Chapter 13:
Atreus was grinning from ear to ear as he practically ran over towards the two dwarves that were sitting at the head of their forge/workshop wagon, the blue ox like beast that pulled it along accepting a scratch on his head from Atreus as way of greeting. “Brock! Sindri! Why are you here?”
“Well aint that a fine fuckin greetin.” Brock groused. “Come all the way here and the lil shit’s actin like we’re intrudin univited!”
“That’s not what I meant.” Atreus laughed. “Just- How’d you get here? We dont even know how we got here!”
“Aye it’s quite the mystery.” Mimir muttered “I know we’re still somewhere in midgard, but where…”
“Well, technically its Midgard in the same way the distant lands Tyr visited are but-.”
“I’m guessing they know eachother.” Atreus caught Stark’s whisper somewhere behind him.
He was about to speak up, and answer his friend and start making introductions when-
“Damn fuckin right we know eachother!” Knew this lil fucker when he was still my height! Now he got all tall an shit!”
Atreus boggled. “Wait, Brock, you understand him?”
“I understand him!?” Stark echoed.
Mimir sounded as incredulous as Atreus felt. “You do!?”
“Course I do!” Brock scoffed. Reaching into his mouth to pull out a gold plated tooth. He grinned as Atreus squinted, just barely discerning the tiny runes inscribed on the false dentistry.
“Dwarven Magic!” He guffawed before stuffing the thing back in his gob.
Sindri shuddered, no doubt at the sound of his brother’s fingers stuffed in his own mouth. “If you travel between realms, languages get pretty complicated pretty quick, Elves, Dwarves, Aesir, Vanir, all different languages in their heartlands. Sure most speak a common tongue to ease communication but there’s always someone who doesn’t speak at all. Not to mention the humans.”
“You fart too long and the fuckers have changed their whole damn language! Change it more than they change their underwear.”
Atreus raised an eyebrow. “No they don't?" He ventured hesitantly.
His father, however, grunted in a way that Atreus knew was his way of disagreeing.
Mimir hemmed and hawed with a long drawn out “Well….”
And even Frieren along his periphery seemed to give a bit of a nod earring a raised eyebrow from Fern beside her.
“Mistress?” The girl pressed.
Frieren shrugged. “Human languages change just as humans do. Just as they push magic and learn new ways to build or create, their language changes with them. When I lived in isolation some of the dialects did catch me off guard when I returned to human civilization after several hundred years.”
Fern still looked skeptical and Atreus had to admit that he didn’t get it either.
A word meant one thing and it would always mean one thing. How could that change after just a few hundred years?
Before anymore talk about language or magic could take place, his Father marched forward, planting himself before the two dwarves.
“You came here from Midgard.” His father said. “Then you can provide us the means to return.”
“That’s…” Sindi hesitated.
“Aint fuckin hapenin for a while Big and Pale.” Brok finished for him.
“Explain.” His father demanded.
Sindri’s former hesitation vanished as he perked up, ready to discuss something he found exciting. “Well ya see, this place, it was tricky, I’ll tell ya that. Like a puzzle we couldn’t even see til you two got here.” Sindri answered.
“Place was sealed tighter than my Sindri’s butthole when he sees dirt.” Brok finished. “But we found a way, only you two would find a way to do it by freakin accident.”
“Sealed?” Mimir asked. “Not many could do something like that. Infact only-”
“Gods.” His father’s eyes narrowed, his upper lip curling.
“That’d be my first guess.” Brok nodded. “Whoever’s large and in charge round here, didn’t want anyone else gettin in. So he locked the door from this side.”
“Very tough to get in legitimately.” Sindri nodded. “We specialize in that kind of magic, that space between space, but for you… might be a bit harder to get back. At least for now. We can probably work something out later; once we’ve analyzed… whoever’s magic.”
His father looked displeased. “Is she aware of our entry?”
Sindri made a hesitant sound “Ehh- Can’t say for sure really. But if you’ve been here a while and she hasn’t made a move then maybe not.”
Brok shrugged. “Whelp, whatever, no skin off our dicks for now-” He grunted as he hopped up onto the carriage’s front, grabbing hold of the reigns. “Where’re we off to?”
Atreus perked up. “You’re coming with us?”
“Fuck yeah.” Brok’s grin was downright toothy. “Whole new world, whole new markets! Money to be made!”
“That sounds like the dwarves I know.” Mimir muttered with a roll of his glowing eyes.
“Let’s be off then.”
“Ehh!?” Brok jumped turning to find Frieren sitting between him and an equally surprised Sindri.
“Mistress!” Fern protested. “We don't even know them!?”
Frieren turned to the girl, blinking.
“They have a carriage.” She said as though that explained everything even added to the point by swinging her dangling legs back and forth.
Fern facepalmed.
Frieren turned to Brok. “How does your translation magic function?”
“Dwarven Magic girl.” Brok said, as if that explained everything.
“Dwarves don’t have magic in this world.”
“Then this is a shit fucking world!” The blue Dwarf shook his head. “Dumb fuckers forgot its the Nature of the thing that’s important!”
“How so?” Frieren pressed.
“Anyone else notice the Ox is blue?” Stark asked, pointing at the, indeed, very blue Bovine… who was quite receptive to the head scratches Stark was providing him with.
“Not as blue as Brok.”
“Shut up ya fuckin neck stump!”
“That’s it! Kratos, throw me at him! Horn’s First!”
Atreus laughed, getting ready to get into the back of the workshop cart as his father lumbered behind him, his father chose to keep walking… probably because he was too big to fit in the cart, and The Ox was now protesting whenever Stark stopped offering scratches… so Stark was walking too for now.
He pulled himself up, accepting the weight of the supply pack his father handed him, loading it up beside himself as he settled somewhere between the anvil and the rack of tools, he noticed that Fern, who’d crawled in after him was staring rather intently in his direction.
He looked back, curious at the intensity of the girl’s stare. “Uhhh… Everything ok?” He asked.
Fern frowned. “You said they.”
Atreus, very eloquently, voiced his confusion.
“Uhhh…”
“When Mistress Frieren and the others were discussing how humans change their languages.” Fern reminded. “You said They don’t.”
A tiny, but ever louder alarm bell started ringing at the back of Atreus’ mind.
“Umm… well I-”
“A human would have probably said We dont-” Fern pressed; and the firmness of her gaze didn’t let up. “Is there a particular reason for the choice of word?”
He suddenly wished that Mimir was here.
“Well because he’s not-”
He didn’t quite jump, but only because he was more accustomed to Sindri and Brok just appearing. Fern however, did jump, startling as she looked to the front of the carriage where Sindri was sitting, stuffed into a small little cubby alongside them.
“Sindri.” He protested.
“What?” The dwarf shrugged. “Might as well just get it out in the open! Honesty is a good policy!”
“Weren’t you up front!?”
“Brok’s talking about Dwarven Magic with the elf; that is an elf right? And I can hardly leave a growing boy and girl back here without a chaperone.”
“If you’re not human then what are you?” Fern demanded, not letting herself get distracted.
Atreus winced. He knew His father wouldn’t want him to reveal the fact that they were Gods, and frankly, neither did he. “Giant?”
Fern stared at him, completely stonefaced. “Mr. Atreus. Please don’t lie to me.”
Mr. Atreus. He’d grown to know some of Fern’s tells, and that meant she was getting mad at him.
“I’m not really!” He promised. “Remember what we told you about the nine realms and Mimir’s stories. Giant is a race, but not all Giants are… well… Giants.”
“Especially half giants.”
“What’s the other half?” Fern pounced on the question immediately.
“Sindri!”
“What!?”
“Stop helping!”
—
Sein couldn’t help but contemplate the gravity of his current situation.
He was chest deep in what was undoubtedly quicksand; or mud as the case may be. It wasn’t that such things were unheard of in these parts but they were exceedingly rare. There must’ve been some sort of monster that caused it, or perhaps one of the mages that passed by recently had a spell go awry.
Either way, he was quite literally neck deep in it, so it was definitely his problem now.
He’d been out of the village to gather some medicinal herbs. His brother and the other villagers wouldn’t expect him back for… hours at least. Only when the sun was beginning to set would they start to worry.
How many hours would it be before they sent out a search party? How many more hours before they found him?
Could he last for that long? At the rate he was sinking he highly doubted it.
Sein needed a solution to his problem, and so, he approached the most readily available one with all the calm and poise a priest of his station held.
“HELP MEEEEE!” He howled into the far too peaceful forest, his bellow being answered by the squawking of birds and rustling of leaves in the wind.
“HEEEELP!” He shouted again, hoping his voice would carry off into enough distance that perhaps a hunter or a traveler, or forager would be able to hear him.
Suddenly there was a rustle in the trees and Sein came back to himself, recognizing that humans weren’t the only thing that could hear him.
If it was an animal, he’d be fine, a Monster… that would be dicey.
A Demon…
Rare around these parts.
But rare wasn’t impossible…
Shit.
Silence, broken only by the wind through the branches- and the sound of whatever it was drawing closer.
If it was human it would have called back.
Sein began to think, trying to filter through what few defensive miracles he knew that could ward off a beast or low level monster.
Please don't let it be a Demon. He prayed to the Goddess.
He heard the crunch of wood splitting apart, the grinding cracks of small trees and bushes following, the sound of metal on wood.
A demon, shit.
Sein made ready with his strongest offensive spell, but it wouldn’t kill even a low level demon of any real merit.
But something was better than nothing.
Then, he caught sight of the being emerging from the woods.
It wasn’t a demon, but Sein didn’t drop his spell.
Because good lord this pale behemoth was intimidating.
The muscle bound man marched up to the edge of the quicksand quagmire, looking at Sein’s predicament with a stony gaze and an expression Sein would cautiously call annoyed disdain.
But still, the priest smiled, trying to ease his own nervousness. “Hey friend.” He extended his hand caked with mud. “Mind helping a guy out of a spot of trouble?”
The Pale giant grunted, Sein was worried the man wasn’t going to answer when he heard a voice nearby.
“Brother.”
He didn’t recognize the word, but the giant answered back.
“It is a priest.”
“Brother…”
The word this time sounded annoyed, or maybe chastizing. But it was clear this stranger spoke a wholly different language, which is probably why he hadn’t answered or spoken at Sein’s original calls for help.
But at the annoyed word, the Giant this time grunted again and then reached up, to the branch of a thick tree and with what seemed like a very casual, almost lazy air pulled, a thunderous crack and a branch that was as wide as a man’s thigh came crunching down held in the man’s massive, meaty grip before he held the log forward.
Sein grasped the branch, both hands gripping tight.
The man pulled.
Sein had seen the strength of many warriors, but the sheer force must have been tremendous as he could feel the vacuum sucking of the thick muck trying to pull him in and being completely powerless to do so as he was hurled up, out of the mud like he’d been shot out of a catapult, damn near flying through the air before the giant physically caught him, Sein’s chest falling into the man’s hand, knocking the wind out of him as he came to a dead stop and had his feet planted on the ground.
The priest took a second to catch his breath again before he smiled. “Thanks Friend.” He looked around, finding nothing but empty forest. “But where’s the other person? I know I heard someone else.”
The pale giant grunted (man of few words it seemed) before he turned around and began to walk away.
And that’s when Sein noticed the head dangling from his belt.
A head that was smiling at him.
“Hallo!”
Sein felt that he could be forgiven for his surprised and somewhat horrified shout.
“Oh, don't back away! You’re about to step into-”
His boots squelched and sank up to his knees.
…
“Brother…”
Now the giant wielding a very large axe looked annoyed as he turned around.
Sein wondered if he might not be able to survive until the village sent out a rescue party.He really didn’t want to inconvenience the giant axe wielding head hunter any further.(X)(X)(X)
I apologize to everyone for the long delay since last update, my oldest Dog passed away and I really wasn't in the proper headspace to write much of anything. Here's hoping to get back into the swing of things and get out of my own head. I do have a happy surprise for you all though. Expect that post imminently :)If ya'll have any feedback, ideas or wishes for upcoming chapters let me know, lets get back to writing.