I do not own Valkyrie Profile, or the characters of Rufus and Alicia, and the various Gods and einherjar that appear in this fic. That honor belongs to Square Enix. I make no money off of this fic. It is done purely for entertainment and as a creative outlet.

-Michelle

Her breath matched pace with her steps, every exaggerated rasp for air a reminder of just how out of shape she truly was. Her legs, while long and limber, had never had such need before, the young woman running as though the hounds of Hel were after her. With that forward momentum, with the rough forest outskirts abrading the tender flesh of her bare feet, Alana could only squeeze out a whimper, trying to ignore the way that her entire body hurt. It screamed with that pain, forced its demands to stop upon her, and still she kept running.

She wasn't the only one. In the pandemonium that had beset her quiet little community, there was the screams and there was the howls, a panicked people scurrying. Seeking a safety that wasn't there, the village Coriander so far removed from their neighbors, from the bustling cities with their heavy guard, that instead there was nothing but farmland and forest for miles to see. This once peaceful landscape made for easy pickings to the group who had besieged the townsfolk, food, drink and women aplenty for the voracious hungers of the men on the prowl.

There wasn't much else to be had. Coriander wasn't a rich village in the traditional sense. They and Alana had all lived a modest but happy life, the community one of farmers, merchants, and herbalists. They lived off the land, reaped the blessings of a fertile earth, and were rich not in money but in friendship and family. A close knit group, the people were the type who smiled first, and offered help immediately after, no problem too big for them to not solve together. Until THEY came, that small but still sizable army of marauders, men on horseback and on foot, with steel blade and ice in their veins.

Robbers, killers and rapists, they should have been a rag tag bunch. Gathered together as they were, lawless and driven by their own selfish desires, somehow they had organized as a united front, unleashing chaos and devastation upon the village. Already some men had been killed, the upheaval such that Alana didn't know if any of her family had yet been spared that fate. She prayed for them all the same, for her father and her brothers, but also for that of her neighbors. For their safety and their souls, the young woman not sure which was needed more.

She might have even spared a moment to pray for herself, Alana low on a long list of priorities. The young woman kept on running, kept on remembering other people that needed a blessing more than her. Completely selfless in the moment, with the very breath burning in her lungs, with it escaping out in wheezing pants that actually HURT, Alana ran and prayed for a salvation that wasn't coming. With the ground itself against her, twigs and branches lacerating open her foot, Alana cried out as she fell to her knees.

"GO!" She cried out, to the young girl who had stopped just besides her. "Save yourself!"

The indecision played out on the girl's face, the fright alive in her sky blue colored eyes, but there was slivers of concern mixed into her expression, sweet soul that she was stubbornly shaking her head no. "I won't leave you, Alana!"

Frustration boiled inside her, but there was also a relief, selfish though that was, Alana not wanting to face their pursuers alone. It was because chief among all her emotions, was that of fear, the young woman frightened, scared witless at the thought of the fate that would surely befall her. That terror in her blood, she still tried to make the other girl leave, Alana not about to let the sister of one of her dearest friends be raped or worse.

"Go!" She shouted, trying to give a much needed push. "I will catch up with you soon enough!" The lie was desperate, Alana knowing that lame as she now was, there would be little walking, let alone running, in her near future. Not with her foot bleeding, the ankle possible twisted, Alana at the last of her pained reserves. Her chest heaved with her panting breaths, a chill upon her skin from the night's cold air mixing with the sweat of her exertions. She wasn't dressed to be outside, none of them were, the marauders having arrived in the dead of the night.

With shouts and with that wickedly cruel laughter, they had descended on Coriander. They hadn't even tried to be subtle or quiet, kicking in doors, grabbing at women, slicing up any and all who tried to interfere. Alana's house would have suffered the same if not for the fact it had been deep enough in the village, for her entire family to rouse at those first screams from the outskirts. Those shrill sounds and abrasive howls, had set them on alert, they and some of their neighbors rushing out of their homes straight into the worst kind of nightmare.

Women carried off, men slain, houses burning, Alana had done as her father had ordered, taking off for the woods. Fast as she and those that accompanied her had tried to be, their bare feet were no match for the riders on horseback. Even now they were baring down on them, Alana again giving her friend's sister a much needed push. "GO!"

The young girl whimpered with that awful indecision, and then the dog—a wolf from the looks of it, tackled her to the ground. There was a scream from both Alana and the child, the wolf holding the girl down, teeth bared and growling. Alana didn't know what to do, what to say, a helpless sound escaping her, and then another wolf was on top of her. She couldn't even gasp, couldn't even cry out, her eyes going impossibly large. The yellow gleam of the wolf's eyes stared into hers, the animal baring it's teeth with a growl. It left Alana holding absolutely still, the wolf settling its full weight atop her. Past her ran men, and horses, and even more wolves, no one stopping to check on the pinned females.

"Alana..." Came the whispered whimper. "I'm..."

"It's all right, Sybilline...Just stay still and it won't hurt you..." Alana tried to be reassuring, hearing the way the young girl broke out into sobs. She wanted to cry herself, so scared and so frightened, so hurting and above all so tired. She'd outright faint from exhaustion, if not for the fear pumping adrenaline through her, Alana keeping a helpless eye on the wolf who growled each time she so much as dared THINK about moving.

Alana and Sybilline would lay there pinned by those fierce beasts for hours on end. Until at last the dark midnight sky started to give way to the first rosy hue hints of morning. Those wolves never lost their resolve, keeping a watchful eye on their quarry. The tension in those creatures' bodies wouldn't leave until a whistle sounded, the wolf's ears pricking upward at hearing it. The change that came over them was almost immediate, a kind of relaxed energy to them as they slowly sauntered free of their prey. It was not an end to the nightmare, not by any bit, hands then grabbing at the two girls. Sybilline shrieked wildly, and Alana was ashamed to admit she didn't do much better, struggling as best she could, while crying out for a help of any kind.

There was a slap to the face in answer to that. Alana stunned and seeing stars. She was practically dead weight, as she was hauled up off the forested ground, the young woman screaming again in protest as the pain flared up from her foot. She couldn't stand, she could barely even walk, Alana slumping over to the sound of a man's cursing. The vile words made her ears ring, her pale skin turning a mottled red as she was suddenly uprooted and hung upside down across the man's back. From that dizzying vantage, she could see another, that of the man dragging young Sybilline by the arm. The girl was openly weeping, terrified and that much closer to hyperventilating. Alana tried, she really did, to think of something comforting to say, something that would calm the worst of the child's fears but at the first strangled word, a hand slapped hard against her body's bottom. Such a stinging attack, stole the words from her, an indignant squeak all that Alana was capable of.

Fight literally slapped out of her, Alana could only hang there and listen. These men didn't say much, to her or to each other, but there were other sounds to be heard. That of the village burning, the flames crackling, the shouts and the jeers, and above all the women sobbing. Such was their predicament, that Alana wasn't so sure it was a mercy to still be alive in this situation. She felt terrible for that thought, but the young woman was so afraid, nearly all her bravado gone to the fear of whatever nightmarish fate awaited her, awaited them all.

Drowning in her fear, Alana was unceremoniously dumped, young Sybilline being thrown down as well. Immediate was the touch, the two huddling together, but there was other touches on them, gentle and soothing, that of the other captured women from Coriander. There was the miller's daughter, and the twins Evelyn and Serena, Jacob's wife, and elderly Mr. Plum's niece. Syblline was the youngest, while the oldest of this group wasn't past thirty. They were all young women, some more ripe than others, but all fresh face and golden haired. Alana realized that last with a start, seeing that only the blue eyed, blondes of her village had been gathered here.

The why was on her tongue, the sight of all those different shades of gold stirring an unrest inside her. An uneasy feeling that only grew worse by the minute, Alana looking from face to face, spying the same downtrodden look in their blue eyes.

"What is the meaning of this…?" She finally whispered. Helpless shrugs and fitful shakes of their heads no, was the only response Alana got. Either they had no answers, or the truth was too horrible to speak out loud. They were oppressed by it all the same, the innate fear that was instilled in all women born of all men alive. The threat, the violence, and it crackled in the air, on everyone's mind, both captive and captor alike. The men leered at them but from a distance, lewd jeering erupting as another woman was brought forth, the last of Coriander's young blondes.

She was crying, great big, ugly tears, hiccuping, practically choking on her sobs as she welcomed into the fold of the terrified group. Sybilynne crawled onto her lap, and wrapped thin arms around her voluptuous sister's neck. Her nightgown was torn in places, once comely fleshed covered with bruises and cuts. She had no words, none of them did, the village women only able to cling to each other for the only comfort offered them. That was how they passed the time, the excruciating long minutes elapsing into an hour, when at last a man rode up to the make shift encampment.

Off of his horse, he was even more impressive, one of the largest of all the men that Alana had thus far seen. His long black hair was streaked with silver, his cruel eyes a reddish brown color that was as unusual as it was unnatural, hinting at a less than human creature. He had sharp cheekbones that left his face almost gaunt looking, and a thin hook of a nose. Unlike so many of this rag tag group of marauders, this invader wore a full suit of cobalt shaded armor. His blood soaked and tattered cape flared out behind him, and where the man walked, the crowd parted, until at last he stood before the group of terrified women.

"Get up! Get up!" A shrill voice urged, and again hands were on her, pulling her free of the group. She wasn't the only one, each captured Coriander held by a man, their foul breath and perversions pressed against them, as the man, the leader, began walking along the row. He'd stop and consider each of the ladies offered before him, sometimes going so far as to catch them by the chin, and force them to look this way and that way, and Alana knew enough to know this monster of a man was looking for something specific. Something that went beyond the blonde hair and blue eyes, a sinister need there that went beyond rape, to something just as chilling.

She began to shiver, to shake and tremble long before the long haired man stood before her. Alana stared at him, and couldn't even make a show at defiance, cowering as his hand reached out for her chin. Her bottom lip quivered, the wet sheen of tears in her eyes. She was so afraid of being picked, and yet equally terrified of NOT, the women that had proven a disappointment tossed aside to his men. The sounds that followed, the sexual frenzy that fell upon those women, not something she could block out, the screams and the lustful grunts, the sobbing and the moans.

Near sick from the sounds, from the reality of what was continuing to happen, Alana stared at the monster before her, and thought his eyes went full crimson. Whatever the color, they stared at her, not just at the physical surface, but to what was beneath, unwrapping the many layers of her heart and her soul, until at last, weak kneed and half swooning, she saw him give a grim nod.

Little more than a rag doll at this point, Alana found herself thrown over and tied to the back of the horse's saddle. She bounced and was jostled for every galloping step the great war steed took, made sick from the motion, and the cold air that caressed her, this journey she was forced on a long one. Through the forest, and past the mountain, to deep down in the valley, where the old remains of a once glorious temple still lingered, Alana was treated as nothing more than a mere after thought, and rendered half dead from the experience.

Out of the shadows of the rocky remains, came other crimson eyed figures. She was too far gone to truly recoil, dizzy and sick, and wondering if she hadn't gone mad in the process, undead beings all around her. Touching her, pulling on her hair, staring into the blue of her eyes, each one wanting their own confirmation. Each one getting it, a cheer erupting from the crowd, Alana pulled off the horse, and quite literally dragged into the forgotten temple.

She could barely take in the details, the one time grandeur of this place lost to the weathered time of nature and neglect. Grass and limbs broke through the marbled floor, trees extending their branches to cover over the once ornate murals made of hundreds of once brightly colored tiles. There was a musky smell here, animals and their droppings, their kills and their leavings, the creatures padding about as curious witnesses to the twisted procession.

Dragged ever deeper into the bowels of this ramshackle temple, Alana could hear the steady trickle of water growing louder, until they stood before a veritable flood of it. Not even that stopped her tormentors, the young woman dragged through that freezing liquid. It soaked her clothes, and left her shaken to the bone, Alana sputtering and gasping, till at last she was laid out on an altar.

She must have faded in and out of conscience. Each time that she opened her eyes, something more horrific stood before her. Whispering words in a foreign and strangely accented tongue. Painting her exposed skin with blood and oils, and always watching her with those crimson colored eyes. There was a keen anticipation in the air, a lust for something beyond her flesh, Alana sensing the rising need for violence. Hands seem to morph, the tips of fingers becoming wickedly sharp claws, an eager excitement overtaking the group.

Their whispers became outright chanting, growing louder and louder until the deafening roar broke to the advent of claws around her throat. Alana had a moment to realize that this was how she was going to die, her throat crushed by that monster's paws, her last sight not that of anything human, but instead that of the undead who had laid waste to her village. She couldn't even muster up the strength needed for a true hysteria, the young woman already so tired and defeated. Long having given up, those blue eyes that had helped mark her as special, began to close, Alana's one real regret that of not knowing if any of her friends and her family had somehow survived.

To Be Continued….

And so begins a massive revamping of my "The Sacrificial Maiden" story. A lot of things happen over the years, some unpleasantness from overeager fans of the RuAli pairing, that I don't want to get into except to say it killed off my desire to work on this fic for YEARS. That unpleasantness has me nervous about dipping my toes back into the RuAli waters, but...I've always wanted to work on this story again.

But as you may or may not know from my other recent works, I'm really unhappy with my older writings. Not necessarily the ideas, so much as the execution. I like to hope and think I got better as a writer since what was the original fic done in...I don't even remember, but at least a decade has probably gone by!

So I have been looking over the original..and some things stood out to me...I changed the opening of just who/what was trying to sacrifice Alana/Alicia, and how she was chosen. This veers into some spoilers, but basically I am imagining the demonic forces of Nifleheim want to lure the Lord God Creator to a realm where they can capture, possibly even kill him. So they came looking for Alicia's reincarnation, to use as bait for their trap. This attempt is clearly not going to work out in their favor! XD

There's more I decide to revise revamp, but some of it is major spoilers I don't want to give up just yet. I will say one of the big changes is to the nature of the deal Rufus and Alana/Alicia strike, and how it will affect the end game of the story.

I am in the middle of moving, and soon won't have the internet until November...trying to get some chapters done for this and other fics in the meantime.

Later!

-Michelle