Revelation
The Sixth Day of the Twenty-Third Week of the First Year of the Current Age
Dawn drew on the sixth day of the twenty-third week of the first year of the current age. At the edge of a settlement where a crime had been committed, a living god approached with one other. The militia came forth, armed and ready to defend themselves, but a slender figure bade them draw back; the priest Garrick of Gladwin. A young acolyte, Fordir Four-Fingers, and Lord Stonedman, the priest's liege, had gathered to witness the duel.
The youth, red-headed and garbed in simple studded leathers, wearing a belt buckle bearing the mark of a golden six-pointed star, approached the living god. As with the god, only a second followed him, a Common Man - armourless and with only an axe, but scarred from many battles. The youth also held only an axe in his hand. He called out to the god.
"Bear, I have wronged you and besmirched your name. I have sullied your altar and disgraced my honour. I fight to reclaim it, and prove worth of Rathgar."
The youth held out the axe.
"My liege, Lord Stonedman, gave me this axe when I swore to him. I have carried it many weeks, and it is the symbol of my oath to him. It is a weapon of Rathgar, and I fight by Rathgar's laws.
"Whatever else may come, this I swear. Your altar will be restored, and I or those who survive me will never again permit them to be desecrated. I have seen a god, and that is proof enough."
The youth readied the axe, awaiting the god's terrible assault.
A huge man entered the spot chosen for the duel, big and muscular, with long hair and a thick beard, and from what one could spot at the arms, body hair quite resembling his namesake. If there was a man in Rathgar who was a manifestation of the Bear spirit, it was certainly this one, the founder of the realm. He had a massive two-headed axe in one hand, and his second next to him was equally equipped, though much lighter.
"I'll take your blood and write the apology you owe the spirits unto the ground with it.", he growled as he prepared to attack.
With a furious roar, the Bear and his second charged. Garrick's second, Colette, broke off from the priest to strike the Bear's second from the side. The mobility afforded her by her lack of armour allowed her to get within the second's reach and drive her axe-head through his throat, but did nothing against the massive battleaxe blade that crushed her ribs. Both Common Ones crumpled to the ground as the First One and the God fought on.
The Bear charged and struck with the might of twenty men, but again the simple handaxe and smaller size gave Garrick the mobility advantage. He threw himself to one side and rolled back to his feet, the Bear's mighty axe shattering the stone paving of the road. Garrick seized the advantage and tried to hurl his axe at the Bear, but the god simply batted it aside with lightning reflexes.
Unarmed against a raging deity, Garrick found himself dodging and ducking like a madman as the Bear brought his fury down against the priest. After a dozen seconds of frantic dashing Garrick retrieved the handaxe and spun around, bringing it up against the Bear's throat - to find that the Bear had done the same with his battleaxe.
Both God and First One stood in silence, axes at each other's throat; effectively, each had taken the other prisoner. Garrick spoke slowly, and with care.
"You are a God. These lands are yours. You wish to preserve them, and their old ways. I seek to honour those ways.
"Accept me as a son of Rathgar, and I will spill my own blood to restore your shrine. We both leave, honour intact, or we both die."
The Bear spoke.
"You have proven yourself a man of honour and strength. Nothing more can be asked from a man of the north. And yet you have gone a step further, and you have seen the errors in your ways.
"I and I alone shall restore this shrine with my blood. You and you alone shall witness this miracle, and tell the world about it."
And with those words, Bear withdrew his axe, leaving himself vulnerable to Garrick for but a second, before falling upon his own blade. Garrick backpedalled away from Bear as the huge man fell upon his axe. He held his own virgin blade in hand as the Bear's blood spurted and spilled, flowing across the ground until the edge of the pool touched the simple stone slab that was the shrine's altar.
Lord Stonedman stepped forth and spoke to the priest and the gathered crowd.
"This has been done with Honour, thus this is done. Learn the lessons of this Garrick and go onto serve Rathgar, and all of the gods who inhabit these lands, well. Honour and defend this shrine that it may be a reminder for all who come what it means to be a god in the north."
As the figures stared at the hulk of the man lying on the ground, a great crack broke through the air, like a clap of thunder, and the air blazed. Eyes turned to the altar, where the golden sigil atop the stone lay in a molten mass.
The shape of the gold, as it bubbled and cooled, was unmistakeable - a Bear.