It was too dark to see in front of her. Feeling the familiar dirt path beneath her bare hands she reaches out and move forward. A loose braid dangled around the left side of her neck, tips sweeping along the ground as she dragged herself forward. Laufey took as few breaths as possible, every exhale causing the walls around her to press tightly against her body. Highlighting the confines of the small dark tunnel.
As long as she didn't exit into the palace, she would be safe. This may be her last journey here she realizes. Almost there, no time to think of anything except getting to these humans.
A dim light began to sting her eyes as she quickened her hands. Pulling herself closer and closer out of the cramped passageway. At last, she felt the cold air touch the back of her sweat-drenched neck.
She stood up, body aching as it remembers how to walk on two legs again. Immediately she approaches a large wooden door slightly ajar. She reaches for her hood and slips it over the back of her head, covering everything except for a long thick oak colored braid. She squeezes herself through the door, careful not to open it any further. Her feet make small splashing sounds on the urine soaked stone floors. As she walks past several unlit touches the smell of dead bodies, feces, and blood filled her nose. The raw stone walls mixed with exposed iron bars was all she could make out. She reaches out to feel the etched writing on some of the stone. This pattern, she knew exactly where she was now.
She walks up to the first cell, looking for any signs of life. A still body lay on the floor, the smell of blood and vomit along with it. No sound of breathing, dead next cell. A woman sleeping. Laufey reaches her bare hand out to the metal bar on the cell wall. A flat silver ring makes a twang against the bar. It startles the woman awake. She gasps and moves closer to her. "You're here." She said in a dry cracked voice. She's probably gone days without water. She taps her ring onto the bar again, then two quick taps, finally a pause. "I don't remember the orders, Once for food and water, twice for freedom, three for mercy?" Her ring taps the bars three times as she nods her head. "Food please, I'm so hungry. They will kill my little brother if I escape."
Her hands leave the bars and move to her sack. Inside she pulls out a pouch of water and two small loaves of bread. She leaves both by the edge of the cell. No sooner the woman rushes to grab the food. Laufey moved onto the next cell. A man standing close to the bars, waiting for her. She taps once, he shakes his head, she taps twice, nothing. He looks at her, waiting for her next offer. Three taps onto the bar, he nods. She reaches for a small knife. He presses his face to the bars, exposing his neck. "Thank you." He says in a shaky voice. She shoves the knife into him quickly. He doesn't make a sound, only sinking to the floor slowly as he bleeds out. Laufey wipes the knife off and moves to the next cell. Food, food, death, freedom, 'finally' she thinks. She unlocks the cell and moves quickly down the row. Death, death, water only, freedom, food and water, death once more. She reached the final cell and sees a child in the corner. His eyes follow her closely. She approaches the cell and taps her ring once, twice, three times. No response. She reached for water and places it by his cell. "My legs are broken, can you toss it to me?" Laufey pauses, the way he spoke so clearly. She didn't remember seeing this in her future vision? It's a trap. Shit. She runs quickly towards the tunnel a terrifying laugh came from the boy. A flash of light blinds her, she covered her eyes. When she opened them she was suddenly in a large hallway.
Red and gold blur into her still waking vision. Her breathing quickens, she is inside the main hall, why didn't she bring the Bifrost? She is trapped, how did she not foresee this? Panic overcoming her. No, calm down assess the situation. Marble floors, gold flakes in the shape of vines, torches with a blue flame, the ceiling too tall to recognize the etched writings carved. She is by Odin's sleeping chambers. 'Run.' She tells herself and does just that. She follows the hall down to the end with two massive golden doors. She hears arguing. A booming male voice and a woman crying. Odin and his wife. She hears a slap and glass breaking, followed by a, moan? She runs in the opposite direction, success a window at last. Laufey leaps onto the frame and shatters the glass with a bunched fist. She leaps outside not caring where she falls. Whatever fate awaits her below is better than down the hall.
A body breaks her fall. Skinny and frail with a silk dress. Laufey's knees hit the grass first, taking most of the impact of the stranger. Her right knee made a cracking sound on impact. She holds in her need to scream out in pain. With both hands, she pops the knee back into the socket. Shaking the large chunks of glass from the hand that busted the window.
Quickly she jumps to her feet and looks around. A makeshift garden, purple flowers, and orange trees. A fountain with three statues spitting water. No birds, but she hears bugs. She is still inside a fortress, not out of danger yet.
"What, happened?" The woman groaned as she sat up. Long blond hair in disarray as she reaches for her face. She is young with purple eyes and pink lips. 'Purple, there is so much purple. But, it shouldn't be here?' She thinks to herself. "Who's there?" Laufey stands up and faces her. 'Damn it, damn it! How could I have gotten this so wrong?' "Who are you? Speak before I call for my sisters!"
She remains silent, a hand reaches for her dagger. It has been used too much already today she regrets.
"Wait, you're her. The one they're looking for! Laufey the brave!"
"J-" she quickly stops herself from speaking more. Odin will hear her immediately, bringing her death sooner.
"You are her!"
Laufey feels her heart race, her hands shake. She has never been this upset with herself. Everything in her vision was wrong.
"I hear so many songs about you. The mortals idolize you. I feel truly star struck. I'm really standing in front of the real deal!"
Laufey's eyes widened as air blows out her nose. She nodded her head slowly.
The woman walks over to her and places her hands together in awe. "It's all so romantic. Risking your life for those criminals. Causing so much annoyance to your foe. That's how you do it! Not with more bloodshed! Little agitating games back and forth! You've angered Odin more than any Giant!" She giggled, showing her juvenile side.
Laufey played along with a coy smile. She didn't waste the opportunity, looking around for an exit.
The girl gathers her hair together, paying attention to Laufey's actions. "Thor doesn't want me or my sisters leaving so he took away our doors. There used to be one behind there," she pointed towards the fountain, "but now it's just a mirror."
Laufey ran towards where she was pointing. She examined the fountain and saw the Vanir spell it cast onto the mirror. She took out her dagger and drove it blade first into the water. The spell broke and the mirror shattered into a thousand pieces. The woman gasped as she shielded her face from the flying glass. Laufey didn't hesitate, she flung the door open and ran outside. The real outside. The harsh cold air stinging her face, a feeling she was all too happy expecting. She looks up and saw where the sun was overhead. It's evening. She ran in the opposite direction the sun was setting, as fast as her legs could run.
The smooth stone below her feet shifted with each step. She held onto one of the chains serving as a handrail to the stone bridge. The rust leaving a gritty residue on her hands. Laufey stalled and took a deep breath of thin mountain air. It had always been easier to breathe up here. As her eyes shut she feels the afternoon sun suddenly disappear from her face. A loud boom erupted underneath her, and the bridge violently shifts back and forth. "You here to punish me?" She asked with a grin.
A pair of massive hands extends out to the base of the bridge steadying it. A giant finger extends out and points to her.
"I have no idea what you're talking about sister." A voice thundered down at her. She approached the finger and ran her hand across it. Large fingerprints stacked one on top of the other. It was so familiar, like dragging her hands along the staircase banister up to her room. She climbs the finger and quickly sat down, dangling her legs below. The finger lifts up into the air and brings her to the face of the giant. A gaunt middle-aged man with a buzzed head, a slight mohawk of short brick red hair down the middle of his head. His blue eyes are the size of an ox, they gleam kindly at her. His beard, curly and short, scatters down his neck.
As he brings her up close to his face she lets go of her grip and extends a hand to the bridge of his nose. Her face leans against it and she rubs her forehead against his skin several times. The weight of what almost happened at Odin's palace still weighing her down.
"What's wrong Pine Needle?" He said.
She smiles head-butting his nose gently. Not to harm, but to signify he was right to worry.
"I'm not as fast when I run nowadays. We're not that old yet, are we?" She said.
His other fingers flattened out, forcing her to slide into the center palm of his hand. She fell back and landed on her butt. "As long as you outlive me I'll be fine little Needle."
"That's not an answer to my question."
"Where were you?" He pressed.
"Don't tell them. I was fine," she hesitates, "for a while, then I wasn't, but it all worked out. The visions, sometimes they don't always tell the whole story."
"That is not an answer to my question." He imitates her.
"You were tasked to bring me to them I assume? Good my knee hurts try not to skip as you take me." Laufey crossed her arms, lying down on her back, flat against his rough calloused palm.
"The giantess, 'assumes'..." She hears her brother say with a chuckle.
The two of them approached a mountaintop in the shape of fingertips. Several massive giants awaiting them standing in a circle. The elders.
As they approach the elders hushed a previous conversation, some of them smiled warmly to the two siblings. The oldest man didn't. He spoke first.
"We were expecting you."
Laufey snorted a laugh out her closed lips, air and spit flying from her mouth. She felt her brother's hand trembling as he fought back his own laugh.
"That's enough" a woman's voice boomed. She was the same age as her brother, long black hair down to her lower back. Her brother straightened his back and she felt his hand lift slightly higher from it. The old man continued, "Laufey, your actions have been noticed. Are you sure your vision hasn't changed?"
Laufey swallows dryly. "No sir, it all remains. Later this year I will find his father, a troll, as I journey to paint Loki's path. I still see an axe, but I don't see hands grasping it. It's trapped in ice." She brings her hand to cup her own chin, "The axe, it brings so much pain and chaos. Sometimes animals try to take it. It frightens me. I can't see who wields it and who brings the destruction, but it is always there, in every vision."
The black haired woman looks at the elder and nods slightly as she speaks. "This axe, it may bring about our doom. Why should we seek it out? With such a terrifying fate why risk forging it off assumptions alone? It may destroy everything we've worked for?"
The elder man interjects, "Not necessarily, I predict Laufey gives it to the boy. The pain it brings will be from his hands towards the gods." He says looking down at Laufey.
The giant woman sneers slightly as she leans against the mountain. "Or the chaos it brings could be from her and not the child. She isn't the only one with future sight. We could be in the path of this weapon's destruction, her path of destruction. She could be leaving out details."
Laufey storms forward onto her brother's hands, stepping over onto the tip of his middle finger. "How could you even think that!? After everything...-" Her brother's hand pulled back as she moved forward, lessening her threatening approach.
"Silence both of you!" The elder spoke. Laufey quickly gathered herself and brought her arms to her sides, unclenching her fists. "Forgive me." She says quietly.
The giant woman stood still, keeping her eyes on her. The elder giant continued.
"This axe is not Mjolnir. It will not be used to kill giants." His eyes piercing Laufey, as if giving an order. "She will seek out the dwarfs and continue its construction, then she will immediately bring it back here for us to watch over it. After the child is born, he will be gifted the weapon. He will grow to know the weapon as an extension of his own hands. The chaos he and the axe brings will be painful but only to the gods. Not us."
The elder bends down to meet her eye to eye. He smiled at her. "You are the mother of our savior. Remember that girl." His voice suddenly transformed into a threatening tone. "If you ever jeopardize yourself, for the sake of your own personal enjoyment, before your purpose is fulfilled... I will chain you to my necklace until that child of yours is born."
"That certainly would make his conception more interesting." Laufey jabbed, the elder motioned with his hands and turned away. "Go, find dwarfs and ready yourself." The woman finished his sentence. "Soon your journey will begin and there will be little time for rest. That is all for now."
She felt a gust of wind as her brother's hand begin moving away from them. The giants fading into the sky and mountains as she was carried away.
Laufey jumped from his hand onto the ground. She felt the earth rumble as he sat down next to her. "Your wife still hates me." Dragging her foot along the ground, happy to feel the dirt below her again. "She doesn't hate you, you are her family." Her brother said. "Sorry, it's not been easy on her ever since the boys..." Laufey placed a hand onto the skin of his ankle. She gripped it as tightly as her hands would allow her. "I didn't mean to bring Helblindi and Byleistr up again."
"I know, we struggle to focus on the bigger picture with them always on our minds." Silence overcoming them. After a moment, Laufey decided to finally press the issue. Her grip onto his ankle begins tightening again.
"Don't you wish you could revenge them yourself? You are so strong, you could crush Modi in a heartbeat." A large hand came over her and separated her from his ankle. "We must focus on the prophecy." He said with closed eyes. "I have my role to play and so do you. You must never forget that Pine Needle." Laufey runs around to face him, "But what if the vision isn't right? What if instead, we chose our own destiny-..." He interrupts her. "No, the prophecy comes first, we must stay the course. My hands may not kill the man who killed my sons but at least my blood will." He pointed a finger at her flat belly. "Don't you see? That little guy has to be born in order for all this to happen. For not only our future but also my own revenge."
Laufey looked away in disgust, she rubbed the top of his fingernail with her hand. "Who are you even pointing to right now?" She gathered herself, remembering the prophecy, the big picture.
She turns back to him wearing a fresh smile. "There isn't a baby in here yet."