Chapter 11: Babes in Arms


"One man's theology is another man's belly laugh."
- Robert A. Heinlein

Loki brings the magical chain to his son Fenrisúlfr and Set battles the strange scorpions who have invaded his desert lands.


Somewhere out of time

Metron floated in the Mobius Chair as he watched and listened to the assembly of these so-called gods as they argued and debated. Then there was silence when a strange group entered the clearing, it was led a dark-haired humanoid who was very handsome in his armor, but the scientist could almost feel the malicious contempt that the stranger gave those around him. Behind the human-like god was a large green scaly serpent, with its forked tongue flicking from its fanged mouth, and standing beside that beast was a thin, gloomy looking girl who was pale in her pallor and had long stringy black hair that covered the half side of her face which seemed to be icy blue in its hue.

"Loki Laufeyjarson, slayer of Baldr the Fair!" one of the gods spit the newcomer's name out in a contemptuously manner as if it was a curse.

"Father!" the large black wolf growled out as he lowered his huge head in submission. "You have come and brought the chain Gleipnir!" At the sight of the object in the god's hands, the wolf god's ears flattened.

"That is no chain!" the Monkey King laughed when he saw what looked like a mere ribbon in the god's hands. "That thin little string is what bound you and you call yourself a god?"

"Looks can be deceiving," Loki sarcastically laughed when he saw the primate god. His body changed as he shapeshifted his form to match that of the Monkey King. "Gleipnir is made from what is impossible, the dwarves have infused it with the echo of a cat's tread, the hairs from the beard of a woman, the gnarly roots of a great mountain, the breath of a fish, the spittle of a crow, and last, but not the least, with the sinews of a bear."

"Stop that!" the Monkey King snapped at Loki. "Return to your true form!"

The trickster god just used the thin ribbon looking chain to lasso the true primate god and the Monkey King chattered in anger as he tore at the chain which now bound him.

"Come Fenrisúlfr," Loki called out to the large wolf. "I was afraid that you might have heeded Odin's call to arms, I feared that misplaced sense of loyalty that you canines seem to have would have jumbled your mind. Come and let us go watch as the new god destroys the Æsir, it will be glorious."

"No father, I cannot!" Fenrisúlfr growled out. "The new god must be stopped, for he threatens more than just the gods."

"Do you mean those fickle mortals who once knelt and prayed to us as being their gods?" Loki sarcastically asked as he threw his arms up. "They have turned us into stories to be told around their hearths or even worse, into comic book characters for their entertainment! They made me some kind of alien instead of a god in their movies and have you ever read some of their fanfiction stories about me? Many of them are sick and warped." The large snake behind the god snickered and the thin girl giggled at their father's words.

"There are others besides the humans that I care for!" the large wolf sighed out. "There are the wolves, who howl their praise of me to the moon. I must try to save them from destruction and if I fail, let them remember me not as Fenrir Lokison but as their loyal god Hróðvitnir! Sister Hel, if I fall in battle and I find my soul in your realm, please let me sometimes hear their calls on those chilly winter nights when they call to the Snow Moon."

"If you fall and I survive, I will see that it is so my brother," the thin girl sadly said. "But I fear that our father is wrong and we will all perish. Come Jörmungandr, father awaits." The large serpent briefly looked back at his brother before he slithered after his sister.

"So that was Loki?" the small mouse god in the golden armor asked as he watched the wolf's siblings disappear. "Charming, isn't he?"

"One cannot choose his family, can they?" Kitsune sarcastically said as he wagged his nine tails.

"So that was entertaining," the Monkey King grumbled as he sat down still bound in the mystical chain. "But now that we have this damned chain, does anyone happen to know where the rabbit went?"

All eyes looked toward the hare god, whose ears drooped down his back. "They left," he meekly said.

"They left?" Metron asked in agitation. "Where did she go and who took her?"

"Then we are not ready!" Fenrisúlfr desperately called out to the other animal gods. "I must go and try to stop Odin and the Æsir!" The large wolf leaped towards the woods and disappeared.

Odin's mighty army was marching upon the Rainbow Bridge, which he had magically cast so that it would carry them towards the rogue god. Hundreds of gods and goddesses, along with thousands of heroes had donned their battle armor and seized their war weapons before they marched along the mystical pathway. The one-eyed god rode his eight-legged steed, Sleipnir, at the head of the column. Sleipnir too was a child of Loki, born of the changing god, and so was also the great wolf god's half-brother. The steed drew to a halt at the sight of his brother blocking the path. "Fenrir, have you come to join us?" Odin roared out. "You took your damned time."

"No great Odin, I have come to plead with you to stop before we all are destroyed," the wolf answered as he tried to block the army's advance. "We animal gods have a plan to subdue this god of time, for he is one of us."

"The time for waiting has passed!" Thor cried out as he drove his chariot forward, his goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr stomped their hoofs in anticipation as they pulled it towards the battle. The red-bearded god dramatically leapt from his chariot and pushed past the wolf and then raising his war hammer Mjölnir, he rushed to strike the smaller fox-like god with long ears. There was a white pulse of time that engulfed not only Thor but all who stood upon the magical bridge.

"Well now here's a sight one does not see every day!" Loki laughed afterward as he waded through what was once Odin's mighty army. All around him those who were previously great gods and mighty heroes were now just mere babies sitting among their piles of clothing and next to their weapons of war.

Hel ran past her father and picked up a black wolf pup, hugging him to her bony chest and giggled when her once older and powerful brother licked her face and whimpered. Two goat kids ran past her and down the bridge.

"Shhh!" Loki called out as he picked up the eight-legged colt. "Shhh, my son your mother is here." Then turning towards the hulking serpent which had crawled behind him, he smiled. "Well, it looks like your dinner is served."

The Midgard Serpent named Jörmungandr grinned and flicked his forked tongue in anticipation as he looked down upon the helpless babies. "So many," he hissed. "So juicy!"


Western Desert 1942

Nick was bone tired and despite all the weird things that he had been through, he quickly fell into a sound sleep. The red fox was a child of the city and civilized, so he did not hear the slithering sound of the viper who was now coiled up and ready to strike. The fennec fox next to him was not as civilized and was a child of the same desert that surrounded him. His ears flicked at the soft sound of the snake as it slithered across the rubble-strewn sand, his brown eyes came open and he saw the serpent ready to strike the fox next to him. With a speed that only his species can muster, the fennec fox reached out and grasped the viper even as it struck, his paw seizing the deadly snake behind its head and he struggled as it coiled and uncoiled in an effort to free itself from the small fox's grip. Opening his jaws, the fox nicknamed Hans leaned in to give the snake a traditional deadly bite with his sharp teeth.

"Stop!" a voice called out from the darkness as a shape began to take form before the fox's wide eyes.

"Holy Set!" Hans cried out as he knelt and bowed with his head touching the sand. He still maintained his hold on the snake.

Standing on the remains of the temple wall, Terry gave a cry of warning to his comrades when he saw a snake-headed creature standing there and then suddenly a jackal appeared beside the stranger. "Stop!" he yelled as he gave a warning shot from his assault carbine. The jackal god just threw him an amused look. "Hands or paws where I can see them!"

Sam sat up and quickly drew his pistol, aiming it at the snake god. "Just who are you two and what do you want?' he commanded. He was confused at what he saw was going on by the tank, Nick was sitting up and looking at the two strange creatures in awe, the small fox Hans was groveling in the sand.

"They are gods!" The small fox cried out in fear.

"Now my little child and please let me have my snake back," Set lovingly chuckled as he leaned over and plucked the serpent from the small fox's paw. Standing up he looked over at Anubis and shrugged his shoulders. "Well cousin, it looks like it's your turn to use your sword…"

The god of death, however, was looking elsewhere with his ears standing straight up. "The red devils have killed a village," he growled out. "I can hear the cries of despair from the souls of the innocents who have perished while the await me to join the goddess Maat, the keeper of the law, at the Great Scales to weigh their hearts. Only those whose hearts have been lightened by their good deeds may pass to blessed Aaru and dwell in that paradise for eternity."

Set too looked towards the distant desert, "There are those praying in my temple, asking me to save them from those odd scorpions. It is time that I put an end to this!" A wind picked up with a gale force, causing the humans and foxes to shield their eyes from the swirling sand and inside the column of whirling sand, the god disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Sam asked in confusion as he once again aimed his pistol at the jackal god still standing there.

"Set has gone to war with the red scorpions which are plaguing this land," the god simply answered.

Set landed before the temple and he saw that all sorts of desert animals were huddled inside. Before him, there was a swarm of the red scorpions and they didn't hesitate at the sight of the god, who frowned because he should have control over the creatures but did not. "So if it is an invading army I must destroy, I will need an army of my own," he said as he knelt in the sand. "Come forth my children."

From the sand crawled out what appeared to look like hundreds of ten-legged spiders, but they were not true spiders, the were solifugids. The so-called "camel spiders" were four to six inches long and scurried towards the advancing scorpions. The sands became embroiled as the two groups of creatures battled each other, but the scorpions had met their match and they seemed to have been halted.

As the god watched the battle, he felt more than heard, something large treading upon the sands. Raising himself upon a column of solidified red sand, he saw in the distance a huge red scorpion moving towards the battle below. Set willed the column to move him until he faced the huge beast, which dwarfed him. The god of the desert faced down the massive intruder within his realm. "I command you to leave!" he hissed out in anger.

The scorpion stuck out with its tail stinger, striking at the snake god. Just in time Set commanded a shield made from the sand to block the deadly strike. Sand flew as the shield shattered, but the god created yet another one as the tail struck yet again. "SO BE IT!" the god roared.

The poisonous tip of the tail stuck forward, shattering the shield of sand that the god had summoned. His right hand stretched out and more sand swirled upwards, forming a stony spear which he threw towards his assailant. A heavy plated claw blocked the spear, shattering it and even as it crumbled into pieces, the tail struck out yet again. Set's hastily formed shield bust and the scorpion's stinger just missed the god but knocked him from his sandy column and he fell onto the ground below the great beast.

Large pinchers tried to seize the desert god, who leaped back and away from them as he once again summoned the sands into a shield and a spear. He stuck yet again, but the solid stony spear shattered without injuring the beast. Lifting his arms, Set strained as he parted the desert sands below the scorpion. As his enemy toppled into the hole, he brought his fists closed and the sand crashed onto the great beast, finally crushing it into green gooey pulp.

The victorious god looked back at where his camel spiders had battled the small red scorpions and frowned at all the bodies which littered the ground, he had won the battle but the losses had been great.


Hróðvitnir is yet another name for Fenrisúlfr or Fenrir and the name means "fame-wolf".

The old stories have Loki's father as Fárbauti (Cruel Striker) and his mother being Laufey. Marvel/Disney has turned him into being Loki Laufeyson, the adopted brother of Thor Odinson. He kills his own father Laufey in the first movie Thor and tries to destroy his own homeworld Jötunheimr.

The shapeshifting god of chaos Loki is the father of Fenrir, Hel, and Jörmungandr. He turned himself into a mare to seduce the stallion Svadilfari in an effort to keep him from finishing the great wall around Asgard and by doing so he becomes the mother of Sleipnir. He also had two sons Nari and Vali, the gods turned Vali into a savage wolf who killed his brother Nari. His son Nari's entrails were then used to bind Loki to three great stones where he suffered terrible punishment, for causing the death of Baldr, by having a serpent's torturous venom drip upon him.

Solifugids are a unique spider-like creature of the desert, often called the camel spider by American troops who served in Iraq. They do prey upon scorpions as a food source.