A/N: Here is the one-shot series about Aryka that I promised! This first one-shot is set when Aryka and Mjolnir were toddlers, during the wars between Frost Giants and Asgardians. This is the battle when Odin takes Loki. Enjoy! :)

Eir huddled deep inside the cave, holding her children close to her, trying to keep them warm. A difficult task on Jotunheim, that was. They were sleeping for the moment, and she was grateful. Toddlers don't allow for much rest. But despite all the trouble they caused and the much increased risk of discovery that came from their presence, she was grateful for them. They had brought so much light into her lonely life.

She heard footsteps thudding towards her, and she looked up to see her husband coming towards her. They hadn't officially been married yet, but that was nearly impossible when they were fugitives in a hostile realm. Thiazi knelt beside her and gently touched a hand to their daughter's head, briefly turning it blue.

"How are they?" he asked, his deep voice echoing through the cavern.

"Finally sleeping." She replied with a tired smile.

"And how are you faring?"

She nodded. "I'm well," but he could tell that she was exhausted.

"Here, I'll care for them while you rest."

"Thank you." She said, handed them over to him, and laid down on the lumpy stone to get some sleep.

She'd only been resting for a few moments when the sound of more heavy feet thumped down the cave toward them.

"Thiazi!" A Jotunn's booming voice thundered.

Eir startled awake and gave Thiazi a panicked look.

"They found us." Thiazi whispered.

"We have to hide the children!" she hissed, the exhaustion of moments ago gone. He handed one of them to her, and she carried their son around a bend in the cave. He had awoken and was looking at his mother with wide, terrified eyes. He'd never seen his mother this frightened. She pushed him into a tiny crevice in the wall.

"Run, Mjolnir!" she whispered. "Take your sister and get out of here!" Thiazi set Aryka down next to her brother. She started wailing.

"Shhh!" Eir hugged her daughter to her. "It's going to be fine, Aryka. Your father and I will be back for you." Mjolnir looked like he wanted to cry, but he held in his tears bravely.

Eir, planting a last kiss on their foreheads, whispered, "I love you," and pushed them away. They turned, their short, little legs carrying them as fast as they could, but it was too late.

"Traitor!" The voice was right behind them. Eir and Thiazi whirled to face the Jotunns, taking each other's hands. They knew the only chance for their children was to hold the Jotunns off as long as they could.

"Go after the children." One of the Frost Giants, Vafthrudnir, growled. Two of the Jotunns went around Eir and Thiazi to the crevice, where the sound of little feet could still be heard pattering down the corridor. Eir threw herself at them, Thiazi right behind her. They managed to kill one of the Frost Giants before the others restrained them.

Eir and Thiazi struggled against the strong hands holding them, but they knew it was hopeless. They watched helplessly as two more Jotunns approached the crevice. Then Eir smiled in triumph when she saw that they couldn't fit. There was no way that two full-grown Frost Giants could go somewhere when two half-Jotunn children barely fit.

Vafthrudnir roared with frustration and turned on Eir and Thiazi, an ice dagger forming in his fist. Thiazi's eyes watched him warily.

"No!" Thiazi shouted as Vafthrudnir drove the dagger into Eir's leg. She screamed in pain, collapsing to the snow beneath her. Her blood flowed out of her, staining the white powder scarlet.

The patter of little feet stopped, and a shriek sounded. Then it started again, getting closer this time. The children appeared in the mouth of the crevice, running towards their mother.

Eir's eyes shot open. "No, you have to go. Leave us." It was just a murmur, and it came too late to save them. They both screeched as the Frost Giants swooped them up and held them tight.

"Mother!" Mjolnir cried, his eyes wide at the sight of her blood.

The Jotunns lifted Eir off of the ground and half carried her outside, to the mouth of the cave.

"You can't take them out there, they'll freeze!" Thiazi shouted, struggling to reach his wife and children.

Vafthrudnir ignored him.

"Where are we going?" Mjolnir asked, his voice a few octaves higher than usual.

"The temple." His captor replied.

Eir and Thiazi exchanged a glance. They knew what was coming. Then Eir gave him a reassuring smile. She could save them. She muttered a healing incantation over her leg and watched as the flesh sealed up, not even leaving a scar. Thiazi was looking at her steadily, wondering what she was planning to do. She just shook her head.

Laufey waited for them in the temple. He chuckled darkly at the sight of the four of them, kneeling at his mercy. "So, after three years, we have found you."

"Laufey," Thiazi spoke up. "Execute me, but please, let the children live. None of this is their fault."

The Jotunn king seemed to find that amusing. "You think that I will spare your children because they did not cause this? They are filthy, unclean. Their mother makes them so. They are divided between two realms, and cannot remain in this one."

"Then send them back to Asgard!" Thiazi was desperate.

"I will not send them to my enemy." Laufey replied. "Their birthright is to die, because of your folly."

Thiazi bowed his head. He knew that nothing he could say would sway the Jotunn king. Their lives were as good as lost.

But Eir was undaunted. She stared Laufey down, as if that could keep her children safe. She was still glaring at him when he gave his soldiers the signal and they ran Eir and Thiazi through. As they collapsed to the ice, as the Jotunns turned to the children (screaming and crying), there was a crack that sounded through the air, as though a thunderstorm were coming. Then a blast of multicolored light shot down from the sky, throwing chunks of ice everywhere. No one noticed in the confusion when Eir put a hand to her stomach and stopped the bleeding with a murmured word.

The Allfather, followed by thousands of Asgardian soldiers, all dressed in gold, emerged from the Bifrost. Eir nearly sobbed with relief. She knew Odin would save her children. She crawled over to Thiazi's body and dragged it under an out-of-the-way overhang to keep him safe. She knew Odin wouldn't like seeing her. She was as much a traitor to Asgard as Thiazi was to Jotunheim. So she watched from the side as the Asgardians cut down the Jotunns. Her children had escaped from their captors and were huddled under the crude altar in the center of the temple. On top of the alter was something…small. And wriggling. It was hard to make out what it was through the snow that whistled through the air, but she finally realized it was—a baby?

Who would leave a baby out to die? She asked herself. She wanted to help it, to save it from the harsh elements that would soon take its life, even if it was a child of the Frost Giants. She had fallen in love with one, after all. But she knew that Thiazi needed her help more at the moment. So she turned to him and the gaping wound in his stomach. She placed her hands over it, trying to ignore how still and silent and cold he was, and called up her green light. She let it weave over her fingers and slip into his wound. A cold feeling of foreboding sat in her stomach like a stone, but she pushed it aside, telling herself that it would work.

But it didn't. No matter how much magic she poured into his wound, it refused to close.

"Be careful on whom you use your gift, Eir." Odin says.

"Why?" Eir asks, only a child.

"It is very taxing to heal someone, especially if the wound is grievous. Do not waste your energy." He replies.

"Could I…" she hesitates. "Could I bring someone back from the dead?"

He knows she is thinking of her brother. He places a hand on her shoulder. "Yes." He replies after a long moment. "But it would require the sacrifice of your life in place of theirs. Your brother would not want that. You must not dwell on it overmuch, Eir." She nods, dropping his gaze, and he lets his hand fall from her shoulder.

Eir knew what she had to do. Their children would need Thiazi far more than her. They had already shown signs of being unbalanced due to their mixed parentage, and Thiazi could help them deal with that better than she could. So, the tears freezing to her cheeks, she placed her hands on his stomach again and closed her eyes.

At first, nothing happened. Then the color seemed to fade from her skin, and she felt a pit opening up in her stomach. Her eyes flew open as the pain stabbed into her, the same pain that Thiazi had felt. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream torn away by the whistling wind. The warmth seeped from her body, and she felt weak.

As Thiazi's eyelids flickered open, she collapsed to the ice at his side. His first gasp was her last. Their eyes locked for a split second, his burning with new life, hers fading with lost life.

"Care for them, Thiazi." She whispered, and was gone.

"Eir." He murmured, his lips stiff from death. He took her head in his hands, touched her cheek with a rough finger. But she didn't respond. He realized that she had sacrificed herself for him.

"Eir." He said her name again, his voice torn with grief. "Don't you know that our children need you as much as they do me? I can't raise them alone!" He was angry, he realized. Angry at her for leaving him. For leaving Aryka and Mjolnir. He shook her still form and roared. Then he realized how pointless anger at her was and laid her down on the ice. She would have a proper burial, but first he needed to find their children.

He stood and looked around. There was no sign of anyone besides the dead Jotunns.

"Aryka!" he shouted, his voice booming off of the silent crags of ice. "Mjolnir!" He listened hard for any answering cry, but heard nothing.

No, please no, was all he could think as he began searching for them. He couldn't lose his wife and his children on the same day.

But there was no sign of them. He looked all over the temple, in all the caves nearby. They were gone. He tried to comfort himself with the thought that he didn't find their mangled bodies among the carnage, but it hardly helped.

And if the Asgardians had taken them, which was looking ever more likely, who knew what they'd do to them because of their parentage? Laufey had been ready to execute two children for the crime of their parents. He didn't know if the Allfather would be any more merciful. But he had no way of getting to Asgard, no way of even getting off of Jotunheim.

All that was left to him was to bury his wife.

A/N: There it is! The first installment of Aryka's deep, long-ago backstory! More will be coming, hopefully soon! Please leave a review, they are the most amazing things ever!