Sorry this took so long to post. I had this chapter ready for quite a while, but I kept forgetting about it, and I wanted to get a good amount of the next chapter ready.
Day 1 of the first week
When morning hit, both parents were awoken to the sunlight shinning on their faces, which was a good thing, since, if memory served Loki right, breakfast was going to be soon, as in, breakfast was in less than half an hour. Once the two quickly got themselves ready and waking the twins and getting them ready, complete with family wearing more casual looking Asgardian outfits that Frigga placed into the room yesterday, Loki lead them to the private dining area for just the royal family and closest friends.
By the time they finally got there, Thor, Odin, & Frigga were already seated, only Thor was looking still half asleep, and clearly very much hungover from the large quantities of mead he drank last night. The sight of seeing her older brother hungover had her smirking at how with him being hungover was the only thing the kept him from being what he normally is, a morning person. And the sound of her daughters making cheerful sounds as they found chairs to sit in and the anticipation of breakfast, had Thor trying to not look rude as he covered his ears to stop the pounding in his head.
Once the family of four was settled, breakfast and drinks were served, with the girls enjoying their breakfast, but unlike last night, they were trying not to make a mess on their hands and faces, and trying not to get anything on their dresses.
After an hour or so, when it looked as though they were nearly finished with their meal, Odin then spoke towards his son-in-law, "So.. Ulfric. How is the leadership of Skyrim picked?"
Looking up at Odin, "We use Jarls as the figureheads of the nine major holds, with some picked based on who the people prefer or by inheritance from the family, such as a parent or another relative, while others are picked by how powerful the family is, such as the Silver-Blood family in Markarth. As for towns, its usually by someone who settled into the land and others eventually choose to live there. As for the actual leaders of Skyrim, its the High King and High Queen who ultimately rule Skyrim."
"And how is the High King and High Queen of Skyrim picked?" Odin questioned.
Hesitating, "While normally, the choosing of a High King or High Queen, its done by a Moot where the other Jarls meet and vote. Though, in the times of old, before the Septim Empire, a High King or High Queen was picked by using the power of the Thu'm or Shout, which I used against the previuos High King Torygg, only the Empire didn't understand the ancient Nordic customs and to them, they viewed it as murder when it wasn't."
"How did you become Jarl and High King and Loki High Queen?" Frigga asked instead of Odin this time.
"I became Jarl when my father died, and I became High King after the civil war was over. As for how Loki became High Queen, originally, Elisif, the original High Queen and Torygg's widow wanted her title back and thought she could get it back by marrying me, but couldn't when it was revealed at the Moot about Loki and myself being already married months before hand, she lost her chance at getting her old title back." Ulfric replied.
As the two royals asked Ulfric a few more questions, while trying not to get too persona, one of them noticed the time and reminded them about the celebrations, with Sofie and Lucia excited to see the town, causing Odin and Frigga to lightly chuckle at the antics of their granddaughters, and Thor wincing from the hangover that just didn't want to just go away.
By the time the four reached the town, the five humans from the avengers team were already there, exploring the shops and markets and everything else that looked interesting to them, only Loki was looking nervous, since she was out in the open, and there was still a large number of people that very much hated her and would rather see her dead. But with Ulfric holding and massaging her hand in a comforting way, she felt safe. She even noticed her favorite shop was still here, a bookstore that also doubles as a small pastry shop, leading to her dragging Ulfric and the girls towards said shop, with the owner, an elderly woman, happy to see her again.
"Ah Loki. Its good to to see you." said Helen, the owner. "And this must be your husband and children." gesturing towards Ulfric and the twins. Happy to see Loki with a family of her own, and of her choosing and not of Odin's choosing. Loki and her family even stayed for a short while, with Loki enjoying the company of her dear friend, when they decided to leave and see more of the festivities.
Eventually, they were joined up with the five human avengers again for other parts of the festivities, with Thor joining them once his hangover was finally gone, which took quite awhile to go away. They all found themselves enjoying everything, until they found themselves at the training ground, where twelve warriors of different ages were sparring, two young arrogant warriors, and the other ten being veterans from other skirmishes Asgard had over the years, with one of them being a veteran of the war with Jotunheim.
Upon seeing them, while the older warriors were being very respectable towards them and having a friendly conversation with them, the two younger ones on the other hand were also ones that were in Thor's age group and trained with him, with those two being ones that would always taunt Loki whenever she would be in the training grounds, and never got over it when she beated them up on more than one occasion.
"Well well well. If it isn't Asgard's sorry excuse of a princess." said Tjin, a brown haired man, with his friend Nrok, a dark blonde haired man laughing with him.
"And it looks like someone finally tamed her and put her in her place. Being nothing more but a wife and mother, like what ALL woman should be, not on the battlefield where the men belong." Nrok arrogantly said, not caring what he was saying and who he was saying it to, and not being afraid to admit his viewpoint about women.
Loki's response to this was, "And it seems you both still can't get over it from all the times that I beated the both of you up over the years. And if I wasn't pregnant, I would yet again, beat you both up to defend my honor."
This caused the two arrogant young men to laugh again, with Loki, her family, Thor, and the avengers not too happy with those two, and with what they were saying.
While still with laughter in his voice, Nrok then spoke again. "As if anyone cares about your honor. Your just a monstrous frost giant, therefore, you don't have any honor to defend, and nobody would even think about defending you anyway, not even your own brother would."
Now that last part hurt, since they were in a way, right. Thor never once in the past, defended her, or her honor when mainly those two and others would disrespect her (even Thor himself at times), leading to Loki having to defend and rely on herself to protect herself from their taunts. Not wanting to repeat what he did in the past, Thor was about to say that he will fight them to defend Loki's honor when Loki's own husband beated him to it.
"I will fight both you milk drinkers." Ulfric said. With him being very much serious at wanting to teach those two a lesson they will never forget.
Now that caused the two young Asgardians to stop their laughing and glared at the large mortal Asgardian looking man that was standing next to Loki, with Tjin speaking for him and his friend. "And just who are you mortal?"
Ulfric only glared at them. "I'm Loki's husband Ulfric Stormcloak. From what I can tell from the way the two of you act, you both never been in any real battles and just in the training fields." Which caused the two men to get pissed off at him.
"We'll just see about that you weak mortal." Nrok said back in a taunting manner, in hopes of trying to sound tougher, which caused the ten veteran soldiers to look at those two youths in disappointment and disgust at their behavior.
Despite the taunting, Ulfric was still a seasoned warrior, along with him being an actual soldier. Which led to the Nord to do something those two arrogant youths were not expecting was for him to walk right into the training field, with one of the greatswords from the weapons stand in hand.
"Since you both dare to mistreat my wife and diminish her honor, we're going to settle this by my rules, where if you both win, then you both are to diminish my honor, but if I win, then you both are going to apologize to your Princess and are going to respect her title. And from what I can gather, you Asgardians think magic doesn't belong in the battlefield, therefore, magic is aloud in this battle." Ulfric said, with the two men not arguing with him, since they were determined to win, since it was one mortal against two Asgardians.
When the battle was called to start and a special magic field was activated on the ring to make sure the challengers couldn't leave the battle, just as Ulfric predicted, Nrok and Tjin both ran head-first into the battle, something that Ulfric was going to use to his advantage. Raising his greatsword, Ulfric blocked Tjin's sword, with him quickly knocking Tjin back, allowing him to use his weapon to block both of Nrok's war axes. With Ulfric blocking their attacks in quick precision, this stunned the two young men long enough for High King to quickly gain the upper-hand, proving his experience as both a seasoned warrior, and veteran soldier. It was easy to tell those two young men were getting angrier and angrier at how they were being beaten by the older mortal man.
With him now having the upper-hand against those two, Ulfric went for an attack against Tjin first, causing the younger man having to act fast and defend himself, but to no avail as his sword was knocked out of his grip when he tried to block Ulfric's attack. Nrok proved even easier than his friend for Ulfric to knock the war axes out of his hands, on account him trying to block Ulfric's attack wasn't as easy it was for Ulfric to block their attacks. And with both men quickly grabbing their disarmed weapons, followed by them arming said weapons for another attack when Ulfric's next attack had both men very surprised and by far, not expecting this.
Instead of raising his greatsword, Ulfric lowered it, followed by him opening his mouth as shouting, "FUS RO DAH!" at the two Asgardians, causing them fly into the magical barrier, and thanks to them being Asgardians, they had minor injuries, but were still in pain. The two looked up at Ulfric in shock and anger, with Nrok speaking first.
"How dare you use that type of magic to cheat!" Nrok complained, hating that he and his friend were beaten by a 'lowly mortal'.
"What Nrok said is right!" Whined Tjin. "Magic doesn't belong in the battlefield and only in the house with women using it! Otherwise you using dishonorable magic makes you nothing more than an ERGI!" With Nrok agreeing with Tjin.
Silence was heard in the crowd of people that came to watch the fight as they heard Tjin's insult to Ulfric at disrespecting his honor. Now, if someone would of called Ulfric an 'ergi' before he met Loki, he wouldn't know what it meant, but thanks to Loki, he knows that the word 'ergi' is not just the lowest of the low insult, but saying a man is into another man. And while Ulfric was furious at those two, he knew it was best to let his words teach those two a lesson they will never forget.
"It seems that you both don't care who it is you insult, as long as it feeds your arrogance." Ulfric started. "You know, I'm surprised you both are still alive, since you both clearly have always insulted Loki and her honor for centuries and were never once punished for it. And I'm very much sure the crime for insulting royalty, which includes Asgard's Princess can lead to imprisonment, to even death."
It was then Ulfric's tone took a more authority turn. "You both are terrible in the training grounds with how you believe that everyone fights fair, only if you were ever in a real battle, you both would be dead right away. Take it from me, an actual soldier. If there is one thing that we are taught, its this, your opponents will never fight fair. And judging by how you both reacted, you and everyone from before your generation and after your generation were raised to believe that your opponent fights fair and that your opponent is the weaker one."
After another five minutes of berating those two, Ulfric decided they had enough, and judging by how that wanted to run away from him and looked like they were ready to cry, he told them to leave, which they did. And when he turned to head back to the group, he saw the large crowd that had formed to not only see the fight Ulfric and those two young men had, but also heard him giving those two a good tongue lashing. Ignoring the crowd, he, his family, and the other humans all left the training ground to enjoy more of the celebrations.
Next chapter is with Ulfric confronting Odin about how he mistreated Loki and how much he spoiled Thor.
