章 26: Chapter 26: Saoirse Byrne.
Outskirts of Ireland.
In the mountain Ranges of the Dingle village, you can hear someone swinging a weapon with great intensity. It was so great, that each swing is sending airwaves in all direction. If you can see closer you can see a tall woman or a girl? Swing an axe with great precision. She is Saoirse Byrne (Pronounced Sosha Burn).
She is an 18-year-old girl who has a wish of joining the army and fight on the front lines. But she was not allowed to go out of the village by her Grand-mother which was supported by the Village head. She was not informed of the reason but she knows that there was a reason and a secret, that she was not allowed to go outside the village except the mountain range.
She was told that she will be informed of her lineage on her 20th birthday. So, she waited till that day. But they have not stopped her from training. The village had all the cold weapons that were used during the earlier times.
When she first laid her eyes on these weapons, at the age of 5, it was like something calling out to her. It was like she instinctively knows how to wield them. It was like she was born to wield them. That was when she was informed that she will have to stay in the village.
As she was thinking about this, she heard someone calling her in the distant.
"Sister!!! Sister!! Where are you? Ma is calling you back!! Sister!??"
She heard her little sister shouting for her. Her name was Astrid Byrne and she is a cheerful and lovely girl whom the whole village loved and cared for.
Saoirse yelled back, "I'm here!! Stay where you are. I will come to you. Don't move around or you will get hurt."
This was met with a retort, "Like you are one to talk. You should be the one careful. After all these years, you are the one who has not learned anything."
Yes, the main thing about Saoirse was that she is clumsy. She faces problem in handling anything other than weapons. She will either break the tools or she will fall down, unable to balance herself. It was like the whole world is telling that she is incapable of handling herself. She has broken over several household tools and fell down tripping at nothing.
But one thing she is good at is handling the knife in the kitchen and the butcher shop their family owns. So, the family was okay with her handling that. She was not allowed to do any household chores. Initially Astrid was mad at her sister for being pardoned from doing the household chores. But when their family was away, Astrid tricked her sister in doing the chores. That's when she realized it was good thing that she was not allowed to do them, she nearly burned down the house.
When their parents came back Astrid went to them and thanked them. Then asked sorry that she did not understand that they did it for her own good. Her parents got confused but after they saw the state of the house they understood. After that incident Astrid made sure that her sister will not do anything other than dicing vegetable, cutting firewood and working in the butcher shop. She took the job of elder sister.
Saoirse became speechless and yelled back, "You girl!! You have to learn to respect your elder sister!"
Then she moved in high speed toward where the voice cam form. When she got near, she was able to see her sister picking herbs that can be used for common illness. Shen then said to Astrid,
"Here let me help you." To which Astrid replied, "If you touch a single leaf, I will ask mom not to feed you tonight."
Yeah, that's how bad her clumsiness is. She will mess up even a simple thing as picking the leaves. Hearing her sister's retort, Saoirse went pale and then got embarrassed. She then replied with great conviction, "One day you will see that I will learn all the household chores and will be praised as a great household keeper. Then there will so many good men that will come beg our family for my hand in marriage."
Astrid then turned to her sister and just looked. She did not say anything. She just kept looking at her. Saoirse seeing thought that her sister was impressed. But after a long time, she got the feeling that Astrid was looking at her with a mocking look. So, she got flustered and asked, "W-what's with that l-look? I-I'm telling y-you, i-it w-will h-happen!"
Astrid then looked away and sighed, "Even you are not confident in your own words. How can I be? Sister, it is okay for you to dream. But do not dream of impossible. Just make sure to learn to take care of yourself. We will be content with that." She said in a pitying tone.
Saoirse immediately got angry, flustered and embarrassed. Angry because what she said was right. Flustered because she has no way to retort. Embarrassed because she really did not have any confidence in herself regarding the things that she proclaimed. She just pointed her finger at Astrid angrily and said, "You... You... You..."
But Astrid cut her of saying, "Yeah, yeah. It's me. Let's go or mom will kill us both and feed us to the dogs." As the sisters bantered with each other, slowly walking toward their home. All things said and done; the sister loved each other. They will not let anyone else demean each other. That right was only reserved for family. All thing Astrid said was out of worry towards Saoirse and Saoirse understood that too.
Just like that, 2 years passed and the day for the reveal came. The whole family was gathered in their ancestral ground. Their Grand-mother took the main seat. The Village chief was present too. Once everyone settled down, Saoirse's grandma, Hilda, started. "Saoirse, please listen this carefully. You all know in ancient times when there was a great threat arises, gods will bless us humans with powers so that we can face the threat. But there is one more thing the gods will bless us. It is not particularly a powerful means but with the threat level, the power of the blessing multiplies."
Everyone listened to this with great interest, but Saoirse was confused and asked, "And what does that have to do with me being inside the village and not venturing out to the capital?"
Hilda just smiled and replied, "Patient Saoirse. I'm coming to that. So, the other blessing provided by the gods is the birth of a Dragonborn. In ancient times there are many portrayals of Dragonborn are dragon in human forms with scales, horns and tail. But as the ages passed, we humas deduced that the Dragonborn are just humas bless with great power. They are born to win wars. They are born to protect others from being eliminated. In early times ….." Hilda started telling tales of the Dragonborn and their exploits
Everyone was so immersed in the story. They were fascinated by all tale and legends of the Dragonborn. The Hilda said, "We are one such descendants of a Dragonborn. And we asked you, Saoirse, to stay back in the village because you are a Dragonborn."
When she finished that everyone was stunned and then looked at Hilda as if she was pranking them. It was the same even for Saoirse. Then Helga, Saoirse and Astrid's mother asked, "Mom, are you sure Saoirse is a Dragonborn? She is in no way to take care of herself and how is she going to take care of others and fight. Are you by any means mistaken." She asked in confusion and also, she was sacred.
She wanted Hilda to be wrong because if Saoirse is a Dragonborn, she will have to fight. If she fought, she will have a chance of dying. No mother would want for her child to be in danger. All she wants for her daughters is to be happy and live. Even if Saoirse is unable to get married, she was okay with her staying in the house till the days she dies naturally. But going to battlefield to fight, she is in no way to accept that.
But Hilda said with a wry smile, "Oh, how bad I wish I was wrong. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to say that she was not allowed out of the village because of her clumsiness. I wanted her to be the same clumsy and sweet girl she always was. But all the things happened pointed otherwise. She was born to battle with weapons. She was like a retired soldier who is training with his weapon to get back in shape. Did you not see her wielding any weapon that she takes like it was a part of her. Or her fighting instincts when she violently beat down all the assholes who tried to take advantage of Astrid." She said with a sigh.
From that day the whole household sunk into depression. After several efforts from Saoirse, all the family member started to become normal. They all decided that it was not in their hands to stop what is going to happen. They just prayed that nothing will happen so that Saoirse can live without any worry.
3 years passed. Everything became normal and the family started to act like they usually do. They were going on about their days. Like always Saoirse was practicing in the woods. She suddenly had a bad feeling that something is going to happen. After the talk with Hilda, she did not neglect anything she feels. It was the same feeling that she had when all those years ago someone had bad thoughts about Astrid. Only this time, it was several times intense. So, she immediately packed everything and went straight to home.
When she got closer, she was able to see smoke raising from the village direction. She panicked and immediately sped towards the village as fast as she can. When she reached, they she was able to see some strange beasts and some people who can do magic, killing the villagers. She got terrified and sped to her home.
When she reached there, her heart dropped. Lying on the doorway was her grandmother with terrified look and her right hand till half of her mid-section was missing. She ran into the house to see if her other family members are safe. She was on time to see a man plunging a sword into her father's chest. While her mother was getting hit by some fire magic that completely decimated her chest till the stomach, there was only a hole left in the wake of the attack. On the side, a man was tearing her sister's clothes while forcing himself on Astrid.
Then something snapped inside her, it was like whole world running slower. She took the sword from her back and swung at her father's killer, separating his head from his body. Before her mother's killer could react, she threw a small axe that was attached to her waist. It teared through the air and found its mark. It was logged itself in the head of her mother's killer. When the molester found out that hie two companions are dead he got angry and moved to attack her saying, "You bitch!"
She leaned lightly on the left and dogged his attack and removed the sword from the dead body of his former comrade. Then she turned and waited for the man to stabilize. The molester stabilized and turned to attack with magic. But he was met with a sword plunging from his lower chest and coming out of his shoulder blade. While Saoirse was all doing this you can only see a indifferent look on her face.
Astrid who got free due the molester being taken down, went near her parents. Once it hit her that her parents were dead, she let out a wail loud enough to be heard all through the village. She awoke a rare witch talent.
Astrid's wail got Saoirse out of her dazed state. She went near her parents slowly tears streaming down her face. When she got near, she knelt down and started to cry with her sister. Then suddenly their home was attacked again. This time by monsters. This woke both the sisters from their grief. Suddenly, Saoirse got aware that she was covered in blood. She was afraid that her sister will be scared of her. But all that went away when Astrid said, "Sister you are Dragonborn, right? You were the one who will protect everyone, right? Then let me ask you kill all those that came here to slaughter our village. Leave no one alive."
It was all it took for Saoirse to switch to warrior mode. Then she just picked up the sword from the dead body of the molester and went out. After that it was not a fight. It was one sided massacre. Saoirse just cut them all, man and monster, like cutting down chicken. At first, the villager became scared but after seeing that it was Saoirse, some men started join her and started to kill the invaders. They were all extremely pissed and let the anger out on the invaders. Their ancestor were Vikings and the blood ran through their veins. Once this side was over, Saoirse went back to the side where the fights were still going on. She was right on time to see her sister saving a kid with her own body. Saoirse felt her world crashing down and wailed like a demon from hell, "NOOOOOOO!!!!"
When she cleared the area and came back to her sister, Astrid saved the kid and send him to safety and was leaning on a house with blood flowing out of her wound. Saoirse lost all her strength and crashed down. She knelt heavily near her sister caressing her face. Astrid just simled and said, "Sister look, I'm the same as you, born to save others. But too bad this is as far as I can go. I'll let you do all the rest from now. Do my share too, okay?" She said like she was asking her to do the household chores.
Saoirse lost it. She wailed loudly and said to her sister, "ASTRID!! ASTRID!!! Please don't leave me alone. Stay with me!! I'll be good and listen to you. Please don't go!! I don't know what I'll do without you!! SO PLEASE!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!!!" She kept wailing. She did not mind her surroundings at all. She lost the will to fight and lost the will to live. She wanted nothing more to die then and there.
And suddenly like here prayers were answered, all the invaders nearby just fell down and died. She heard a voice from her Right saying, "Can you let me heal her? She is dying and we need to be fast."
When Saoirse turned to the voice, She saw a tall boy with red Hair and red eyes, looking at her in anxiety. She immediately let her sister's hand down and took a battle-ready position. Then the boy just raised his hand in the air and said, "Hey There! Calm down! I'm trying to help here. If we don't act fast, she will die."
Saoirse thought for a moment and nodded her head. But she did not let her guard down. She was ready to strike him if he does anything wrong. But soon as the boys shone like the ones she saw from the invader, she lunged at him to kill him. But was stopped by 2 men who looked like in their early 20's. The weird thing is one of the men had long ears, Silverish white hair and Aquamire blue eyes.
The one with Black hair and black eyes said, "Hey girls, give it a few moments and decide how to act. You'll see we came here to help."
Saoirse tried to struggle from his grasp but she was despaired to see that she was not able to move a centimeter away the man's hand. And even more shocking is that she was feeling a dread like no other. If she so mush as to act again, she will be killed then and there. She gathered her courage and decided that she will retaliate to save her sister and if she died trying, at least she will have let her sister die with dignity. Once she decided, she was ready to strike but something amazing happened.
Astrid, who was at the death's door, opened her eyes and asked, "W-where Am I? Am I dead?" But when she saw her sister, she didn't even see what is in her surroundings. She just lunged at her crying. "Thank God! You are alright!! I was afraid that you will do something stupid once I died but thank God!"
This made Saoirse dazed and she slowly started to cry after a few moments, it changed into complete wail and both the sisters knelt sown and started crying while hugging each other. While 3 men stood there looking at then not knowing what to do.
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