Chapter 76: Death Comes Knocking

(Eret's POV)

It's been almost fifty years since Drago's defeat, and forty-nine years since Grimmel's defeat and since the dragons left for The Hidden World.

I'm at my wife's bedside, gray hair on both our heads.

Our oldest daughter, Ruby, and our twins Dustin and Eira are by their mother's side as she lay dying of old age.

It hasn't been an easy life, but, gods, has it been a good one…for the most part.

I can feel my Becky slipping away, and, gods, it's going to be so hard living without her.

But I feel like my time is almost up as well.

(Becky's POV)

I can see a light, and, in my mind's eye, I walk towards it.

I feel someone squeezing my hand and I look down and see Eret.

"I love you. So so much. I'll be waiting for you." My dying self tells my husband.

I exhale and let the light take me, and when I open my eyes, my father, Loki, is there to greet me.

"Dad?" I look at myself in the reflection and see I look as young as I did fifty years ago.

"Welcome to Valhalla, sweetheart. I talked with your grandfather, and he said you, as a half-goddess, are welcome to go from here to Asgard and back again as you please."

I look back, but I don't see Eret anymore. Tears well in my eyes.

"He'll be here before you know it, sweetheart. I promise you. Come, I'll show you around. There is a set of rambunctious twins who have been waiting for you to get here."

Dad leads me to my adoptive siblings, who had both died together just weeks before myself.

I hug Ruffnut and Tuffnut and, together, we go through Valhalla, seeing the sights, seeing loved ones we haven't seen in quite some time.

With Loki watching over me, I wait for Eret to arrive so we can be together again.

When he does about a day later, I'm there to greet him in a goddess dress my grandmother, Frigg, designed just for me.

"Welcome to Valhalla, Eret." My Eret, too, looks as young as he did fifty years ago.

"Thank you, my love. Gods, it's so good to see you again. You look as beautiful as ever."

I blush at my husband.

"Thank you, Eret. And you look as handsome as ever."

"Thank you, my darling."

"Come on. I'll show you around Valhalla."

As I show my husband around Valhalla, we come across people we haven't seen in a long time, and one I've technically never met: Ruby's namesake and paternal grandmother, Eret's mother.

"Mum!"

"Eret! My dear, dear son Eret!" Ruby wraps her arms around her firstborn son and they hug for quite a while, which is completely fine.

They have the rest of forever to spend together.

As do Eret and I, and I can't wait for forever to keep going.