Atreus froze as his father held him in his massive arms. He couldn't remember the last time, or if ever, father had hugged him like this. His grip was rough and overbearing, he could still breathe, but he had to put in more effort to do so. Father released him suddenly, touching his face, arms, and legs. The parts of Atreus that still aches. Did he know what caused this? He wanted to ask him, but the look on father's face was so distracting. What emotion was this? Fear? Relief? Maybe It was a mixture of the two? it caused father's face to soften in a way he had never seen before. "I'm fine, I promise," Atreus says.

His father nodded approvingly as they both stood up.

Father, he almost lost him, no, he did lose him. Atreus looks down at two dagger wounds in his sides. Someone tried assassinating him. The fox, he will never forget or forgive that damn animal. Vowing to kill the wrenched thing if he ever sees it again. Father looked exhausted, what was he even doing out here? How long was he searching for him? Even after their incident, father still risked everything to try and find him. To save him. Atreus rushes into his father's chest and hugs him. Angry that he wasted his chance earlier. Emotions were overriding his actions. Why was he about to cry? He held back as much of his hysteria as he could muster. He felt his father's hand on top of his head as he orders him to come along. Atreus felt one tear to escape, quickly turning away from his father's gaze. Looking down at his hip where Mimir.

"Wait...- Where's Mimir?"

Father's eyes widened for a moment. "He is not with you?"

"No, I can't even remember the last time I've seen him?" Atreus says.

An all too familiar irritated rumble erupted from his father's throat.

"We will search on our way back." He begins walking away. "If we do not come across him, he is lost to us." Atreus opens his mouth to protest, but his father was walking quickly away. He noticed a slight limp from his left leg.

Atreus would occasionally yell out Mimir's name every so often. Straying away from his father's sight while searching. 'Not here' he tells himself while jogging over to his father's side. They hadn't spoken since they began traveling back home. Atreus still struggling with how upset he was when father...-

"I am sorry." His father interrupted his thoughts.

Atreus froze in place upon hearing his father's words.

"I should not have struck you." Father stopped moving forwards but kept his back facing Atreus.

"I'm so sorry I said those things about mother." He says looking at his back. Father rotated his neck slightly and looks at him from over his shoulder.

"You are right, I am afraid. My greatest fears involve you." He says softly before facing forwards and continuing walking away.

Atreus smiles weakly and chases after him, father was afraid of him? He had to be joking, so he went along with it. "I've noticed more and more mortals cowering in fear when they see me. I guess I have that effect?" Atreus still couldn't see his father's face yet, but he did notice his beard shifting upwards slightly. Was he smiling? He quickened his pace in order to walk side by side with his father.

"I don't think mother was using you. Sure maybe she knew everything but..-"

"Your mother loved me, almost as much as I love her. This is all that matters." Father said in a raspy voice.

Atreus kept quiet, it was awkward to hear father even say the word love. He never saw his parents intimacy. They never hugged or held hands or kissed in front of him. Deep down part of him felt happy listening to him speak these words.

"Remember the night you brought home that weird monster looking red fish?" Atreus says with a smile.

"An octopus." Father's face softened.

"You were so excited to have mother cook it, but she didn't know how. Its slimy tail things kept freaking her out and she screamed every time one moved."

Kratos chuckled. Atreus kept going with the story instead of pointing out his father's laughter.

"Finally when you stepped in and showed her how to prepare it, and it shot that black ink stuff all over the place. Gosh, I've never seen you so nervous before." Atreus had to take a break from the story to stop laughing so much. His father's raspy chuckles were causing his shoulders to rise up and down. "Mother was furious at the mess it made. Then, when you tried wiping your hands on her loom, she lost it! She chased you out of the house with your- with her axe. I mean, there you are an all-powerful god. And mom, she was so much smaller than you. To see her have that much of an impact on you? It was so funn-..."

Atreus suddenly noticed his father had stopped laughing. His tired face was pointed up at the sky, Atreus couldn't see his eyes, only the heavy concaved bags of skin underneath them. "Faye..."

"I miss her so much," Atreus says while avoiding his father's heartbreaking expression. He gave his father the same respectful distance he gave him upon their reunion and embrace.

They reach the house to see two glowing eyes staring from inside mother's overgrown garden. "Mimir!" Atreus shouts.

"Yer shitting me," Mimir calls out to the two of them. Kratos picks the head up as Atreus dusts off the leaves and moss.

"I was so worried, I didn't think we would find you," Atreus says.

"I'm touched, didn't know if you two would even be coming back, to be honest..."

"Of course we would come back and find you!" Atreus says, not quite fully grasping the severity of Mimir's previous statement. "We're family after all!"

Atreus saw the head's lower lip twitch upwards slightly as his glowing eyes softened. Mimir opened his mouth to say something For once, the head was speechless.

"How did you get here?" Father asks him.

"That damn fox Sigyn. He brought me all the way out here in his mouth... don't suppose I can catch a genital disease anymore? Still, I would very much appreciate it if one of you gentlemen could be so kind as to submerge my entire head in a bowl of the strongest brown ale you come across. Just to be sure."

"He?" Atreus questions, letting most of what he said fly over his head while remembering the fox. "'Sigyn,' what a weird name."

Come to think of it, Atreus never really pinned down the identity of the fox in the cave. He remembered almost seeing a face, but. It was all still so jumbled. The fox must've been taking care of him, even after what it did to father. He remembered how much he wanted to kill it. How much it caused his rage to get the best of him, Atreus bit its neck for goodness sake! Why would he do that? Before he could dwell on it he remembers how delightful he found the fox's blood to be.

The taste still lingering in his mouth.

Pretty little fox.

He wanted to see those petrified purple eyes begging for mercy one more time.

He wanted to feel its paws scratching furiously against his belly before he swallowed...-

"Boy!" Father said loudly.

Atreus shook himself from his sudden feral thoughts.

"Sorry, What were you saying?"

Mimir looks at him questionable for a moment then continues. "I was asking if happened upon fox anyplace? Did he try talking to you or hurting you? He's a dangerous lad, don't let those good looks and perfect hair fool you. Odin kept that boy on a tight leash and not just for his entertainment."

Atreus shakes his head. "No, I don't remember ever seeing a fox." He lied.

"And the lass? Where's Idunn?"

Father adverted his eyes and kept quiet.

"Father killed her," Atreus said painfully. He still had so many unanswered questions about what happened between the two of them.

Kratos lowers the arm holding Mimir's head and turns to look at Atreus silently, suspiciously.

"Sorry laddie, I know how much you were beginning to care for her. Did you inform her brothers?" Mimir said.

"Brothers? Are we still talking about Sigyn?"

"I don't expect him to take her death very well... But no, I mean her other siblings. The dwarfs."

"Brok and Sindri?!" Atreus shouts. "They were her brothers?!"

Kratos suddenly pulls his suspicious stare away from Atreus and looks down to Mimir. "Explain yourself head."

"Was picking my brain while sitting next to an overgrown potato plant, trying to remember everything I knew about the girl. It may be no big surprise for you." Mimir says looking at Kratos for a moment. "But most gods are all related in some form or fashion. Idunn's mother was an Aesir goddess named Narfi. One day she just, disappeared. Her father claimed she must have run away from home. Shifty son of a bitch didn't seem too broken hearted over it, but Narfi had a dozen or so sisters that dedicated everything waking moment trying to find her. A year later she returns on the shoulders of a frost troll, belly swollen with his bastard. That baby would soon grow up to be Sigyn. Odin was furious, ready to kill the troll thinking he kidnaped one of his own. Narfi pleaded for mercy. Saying she'd do anything for Odin if he'd spare her beloved. With a wicked grin, Odin agreed and sent the troll back to Niflheim where it belonged. After Narfi gave birth to Sigyn Odin took the child under his wings and taught him how to kill with not only his hands but his words. Narfi was sent over as a gift to the realm's most talented weapon smith at the time. Ivaldi."

"Wait." Atreus interrupted. "Like Niflheim Ivaldi? The workshop with all the poison?"

"That's the one! Granted, this was back when he and Odin were still on speaking terms. Odin hoped this act would bridge them from acquaintances to business partners. By this time Ivaldi had dozens of sons, the two most promising being the Huldra brothers themselves. Odin wanted a certain hammer forged but he needed to convince the two boys he was in good standing with their family. The promise of a godly offspring was too tempting to pass up. So Narfi was forced to marry the decrepit old man while her breasts were still heavy with milk for her son. Sure enough, he put a child in the poor gal not long after that. The goddess Idunn. Ivaldi was lived it wasn't a son. He forced himself upon Narfi every night in the hopes of producing a boy but never again did she became pregnant. No one could figure out why? Ivaldi would blame her for all of this, abusing the poor gal day and night. Until one day while he was lost in his anger towards his wife, a frost troll appeared and destroyed everything in his workshop! He beat Ivaldi to a fraction of his life but only stopped when Narfi begged him to. Together the two escaped with baby Idunn into the mountains and remained missing for several years.

Thor eventually found them. Odin was going to have all 3 killed but his pet Sigyn asked him to spare the toddler. Then, right there in the middle of Odin's throne room, still in a diaper, Idunn grew an apple tree. Dozens of golden apples of rejuvenation hung upon it. Freya ate one and her saggy tits damn near lifted right up out of her golden breastplate! Hahaha! Odin told Sigyn he could keep Idunn, as long as he 'took care of' Narfi and the troll. I never saw the two ever again, nor did I see much of the wee girl for that matter."

Mimir finished his story. Atreus had pulled his lips into his mouth to distract him from the overall tragedy of it. His fist hurt from clenching them so tightly. Poor Idunn, sure she tried to kill him, sure she was crazy but... He still felt terrible. He wasn't mad at his father for killing her, he knew better. Father wouldn't just kill any god unless there was a good reason, at least, not anymore. Yet hearing her backstory made his heart hurt.

He thinks back to Magni and Modi. They were terrible too. Did they also have a tragic backstory? Something that humanized them from simply being 'the bad guys' his mother and father taught him? They could just people with hopes and dreams fears and family. He thought of Baldur and Freya, they too had their own history.

What about Thor?

Atreus licked his lips as they were pulled into his mouth. He remembers kissing her, how pretty she was, but more importantly, how kind she was. His heart aches for some reason. Not as much, but in the same way it ached after mother died.

"Enough." Father said walking into the house. Atreus didn't realize how dark it was getting.

They walk into their little cabin and put their weapons away. Atreus collapses onto his bed with a sigh. His father was already snoring, he had forgotten to take Mimir off his belt. Before Atreus could say anything his eyes begin drifting closed as sleep approached him. He could hear mother's wind chime singing outside.

A lightning bolt cracked violently atop their roof. The shock wave shaking Atreus at his very core. "What was that?!" He screamed at his father as they both shot up in their beds. Wait, this seemed so familiar...

"Your bow!" Father says urgently.

As Atreus picks his weapon up off the ground he hears another violent crack of lightning. Their entire house shakes as if it were being ripped apart. Father pulls his axe from the wall and storms to the front door. Throwing it open as another lightning bolt strikes their house.

Outside a cloaked man stood before them. Blue lightning shimmering down his entire body.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Kratos shouts to him over the thundering lightning. The man does not reply. He simply summons a hammer crackling with electricity into his hands.

"Thor..." Atreus says, hiding slightly behind his father.

The end.