Helga

It's not often that I make the trek into the tundra before the sun has even risen, but the report of a herd of wild elk is too enticing to ignore. Elk are well known as large, stupid animals, having more status as walking sacks of fur and meat than anything else. Now that I'm here though, surrounded by the jarring clatter of shields banging together and the thundering hoofbeats of frightened game, I find myself wishing I had stayed home. The cacophony is wreaking havoc on my groggy mind, and the beginnings of a headache is forming behind my eyes.

The strategy for elk hunting is straightforward. A ring of warriors forms up around the herd, smashing shields and shouting together to corral them into a circuit. From there, an archer - that's me - stands at a vantage point and has easy shots at the panicked animals. After years of marksmanship, it's become an effortless task for me. It's a methodical, ritualistic, the kind of archery even my half asleep mind can manage with grace and precision. I release an arrow - thawck! - it finds its mark. One elk falls, then another. The tally rises. Ten? Twenty? I've stopped keeping count. My clan will be having a feast tonight regardless. I almost feel like I could go back to sleep doing this, if not for the persistent ache in my head.

In the familiarity of going through the motions, I begin to pay less attention than I should. I find myself growing complacent, my thoughts wandering to the comfort of my warm bed and the last few hours of sleep I can catch before dawn after we return from the hunt. My focus wavers, and the clamor of the hunt seems to fade into the background, a dull roar that barely registers, failing to notice the panic-driven path of a lone elk breaking away from its pack - perhaps due to a warrior banging his shield too loud or perhaps a rare moment of insight one of the dumb beasts had into their true aggressor. It's not until I pick up on the frantic rhythm of the hooves growing louder and more erratic that I glance up, only to see a massive shape barreling straight towards me.

When a well-placed arrow is all it takes to fell an elk, it is easy to forget just how dangerous these beasts really are, and I find myself stunned in place by its sheer majesty. The elk is easily the size of a small wagon, its body thick and corded with muscle that ripples under its bristly coat. Its horns twist and curve from its head in frightening quantity, a leafless tree with branches thrice as deadly. They glint in the moonlight like rows of knifes, lowering alongside the animal's head as if to align themselves with my organs. Caught between drowsiness and fear, my half-asleep reflexes are too slow to reposition myself in time, and all I can manage is to sleepily stagger backwards.

THWUCK

The elk gores me, its horns making a disturbing sound that's somewhere between crunchy and wet as they sink deep into my flesh. I can't even cry out, completely winded by impact. The elk continues its charge, dragging my still impaled body along with it. It shakes and rears its head, grinding my back against the snow and rocks while it runs, but the pain barely registers in contrast to the singular agony radiating through the left side of my torso. I try desperately to pull myself off, but the elk's antlers are slick with my own blood and being tossed around in the air does little for my grip. Instead I flail around like a lacerated ragdoll, unable to fall off or notch another arrow. I can hear the shouting of my fellow warriors as they rush to my aid, but it's too little too late. As I start to pass out from blood loss my limbs go limp, and the last thing I see is my right arm dragging in the snow under the frenzied animals hooves. I can barely feel it as it's trampled, but I'm vaguely aware of how flat and mutilated it looks and the bloody chunks of it that are left on the elk's warpath. Everything goes black...

The next few days are a merciful haze, free from pain and feeling. The edges of memory bend and blur, time seeming to both stretch and condense in a disorienting paradox. Lost in feverish delirium, I forget where am I, who I am, and am temporarily spared the shock of my grievous injuries. Reality and dreams become indistinguishable from one another, merging into one continuous slog of confusion. In between my bouts of unconsciousness, I remember splinters of light and shadow, far away voices, and vessels of tasteless liquid being held to my lips. I can't recall the faces of the one who gently coaxes me back from the brink, nor the whispers exchanged over my unconscious form, but eventually my fever breaks, and with it, I am tossed into agony like a helpless babe to wolves.

I awaken, consciously awaken, in a bed made from animal furs, covered in a hide blanket. The first breath I take is a wheezing, ratcheted sound, and I can immediately sense something amiss as sparks of pain shoot through the left side of my chest. As I gingerly inhale, I feel hollow, empty inside, the sense of fullness that comes with a deep breath never arriving for me. Frustrated, I lift the hides to peer at my injuries, meeting for the first time two dark red gashes that have both been cauterized as best as the healers were able. The deeper of the two goes straight into my abdomen, probably having pierced through my guts entirely, though I lack the strength to check. The other has gone straight into the bottom-left of my ribs, and I can tell from the caved-in skin around the wound that there aren't ribs to there to speak in that spot of any more.

But even worse is what's become of my right arm, the very extension of my pride as an archer. Shaped by a life time of drawing back a bow string, my right arm was the pinnacle of strength and dexterity. Before, I had wielded my bow as an extension of my body. Now, all that's left is a misshapen stump, half my bicep and everything beneath it torn clean off. It too has been cauterized, but I can the still see the brutality with which the limb was severed, a dozen blunted hoofbeats mangling what little is left of it.

I sit there in silence for several minutes, my mind struggling to accept the loss. So much of my identity was intertwined with my bow, with my prowess in archery all lost in a careless run in with an elk. An elk... An elk! This is... This has to be a joke of the gods... I was a mighty archer, among the best... And now? Now my proud era of battle has come to an inglorious end, but not without mockery of the most cruel kind. I can feel tears well up in my eyes, an ignoble sign of weakness. I viciously blink them back, determined not to show how much this degradation of my existence pains me. With the expulsion of sorrow, rage overtakes me instead, as if I could burn the gods that scorned me with tongue alone. But in the absence of gods to rally against, my hatred focuses itself on those who brought me back into this shameful existance.

"Tender! Tender, you retch! You think yourself noble? You think you have done well by me? You haven't. Come look at me. Look at me and laugh! Look at the crippled warrior, done in by a stupid animal!" I try to shout, the noise coming out raspier and weaker than I intended it to. "Where is my warrior's death? Who will sing my name in the hymns that honor our fallen? How will I dine at my ancestor's table in the afterlife? Felled by an elk! Ha! And now I'm here with... no future... no hope...! You didn't save me out of kindness. Any real warrior would have told you to leave me to my fate. You're nothing but a spineless cretin who is afraid of death. May the gods curse you and all your kin."

I find myself unusually winded at the end of short tirade, but I'm not content with words alone. I push off the bed with my good arm, trembling with weakness as I force myself into a sitting position. The pain from my wounds rips through me from even the slight movement, and a few weak coughs send red flecks spattering across the furs. It is only through sheer strength of will that I am able to rise at all. My warrior's spirit remains unbroken, and with it my fury runs hot. My eyes are fixed and unblinking as they search for my caretaker, glaring daggers at the doorway as if to kill them on entry with my gaze alone.

"Traitorous coward! Come and see my face! You'll find no gratitude upon it." I taunt, hacking up a mixture of blood and saliva as I further irritate my wounds. "Come and see the face of the woman whose honor you sold just so you could feel good about yourself!"