So, I wrote this after seeing the woman who glitches in heathrun and just keeps walking in the water:
Do you know the place where the water hits the frozen land? Where everything is so frozen you get the ice right in your bones? It’s a land where nothing should be able to live on, and yet somehow they do.
Up there is full of draugar, of the people who walk between both worlds. Between the warmth and depth of the water, and the frozen isolation of the land. They both live and do not at the same time. Yet, there is one creature, one woman who would name herself draugr, but in reality she is something more.
She walks the same path everyday, and if you’re paying attention you’ll see how she walks slowly into the water. She keeps going and going, deeper and deeper into the depths of the sea. You’d think she drown, but no air bubbles or body float to the surface. And if you know where to look, and when, you can see her emerge out of the water again- as alive as before.
Now, you’re thinking, surely this is the definition of a draugr, but you’d be wrong. She’s not some creature that is both alive and dead, not at all…she’s something worse, something more sinister, I’d wager.
I saw her, I saw her and I asked myself who she was…why she was. I attempted to ask around in town, but the Draugr there don’t really talk- and any you find outside would be far to removed from humanity to tolerate. They’re vicious, dangerous, and will play no part in this tale.
If I could not learn what I wanted to know from the local draugr, then where would I go? I needed to know who this woman was. I decided to visit the library, but I had to be careful. I didn’t want to be accused of researching the pagan magics since that would mean certain death.
I had to sneak into the library. Luckily, I still had the key. It was far too dark for me to really be able to see, so I had to use the ancient forbidden arts. I searched every book that dared, but I did not really find anything that mentioned this strange woman.
I fled the library, heading out to one of my favorite strolls. Out near Olds Kingsport, you can hear the faint song of the dead while staring at the stars. I sat, and I listened, racking my brains for where I could go next. And that is when I heard it- a sad, low song. One that, if you were paying attention, you wouldn’t have heard. Or maybe I imagined all of it, in my fervor to have the truth. I cannot say; nor, can I really remember the words of the song.
I remember the feeling they gave me. I felt dread, and loss. Something stolen, taken away. But not the simple attachment of the item lost, but one of the deeper connection- like the lost of self-worth, or her confidence…something taken that deeply altered the strength of this woman.
In that moment, I remembered a fairy tale that my grandmother used to tell me about the older ways, about the pagan ways. In the ice and snow, there were creatures which wore their souls visibly. It was said the the worst thing that you could do was to take their souls from them. In an attempt to get their souls back, they would do whatever you needed of them- marriage, family, anything. But the act of taking their souls would be such a grievous offense…and once they found their souls they would leave again, taking their true forms and returning to the seas they love.
At first, I thought that this woman was evil. But I realize now, that I was wrong. She must be a woman who was lost, who lost something so important…she must be some sort of Selkie…
