I pulled my staff out of thin air and turned to face the giant squirrel. I was trying to get to Midgard to help Blitz move into his new store, but every time I was on Yggdrasil, Ratatosk started to chase me.
He barked, the sound shaking the branch I had scrambled out onto. The sound should have torn my mind to pieces and broken my heart, but I couldn't hear it. It was one of the few times in my life that I thanked the gods for being deaf.
Ratatosk cocked his head at me, probably wondering why I hadn't collapsed in despair. I gripped my staff more tightly and fingered bag of runes tied to my belt, wondering how I was going to fight and immortal squirrel. I didn't want to die. I would never see anyone I loved again if I died. I would go down fighting, if I had to.
He charged towards me, and I threw one of my rune stones at him out of reflex, not bothering to see which one it was. It hit him squarely between the eyes and crumbled to dust. I was doomed.
I hugged my staff and tucked my head down, preparing myself for the worst. A wave of drowsiness washed over me, like I had casted a spell. I fell off the branch I was standing on, looking up in time to see an eight-legged horse bring its hooves down on Ratatosk's head.
I tried to grab back on the branch in an effort to save myself, but my hands slipped, skin tearing as they dragged across the bark.
I fell, the Gap surrounding me as I flailed my arms helplessly. My weariness was gone, replaced with pure terror. I was either going to fall into nothingness or I was going to hit a branch and become a Hearthstone pancake.
I flung my free hand out in front of me, and by some miracle grabbed onto a thin branch. I held on for dear life.
I felt a faint trace of power flowing through it and knew that it was an entrance to one of the nine worlds. Excited, I swung my staff up to the branch and tapped it. A thin crack traced down it, a soft light coming from inside.
I tapped it again, harder this time, and the crack widened enough for me to fit through. I used all of my strength and pulled myself up into it.
NA NA NAH NAH NANA NA NA LINE BRAKE!
I fell out of a sickly tree onto a girl, my bag of rune stones scattering onto the pavement. I jumped off her quickly, not wanting to anger her.
I'm so sorry! I signed, hoping that she wasn't too peeved that I used her to pad my fall. She got up off the ground and said something I assumed was very rude.
She had caramel blonde hair with a streak of purple and was, for some reason, wearing white pajamas with combat boots. She glared at me like I was an idiot, and trust me, I know that glare quite well.
The girl tried to ask me something, but I had a hard time reading her lips. I could almost get what she was saying, but not quite. It was like she was screwing up the words to mess with me. She must've had one of those accents, like Mallory.
I tried signing to her again, but I was met with the usual look of confusion. I took out my notebook and pen and jotted down an apology, then began to pick up my stones and stuff them into my bag before she could get a good look at them. I didn't know why, but something told me it would be a very bad idea if this strange girl got to them.
She must've not felt the same way, because before I could sign a warning, she reached down and touched one, probably in an attempt to help me.
As soon as her hand touched it, I felt a weird hum, like I was sitting on top of an amp. She jumped back quickly, clearly sensing the magic-though I had no idea how-and she gave me an accusatory glare.
I freaked out. Most Midgardians didn't know a thing about magic, and I was shocked that she did, so I may have overreacted when I hit her with my staff and ran in the other direction. I thought that I was pretty quick after getting chased down by angry dwarves and a giant squirrel, but the girl, unfazed by the perthro imprinted on her cheek, chased after me and grabbed my legs in a crazed lunge.
I landed hard, the asphalt digging into my palms. I crawled away from her and tried to get up, but before I could react I felt something heavy and definitely not the girl land on my back and knock the wind out of me.
I twisted to see what it was and quickly wish that I hadn't. The lion that had pinned me to the road snarled. It looked just like the stone ones I had seen flanking libraries, but it was much more terrifying. It's claws dug into my skin, but it didn't kill me. It just pinned me down and stared at me, its lip curled to reveal yellowed teeth.
I would have screamed, but the wind was knocked out of me from the fall. Instead I just tried to catch my breath and disappear into my scarf.
The girl sauntered up to me, flipping my rune stone in her fingers.
"If I let you up, will you try and run off again?" She crouched down and got in my face, unfazed by the lion. Who was this girl?
I nodded, which everyone in Midgard could understand. She place her hand on the lion's back and it seemed to fold into itself, like it was being forced into a mold. The lion was gone in a blink of an eye, and nothing but a white wooden staff laid in its place.
The girl picked it up and held it threateningly. I stood slowly, with my hands palms up. This girl was dangerous, whoever or whatever she was.
"Who are you, thinking you can fall on me, whack me over my head, and skip off into the sunset?" The girl glared at me.
I shrugged, since that seemed like a safe answer.
"Are you daft?"
I shrugged again, looking over her shoulder to my runes. If I could shuffle around her and scoop them up quickly, maybe I would have time to open a gate back into Yggdrasil.
"You can't just shrug, that isn't a proper answer! Can't you talk?"
I shook my head.
"Then...oh, you can't talk? why not?" Now she looked a bit more curious that furious, but still mostly furious.
I pointed to my ears and shook my head no, hoping she would catch on.
"Ear no? No ear?" She looked confused now, along with curious and furious.
I signed getting close, temporarily forgetting the gesture was pointless.
"Oh!" She snapped her fingers. "You can't hear!"
I nodded, trying to sidestep to get closer to my runes. Luckily, she didn't notice.
"So, these stones are for deaf magicians?" She looked over the rune in her hand.
My blood ran cold. She knew about magic. She didn't look like anything other than a disgruntled Midgardian, but if she knew about magic, then there must be more to her than meets the eye. For all I know, she could be a giant.
I needed to find a way out of this situation.
"Don't worry, I'm a magician too. I'm with the twenty-first nome."
What? Odin told me I was the only rune stone magician to practice in centuries. And what was a nome?
I wanted answers, but those are pretty hard to get when you can't talk to the person you wanted them from. I had an idea, something that I hadn't done since the fight with the Fenris wolf.
Can you hear me? I thought to the girl, projecting my thoughts out like Odin told me to. She probably wouldn't hear me but it was worth a shot.
She jumped back. "Are you in my head? You can't just get in my head! Only Isis can get in my head!"
It worked! I ignored her strange comment and gave myself a mental high-five. Unfortunately, I forgot to stop 'projecting'.
"Did...did you just send me an image of you high five-ing yourself?" She asked, her tone mocking.
It wasn't for you, I thought to her.
You know what, quit distracting me. Tell me, or think me, or whatever, why you were in a tree?"
I hesitated, not knowing how much to tell her. She did know about magic, but so did most giants. That didn't mean I could trust her.
"Tell me everything, including that giant remark. You can trust me."
If she wanted trust she would have to give some answers first. How do you know about magic? are you a demigod, or something?
The girl turned pale at the mention of demigods. "Oh, that's it, isn't it? You're not Egyp...you're Greek?"
Greek? I thought, confused.
"You aren't Greek? Who are you, then?"
A million things flashed through my mind before I could stop them. My time sleeping on the street, looking after Magnus, and a conversation I had saw between two people, a girl and her mother.
"Who is he?" The girl asked, pointing.
"He's no one." The mother ushered her away before I could respond.
Another memory, one of my father yelling at me after my brother died.
"You're nothing but a stupid cripple! The wrong boy died, and left a shell of an elf in his place!"
Magnus looking up at me, no more than fourteen, after I gave him a blanket. "Who are you?"
The Capo, grinning up at me from the water. "You are who you choose to be, boy. So what do you choose?"
I pulled out of the past, but it was too late. The girl had seen everything. She stared at me blankly, and I used her moment of shock to gather up my rune stones.
I began to walk in the other direction, but she tugged on my arm. "Though that was a lovely slideshow, it didn't answer my question. Don't you have a name? Can't you at least tell me that?"
I was surprised. Most people who know my story looked at me with pity, but she seemed unfazed by my past.
I'm Hearthstone, I thought.
"I'm Sadie. Sadie Kane."
A/N: tell me if you enjoyed it! If you hated it, tell me that too! Please, talk to me, I'm lonely.
