Chapter 6 - Ettins
Loki didn't know, at first, what woke him. It was still deep night when he opened his eyes. Pale slivers of moonlight dripped through cracks in the shuttered window and dying embers glowed in the hearth. Otherwise, the kitchen was veiled in darkness.
Loki tucked his cloak more tightly around his shoulders and started to close his eyes again. His lids were almost shut when it registered that Sigyn wasn't lying beside him.
He was instantly awake. Throwing off his covering, he leaped to his feet and anxiously scanned the room.
"Sigyn?" he called out.
"Shhhhhh!" Sigyn answered immediately in a rough whisper.
Loki followed the sound with his eyes and found her crouching next to the doorway. A rusty kitchen knife was clutched in her hands.
"They'll hear you!"
"What will hear me?" Loki asked impatiently.
Sigyn's face flashed with terror and she made a motion to silence him again, but it was unnecessary.
The door began to shake.
It didn't open. Loki had set the heavy crossbeam himself, but it rattled unsettlingly on its hinges for several seconds before it stopped. The stillness lasted only a heartbeat before it was replaced by the sound of claws dragging over wood and a deep, feline yowl.
Loki's blood ran cold as a pair of fingers reached under the threshold. They were pale and spindly, resembling those of a man but tipped with sharp curved talons.
"Sigyn?" Loki said. His voice was low and anxious. "What is that?"
Even in the darkness, he could tell that all of the blood had drained from her face. She shuffled backwards, colliding with his chest as she moved away from the doorway. She was still brandishing the knife in front of her tiny body.
"Ettins," Sigyn explained in a breathy whisper. "They must have smelled the smoke."
"Ettins?" Loki put a hand on Sigyn's shoulder. He could feel the shudders that ran along her spine with every scratch on the door. "What is an Ettin?" She didn't answer. He couldn't tell if she was purposefully ignoring him or was too transfixed on the door to notice and so he pressed her harder. "Are they Gods? Demons? Beasts?"
"Yes," Sigyn answered, unhelpfully. She bit her lip and then turned toward Loki, her wide, anxious eyes boring into his face. "They live in the swamp caves and in mud bogs…they come out at night to feed."
"What do they eat?" Loki asked.
"Meat."
For once, Loki did not require a further explanation.
The fingers continued to dig under the door for a few minutes longer before they were finally withdrawn. There was another unnerving howl, but it was followed by the sound of receding footsteps.
"It must have lost interest," Loki said.
Sigyn nodded, but she didn't look convinced. Loki coaxed her back toward the fireplace. He threw a reed mat on top of the ashes in an effort to coax them back to life. It took a while, but he was able to rekindle the flames. He fed a few pieces of broken furniture to the fire, assuring himself that it would last until morning before he returned to Sigyn's side.
"Is that all you have to defend yourself?" he asked, noticing the way that she was still clutching the knife with both hands.
Sigyn nodded.
"No one taught you how to use a sword?" he asked.
"No. It's not in the standard curriculum for impoverished young princesses, I'm afraid."
"Throwing knives? Daggers?"
Sigyn shook her head.
"You don't know how to use anything sharp at all?"
Sigyn's lips twisted into a smirk. "I'm deadly with an embroidery needle."
Under different circumstances, Loki might have laughed at the wry pronouncement, but this was deadly serious.
"Here." He pried the paring knife out of Sigyn's clutches and replaced it with a deadly stiletto dagger that he drew from his boot. "That won't help you unless you are very close, but it's better than nothing….just try to stay behind me if they come back again."
Sigyn nodded at Loki's instructions.
He had barely finished speaking when the scratching started again.
They both turned towards the door.
"What are their vulnerabilities?" Loki asked.
"Sunlight," Sigyn offered. "That's why they don't come out during the day….and fire. Anything bright. They don't see well in a glare, and they can barely hear at all."
"But-?" Loki pressed, grateful for the advantages but well aware that there had to be a catch.
"They track by smell…and their skin is as thick as armor….and their teeth-!" Sigyn's voice trailed off, but the shudder that ran through her body was more than an adequate description.
The scratching on the door increased, and something heavy thudded against the wood.
"It's trying to ram its way in."
Loki's body tensed. His hands hovered over his knives as he waited to see if the Ettin would push through.
There was another thump.
Wood splintered.
Glass shattered.
Sigyn screamed.
Loki realized almost too late that the sounds hadn't come from the direction of the door- one of the creatures had come through the kitchen window instead.
Loki spun around and dodged as a huge pale shape came crashing toward him. It crossed the room in a blur and jumped effortlessly up onto a table where it crouched on its haunches and hissed.
Loki didn't hesitate. Two of his knives flew, burying themselves in the creature's chest and shoulder- but it didn't fall. With a wounded bellow, the Ettin charged forward again. Loki threw another dagger, but this one glanced harmlessly off of its leathery skin.
"Sigyn! Move!" Loki called out when he realized where the beast was heading. The warning didn't come soon enough. She was cornered. The Ettin made a screechy wail of triumph and then lunged, toppling Sigyn to the ground before it spread its monstrous jaws and bent forward to feed.
"SIGYN!" Loki rushed forward. He drew his sword and buried it in the creature's back again and again…There was a rush of sensations: the monster's filthy reek, the sticky warmth of blood, the glint of steel, the taste of bile and Sigyn's piercing wail. Second stretched on torturously long. Then, like a piece of elastic snapping back into place, time sped up again. The Ettin fell still.
Loki barely took the time to unsheath his sword from the creature's flesh before he shoved it aside.
Loki's heart felt like it stopped when he looked down at Sigyn. He didn't realize, at first, that the blood that soaked Sigyn's gown belonged to the monster and not to her. She was completely drenched. While Loki had been stabbing the beast from behind, Sigyn had jabbed the dagger into the Ettin's neck and blood had rained down on her skin. It was a relief to see that Sigyn was breathing. Loki ran his hands over the sodden dress, searching for wounds. There were some deep scratches, but nothing worse.
"Sigyn?" Loki said, shaking her shoulders to snap her out of her shock.
She finally came to her senses. She peered up into Loki's eyes. He could see tears glimmering at the tips of her lashes but, to her credit, she didn't let them fall.
She pulled her legs out from under the Ettin's corpse. "We killed it…" she said, her voice full of wonder.
Loki finally stopped to examine his kill. The beast had some of the features of a feral man. Its skin was hairless and translucent white. Although it had attacked on all fours, it's back limbs were longer than those in front. It had an undersized head that sported a flat nose, holes where ears should be, tiny, bead-like eyes and a gaping mouth. It was the last feature that caught his attention. Each tooth was as long as his finger, razor sharp- and there were more than he could count.
Sigyn and Loki both flinched as a howl drifted through the window and there was another crash against the kitchen door.
"They are coming back," Sigyn said.
Loki nodded. "We have to get out of here."
They both looked at the window that the Ettin had crashed through- and then toward the rattling door.
"Which way?" Sigyn asked, but Loki didn't have an answer. He was still pondering the question when the crossbar finally gave way.
Two more Ettins bounded into the room.
"This way!" Sigyn said, herding him toward the shadows in back of the room.
The Ettins didn't seem to pay the pair any notice. Instead, they pounced on their fallen brother. Loki's stomach felt queasy as the largest of the pair closed his jaws around the corpse and wrenched off one of the arms.
"We have to get out now," he said firmly.
Sigyn nodded. He didn't know if she realized it or not, but she was twisting her necklace in her hands.
"Ask it what to do, Sigyn," Loki instructed.
Sigyn blinked. A look of confusion flashed across her face. Then, just as quickly, it was replaced by one of surprise.
"Here!" she hissed, grabbing his hand and dragging him backwards. She pushed open a wooden cabinet, exposing the small pulley system that had been used to ferry heavy trays to the dining room below.
They had no idea what awaited in the other room, but Loki thought that it was better than waiting to be the Ettin's next course. He climbed inside with Sigyn and took hold of the ropes. Together, they began to lower the platform. The pace was excruciatingly slow. They could still hear the snarls of the two Ettins as they fought over the meal.
The elevator shaft was pitch black. Loki didn't know if they had gone an inch or a mile- or how far there was to go. He kept putting one hand over the other, feeding more slack to the pulley- until they reached the end of the rope.
"What do we do now?" he asked.
"We have to let go." Sigyn said, confirming his fears. She swallowed hard. "On three. One….two….three."
The last of the rope slipped through Loki's fingers. His stomach jumped to his throat as they went into freefall. His body tensed- but much sooner than he had expected, they landed with a crash.
"Are you okay?" Sigyn asked him.
Loki nodded and then looked warily above them. He couldn't see anything, but the commotion had drawn some attention. He could hear the Ettins up above.
"Let's go," he told her. With a whispered spell, a ball of green flame erupted in his hands. It gave just enough light to see another sliding door in front of them. He pushed it open to reveal the battered remains of the dining hall. "Lead the way!"
Sigyn darted through the dining room and onto a flight of stairs. "To the dungeons!" she instructed Loki. He followed her down the spiral stair without pausing, trying to ignore the sinister rustling and skittering that came from the shadows around them. "Don't look behind us!" Sigyn commanded.
Of course, this caused Loki to glance over his shoulder. There was movement just outside the circle of light that his magic provided. Beyond that, he could only make out a large, sinister black shape that seemed to be moving closer.
"Hurry!" Sigyn urged him.
Loki didn't know how they could keep going down, but the staircase didn't seem to end. Faster and faster, lower and lower they wound until they finally reached the mouth of yet another cave.
Loki heard a snarl behind them and looked over his shoulder again. Now he could make out four shapes….
"Don't!" Sigyn told him. "We're almost there!"
They weren't going to make it, Loki realized. One of the figures jumped forward.
"RUN!" Loki shouted, flinging the ball of flame at his attacker and pushing Sigyn with his hand. She moved as quickly as she could, but balked when they reached a place where the pathway split in two. "Which way?" Loki asked her.
Sigyn bit her lip. "I don't know!" she wailed.
A few more fireballs kept the pursuers at bay, but Loki knew it wouldn't last too long. "Pick one!" Loki screamed, knowing that they didn't even have time to use the necklace.
Sigyn went right- just as Loki was attacked again.
He hit the side of the cave, hard- but Sigyn pulled him back before his opponent could strike again. The creature squealed in anger. It reared up to full height. Loki conjured another fireball. The figure was illuminated just long enough to identify it as a hideous troll. He flung the magic flames at the monster's head- but this time it managed to dodge. The spell hit one of the stalactites instead. The massive slab of rock came lose and smashed into the troll's skull.
It was the start of a chain reaction.
"Don't stop!" Loki commanded as they both struggled forward. Behind them, a hail of rocks fell down from the ceiling of the cave. It made a sound like thunder and kicked up a chocking cloud of dust. Sigyn and Loki didn't stop running until it was quiet again. Only then did they stop to catch their breath.
Sigyn lowered herself onto a slab of rock and rubbed her blood-smeared face with the hem of her cloak. She pointed to the ground. A faint pink mist swirled around their feet. "I think it is Yddrasil!" she said, her voice full of relief. "This must be the right way."
Loki swung his hand in a wide arch and the green fire roared larger, illuminating the entire cave. The path continued on in the direction they were walking, swirling ever deeper into the ground. In other direction, there was nothing but an impassible pile of stones. The rock slide had sealed the exit shut.
"I hope you're right." Loki told her. "Because there isn't any way back."
A/N- Ettins…I didn't make up the name, but I DID make up the creature. I was looking for a Norse monster, but they all tended to be either Myth!Loki's children, frost giants, or trolls (in fact, "Ettin" is thought to be a derivative of "jotun" and probably means giant, which is boring). After Harry Potter, I can't type plain old "troll" without hearing. "TROLL IN THE DUNGEON" in my head (which is probably why I *did* put an actual troll in the dungeon after all). In any event, the source I consulted said that Ettins are Icelandic cat demon giants, which sounded kind of cool. Interesting trivia: Grendel's mama (of Beowulf and Grendel fame" was said to be an Ettin…which is sort of where I got the man-eating swamp creature angle.
Anyhow, the next chapter will be less action and more character development. Loki and Sigyn are taking their sweet time falling in love :P
Thank you SO MUCH for your comments to the last chapter. They really encourage me to write!