#rexheroum: Sigrid

[helreginn]

@rexheroum asked:

Sigrid looked in front of themselves, holding up a hand as they focused their magic. “Mama, can I practice shifting into my dragon form instead please?” The redhaired child pleaded, struggling with her necromancy lately, preferring to practice a less painful shift into her smaller dragon form.

Hel didn't want to be the kind of mother a child abhors for her strictness. She wanted structure but not constraints. And even so, it was hard for her to accept that her child was more her father than Hel. The giantess sighed softly and laid a gentle but firm hand on Sigrid's shoulder.

"Of course, my love." She replied gently, "You remember what your father does? Breathe deep and lax your muscles." She smiled happily at Sigrid, her frustration quickly dissolving in the adoration she would always hold for the little beastie.

Taking a step back, Hel gestured for them to try. "Go on, little love. You can do it."

[helreginn]

A wave of shock and awe broached Hel's ever unmoving visage as she felt the restless spirit settle in her bones. Her eyes rolled shut and a gasping breath escaped her parted lips as she welcomed another soul. Another life settled into the confines of death and eternity.

Settled into the part of her being so primordial and innate even Hel herself had taken centuries to contend with.

Hel's smile grew wider, wrinkling the corners of her eyes as she came to stand behind her daughter, a gentle hand on her shoulder while she cleaned the headstone of debris.

"You have already met her, little loves." Hel explained eagerly, "But I can arrange another meeting now you are older. She will melt at the sight of you both, I am sure." A bubbling laugh came low and amused as the goddess led one daughter towards the other, "When last she saw you, she could not stem the tears.."

Her expression remained as warm and glowing as her eyes found the next daughter to speak. And indeed, she was a daughter. A niece, by technicality, but the heart easily fooled. How could it not? They spoke so freely of the mother that had not birthed Hel. Loved as equally as the one that had. In that same regard, Hel grinned at Eleanor and gestured to a plotless patch of grass in the distance.

"You are our saviour, Ellie! One moment more and I fear Olg would have been food for my worms!" Hel giggled delightedly as she walked to the center of them all.

As the sisters worked their magic, Orla summoning forward the forlorn spirits in the cemetery, and Sigrid spoke to the spirit in their native tongue, hearing their plight and why they were in “limbo” rather than their belief system’s afterlife.

“They’ve shown appreciation and flowers have been growing on the graves of spirits we help,” Sigrid told her mother as a magnificent light outlined the spirit she’d been speaking to before it disappeared into being golden butterflies flying toward the sky.

“Can we meet Grandma Sigyn?” Orla risked asking, cleaning up the headstone a bit more and putting a coin on the grave in case they needed it to cross the River Styx. She did not know the dynamic with Sigyn, so she didn’t know it could be a risk.

“Mama, we are just doing what calls to us,” Sigrid told Hel with a smile, “healing souls together just…feels right” Little did she know their shared divinity made them both demigods with ‘small’ domains. Sigrid was the demigodex of the bridge between afterlives, while Orla was the demigoddess of spirits’ emotions. She was akin to the Grecian princess-turned-goddess, Lady Psyche, who was a friend of Alastair’s side of the family.

Walking out to the cemetery with a picnic basket, Eleanor appeared with a smile. “I thought I’d bring you food as I know magic can be draining,” she told them, smiling lovingly at her family members. She adored her adoptive mother and little siblings, being five years Sigrid’s senior.

[helreginn]

"That's alright," Hel reassured her oldest. "You will always be both but that doesn't mean you won't go through periods where one form feels more innate than the other."

A beaming and prideful smile unfurled like the wings she still held. "You are welcome, my love." She didn't say it but there wasn't a hurt in all of their time or worlds Hel would not take as her own if it meant her girls weren't in pain.

She slowly peeled her fingers back and let out a small laugh, "Not any more than humanoid puberty, I should think. I tell you.. I didn't know your father was burdened in this way. I was so caught up in the perils and doom of my own adolescence. I'm afraid the end of childhood is just.. like that."

Having known all along the younger girl was there, Hel outstretched her arm just in time to catch Orla in a sidehug. She looked over at Eleanor first. An affectionate smile. The giantess hoped she didn't feel to out of place. In her mind and in her chest, Ellie wasn't a dragon but she was no less cherished than her fledglings. Her gaze shifted to the eager princess. Her heart all but melted as she caught glimpse of their sisterly affection.

Part of her was hesitant. Until Orla was of an age to properly appreciate the magnitude of what she and Sigrid were.. The scars on her back ached. A visceral reminder that blood doesn't guarantee safety. But she also knew training was important. And it was only unfortunate Alastair wasn't there to help them. All of them. The best Hel could do was lean on his memory and hope she was doing right by her husband.

Undoubtedly, he'd say so when he returned. Hel clutched at her necklace in her hand and gently nudged Orla forward with the other, "Fly slow, my girls."

[helreginn]

Hel closed her eyes slowly and nodded as she was thanked. For something that should go without saying. Hel was not a dragon but she understood the importance of shape shifting. She would never begrudge her child wanting to learn.

"That would make sense," Hel replied, "Your heart knows the form it longs to be. The mind can't hear over it's whisperings. Distraction in it's finest form."

The older redhead slowly reached to lay a gentle and warm hand on wings still unfurling. She pooled her calming and healing magic into her fingertips and her eyes and her skin glowed as she let that aura spill into her daughter's skin.

She smiled proudly as Sigrid's true form came to fruition. "Why don't we practise something else for the time being?" she let her fingers softly trace and then fall away from the copper wing beneath her palm. "Remember, you don't always have the wing muscles so we must strengthen them and work on reflexing them like arms."

Sigrid looked up at her mother expectantly, hoping for an answer that would be what she wanted to hear. They looked a great deal alike, Sigrid having Hel’s shade of red hair being a standout. She adored Hel, despite taking more after her father.

“Thank you, mama,” Sigrid grinned, nodding in understanding at the instructions her mother gave her. “I think if I’m in dragon form, I can better focus my magic,” Sigrid added, taking in a deep breath.

As Sigrid shifted into her small dragon form, wings expanding slowly with creaking noises. “It hurts,” she commented, not so much complaining as stating a fact. Her dragon form was the color of her mother’s eyes, something that had surprised — and delighted — Alastair to see.

“Now…I think I can try magic again,” she told Hel excitedly.

[helreginn]

The goddess smiled at her draconic children. The same way a mundane mother might smile at her children's impromptu fashion or talent show. Her eyes were alight with wonder. What all had they learned? What would they show her? Her chest tightened at the thought of her precious girls wandering in cemetaries but her smile didn't once falter. Their excitement was contagious. And her own wonder bloomed as she watch them share conspiratorial smiles.

"Go on then, loves." she chimed, leaning back in her seat as she gestured with lithe fingers for them to continue. Her mind conjured images of toddlers pulling fabric and string clumsily from sleeves. It fell short of reality. Always would. Her girls were larger and grander than any memory could convey.

The redhead beamed as she looked at one daughter and then the other. Pride as plain as the ichor-gold spiderweb veins beneath her pallid skin.

A moment of silence passed. Emotion pure and unchecked as Hel, misty eyed and prideful, stared at her daughters.

"You remind me so much of Grandma Sigyn, darlings." The highest of compliments in her dulcet toned voice. "Your compassion is deep enough that even Mariana's Trench seems shallow in comparison."

Royal Family of Helheim @helreginn

“Mama, I want to show you something! Sig and I came up with a spell that we can both do!” The teenaged princess told her mother proudly, sounding almost like a child in her giddiness. “We’ve been spending our lunches in mortal cemeteries, and meditating to feel the essence of death there,” Orla explained, having gone to the same cemeteries as a little one with her mother to learn how some mortals grieve and honor their deceased.

Leading Queen Hel and Sigrid to a headstone, Orla stood in front of it before running her left hand over the name and whispering something in Old Norse. A mist appeared around the three individuals, and the headstone. A spirit appeared and thanked Orla for freeing them from ‘limbo’.

“We’re now both able to help spirits pass on that have been stuck here,” Sigrid explained, smiling proudly at her little sister.