Here it is, the long awaited Eighth chapter, sorry it took so long to post. My grades in college were slipping so I focused on my education, but now I have graduated (Applause) and I can focus on my writing again. Thank you for waiting and being so patient, and hopefully in the future I can write more often.

Disclaimer: All original characters of 'Oh! My Goddess' belong to Mr. Kosuke Fujishima and are under copyright of Dark Horse Comics. Njord and Loki and other characters as related are of my own invention and not associated with Oh! My Goddess.

Chapter 8

The morning breeze crept across the courtyard of the temple, but it felt like an eerie wind. Belldandy stood on the porch with her eyes closed and felt the harsh breeze, the eerie feeling that froze her heart. Belldandy opened her eyes, and turned to see Urd standing next to her.

"You feel that too?" Urd said to Belldandy feeling the same breezes that encompassed the temple grounds.

"Yes. A harsh wind, so early in the morning!" Belldandy said and then whispered to Urd, "It a bad omen that something horrible has happened."

"Thanks again!" Megumi said as she rode away from the shopping district. She had just finished her shopping for her groceries and turned on the main road to head back to her apartment. She turned on the road that passed along the river; the sun was almost completely raised over the horizon. She looked over the river and watched as the sunlight glistened on the river surface when suddenly she saw something that caught her eye. There was something floating in the water, along the river's edge; what looked like a body!

Megumi slammed on her brakes and making a sharp left turn drove across the grass down to the river's edge keeping her eye fixed on what she saw. She stopped the bike at the river's edge and jumping off she ran to the body. The body was facing downward in the river, but there was still a healthy glow about it. Water splashed around her jeans and boots as she pulled the body out of the river and turned it over. She gasped at who it was, it was Njord.

Megumi leaned next to him and listened to see if he was still breathing, he was. His eyes were closed and his body seemed cold as if it was there for a few minutes, but his hair was surprisingly dry. His clothing began to dry off as soon as Megumi pulled him out of the river. She began to smack the side of his face trying to get him to wake up, 'Njord, wake up." she said erratically.

Njord began to slowly stir, and then his eyes opened. He looked around for a second and then saw Megumi.

"Njord," Megumi said her voice still erratic. "Are you alright? What are you doing down here?"

Njord didn't answer her, he sat up and looked around again and then came back to Megumi, "ah…"

"Njord what's wrong with you?" Megumi said her voice rising with anger, and confusion.

Njord turned to her and with his eyes gleaming he looked at her and said, "Who am I?" Megumi eyes widened and she leaned back in shock.

"It was weird; it was like looking into a lost child's eyes." Megumi said as Belldandy poured her another cup of tea. "He didn't even know who I was or who he was?"

"What bothers me is that you found down by the river?" Keiichi said, as Skuld and Urd sat around him. Belldandy set the pot of tea down as she listened to Megumi's explanation of what she had experienced when she found Njord.

"Did he have any signs of injuries?" Skuld asked Urd.

"I checked over him twice, I couldn't find anything wrong." Urd said as she took a sip of her tea.

"Where is he now?" Megumi asked Urd.

"He's resting in my room." Urd said as he set her tea down. "I gave him a pretty heavy dose of a sedative."

Urd looked at Belldandy and both came to the same conclusion something was wrong with Njord, and they would confront him about it later. Velsper sat outside the room and listened to the conversation, he felt a twinge of fear as he realized that he was losing his control over everyone on the house.

Njord tossed and turned as he slept in Urd's room, His dream was strange and dark. In the dream he had, he found himself looking through a foggy shore, and through the fog, he saw a small group of ships. They were large wooden ships with a single mast, with men rowing towards the shore, he could hear there voices. He could hear the jokes about home, families, and butchery that they had committed. As they headed for the shore, Njord could see one man at the head of the lead ship looking at the shore, and him.

"Captain, there's a man on shore." One of the sailors said; in a moment a large, muscular man walked to the front and looked at Njord with suspicion and unimpressed.

"Aelric, put an arrow through his heart, we'll land over his corpse." The captain ordered to the first rower. The first rower stood up and taking aim with his bow and arrow, he fired an arrow at Njord. Njord placed a hand over his heart and the arrow stopped in mid-air in front of him; the men on the boat were shocked.

Njord's eyes grew darker as he pulled three fingers back in the air; the arrow spun around and pointed back at the boat that fired it. Njord relaxed his fingers and the arrow was fired again and headed for the boat, and landed in front of the Captain's feet.

"You will not land here; you will not pillage this castle." Njord said in his darken tone.

"Kill him." The captain said and everyone from the other boats stood up and made ready to jump off the boats.

Njord walked into the sea, and when he was ankle deep in the surf, he placed his hand in the water, and the water drifted out to sea, along with the boats. As the boats headed out to sea, the water began to become choppy and began to spin as they formed a maelstrom. The men scrambled to their oars, trying to get out of it, but they were caught. Njord heard their screams and turned away, suddenly a whistle grabbed his attention and he turned around and witnessed an arrow coming at him and he felt a sudden piercing pain in his chest.

Njord eyes snapped open, as he grabbed his chest; there was no arrow as his dream made him believe. But he did look through his robes and saw an old scar on his chest where an arrow had pierced him before. Njord took a deep sigh, and suddenly realized where he was, he was in Urd's room. Njord got up slowly, and looked around at his environment; an orangish haze was growing in the west.

Njord rose to his feet, but he felt weak and he stumbled as he tried to regain his balance. He also tried to remember how he got here, but he couldn't even remember that. Njord stumbled through the room, and finally made it out of the room; he looked down the hallway in time to see Belldandy carrying a load of laundry.

"Njord!" Belldandy dropped the laundry and hurried to Njord's side to help him stand up. Njord welcomed the help as Belldandy lead him to the tea room. Urd and Skuld where betting for TV rights and as soon as they saw Njord they stopped playing.

"Njord you look horrible." Skuld exclaimed and Urd nodded in agreement.

"Nice to see you too, Skuld." Njord said weakly as he stumbled to the table. Njord sat down at the table and looked down and saw his reflection. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot; his hair was a mess and was stuck in place from all the sweat. His skin was paler and his blue marks were the only other color on his body. "Ugh, I do look horrible."

"Njord do you remember anything about last night?" Urd suddenly asked without hesitation.

Njord looked up from the table and over to Urd, he thought back to when the last time he was awake. He remembered falling asleep and then waking up in Urd's room, and then said, "I somehow woke up in your room and it was sunset, so…" Njord's eyes widened with fear as he said, "I'm a sleep walker!"

The Goddess and Keiichi gave a collective sigh in disbelief as to the fact that Njord believed he was a sleepwalker.

"No Njord!" Skuld started but she stopped because she couldn't find the words.

"Njord…"Urd spoke up as Njord lookd at her, Urd's eyes closed as she said, "You need to look at this."

Urd turned around and turned on the Television. The screen glowed to life as Urd turned up the sound, "…Our continuing top story today, a massive storm that hit Dallas Texas in America has left hundreds dead and property damaging exceeding billions in dollars. As this footage shows you there are ten tornadoes in this single image alone, reports of somewhere of forty to seventy tornadoes alone. Scientist still do not know what caused this storm or the large outbreak but…"

SMASH!

The Television fell to the floor and broke as a strong surge of wind escaped from him; everyone jumped, except for Njord. Njord sat looking at the spot where the television was, his breathing was deep by the rhythmic rising of his shoulders and his eyes continued to lower as he flashed his teeth. His hand extend full span towards the cabinet and after taking another breath he slammed his hand on the table, cracking it.

Njord got up with some difficulty and started to stumble towards the door, as he approached he stumbled and grabbed the doorway. Belldandy came over and grabbed his arm to support him, but Njord suddenly pulled it away from her grasp. As he walked outside, he stood on the porch and rising his head.

"Leifr, Anundr!"

In less than a moment, Keiichi looked around felt two breezes and standing before them were two men who looked more like ghost. "What is that you re-"

"SHUT UP!" Njord yelled. Everyone in the courtyard jumped at this anger that Njord was giving off. "When I want fluttery words spoken to me I'll ask for them, but now I want to know who authorized the outbreak of tornadoes that struck the North American continent last night."

Everyone around Njord could feel the anger that escaped with his words, the two spirits sat stunned to hear this coming from their master. "Master," Leifr spoke up, which was more like a squeak, "Master, you did."

Njord blinked, as his anger grew, 'What did you say?"

"My Lord, you authorized the destruction of that-"Leifr tried to speak but was cut off.

"I HEARD YOU!" Njord screamed his anger growing so quickly the air that Keiichi was breathing was stale and saturated with it. "I heard what you said, but I did not release those tornadoes so someone else did, so who did?"

"You did, Njord." A voice called from behind a tree; everyone looked over to the tree as Edra appeared out of the tree and walked towards Njord. "They're not lying."

Njord looked at Erda for a moment, his eyes could tell her that he didn't believe her so she continued, "The Almighty is getting concerned, not because of the tornadoes, but the fact that you vanished off Yggdrasil for a few minutes."

Njord looked at Erda for a moment and opening his mouth, he stuttered to find his words, "W…w…whoa, what are talking about?"

Erda took a step forward to Njord and said, "Around twenty three fifteen last night you vanished off of Yggdrasil's tracker, and you didn't come back on until almost twenty three twenty."

"So your telling me I vanished for five minutes off of heaven's tracker, are you sure there wasn't any kind of a glitch." Njord said, taking a step closer to Erda.

"We are looking into that, but all tests are coming back negative." Erda said, realizing how close Njord was getting to her.

"Then I suggest you complete a lot more test then your doing-" Njord said, but Erda knew what he was saying and she cut him off.

"Njord, I may not be as experienced at the Yggdrasil's mainframe as you, but I do know what a test result tells me, and I don't need you to lecture me on how to run a test."

Erda then reached into her robes and handed a scroll to Njord, "We also ran this under as many tests as Yggdrasil could take." Njord took the scroll and opened it and read it. "It's your orders for the tornadoes, Njord. It's authentic with your signature."

Njord looked at Erda and then looked at the scroll, he read it. After a few minutes of intense silence Njord looked up at Erda. There was fear in his eyes that was slowly turned into anger, his grasp around the scroll suddenly tighten and he threw the scroll to the ground. Njord turned to face Leifr and Anundur and said, "New orders! All previous orders, all special orders are hereby revoked!" The wind seemed to fail, and the waters in the pond sent a ripple at the sound of Njord's voice. "From now on, any orders will come directly from the Almighty or King Aryer, if they can not be reached then you come and get me."

The goddess tried to speak, but it was Erda who spoke up, "Njord, you can't give up your office."

"Watch me." Njord said coldy.

"My Lord if I may speak." Leifr whispered from behind Erda. Njord turned around and viciously said, "No, you two have your orders, now get moving!"

Leifr and Anundr bowed and vanished in the wind as a breeze.

"Njord, in the name of the Almighty what is wrong with you?" Erda protested to Njord's actions. "We are trying to help you and you're smacking away our help."

"You don't like it, too bad."

Erda and goddess, with Keiichi and Megumi witnessed the change to Njord's behavior and the sudden stupidity of his choice to abandon his post to try and figure out what is wrong. Keiichi tried to speak up, when he felt a power grasp his tongue, he tried to speak but suddenly he forgot what he was going to say.

"Lady Erda?" Belldandy whispered.

"If he tries to go alone." Erda spoke very softly, as she looked at the immortal and mortals who stood in front of her. "Then he can, but the Almighty is going to be watching him, and if he steps out of line again, I fear the Almighty will be the one here next time."

Velsper was exhausted, he used up most of his power to block Keiichi from talking, and trying to make sure no one else figured out what was going on. He staggered outside to take a nap because the air inside the house was becoming too stale. As he walked outside he felt a great power coming from the forest. Looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him as he made his way to a small clearing in the woods. As he stood in the clearing, he felt a tiny breeze, 'it seems that Yggdrasil is taking over the functions.' He thought to himself, but he suddenly realized that the wind he was feeling was not the breeze, but that someone was behind. Velsper spun around and exposing his claws slashed at the object that was trying to sneak up behind him. As he sunk his claws into the object he felt a strong force hitting underneath him, sending hi flying. Using his cat-like reflexes Velsper landed on his feet, and turned around ready for action, but he stopped in his tracks.

"You slice me like that again, Velsper." An angry voice came from behind a hand, which lowered to reveal Vali and three long claw marks on the side of his cheek just below his eye. "And it will be the last thing you do." Vali's twitched his cheek and the wound vanished.

"I'm working here you traitorous piece of flesh." Velsper whispered, and the felt a horrible tug on his tail, and meow and growled as he was lifted into the air by his tail and into view of Narfi.

"What's the matter Velsper, keeping a few Goddesses' in the dark proving to be too hard for you?" Narfi said taunting the hanging Velsper; Velsper suddenly slashed at Narfi's hand and before he could get his fingers Narfi vanished and dropped Velsper back to the ground.

"What do you two want?" Velsper said as he walked I around the clearing keeping a close eye on the two fallen Gods.

"We bring a message from you mistress." Vali announced and the whispered, "They're getting too close."

"She wants to know what you plan to do about it." Narfi said with his tone suggesting that he was backing up his brother.

"Well, you can tell Mistress Hild, that complications are coming into place. With one major exception that instead of one human I have to deal with two. Instead of one Element, I have to deal with two and a legion of land spirits to contend with, I'm all alone out here." Velsper said in his belligerent tone; but Vali and Narfi looked at each other and told the feline demon in front of them and snickered.

"She thought you would say that." Narfi said as Vali finished off the sentence, "Mistress Hild also stated that she wants to see some results before she intervenes, or sends any kind of help."

"Or if you don't have a problem with non-existence then we can inform Hild that you failed your mission." Narfi said as both he and Vali vanished into the stale and dry air that lingered in the forest.

Velsper looked around the forest and then turning around, lowered his paws under his body and closed his eyes and went to bed.