Just a reminder:
"This is the speech between Mayura and Jymir."
"This is Old Norse."

Chapter 48: Becoming a Grand Mommy?

They were still being followed, and the presence was drawing nearer. It was difficult for Jymir to run within the dwarven tunnels. The ceilings were low and he didn't know the layout of the complex twists and turns inside the mine, while their pursuer had unknown centuries to become acquainted with its design. Jymir halted abruptly as he came to a wall. They were trapped. No other options left to her, Mayura slammed Laevatein into the ground.

Loki woke up with a start. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Loki took a deep breath. He had felt Mayura's desperate call for his power even in his sleep. Taking another deep breath he released it slowly, hoping to lower his heart rate. It had been a month since Thor had barged into his study informing him of Mayura's activities, and during that month Loki's anxiety had increased tenfold. No one had a clue where she was—not even the Norns—her path was just too foggy.

Grabbing his bathrobe, Loki walked down into the kitchen to brew himself a cup of tea. He knew it was pointless to try to go back to sleep. As the warm winds began to cool and the summer faded in its last days of glory, Loki had found sleep to become a rarer and rarer occurrence as nightmares of Mayura's failure spawned from his deepest fears became more frequent.

"Mayura..." he sighed staring intently into the calm surface of his tea. But unlike other nights, the calmness of his actions did not quiet the unease he felt. The image of him watching the sunset of the fall equinox until the stars appeared, hailing the death of his beloved wife and soul mate, plagued him even in his wakeful hours. "Only one more week... Mayu-chan... please, please come back to me," he silently pleaded to the stars, hoping that she might stare at the same great balls of flame.

Mayura cringed, ready for the searing heat or terrible impact that would surely take her life, but nothing happened. She waited several minutes more, she had read somewhere that these violent death instances usually felt longer to the victim than they really were. But still nothing happened. In fact the only noise she could hear was a muffled pounding sound.

Fearfully she cracked her eyes open. Not seeing her impending doom, Mayura opened her eyes fully to find a rotating floating prism containing three unhappy little persons. Stepping forward to get a better look at her pursuers, Mayura spoke, "Why were you chasing us?"

The three creatures, which Mayura guessed to be dark fairies by their aura and physical appearance, looked at each other confusedly before they all began to speak gibberish. Mayura turned her head back to Jymir. "Are they saying anything?"

"No mistress, it's as much gibberish to you as it is to me." Jymir stepped forward to get a better look as well. "They seem to be dark fairies."

"I thought so too... but why are they here in this abandoned mine?"

"They were probably left behind in the chaos when the mine was evacuated." surmised Jymir.

"But that was hundreds of years ago at least!" protested Mayura. "There's no way that these children could be that old."

"That's not necessarily true mistress. The lifespan of the other creatures of the nine worlds is much different than that of humans Mayura. Many would be considered immortal by human standards while in truth not even the gods and the frost giants are truly immortal." stated Jymir matter-of-factly.

Mayura spun around completely to face Jymir. "They're not?"

"No, everything living within the nine worlds can be killed mistress. However, gods and frost giants are the only beings that can not die of old age and are therefore the only 'immortal' beings."

"That still doesn't explain how these dark fairies are still children," insisted Mayura putting her hands on her hips.

"They will never grow up." replied Jymir with a sad voice. "And therefore will never reach the age in which they die."

"Why… how do you know that?" Mayura asked, her voice picking up a depressed sound as well.

"They've lost their wings."

Mayura turned and looked back at the two young boys and a girl trapped within Loki's magic prism. One of the boys was completely wingless, the girl owned a single shredded one, and the second boy possessed nothing more than stubs. Without turning around Mayura asked, "What is so important about their wings?"

"Without wings, they can't participate in a mating flight. And without participating in a mating flight they can not enter the second stage of a dark fairy's life. In essence, they have gained immortality, an immortality of eternal childhood."

Without a second thought, Mayura raised her right hand and gently placed it on the magic prism. Before they had even hit the ground she had gathered the children up into a big hug. Her eyes grew moist and threatened to shed tears.

The child's eyes gleamed with a knowing light before innocence filled them. "Eyes shinny like grand mommy Yut." "Very shinny." "You grand mommy too?"

Mayura pulled them tightly to her, her maternal instincts understanding their words. "Mistress, I think they're speaking Old Norse. They're pronunciation must have strayed in the not even the gods know how many centuries they've been done here alone." Jymir chuckled. "They think you're a grand mommy—one of the elder dark fairies that take care of the young ones." he explained. "I shall try to communicate with them." Mayura nodded in response to Jymir before hugging the children even tighter if it was possible and rubbing her cheek against their heads.

"Grand mommy! Me been so scared!" sniffled the smallest boy. One sniffle became two, and Mayura found herself holding three hysterically crying little fairies. Jymir sighed. It was going to be a while before the young dark fairies calmed down enough for him to speak to.

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"It appears that they were running away from the fire elemental as well mistress. From what I can understand, this is the smallest tunnel on this side of the great cavern where the fire elemental lives and even at her youngest she was too big to enter this tunnel." Jymir explained to Mayura who was leaning against his flank.

"Does that mean that we're trapped inside this tunnel until she goes away?" asked Mayura, loosening her hold on the fairy girl, who they had found out, was named Kypi.

"No, the fire elemental has grown quite a bit since then in the ensuing years and can no longer enter any tunnels save the first few. It seems that we were safe after only our second turn. What we felt chasing behind us was these children running back to their first hiding place out of old habits and fears."

"That's a relief," Mayura sighed as she went back to hugging Kypi.

"However, they refuse to help us. Every time I ask about the quill they become terrified." Mayura looked down at Kypi, who she had just calmed down from a terror act. "Mistress, we must be going. We have already wasted a day and the summer is waning."

Mayura sighed. "You're right Jymir," she admitted, standing up. "I'll miss you three," Mayura added, bending down to kiss the sleeping children's foreheads.

"Come, we must get going." Mayura nodded her head and walked beside Jymir, leaving the horribly fated dark fairy children within their prison. Sparkling tears fell down her cheeks and hit the cold unforgiving floor of the mine tunnel. Moments after Mayura and Jymir were out of sight, the three children were wide awake, nodding their heads with impish smiles.

Jymir and Mayura slunk through the smaller tunnels, making sure to keep out of the range and sight of the very annoyed fire elemental once again awake and on patrol, looking for the creatures that dared to invade her territory. Mayura had been searching for days, but none of the living spaces the item she sought. She had a sinking suspicion however, that Bragi's quill was in the largest dwarven quarters which the elemental fire dragon patrolled almost exclusively.

"Jymir we're going to have to go into there. It's the only room that we haven't check from top to bottom," she stated determinedly.

"Mistress, that's suicide!"

"Are we getting cold feet now Jymir? Where's all that bravado gone to? I thought you wanted to prove to the stables that you're something more than the youngest descendant of Slepnir?" goaded Mayura. During their wandering and exploration of the dwarven mine, Jymir had become much more open with Mayura. "Don't you want to know what's inside that room that attracts such a powerful creature? It's a fushigi mystery!" she finished, clapping her hands together and pumping her right into the air. She had tried so hard to get Jymir excited to go that she had gotten herself excited. She started to skip towards the last room singing 'fushigi mystery' to herself.

"Ah mistress..."

"Yes?" responded Mayura, turning around with swirly eyes.

"The fire dragon will caught you if you walk into her lair like that."

"Oh... yeah..." Mayura giggled sheepishly. "I forgot. So what's you're plan for getting past the elemental?"

"On the count of three. One... Two..."

"No! Killed, bad monster eat grand mommy," screamed the young dark fairy boy with the wing stubs, tugging Mayura's clothes with all of his might.

"Geri right," pleaded the other boy while Kypi clung onto Mayura's leg. "Back way, no eat. Back way, no eat. Grand mommy no get eat. Come come."

Mayura relaxed and let herself be dragged by the fearful dark fairies. "Jyimr, what did they say?"

"They know of a back way in."

"Oh"

"Geri says that Bragi's quill should be on a desk."

"I see it," whispered Mayura. "See? The desk right across from us?"

"Yes"

"I'll move silently across the room and you watch out for the dragon. Signal me if you as much as hear her, okay?" Mayura instructed. Jymir nodded his head. "Good"

Mayura was halfway across the empty room before Jymir realized something. Where are the children? "Mistress! She's coming!"

The second after Jymir called out to Mayura, the elemental fire dragon appeared, hissing at the intruder that dared to enter her domain. Leaning back onto her hind legs, the great dragon readied to strike. Mayura was transfixed in fear, the dragon's eyes burning crimson in hate.

Author's Note: I'm feeling benevolent. No cliffhanger today!
Mayura knew that this time certain doom was eminent. She had run out of luck. But something drew the dragon's attention. Mayura stared in shock. "Kypi, Geri, Freki... don't!" she screamed, but the children and the dragon ignored her. She watched in horror as Freki and Kypi were trapped in a corner.

Anger surged through her body pushing and stirring power that she never knew she possessed. Her form began to glow, her hair flying in the air. Striking Laevatein heavily onto the ground she roared, "Veeru Ugokurox!" Panting for air Mayura walked straight towards the rotating prism and smashed it with Laevatein. Letting her breath out, Mayura rushed to Kypi and Freki and hugged them tightly.

"Mistress, the quill."

She squeezed the two one more time before getting up and walking over to the desk. Mayura stopped and looked at it in awe. The quill was made completely of gold, and yet the craftsmanship was so precise, it looked to be made from truly a golden feather. Her hand trembled as she moved it pick it up. Her task was complete. Mere centimeters away from her the object of her six month quest the amulet that Odin gave her glowed and engulfed her within a ball of light.

Author's Note: Sorry, I lied. There was a cliffhanger after all. That's 'because I'm evil. I think I do my penname proud don't you? Hehe...