine gown fit for summer dancing only. Go, while you still can walk. This is our place.”

“She beat me into the ground that day, after Jeevika had thrown the doll down the well.” Adult Hild spoke falteringly. And the others stood around, shouting ‘Get up, get up you useless little thing!’ They wouldn’t let me rescue Brona. They broke my nose, and tore my dress.”

In that moment it seemed the natural roles were reversed, with Ethel the adult and Hild only a little older than her child self.

“And you have carried that sense of worthlessness ever since? Oh Hild, you have sought to protect yourself by being hard of heart, and by coin in your pocket. But even I can see that spark of light is still in you.”

Strutting forward, the ‘girlfriend’ tossed back her straw blonde locks, and pouted her strawberry lips in quite an ugly manner. Her hands were on her hips. Her boyfriend stood close behind and watched with a knowing grin. His girl could fight, he knew that. He had taught her himself. But she was also reckless, and downright stupid sometimes, he thought. He wondered how this would end. 

“Still here, princess?” 

She aimed a clawed hand at Ethel’s face, and a foot went forward to try and trip the older girl. Her coterie drew closer as the battle began. Ethel skillfully dodged the clawed hand like it was just a whiff of air. She moved with such ease, such agility, that one could think that she had never done anything else in her life, but training and training for such a moment. Taking a quick step to the left as the girl tried to regain her balance, Ethel punched her with a heavy fist straight on the jaw. There was an audible crashing sound as her fist slammed into flesh and bone, and a few drops of blood was released as the girl collapsed like a sack of flour to the ground. She was knocked out, and she barely had time to see the fist coming.

The other girls and lads gasped and ran, leaving only the leader behind. He almost grinned, and looked relaxed and confident enough as he stepped forward to check that his fallen favourite was not badly hurt. “I haven’t seen anything quite like that before,” he said, kneeling beside the prone form. “That was a good punch.”

“I hardly touched her glass jaw” Ethel replied. “And you could do far better than someone like her. There is more to folk than pretty hair and spite in their hearts you know.”

The boy nodded and rose to his feet, lifting his ‘girlfriend’ in his arms. “It was self defense. I saw that. I will say that to Saeunn’s parents. And I could do better, you say? Do you have a boyfriend, Shieldmaiden?”

Etthel laughed loudly. “You’re not a bad sort, but eh… no chance. And keep an eye on the little one, will you?”

The boy looked at Hildy for a moment, who was still trembling and crying, and painfully so. Her eyes had grown red from the salty tears, and they just wouldn’t stop coming as she thought of her beloved Brona, lost and all alone in that dark, dank well.  

“Wait here, Hildy,” he said to her with a wink of his green eyes. He moved a little closer. “I will come back soon, and we can get your doll out of the well, aye?”

Hildy’s bottom lip was trembling, but she nodded. She sat down beside the well, hugging her knees as she rocked back and forth. “Thank you, Wigthegn.” she whispered, though she had not much hope left in her tiny, broken heart.

Ethel looked over towards the market area where the rest of the group had retreated. They stood in an unbelieving huddle and some of the girls, including Jeevika, were crying, perhaps in fear and shock over how quick and easy their friend had been knocked down. But one of them stepped forward, looking to Wigthegn a moment. “I will sit with Hild until you return,” she said. 

The boy nodded, and walked away towards the road where Saeunn lived, still carrying her in his arms.  

And Ethel took a step back, and became less solid again. She turned to the grown Hild, who was looking at her younger self with tears in her eyes, yet she was visibly confused at the unravelling scene.

“But it didn’t happen like that? She kicked -me- to the ground and beat me senseless, not the other way around!”, Hild said. 

“No?” replied Ethel. “You were young and alone, and you did your best. saw you knock that girl to the floor right now. Those trying to hide saw you do it too.”

“But it was you who did that, Ethel!”

Ethel shook her head. “No. It was your wish that did it. You can’t let bullies stand unchallenged, but you have to find who they are. Half that group were being bullied by Saeunn as well. You are their hero now. It was that point in your life that stopped you becoming who you are meant to be. You walked away with a sense of shame and lack of importance that haunted your growing years, and left a bitterness inside. That is all gone now.”

 

 

It was an almost unbelieving Hild who mounted her ghost horse for the ride back to Bancross. The snowy scenery passed by as they flew under a moonlit sky. The fields of her youth gave way to an Entwash crossing of her twenties and then to a Bancross of her present year. She couldn’t speak. Though she senses Ethel’s eyes on her, she was totally wrapped in her own thoughts. If only she had actually done that, and knocked out the spiteful Saeunn instead. How different would her life have turned out?

“Rest a little, Hild. My mama will see you soon. Just think about what you saw. And keep wishing for something better, eh? There’s always another way.”

As they dismounted at the bedroom window, Ethel reached over and gave Hild a hug. It was a strange feeling for the woman, but she just nodded. “Thank you.” she whispered in a small voice. 

And a smiling Ethel faded away, like the mist of dawn. 

 

A Yuletide Saga of Sins and Spirits : Part three here...