Author's note: This is Jymir's and Mayura's mental communication.

Chapter 47: The Dwarven Mine

"It's no use, the doors won't open," sighed Mayura as she plopped down onto the ground. She leaned back and stared straight ahead at the stained cherry oak doors.

"It's not surprising, after all this mine is forbidden."

Mayura swung her head around, looking out in the distance for the owner of the voice. "Who are you? Show yourself!" she commanded, but she saw no one.

"Mistress, I don't hear anything besides the two of us."

"And exactly who are you? Identify yourself!" Mayura commanded once again, standing up and putting her back to the securely closed door of the dwarven mine, Loki's staff Laevantein in hand. Her encounter with Skroki had taught her many things including to never let her guard down in this awful wilderness. Mayura had no desire to become a morning snack—or any other type of snack for that matter ever again.

"Mistress it is I Jymir."

"Jymir?" questioned Mayura not letting down her guard.

"Yes, it is I, Jymir" he restated again nodded his head at his rider and mistress.

"But I thought you can't speak," she replied very much confused, lowering her guard.

"I'm not speaking." Jymir shook his head negatively to emphasize his point.

"Then how can I hear you speaking?"

"Telepathic communication."


"Are you telling me that you could speak into my mind this whole time and you decided to play pictionary!" Mayura screeched, her cheeks puffing out angrily. "Do you realize how much trouble and hardship we could have avoided… and yes, I do mean WE Jymir," she scolded like a veteran mother.

Jymir lowered his head in shame. "I know."

"Then why? Why did you do that Jymir? Why?"

"I... I didn't think you were worthy enough to, to..." Jymir paused, frantically sorting out his feelings and reasoning. "Speaking telepathically... it, it... I was planning on never telling you."

"Why?" Mayura moved closer to Jymir.

"I thought I was too good to communicate with a pathetic mortal such as you. That I had been given babysitting duty," he replied in a fake haughtily voice.

"What changed your mind?"

"The way you... you didn't have to... all or nothing for me..." rambled Jymir, unable to articulate what he wanted, needed to say.

Mayura shook her head. "I don't understand you Jymir. What did I do?"

"You had...you had..." Jymir sighed before continuing, "you had already won you're freedom from the giant Skroki and were willing to give up your gift by Freya and just leave, but you…" Mayura waited in silence for several minutes before pushing Jymir on. "...but you looked that giant straight in the eyes and challenged him, all or nothing..." Jymir's voice in her head faded into nothing and just as she was about to speak she heard a whisper, something so light that she almost believed she imagined it, "just for me..."

"Of course I did Jymir! You're many companion, you've saved me so many times already. I couldn't just leave you there," Mayura objected vehemently.

Jymir shook his head before trying to touch his nose to the ground. "Yes, you could have. Many steeds have been left behind to their fate in much less ominous circumstances. Anyway, I didn't save you, not like you did for me. I only helped you to help myself, to gain glory and fame—to prove to the herd that I'm not some young weakling. They sent me with you because they expected for us to die you know." Jymir lifted his head to see Mayura gazing at him. "Don't look at me like that!"

Mayura however didn't back down and instead asked, "Why do you say that? Why do you think they sent you to die?"

"You're quest was never intended to be easy, and with you're limited training the whole herd knew that you weren't going to survive the quest. If one of us had to die with you, I... I was the most logical choice since the herd doesn't need me." Jymir turned his eyes back to Mayura and saw sympathy and empathy? ...clearly written on her face. "I told you not to look at me like that! I don't deserve it! I treated you as an inferior, like garbage, like a mud clump underneath my shoe! Why? Why are you being so nice to me! I don't deserve it!"

"Because you need a friend, and I need a guide. I can't finish this without you Jymir." Mayura looked pleadingly into Jymir's eyes. "I've helped you, you've helped me. Isn't that what this whole quest, no... our whole quest about?" Jymir tilted his head questioningly at her. "Yes we need to find the artifact, but even with that in our procession we may yet fail. The honor and gates to Asgard are only open to those who prove themselves through the quest to possess godlike qualities."

Jymir blinked at Mayura in astonishment. He knew that she wasn't as ditzy as he had originally thought—that contest of wits sure proved to him that. But, he never believed her to possess such wisdom as well. «She's changing. Right before my very eyes, becoming the goddess that Odin's challenging her to be. I only hope that great grand dame likes his 'new' wife.»

"So, how do we get into the mines? The door won't open!" she whined falling to the ground.

«Then again, maybe not.» Jymir shook his head disappointedly. "Have you tried the rock of lightening that Thor gave you?" he asked without the bitter tones he had always used when thinking about her before.

Her face suddenly brightened. "That's right!" Mayura ran over to the packs on Jymir's back and took out the medium sized rock that Thor had given her several months ago now. With all her strength she threw the rock at the doors. Nothing seemed to happen. Mayura's face fell. She had expected something, anything! Annoyed she started to walk back towards the door when a bolt of lightening came down from the skies to completely demolish the door mere feet before her. Landing harshly on her butt from the shockwave, Mayura sat there on the ground not moving an inch, her mouth agape, "Fushigi mystery..."

Narugami raced over to Loki's mansion as soon as his shift at The Twilight Café was over. He banged on the door only as a courtesy and let himself in, climbing the stairs up to Loki's study two at a time. Upon reaching the top, he flung the study door open, ripping its hinges from the wall.

Loki looked up from the book he was reading at his desk. "Mou Narukami-kun, you're not supposed to come in and destroy my house you know." Narugami looked at the door he was holding in his right hand sheepishly. "That's Freyr's job."

Narugami blushed in embarrassment at Loki's statement before the words really sunk in. "Loki!"

Loki was quiet, sitting at his desk with his hands clasped in front of him, his signature smirk plastered on his face. "Yes Narukami-kun?"

"Never mind," Narugami gently propped the door against the inside wall of the study. He would have fixed the door himself, but he knew that four-eyes was very peculiar about such things.

"So, what brings you here to my abode hours before dinner?" gibed Loki.

"Mayura-chan used the lightening stone I gave her today." Narugami looked at Loki seriously. "I thought you might like to know."

"What was she doing?" he questioned hiding his desperate need to be reassured that Mayu-chan was alright.

"Trying to break down a door I think. There wasn't any desperate urgency when I felt the request as that's what you mean." Narugami paused raising his hand to his head. "It took me awhile to track her though. I think she's somewhere at the boundary Jotunheim... not quite sure though." He brought his hand down and looked at Loki strangely. "It's funny. I thought the Norns told her to stay away from Jotunheim."

Loki's eyes narrowed. "They did Thor, they did." «Mayura what are you doing?» Rummaging into his coat pocket, Loki found the light blue ribbon that had mysteriously fallen off his wrist earlier that week.

Narugami of course noticed Loki's movements. "Don't worry Loki. I'm sure it's nothing. Mayura-chan... Mayura-chan always comes back scratch free from even the worst things."

"I guess you're right Narukami-kun," he replied, not wanting to think about the fact that he was the one that had saved her from all her previous scrapes.

The mine was warm, much warmer than the temperature outside and Mayura once again found herself thanking Yamino-san's kind heart and ever anticipating mind. «Even if he seemed to pack for an army.» Mayura thought to herself as she took off the final extra layer she had been wearing.

The tunnels of the mine were just as twisty and mazy as the Cave of Heat, but Mayura found it much easier to navigate without the blistering heat clouding her mind—which was quite fortunate since there wasn't a scent of wind once they went into the lower sections of the mine for Jymir to follow. "What do you sense from that room Mayura?" asked Jymir as he kept his gaze towards the rear. Even though they hadn't met anything within the abandoned mine so far, that didn't mean that they felt safe. There were only two reasons that the dwarves would leave a mine. One: it had been completely stripped of everything of value, or two: something had forced them out. And the title of "forbidden mine" indicated the later.

"Another dead end, it looks like the vein stopped here." Mayura sighed. "We've been walking in the wrong direction all day!" She turned around dragging her feet. "Come on, we'd better start hiking back."

Jymir stayed silent. He knew that anything he said would just make her grumpier. «Happy one minute depressed the next, and just in a plain nasty mood the next. What's with her sudden mood swings? There's absolutely no rhyme or reason.» Jymir just shook his head and followed his mistress when she snapped again—of course the second mud puddle that had just landed on her head out of nowhere probably didn't make her feel any better.

Mayura wiped her face clean of mud as much as possible. "Why!" she asked to no one in particular.

"At least it was wetter than last time. You're cleaner."

Mayura turned to stare him down. "No comments from the peanut gallery. This isn't funny! What's happening to me?" she asked to the heavens, in hope to gain divine inspiration. And her prayer was answered. Perhaps it wasn't divine—since she felt her own aura doing all the work—but nevertheless Mayura found herself trapped within a vision of over nine months prior.

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... I'm not about to let a budding chaos goddess walk around Midgard without training," finished Loki.

"Chaos goddess?"

"What else can I call you? These aren't exactly mortal powers you're growing into. And chaos because those will probably be the first ones you pick up. They're easier. The trickery part comes from the use of your old noggin," stated Loki as he rapt Mayura's head.

"Oh..." Mayura sighed. "There's so much to learn!"

"Well, that's why we're starting now. But don't worry; you're still developing normal human abilities right now. It'll be awhile before the first chaos abilities start coming in."

"How do you know they haven't already?"

"Trust me... when the chaos and fire powers start to emerge we'll know." Loki laughed. "We'll definitely know."

"How do you know that?"

"When I was young, I had to grow into my powers too you know. Just because I'm a god, doesn't mean my abilities came with an instruction manual, or that they were instinctual. Let's just say there was a lot of trial and error." Loki scrunched his face in distaste as Mayura laughed. "You get it easy because I'm here to teach you." ...

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Mayura blinked her eyes as the vision disappeared. Although she now knew what was going on, she definitely wasn't anymore calm. The words that Loki had once spoken jovially now rang harshly in her head:

'Trust me... when the chaos and fire powers start to emerge we'll know. We'll definitely know. ... Trust me... when the chaos and fire powers start to emerge we'll know. We'll definitely know. ... Trust me… when the chaos and fire powers start to emerge we'll know. We'll definitely know. ... Trust me… when the chaos and fire powers start to emerge..'

"When the chaos powers start to emerge..." Mayura whispered under her breath, her eyes unseeing into the darkness beyond her—the mud puddle had effectively dowsed her torch once again.

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Days passed and the two adventurers went deeper and deeper into the Dwarven mine. Nothing else unusual had happened and Mayura was starting to dismiss the strange events as fushigi mysteries and leave it at that. After her long association with Loki she had learned that there were some mysteries that were better left that—mysteries. Jymir was quite happy since her mood swings had lessened considerably, which he reasoned was because no more mud puddles were falling on her head.

"Do you feel that, mistress?"

Mayura nodded her head silently as she slinked along the rough tunnel wall towards the next large excavation cavern. They were at the lowest level of mining and if the dwarves had awakened something in the earth, this was the place it would have happened. Unfortunately, since this was where they were last digging, this was where the living quarters would be, and the quill by default. First Mayura stretched Laevatein into the cavern, testing to see if it would be attacked. When nothing happened she hesitated for a moment at the mouth of the cavern before sticking her neck out to take a peak.

Mayura gasped at the sight in front of her. The walls shimmered in the soft glow from her torch. This was the reason the dwarves had dug too deep. She could read it from the cavern's aura. In a gold mine they had found something even more precious to the gods. They had found silver gold—mythril. Mayura circled around herself, amazed at the wealth she saw. It wasn't until she looked straight down the path did she see the reason the dwarves had left their fortune behind and condemned the mine as forbidden.

In the center of the cavern was an elemental, one of the most dangerous creatures within the nine worlds, a creature that even gave Loki a twinge of fear—an elemental fire dragon. Its scales shifted in the darkness giving off its own internal glow. She was unable to see the head as the neck wrapped around the dragon's body beyond her view. Its tail however swished like that of a playful dog. The creature's wings were enormous, lifting and falling with its steady breathing. The mighty dragon was asleep.

Mayura motioned for Jymir to come closer, placing her finger against her lips to indicate the need for total silence. Mayura tiptoed silently across the floor while Jymir tried to keep the clapping of his shoes to an absolute minimum. They had made it halfway past the fearful dragon, it's breathing never changing, when the unthinkable happened—Mayura sneezed.

She held her breath and Jymir froze with one leg raised in air. Turning their heads back at the dragon in fear they were both surprised to find the beast still sleeping and it began to snore. Relieved Jymir continued on his way silently towards the other side of the cavern. But Mayura stood still, looking at the ceiling in fear, her eyes as round as saucers. Hanging above the fearsome dragon was a koi pond—complete with goldfish. As she took one fearful step backwards, the power holding the pond broke and the deluge of water poured upon the fire elemental. Without a moment of hesitation Mayura ran as fast as her two legs could carry her. Catching up to the still unaware Jymir, Mayura jumped onto his back and screamed, "Run!"

Author's Note: To rubydream, Ytak, and crazy: Thanks for the reviews! I just had to write that Mayura was really smart. I mean who would believe it! But most importantly I have to thank my "I mean real fan" who e-mailed me. I kind of needed that kick in the butt. Thanks. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!