Hallowed

Snow was falling gently over all of us. The moon shined bright behind the grey clouds, illuminating the only thing anyone actually cared about. The only thing we were braving the cold for. Gale.

We were gathered on the plateau with the villagers for Gale’s funeral. Her body lay wrapped in silver linen burning by the force of her pyre. I remembering watching as the villagers carried her up here. Their eyes dropped so low it was if her death tore them all. But the worst was just one.

I was standing next to Erik with his hand in mine. He hadn’t stop crying since his mom died, and by now, he had run out of tears. Honestly, Erik just looked mad.

I’d never seen a Norse funeral before, but it was more depressing than I’d ever wanted to see. Nobody spoke. Nobody did anything but watch the body burn. It was awful. Even as warm as the fire was and how great the rosemary being burned smelled, I couldn’t stand to be around there any longer. But I stayed. I stayed for Erik.

Abby didn’t feel the same. She stayed in the cave during all of the funeral rites. She only showed herself once to show respect to Gale. Now, she was slinked back against the mountain side, her eyes dropped to the ground.

Chris was with me. He was still extremely weak, yet he had forced himself up just to make it here. He had a lot of his weight leaned against me while we watched. I didn’t complain. He had almost killed himself trying to save her. The least I could do was support him.

Ulrich, Cass, and Jimmy were nearby. They didn’t know Gale as well as the rest of us but knew what she meant, so they suffered through the winter cold for us. And I mean suffered. As the pyre burned away to nothing, the snow began to fall harder and faster. A blizzard was coming.
The village waited until the pyre crashed on top of itself before they started trudging through the snow back to the village. Once the village was cleared, only we false gods remained. Cass was back into Ulrich, who has his arms and half cloak wrapped around her. Abby stayed in the same spot as before, not really paying attention to the snow. Jimmy stood looking out over the ocean. He didn’t look at all hindered by the cold. He was the only one without some kind of fur on. I was with Chris. He followed suit with Ulrich and was using his own body heat to keep me warm.

We all stood, listening to the constant flow of ever growing wind. I wasn’t sure why we weren’t going back to the cave. It wasn’t like we had any real reason to stay out here. We really didn’t have any reason to do anything at the moment.

“We can’t stay,” Jimmy said suddenly, almost yelling to get his voice over the wind. “Not after this.”

He was right. This was our real first loss. Our first failure. It was on all of us, even though Abby blamed herself. We were supposed to keep the village from harm, and this one loss did more harm than any army ever could.

Ulrich’s eyes were locked into the storm growing on the horizon. As the God of Thunder, I’m sure he knew exactly how big the storm was and how long it would last. Sighing a cloud of frozen air, Ulrich spoke, “We will wait out the storm and leave as soon as it is safe to travel.”

No one spoke again that night. Not once. One by one, we all headed back to the cave. Jimmy went first and collected Abby under his arm on his way. Cass went after them. Kissing Ulrich on the cheek, she walked to me and took my hand. I hesitated, but when I saw that Chris wasn’t going to move for awhile, I let Cass drag me away from him and to the cave.

I turned around only once on my way back to the cave. What I saw forever haunts me.
Chris fell to his knees when I left and started screaming into the air. His pain was immense. He was holding it all in during the funeral. Holding it in so he wouldn’t show it to me or the others. I was about to turn and run back to him, but then the mountain started shaking.

It was Chris’ power. It was the power of a god. Chris’ screams were pulsing through the air like cannonballs, breaking and cracking everything around it. I stopped and ignored Cass pulling at my arm. I had to see.

Chris roared again. This time, it could be heard. It echoed in the air like an army of trumpets. The roar was so powerful that it blasted back the blizzard from him, though it eventually found its way back to them.

I couldn’t stand to see this, but I couldn’t get any closer without being in danger. I was honestly surprised that Ulrich could’ve withstood that blast of power. The little I could see of him through the falling snow was enough to make me respect and hate him all at once.

He may have been braving the power of the God of War without fear, but he didn’t do anything to help. He wasn’t even speaking. He was just standing there. Watching.

Then all of it stopped. Chris seemed to have no more in him. His screaming ceased and his arms fell limp at his sides. I could see him kneeling there, winded and broken. Only when Ulrich knelt next to him did I turn and finish my walk to the cave.

I didn’t know if Chris would ever be the same after this.