Ch.2

Hogun "The Grim"

When Hogun got up on April first, he felt a bit strange. At first, he couldn't place what was wrong. He thought he was merely over-tired from training the day before. He had just returned from visiting his family on Vanaheim the week before and he had spent the last few days on Asgard training with the palace guards. Now that Thor was on the throne, he needed Sif and the Warriors Three to take over many of the duties that he had once seen to as the crown prince.

Hogun was loyal to Asgard, but he was more than a little uneasy with the way the current kingdom was being run. Thor handled all the domestic affairs, which were vast in a realm such as Asgard, while Loki was in charge of all "foreign" diplomatic matters. It wasn't that Loki wasn't skilled as a negotiator. It wasn't that Loki didn't have a firm grasp on how to masterfully manipulate others so that Asgard fared well in all of the various treaties and trade agreements. It was that Hogun just didn't trust him.

Despite being sent to Midgard to do penance for all of his crimes, Hogun felt that Loki got off far too easily. In Hogun's eyes, he should have been executed for his war crimes or, at the very least, he should have been sentenced to life imprisonment. Instead, Loki fell in love with a Midgardian woman, said he was truly sorry for his heinous misdeeds and, apparently, all was forgiven. After being imprisoned for less than a year on Midgard, he was welcomed back to Asgard with open arms with his new bride. It rankled Hogun to have to bow to that villainous traitor.

While he got along well enough with Loki's new wife, Darcy, Hogun couldn't stand to be anywhere near Loki. He had told Loki, on his return to Asgard, what an utter failure and disappointment he was and that he wanted nothing more to do with him.

Hogun rubbed his hand over his face as it began to ache. Something indeed was strange, odd. He got out of bed, slowly stretched, and went to the mirror mounted on his wall. He shrank back with horror at what he saw.

He was smiling.

It wasn't a normal smile, but a maniacal grin, his teeth bared like a rabid dog.

He couldn't stop it, couldn't force his facial muscles to contract and turn back to their natural frown. He tried and tried, but he couldn't alter his appearance. He began to panic as he massaged his face, the pain beginning to grow and intensify.

I should visit the healers, he thought. It might be some sort of illness from another realm, some type of facial paralysis brought on by a virus or an infection. He hated the thought of someone seeing him like this, but he couldn't let it go on much longer.

As Hogun stared into the mirror, debating a trip to the healers, he didn't notice the slight ripple of air in a side corner, didn't hear a low-pitched snicker of delight.

Author's Note- Next up, Fandral "The Dashing"