Where was he? What happened? The last thing he remembers was... Idunn. She had started kissing him inside the enclosed apple tree she grew. Atreus didn't know how to kiss but she was showing him. It was so strange, wet, and messy. Apparently, you were supposed to open your mouth? She forced his puckering lips open and drove herself inside him with her tongue. It felt so wet and warm, and...painful. His throat began to swell up so much it was hard to breathe. Was it because he wasn't participating? Should he do the same thing with his mouth? He did, slowly pushing his own tongue against her own until he entered past her teeth. She tasted like the apples drenched in honey. But something was, off. He should be enjoying this, right? Why wasn't he enjoying this? Why was it so hard to breath? Was it because of how nervous he was?

Atreus couldn't remember anything else.

As consciousness finally concerned itself, Atreus noticed a disconnection from his brain to his body. His eyes were on fire as if he poured the beverage he and his father shared for his birthday directly into both purples. He opens them but couldn't see through them. Blinking harshly several times, he tries to force his vision back, but nothing worked. He was blind.

"Finally up huh? You've got some stamina I'll give you that." A velvety voice says.

Atreus didn't recognize whoever was talking to him.

"I can't see." He says to the stranger.

"Oh I'm sorry, here, let me fix that for you." The voice said. Then Atreus felt someone flick him between his eyebrows. It startled him more than it hurt. Causing him to jolt backward, hitting his head on something hard as he fell back. A devilish snicker echoes through the mysterious damp surrounding he found himself in.

"Ow, what was that for!?" Atreus said, his body catching up with his brain. Reflections of pain were cascading down his skin, everything hurt. His face, his arms, his chest. He sits up again, wrapping his arms around his chest and forehead. He was blind, in the clutches of a mysterious figure, his body felt as if someone had mutilated him. Odin, his father was right. All of this, it was a trap. "What, What's happening to me?"

"More of a has instead of an is." The voice says sarcastically.

"Who are you?" Atreus reaches out and touches someone's arm. It was thin and firm, hidden behind a layer of fur, a cloak?

"Ugh, don't touch me!" A hand slapped his touch away. Atreus hears footsteps frantically backing away from him.

"Disgusting..."

"Ugh. Just tell me what's going on!?" Atreus balled his extended hand out into a fist.

"Why? It's entertaining to watch you squirm." The voice says. "Fine, your father killed my sister, in return I killed your father. I suppose we're even now but sadly Odin isn't...-"

Atreus didn't listen to what he was saying anymore.

Father, Idunn.

Both dead?

His chest begins trembling.

That can't be right.

This person was just playing a trick on him.

How, how do you breathe again?

He forgot for several moments as his teeth clenched together. Finally, he felt sick, he threw up in front of himself before he passes out once again.

Atreus felt a cool hand feather sweetly across his damp forehead.

Mother?

He remembered their cabin, the way it used to look and smell when she was alive. The smell of rosemary and moss, raw leather drying on the beams and aged jams tucked away in clay jars on the shelves. She would sit next to him whenever he was sick. Singing him sweet songs and feeding him the fatty burnt ends of whatever father hunted the previous day. Even though it was father's favorite part of the animal. She still always managed to save him a large greasy chunk whenever he was bedridden like this.

He could hear someone singing right now. Their voice was so beautiful even though the lyrics of this song they were singing were so sad. Atreus felt warm streams of water trailing down his cheeks. Before he could blink his eyes open a wooden spoon is brought to his lips as the singer brought the song into a gentle whisper.

He was home, 'this had to be mother next to him' he tells himself. Atreus drinks the broth from the spoon. Rabbit and onions. Not his favorite stew but he swallowed every drop desperately. The spoon pulled away before he was finished, causing Atreus to lean his head up and follow it blindly. His lips and teeth bumped into it, spilling warm liquid down his face. Two hands tenderly press against his shoulders, guiding him back to whatever he was leaning against. He then feels a soft cold thumb brush away some of the soup dripping down his chin. Only for the spoon to reappeared by his lips moments later, refilled this time with broth and chunks of meat. He kept eating in blind darkness until sleep overtook him once again.

Atreus opens his eyes. Light, he could see light again! It burns but he didn't care. He was so happy to remember what vision felt like once again. A mysterious shadow phased in front of his vision. It was so hard to see straight right now, he saw...- a person's face? He blinked his eyes harshly several more times before he could truly bring everything into focus. One last blink and it all reappeared. His vision was finally back. Before Atreus sat a fox, purple eyes and golden fur.

"Good, about time." It spoke to him in the same smooth voice that spoke to him before.

"You, can talk?" Atreus says weakly.

"Oh, I can do more than that I'm afraid." The fox said looking around him. Atreus following its purple eyes while simultaneously examining where he was. He was sleeping on a flat stone in a cave deep underneath the ground. Above him, he saw water dripping slowly off a stalactite. Someone had set a bowl underneath it to catch the icy cool water, inches away from where he was just sleeping. Upon looking at the bowl of water, Atreus realized just how thirsty he was.

"You can drink it." The fox says coyly. "It won't hurt you or anything. It's only water." The creature chuckles.

Atreus gulps the entire bowl down in one take.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"I can't tell you. But I assure you we are safe from Thor here."

"We?" Atreus questions.

The fox lies flat on its stomach. Front paws crossing one over the other. "Yes, we. After I refused to hand you over to Odin he demanded my head be brought to him on a platter. Luckily for you, he still wants you alive should they ever find us."

"Why? Why does he want me?" Atreus says.

The fox sat up and wrapped its long fluffy tail tightly around its body. "Sorry, I'm not high enough on the food chain to know." Its face avoiding his eyes. "I'm guessing it has something to do with him being a decrepit paranoid fool. Or maybe he just wants a new pretty pet to rub his feet at night and 'entertain' him..." It says bitterly.

"Did you really kill my father?" Atreus swings his legs out and touches his feet to the ground. He was fully dressed, except for his boots.

The fox chuckles to itself.

"You have an interesting family tree. I'll give you that."

Atreus looks around for his bow, he couldn't see it anywhere. He feels for his dagger. It too was missing. Idunn tricked him with sweet words and threats of Odin, he wouldn't be tricked again by this fox. There's no way this scrawny little fox could have killed his father. R-right? Atreus began feeling his pulse beating against his neck. He remembered this exact feeling when Mthreatenedtend to kill his father infront of him.

"Don't try and avenge his death just yet." The fox lazily says through a yawn. "Yes, I did kill your freak of a father."

Atreus lunged forwards after the beast. His weak body stumbling as he swings his fists at the fox. The fox dodges his blow but Atreus collapses over top the creature. He quickly grabs hold of the scruff of its neck.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you, you bastard!" Atreus pulls to hard with an unsecured grip as he screams down at the fox. A handful of golden fur rips from the beast's flesh. This gives the animal a chance to kick and flip away from him. Biting his hand before he escapes Atreus' clutches.

"You... You, miserable little fool!" The fox yells out in pain. "To think I actually took pity on you?!" It spits.

Atreus rushes forwards to try and pin down the beast again. The fox easily eludes his attack.

Coughing violently several times, Atreus begins concentrating, gathering his self-control and tempering his anger.

Atreus screams at the fox, his voice cracks. "You'll pay. I'll break every damn bone in your body!" His high pitch childish tone overriding his deeper more mature voice.

The fox snickers. "So it's true, You really are just some young dumb kid..."

Atreus seethed at the animal. He meant what he said. He would kill this creature before him. He felt a hot rage building up in his lungs, the same heat he would feel before his sickness would overtake him. But Atreus was determined this time, he won't let this sickness overtake him after all... he's a god.

"The fact you're this upset over his death tells me you didn't even know who or what he was! What he is capable of doing to us all!?"

"He was MY FATHER! " Atreus shouts furiously at the creature as he lunged forth to attack. He held back tears and fell down onto the fox while on his hands and knees, convulsing.

The fox choked a yelp as Atreus brought his jaws around the beast's neck, he could taste its golden fur mixed with appetizing warm blood.

Wait, he was... biting it?

He didn't mean to bite the animal, he wanted to punch it. Atreus pulls his mouth away from the fox, looking down at where his hands should be.

Massive auburn paws with long black claws were where his hands should be.

He returned his leer onto the fox below him. Its pupils dilated and terror seeping from its trembling face. The fox was so tiny now, or, was it just that Atreus himself was bigger?

The fox whimpered woefully beneath Atreus' weight. Its back paws scratching frantically to try and escape his crushing weight. Atreus didn't fully understand what was going on. But he had his father's murderer in his clutches, and he would avenge him here and now.

A rumbling snarl bubbles up in Atreus's throat. As he opens his jaws to kill the fox a long sticky strand of drool drips down and lands in between fearful purple eyes. Atreus growls while chomping down, only for a puff of purple smoke to fill his muzzle and cause his senses to go haywire. He coughed and sneezed several times before he could finally see again. When the smoke disappears the fox was gone, and Atreus had been transported someplace outside.

'A clever trick' he thinks.

He rubs the smoke from his dry eyes. Oh, he had hands again.

Or, wait?

He's always had hands, right?

Where the fox once stood sat his bow and dagger.

He picks them both up and looks around. He needed to figure out where he was before he let his mind settle on how truly alone he now was.