The rapid current threated to pull him underneath its frigid surface. His toes curled confidently into the dirt resting on the floor of the thigh-high water. In his hands, he kept a firm grip onto the shaft of an arrow. The beautiful yet deadly silver arrowhead aimed downward to the water.

It almost felt like he was cheating.

With his eyes closed, he listens to the salmon hurrying closer and closer to him. Their chatting overlapping one another ensured him just how close they were getting. Something to the right of them frightened them for a split moment. Good, they don't see his legs yet. He reaches to his quiver and pulls out another arrow. He holds steady as the school approaches him. His eyes open and he plunges both arms down into the water.

He finishes lacing his boots back up. Two fat fish strung together rest on the ground next to him. He would prefer to dry off a little while longer but the snow was starting to fall heavier and it wouldn't stop till late in the evening. He stands up and makes his way back to the house with their dinner. Not before hearing something rustling in the forest. He pauses, that was too big to be a rabbit or squirrel. He takes a detour to check it out.

A golden fox. It was beautiful and reminded him of his mother. She would often wear a cloak topped with their golden yellow fur adorning it. A selfish feeling of desire overcame him, he already had his dinner hanging behind him. Why kill another creature? The yellowtail whipped side to side. He remembered the one that draped down mother's cloak. How when she leaned over to kiss him goodnight it would sometimes drape down and tickle his skin. He wanted that trophy.

He removes the bow from around his body and reaches up to his quiver slowly. Nocking an arrow into the string, pulling it back as far as he can.

"Wait, come back!" He hears a familiar voice calling out.

The fox darts away into the forest before he loosed his arrow.

Idunn rushes out from a shrubbery where the fox was just sitting.

She looks around frantically.

"Tell me where they are!" She shouts to nobody.

Atreus relaxes his aim but doesn't lower his weapon.

It had been 3 weeks since he last saw her. The day after his birthday. The girl all alone in the woods. The two of them found an apple tree and sat in its branches talking all morning, before gathering as many fruits as they could carry and bring them back home.

Idunn looks around, her green eyes scanned out in front of her until she turned to her right and spotted him.

She was so pretty, his father was right. It couldn't be natural to look like that. It was a trick.

The goddess of everlasting youth, Idunn. Keeper of the magic apples that held rejuvenating powers, keeping the Aesir gods form ever aging.

Why was she down here on Midgard? Father thinks she was sent to seduce him. He recoiled at the following awkward conversation of what exactly seduction means. As much as he hated to admit it, father was right. The way he feels when he was around her. It did open up a lot of holes for enemies to strike. He won't allow that to happen again.

He won't let his guard down while he was around her.

She's gone. Where did she go?

"It's you again!" She said behind him.

Atreus gasped and dropped the arrow he had still pressed against the bow. She pulls him back away from the falling sharp object. The arrowhead plunged into the snowy footprints where he was just standing.

"Don't touch me!" Atreus shrugged his shoulder away from her. Spinning around to face her aggressively. He squeezes the bow in his hands.

"I'm sorry." She says.

"We told you to never come back here. Leave before..."

Before what? He asks himself.

Would he kill her? No, of course not. But what if she hurt him? His father would definitely hunt her down. What if they hurt her? Would her family hunt them down? Was this the cycle his father drilled into his head so much?

Her facial expression changed from fear to confusion.

Shit, he never finished threatening her.

"Atreus?" She says. "Your name was Atreus right?"

"Quite!" Atreus yells, trying to sound as intimidating as possible.

She recoils away from him.

Imitating his father, he realized, was difficult to do.

"I'm not helping the Aesir gods. Your kind can rot for all I care!"

She kept quiet as he continued.

"What's wrong? Odin got sick of your stupid apples and kicked you out?" He wrinkled his forehead as he stood up straight. He was almost her same height this way. "You're not welcome here, go away!"

Tears began streaming down her cheeks. She sniffed in a stuttering breath. Before kneeling down into the snow and crying into her hands.

Atreus stood there, flabbergasted.

He reaches for her but pulls away at first. He hesitated before finally putting his bow away and turning his nose high into the air while he clenches his fist by his side.

"Go on!" He closes his eyes painfully. "Cry, see if I care?! Stand up. You still need to leave!"

"Why is everyone all of a sudden so angry with me? It's not my fault, I promise. I just want to make people happy again." She whimpers into her hands.

"I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry for whatever I did to cause this. I just want to feed everyone and make them smile again."

He wasn't sure if any of that was directed towards him. He peeks at her below him, she was truly sobbing. But father said sometimes women use tears as a weapon just as much as... He gulps, looking at the girl on her knees below him.

Idunn pulls her hands away from her face. A long river of snot was dripping down over her thin lips onto her chin. Hesitantly, Atreus pulls his lips into his mouth and unclenches his fist a little.

She looks up at him. Her once pretty face all puffy, wet, and red.

Her eyes were still so, so. Not beautiful, no that's not the right word for them. They were vast, like an open field of grass to run and roll in. Or a large oak tree, branches screaming to be climbed up and played in.

She sniffed in one more time.

"I wasn't ready for Fimbulwinter, it came too early. It's my own fault. You can kill me if you want. It'll probably hurt a lot less than what Odin has planned for me since they won't grow."

"What are you talking about?" He finally asks her.

"My apples. I can't grow them anymore. No matter what realm, no matter how many times I cast the spell. Each tree that grows, it's just regular apples."

Tears still fall down her face, but she's no longer in hysterics. "Odin thinks I am doing it on purpose. He banished me to Midgard and said if I didn't have any by the time he summons me again he'll turn me into an acorn and plant me in his garden."

He paused his breathing. What is he even doing?

She was so sweet and warm to him, and in return, he was cold and threatening. Was, was this how father use to treat mother? It must have been. Atreus suddenly felt sick to his stomach, this isn't him. This isn't how he wanted to treat people. Maybe he could still salvage some form of friendship with her? Why did he listen to his father in this regard? Father didn't know how to speak to anyone, let alone girls. He never really saw him speak to mother all that much, and after their discovery in Jotunheim she apparently never spoke to him either.

Idunn isn't a threat.

Right now he was the only threat here.

Atreus bends over and reaches a hand out to her.

She looks at it for a moment. "Are you going to kill me?"

"No." He says. "No one is going to kill you."

She reaches for his hand and he helps her to her feet. Father will have to get over it. He will apologize later. They already took in one of Odin's former entourage. She's not going to hurt them and he won't let anyone hurt her.

Idunn wipes her tears and nods to Atreus. "Thank you. I'm sorry for causing you trouble. I'm not used to being around humans."

She doesn't realize he is a god or a giant. "I'm not actually a..-"

"No, don't!" She screams.

Suddenly, Atreus felt a cold stinging sensation in his side. He wasn't able to turn around and see who or what stabbed him before his vision began fading. He thought he saw a fox from the corner of his eye before darkness overcame him.