Chapter 1 Origin

In a small remote farming village in Norway, a middle-aged man named Erik, and his wife Tori lived together. They have been having difficulties conceiving a child for some time now. They contemplated the potential causes of the problem In the comfort of their hearth.

"Maybe we have offended the gods, my love..." said Tori

"Can't be we have given more than enough offerings and praises to the gods this season. I'll be sure to make another offer after tending the fields, and gathering logs for the night." Said, Erik

"I'll be tending to the animals if you need anything.' Please be careful to not overdo it today. I know the old battle wounds have been acting up lately, and we don't need you straining anything. The last thing we need is to fall behind this time of year."

"Yeah, I know calm down!" Erik says as he slams the door on the way out.

Feeling irritated thinking deep to himself that maybe the problem with pregnancy lies in him. After tending to the fields, and gathering firewood. Erik began leading their biggest boar up the mountain to be sacrificed in order to appease the gods. While traveling it starts to get dark because he's getting slow in his older years. He's no longer a spry warrior, and the travel up the mountain seems harder every trip. It takes its toll on his body for what seems to be a little reward. He is at the usual altar the people of his village use for their sacrifices, and he slits the beast's throat while asking for blessings from Freyr. He gets up and gets ready to descend down the trail when lightning struck the top of the mountain causing rubble to fall and almost crush Erik.

After narrowly surviving the falling rubble, he begins to think why there was lightning when the skies seem clear for the night. Then he heard the sounds of a baby crying. He quickly tried to reach the noise but must climb up the side first. Surely enough there was a baby. He quickly wrapped the baby up in the furs he was wearing and placed it in the basket. He quickly but safely descended the trail trying hard to keep warm while rushing home. The baby was no longer making noise, and he feared it may be too late. He reaches his house and quickly kicks in the door. Tori being scared from the sudden barge in yelled.

"What's wrong with you! Have you gone senile already?! It should still be a few years away from that."

"Be quiet women we don't have time. Throw more logs on the fire!" Erik demanded while trying hard to catch his breath

She rarely ever heard Erik take that tone especially with her so she quickly grasped this was an emergency. Feeding the fire as fast as she could. She could see from the corner of her eye that Erik was taking something out of his basket, and was quickly unwrapping it. She saw that it was a baby and was speechless. Without thinking she ran to their room and grabbed all the furs she could. After several minutes the baby began to cry again.

"Thank you Tori" Erik sighed in relief

"Where did you steal that baby from? I wanted a child but not so badly you should break the law" Tori teased.

"You're not gonna believe me," Erik replied.