Disclaimer : Don't own 'em. Want 'em. But can't have 'em :(
FICKLE FATE and NORN-SENSE
The brothers come across three women in white waiting by a
roadside, waiting for them! Dean sees that one of the women
might provide him with an opportunity, but when Sam realises
what Dean is thinking, conflict ensues. Can Sam hold onto his
brother? Or will Dean grab this chance to get out, leaving
everything, including Sam, behind?
Chapter One
-oOo-
"Is that...? It is! Again! Sister, you're totally obsessed,! Tell her Urd. She's sneaking one of those three threads back into your basket again! It's not right, it's not funny and I'm thoroughly sick of seeing them over and over again!"
In the middle of making herself and her two sisters a nice cup of tea, Urd rolled her eyes before turning to give her youngest sister a stern stare.
"Please tell me Verdandi doesn't mean who I think she means Skuld?...Well?"
Skuld, the youngest of them, giggled, earning herself a sharp poke in her ribs from the irritated middle sister's sharp elbow.
"Ow! Stop that Verdandi, I nearly lost my thread!"
"I wish you had!"
"Well, you're thick then! Only a totally thick thicko would wish such a catastrophe befall a whole world!"
"Stop bickering, both of you...Skuld, I asked you a question. I would appreciate an answer."
Skuld stuck out her bottom lip. Refusing to look at Urd, she kept her gaze fixed firmly on the intricate task of weaving countless threads together, occasionally snipping off loose strands. Amongst the threads Skuld was currently working with, were three that were always sure to cause annoyance in her middle sister.
"But, I like these ones. They're all shiny and they make lovely patterns in and out and around, so pretty."
Urd set three delicate bone chine saucers decorated with tiny pink rosebuds down onto a silver tray. Three matching cups went onto the saucers and she began pouring tea from a silver teapot into each cup.
"Little sister, it's not our place to either like or dislike, as well you know...Do either of you want a fairy cake? They brought one for each of us, freshly baked today."
Two eager voices answered, "Yes please!"
-o-
Each sister sat in their own high back wing chair which were positioned facing each other around a small circular coffee table, on top of which currently sat tea and cakes for three. Urd brushed imaginary creases out of the long skirt of her crisp white dress before smiling brightly at her younger siblings.
"Well then. Isn't this nice? Tuck in my dears."
Urd waited until her sisters were slurping their tea and sighing happily over their fairy cakes, then silently and with great care, she placed her shuttle down on the top of coffee table, and left it there.
-o-
Skuld already had a mouthful of fairy cake, crumbs puthered out from between her lips as she spluttered and coughed. Verdandi froze, her fairy cake half way along it's journey to her open mouth, and stared wide eyed at her elder sister. Urd took a delicate sip from her teacup. She glanced first at Verdandi, then at Skuld who was beginning to recover from her coughing fit.
"Are you alright now my dear?"
Skuld nodded yes.
"Good. Now then. Sisters, it's high time we all had a serious talk, in particular Skuld, about The Three. You can start by explaining to myself and Verdandi what is it makes you feel such like towards The Three?...Skuld!...Your attention, please!"
The youngest sister had her focus firmly fixed on the abandoned shuttle that belonged to Urd. It wasn't right. It should be on her person even if not in her hand. They took short breaks from weaving, but it had to be all of them at once, and they never put their shuttles down, simply never! Not even when they were spinning instead of weaving. What did it mean? And was she herself to blame for her oldest sister's out of character behaviour? Skuld looked distinctly pale when she forced herself to focus on Urd.
-o-
"Beloved sister! Your shuttle! What will happen if you don't weave with us?"
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing, and in a very real sense...All things waiting shall remain unborn, and no seeds of life shall bear new fruit, be it plant or crop or creature...Understand this, my littlest sister, however long my task remains idle, not only will this rich tapestry we create grow in a decidedly lop-sided manner, but down there? All will be barren. If enough time were allowed to pass, you yourselves would, in the end, fall idle through a lack of new thread with which to weave; and down there would be nothing. I suggest, therefore, that it would behove you to respond swiftly to my enquiry regarding The Three my troublesome youngest sibling."
Skuld frowned. Her big sister was clearly wanting to intimidate her, why else would she start throwing around words like 'behove'? Feeling unusually stubborn, Skuld decided she was having none of it and she answered back, her tone haughty.
"The Three have actual names you know, sister. There's Castiel, an Angel of the Lord; that's when he's not reduced to being human anyway. The other two happen to be humans and brothers; they are called Sam and Dean Winchester, and they are Hunters. When brought together, all the three mingle and meld with one-another wonderfully! See? Look how their threads brighten up countless others when they are being woven into parts of the whole here and there? And they produce such an intricate pattern. I wish we'd had these threads to weave amongst all the rest right from the very start!"
-o-
Skuld's expression was dreamy as she gazed at the glittering threads, and her voice became softer, wanting.
"I confess, there are times as I sit weaving and cutting, that I find myself in my mind's eye imagining how it would be to undo everything; you know? Take our shared creation right back again, to the very beginning, only this time while we weave we would keep adding in these three flashing threads here and there from the outset. I am certain we would find ourselves watching and pausing, astonished by the wondrous change that their I just know their influence would bring to fate's outrageous patterns. And what a fine, fine thing we three would then find ourselves wrapping around that one universe..."
Until then, since having witnessed her older sister put her shuttle down, Verdandi had remained shocked into an unmoving silence. Now, however, her reaction verged on apoplectic and her voice came out as a high pitched, strangled wail.
"Noooooo! Stop it, stop it! Stop talking such insanity Skuld!...A fever? Yes. That must be it! Urd, hear me; our baby sister must be affected by a fever to speak such madness. She thinks to undo all our work! Four times almost, four times fate's tapestry encircles this universe, and she speaks of starting again? Fever...Or madness!...As a matter of fact, it's got you too Urd. I fear even you are afflicted! Fevers and madness, fevers and madness! Ooo! Help me someone! I...Can't...Breathe. I...Really...Truly...Can't...Breathe!"
-o-
Skuld shot her frenetically panicking middle sister an entirely unsympathetic and very impatient look.
"So what?...You're being ridiculous, you don't actually breathe anyway. None of us do!"
Verdandi put her panicking on hold to huff and scowl back at Skuld.
"It's metaphorical breathing. Alright?...I can't metaphorically breathe!
"Enough!"
The impact of Urd's suddenly raised voice was twofold. First, it startled the younger pair into attentive and anxious silence, and secondly, down on Earth in a city called Liverpool, England, a single large public car park experienced an unexpected level 5 earthquake, messing up the previously neat lines of parked cars and causing five different women to, in various order, scream, drop their bags of shopping and throw themselves flat to the ground.
-o-
Verdandi and Skuld stared wide eyed at their eldest sister who, having risen to her feet and placed her hands on her hips, glared angrily back at them both.
"As the oldest of we three sisters, when I order, youwill obey! For I am Urd. Eldest of the Norn and Keeper of What Has Been. I am the Then! I command you both. Lay down your shuttles. This instant!"
There was the sound of a single whimper from Verdandi as, bewildered and anxious, both the younger Norns complied, immediately becoming hypersensitive to the absence of their shuttles from about their person. Verdandi sniffled and wiped under her nose with the back of a hand. This is all Skuld's fault. Every single bit of it! Urd's expression was grim as she held out both her hands. Confused but afraid to ask what their elder sister intended, the younger two each reluctantly took a hand in their own. Satisfied, Urd began to mutter under her breath.
-o-
Urd managed to catch Verdandi before she hit the ground, Skuld however ended up on her hands and knees. The ground beneath her, she swiftly discovered, was horribly wet and squishy. Reaching for her, Urd and Verdandi together hauled their youngest sibling upright. Verdandi screwed her nose up, pointing to the skirt of Skuld's previously pristine long white dress.
"Look at you sister. You're filthy! Ghargh! It's all over your hands too! No! Don't touch...Your face...Oh well. I tried to warn you."
Dirty anyway, Skuld shrugged and proceeded to wipe the mud off her hands by smearing it down either side of her dress while she gazed round at their new surroundings.
"Where are we my sister?"
Glaring up at the heavily overcast sky as if daring it to rain on her, Urd answered.
"Down There. I'm surprised you needed to ask."
Quickly moving to where she could huddle into Urd's side, Verdandi's eyes flicked fearfully all around their immediate area in terror.
"Noooo! Sister! Beloved Urd, take me back. Take me back home I beg you. Pleease! I never wanted to come to Down There! I never!"
Ignoring the middle sister's fear and distress, Urd turned to face the opposite direction, forcing Verdandi to shuffle hop in order to keep up while remaining stuck like glue to the older woman's side. A single lane road ran past where the three were stood. Urd stared down it's length and into the distance, after a short while announcing to the others,
"Ah, excellent! There they are."
-o-
"Sammy? Wakey wakey, heads up bro'. Potential weirdness alert."
"Huh? Wha'? Wha'ssit?"
"Up ahead. Looks like Hubble, Bubble an' a side order of Trouble."
-oOo-
Started this fic with no clue where it might go, so reviews, criticisms, comments
all welcome, whether good or bad. All comments are valuable to me. xxx