I still do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Norse mythology.

I'd like to take a moment to thank Tammin for his hard work.

Release the Hounds

6 Crawford Street

Getting a nod from Sygin that all was ready at her end, Elsola began her part in tonight's entertainment. Biting on her thumb to draw blood, she slowly traced that bloody digit along the runestave carved into the bone strip at the pace set by her mouth as she spoke the words.

With a grimace, she opened the wound again so she could do it with the second strip and after that she had to repeat that action once more for the third runestave. By the time she was halfway with the second bone strip, the runes on the first ones glowed softly as they finished devouring the last of the blood smeared on the bone.

In short order, all three runestaves were giving off a weak, green glow signaling they were ready. With a flick of her hand, Elsola threw them a good distance away. The bones hadn't even stopped clattering when she spoke the final words, " laþu harija!"

For a moment, the runes glowed brightly, then the stone floor seemed to turn to quicksand as a whirlpool of liquid rock began to swirl underneath each of the bones. They gobbled up that glow and then the bones themselves sank into the whirlpools. After those strips of bone had disappeared, hazy things began to slowly rise up from those swirling pools.

First came the head, glowing eyes set in a face that sported a permanent grin on account of the large fangs. There was also a tusk jutting out on either side of the head. A hunched body followed that made the head seem too large for its emaciated frame. The arms were actually longer than its legs and ended in wicked, long claws but each of the nine creatures now standing before Elsola took care not to drag them along the floor.

All of this could be seen through the dark haze that surrounded them, not enough to obscure their features in the electric lighting of the mansion. 'Nine, that's about right. A better result than you'd get in most other places here on earth.'

"Don't. Forget. To. Tell. Them. To. Put. A. Drop. Of. Blood. Into. The. Water," Sygin reminded her. "Each. Of. Them."

Slightly annoyed at being reminded of something she hadn't forgotten in the first place, Elsola gave the order. There was no grumbling or questioning from the creatures, they simply walked over to the bowl and cut themselves with their claws.

After that had been taken care off, Elsola wasted no more time giving them their mission. "There are three Aesir here, they are together. You must find them, kill them and then bring their bodies to us."

The apparent leader reared its head up and sniffed while its eyes rolled around. It did this for several seconds before giving a soft, baying shriek that caused the others to tense. The leader turned around and began to run for the exit, the other creatures following it on its heels.

It wasn't until they'd reached the door that Elsola realized they'd forgotten something after all. She flinched as the door was reduced to splinters under their charge. She didn't ask what genius had forgotten that the Grendelings don't use doors, though. Not when the others could easily point out it really was her fault. "Good thing we won't be staying here long," she muttered.

Restfield Cemetery

There wasn't any threat that required Xander, Willow, and Buffy to patrol together, they just did it because it was nice and things were quiet on the Hellmouth. To make things even better, finals had ended that day so they were free to go party at the Bronze afterward. And for once, Xander was sure he could be proud of the grades on his report card.

'Not that the rents will notice that, they'll be too liquored up to even read the thing.' With a grimace he banished the depressing thought. 'Focus on the positive, like your hot girlfriend.'

But Fel had overheard and wasn't so eager to let the topic go. "Your parents are a disgrace, you should give serious thought to leaving their "care" as soon as legally possible."

'And how do you propose I pay for rent and stuff?'

"Obviously, preparations will have to be made in advance. You need to find some way to earn money," Fel mused.

With a mental sigh, Xander asked. 'You mean get a job? You might not have noticed, but between school, training, and patrolling I barely have any time left for my girlfriend. Unless I find a way to get paid for killing demons, I'm stuck with my parents until I graduate, Fel.'

"Xander, you haven't said anything yet," Buffy complained pulling the boy out of his musings.

"About what?" he asked slightly embarrassed he hadn't really listened to what his friends were saying. Helpfully, his memory belatedly informed him what had been said. "Oh, right, what movie we'll go to on Saturday. Well, I'm hearing good things about Deep Impact."

***

Buffy felt some amusement at hearing Xander's suggestion. "Hmmm, I was thinking of Man in the Iron Mask. It's got sword-fighting and Leonardo DiCaprio." Two equally good selling points in the blond's book.

"And girls in period-costumes," Willow enthused earning her a smile from Buffy and a slightly uncomfortable "yeah" from Xander. He still got a little weird from time to time when he was reminded about his best friend's taste in, well, women.

But she could tell Xander hadn't been sold yet and he was about to argue the merits of his suggestion when a pack of... things scrambled over and around a mausoleum and into the trio's view. Seven, eight, nine bipedal creatures, each of them surrounded by a dark haze that slightly warped the air around them, focused their attention on her and her friends. The haze did nothing to obscure their glowing eyes, gleaming sharp teeth or wicked long talons at the ends of their long arms.

"Is anybody else getting Jurassic Park flashbacks?" Xander wondered.

"You-you think they're going to flock this way too?" Willow managed to chime in.

"Funny, I was thinking more along the lines of the Gremlins' big brothers," Buffy added as one of the man-sized creatures sniffed the air. Buffy also noted there wasn't a lot of meat on their frame as the things started to lope at the trio on their dog-like hind-legs.

"What...?" Xander started to ask but broke off as Mjöllnir and the others explained to their wielders what they were facing.

"Grendelings!" Mjöllnir exclaimed with some surprise. "How could he have found us so fast?"

'Found you? Who's found you?'

"I'll explain later, right now you should focus on taking these Grendelings out. You need to damage their brain or heart. They can't bleed to death and heal fast so don't count any of them out just because you injured them!" the war hammer warned.

Buffy accepted the advice and prepared herself for the oncoming charge. Without even having to tell them, her friends moved to the sides to give themselves and Buffy some room. It also forced the Grendelings to choose between splitting up or ignoring one or two of their targets giving the Aesir the chance to flank them. They went for splitting up.

Only now did the blond realize there was a difference between the supernatural energy within the Grendelings and that of any demon she'd come across so far. Like with demons, they felt alien to this world. But the energy lacked the feel of inherent evil and wrongness that characterized a vampire's life force. Instead, their energy reeked of hunger and focus. To Buffy's senses they seemed more like a pack of alien hunting dogs than anything else.

And then three of the monsters were upon her and she was far too busy to puzzle out where they fit into the supernatural world. One of them came at her in a frontal assault swinging its arms at her from over its head. Buffy blocked the attack with a grunt, catching the Grendelings wrists on the handle of Mjöllnir before deflecting them to the side opening the creature up for her counter-attack.

She'd barely stepped inside it's reach when the other two appeared on either side of her poised for their own attack. 'Good coordination,' she appreciated. Their attack was coming in at just the right time to force her to break off her attack or risk getting caught defenseless.

'Not good enough though,' Buffy finished with a smile as she reached up with her left hand and used the shoulder of the Grendeling in front of her to launch herself into a somersault over that creature and out of reach of the claws of the other two. As she came down again she almost negligently lopped off the back of the first creature's head with the axe-part of her hammer.

It collapsed with a pitiful whine as she turned to face the other two, blocking the way of the Grendeling on her left, meaning she could concentrate fully on the Grendeling to her right. Unfortunately, that creature had figured it out too and so it hopped back when she took a swing at the monster. She was in mid-swing on her second try when Buffy's instincts started to scream at her.

Without thinking she turned the swing into sideways jump, twisting around as she went. It wasn't enough to evade the other Grendelings claws entirely though. With a ripping sound they traced several fiery lines across her left shoulder. Ignoring the pain, Buffy completed the turn and loosed Mjöllnir at the creature who's defenses were now completely open.

The blond Aesir didn't have time to appreciate the wide-eyed stare the Grendeling gave her hammer the moment before it went straight through its face. Summoning Mjöllnir back to her hands she crouched and brought it up above her head just in time to catch the last Grendeling's raking attack.

The monster didn't let up and tried to claw at her with a swing of its right arm even as it drew back its left to take advantage of any opening Buffy might give it when she defended herself from that attack. But Buffy had no intention of playing into her opponent's hand and jumped up to roll over the swing. Her arm came up and severed the Grendeling's right arm at the elbow.

Thrusting its head towards the sky, the Grendeling gave a screeching yammer before looking back down. Its gaze locked on Buffy and it simply leaped at her, its remaining arm leading the charge. With a snort and a pitiful shake of her head, Buffy stepped aside shouting, "Ole!" She brought her hammer up to sever its other hand and then down when the Grendeling's head came by, stopping it cold.

It twitched once after its crushed head was buried in the ground and then it lay still. Not caring about her now itching shoulder, Buffy looked around to see how her friends were doing.

***

Xander was feeling pretty confident as three Grendelings bounded towards him at a gallop. Fel protected him from anything and after these past few months sparring with Buffy, he was confident he knew how to fight. He noticed the two flanking the third Grendeling hanging back and decided not to play their game.

With a whoop he ducked under the first swing and rammed his shoulder into the middle Grendeling forcing it back and leaving the other two to close in on empty air. The middle Grendeling flew some distance as it gave a surprised screech but Xander had already turned around and simply ignored it.

In a reflex, he brought his arms up to shield his face when both creatures tried to rake him with their claws but they simply skittered across his armor. Smiling, Xander took a step towards the now perturbed looking Grendelings when something jumped on his back and bit down.

He felt the pressure even through his armor and for a moment, Xander thought the teeth were getting through. Then, right next to his ear, came the sound of cracking and shattering teeth and the pressure was gone followed right after by the weight on his back. Half-turning to see how bad the damage was he saw that pretty much every teeth in the Grendeling's mouth was a stump.

There wasn't really any blood, not even when the teeth started to fall out as it cawed angrily at him. The reason it didn't seem discouraged showed itself a moment later as new, whole teeth started to simply rise up from the creature's gums.

Catching movement from the corner of his eyes, Xander turned back to the other two a moment too late to stop them from colliding with him. 'Stupid, are you forgetting everything Giles thought you already? Don't lose sight of your opponents!' he berated himself.

The Grendelings didn't try to bite him, but they were shaking their heads as they clawed at him to bring their tusks into play. Those bony scythes had no more luck getting through his armor than the claws, they were actually hurting the other more than him, but Xander had no intention of just lying there and waiting for rescue from Buffy or Willow.

He managed to free his arms and used those to grab both their heads before slamming them together, their tusks going straight through the other's neck. Next, he heaved the gurgling creatures up and away just in time to meet the third Grendeling in mid-air. Apparently it had just decided to pile on.

The collision prevented them from going far so they all landed not too far from Xander's head. He wasted no time in getting up as the trio liberated themselves from the pile-up showing no sign they had been injured in the slightest.

"Remember, you need to get the heart or the brain to kill these things," Fel reminded him as he senses Xander's frustration.

Clamping down on the unhelpful emotion, the Aesir nodded. 'Got that, but it's not so easy with just my hands and these jackrabbits jumping around like that... Wait, that's it!'

"Alright, step right up! Who's my first customer," Xander taunted. But he got no takers as the Grendelings eyed him warily. Then one of them hissed and they moved. Again, one attacked head-on while the other two came at him from the sides. And again, Xander stepped forward to attack the Grendeling in the middle.

But instead of body-checking the creature, he grabbed it by the tusks. It had barely come to a stop when he simply pulled. There was resistance, so much of it that he almost gave up thinking he'd overestimated his own strength. And then with the sound of ripping flesh the tusks came out followed by a high-pitched scream from the de-tusked Grendeling.

Smoothly, Xander turned around and slid one tusk between the ribs of the Grendeling to his right and then rammed the second tusk down into the creature on his left piercing its heart as well. Turning back, he brought his hands over his head and then down in a hammerblow right on top of the final Grendeling's head.

***

"Their heart is located in the center, right beneath the breastbone," Siffy warned. "Better aim for the brain."

'Right,' Willow thought back as the three Grendelings closed the distance. Before she was in arm's reach of them, her braids shot forward leading with the chopsticks she'd put in them before the patrol. Since there was no way she would get through the bone with those slender wooden sticks, she aimed for the eyes.

Reacting faster than she thought they possibly could, the creatures tried to swipe the guided projectiles out of the way. Most of her braids were knocked off course and pierced flesh before the chopsticks snapped off as they hit the bone that was right underneath it. But three hit their target.

As she retracted her hair, letting the stumps of the chopsticks fall to the floor as she did so, two of the Grendelings dropped boneless to the ground. The third looked down at the two crumpled forms surprised, not even reacting to the swiftly healing grooves on his body.

Then the Grendeling looked up again and jumped at her, its claws coming in from the sides. Stamping down on her fear as those gleaming teeth got closer she brought her braids slamming down on the Grendeling pinning it to the ground. Not letting up, the redhead drew several locks back and started to flail it.

In moments, she was through the skin and right after her hair was striking the creature's bones directly. The Grendeling screeched in pain as her braids started to crack its bones, but it didn't stop trashing or trying to get up. Feeling sick and noticing it wasn't actually killing the creature, Willow let up and retracted her hair. But nausea turned to horror when the Grendeling's bones realigned themselves before her eyes with crunching noises.

Skin and muscle was still growing back as the monster stood up shooting Willow a poisonous glare. Not wasting any time it feinted towards her, then hopped to the side to evade her reflexive attack. 'What do I do?' she panicky asked Siffy as she jumped away from the Grendeling's flashing claws.

"Wrap him like a mummy and then you pull me tight," was the brooch's instant response.

"Right," Willow said out loud as she awkwardly rolled out of the way of the monster's last attack. Her braids shot out even before she'd regained her footing covering the Grendeling's body in short order. Adrenaline shooting through her veins, Willow didn't even stop to think what would happen before she pulled her hair tight.

The monster screamed once before most of his bones snapped like kindling drowning it out. Wide-eyed, the redhead had to fight to keep her dinner down as blood and other... stuff leaked out of the still twitching creature. Dropping the Grendeling, Willow couldn't look away from her own hair. The braids were still extended as green blood slowly dripped down to the floor.

"Remind me never to joke about a bad hair-day to you," Xander quipped in the now silent cemetery.

Looking over at her friends, she noticed they'd both were done with their opponents and that what remained of them was quickly turning into goo. Shame and fear gripped Willow as she realized they'd seen what she had done. What gruesome ending her ability had given that Grendeling.

Her expression must have given something away because Buffy looked her straight in the eyes as she said, "Let's hope your hair's is as self-cleaning as my hammer 'cause otherwise, we better get you some more shampoo." Relieved, Willow nodded as she saw her best friend wasn't revolted.

6 Crawford Street

The sight of the cemetery and the three Aesir faded away as the last remnants of the Grendeling's life force seeped out of their bodies and back to their own reality. "Everything. Is. As. Expected," Sygin was swift to point out.

But Elsola felt no need to rise to the bait, she was right after all. "Exactly, there are no surprises here. Well, except for their skill. This Buffy is a better fighter than I'd thought she would be. But none of them are someone we can't handle."

"Then we'll be gone from here soon," Stark wistfully said and Elsola could sympathize. The energy emanating from the Hellmouth was starting to grate on her senses too.

"Yes, by this time tomorrow we should have everything we came for," the redhead predicted.

TO BE CONTINUED

Author Note: the magic spell 'laþu harija' I used here, is a combination of two words that have been found in actual runic inscriptions involving magic. Laþu means invocation or in this case summon, while harija means the troop, the band or the army. So what Elsola is saying should be, 'summon the troop'.