A Song for Winter: Holiday - Yule

    According to the inter-portal calendar in the adventurers guild, yule had started. Normally William would have been ecstatic for one of his favorite times of the year but there was no joy to be found for him this year. His clan was dead, he was trapped on a planet far away from his daughter, and William had lost his eye recently so he felt no real reason to be joyous this year. Yet out of obligation William gathered a few supplies before leaving town; a couple of cuts of beef, a few wineskins of mead, a small loaf of bread, and a fire top grill for cooking.

 

    William walked until he could no longer see the lights of civilization. After foraging for wood to burn, he started a fire with a piece of flint and one of his griffin-hilted knives. While the fire burned William carved a rough wooden idol of the Allfather. A tear escaped William’s only good eye as he remembered how good his mother, Katherine Wintersong, would carve the idols every year. Using only the best pieces of wood and sacred ceremonial knives she would bring the Allfather’s likeness to life from the wood. Realizing that he would never see such special pieces of art caused another tear to escape William’s good eye.

   

    The fire burned down to the coals as William finished his carving of the Allfather. Setting aside the wooden idol, William placed a small metal grill over the flames upon which he placed the few cuts of meat he had brought with him. This was by far nowhere near the feast Clan Drakonas would throw every year for yule. Spits of meat would be turning for days while mead and ale flowed freely with every feasting, singing, dancing, and celebrating for twelve days and nights. Another tear escaped William’s good eye as he realized that he would never attend such a feast ever again.

 

    As the meat finished cooking William set up the roughly carved wooden idol of the Allfather at the edge of the fire. In front of the idol, he set a plate upon which he placed the choice piece of meat and half the loaf of bread he had purchased earlier. Next to the plate, William placed a silver goblet that he filled with mead from one of the wineskins. This small offering in no way measured up to the traditional tribute the Allfather would receive but it was all he had. William owed the Allfather so much more than this for granting the folf his divine favor and he had no right to ask any favors but he cried out into the night, begging the Allfather to send him any sign that his daughter, Jaina, was safe. Just as the fire died down completely a small red-furred squirrel with long ears scampered down from a nearby tree. The squirrel chittered at William as it dropped a small piece of rolled-up paper at his feet before grabbing the plate of food and goblet at the foot of the idol and disappearing into the night.

 

    “Jaina is safe but misses her dad.”