The trip came to an eventual graceful end. The three friends, bid farewell to their new acquaintances and flew home, Hercules dropped off Icarus first who still somehow managed to fiddle with the little clockwork device even while on horseback, and next was Phil, dropping the old goat home and helping him unload some of his new weapon purchases. When Herc arrived at his parent's house, No sooner than he hopped off of Pegasus, he was greeted by a tackle to his legs by Hyllus. Hyllus was just a small boy but even he had inherited just some of his strength and the sudden jerk to his legs caused the demigod to catch his balance and throwing up his injured arm. "Woah- Hyllus, what have I said about tackling people in a hug?" He winced at his shoulder and massaged it, feeling a sharp pain where he was fighting the infection. Usually his half god genetics allowed him to fight off illnesses rather easily but this was different.
"What did you do to your arm?" He heard from his wife who stood behind him, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Uh, well I had a bit of-" Herc passed to scoop up his son with one arm, "A bit of a run in- With a monster. Kind of?" He smiled a sheepish smile at his wife.
She rolled her eyes and breathed through her nose, deciding now was not the time to start a discussion with him. "You can tell me more about it after dinner." Meg swept her arms around her husband's neck for a tight hug. "We missed you."
"It's only been three days." Herc mumbled.
"But it seemed like foreeeeever!" Hyllus whined, also hugging his dad's head. From his spot on Herc's shoulder he spotted something moving in the saddlebag that sat on Pegasus. He wrinkled his nose and asked, "What's that?"
Her released his wife from the hug and turned to the bag, "Oh, souvenirs."
"Did you get me something?"
"Yeah, but you won't get it till we get home." Herc answered.
"And have dinner with your grandparents." Meg pulled Hyllus down from his spot and stood him on the ground. She casted a look over her shoulder towards Hercules, "Dinner is almost done by the way."
He followed them up towards his parents' house. The house was filled with voices and laughter all the way into the night. By the time they headed home it was already about time for Hyllus to go to bed,
"But you haven't told me about the monster you fought yet, or even given me my present." Hyllus complained as he stepped into the palace like villa.
Herc grimaced and looked down towards Meg who only shot him a glanced that said you got yourself in this mess buddy. Herc took a deep sigh and headed into the kitchen placing the bags he was carrying onto the ground. "Well okay, I'll give you the gift once I find it." Herc dug through his bag and pulled out the jar of bounty and placed it on the kitchen table before digging out more objects, placing each one on the kitchen table as Meg quickly eliminated the mess by placing things where they belonged.
"And then it's bedtime." Meg eyed one small jar that contained some sort of liquid and had a small scroll attached to it. "What's this?"
"It's for the bite." Herc mumbled and turned to take it from his wife but it was kept out of his hands by her.
"After Hyllus is in bed, we're going to need to talk." She handed the bottle to Herc.
Meanwhile Hyllus' eyes fell onto the jar that had some kind of seals on it. The jar gave a slight wobble that anyone could have attributed to a slight shaking of the table. The young boy took it into his hands and undid the seals.
It was cramped in there and although Hel could shape her body to all manner of shapes and sizes like her father, she really rather not conform her to some shapes for too long. Things got achy. With no point of reference for time, she could not tell how long it had been, but it seemed to have gone on far enough. If she was able to move just a bit more, she would have been able to break out of the jar herself, or that is what she told herself. A brush of fresh air filtered into the space of the jar was enough to cause her to stir more, but the fresh air was quickly replaced by some other invading force.
Hyllus reached into the jar, smelling something sickening sweet coming from it, and being a little kid, he just had to know what was inside it. He felt something extremely cold, like his hand was reaching into freezing water. "Huh?" He asked.
"Ugh what's that smell?" Meg asked whirling around looking for the culprit. She was certain she made sure to toss out any food that could go bad before she stayed over at her in-law's. Instead she saw Hyllus reaching into a jar, "Hyllus, put that down and get ready for bed,"
Hyllus quickly retracted his arm just as Hel was making up her mind to bite off the hand that was grabbing at her. He quickly tried to close the seal but did so only partly before the jar was snatched from Herc.
"Woah- Hyllus, that's not your present. Your present is here," Her placed the jar onto the counter top and handed to Hyllus instead a small leather helmet, shaped like one of the norsemen's helmets.
"What is that?" Meg's concern could hardly be contained.
"Oh that's the Jar of bounty** that Odin and Frigga gave me, after taking care of the problem in their underworld- well actually more of like a thank you gift for stopping Ragnarok but also the other thing." Herc looked towards Meg who had one eyebrow raised har up into her hairline.
"It's kind of like a cornucopia thing but maybe baked goods and cooked meats. Actually, I didn't really ask or even try it out."
"I was talking about the helmet, you know, after we talked about this… Hyllus, dear, please get ready for bed. You got to get ready for school tomorrow."
Hyllus could tell his parents were going to have another discussion again. It always seemed to revolve around his dad's job or encouragement when he considered the hero-ing career. It made him uneasy and he could not quite articulate why. He hated to see his parents in disagreement but thankfully their discussions never reached above inside voice volumes. "Ok mom." Hyllus mumbled, his eyes landing on the jar of plenty again. Although he had dinner and desert, the thought of snacks has entered him mind and reminded him that he was not entirely full or bloated of food yet. He turned his back to them, taking off his helmet and waited until both of their attentions were turned towards each other. At the right time, Hyllus snatched the jar and placed it under his helmet before heading upstairs to his bedroom.
Content with their son obediently heading up stairs, the two adults decided to head into the living room. Meg sat on the sloped end of the Kline and patted the spot next to her. Hercules sat down but angled himself to face fer, his hands clasped into his lap.
"Okay, you have my attention now. What is on your mind?" He asked. The two never really needed to argue with each other, maybe a few snarky jokes back and forth but that was the extent. He never felt the need to put Megara down or even raise his voice to her, she was a wonderful listener and an even better friend.
Meg pulled her legs onto the Kline and turned to face him, her eyes cast down onto her hands.
"Okay, here it goes, and mind you, this is not an attack on your choice of career and I know we've had this discussion enough times but… I'm worried about you and you Heroing and the effect it has on Hyllus."
Herc took a deep breath and nodded silently.
"I'm worried about your safety and his, but most of all, I'm afraid that he thinks this is the only path for him. I'm proud of you and what you do, and the hope and light you inspire in others is, well, it's what you do best, and I love you for it. Hyllus like all other kids across Greece looks up to you but this has been a part of his life since the moment he was born, but I can't even recall him showing any other interest." Her fingers began to entangle themselves but stopped the moment Herc's own hand joined her hands. Her eyes lifted up to meet his and for a moment they shared a small moment of silent understanding.
"I'm glad you brought this up, and please continue."
Upstairs, Hyllus had washed his face and picked up his toys, and by that it was more of a splash water onto his face and shove his toys under his bed. He hurriedly sat on his bed and undid one of the seals but paused when he saw the jar had something gooey already bubbling out. Was this what people from far away eat? If so, then he was glad to be Greek. The sudden hunger he had faded rather quickly but the emptiness was replaced with curiosity. There was a moment of pause for him as he began to think about his actions very carefully. He was sitting on the ed and getting this stuff on his bed would make both of his parents upset. Hyllus scrambled to the floor, sitting with his legs crossed. Now he could open it up in relative safety.
He took the top off and sat it onto the floor next to him, but what he saw inside the jar instead was a red eye staring back at him. He screamed and threw the jar across the room.
The sound of distressed screams and things being knocked around shook the two adults from their places on the Kline. They two of them bolted upstairs, Hercules being the first to reach the door. He was immediately greeted with Hyllus throwing himself at his father's legs.
"Monster! There's a monster under my bed!"
Herc's eyes scanned the room, spotting the tumbled food contents of the jar of bounty, knocked over action figures from his shelf, and a candle that was knocked over, dripping wax all over the floor. He pushed past his son to quickly scoop up the candle. Meg scooped Hyllus up who threw his arms around her shoulders and gave her a tight squeeze. She watched her husband scan the room and then bent down to pick up Hyllus. She frowned at the mess made.
"Didn't I tell you to clean your room?" She said with the tone of a mother that knew her child was doing something they shouldn't have. Hyllus leaned back in her arms and glanced over his shoulder at his father who was now checking under the bed.
"I- I was! I did clean it!"
His father pulled out a small pile of toys in front of him. There was a moment of pause from the demi-god as he felt suddenly cold. He stood up and looked at the open window over Hyllus' bed and shut it.
"Well I found your monster." Herc said over his shoulder in a half joking manner.
"No there was one! I promise! It was- It was in the jar!"
"The jar you were not supposed to bring up here in the first place." Meg scolded and set Hyllus down. "You're going to clean up the mess you made and get ready for bed. You have school tomorrow morning." Hyllus already had a vivid imagination from the stories he heard about monsters and the comic scrolls he was reading, but it seemed like now he was moving into that phase of believing there were monsters hidden around every corner.
"But!-"
"Don't argue with her, please Hyllus and come help me clean up this mess." Herc scooped up the jar and closed the lid before it could flood his home with any more food. Cabbages, wurst, pork and some kind of slimy gravy was all over the place.
Hyllus' shoulders slumped and he went to help his father. How did he not see the monster under his bed? It was clearly there! He saw it crawl under as soon as the door opened. But if his father didn't see it, then where could it have gone, and was it all just his imagination? Hyllus shook his head. As his father scooped up the rest of the food, and his mother mopped up the mess, he cleaned up his toys properly placing them where they belonged, not even daring to take a peek under his bed. It took them about half an hour to get the mess cleaned up, and another ten minutes of being lectured on not sneaking food into his bed, how taking without asking was stealing, and how wrong it was to lie.
Underneath the bed, Hel was pressed as small as she could, hiding behind the toys, listening to the conversation above and rolling her eyes so hard that it was amazing no one could hear them bouncing around her skull.
Meg and Herc tucked Hyllus in and headed out the door with the candle.
Wait!" Hyllus called out, making his father pause.
"Yes?"
"Can you leave the light here?"
Herc gave a small smile and sat the candle on the dresser, "Okay buddy, just don't stay up all night."
"Good night, love you."
"Love you too." Both Herc and Meg said, not meaning to say it at the same time but both silently acknowledging it with their own smiles to each other. With the door closed behind them, they headed back down stairs.
"So you going to tell me what happened to your arm?"
"Yeah, so, get this, there's this young god named Balder, and he's been trying to cover for his brother who keeps making trouble in the underworld, and they have these things called Drauger.."
Once their voices faded away, Hyllus sat up and waited with nervous anticipation, his fingers gripping his pillow tightly, reading his entire body to swing if he needed to. Minutes passed and nothing stirred under his bed. The child relaxed, wondering if maybe he did just imagine it all. He pushed off the covers and crawled to the edge of his bed to peek under his bed. What he saw was just a few toys shoved under his bed that they missed, and…. Something moving towards the bottom of his bed and forming into a tall humanoid shape.
Hyllus screamed and tossed his pillow at it.
Hel was just popping things back into place after being cramped for so long until she felt something bounce off her back. This thing again. She turned around to face the boy with a very annoyed glare. "Go to sleep." She hissed at him.
Instead she got more screaming and things being tossed at her.
Downstairs, Herc was about a third of the way through explaining the bite he received from the "drauger" and how the goddess Eir had acted very shifty when pressed for answers while Meg swapped out the bandages. Her eyes widened at the wound.
"Are you sure this is a run of the mill infection?" The wound was only three days old, but it looked much worse like there was difficulty in healing.
"Well Eir said I should be fine as long as I drink that Lyfjaberg water… There should be some more of it on the counter." His mind returned to the oddness of that entire situation but were immediately interrupted by Hyllus' screaming and the sound of things being thrown again. Herc groaned and stood up from his seat. "I'll take care of it."
The demi-god walked back up the stairs and opened the door to his son's room, who was now standing on his bed, his toys strewn back on the floor, now along with the pillows. "Hyllus."
"The monster is in my closet now! It's in my closet! It told me to go to sleep!"
"Hyllus.. There is no monster. Clean this up, I'll look into your closet and show you there is no monster, and then you will go to bed."
Herc walked up to the closet and opened it with his uninjured arm. Hyllus' eyes fell onto the empty closet and then his father's injured shoulder. It looked like it hurt real bad. His father was always there to keep him and his mother safe and now he was injured and defending him against this terrible being that hid in his closet. Hyllus felt a deep responsibility to inturn take care of his parents should anything happen to them.
"Look," Herc turned to him and waved a hand to the very tall closet that was full of clothes. "Nothing in here, except your stuff."
Hyllus' eyes welled up with tears. How could this happen again? How come no one else but him could see this being? "No, it gets real, real small and then it grows really big. And it-"
"Hyllus, there's nothing in here, I promise you, you will be just fine, so please just get to bed."
Hyllus' shoulders dipped, realizing that no one was going to believe him. This monster was just far too crafty. He had to think on his feet, his eyes darting around for some plan and they landed on his helmet that now sat on his bedpost and he got an idea. "Wait! I forgot!" He headed for the door, grabbing his satchel, "I Forgot to pack my homework!" Hyllus rationalized this as technically true. Herc's shoulders drooped as he stared half lidded at his child.
"Alright. Go on and get it, and then I want you to go to bed."
Hel from her position, holding herself at the ceiling of the closet, stretched out just enough to keep herself from succumbing to gravity. She was getting real tired of hiding in cramped places and half the mind to just launch herself at this Greece guy and deliver another bite to him. But where was she? Was that going to cause enough ruckus to attract the attention of the gods? Were there gods around? As Herc shut the door to the closet, she was left there wondering exactly how long she had been in that jar.
When stepped out of the room to call back down to Hyllus, "You got five minutes-" Before he could even finish his sentence Hyllus was right in front of him with his bag over his shoulder and held behind him.
"Got it!"
"Okay." Herc's eyebrows pressed together, wondering if maybe, just maybe he did inherit some of his abilities after all. Hyllus scootched by his father all the while maintaining his back to his father.
"Okay. I'm going to bed now. I'll see you in the morning, so, I'll be just backing up into my bed-" Hyllus said loudly to disguise the sound of something dragging across the floor behind him.
"And sleep with your school bag?"
"And sleep with my school bag." Hyllus sat down onto his bed and pulled his blankets over himself. "Education is very important. I feel like if I get a good start in the morning, it will really start my school day just right."
Herc squinted his eyes at his son but honestly never had much of a reason to think Hyllus was really up to anything. Maybe the occasional kid shenanigans, but with all due respect, he was a good kid. He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling oddly cold. "Okay. Go to bed, I don't want to have to come up here again." He warned.
"Don't worry, I'll be sound asleep, Uh- Good night dad!"
"Good night." He said with his voice holding a little annoyance. The door slammed shut.
Hyllus waited and listened as he heard his father's steps go down the stairs and when he thought it was safe, he climbed out of bed, put his helmet on and tied a pillow around his abdomen. The final step to doing battle with the monster in his closet was to pull out a rathergood sized club he borrowed from his father's trophy room.
Just as Hel heard things quiet down, she lowered herself from the ceiling and slowly pushed open the door only to be greeted with a pint sized hero attempting to heft a club almost as big as him over his shoulder. She stared at him in silence for two second, her mask obfuscating her attempt to not laugh. "That's adorable." Hyllus faced with the smiling monster tried to summon up all the strength he could have in him to lift the club but the monster reached forward, causing him to panic. He strained further as the hand rested on his head and he screamed as the helmet was turned to face the opposite way.
Downstairs, Hercules groaned into his hand as he heard the yelling upstairs and a loud thump across the floor. Meg flopped the roll of clean bandages onto the table and stood up. "It's my turn." She marched upstairs with a fury. The door to Hyllus' room flew open, giving Hel just enough time to scramble up the ceiling. All Meg could see was her son on his back and the club next to him. She went over to him, to pick him off the floor, snatching the pillow wrapped around his body
"That's it, Hyllus, no more playing, no more games, you are going to bed and-" Her eyes traced their way top the club next to him and then to the large dent made in the floor. "What is this? Why do you have this?"
"The monster! I was trying to fight it cause dad's hurt and-" Hyllus spat out while taking off the leather helmet.
"Hyllus, there is no monster!" Meg raised her voice, causing the child before her to quiet down, his voice unable to speak up now. They didn't believe him.
Meg rubbed her face and groaned, her hands eventually rubbed her shoulders for warmth. Winter seemed to be on the march a little early this year. "What am I going to do with you?" She asked and then called out to her husband, "Herc! Can you come get this? It seems like your son decided to go on adventures in the closet!" Meg turned to her son whose head was dropped down and clenching the helmet in his arms. She held out her hands, and waited till once the helmet was in her hands to announce "Alright hand it over. You'll get it back once your grounding has been over"
"But mom!"
"No buts, get in bed, and I don't want to hear another peep out of you or another three days will be added."
Hyllus dragged his feet to his bed, just as his father came into his room and picked up the club. He curled up in his bed, turning his back to his parents that blew out the candle in his room and exited the room shutting the door. Hyllus was all alone in the darkness save for the moonlight that trickled through the slats in his window. His parents didn't believe him and now he was certain the monster was going to eat him. He heard the door to his closet creak open and the very gentle almost silent footsteps creep out into his room. The room felt cold, and from the feel and sound of it, it seemed like the being was wandering around.
Hel decided to use the time outside of the constant hiding inside cramped spaces to stretch her legs, and back and arms. She cracked her neck and felt relief surged through her body. Where was she? She quietly strolled around the room, most of the furniture and overall construction of the room seemed very different. If she had to place herself in a space, maybe she was on midgard. But that couldn't be right. There was no way she could be on midgard, that would mean she got taken to midgard and no one would ever take her there. For so long she had been stuck in the underworld trying everything she could get to the surface, and was always stopped by magical barriers, valkyries or gods getting in her way. She couldn't even get herself a pass-portal from the dwarves! Something about being black-listed. She had no idea why and couldn't coerce and answer from them or their ridiculously bureaucratic counsel no matter what she tried.
The sniffling and crying coming from the kid in the same room as her was beginning to get on her nerves. "Will you be quiet?" She hissed at him. Instead Hyllus only cried more, sending Hel into a light panic. She didn't need that Grease guy to come back in for round two. "Hey! Seriously It's not like you really have anything to really cry about!" She whispered more, moving over to Hyllus.
"I don't want to be eaten alive" Hyllus whimpered, pulling the covers over his head.
"Eat you?" Well, to be fair, it's not like people were off the menu for her, they just weren't usually on the menu either. "I'm not going to eat you alive. That's dumb, and how you get things crawling back out which is super annoying."
Needless to say, her words were of no help at all.
Hyllus' eyes widened, and his whimpering grew louder almost breaking out into a cry.
"Nonono! Look, I'm not gonna eat ya, just cut your crying, geeze." Her eyes flickered to the slats in the window, spotting something massive and bright through them. She sidestepped to the side of the window, avoiding the light.
Hyllus poked his head out from his blanket and watched the beings movements. This so called monster was actually very strange now that he thought about it. The way she slowly reached for the slats to peek out through them, even squint made him seriously question why he was even frightened of the monster in the first place. Maybe it was the unnerving smiling mask it wore. The masked being glanced at him making Hyllus quickly lie back down and cover his head with the blankets. Now that she was comfortable with his eyes hidden, she was able to slide of her mask and peek through the slats a little better. He could hear the slats being forced opened and could feel the much larger being climbing up onto the foot of his bed. He dared to peek out and from what he could see the mask had been lifted off the beings far. Surprisingly the left side of the being's face was not as scary as he thought. The monster even looked fairly normal save for the blue skin and pointed ears that seemed to stick up and face towards the window.
She squinted at the light of the moonlight but she could not figure out what she was looking at. It was dark out there but with the small bits of light here and there, which she could only assume were glow worms or even some glowing rocks or fungus. Then that would imply some kind of ceiling and did Midgard have a ceiling? And what were those structures further away with some warm glowing light? The structures reminded her of cities settled by elves, dwarves and the undead but these had a different shape to them. Her ear swiveled around as she heard the small human speaking up.
"What's the matter? Never seen a moon before?"
She whirled her head around forgetting to pull down her mask for just a moment, giving Hyllus the shock of seeing a half decomposed face, sending him back under the covers. Hel pulled the mask down over her face. "Geeze, warn me next time you look at me." She hissed. She was left with a reminder that there was a thing called a moon. Now she could remember it. Dark and quiet nights in the woods, being carried in her mom's arms and being urged to stay silent and keeping track of its path across the sky.
That one memory triggered another, reminding her of the bright blue sky. Her eyes glossed over with a far away look. Her mind was flooded with a surge of emotion. Her throat tightened as she felt a surge of fear and anger, and the familiar sensation of the left side of her skin burning.
Hyllus peaked out from his covers as the monster had fallen silent, he felt extremely cold even under his blankets and all he could see was the stillness of the being squatting on his bed in the dark. His violet eyes fell down to the beings hands that was clenching his bed sheets tightly and something wasn't right. There seemed to be an unnatural weight where the being's hands were, pulling the bed further down, maybe even causing a hole in it.
The child gasped and scooted his way to the furthest corner of his bed, kicking off the sheets. "No please! Stop! I'm sorry." He whined, still being too afraid to call for his parents. Child logic. You cannot reason with it.
Those words echoed in her mind, but they didn't sound quite the same, just enough to snap her out of where ever it was that she was. Hel shook her head, quickly and blinked, bringing herself back to the present. The kid before her was curled up into the far corner of his bed, hiding his face behind his hands and whining. She looked around the room and tilted her head to the side.
"What are you whining about now?" She whispered and looked down to her hand. There seemed to be a hole underneath it. She lifted her hand an inspected it. Hyllus peeked out from his hands at this silly monster that now seemed to be more curious about the hole in the bed that it created.
"How did- You know you got a hole in here right? I thought things were supposed to be nice up here."
The fear that Hyllus had for this monster began to wane. Now that he really examined it, this monster seemed more funny than scary. Aside from the face. "No… I didn't know that." Hyllus played along. "What do you mean by up here?"
Hel picked away at the edge of the hole in the bed. The threads in the fiber had frayed apart and the stuffing of feathers had began to disintegrate. Why did this always seem to happen? And what were these things anyways? Her ears perked back up and she glanced to the human child. "Up here. On the surface. Don't you know anything?"
"I know what a moon is." Hyllus let slip from his lips, the sneer earnined him a glare from the masked monster.
She did not appreciate the sass. Actually she was lying to herself, she did appreciate the sass Her arms crossed over her chest and chuffe, "Fair enough. So what's with the moon and where is here?"
"The moon is the Goddess Selene and she drives her chariot across the sky, Duh."
Hel tilted her head to the side yet again. "Really? Did someone else get the job? Ugh, there's no escaping them is there?" There was a bit of disgust in her voice. Just great, she was on the surface and it seemed the gods had multiplied in numbers? How was she going to make a run for it now?
"Where on midgard are we anyways?"
Hyllus had never heard of that word before and asked, "Huh?"
"Ugh! Midgard!" Hel hissed, slapping her forehead, "You know, the land where humans live?! Here?" She pointed down to the ground with both index fingers. "Where in Midgard are we?"
It dawned on Hyllus that despite how scary and big this monster was, it really was clueless and possibly harmless. He was wrong on the harmless. Hel was mostly not harmless "Well, I would tell you but I'm a little hungry still. You know, I basically got grounded when I was in the process of getting a snack." Hyllus crossed his arms over his chest and blinked at Hel's direction.
Is this kid trying to get me to bribe him? This little-
"Alright, well I don't exactly have any food on me and if I did, you wouldn't want it anyways." She shook her head and rubbed her neck. "You know, I could just eat you." She bared her claws over her head.
But Hyllus had a bargaining chip, and like his mother he knew how to bargain and snark like no other. "And I can just not tell you any information at all. And then you eat me, and you still won't get any information."
Hel put her claws away and groaned, "Okay fine. Where do you store your food anyways?"
After patching up and catching up, the two adults downstairs were about to pack up for bed when they heard a door open and slam upstairs. The two of them locked eyes and sighed. Meg made the move to get up again and check the stairs. She looked up the darkened stairwell and called out "Hyllus?" She received no answer. "Hyllus, you better not be-" She heard the slow groaning creek of a door coming from the kitchen. Meg inhaled deeply and rolled her eyes to the top of her head. She had to remind herself that as mad as she was at her son for disobeying her, she could not lose her cool in front of him. She placed the candle in her hand on a dresser and started to carefully tiptoe her way towards the kitchen. Maybe if she spooked her son, it might scare him straight. Megara pressed her back to the wall when she rounded the corner, she saw that the kitchen was completely dark.
And in that darkness was an even darker silhouette of a tall figure.
Meg's heart leaped into her throat and she ran down the hall to get the candle, and bumped into Hercules, eliciting a scream from her.
"Woah! Meg, are you alright? What's the matter? I went up to check on Hyllus-"
"I thought he was in the kitchen!" The words spilled from her mouth, the tone of her voice increasing in urgency.
"He's still in bed when I checked on him." Herc's eyebrows pressed together in confusion as he placed his hands on the shoulders of his wife who seemed to pale.
"There's someone- Something in the kitchen." She whispered.
Herc grabbed the candle from her and turned into the kitchen. In the candle light, he saw no one. Nothing. Just darkness that was parted by the candle light in his hands, revealing the doors to all of the cabinets, cupboards and jars had all been opened. The cold air that he felt in there only made the goosebumps on his skin worse.
"Meg. Did we close the doors on.. Everything? I could have sworn we did,"
Meg creeped in and looked around the kitchen. This was beyond bizarre. "We- What is going on here?"
Herc shook his head, "I don't know." He never really experienced anything like this. Could this be some kind of haunting? Why would he be haunted?
Then they heard the door upstairs creak open and then shut. They exchanged looks briefly and headed upstairs. As they both reached the top of the stairs, their steps slowed, both of them trying to make as little noise as possible so they could hear something. Anything. There was only silence, aside from typical sounds that happened around their palace.
"Maybe we…" Herc began.
"Did something follow you home?" Meg whispered back.
"Follow me back?"
"Like a shade, ghost something."
"No- Well I don't know. Things aren't supposed to be able to leave or even go into that underworld without help,"
"Ok. I believe you but I don't believe the entire situation."
"Ok, we'll go to bed, and in the morning we'll try and get a hold of a priest, or maybe make a prayer to-"
"Persephone might work."
Herc's eyes rolled upwards and breathed in deeply. The problem was that option could very well welcome somebody else into their lives. "Let's leave that for option omega."
And then they heard Hyllus' voice. The two of them fell silent, listening in. That kid wa sonly pretending to be asleep! Herc's lips pulled into a frown and he moved to push open the door but felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait-"
On the other side of the door, Hyllus watched this new monster "acquaintance" crawl from its spot on the ceiling, move to the wall and then quietly step down to the floor. The amazing thing was not how it was able to claw at the ceiling without making a sound but had been able to do so while carrying an arm full of food, some of which are in bags.
"You didn't have to bring all of that."
"I wasn't sure which of this was food." The monster mumbled and rolled the catch onto the ground. Even despite living in a jar of endless food for the past three days, the possibility of new food just reawakened a feeling of peckish-ness inside her. Whatever the small human wouldn't eat, she might try.
Hyllus inspected the pile of food. Half of which was not actually something he could eat. He pushed aside an ear of corn and the bundles of herbs and grabbed instead an orange. He turned to the scrolls he spread across the floor where the moonlight shone. "Here you go. We are here." He crouched down and placed a finger on the city of Thebes.
Hel tore her eyes off the strange fruit in his hands, stopping herself from asking him about it and instead stared at the map. On the drawing were what she understood as Runes. Her eyes widened. "You understand runes?"
"Runes?" Hel tapped on the greek label.
"Oh, everyone learns that. Didn't you?" Hyllus cocked his head to the side.
"Of course I have!" Hel argued back, the air around her rapidly chilling., "just not when I was small." She spat out a little too quickly for Hyllus to even accept. He wasn't going to push it, he just wanted the monster that he now figured out was obviously lost, would leave him be.
Hyllus tugged at the blanket on his bed and wrapped it around his shoulders, shielding himself from the sudden cold. "Ok, sure, I believe you… Now that I gave you information, can you go now?"
Hel squinted her eyes at the child. The audacity of this kid was really starting to grow on her. "Oh no no no, I don't think so. I got you all of this food, and it is definitely not worth that little bit of information."
"But half of that couldn't even eat half of it." Hyllus huffed feeling this was beyond unfair. "I only took the orange."
"You have any idea how much this stuff is worth? And you;re just not gonna eat it? You didn't eat the rest of that…" Hel circled her finger to the orange peels on the ground. One thing that always set her off was the complete waste of food, or well anything actually. No matter the condition of things thrown into the overworld wells, everything and everyone had a use and a purpose.
"It's an orange. Those are the peels. You don't eat that, its gross."
"You owe me at least two more. Where's Jotunheim?" She hissed, her voice raised.
"What? Ok fine, and then can I go to bed and not be eaten?"
"I don't make compacts but yes, okay I'll be on my way if you tell me where is Jotunheim. You know.. where- Jotuns live." Hyllus looked at her with a blank look. He never even heard of the word before.
"Is that what you are?"
Hel frowned behind her smiling mask. This did not bode well for her. How did a human not even know of her kind. Maybe this one was far too young. Worse yet, if she gave him any more information, he just might tattle on her. To whom? She didn't care. It takes one person to keep a secret. "I'm Me, that's all you need to know."
"I'm Hyllus." The young boy decided to introduce himself. It just seemed like the polite thing to do. Kid logic. It cannot be reasoned with.
"I did not need that information from you." Hel grumbled.
"So what's your name?"
"I'm not giving you that."
"But I gave you mine." He protested, his voice raising while simultaneously masking the sound of a door slowly creaking open.
"A dumb move really." Hel crossed her arms over her chest. This was getting her nowhere. She stood a better chance taking the map from the kid and figuring out things herself.
Hyllus' eyes widened as he saw the monster basically roll up his school map and place it into the pocket of the strange garment it wore. "Hey, that's mine! We had a deal! I didn't-"
"You didn't hold up to your end so why should-"
The Jotunn stood up to her height and turned around to see the door to the room open and standing in it, fuming was her latest, annoying enemy to be introduced to her life.
"Aw crappe."
"Hodor! What are you doing here!?" Hercules bellowed, throwing himself at the being, knocking it into the wall and as far from his kid as he could get. Meg darted in between them and swept Hyllus from the floor and into her arms. She needed to get him out of there as quickly as possible. He had no hope in taking down the god but the hope was to subdue it long enough to get the attention of the Norse deities or even his father.
Hel felt her back slam into the solid stone of Herc's villa. When presented with a choice of fighting an enemy that was difficult but still possible to take down on uncertain and familiar ground and slinking away to finish the job later, Hel always chose the laziest option.
"Get off me!" Hel stomped her foot, creating a small thin layer of ice underneath them and pushed back. With sandals on his feet, there was no traction for him to cling into. Even if his grip was strong, his balance could not be maintained. The hero jerked, releasing the hold on the fiend just so he could catch his fall and that was all Hel needed to slip from his grasp, clamoring to the window. The wooden slats were reduced to splinters as she threw herself through the window.
Hercules chased after her, but she slipped through his fingers, "Get back here- Pegasus!" He called out.
Hel landed on the ground with a stumble and fumbled her way down the hill, over the stone walls, and past the flying horse that circled around to chase after her. A couple of missteps before she could get the lay of the ground that was soft, not hard and covered with thick patches of what she rationalized as very long moss. There was a word for it but she wasted no time searching for it. She had to take care of a problem and that problem was a.. Flying horse?
No matter, a blast of cold air and sleet from her hands not only slowed the equine but also sent it reeling away, trying to protect its fragile wings all the while almost tossing its rider off its back. Before Herc could right himself, the being he thought was Hodor had managed to escape towards the city of Thebes.
Hel was going to keep running. She was not the fastest but she had momentum and stamina. As long as she kept going, she could keep going until she collapsed.
Hey sorry for the long wait! I had a couple of shows to submit for and so that took a majority of my focus, but things should have settled down for now. I can't wait to write the next scene and share a little more about the Norse underworld that I created. There's nothing I like to do more than creating a very real and interesting world to throw characters into. And thank you so much for your continued interest, reviews and support, it really makes me happy to write especially when I have often told myself that I am not much of a writer. It really makes a difference and I will continue to better myself and make better stories.
