Her homeland was covered in dark black clouds, The sun struggled to shine through the lightning and thunder cracking violently in the sky.
No, no, this can not be happening.
Laufey runs across the stone bridge, a bolt of lightning strikes again. She shields her face with the axe and is sent backward, flying almost off the bridge before she drops the axe and holds on. She climbs back up and runs into the cavernous tunnel. Running quickly out onto the other side. She is stopped by another bolt of lightning and then something blocks the sunlight. Her sister in law. She is swinging at a man flying around her, Thor. He effortlessly doges her hands and flies behind her. With a loud bang, he smashed his hammer into the back of her head. She screams out in pain, the giant woman's voice shaking her to the core. She stumbles into a smaller mountain as she falls onto the ground. Thor continues his attack, lightning cracking as he brings down his hammer against the back of her head once again. It fractures her skull open. Her beautiful black hair tumbles off in chunks attached to her scalp. Laufey shields her eyes in horror as blood begins to rain down from the sky. Thor leaves her massive body falling as he flies back into the sky. He dashed over top her, high in the air, and hurled into another giant. Laufey looks over to her sister, fear, rage, horror, it all twists inside her. Two more giants fall to their death. The impact of their bodies hitting the ground causes her to lose her balance. Thor continues his slaughter on the last of her people. Men and women whom she believed to be the strongest warriors in the world. They may as well be sheep to him. Tears fill her eyes and she reaches out for her axe. It jolts to her. She rushes forward towards the edge of the mountain. "HEY!" She screams. As the body of the last giant falls on top of the mountain he dashes toward her. She readies the axe, stilling it in front of her.
He hovers over the top of her. His hammer sparking, cape flapping in the wind. She cannot see his face underneath his hood. She lets several tears stream down her in order to clear her vision before she rushes to attack him. He dodges her first swing. She was holding the axe the wrong way she realized. Adjusting her grip she swings again. He puts little effort into eluding the next several swings. She is getting the hang of it now. She slams the axe into the ground and summons ice onto it. A pillar of ice grows from below her feet, she jumps on top of it and gets a better swing at him. It gets closer to landing, but he is still too fast. It was close enough for him to finally start attacking back. A bolt of lightning strikes her. It paralyzes her in place. Electricity stings through every bone in her body as it surges through her skin. She screams and holds a hand out, "Falki loi!" The wooden birds fly at him. His lightning strikes most of them down but one managed to dive at his face, knocking his hood down and slicing the top of his ear.
Angered, he rushes forward and raises his hammer to her. She brings her axe low to the ground and swings up, the two weapons meet in outburst in front of their face.
Frost and lightning spark into an explosion, sending both of them back. Thor flying into the side of the mountain. Laufey flew off the edge and plummeted to the ground. Her axe still in her hands. Her body exhausted. She landed onto something softer than the ground. Hands, These hands. Her brother's hands. He didn't even check to see if she was okay, he quickly started running towards the open portal. She wobbled back and forth violently as he ran, struggling to hold on. The terrifying sound of thunder reverberated around them. She looked back and saw Thor approaching them from behind. "Go!" She screamed at her brother as he ran closer to the open portal. Almost there. Her brother looked down at her for a moment. She absorbed everything about his face. His blue eyes, his brick red hair. Her protector and best friend. A memory, sleeping in the cleft of his ear, his songs about the forest. The way he called her Pine Needle when she was doing something she shouldn't be. Memories instead of visions, they were so precious and so rare in her mind.
It all happened within seconds.
From his right eye, Thor flew out, sending blood and bone raining down violently on her. Her brother roared in pain. "NO!" She screamed. He begins stumbling to the ground. Thor raises his hammer and slams it down on top of her brother's head, shattering his skull, he came down with the blow, hovering close to her. She calls her axe to her hand and rushes at the god. A suicidal reckless attack. She couldn't even see through her tears. As Thor flew towards her, her brother's other hand grabbed a hold of him. With his last breath, he shoved his hand, and Thor into the portal. With a violent crack of lightning, his hand separated from his arm. No sooner than Thor and the now dismembered hand vanish into the portal's light her brother's limp body fell over top of the archway. Crushing the gateway to Jotunheim.
Laufey stood there in shock, her brother's blood dripping down her face, it mixed on her face with her tears. She looked down at his massive still body. His hand landed on top of a smaller mountain palm facing up, holding onto her closely. As if protecting her. The limp hand started sliding down the mountaintop. She moved with it, climbing to his fingers.
Thor was gone. She looked around, the giants, her family, were all dead. The portal into the other realms, gone. Laufey was trapped in Jotunheim. She let the axe fall out of her hands and fell to her knees.
She screamed.
The last arrow was finally finished. She examined it and quickly placed it into the quiver. 'Narfi, I'm so sorry.' She thinks to herself. She picked up her axe and walked over to the edge of the forest. Her bow slipping off her shoulders before she caught it to readjust. She looks around the quiet woods, the signs of life were dwindling. She took a deep breath in and listened with her soul. Something called out but it was so far away. Hunger drove her away from her grief. She pushed her legs in front of her and headed towards the animal.
Laufey moved the chisel into her right hand, shaking her left violently. It had started to go numb on her again. She sighed and looked up at the stone face stared lifelessly back to her.
She climbed down the statue and began working on the details around the neck. She coughed inside the cave, dust from the stone tickling her throat. Trying to remember where the Elder's beard fell to on his neck.
A flash of ice erupts from the ground, she measures the size. It is much larger than the last time she thinks. She is getting better at this. She applauds herself within her mind. She runs her fingers across the runes of the axe before swinging it into the air to cast again. If she didn't continue her mind would wonder to those she has failed.
The spell didn't work, she threw her hands against the rocks at the top of the mountain. The wind blew from the blue sky above her, blowing the scent of burnt flesh into her nose. Purple flowers leaned inward gently brushing against her arm. She held out her arm, dripping with blood. The spell required a sacrifice, Farbauti's ashes. Laufey felt a sickening string of guilt and disappointment wash over her. In the vision, the parent of Loki would burn hot with fever, then die. Their ashes would bring back her dead people slain by the gods. Her body covered in scabs and scars from where she sliced her skin off to burn, but every offer of flesh she put forth didn't work. She was the parent of no one. Laufey looks past the mountain's edge. The stillness of everything as the massive bodies still scatters the world below. She smooths her shoulder length hair away from her face as the wind tussles it back and forth, grabbing for hair no longer there. That's right, she thinks, no more braid. She offered that too. She ignores the blood from her hands as it drips onto her face.
She swings the axe violently, her muscles ache but she lunges forward. Her invisible foe still fighting back. Laufey swings the axe around her back and twirls her body against it as she brings it back in front of her with a vicious swing. After she was finished she set the axe down and went back to her push-ups. She hated this part, her arms shook but she didn't stop until she finished her routine. Saying the numbers in her head kept her mind busy.
She rode on top of him. A massive vicious Bear. Laufey wobbled back and forth as he slowly marched forwards. She rubbed her hands along his thick fur, stroking him gently as she sang to the beast. Her axe in his sad jaws. He made no pause to his movement, except when the Wolf lingered too far behind.
She turned around to look at the Red Wolf. He kept his head low to the ground, along with his tail. Every couple of moments the Wolf would look up at the Bear as if reassuring he was safe to be close to it. Some emotion bubbled up inside Laufey and made her want to reach out to the Wolf. She wanted to pet the creature so badly. A sharp pain erupted inside her body. Laufey couldn't pinpoint the spot within her so she folded both arms around her chest. She moved to slide off the Bear but heard it snarling in protest as she attempted to get off his back. It caused her to smile down at the Bear. Slowly she leaned forward and gently kisses the beast's upper back.
Laufey awoke as the first bit of sunlight danced onto her face. She reached out to grasp something that wasn't there.
Her chain mail tunic was getting in the way, she was outgrowing it. She removed it to examine, may as well take everything off. As she stood over it nakedly she measured her body. She had already made herself two tunics from leather and furs. But with each passing month, she quickly outgrew them. Her breast, her biceps, mostly her hips. She figured she was over and done with all of this. She was the same age her mother must have been when she gave birth to her. Not that she ever met her. She could no longer incorporate the chain mail properly in her new armor. She ponders if she should line the front of her chest with it, or the back...
She curls against his earlobe. His once soft flesh as hard as stone. She wipes several tears away from her face and stutters her next breath in through her nose. She places kisses on the ground, the fleshy walls around her, back to the ground again. All around her as she rolls around frantically. She pushes herself onto her knees and holds her face into her hands. She surrenders to her emotions and lets out an agonizing scream.
She awoke from her dream inside the cavern. The stone statues of her long-dead family watched over her. The dream was still fresh in her mind, she walked over to where she left off last night. She etched the boy's face into the walls, holding her bow, aiming it at the man. She carved out the words Loki above him. She scrapped her hands across the smooth face of the boy. The smell of paint and freshly exposed stone filled the air. This part was finished. Laufey looks at the boy she would have called son, savior... if only she hadn't been so reckless. She looked around at the other walls she had painted of his story. He was the only one in them. He met the world serpent, fought the gods, all on his own. She looked up to a massive blank wall and closed her eyes. Ready to start a new inscription. There was still much to etch out.
Five years cycle past in Jotunheim.