[Nogrod]

“You listen good now. It will be a complicated story but in the end you’ll see it makes sense if you just listen closely.”

Edelfried took a bite of the apple her aunt had handed her and nodded.

“This world was created a long time ago. A long time before our memory serves us. In the beginning there was the Ainulindalë but even before that there was Ilúvatar, or Eru as the old myths name the being. And it had made the Ainur, the holy ones who formed the Ainulindalë, their song of creation. But there was evil already present there. And what’s even more important, there was the void already in existence and into which this song entered into.

The evil twisted the song and therefore the creation went wrong. For centuries and millennia the good forces of this world fought the evil forces. The ages came and passed over; the evil prevailed at times but the good had their victories too. But then for some reason these mythical forces retreated from this world. Some say they had had enough with those ever recurring battles of good and evil while others say they just lost their interest in this world, some others hold that the battle moved on to other realities, other universes, other aspects of being, to other possible worlds than this one we live in.”

“I’ve heard some of those stories before… I think you have told me some… and uncle Vernon as well… but, what have they got to do with my nightmares of those people suffering so that my heart feels like breaking and I shiver... and my stomach turns upsidedown?”

“Be patient Edelfried. What is important is that the great powers of good and evil are gone. Forever it seems.

And do not forget that the void is and stays. It was there with Ilúvatar, and some say even before Ilúvatar. Anyhow, it is this void – the primal being – that draws people to it these ages when Good and Evil are gone. The time of men is a time of the void.”

Edelfried looked at her aunt totally confused. “But you promised to clarify things! I mean… I thought I was moved because of the good and that I feared the evil. That was why I came to you aunt Clennan!”

Aunt Clennan looked at the little girl with a great sadness in her eyes and stroked her hair once again and then leaving her hand on her shoulder.

“Oh no, my child. No no. You were not brought here because of the good. The good is no more. Neither is the evil. But you came here because of the passion, the compassion, love. And that is the opposite of loneliness, coldness and apathy. These are the powers that now rule the world, the world of men.”

Edelfried felt herself totally at lost.

“What is it you are talking about aunt Clennan?”

“I’m talking of the reason why you will have nightmares the coming night as well. But we’ll do what we can… I told you this wasn’t going to be easy. I'll tell you some tales of the Ainulindalë and of the valar, of the firstborn and the birth of men... of the different ages now gone and the destiny they forged us... Calm down and listen. We still have time today.”


*~*


The werewolves gathered in the centre of the quiet village spotting a house they had planned.

“It must be right this time. After her there will be no little girls in the village…” The biggest one whispered to its companions.

“In we go then?” the other one said.

The biggest one nodded.

The wolves crept silently into the house and upstairs. Finally they came to a door and pushed it open in silence.

“There she is… I’ll pick her” The werewolf sneaked silently beside the bed and with one incredibly fast move wrapped her into her sheets shutting her mouth at the same time. The girl struggled but the werewolf had no problem pulling her tight to it’s chest keeping her from kicking and biting, which she surely tried.

The shadowy creatures left the building with their prey as quietly as they had entered. They stopped back at the well by the oak-tree.

“Now what?” asked one of them. “I’m not particularly enthusiastic with this business on little girls. Give me warriors to butcher… like that Macalaure…”

“Shut up!” Hissed the biggest one. “This I no mere girlie. This is the most dangerous enemy we have in this village… You’ll see it soon enough... Throw her down!”

Diamond fell to the ground and her sheets loosened letting her free.

“You vile creatures! You will pay for this!” Diamond yelled as she struggled herself free. “My dad would have never allowed you to…”

“Yeah, your dad…, remember what we did to him? Now it’s your turn!” With that the biggest one caught the little girl into his arms and picked her eyes from their sockets. The girl was howling from pain.

“Not too bad for a beginner, uh?” one wolf jested.

“Sad we couldn’t train her to be one of us…” another one grinned.

The biggest one looked at the others with fiery eyes for distracting it’s scene. Finally it continued turning towards the still screaming and kicking little girl. “How many times we need to kill you seers? Let the GW know that we will do this as many times we need to!”

With that the biggest wolf threw the screaming and shaking Di to the other werewolves. “Tie her and throw her into the well or whatever…”

They slit her throat open and threw the trembling and now wailing body into the well.

Before they left, the biggest one laid Diamond’s pearly eyes to the brim of the well for a little show-off.

*~*

Alive:

+ A Little Green, a fortune-teller - folklorist - herb-grower - unofficial therapist, advisor and midwife, most presumably a witch, the gammer (the eccentric mother of Lommy & Mac)
+ Shastanis Althreduin, astrologer/fortune teller, gaffer (Greenie's husband, father of Lommy & Mac)
+ Isabellkaya, a gammer who loves asparagus and throwing knives (Shasta's sister)

+ Thinlómien, a bird tamer, adult (married to Nilp, Macalaure's sister)
+ Nilpaurion Felagund, a house-bound sandwich-maker, adult (married to Lommy)
+ Eönwë, Rikae's unofficial helper-person, 22 (their son)
+ Kath, tavern owner, 20 (their daughter, Brinn's life partner)
+ Satansaloser 2005, Lommy's assistant, 17 (their daughter)

+ Rikae, a lumberjack, adult (married to Macalaure, Roa's sister)
+ the phantom, sheep herder with Legate, 21 (their adopted son, Di's brother)

+ Lhunardawen, healer's apprentice, 20 (Cailín's daughter, good twin of Durelin)
+ Durelin, poisoner 20 (Lhuna's evil twin, daughter of Cailín)


+ Roa_Aoife, school teacher, adult (mother of Legate, Brinn and Kit, wife of Nogrod, sister of Rikae)
+ Brinniel, Greenie's apprentice, 21 (Legate's sister and Kitanna's twin sister, Kath's life partner)
+ Legate of Amon Lanc, sheep herder with tp, 19 (brother of Brinn & Kit, Sally's boyfriend, Agan's ex-bf)

+ Lalaith, chocolate maker, adult (sister of Nerwen, mother of Aganzir, Volo's daughter)

+ Mormegil, adult (son of Volo, husband of Celuien, father of Gwath and McCaber)
+ Celuien, a candle maker, adult (wife of morm, mother of Gwath and McCaber)
+ Gwathagor, a highwayman, 20 (McCaber's big brother)
+ McCaber, a henchman, 18 (Gwath's little brother, dates Aganzir)


The dead:
Eomer of the Rohirrim, adult (Cailín's husband, Lhuna's and Dury's father); An innocent beheaded by the werewolves on Night1
Nogrod, the judge, adult (Roa's husband, father of Legate, Brinn and Kit); An innocent torn in two by werewolves on Night1
Nerwen, the healer, adult (sister of Lalaith, Volo's daughter); An innocent nailed to the oak-tree on Day1.
Volo, the guy who knows everything about staying alive, the gaffer (Father of Nogrod, morm, Nerwen and Lalaith); The seer mutilated and eyes pulled off on Night2.
Kitanna, a tavern wench 21 (Legate's sister and Brinn's twin sister); An innocent ripped into pieces and thrown into the well on Night2.
Aganzir, the little match girl, 15 (Lalaith's daughter, dates McCaber); A werewolf burnt alive on Day2.
Macalaure, apple farmer, adult (married to Rikae, Lommy's brother); The ranger overpowered by four werewolves in a fight and torn to pieces on Night3.
The Ka, a dog whipper (a fatherless and ageless little child of Lalaith); An innocent impaled to a spear her doll in her hand on Night3.
Cailín, guinea pig breeder, adult (Nilp's sister); A werewolf melted into a candle-wax and burnt on Day3.
Diamond 18, dissolute, 11 (phantom's pre-teen littlesister); The seer eyes picked out (once again, what a bore...), throat slit and thrown into the well on Night4.


Day4 begins.

Let the words do the deeds.