#the long dormant SATW fan in me was more than a little delighted

[laikaflash]

To Soar Through the Northern Lights

(Surprise, @axelconia! It's your Secret Santa! I've also posted it to Ao3 here.)

The Aval outpost was not far. Grøh adjusted his hood to keep the falling snow out of his eye. It was an amusing sight to Diasyir, though she suspected he did it merely to keep it off his single lens. The effect, she thought, was best seen while he bent his head slightly downward, a bright blue glow from over his right eye against the dark lining of his hood. A chill wind blew and Diasyir reflexively shielded her face with the upper part of her wing. Here in this snowy mountain pass was Grøh with a dragon in humanoid form, and the next thing he knew, her other wing spread over him, warming him. She shook snowflakes from her long red hair, and a pair of golden bands clattered against her curled horns. Grøh lifted his gaze and smiled a little.

Diasyir returned a bright smile and looked around in awe. The sky was a patchwork of red and gold clouds and fading blue. To their left, a shimmering trail of sunlight reflected on the river. She cautiously stepped closer to the riverbank until she found a good view by a spruce. The banks on either side were a steep enough drop that one false move could send her stumbling into the icy water.

Now Grøh’s left eye, gray as a winter morning, began to betray a sort of melancholy as he took in the view. He looked past the scattered conifers and bare shrubs on the other side of the river, at the rugged slopes on the horizon.

“You were homesick, weren’t you?” Diasyir asked.

Grøh breathed a quiet sigh that appeared as a wisp of fog. “For Norway, you mean?”

“Of course. What did you think I meant?”

“Years of traveling will bring that out in you.”

“Indeed,” Diasyir concurred. Her mind flooded with memories of her own travels before her first encounter with an astral fissure. To her, the view of the night sky from the earth was beautiful in its own way (she was loath to call it simple). But to fly through myriads of stars and over clouds many times the size of those mountains was a thrill that she had missed more than ever. How could she begin to compare it to the view from the Celestial Sanctuary? If only I could show you, she thought, her cheeks blushing.

Grøh nudged her shoulder. “Careful there,” he said. “You never know what kind of spirits are in these rivers.”

“Here?” Diasyir squinted. The river was a mirror of the darkening sky. “Are those spirits Outsiders?”

“No. Nøkker,” Grøh said gravely. “Come on. Natalie and Dion are waiting for us.” He tugged at her arm.

Diasyir took one more curious look at the river before she hastened to follow him. “Have you ever seen one?”

“I believe I have.” He walked on in silence for a while, his head lowered in thought. “It was years ago, back when I was in training.” His walking slowed until he stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “I was cutting through the woods on my way back from a mission. When I stopped to catch my breath by the river, I heard something huge move in the water. Then I turned around and there was a white horse in the rushes, staring right at me. Its mane and tail were sopping wet, so something told me it wasn’t lost. It had to be a nøkk.”

Diasyir had listened, wide-eyed. “You were sure?”

Grøh nodded. “Oh, believe you me, I was tempted to get closer—with my blades in hand. A nøkk in horse form will drown anyone who tries to ride it. But the moment I reached for my blades, it leapt into the water and vanished. Of course, none of us thought it had anything to do with the Outsider. It might well have been there longer before anyone in this country had heard of Soul Edge.”

Diasyir had imagined him staring down the nøkk as intensely as he would stare down any opponent. She drew a wing behind his back until he inched closer to her side. “Surely, it would be no match for me in my true form,” she said.

“Diasyir, let’s not test that. Not in this weather.”

She let out an impish huff before they continued on. But Grøh’s small, amused smile had not escaped her notice.

By the time the outpost was in sight, the stars shone overhead as the clouds parted. A cluster of steep-roofed buildings illuminated by torchlight stood ahead of the two. It reminded them of the many hamlets they had passed along the way, save for the gatehouse at the front. There was hardly a sound except for their own muffled steps in the snow. Diasyir caught herself slowing down and she inwardly admitted to herself that she did not want this journey to end so soon. She never tired of clear night skies, nor the movements of the stars. Perhaps at this place, there would still be enough time to enjoy the view.

Then a wide ribbon of green stretched across the sky. It steadily shimmered as it undulated like a curtain in a breeze. Some spots along its edge were a flickering blue. Diasyir looked on in wonder, but she knew she could not linger.

“Grøh!” she cried in excitement. “Grøh! Do you see that? The sky’s green!”

Grøh hurried to her side. His peeved look quickly softened as he looked up. “The northern lights,” he breathed. “Incredible… I haven’t seen them in years.”

“Your world fascinates me,” Diasyir said in awe.

“Oh?”

“I don’t know where to start. We’ve traversed a lot of it and I’m still finding things new to me. And this…” She waved her hand toward the sky. “I can’t believe you never told me about it.”

“Well, maybe if I did, we wouldn’t have gotten any rest since Oslo.”

Diasyir snickered. “I see.” But how wonderful it would be to soar through the northern lights, she thought. Her wings twitched at the idea of it. If she were at her full power, she would have been more than eager to carry him off into that vibrant expanse—then she shuddered. Would it hurt him?

Grøh gently held her hand. “We’d better not keep them waiting any longer. Besides, the lights will probably still be there for a while.”

Walking hand-in-hand under those shimmering green lights, they reached the outpost. After the guard let them in, Grøh led Diasyir to the main hall. The both of them were bound to have a lot to report to Dion and Natalie.

“What took you two?” Natalie asked.

“We had a bit of a detour,” Grøh simply said. Even as he resumed his typical no-nonsense demeanor, he decided it had been worth it. And Diasyir knew it from his little smile that only she caught.