((AN: Hi, will be looking for a Beta. Able to send over Steam/Discord/Twitch. Please Message if wish to.)
Honi was maiden of the south, a Driiki lady through and through, maybe a little plumper than most due to her keeping her family stores and her habit of snacking on left over cuts when they failed to sell. She grew up with an keen eye for trading and values in her safe fortified village.
She never thought of leaving until she met her beloved; a handsome strong fur trader from the north. It was a whirlwind romance over a few winters when he came down to trade for nets and salt. He gifted her a superior Arctic fox winter fur and her father received fine Red Foe and Robber iron blades and bear furs; proving he could more than provide. When they spent the harsher winter nights curled around their fire, her beloved told them of his homestead he was building up north.
After another Harvest season of her holding her fox fur close waiting for the snows and with them her beloved to appear, did her father conceded that she was now 16 winters old and can head up north with her beloved as his wife. She hugged her father, knowing she wasn't likely to see him again for a year or so.
Her beloved followed the next snowfall. She told him of her father's words and soon they were packed unable to wait to start their life and family together. The first week was romantic but that soon ended, her skis making her ankles sore, the food cold and stale, the shelters cold and the dark forests terrifying. She tried to keep her complaints inside but occasionally they slipped out as they headed more north and she grew tired and sick of bland bread and meat. Her beloved was struggling to keep his own words gentle as he coached her on wards. She told herself it would be better when they get there.
It wasn't.
It was nothing like the bustling town she grew up with, it was silent apart from birds. The buildings was plain and lacking in trinkets and small things that made a house a home, the floors were still sticky from being new cut and soon a muddy mess. It felt like she spent more time scrubbing her floors than walking on them.
The worst was the dogs. The dogs she grew up with was quiet house pets, the ones her beloved kept was hunting and war dogs. Big mean beasts who stared her down like a deer. It was more of a semi feral pack her beloved kept in a pen behind the house. They were so loud! It seemed they were always barking with hunger. She was thankful when her beloved took them on his trips. It made her shiver when she had to tend to them.
Soon enough her duties were laid out; Keep the home. All day and night. Keep it warm and lit and well stocked with food and torches. To keep the dogs fed and watered. She did this quietly day after day as her husband came back from trips with carcasses and fish expecting her to prepare it. She missed her family, the busy trade route filled with strangers and friends with goods from all over the place.
One evening she woke up to barking. She nudged her beloved into waking. She heard the sounds of a fence being broken. She swore. The dogs had weakened a bit the day before but she left it. She had been waiting for her beloved to take the dogs out on a hunting trip and meant to fix it when the pen was empty. She grabbed a bit of meat by the smoker and a leash and headed out to see if she could tempt the dogs back in doors, knowing the cost of each one.
She soon couldn't see her hand in front of her face and was lost into the woods calling terrified for the dogs. She was almost in tears when she heard a small snuffling noise and one of the dogs came out from the dark. She recognised it to be Hari, a male dog who wasn't so big as the others. She managed to slip a leash onto him and fed him a cut.
She waited shivering holding onto the dog until day break. Thankfully the dog seemed to know the way home, tugging on the leash until they reached a familiar clearing... devastated.
Her home now fire and ashes and dead on the ground was her beloved. Tears fell quickly as she approached his body. She knew she had to get out, the bandits were probably still close. She quickly stripped his body and prepared a funeral pyre.
She dressed in his clothes quickly and held the leash tighter and left. There was nothing here for her now.
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