"It's ready!"
"It's not ready yet!"
The two brothers glared at one another.
"It's fine the way it is, it'll kill a god, shatter any weapon that goes up against it. Fuck the magic crap, this isn't a staff. It's an axe!"
"Would you, for once in your miserable little life, just evolve? The magic will enhance it, giving her an edge over enemies!"
"A crutch more like. This is a weapon, you use it as a weapon. Once you mix spells 'n shit in it you risk the possibility of leaning on magic too much during a fight and not use the damn thing for its intended purpose!"
"You are being ridiculous. Having a better arsenal doesn't make you a worse fighter."
"I never said it does, but you need to keep weapons on one side and magic...-"
Laufey clears her throat.
Sindri looked up, Brok remained glaring at his brother. The heat from their forged was so intense it blurs her vision of the two men. The smell of rusty ash and molten slab stinging her nose. Laufey sighed, she was already exhausted from the trip here. The heat always made her more irritable.
She needed to change the subject for them or they'd never move on. "Brok, you ever finish that teleportation pathway? I know if anyone can do it it's you." Brok finally looked at her with a sarcastic grin. "Not yet kiddo, and it's all for the best. Once we get you teleporting everywhere instead of walking you'll get all fat and I won't be able to admire your hips swaying back and forth as they walk in and outta my shop." Laufey rolls her eyes to the top of her head at his remark. As they roll quickly back to Sindri he shoots her an apologetic look.
"Is there anything I can do to help forge the weapon?" She said.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, you can!" Sindri said.
"Oh for fucks sake." Brok mumbled as he turned around and walked back to his anvil.
"Faye come look, I have an idea on how to enhance the axe. Make it stronger than Mjolnir." Her eyebrows lift as she leans closer to Sindri. "The axe alone can counter any known spell of the gods. But if we infused it with the souls of magical beings it will cause the weapon to come to life, giving it its own element. More importantly, the magic we infuse within the weapon can be upgraded! The weapon will continue to grow more and more powerful!"
Laufey leans against the table with his blueprints sprawled out, a stack of old moldy books next to it. "I saw this!" She said pointing at his prototype rendering of the axe, surrounding with an aura. "It's ice, isn't it? Whenever I saw the axe in my dreams it was enclosed in ice. I had no clue what to make of it, it was driving me crazy!" She turned to Sindri extending both her hands out to him, desperate to know if her vision was correct. He winks slyly at her and nods his head up and down. A mix of joy and relief overcame her, with this he filled a massive empty puzzle piece in for her. It wasn't an early Fimbulwinter, it won't doom the giants, all don't tremble around it out of fear. The axe was simply made out of frost, it was cold. "You really think you can do it?" Sindri reaches for the fingertip of his gloves and effortlessly slips them off. With a gentle speed, he reaches out and enclosed Laufey's bare hands with his own. Laufey beams down at him, still excited, the elders won't have to worry anymore. She opens her fingers inside his hands, weaving both their digits together tightly. The dwarf looks up at her with a serious expression in his eyes. "For you Faye, we'll do it."
"...'We'll?'" A voice grumbles in the background. Laufey looks over to Brok, then back to Sindri, still intensely staring into her eyes. She winks as he looks down at their hands. She let's go and walks over to Brok. Swaying her hips forcefully. She leans forward, resting her elbows on his anvil, pressing her breast together with her arms. "Pleeeeease?" She pouts. "That sweet shit don't work on me kid. You look like-..." He glances at his brother behind her. She couldn't see Sindri's face. But Brok did. Brock's shoulders slouched and a defeated frown appears on his face. "Oh alright...if it'll make you happy."
Laufey turns back around to Sindri and hugs him. "Thank you both!" Sindri talks into her chest, his voice muffled by his impending suffocation. "We'll need you to travel to Niflheim. There are large frost trolls who roam the area by the base of the mountains. If you bring me 30 of their souls I'll be able to enchant the axe." Laufey lets go of him. "30? That's a lot."
"Only need 20 or so," Brok said approaching them. "But we'll probably waste half of 'em till we get the hang of where the girl wants us to stick it in her."
Sindri moves back to pick up his gloves, slipping them back on. "I assure you it is more intricate than that. But it's true it may take us several attempts until we get the hang of it. So the more you gather the better."
Laufey looks at the axe on the table. The axe. She traces the smooth blank head of the blade. This weapon haunts her dreams. So often the dreams are crystal clear and play out exactly as they come to her. But whenever this axe appears so does a thick fog of uncertainty. She's happy she finally figured out the reasoning behind the ice. But there were still so many unanswered questions surrounding the weapon. Like the bear who holds it up in sad jaws. She's sure she'll figure it out. As for now, trolls.
Wait, trolls.
Her face contorts into worry. Her lips pull into her mouth as her teeth press down onto them.
"Faye, are you okay?" Sindri asks.
"Yes, I just. The prophecy has me meeting a troll one day. It's sort of important." Sindri looks away, hiding his expression as he gathers up his blueprints. Brok looks at his brother and then takes over. "Well say hi to the bastard for me while you slaughter 30 of his friends." She smiles at him. "Will do, I'll be back soon. Don't work too hard!"
Niflheim was unusually warm today. The layer of snow on the ground hadn't been this thin since she was a little girl. Pretty soon it would all be gone. Laufey pulled down her hood and adjusted her braid. She regrets overdressing in thick fox furs now.
She sat down on a flat boulder and opens her map. The Bifrost crystal reflecting the sun into her eyes for a moment until she adjusted it on her belt. She was traveling nonstop for almost a week. She could smell the foul odor her body gave off. 'Time to meet my husband' she thinks sarcastically to herself as she folded up the map once again. Standing up and continuing east up into the mountain.
She sees footprints in the snow ahead of her. The first sign of life she's seen in a couple of hours now. Laufey pauses and follows them with her eyes. They lead west. The opposite direction of where she's heading. She contemplates for a moment. Then decided to take the detour, following the footprints.
She catches up to the prints and sees a woman up ahead. Blond hair pouring down her back. Remarkably well kept for as remote an area they were both in. Suddenly the ground cracks below her and a massive blue hand grip Laufey's entire left leg. The woman turns around to look at the commotion.
A large troll surfaces from under the ground. Its hands still gripping Laufey. As he stands up straight he drags her dangling body upside down. Shaking her violently. She reaches for her dagger but fumbles with it. The troll slams her body against the floor before she can act. The dormant snow from the ground erupts into a flurry as her face cracks into the ground. Laufey screams out in shock and pain, muffled by the cold hard ground in front of her face. She doesn't linger long on the feeling, properly gripping the knife and stabbing it in between the trolls middle and index fingers. He releases her and pulls his hand away quickly, along with the knife still in it. 'Shit.' She thinks to herself. Looking around she finds a large bolder buried halfway into the snow. She runs over and picks it up with strain, chucking it at the beast. He turns to let his right side take the blow. As he does she runs over and jumps for her knife. She's not fast enough, he smacks her away with the back of his hand. She flies back into the side of the mountain, sliding down onto her butt, physically depleted. "Well, let's hope he wasn't the one." She said through a puffy and bloody lip.
"Falki lio!" She screams, holding both hands out to the troll. A storm of wooden falcons pours from her hands. Vines and moss trail them in their flight. They simultaneously all scream out in a deafening screech. The troll bats them away as they fly overhead. They dive at him in onslaught one after the other. Each one of them coming out the opposite side they entered. Chunks of his flesh and organs fly from his body as the wooden birds fly back up and dive into him once again. The troll screams out in agony until suddenly, he doesn't. The birds make one more round, creating new holes in his limp body before they suddenly disperse into pine needles, dirt, and leaves. The troll falls to the ground face first, dead.
Laufey watches all of this still sitting down by the stone wall the troll smacked her into. She sighs and leans her head back onto the cold stone. "Please don't let that ruin everything..."
"Well, you certainly ruined his day." A familiar woman's voice said. Laufey quickly looks down. A young blond woman with purple eyes and pink lips. "It's you again." She said, wiping her bloody lip off onto her hand.
"Laufey the Brave!?" The woman gasped. "I didn't recognize you. You look terrible!" She ran over to her, before the woman touched her Laufey jumps up and moves away from her grasp.
"I don't think so," Laufey warned.
"Oh, my apologies. How clumsy to forget. Heh, WAR and all." She brushes off some snow that collected around the base of her dress. "I'm Narfi, I remember you from Odin's..."
"You're a god" Laufey snapped back at her, ready to attack.
"Well, only one-seventh god, my father's mother's father's father..."
"What are you doing here?" Laufey interrupted again.
"Oh, I am tasked with, 'strengthening my combat abilities.' My father orders it." She reaches for her bow and extends it toward Laufey. "He wants me and my sisters to join the ranks of the Valkyries' soldiers." The bow slips out of her hands, falling into the snow, disappearing underneath the layer of white.
"You, a Valkyrie?" Laufey smirks.
"Oh, Freya forbid, absolutely not. Only a soldier to be used as an extension of their will. Thor has instructed his stepmother to deliver him an army of trained female warriors. While he and his forces search for the last remaining..." She stopped. Possibly remembering who she was talking to.
"That's, not right?" Laufey said with confusion written on her face.
Laufey's lip was still bleeding. Some drops of blood dripped down her face and onto the snow. She quickly put a hand over her mouth to try and stop the bleeding. "I can help with that if you'd like," Narfi said. "I'll be fine," Laufey said. "I thought you only played tricks on the gods by freeing their slaves and criminals, what brings you out here killing trolls?"
"It is a personal matter. I'm sorry I cannot tell you. Were you hunting them as well for your training?" Laufey said.
"No, father told me to come out here and practice hitting goats with my bow. He said there were so many out here I'd have no shortage of targets."
Laufey's eyes softened, pity replaced caution. Now it all started to make sense. There were no goats in this part of Niflheim. This place is full of wolves, trolls, and draugrs. She looked down to the snow-covered bow in her hands. It wasn't strung properly, the wood was dry and cracked. The moment she nocks an arrow the whole thing would snap. Her father sent her out here to die. Everything was a lie. The Valkyrie, the army. She sighed. The god's cruelty never ceases to amaze her. She walked over to the dead troll and pulled her knife out of a large blue hand.
"I am having trouble finding these goats. I wonder if the trolls have frightened them away?" She questions. "I tried asking one but he ran away."
Wait you were able to talk to one of them?" Laufey asked.
"Yes, he was sitting at the base of the mountain next to the river. I think he was fishing. I must have started him, he looked at me and..-" Laufey ignored her tangent, she instead searched the woman up and down. Where did she fit into all this? Her purple eyes rarely met with her own as she spoke. They always danced off in the background. They were so, beautiful. Iridescent somehow. Like the scales of a snake.
"Narfi, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but my lip won't stop bleeding." Laufey lied. "Maybe I will take you up on your offer to help. You use Aesir magic to heal, don't you?"
"Yes! That's right! I can't mend flesh as well as my sisters, but for something as small as that." She pointed to Laufey's lip. "I'm sure I can try."
Laufey smiled kindly to her as she walked closer to the young woman. Purple eyes, a snake. She thinks back to the times she dreamt of purple. She sits down while Narfi held out her soft uncalloused hands and a purple aura began glowing from them. Her "healing" spell hurt so badly Laufey's entire body trembled in pain. She was doing everything wrong. She clenches her hands into a fist as the feeling of venom from a snake washes over the entity on her body. Laufey realized she wasn't trying to kill her, she just didn't understand how to properly cast the spell. Through it all, she forces a smile as she let the woman finish.
Narfi was slowing her down. She had only killed 3 more trolls after the two met 4 days ago. One wasn't as feral as the others. But when the bubbly woman started a conversation with exasperated hand gestures he immediately attacked her. Thankfully Laufey pulled her away.
The sun was setting. The cold finally began settling in the last two nights. She was happy she overdressed. Narfi had sorely underdressed and Laufey found herself giving up several layers each night to the frail young woman while they took turns sleeping.
The two women sat next to a dim campfire. Narfi pokes the fire with a long stick. "You should leave it alone, if you agitate it too much none of the-" before she finished Narfi accidentally poked the bottom log out from underneath the rest. The log had only begun to produce embers. The entire campfire collapsed and went out.
Laufey blew air out her nose. The woman panicked, trying to pick up one of the rolling logs and yelping as her hand touched the hot wood.
"So, a soldier if Freya's army? Does it excite you?" Laufey asked, kicking one of the logs back over to the pit. She picked up a still smoking log and chucked it onto the others.
"Well, sure! I mean I've always wanted to be a part of something bigger. I don't enjoy killing, but I'm happy to help my family." Narfi brought her knees up under her chin, wrapping her arms around her legs. "I guess, I just figured I'd have a little more to say about my own future."
Laufey looked up from the fire at her. She let her continue. "It's foolish, but I rejected my father's wishes to train with a bow and magic when I was a little girl. All my sisters are strong warriors, it came to them so naturally. I didn't want to fight. All I wanted was..." A pause. "Well, I suppose it never really matters what we want..." The fire was catching onto the logs more and more. Smoke blew into her face, then the first pop of wood sounded from the fire as it began to truly catch on. "Sorry, I'm rambling. I have lived a spoiled, fulfilling life. We're at war we all have to learn how to fight to protect ourselves anyways."
"Don't," Laufey says. "Finish what you started."
Narfi looked up at the stars. "I don't want to fight, I don't want anything to do with the gods or giants. None of that. I only wanted to be a mother."
Laufey smiled, almost expecting the response. More puzzle pieces, though she wasn't expecting these for a while, a long while. But now that they were in her lap she may as well enjoy her time with them.
"Come," Laufey says. "Let's lay out our bedrolls and get ready to sleep. I'll set up a barrier around us but it'll have to be small. Sleep next to me tonight, we'll keep warmer that way."