In the midst of Jotunheim, Naruto followed the careful instructions of Bafeel to make sure he mounted the horse the right way. He rode behind his knight, which seemed to make her happy. When the two of them were situated on the back of Jafnask, Naruto turned around and looked at Brynhildr.
“Hey, thanks a ton!” he said.
Brynhildr looked as serious as ever. However, her hair was a little bit messed up, giving away the three successive rides she had taken on Jafnask with Bafeel guiding them.
The Valkyrie cleared her throat.
“I’m not sure what you have to thank me for,” she said. “My presence here seems to have been unnecessary. All I’ve done is give empty warnings.”
“But you came out trying to help us,” Naruto said. “Even if we didn’t need it, I appreciate that. You were trying to make sure we didn’t get hurt. I’ll remember that.”
Brynhildr blinked. That was the most that could be said about her reaction. “Remember it if you wish. I can hardly tell what you should or should not keep in your head.”
Behind where Brynhildr was standing, Naruto could still see Asgard. The titanic city was beautiful with all of its gold buildings. Briefly, a bright and multicolored flash went off near the front gates. For a moment, the most gorgeous rainbow Naruto had ever seen had flashed into existence. It was gone so fast that you could convince him he imagined it, though.
“Hey, is living in Asgard fun?” Naruto asked.
Brynhildr was taken aback again. She squinted at him.
“Devils are not allowed to take up residence—”
“I’m not asking because I wanna move here!” Naruto said. “I’m just curious. What’s it like?”
The Valkyrie was silent before she answered. “Walkures are hardy people with the blood of norse gods in their veins, and we make up the majority of the city. There are other races who have moved there recently from all among the nine realms. Of course, there are also the Asgardians themselves. Female walkures such as myself serve them as Valkyries. We are taught powerful magic, trained in the use of blades, and count ourselves as formidable combatants. In return, we live within a city that houses gods. The banquets and feasts they hold inevitably trickle down to us. We have conveniences that few humans on earth will ever know.”
“But do you have fun?” Naruto asked.
Again, Brynhildr hesitated.
“I take satisfaction in doing my job well.”
“But you don’t have hobbies?”
“I keep very busy,” Brynhildr said. “I lead the Valkyries. I studied very hard to achieve this position. Thinking about trifling things will only dull my blade. At worst, I could lose my position. I don’t long for simple things like fun.”
“It sure looked like you enjoyed riding this guy, though,” Naruto said, slapping Jafnask’s hindquarters.
Brynhildr didn’t have a prompt answer for that.
Eventually she smiled and said: “I suppose that was quite nice.”
Naruto grinned. “I WILL remember you! If you ever wanna have some fun again, Brynhildr, then come and find me! Nobody deserves to spend their whole lives working!”
“If you do come, I’ll gladly take you for many more rides,” Bafeel promised. “I believe that Jafnask likes you.”
Brynhildr looked surprised. She shook her head, smiling. “The day when I take a vacation from work will never come… But I will at least do you the courtesy of remembering this offer, if you insist on remembering this boring woman.”
“That’s all I ask!” Naruto turned forward, squeezing his arms around Bafeel’s waist. “C’mon, Bafeel! Let’s go horse shopping!”
“Yes!” she said. “Goodbye, Brynhildr! Goodbye, Skimfaxi, Hrimfaxi!”
They weren’t all that close to the hut anymore… but Naruto couldn’t rule out the possibility that the horses heard her anyway. Those mounts had been crazy strong, more so than any devil Naruto had ever met bar Sirzechs himself, who was an absolute monster.
Jafnask started running. Like an airplane taking off, Naruto felt the angle of their path tilt back as they started climbing into the air. Suddenly, with a loud boom similar to thunder, the frozen fields of Jotunheim disappeared and were replaced by a much warmer (albeit cloudy) environment.
“Jafnask can leave the norse realm just like that?” Naruto asked.
“Isn’t he truly perfect?” Bafeel asked.
Jafnask threw his head back, seemingly saying: ‘Yes, I am!’
They took a path leading down toward land. They had appeared above rolling green fields which eventually turned into sheer drops, which plummeted down to the water.
“Where are we now?” Naruto asked as Jafnask landed on the ground, running over the grass like a normal horse (although he didn’t lose any speed).
“Scotland,” Bafeel said. “There are two creatures here that I have had my eyes on. One of them, if I am correct, should reside in the region not far north of here. Perhaps about thirty miles?”
Naruto took one of his hands off Bafeel’s waist and pointed forward. “You mean right around THAT?”
She didn’t understand what he meant until she spotted the swirling clouds that were almost black, they were so thick and dark. Lightning split the sky. As they got closer, they could see torrential rain carried on hurricane force winds. It was an especially violent storm because it seemed like it was colliding with itself, the two halves clashing right over a port town that lay where a large river emptied into the sea.
Naruto and Bafeel stopped right on the edge of the storm for a moment, just observing. Jafnask wasn’t bothered at all by the winds or the sound of thunder ahead of them. His two riders looked at each other.
“I think we can say for sure that something supernatural is here,” Naruto said, his voice optimistic. “Maybe it’s your horse.”
“I hope so, certainly,” Bafeel said. She zipped up the winter jacket she had brought with her for the Scandinavian cold, flipping up the hood this time. “Onward, then!”
Compared to the air of Jotunheim, what was for all intents and purposes a potent northern storm felt like the balmy and warm rain of the equator.
They rode through the streets of the town and discovered that it seemed to be abandoned. It was basically being subjected to a nonstop hurricane, so that made sense. Close to the river, some of the houses had even flooded. Where a beach usually would be, the tide had eaten all of it up, leaving the foamy sea clashing against jagged rocks. Ships that had been moored, including some huge commercial ones, had been beached or breached. Naruto could see the masts of a couple of sailboats sticking out of the waves, the rest of the boats completely submerged.
It was in this environment, right on the street of vacant restaurants and hotels next to where the river and the sea met, that they found their first local.
Naruto spotted him first, pointing. Bafeel followed where he was looking and gasped. At first, they thought the man was dead. Then they saw him move.
The wind was so strong here that it made raindrops feel like pebbles. With their devil constitutions, neither Naruto or Bafeel suffered any real ill effects from a bit of weather like this. But it should have been unbearable for a human.
He was sitting at a table outside of a pub by himself. The man was wearing a rain jacket, but he didn’t have the hood on, probably because he had a wooden barrel over his head instead. If he hadn’t been moving, eagerly smacking out a tune with his palms on the table, Naruto would’ve thought he was dead.
“Hello? Might I enquire after your health?” Bafeel asked.
Based on his shoulders the guy turned to face them, but all they could see was the barrel.
“Hello!” he said. “Are you the waiter? I want a beer!”
“I’m afraid we’re no waiters,” Bafeel said. “This town seems to be deserted, including the establishment you’re waiting outside of.”
“What, because of a little rain?”
“Seemingly,” Bafeel said.
“Why do you have a barrel on your head?” Naruto asked.
“Because it blew on top of me,” the man said. “Got stuck on my head before I knew it!”
“Would you like assistance in removing it?” Bafeel asked.
“No thanks!” the man said. “They stored ale in this barrel! It might be stuck on my head, but I can taste the alcohol if I lick the sides! I think I’ll keep it on until the waiter gets here to take my order.”
“You did hear us, did you not, when I informed you that this town is deserted?” Bafeel asked.
“Oh, yeah, that. I’m sure someone will show up eventually.”
The man inside the barrel fell silent. Naruto and Bafeel stared at him, before looking at each other. Deciding to give up on this maniac, they continued toward the place where the river was meeting the ocean. In other words, the epicenter of the storm.
“I wouldn’t head that way.”
They both looked back as the man inside the barrel delivered this warning. He was still just sitting there in the rain, playing drums on the table.
“What do you mean?” Bafeel asked.
“Nothing,” the man said. “Except that if you keep going that way, you might not come back. There’s more than rain over there. MUCH more.”
“I thank you for your concern,” Bafeel said. “However, we can handle more than rain.”
The man in the barrel shrugged. He went back to waiting for a drink that wouldn’t come. And apparently licking the inside of the barrel that was stuck on his head, lapping up the old alcohol that was stuck there.
When Naruto and Bafeel laid eyes on the place where the sea and the river were meant to mix, they felt like they were looking at a battlefield.
The two currents were slamming against each other like fighters trading blows. Water sprayed everywhere as the currents clashed, just like the winds overhead. Right here, two forces were smashing against each other.
“Bafeel!” Naruto had to yell to be heard. “What are we here looking for?”
“It is called a Kelpie!” Bafeel said. “It is a horse from Scottish folklore with a fish’s tail in place of its hind legs! They can control fresh water!”
Naruto looked once again at the two colliding forces, one made of fresh water and made of salt water. “Then what’s controlling the ocean?”
“I do not know!”
For a moment, through the tumultuous waves, two heads appeared. One was clearly the head of a horse. The other one looked like the head of a human. Both of them were blurry and hard to see.
However, it excited Bafeel enough for her to jump into action.
She swung herself across Jafnask and leaned close to the horse’s ear, speaking into her mount’s ear:
“Over there, Jafnask, is a new friend. Right now, it’s too difficult for me to approach. But you can do it, can’t you? Together, we can go and meet someone new.”
Apparently, Jafnask’s childhood growing up with just his parents had been at least a little hard on him, because the prospect of a new friend got the young horse extremely excited. Naruto saw its right and left eyes start glowing. Suddenly, Jafnask took off.
The horse made a sound that sounded more like a war cry than any neigh Naruto had ever heard. The stormclouds were obliterated.
The sun was just suddenly there, beaming through what had been a dark sky. Meanwhile, all the shadows around Jafnask started leaving the ground, trailing the horse. It pulled every shadow for the surrounding hundred meters and bundled them into long, thin lines of pure darkness. Just as Jafnask reached the water, these lines whipped forward, slicing into the water.
They acted like ropes, binding shapes within the river and the sea. By the time Jafnask and Bafeel reached the place where the two forces had been clashing, the storm was just GONE. Two creatures had been brought to the surface, all wrapped up in bindings made out of shadow which ran back to Jafnask, who was holding the end in his teeth, keeping the shadow ropes tight.
Naruto formed his wings and flew closer to get a look at the clashing forces. One of them was obviously the Kelpie. It a very dark blue complexion with a mane and tail that both looked like soggy underwater plants.
The thing it had been fighting, meanwhile… Naruto didn’t have a weak stomach, but this thing made him feel like losing his lunch.
It kind of looked like a centaur, only the human half didn’t have any skin on its face, and the horse half didn’t have any skin OR fur. The horse head was basically just a big skull with one big eye peering out of the middle of its face. The skinless human, which looked like a mutilated corpse, made a groaning sound as the whole huge creature (it stood more than fifteen feet tall) thrashed against Jafnask’s restraints.
Instead of reacting with any kind of horror, Bafeel jumped off of Jafnask’s back and brought out her wings. She flew forward, right up to the grotesque half horse that had been controlling the sea.
The two creatures, both the monstrous one and the kelpie, had been caught right in the middle of one of their clashes. They were so close together that Bafeel could float in between them and have both of them within arm’s reach.
Immediately, she reached out, touching not just the Kelpie’s glossy coat but also the skull of its opponent.
“Beautiful,” Bafeel whispered.
Naruto couldn’t help giving her a strange look. But he also smiled. That was so in character for Bafeel. No horse could be ugly to her, even one made of muscle and sinews and bones.
“You two, I’ve decided!” Bafeel said, breaking into a grin. “Be my friends!”
She produced two Bishop pieces, holding one of them in either of her hands. Her power to tame horses had made these two clashing forces docile even in the presence of each other. Bafeel held her arms out, pressing a Bishop piece against either of them.
“Hearts that beat by the stamp of hooves,” Bafeel said. “From the first ride to the last, never parted, never afraid. Forward, never back. Our enemies will flinch from our charge and allies will cheer our arrival. I name you Bishops, steeds with magic in your every stride!”
The chess pieces sunk into the horses, reincarnating them as Bafeel’s servants. When it was done, they both lowered their heads. The big and scary one lowered both its horse head and its human head, the latter groaning what sounded like: “Maaaa—ssssster…”
Suddenly, someone started laughing.
The man with the barrel on his head had appeared, standing with his arms crossed on the beach, laughing right through the wood that was trapping his face.
“Hey little lady, that was a nice show! A real nice show!” he laughed.
Now that he was standing up, Naruto could see that he was over seven feet tall. Huge, really. Maybe his head was equally big? It really shouldn’t have been able to get stuck inside a barrel otherwise.
“While I thank you for the kind words, I question how much you could see of it,” Bafeel said.
“There’s a little hole, right here!” The man pointed at a point on the barrel. “And anyway you don’t need eyes to enjoy a show! I can still hear plenty! Plus, I don’t feel that pesky rain on my skin anymore. That’s a fine horse you rode here on. A MIGHTY fine horse. And I’d know about those!”
The man laughed uproariously at… His joke? Had it even been a joke? In the middle of laughing, he suddenly started beating his head on the ground.
He was really flexible. He bent his body at the waist and went low enough that he could clash the barrel’s wood against the ground over and over. After three impacts, the barrel started to fracture. After five blows it broke apart into splinters.
“That feels goooooood! Ooh, it’s nice to see the sun again! It does wonders for my fur!”
“You are…!” Bafeel gasped.
The man stood up… And showed that he was only a man up to his neck. From there up, he was 100% horse.
His lips pulled back over his big flat teeth as he snorted through his nostrils. He jabbed a finger at his chest.
“Mari Lwyd at yer service!” he said. “The best damn Celtic drinking horse that ever goddamn existed, and a connoisseur of all things interesting and fun! On that note, little lady, I’ve got a question that’s been burning a hole in my tongue! Well, two questions actually!”
Mari Lwyd, the big horse man who talked in an Irish accent, held up two fingers.
“First, you’re devils, aren’t you? You got any good alcohol down in that underworld of yours?” he asked. “And second, if the answer to the first question is yes… You in the market for any new servants? You can probably tell from looking at me, but I throw a MEAN punch.”