=========================== CHAPTER X ==============================
We were lowering at enourmous speed. We had been in the air for only about an hour. The ride this time was much more eventful than the last. Tyr had kept up a battle hymn for more than twenty minutes that seemed to make everybody much more buoyant and ready. We continued trough the clouds at a breakneck speed and now suddenly we were stopping.

"Hey Frey!" called out David.

"If you wish to reach my brother, you shall weep at the fact that he did not join us," she called back, disdain in her voice. "If you wishest to address me, you shall address me as Freya of the Folkvang!"

"Sorry Freya," he said. She shot him a malice filled look. "Of the Folkvang. Why are we landing?"

Freya stretched out one magnificent finger and pointed to a large patch of trees beyond the large field. "They gather there. We shall fight them now. If we march beyond this point we will meet ineminent defeat. We must land now."

My Slepinir-horse was the first to hit the ground. It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be considering that we were going at least one- hundred miles and hour.

Freya hit second, than Aegir, than Christopher and April, than Loki, than Tyr and David. Once we all settled Tyr mentioned we should sit.

"We must keep our voices down. Freya, I request the cover of seidr." Freya raised her hand. What looked like a streamer of water shot from her hand and wrapped us all.

My skin was no longer solid. It was a clearish tan. Like I was made from human saran wrap. I looked around. The others were like that too. They looked like they were made of smoke.

"We shall not move. They out number us. They have more than five hundred. I have ideas that that is not the extent of their numbers, am I right?" He nodded to me.

"Er...I don't remember. I thought they had less than that," I said, to myself mostly.

"Yeah, they did have less," said Christopher, A bit too loudly. "They only had like three-hundred. Something's not right. Is there anyone else there with them? Like Hetwan or maybe some elves or satyrs or something?"

"No, it is just human, carrying stunted swords or arrows, I am not sure. There looks to be more coming. Freya call upon your brothers. Even under the cloak, they wil defeat us."

Freya pulled both hands toward the sky. "Brothers of the Battle, relenquish your guard become the ones of the final fight. Brothers of Folkvang, I call you before the, your deaths shall feed the soil of Asgard!" With the sound of a million arrows bearing down, hundreds of men in shiny silver and copper armor slid down to earth as if made of jelly. The oozed down to earth and filled in the mold of their bodies within seconds.

"Brothers of Folkvang! Welcome! Before you stands the menace which are soon to litter this glourious land of Midgaard with there cold blood. It is time to meet your time and fight them."

David turned to me and whispered through clenched teeth, "I thought Tyr said to keep our voices down." As if on que the sound of gun shots errupted. A few of the men of Folkvang fell, blood spewing from tiny holes in the back of their armor.

"Freya! Trenches!" screamed David over the loud taps of gunfire. Freya swept her hand through the air. A large brown hole pushed across the field as if some invisible buldozer was working in over speed.

"Men! Man the trenches!" called Freya. All of the men stood around puzzeled for a second than all jumped down into the holes. I follwed.

The inside of the trenches were cold and dark. They were long enough that it wasn't too crowded. A few archers stood up and fired than quickly got back down. Every time they would stand, a loud burst of gunfire would errupt. Eventually they went up in unison, though it seemed they weren't getting anywhere. Harsh yells could clearly be heard from the forest. I doubted that one single person was giving orders, but it wouldn't suprise me.

Every now and then I allowed myself a peek at the forest. There didn't seem to be any movement whatsoever. Tyr seemed on the brink of screaming for us to charge. Freya was probably the only calm one there. She sat calmly with a long scythe drawn, yelling orders at her men in a loud but patient voice.

Loki sat there sneering at the men ahead. His nose was up in a dignified way. I could easily tell he wanted to shout insults at Freya and her troops, but thought better of it. Aegir seemed furious. He sat their with a large axe, hacking at the ground for no particular reason.

"Okay men!" yelled Freya. "We shall battle soon. Gather the horses!" At that instant, the Slepinir horses rose from the ground, no more than ghosts with fiery red eyes. "I trust upon the spawn of Slepinir, who is the child of Ygg, to charge forth and and do the bidding of your paternal forebearer. Kill all who try to destroy you. We shall be behind!" The Slepinir-kin rose up. They were no longer ghostly white, instead they were the color they were before, but their eyes shown even more ferociously.

With a loud unison stamp they were off. The cold air was alit with the screaming of gunfire. It was as if someone had just dropped eighty tons of firecrackers onto a camp fire. I looked up and saw millions of tiny fire streaks zooming over my head. I didn't know how we were going to get anywhere with all those bullets flying over head. I could peak up just enough to see that every bullet that his the Slepinir either disolved within, or flew right out the back.

"Men!" screamed Freya, with less composure now. "Rise!" What was she crazy?! There goes our army. All around me, armor clad warriors stood quickly. None dropped, no blood splattered my face or legs. I stood myself, as was April and David. In front of us was a huge rock. It wasn't there before, but it was now. Gunshots still rang out, in fact even louder although the rock should be clouding the sound.

"Bows! Aim high and I shall carry you true." All the archers released a bolt high into the sky. They each soared over the enourmous rock. A few muffled screams could be heard from the other side. The gunshots became more frequent.

A loud tramble could be heard from behind us. Quickly I spun around to be met by the enormous Skadi and Thor. Thor was gripping his Mljonir tightly, a abnormally large grin sweeping across hi face. Skadi was holding a large broadsword, which was clearly one of the Vanir swords.

"Where of the battle do we stand, mighty Freya?" screamed Thor to Freya.

"Mighty Brother! Come! They shall dawn this rock in a minutes time. My men shall be ready.but you must draw them back behind these lines. My magic does not hold against their weapondry." She hung her head. Was she ashamed? For that? "Aegir!" she screamed, picking her head back up. "Charge up a wave! Your rolling waters shall blast them behind!"

"Aye," was Aegir's response. He was already holding a trembling ball of what looked like blue-white fire. He pulled it back with both hands, letting it grow steadily in size.

"Release when the first face is over that rock. Bowmen! Aim high! Loose!" Hundreds of bolts flew straight over the rock, more screams were heard. "They are getting closer!"

Tyr stepped up towards the rock. "Soldiers! Ready arms!" I bet they hated this. Being behind the war like cowards. I tucked my head down into my knees. Suddenly at least five of our men started to scream.

"They breached the rock!" I heard David scream.

"No! No! The rock isn't holding!" yelled Tyr. "The have penetrated! Aegir! Loose! Men! In the ground!" A barrage of bodies passed along beside and above me. All the men were in the ground once again. I rasied my head to see what was happening.

The rock was no longer solid, or at least parts weren't. Bullets were flying through in certain parts and carrying what looked like loose clay with it. It was as if parts of it were liquid. Two more men had just gotten shot and more bullets were flying through.

"Freya!" called Tyr. "Clear the rock! We shall charge them!" I looked up to see Tyr growing in size. He was already somewhere near fifty feet when Freya gave him more than just a Saran Wrap finish. He disappeared completely. Loki followed, growing more than fifty feet before disappearing completely. Aegir followed, as did Thor. Soon the rock sort of went liquid and washed away. Many more bullets started to fly forward. A few people still up above the trench started to fall.

"Freya!" yelled David.

"What is it mortal!" I guess she was still ticked becuase he got her name wrong.

"The fox holes! Make some fox holes! And conceal 'em."

Freya rolled her eyes haughtily and suddenly I wasn't there. I was invisible. My hands did not exist to me. I was not anywhere. For all I knew, I was just a pair of eyes floating above a dirty trench.

"Rise up and flee for the holes in Midgaard!" I heard a voice say. It belonged to Freya. I knew Christopher, who was right next to me, had heard it, because he whispered something about being crazy. Something inside of me and him both caused us to stand. I felt him beside me, but I could not see him. Bullets that flew in all direction around us as the once attacking men were now firing wildly into the air at the invisisible menace of the gods.

I could now see that ahead of me a round chunk of grass was lowering, like an invisible round lawnmower had flattened it. "Run to it now!" said Freya's voice. Quickly we all bolted. I felt like I was in a war movie. Some Everworld version of "Saving Private Ryan". Running. I was running.through a grassy knoll filled with crazed Nazi punks and insane Norse gods. I was running for my life.

I dove. Head first maybe. Into the large indentation of grass. Not exactly the kind of foxhole you would have seen in Vichy France. I was so very tempted to just run for the forest. Or to go to sleep. No Jalil, no. If I went to asleep it might be the last time. There is no real world Jalil. There is just EW Jalil. There was no running from this. I would have to do something. Around me I could hear whistling of arrows and Freya blasting waves of fire at them.

"Welcome to freaking World War III!" screamed Christopher over the roaring of Freya's fire stream. I could smell the burning flesh of the Sennites. Suddenly I was reminded of Hel's twisted kingdom. Of the dragon who fried Sir Galahad. I wanted out.

"Victory is within our grasp!" Tyr. "We must reach out and grab it! M'lady Freya! Use the seidr on those trees! We shall clean the night with smoke!"

Another roar of fire, this time accompanied by a jet of blue liquid. A enormous flash of light came from somewhere outside of the fox-hole. Loud thuds and crackles echoed all around.

Thunder bursts. More erratic gun-fire. More loud explosions. Shrapnel flew all around me. From what I was not sure. Maybe I had slipped into insanity. Maybe there was a tank out there. Maybe we weren't somewhere outside the Norse kingdom, but instead in Normandy. I would poke my head out and suddenly be on the bloodied beach. My commander would be screaming for me to run to the rims. He would tell me to breach the hull and pop the smoke grenade so the B-52's could bomb the barracks. Maybe. But no.

Shrapnel was still flying. It looked like rock. That was it. Someone was throwing rocks. But who? I poked my head up over the cold edges of the fox hole. Wavy ground. Wavy ground with horrendous bumps. I could see at least thirty men, Sennites, fleeing. The forests were burning. It looked like some failed slash and burn farm in Madagascar. All around Norse archers were loosing quick arrows, but there wasn't much to shoot at any more. The few Sennites that remained were doing frantic motions. Some had ran out of bullets and were frenetically throwing rocks in our directions.

Tyr had shrunk again and was now charging the Sennites. He tackled one. The man rolled. Another ran forward. Used the butt of a riffle, but failed. Tyr kicked low, and the man's knees gave way...literally. Another didn't even bother. He just frantically threw a rock. It bounced and bounced untill it fell in to our fox-hole. But it wasn't a rock.

"GRENADE!" I screamed to Christopher. Quickly I jumped up and out of the small circle hole. A loud screaming roar threw me upward. I landed on my head. Every thing faded. Blackness.