Hello everyone! :)

Thank you so much for taking a chance on this story, I truly hope you enjoy it! This plot has been brewing in my head for some time now, and I've done quite a bit of research about the Vikings to incorporate into it.

I'll put up more notes at the end of this chapter so that you have a better idea of what this story entails, but what you need to know right now is that this starts taking place at the point of time when I assume Caroline leaves Matt's house after her dance with Tyler, and is mostly set from her viewpoint although I may change that in future chapters. Another thing you will need to know is that the tale of Askr and Embla is from Norse mythology, where they are said to be the first man and woman to be created, and that the word 'Álfar' translates roughly into something like 'Elf' from Old Norse. More about all that later on. See you guys at the bottom! :)

Chapter One: Of Rings and Elves

"Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there's no such thing as coincidence." ― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Light from the streetlamps lining the sidewalks glinted off the gold in her hair as she made her solitary walk towards home. She dragged her feet with every step she took, but who could honestly blame her for having such a lacklustre attitude? Her mother was out on sheriff duties as per usual, and Tyler had skipped town yet again. She was all alone and in no mood to go back to an empty house, refusing to let this night end on such a dismal note. After all, didn't a former Miss Mystic Falls wearing such a lovely and elegant dress deserve a magical ending to her long-awaited Prom Night?

She cast her eyes downward as a mangy cat streaked past her across the pavement, momentarily recollecting that she had to feed (or at least suck some handy blood-bags dry) before she slept tonight. All of a sudden, her gaze fell upon a nondescript grey box lying on the street, the type people may sometimes use to store random pieces of junk, say a thimble or earrings or things like that. Laughing softly at the thoughts whizzing through her head, she bent down and scooped up the box, before proceeding to flick its steel clasp open and peering inside. Surprisingly, the contents of the box seemed too precious to be stored in such an unremarkable container. There was a slender ring which looked like it was carved out of pure white diamond (must be a fake, she thought), and underneath it a thin rectangular slab of marble which had some words engraved on it.

She moved closer to the nearest streetlamp and picked up the ring, intending to read the words on the marble piece, when it suddenly burned hot and she yelped, flinging it away from her fingers. The next few seconds felt like they were being experienced by her underwater and in slow motion, as she watched the ring flip above her head once… twice… and then slide neatly down onto the ring finger of her right hand. She was feeling quite freaked out by now and tried tugging the ring off her finger, but to no avail. The damned piece of jewellery insisted on remaining stuck firmly where it was, resisting even her vampiric strength.

Her patience wearing thin, she snatched the marble slab from the box to see if at least that would provide her with some explanation for her predicament. Holding it up in order to let more light fall upon the tiny letterings, she read out the following verse:

Askr the first son,

Embla the first daughter.

If you are reading this,

You are one or the other.

Through time and space,

Must you be united.

May the fires of destiny,

Now be ignited.

The moment the last syllable fell past her lips, she disappeared.

The edges of her conscience prickled. It felt strangely like she was floating on clouds, awakening after a deep and satisfying slumber. Drifting along on this current of mindless repose, she let herself simply be.

Peace.

Serenity.

Happiness.

Love.

Slowly but steadily, she started to gain awareness of a tingling sensation in the tips of her toes. I have toes? Gradually, the feeling spread across her feet and continued sweeping upwards, on and on, till it had set her whole body free and sparked her mind. Gasping for breath, she finally opened her eyes. She could feel the acute sting of fresh, cool air on her skin and the dampness of dewy grass underneath soaking through her dress. There was the tinkling sound of water flowing over rocks nearby. What happened? Where am I? Her most recent memories suddenly flashed through her mind, and she scrambled to sit up with a shriek. A peek down confirmed what she had already felt, the wretched ring was still on her finger and the open box was clutched tightly in her other hand. She looked around.

She was in a bloody forest! How on earth had she arrived here? Verdant trees stretched as far as her eyes could see, monstrously huge and far taller than any that she had observed in Mystic Falls so far. She seemed to be in a small clearing of some sort, the only place for miles which did not have giant trees grappling with each other for every square inch of space. Suddenly, she tensed. She could hear the racing heartbeats of some creature in the direction of the flowing water she had detected before, but they did not seem to be fast enough to belong to any animal she knew. Instead, when she focused her senses on that spot, she smelt human blood flowing through the creature's veins!

Darting her eyes towards that side, she was shocked to see a little boy staring back at her, seemingly transfixed by her presence. He was seated on a flat boulder just beside a narrow stream and looked like an exact replica of those cherubic baby Cupids which used to hang inside the Mystic Grill every Valentines' Day, complete with tousled blonde curls, bonnie blue eyes and a white tunic draped around his tiny body. It felt like a dream, and she couldn't stop herself from laughing out loud at the absurdity of this situation. She almost expected him to whip out a tiny bow and heart-tipped arrows next!

His eyes had become wider now; perhaps he was wondering why she was cackling like a deranged lunatic. Slowly, she forced herself to take deep breaths and calm down. With the support of her palms, she pushed herself up from a sitting position into a standing one and gently brushed away all of the dirt present on her dress and in her hair. Luckily, she still seemed to be in a presentable enough state overall, and after closing the clasp on the box (she'd have enough time later on to decipher the verse on the piece of marble), she walked towards the boy who had not uttered even a squeak the entire time.

"Hello there, my name is Caroline. Do you mind telling me where we are exactly? I don't remember coming to this place."

He shook his head slightly, as if dispelling a dream, before replying. "Are you an Álfar of Freyja or Sól? I can't quite decide. Mother told me that the álfr of Freyja are beautiful like her, but the álfr of Sól are full of light like her. So who among them do you belong to?"

Was this little tyke actually flirting with her? "O…K… kid, why don't we simply avoid questions best answered by Sherlock and start with the little things first? Just how old are you? Oh and what's your name?"

Puffing up his little chest, he proudly declared, "I am Niklaus Mikaelson. I don't know anyone by the name of Sherlock, but maybe I can answer your questions for him instead! Mother says I am a big boy because I am already five years old, so I can definitely help you!"

She felt like throwing up. Her ears were ringing, surely she must have heard wrong. Maybe there were other Niklaus Mikaelsons in the world? Of course there must be. She could have a good laugh with Stefan and Bonnie later on; imagine the irony of a cute human boy sharing the same name as the most powerful and vicious hybrid in the world! Smiling at him, she continued forth, "Well Niklaus, I feel very privileged to make the acquaintance of such a handsome big boy. Now that we know each other's names, do you mind answering my very first question? You know… the one about our current location?"

Grinning back at her, he responded. "We are in Markland, some distance away from my village. Did the gods send you to take care of us?"

Getting increasingly confused and slightly panicky, she reminded herself to keep a level tone of voice. "Look here Niklaus, I'm not sure why but you've got a misconception. I'm no divine creature (the very opposite in fact, not that it was any of his business) and I've certainly not been sent by any gods. Why would you even think that? And secondly, I have not heard of any place called Markland in all my life. Now I should have guessed from your clothes that you're obviously playing some sort of dress-up game, but fun time's over kid. Will you please tell me where we really are?"

His tiny brows getting more and more deeply furrowed the longer she went on, he narrowed his eyes at her and shot right back, "I'm not a liar! And I'm not playing any games, I know what I saw! I was sitting here quietly when you just appeared in a flash of light on the grass over there, and you're the one obviously lying because you are wearing a beautiful dress just like the álfr Mother tells me about!"

She was getting really terrified now. "What's your mother's name, Niklaus?"

"Esther."

The world spun black.

Something clear and cold was coursing through her. Surging up from the millions of tips at her base and rushing towards the swaying shapes above. There was another current flowing right next to this one, only in the opposite direction, as tiny particles left the shapes and moved downwards to the tips. This was her world, the extent of her awareness.

But the air swirling around her was shifting. A deep voice suddenly rumbled, "önd". She was encompassed by brilliant white; it seared through her entire being, infusing her with life yet simultaneously cutting her to the point of almost unbearable pain, till it finally stopped. Before she could so much as inhale, yet another voice boomed out, "óðr". Ecstacy soared through her. For the very first time, she understood what she was. The trunk of a tree. Finally, a last voice, this one not as deep in timbre as the others, washed over her, "lá". The sensory rush which instantly blazed through her nearly made her black out.

Silently, she blinked her eyes open. Eyes! She had not experienced sight before. Full of wonder, she looked at herself. She was shaped oddly, with a slim body nowhere as huge as her previous self, breasts that protruded out above her stomach and ten fingers and ten toes at her tips. The sheer amount of new knowledge thundering through her brain was terribly exhausting. Slowly, she noticed that there was a man next to her going through the same motions. He was tugging experimentally at his penis (why was she blushing at the thought?) when he caught sight of her and his jaw dropped. They gazed at each other in silence, waiting, anticipating.

Loud laughter startled them. The man instinctively moved in front of her, defensive. She remained stunned, trying to peep over his well-muscled back and nearly getting distracted by the riot of golden locks adorning his head. There was a trio of men looking amusedly at them, all three much taller than the man by her side and who seemed to shine with some inner light. The tallest one in the middle, with a fearsome appearance mostly due to his single piercing eye and thick grizzled beard, spoke up.

"Our greetings to you, humans. You (directing his gaze on her man) shall be called Askr, while you (looking straight at her) shall be named Embla. I am Odin, leader of the Gods and both of you, the first man and first woman, shall henceforth also be known as the first son and first daughter of this earth, the realm of Midgard. Remember us, me and my brothers Vili and Ve. Pray to us, and you shall receive all the joy and comforts you ask for. Now go forth, and may this world reverberate with the laughter and love of your offspring!"

She watched astonished as the three of them vanished into thin air. The man, Askr she remembered, took his time circling around to face her. She gulped, her heart pumping erratically in her chest and a wild fire overtaking her senses, as his feral eyes bore into her with what could only be described as a look of pure hunger.

She yelled out loud as ice cold water drenched her, rudely jolting her awake from her dreams. Leaping up and scrubbing her eyes dry, her face transformed into its vampiric avatar as she snarled at the person who had dared to assault her. Niklaus looked petrified as he held his soaking tunic tied into a makeshift vessel in both hands, and opened his mouth to scream. Coming quickly to her senses, Caroline zoomed towards him and firmly covered his mouth with one hand, before looking into his eyes and compelling him, "Forget what you just saw. You threw the water on me and I jumped up in fright, that's all."

Feeling slightly guilty about what she had just done, she altered her face back to its normal appearance and let him go. Blinking a few times, Niklaus's gaze refocused on hers and he smiled reassuringly. "Don't be scared Caroline, I just wanted to help. You fainted for some reason, so I remembered what Mother does to help Bera when she faints."

She didn't quite know how to respond. She remembered having a strange vision when she fainted, though the details were all murky now, and she almost wished she was still in her dream world instead of having to face reality where she had somehow time travelled more than ten centuries into the past. Furthermore, it was so hard to reconcile the image of him as a ruthless devil terrorising all her friends in Mystic Falls with that of this sweet child here. Then again, she had started to consider him her friend back in her time, so she knew that he was not solely composed of all evil. Smiling gently down at him, she asked, "Thank you for assisting me. Who is Bera? A relative of yours?"

"Oh no, she's just one of the villagers who Mother says has weak blood. She keeps fainting if she works too hard at home or during the harvest season."

She realised the woman might be anaemic, and it must be hard to survive in this time where people didn't really have biology classes and may be unaware that a lack of sufficient red blood cells were the cause of her problem. Sobered by this grim reminder of just where she was, she mused over the mystery of how she was able to converse with young Klaus in the first place. Perhaps it all tied back to the valuable ring on her finger and that gibberish on the marble slab. Deciding that her best bet would be to seek Esther's help (after all, wasn't she the Original witch?) since she was severely out of any other viable options at the moment, she rapidly formulated a plan in her mind. She would have to be evasive about her past of course, at least until she was completely sure she could fully trust Esther, so she set about improvising on a background story using an idea that Niklaus had unwittingly gifted her with when he first spoke to her. She felt surprisingly invigorated, this was her element—planning, gathering her resources and lying when required, so she beamed at the boy who was patiently waiting for her to speak and laid her bait.

"I can see that you are a very smart and good boy, Niklaus, so I shall let you in on a little secret of mine. (Moving closer to him and whispering) I am indeed an immortal companion of…. Freyja (she couldn't really remember the other name he mentioned, and boy was she glad that she was genuinely immortal, she knew there were perks to being a bloodsucker!). I am sorry to have lied about that to you before, but you see, I have to be very careful because not just anyone can be trusted to keep my identity secret. The gods have sent me here to ask for some help from a talented witch in this area, could you please help me find her? You will definitely be blessed for this."

Little Klaus looked thrilled beyond words. "My mother is an apprentice to a witch! She says her mentor Ayanna is the most powerful witch in the world! Shall I take you to her?"

Well that was certainly interesting! It had utterly slipped past her mind until now that Bonnie once said that the reason Esther had wanted her and Abby's help to kill her children was because they were direct descendants of Ayanna. Feeling quite curious and excited at the same time to meet her best friend's ancestor, she nodded at Niklaus and transferred the box to her right hand before taking hold of his in her left. He was giddy with delight as he led her towards the village, clearly elated at having such a radiant and gentle (or so he thought) angel at his side, and made full use of the opportunity to chatter on at high speed as they wended their way through the dense forest.

"Just wait till Elijah and Finn find out who you are! Oh but it's our secret isn't it, so I guess I can't tell them… no matter, they'll be steaming with envy anyway when they see I have such a beautiful friend! You're my friend aren't you? I'm so stupid, of course you are, you told me your secret! I'll tell you one too so we can be even… I accidentally broke Elijah's favourite comb when I dropped it on the floor yesterday, but please don't tell him that! I arranged the pieces carefully on his bench though, so he thought he had broken it in his sleep when he got up today morning. I want to tell him the truth, but I'm scared Father will beat me if he finds out…" His mouth turned down and he became silent.

Feeling really bad for him (she remembered how harsh and cruel Mikael had been even in her time); she tried to distract his troubled thoughts. "Hey Niklaus, remember you just said that we're friends? I wanted to tell you that you can call me Care whenever you want, that's what my friends like to call me!"

His eyes lit up and he looked so happy that she couldn't help but grin cheesily back at him. "Care! That's a nice name! (Thinking for a moment) But I still think Caroline is a prettier name so I'll call you that if you don't mind. You can call me Nik. Mother wanted to name me Aaron at first after my older brother who died before I was born, but Father named me Niklaus instead."

Yet another detail that she had completely forgotten! The very reason why Mikael and Esther had migrated to North America was the plague that had killed their eldest son. In the span of a few hours, she was finding out more about Klaus than she had in the past several months. She couldn't help but speculate about all the other mysterious facets which remained uncovered about the complicated hybrid she had left behind in Mystic Falls, and suddenly felt a pang of sadness that she had never taken a chance on him.

Yes, it was indisputable that he had done some truly awful deeds, like causing the deaths of Jenna Sommers and Carol Lockwood and trying repeatedly to kill Elena and Tyler, but was the Scooby Doo gang really in any position to point fingers at him? She imagined Damon or Stefan alone may have made as many, if not more, kills as Klaus would have in the same period of time, and with the way Elena was behaving lately, even she felt like turning psycho and snapping her neck at times. Moreover, by murdering Kol, Elena and Jeremy had probably caused more deaths than Klaus had in his entire life, though the fact that they did not have to directly witness any of those deaths may have made them feel absolved from having to face the reality of that terrible situation. She felt more and more horrified the longer she pondered over the similarities between Klaus and her bunch of friends. They had all (including her) been so hypocritical when judging him, so sure that there was no excuse for any of his wrongdoings, that they had forgotten they were no saints either. This did not mean that Klaus was right in all that he did, but who were they really to have such power as to judge him?

"What are you thinking about, Caroline?"

Startled from her silent reverie, she took a few seconds to answer. "I was thinking about my friends."

"You mean the other álfr of Freyja? Do they help the gods like you do too?"

She smiled. "Well, we all like to think that we're helping. We seem to keep working to prevent one calamity happening after the other in order to save the world we know."

"And do you manage to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Save the world?"

She turned to look at him; his eyes were so very blue and trusting. "Sometimes we succeed, but there are times when we fail because we misinterpret the problem. Sometimes the problem actually lies within us, because we refuse to alter the way we think. It takes a special sort of power to have the strength and bravery to change oneself from the inside."

"So you have a special power? That's so lucky!"

She was really enjoying bantering with him far more than she should. "I don't like to brag, but I can sense certain truths about people around me."

"What can you sense about me?"

She pretended to examine his upturned face thoroughly, gliding her fingers gently along his jaw line and chubby cheeks, before tucking some of those unruly golden curls carefully behind his ear. "Besides Elijah and Finn whom you've already mentioned, you have two other younger siblings called Kol and Rebekah."

He looked awed beyond words. "You do have special powers!"

Gazing more intently at him, she went on. "I also know that it is most unusual for a little boy like you to be all alone by yourself in the woods so far from home, so what's your story Nik?"

His face became serious and he looked at her silently for several moments. She realised that they had stopped walking some time ago when she was preoccupied with her own thoughts, and could feel the stillness of the forest creeping over them.

Finally, he seemed to come to a decision and opened his mouth. "I wanted to watch the little silver fish swimming in the stream."

That was supposed to be his big secret? She nearly rolled her eyes before she realised that he was just a child after all, not the baffling grown-up hybrid she had known before. "And you couldn't do this anywhere near your house?"

Pink dotted his cheeks as he looked down, ashamed. "Father says that boys who spend their time mooning after fish are no better than weaklings, even more stupid than girls. So I came here by myself when he was busy and wouldn't notice my absence."

She frowned at that, of course Mikael was behind this! "Now look here Nik, your father is the one who's being foolish. Wanting to watch fish swimming does not make anyone weak! On top of that, you boys would all be fortunate to be so much as even half as intelligent as us girls are, so please get such ridiculous notions out of your head!"

"Do you genuinely believe that I'm not a weakling?"

"I used to love watching fish swim when I was younger. And do I in any way look weak to you?"

Visibly brightening at her comment, he said, "No, of course not! Besides, you are one of Freyja's álfr after all, so you wouldn't lie to me. I believe you!"

Sheer happiness warmed her heart. He was just so sweet and so very innocent, that she couldn't help but be charmed by him. "You know what… let's keep this our little secret Nik. Your father may be angry if he thinks you're disobeying him, but we both know that what he says is not true, so you can rest assured that you're not doing anything wrong."

They grinned at each other and she squeezed his hand tightly.

All good things have to come to an end, however, and this situation was certainly no exception to the rule. As she held his hand, she could literally feel the blood flowing through the veins in his palm, and was regrettably provided with a stark reminder of just how thirsty she was. She had not managed to drink any blood before arriving here, and she had best take care of this problem first before she felt any more tempted to drain him dry. Her pupils dilated as she caught his gaze and commanded him, "Stay here and do not move from this spot. I'm going to take care of something and be back in a short while, don't be afraid."

He nodded his head in compliance. Feeling keenly the irony that she was able to compel someone who would one day transform into the Original Hybrid immune to compulsion, she waited for him to sit down on the forest floor before she hitched her dress up and zipped off.

She let her supernatural senses overtake her as she ran, the scents of the forest swirling under her nose. It was slightly surprising to find out just how few animals she could actually detect here. In such a vast forest, wasn't it unnatural to have such a shortage of fauna? Especially so because she was sure that humans had not yet wrecked nature on a massive scale in this time period. However, she decided to dwell upon such matters later. The most important thing now was for her to feed.

Silently extending her fangs, she snuck behind a tree as she heard the life-force of a large animal pumping through its bloodstream nearby. Peeking around surreptitiously, her eyes nearly fell out of their sockets when she beheld the magnificent beast before her. She had not seen its like before, but it clearly belonged to the deer family. Standing nearly as tall as her shoulder, it carried at least 700 pounds over her and owned a truly monstrous rack of antlers nearly five feet in length, which it was currently sharpening against the trunk of another tree.

She would have normally thought twice before slaying such a superb specimen of God's creation, but her throat was parched and she knew she had to drink unless she wanted to end up losing control of her bloodlust in Nik's village. Opting to just get the dirty deed over and done with, she pounced upon the animal and utilised her considerable strength to hack its head off in a single stroke with one hand (she wasn't about to prolong its suffering), before eagerly sinking her fangs into its exposed veins. She drank and drank till she was damn well near exploding, before finally unlatching herself from the beast and licking her blood-stained lips.

All of a sudden, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the air, "CAROLINE!"

She tore through the forest to reach him.

They were unmistakably werewolves, their stench assaulting her senses from miles off. She burst through the surrounding trees and clutched Nik tightly to herself, examining him to ensure that he had not been hurt. "Don't worry Nik, I'm here now."

Once she assured herself that he was physically unharmed, she turned towards the two strangers standing before them and snarled. "Who the bloody HELL do you think you are, scaring a little boy like that?"

The younger of the two snarled back. "We should be asking you the same question, woman. This is our property and neither of you belongs here, so just what do you think you're doing on our grounds?"

Oh god, they were on wolf land? Trying to regain her composure and praying that Nik would remain silent and let her handle this, she tried to reply as calmly as possible. "I am so sorry; I honestly had no idea that this was your territory. I was simply trying to take this boy back to his village because he was lost in the forest."

The men continued eyeing her with grave suspicion. She was extremely glad that no other vampires had been created yet in this time; otherwise she suspected they would have hunted her through half the forest by now. Perhaps they subconsciously still recognised her to be a sworn enemy though, for they did not look like they would let her and Nik go anytime soon. Desperate to escape from this unwanted predicament, she started weaving a contingency plan in her head.

Before anything further happened though, a third man emerged from amongst the nearest thicket of trees and joined the first two. "And what is going on here?"

Her heart stuttered in shock. Tall of stature with steely blue eyes, long blonde hair tied into braids and an authoritative mien, this man was a dead ringer for an older and more weathered version of Klaus. His own gaze had dropped upon Nik, and a hint of surprise followed by nostalgic longing appeared in his eyes.

The younger man who had spoken to her bent his head slightly before answering the newcomer. "Chief, the woman claims that they did not mean to trespass upon our lands, and that the pup was lost in the woods and she was merely taking him home. Seems like a pretty flimsy lie if you ask me. Those people from the village are always overstepping their boundaries. I vote we skin them both alive and leave them to rot here, perhaps then they'll all finally get the message to leave us alone!"

"ENOUGH!" 'Chief' was clearly not amused. "You want me to kill an innocent child and a young woman when they have done no wrong, and were simply attempting to make their way home? Time and again have I reminded you Hal, that these humans have not been created to become your playthings. I am sick and tired of your repeated mistakes. The next time I hear similar nonsense from you, I'll string you up by your ankles and we'll see if the increased blood flow to your head will grant you greater intelligence. Is that understood?"

Thoroughly chastised and humiliated, Hal looked down at his feet and muttered a low noise to signal his concordance. Caroline did a brief victory dance in her head.

'Chief' looked at her directly this time and spoke. "I don't know who you are and I do not for a single minute believe that you are from the boy's village, but I trust that you will ensure his safety?"

She looked back at him intently. "I promise that I will take good care of him."

Nodding gruffly, he cleared his throat. "Well… what are you both waiting for? Get out of here and don't come back unless you intend to be part of my next supper."

Offering him a grateful smile, she locked fingers with Nik once more, and they walked towards the village as his true father's eyes trailed after them.

Well… what did you all think of that? Hopefully it all made sense but anyway here's a list of notes that should help. Please read through everything even though I tend to be longwinded, but it's important information.

1. Yes, Caroline is still a vampire here and I will be making her go on an adventure of self-discovery on her own in future chapters, because I think she deserves to explore the world and grow up a bit before she falls in love with Niklaus.

2. This will not be a speedy romance, but I promise not to prolong angst and create problems unnecessarily for the characters.

3. The ring scene was inspired from The Hobbit movie! :) Having said that, the Vikings used to believe that time is circular and can be rewritten, so I'd like to have your opinions on whether in this timeline you want me rehash the love triangle between Klaus-Tatia-Elijah or if I can take this in a new direction.

4. The reason why Caroline can understand Nik will be explained next chapter, and some of the words I use are in Old Norse because that means they do not really have equivalent translations in English. The ones I've used here are 'álfr' which roughly translates into 'elves', 'Markland' which stands for 'the land of forests', 'önd' which means breath/spirit/life, 'óðr' for ecstacy/inspiration/understanding and 'lá' for senses and outward appearance/ vital processes and health.

5. Freyja is the Viking goddess of love and beauty while Sól is the Sun goddess, so she is literally the goddess of light.

6. The Mikaelson children's ages here will be something like this: Elijah-8, Finn-7, Niklaus-5, Kol-3, Rebekah-2 and Henrik will be born as a surprise baby 9 years later.

7. In what I found online, Esther really was the apprentice of the world's most powerful witch, Ayanna, during her first years in America, and Aaron was the name of the son she lost to the plague.

8. In Norse mythology, Odin and his two brothers fashioned Ask and Embla from two tree trunks that had washed up onto the beach of the landmass the gods had recently raised out of the primordial waters. I have however obviously modified the story to meet my own ends and will continue to meddle with the legends as this story becomes increasingly AU.

9. Nik may seem too smart at times or too trusting of Caroline here, but I like to think that he was a precocious child and also that he is currently in awe of her because he thinks of her as a divine being. This will definitely change in later chapters, especially when he grows up and finds out that she has been lying to him.

10. Similarly for Caroline, she may seem too calm here for an 18 year old girl who's just been ripped out of her world, but this will not be her permanent state of mind.

11. The animal which Caroline saw was the Eastern Elk, it is now an extinct species.

I hope I've covered all the points, please feel free to ask me any other questions you all have. This story does not have a beta so far, but if any of you would like to help me please let me know. I'd also be extremely grateful if anyone could help spread the word about this elsewhere or help me create a story image because I don't have Twitter or Tumblr and am hopeless at creating images. Thank you all so much!

I'll be updating regularly every Friday Singapore time, which may be Thursdays in the US. Each chapter will be between 4500 to 5500 words.

Cheers,Christine Rose