Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was cold. Too cold. But that wouldn't stop him. The wraiths had picked up a trail, and he wouldn't rest until she was found.

Viego had been trekking through the biting cold for a while now. He could simply ride along the mists, but he embraced the chill. The pain helped remind him of his mission. Besides, it wasn't even close to the suffering he had endured when she died. 

As the man continued to stomp through the snow, he barely paid attention to his surroundings. It was all the same anyway. Snow for miles, the occasional hill or mountain, and maybe some fir trees. The constant never-ending wind rushing past his ears just added to the feeling of monotony. 

But as he walked with the wraiths alongside him, he heard something different. A small squeak coming from his left. As he listened more intently, he could hear a few voices crying out at the same time. He strode over to where the noises were coming from, but there was nothing to be found. Then another squeak sounded. Viego looked down and realized whatever was making the noises was under the snow.

"Interesting…" he muttered.

He kneeled down on one knee as he began to lightly dig. It didn't take long before his fingers brushed against something other than the powdered snow. He dug a little more in order to get a good look at it. It was the back of a small animal, the same color as the snow that trapped it. As he touched it though, it didn't react. It stayed still. Viego took off his glove before he felt it again. The fur was extremely soft, but the creature was cold. No body heat. No breathing. It was dead.

The man lifted the body to try and look at the front of the creature only to reveal many tiny animals. A flurry of squeaks and protests came from the babies as he took away what was probably their mother. Viego examined all the animals. They were almost spherical in shape, with a large mouth covering most of their faces. The babies had small beady eyes, all staring up at him and squeaking violently. Almost as if they were trying to scare him away. It was pathetic, but intriguing how the small creatures challenged the Ruined King. Almost admirable.

Viego put the small body down and noticed its twirled horns. They were dark brown and very hardy, same as any goat or ram would have. But seeing these horns on something so small was strange to him. He wondered if the creature's offspring would grow horns when they grew older. Perhaps the brothers would have bigger horns than their sisters. That was when he realized that they would likely never grow horns. Their mother was gone. They were essentially carrion. The man’s mind whirled as he thought, the wraith’s voices sinking in. 

It’s your fault you know.

“No it wasn’t.” Viego retorted.

She abandoned them.

“That’s not true either, she seemed to be shielding her children.”

From what?

“The snow, the cold, anything!” He was starting to get annoyed now. The wraiths weren’t usually this active. What had set them off?

Their coats kept the children from the frost while their mother laid on them lifeless. Who’s to say they needed their mother for warmth?

Viego sat there wondering. Why would she do this? Could she have perhaps been hiding them from predators? But this was so high up, and out in the middle of nowhere. The place was barren, desolate. What predators would come up here just for some food? The only things up here were…

“The wraiths…” Viego whispered to himself. 

The spirits began to whine to Viego. It wasn’t us. You gave the order to clear you a path, no matter the obstacle, They hushed. Even the most timid of the spirits whispered their doubts. Was this any different?

“It was simply a mother with her children, what do you mean by ‘was it any different’?” Viego hissed.

And what if they were human?

“I–” 

He tried to snap back at the wraiths, but found he had nothing to say.

The wraiths continued, but Viego could no longer hear their protests over the quiet yips of the babies. What was he to do now? Should he leave the creatures here? Would they even survive with no mother? Likely not. Should he leave them somewhere else? But where would he even do that? Should he take them home? He had no idea what this creature even was though, let alone how to take care of one. And yet, that was probably the best option. As he pondered, he felt another tug in his chest. The shard was around here somewhere. He had to find her. 

As he stood up, he felt a weight on his ankle. One of the babies had clinged on to his leg. Viego tried to shake it off, but it refused to let go. He looked longingly towards the direction the shard was in. He had to get there. But, what if she found out about this incident? That he was killing innocent creatures?

His missing heart ached at the thought of seeing his lover cry or even angered. And as much as he wanted to hold the last of her in his arms, to find her now, he couldn’t imagine making her dismayed. So, with black tears in his eyes, he turned towards the creature on his leg and gently detached it. He picked it up by its scruff to look at it in detail. It seemed to be blind in one eye, as evident by the scratch across the left side of its face. It was even softer than the mother as well, almost as good as his kingly Camavoran robes once were. Almost. And, he hated to admit it, but it was cute too.

He sighed and wiped the tears from his face before kneeling down to the others. He counted five in the hole, plus the one in his arms made six creatures. He was contemplating how to take them back when the wraith's voices finally reached him again.

It was unbearable. He dropped the creature to cover his ears. A futile action. He had been living with these souls for a millenia, and they had rarely been this loud. They had started off as whispers in his ear, doubting and taunting him. But the more he blocked them out, they only became louder. A cacophony of voices all shouted different things, from blame to hatred to anguish. He couldn’t hear his own thoughts as the voices became louder and louder, drowning out everything around him until he saw an inky abyss blocking his vision. He grabbed at the hole in his chest.

He couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t breathe

He couldn’t breathe

Just before he saw the last of the outside light fade, he again saw the creatures. They were terrified. Of him. 

His panic turned to an angry resolve as he sat up from his huddled position and physically dispelled the wraiths. The dark trap the souls were trying to force him into flew to bits as the wraiths all cowered. Viego stood and turned to see behind him where the souls had retreated, steeled eyes glowing a deep green.

“I AM IN CONTROL! YOU FEAR ME!” He shouted to the wraiths. 

They hid behind each other, slowly trying to sink into the snow. Viego’s expression dropped as he heard a small squeak. He turned back to the animals to see them huddled near each other at the furthest side of the hole. They were all panicked, shutting their eyes tight as the former king looked down towards them.

Oh my love, what have I done? He thought. 

He fell to his knees, cautiously holding out his hand towards the snow in an attempt to reach out towards them. Then he stopped. He had to wait for them to come to him. He remembered her telling him that much. So, instead he held his palm up, and laid it gently in front of the animals. It would take time, he was aware, but he could wait a little bit. 

The bravest of the creatures slowly wriggled out of the fluffy pile it was trapped in and inched towards the hand. After a few seconds, it finally reached Viego and fixed its eyes onto his outstretched fingers. Hesitantly, it put a clawed hand onto his index finger. It looked up at him with a wide smile, tongue lolling out of its mouth and stubby tail wagging. Viego let out a small sigh of relief as he took his other hand and rubbed the top of the creature’s head. It made a squeak of pleasure before letting out a large yawn. The man then turned to the wraiths with a fire in his eyes. The spirits knew this as a warning. One with fatal implications.

"I need a basket. Can you find one?" He asked firmly.

The wraiths were confused, he could feel it. But they obeyed. Just as they always had even before death. A minute or so later a basket materialized from the mist. It seemed to be handwoven, with some kind of symbol on the bottom. Must have taken it from a nearby village, he thought.

Viego looked towards the hole. The creatures were still squeaking, but this time their tiny voices seemed laced with sadness. He took off his jacket and used it to cushion the basket. That way the material wouldn't poke them. With the basket in hand, he slowly picked up the babies. One after another they were set in the basket. The scarred one tried again to cling to him, but after a few strokes on its back it loosened its grip enough that he could lift it up too. 

It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but that was good. The body heat of the others would help keep them warm. His jacket seemed to insulate the basket a little bit as well. The man hoped it would help.

He slowly raised the basket and began to walk. He held the babies in front of him so his back took the brunt of the chilled wind. As he took the first step though, the crying only worsened. So he reached in with his left hand and began to stroke the creatures. They leaned into the touch as the crying lightened up. The man smiled a bit without realizing. He strode towards the wraiths with vigor.

"Take them home." The man ordered the spirits as he handed them the basket.

“And don’t let any harm come to them.” He ordered. 

And with that, the basket almost melted into the mist, taking the baby poros along with it.

Viego watched the mist withdraw before turning to face the wind, his hair no longer whipping into his face. His blackened heart could feel her. He was so close. As he continued to hike towards the location, he had one thought in his mind.

Isolde always did like animals. 

Chapter Text

Mama wasn't moving. Why wasn't she moving?

One of us let out a sneeze. She would always smile when one of us sneezed, claiming that it was cute to see. But she wasn't smiling. When one of us was sad, she would hold them in her paws and lick them. She'd say she was licking away the sadness. It always made us giggle when she kissed our nose. But as we cried, she didn't lick it away. When we wanted to know what we'd look like when we grew up, she'd point to her horns.

"Some day, you will have horns like mine. But knowing how amazing my kids are, you'll all grow horns even longer than these!"

But now we couldn't reach her horns. We could barely see under mama and all the snow. So we stayed together, huddling to keep warm, and waited.

Mama had said there was danger. She yelled for all of us to gather to her, saying a predator was coming. She had warned us about predators, but we hadn't ever seen any. Mama said this area was safe, what changed? We were confused but came to mama as she dug a hole. She told us to hop in, but as we did we saw a blackness. It was like an avalanche of a weird, moving cloud. It swam through the air like a fish as the white snow kept falling. When we were all in, mama cried out before jumping in on top of us. 

And now, she was as cold as the snow that covered them all.

The storm sealed us in, covering the top of the hole with snow, so we waited. We heard scary noises from above, but we couldn't do anything about it. We didn't even know what it was.

Then we heard the snow crunching. Something was walking towards us. We heard the shifting of snow, and then a thing took mama. How dare it take our mama! We didn't care if our yips were quiet, or if our horns weren't in yet, we shouted at the thing.

"Don't touch mama!" We yelled.

But it didn't listen.

It took mama away. And now? Now we couldn't do anything. Mama was gone.

Brother attacked the thing, but was unsuccessful. He was simply picked up by it and carried in its arms.

That's when the black snow cloud appeared again. Brother was dropped as we saw the thing breath heavily as it struggled against the cloud. The cloud swirled around him like a tongue. It was terrifying.

Then it screamed, and the cloud went away. We huddled even closer together, pushing away from the thing as far as we could. Then it lowered its paw into the hole. Sister went up to the paw and touched it, apparently making peace with the thing. After a bit, we were put into another hole one at a time. The snow felt weird, but we didn't care. We were still together. Then, the hole raised into the air. It was a little scary, but we stayed strong. Maybe this thing would help mama be warm again. Maybe that's why it took her. Maybe It's keeping us warm while mama gets better.

Then, it was all dark. It was so cold. Colder than any snow storm, any avalanche, any winds we had endured. We cried in the freezing darkness. But we were still together, so we snuggled up with each other, crying in pain from the black cloud.

The wraiths couldn't stop themselves from trying to conquer their king. It was like an instinct, a primal desire to control. But now? Now Viego was mad. So when the king gave them the fluffy creatures, they obeyed the command to take them home. They didn't want to make his mood worse. But as they traveled, the things began to make noises again. It was really bad, they almost seemed to be in pain. 

The problem was that the wraiths had no idea how to make the crying stop. Then one of them had an idea. Viego stopped the noises once before, maybe he could do it again. So they began to slink over to where they sensed their master. 

They climbed up the glacier speedily, trying not to leave the creatures in the mist while also keeping them from falling out of the basket. The noises had calmed down a bit now that they were no longer covered, but the sound was still going.

When they reached the top, they saw their king holding his wife's fetter, taking the form of an ivory comb, and facing his enemies. They didn't look that scary, not as scary as them at least. They tried to stay out of it and wait out the battle, but everyone heard the crying and looked to the wraiths. So they gave up on sneaking and slithered up to Viego. 

One of them took their humanoid form, with a torso sprouting from the mist and arms holding the basket up to the king. The wraith's head looked towards him as the animals continued to cry. Viego snarled as he opened his mouth.

"...You've got to be kidding me."

Chapter Text

Hey guys, I suppose I owe you an explanation.

Recently my physical health has plummeted below sea level. I believe I have anemia, even though I have not been physically diagnosed. My body is in constant pain, my head is either so foggy I can't think or in so much pain I feel like it will explode. I also am struggling with lightheadedness to the point that sometimes when I stand up from a chair or get out of bed, my vision goes black and I fall. I haven't passed out yet, so that's good. I love writing, and will continue to work on this story as well as my others as soon as I can, but it might be a while. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier.

I love you all. Stay safe.

SaltDragon