A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Erik felt the intensity of her feelings and smiled. Before Astrid could react, he leaned over and kissed her softly on her blood-red lips.

His sudden gesture stunned Astrid into silence as she slowly blinked a few times. Her thoughts turned into a jumble as they tried to catch up to events.

In the past, she would have given anything to be kissed by him, but now it just conjured up a whole host of complicated feelings.

Erik smiled at her confusion, "I know you haven't made your decision yet, but since today can go a number of ways, I just wanted to be sure I kissed you at least once."

His words shook Astrid out of her daze and caused her to blush heavily. Seeing her expression, Erik felt danger approaching and prepared himself.

"Don't say stupid things!" Astrid yelled while punching his armored chest in a lightning-fast move. Her therapeutic attacks were always directly proportional to her frustration, and this one was particularly strong.

Luckily, Erik had prepared himself and was currently wearing his armor, so he only skidded back a few meters while chuckling with amusement.

Meanwhile, Astrid had forgotten all frustrations and embarrassment as she was groaning in pain and waving her bruised hand in the air, "Ow!" She yelled. "What the fuck is that thing made of!"

Erik's eyes suddenly lit up. He quite enjoyed smithing back on Söl, but he hadn't had much time to practice his craft in the last few weeks. That is, until a few days ago when he had started a new project. "Oh!" he said, enthusiastically, completely forgetting about the emergency. "It's actually a blend of materials, that…"

"Stop!" Astrid said a little surprised Erik was getting carried away so easily. "It wasn't a real question! Frostfang, remember?" Despite knowing it wasn't the time for it, Astrid couldn't deny she liked seeing Erik so enthusiastic about something.

Erik chuckled and scratched his head awkwardly. Even back on Söl, forging was the only thing that could distract him from nearly anything.

"That does remind me of something, however." He suddenly said to Astrid while he waved his hand in the air and accessed his armor storage. "I've been working on something in the basement, and this is probably the best time to give it to you."

For the last two days, he'd been making some excuses to Astrid for sneaking away from training early in order to work on this as a surprise, using the old forge in the basement.

In his hands appeared two short swords. "I remember you used to wield two of these kinds of weapons when we sparred in the past, and since you have no weapon now…"

Even back before the awakening, when guns were still widely available, both shapeshifters and vampires frequently engaged in close-quarters combat, even in serious situations. After all, how else would they take advantage of their superior bodies?

Despite the term short sword, these were still relatively long, being about 60 cm (24 inches) each, making them exist on the edge of what was still considered a short sword. The handle and cross guard didn't look like anything special, but the blades themselves looked particularly fearsome.

While Erik, unfortunately, didn't have any truly formidable metals with him when he was inadvertently dragged back to Earth, he did have one particularly sharp material in his possession right now: ghoul claws.

These were the claws he picked up in Kirkenes after discovering they had even been able to cut through his armor.

Now, in order to enhance the cutting power of these blades, Erik had created precision grooves on the blade's edges, which he then used to inlay as many of the claws as he could fit.

These claws' naturally razor-sharp edges protruded slightly beyond the edge of the sword itself, giving it a distinct and extremely intimidating look. It was a look of precision and lethality.

Astrid blinked in surprise and looked at the weapons with awe. "You… You created these?" she asked, her voice filled with wonder.

Erik chuckled and felt pride at her expression, "Of course. Consider them a reunion gift from me to you."

Astrid took one of the swords from Erik's hand and slowly stroked the smooth metal, carefully bumping over the inlaid claws. "I don't know much about metal craft, but I'm pretty sure inlaying these claws like that is damn impressive," she said with wide eyes. "Are you sure they won't come loose?"

Erik grinned and nodded pridefully, "Of course! Don't worry, I used runes and aetherium to make them blend properly. At this point, they're more part of the metal than not."

"Amazing," Astrid mumbled as she tried out the edge of one of those claws and almost felt her second-rank Runebound skin be pierced by them, despite not using much strength. "Where did you get these claws?" she asked, curiously.

Erik chuckled a little awkwardly, "Well… ghouls, actually. I hope you don't mind."

Astrid blinked but then chuckled as well. "Better them than me, I guess."

"That's the spirit!" Erik laughed, happy she didn't mind. "Anyway," he said, before waving his arms again. "Usually Elora reserves these for family, but I convinced her that you were close enough."

A pretty, but unremarkable ring appeared. It looked like a golden band with several inscriptions on it. "This is a storage ring," Erik explained. "It's very small, but will at least be able to hold those swords and a few extra things."

Part of him wanted to make an engagement ring joke, but he held himself back. 'Not the time for that now, especially not since she hasn't made a choice yet,' he chuckled to himself.

Astrid took Erik's gift with a grateful smile on her face, "Thank you, Erik. I'll cherish it, and the swords." Erik quickly explained how to bind and use the ring, and before long, Astrid was able to put the swords in and take them out again.

She brandished her new weapons heroically and looked at Erik with pride. "Well, how do I look?" she asked, playfully, trying to diminish the pressure they felt from an approaching third-rank with unknown intentions.

"You look ready to chop off Sigurd's head and save your mother," he chuckled in response.

Astrid turned uncertain and nodded, "Thank you, but… let's just try to get through today first."

It was at this point that Elora chose to appear with Emma and Emily in tow. "Don't worry, it's not like we're without options, or without preparations. I've already used the Bond of Service to contact Nora for some information and to give some orders."

She turned into her smaller form and fluttered her wings to end up on Erik's shoulder before continuing, "Viljar and his group currently still have no idea that Frostfang is about to arrive, as it is still early and they are still sleeping."

She turned to Erik and the others. "There are many things still uncertain, but we know we can't outrun a third-rank werewolf. We'll have to adjust our plans and actions as we go, but everyone needs to be ready to do what is needed when it is needed. So, for starters, here's what we're gonna do," she said and began to explain her plan.

Although, perhaps plan was overstating it. It was more like a combination of possible scenarios and how to react to them.