The troll fell to his knees. His eyes rolling to the back of his head as he slammed his face into the ground. Dead, 29 she counts. Laufey walks over to him and examined the body. Narfi rips an arrow out from its back, placing it back into her quiver. Her freshly carved bow was starting to show wear from its use over the past 2 months.
"Was that the last one?" Narfi asked. Laufey shook her head. "No, one more I think. You did great that time I almost got bored running out of things to do!" Narfi put another arrow back into her quiver. "I wish he would've listened to us first before he started attacking. He looked like the friendly troll I told you about a while ago."
Laufey stretched her arms up around her head. Her hair was clean, perfumed, and freshly braided in a much more intricate fashion. The top of her head began three massive braids and they cascaded down to all meet as one below her ear. Small purple gems dangled off the tip of a silver band holding it all together. A style Laufey would have never been able to accomplish all by herself.
"I'm sure that's more than enough for the dwarfs to finish your axe." Narfi said pulling the last of her arrows out the flesh of the dead troll. "You'd think so, but these guys are a whole different breed," Laufey said.
"One specifically..." Narfi winked playfully.
Laufey rolled her eyes. "I told you it's not like that...-"
"Who's there?" A voice called out to them.
Narfi nocked her bow as Laufey stepped out in front of her, shielding her from the direction of the voice.
"We don't want to fight you. Only talk." Narfi called out.
"You're actions don't match your words." The voice says.
"Show yourself, we will not attack you. I give you my word." Laufey yells.
A dark blue troll emerges from the cave. His white hair twisted back into a bun. His massive totem drags along the snow as he walks forward. He had a large scar along his right eye, keeping it permanently shut.
"Why do the giants and the gods attack my people? While it's true Most of us have gone mad after the desecration, I wouldn't think the problems involving our race would unite the warring god and giants to aid us." The troll spoke clearly, even though his large tusks.
"I'm sorry but it's a personal matter that brings us out here," Narfi says, quickly looking to Laufey as if for reassurance.
Laufey nods to Narfi and continues. "We attempted to communicate with the previous trolls, but they all attacked us upon first sight. We don't want to fight you. I simply need to speak with you." Laufey extends out her hands, they tremble slightly.
She had finally met the father of her son.
The troll motions for the two women to come closer. "Come inside, we'll talk on my terms." He turned away from them and disappeared into the cave. Laufey brings her hands back to her side. An elbow digs into her side. She looks over at her friend, eyebrows lift up and down over her purple eyes.
After what felt like a 4-hour long meal of raw frost bitten meat and rotten root vegetables, washed down with awkward small talk. Laufey found herself sitting outside the cave. She discovered Narfi was much better at small talk then she was. She kept the conversation flowing all through the night until the troll passed out with a belly full of mead. Laufey leaned back and started up at the moon. As she sat deep inside her thoughts two hands gently touch her shoulders. They slide down her chest and meet at her belly. Narfi leans against her back, hugging her from behind. "Thanks," Laufey said under her breath. She leans into her arms of her friend. "That troll in there. He is the one from my visions. I guess I'm going to be a mother soon." Her face twists into a series of pain, disgust, regret, and worry. "My story is almost over, soon the savior will be crawling out of my legs and put everything into place for my people."
Narfi lets go and sits in front of her. "Tell me my future." She asks softly, changing the subject like she always did when Laufey got upset like this.
"I cannot do that," Laufey says. "I haven't seen it."
"You're lying to me, again."
"Stop, please, I know what you're doing and. Not right now."
"Laufey."
Laufey looks over to her, then to the cave.
"He's asleep," Narfi says. "It's just us. Tell me."
Laufey drags her pointer finger along the snow. It zigzags back and forth, like a snake. She keeps quiet.
"Fine." Narfi pouts, moving to sit next to her. "Don't tell me my future. But tell me if I have a child, tell me my child's future."
Laufey smiles painfully. "It's not any better." She says in a cracked voice.
"Is the name I already have picked out in my head the one I'll use? Will she look like me? Will she be happy? Will I have done a good job being her mother?"
Laufey stops her, placing a hand onto her arm. The beautiful woman in a purple dress, a snake with painful venom.
"She will face every cruel obstacle set out in front of her. And she will retain nothing but kindness and forgiveness." Laufey whispers.
"So she'll be a good mother?" Narfi says with hope in her eyes.
"She'll have learned from the best," Laufey says.
"Sigyn, that was my mother's name, they say it's good luck if you name your child after someone you idolize. She died while giving birth to me. I always wanted to meet her, my sisters would tell me such wonderful stories about her. I guess one day I will meet Sigyn." She puts a hand over her belly.
Laufey looks up to her friend. The purple woman from her dreams. Or rather, the mother of the purple woman. Images flashback into her memory. The beautiful, victorious wife of her child. She was holding a bowl of venom, endless tears streaming down her face. Fog enclosing her as she is shielding a man, a wicked man. Loki, her son. He is undeserving of her. Suddenly the axe appears behind her, it slices through Narfi's daughter and everything disappears into frost.
"I need to get back to Brok and Sindri." Laufey says.
"But, the father. Don't you have to..."
"Fuck this prophecy!"
Laufey closes her eyes. "I'm sick of this!" she yells suddenly. Narfi looked taken back by her outburst. "I'm sick of this, this thing! I don't want to only be a mother!" She said grabbing at her stomach. Narfi looks back to the cave, as rustling echoed inside it.
"Fuck the prophecy. Go, finish the axe, then bring it back here." Narfi says with a grin. "I'll stay here and keep him occupied until you return.
"I can't just leave you here with him?" Laufey interjected. "He's-"
Narfi smiles and doesn't let her finish. "A great conversationalist, handsome in a certain light? You're probably right I may take him away from you if you're gone too long. So hurry back."
Laufey stands up and pats herself down, she has the souls, her knife, and the Bifrost. That's all she needs. "As soon as that axe is made I promise you I'll run back here as fast as possible. I won't stop for anything."
She hears them talking behind closed doors. They had been working on the axe all day. She closes her eyes and concentrates on their voices. She hears Brok's voice. "Perhaps the great serpent of Midgard methinks..." she cannot make out the rest of his sentence. She hears Sindri speak, his words are muffled but she can hear a stanza. A ritual, they are naming the weapon. It truly is finished. "Rise now." Sindri says, "Leviathan."
The brothers both hold the frost axe out to her. She picks it up. It's not as heavy as she imagined. It wobbles in her hands as she gets used to the weight and balance. "It's gonna take a while before you're good at killing with it. An axe is a difficult and frankly, horrible weapon to master. The girls so top heavy, simply leveraging her will wear you down right 'n good." His eyes drift down to her breast. "Though I'm sure you already know how to deal with that. Should of dreamt up a pike, now that's a weapon. But no, everyone thinks it ain't flashy enough..." Brok begins mumbling incoherently before his brother steps in.
"I'm confident you'll come to master the weapon in due time. We made the head as thin as possible, it is a strange balance to get used to. If you hold it closer to the top of you will have better control over it, but doing so sacrifices much of the impact force. So try and hold it down here." Sindri says pointing to the bottom on the pommel.
Laufey wobbles her arm, still getting the feeling of holding such a top-heavy weapon. "The prophecy and visions aren't always word for word, but there's no mistaking it. This axe is definitely a part of the downfall of Odin and Thor."
Brok grins at his brother. "Good, hope it'll knock that bastard Thor onto his fat ass. When it happens make sure to bring us back his hammer. I'm gonna reforge the damn thing into a chamber pot.
"It has a neat little trick," Sindri says. "Ehhh- call it a trademark!" Brok adds as he walks over. He takes the axe from her and walks across the room with it. "Now, go stand over there." He said. Laufey does what he asks, standing far away from the axe. "Now." Sindri starts. "Hold out your hand like this." He holds one hand out as if to catch something.
"Two hands! What sort of barbaric moron uses an executioner axe with one hand?!" Brok yells in the background. Sindri sighs and Laufey extends both hands past her shoulders. "Using your mind, call the weapon back."
Laufey closes her eyes and calls to the weapon. In an instant, her arms jerked back as the weapon rushes into her hands. "Neat! But, how does it know to only come to me and not just anyone who calls it?"
"Get the fuck outta here if you think we're just going to just lay out all our secrets! Try not to have too much fun with it kiddo, you might strain your wrist." Brok says. She looks at the pommel. Their brand is still warm on it. She smiles as she drags her thumb over it. "Stop that," Brok says. Laufey sets the axe down and hugs the blue dwarf. He hugs her back, giving her upper back a few hard slaps, making sure there wasn't any air left in her when he was through. "We just wanted to right a whole buncha wrong we might've contributed in all this. I'm counting on you kid to help us undo this mess." He says. She lets go of him and stands up. "We will fix this mess together." She says confidently.
"I'm going right back to work thinking up ideas on how to improve the axe. I want to expand the number of abilities it can hold." Sindri says picking up some books. Brok looks at him, then to Laufey. He winks and walks away. "I gotta shit, be back in a minute, or an hour." She rolls her eyes, then turns to the other dwarf. He shoves several more books into his bottomless bag.
Laufey walked over to him, he closed his bag and faced her. She leans down and hugs him as well. She stays like that for a while until finally, she feels his hands slide up her back and hug her back. "What happened out there Faye? Is everything alright?" He said turning up to look at her. She keeps her face buried in his shoulder, not wanting to answer. "You never told me why Brok isn't dead like he was in my visions." She says hoping to change the subject. Sindri slides his glove off and places a hand onto her cheek, pulling her away in order to look at her. "When faced with the inevitability of a fate you despise, who wouldn't do everything in their power to change it?"
"Maourinn sem gengur eigin vegum hans gengur einn." Laufey whispers as she leans her forehead against his for a moment. Then stands up and backs away from him. He slips his glove back on. "You're never alone." He says. "Let me know if there is anything we can do to help you."
Laufey held both arms out and watched as the axe flew into her hands. She runs her fingers along the carved runes along the head of the axe. It felt much colder than before.
Brok made a grumbling sound as he waddled back into the room. "What the Hel you still doing here in my shop? This is a place of business get the fuck outta here!" She grins and quickly walks out of the shop, waving one last time to the brothers.
In her rowboat, she holds out the Bifrost crystal. Niflheim, or Jotunheim?
Tyr's temple was in her view. She dragged the rowboat up onto the beach. Walking the rest of the way. She held the axe in her right hand, walking along the sand. Excited to show Narfi the weapon. She decided to try the spell inside it. She swirled the axe around her body with both hands and a flurry of ice flew out the bottom of the ground. She was impressed.
Suddenly, the ground rumbled as the world serpent lifted its massive body from the lake. Her little boat pulled back into the water, capsized, and sunk to the bottom of the water.
She sighed annoyingly but immediately forgave him. Love can do that. The serpent arched his head over to her and leaned in. As water from his skin began to splash down onto her face she felt the hot breath coming from his nose. She reached out her hand, feeling along his scales as he snarled contently. "You're not supposed to be awake young man. I must be really messing everything up." She said giving him a kiss. He spoke to her slowly in his language. Her chest rumbling from the deep sounds snarling from his massive mouth.
"They are bleeding Bestemor. I want to bite him but I can not. Let me bite him for you."
She pulled her hand away. "What?!" Her heartbeat begins to thunder in her chest. "I have to reach the top of the mountain NOW! Go. Take me!"
He looks up at the sky.
"The door is open. Odin comes."
She climbs on top of him and starts running, almost slipping on his still wet skin. She runs across the serpent's back as fast she can. The snake moves along with her, up towards the peaks, doing most of the traveling for her. She sees the mountain and the ancient tree. The portal, it's already activated, anyone can travel into Jotenhime. With both hands holding onto her axe she runs in, not looking back to the serpent.