The final hem of her poncho was ready. Delighted with herself, Laufey felt the immediate warmth the patchwork fur and hide gave off as she slipped it over her head. She leaned over into her makeshift tent made from vines and leaves stretched over cold wet branches and picked up a small wild radish from her pile to eat as she celebrated her accomplishment in her mind. Though her pile of wild growing root vegetables was growing smaller and smaller by the day, she decided she would worry about replenishing her food supply tomorrow. The next thing on her agenda today was another tree, she picked up her knife and set off after it.

On her way to the clearing of trees, she avoided stepping onto a pile of overturned dirt.

Laufey approached a large aspen and placed a hand onto it while looking up. Slowly she backed away from it while keeping her hand out. "Falki lio" The birds shot from her hands and circled the tree, cutting it slightly with every attack. They weren't very efficient at it, the left a tiny jagged indentation into the wood. She caught her breath, and summoned them again, and again. After the fourth time Laufey shook her hands out, her magic dwindling. She'd have to wait a while before she could cast another spell.

Hours later, the aspen came crashing down in the evening glow. Exhausted, she would wait until tomorrow to begin the task of dragging it back to the others. Back at her camp, she took inventory of her tree trunks. Five, she'd need a lot more before she could start constructing a house. What she would do for the Leviathan to come back to her, she thought.

And then, it did.

She almost didn't catch it as it flew quickly towards her. The handle was warm as if someone had been holding it recently. Suddenly, it trembled in her hands, as if being magically summoned towards something. Though she was strong, even she had trouble stabilizing her grip on the vibrating axe, but Laufey refused to let go. She does, however, walk in the direction the axe was pulling from. Once she reached the handprint markers of her and Tyr's barrier, she paused, daring to not go any further as he instructed. The axe finally rips from her hands and flies out of her vision. She summoned it again and watched as it flew back, only to reverse course again, back past the barrier.

Nervously, she began to walk out past the marked trees. Halting as soon as she heard the sound of fighting. A draugr skitters up ahead running after something, or was it away from something? Then she sees him. The white and red man. With the Leviathan, chasing the creature down. He tackles it and begins ripping off limbs, chunks of flesh, and finally its head. The creature was beaten, but it didn't stop the man's assault on it. He kept attacking it, looking like an animal, fiercely devouring a kill after a drought of starvation. It was terrifying in a way, but mostly uncomfortable to watch him ravish the beast.

She summoned her axe and it flew from his hand towards her. As he peered up from his victim she realizes his eyes and flesh were lit with a dull flame. He quickly stood up and lunged at her ferally. She gasped, she wrongfully assumed their squabbling days were over. Laufey kept her eyes on him as she slowly backpedaled away, then found an opportunity and turned around to flee. She doesn't get far before he suddenly appeared in front of her. Laufey was frightened, he didn't look at all like she remembered. His face was thick with an uneven beard, his clothing made up 4 different animals, all of them still covered in dry blood. If it wasn't for his ashy white skin and red tattoo marking, she wouldn't have known it was him. What was this flame around his body, she wondered? Was it hurting him? Did he need help?

As she contemplated how she could aid him, he threw a vicious punch at her. Though he was stronger than her, her reflexes and flexibility far surpassed him. She evades it but upon stumbled backward, she felt the shock wave his attack produced. She wouldn't have survived that blow if it had landed.

"Stop!" She shouts as she rolls out of the way of another one of his swings. His skin was still ablaze with a red flame. She watched him convulsing in anger and rage. Breathing like a monster, no, he is a monster.

She wrinkled her chin in disgust as she recalled the prophecy shed abandon long ago.

Here he was, the husband of her dreams, her people honestly expected her to court this?

Laufey threw her axe down in disgust and lunged at him. One fist balled up tightly, the other held out a flat palm. "Falki lio!" The birds swarmed him and pecked at his flesh. It only infuriated him more but distracting him long enough.

As soon as they disintegrate she threw herself at him and pummeled him in the face. Once again, she felt as if she was attacking a block of steel. He doesn't flinch, but more importantly, he doesn't retaliate.

With her hand still touching his face, the flames began to disperse from his skin. He looks at her with wide eyes coming down from his rage, the joints in his hands soften and he gently grips her shoulders. He touches up and down her arms as if reassuring himself she was real. Laufey sighs as she allows him to keep reaffirming she is truly here, giving her pounding heart and adrenalin to climb down from her throat.

"Hi." She awkwardly manages to spit out.

He lifted her poncho up and looked at her dress beneath it, then backs away from her once he seemed to fully regain himself and the flame adorning his skin completely diminished.

Laufey sighed exhaustingly and summons her axe. As it got closer it boomeranged away from her and landed in his hand. She snapped around with her mouth ajar and looked at him. "But, how did you...?"

He lifted one side of his mouth in a slight smirk as he tossed her back the Leviathan.

Once the two of them got to the campsite she leaned the axe against her collected tree trunks. He looked around silently, walking away from her to explore her setup. "I have some food in the tent over there if you're hungry." She said, not realizing he had already begun to help himself. He said something in his language. "How did you get here?" She asks him, even though he probably couldn't understand her. He looked over to the axe and pointed at it. Did he just understand her, or was he asking if he could use the axe again? He lifted up one of the tree trunks casually. Laufey gasped at the sight of how easy it was for him, it was as if he was peeking under a sheet of paper.

"I'm going to build myself a house with those. Please don't break any of them!" He turned to look at her, then set the log down and walked away. He summoned the leviathan and ventured into the forest without her.

"Wait where are you going?" She called out chasing after him. He roamed the woods until he found a river. He followed it upstream before he decided to venture away from it and walk up a small hill. Laufey followed him silently. He took the axe in both hands and began chopping down a tree, 4 good swings were all he needed before it toppled over.

The house was almost finished. It still needed a roof and some form of insulation. She held a flat wooden branch with a pile of mud and clay from the river. Carefully she walked it uphill to the sound of wood being chopped. The man grunted every other strike. He was sitting atop the final layer aligning the logs evenly. Occasionally he would grumble something in his language but he was never talking to her, rather the house itself.

She started filling the cracks with mud. She kept quiet while working. Listening to the sounds of the forest behind the chopping sounds. Once the chopping concluded she looked up and watched as the man jumped down. He was drenched in sweat. Laufey smiles and nodded her head in appreciation. He returned her nod but without a smile. He ventured out onto the woods and disappeared.

It had been almost a week since he appeared in the woods. And every day after he was done working on the house he would venture out into the forest beyond her barrier. Returning with supplies they were unable to make themselves. He would return every evening with several new scars and a fierce appetite. Laufey finished up with the mud and walked back down to the river, where she lifted up a small trap cage from the water. Multiple crabs stuck their claws out attempting to escape, she avoided their pincers and brought the wooden box back to the cabin. There she started a fire and readies a metal pot he had brought back after a journey. With the pot in hand, she walked back to the stream and filled it to the brim. She placed the pot over the fire and waited for the water to boil, sprinkling in a touch of salt, another thing he brought back. After she placed the crabs into the water she gathered up several onions, turnips, a whole bulb of garlic and tossed them in as well. She sat back and watched the food simmer. She had enjoyed their comfortable little routine. She poked the fire with a small stick. Thinking of all the other people she befriended in her life. Brok, Sindri, Narfi, Freya. Laufey brought her knees to her chest and smiled sadly thinking of how she ended up forcefully abandoning every one of them because of her cruel fate.

'Don't get too close to him.' She thought. 'The same thing was going to happen again, wasn't it?'

He had approached her while she was thinking. He sat down with a bloody bag of metal flatware and two dented silver dishes. She looks up to him. "Thank you. Dinner is almost ready."

He sits down without responding to her. She prepares the boiled crab and vegetables onto a plate and hands it to him. He silently begins eating without waiting for her. She quickly makes her own plate and moved to sit down a little closer to him then she usually does. He didn't seem to notice or care. They ate their food in silence until the sun finally retired for the day. He stood up and walked over to the side of the cabin and leaned against it. The same spot he slept at the previous few nights. She picked up the two plates filled with shells and scraped them into a small hole in the ground. Then stacked them on top of each other along with the forks.

Laufey wondered over to him to lie down onto the ground several feet across from him. She used the loose fabric from her dress as a barrier between her face and the cold dirt and hunched her legs together to stay covered fully by her poncho. She did her best to hold her chattering teeth together until sleep finally overtook her.

The next morning when she woke up he was nowhere to be found. She was used to the sound of chopping wood first thing in the morning. Laufey decided to start working on the roof without him. They had already prepared the beams. All that was left was to attach them and fill in the spaces with leaves and mud. She got to work.

Once the sun hit the middle of the sky she leaned back from the top of the roof and wiped the sweat from her brow. The man re-emerged from the forest, silently carrying a large stack of various blankets and quilts.

It was the first night in the finished house, she wanted to make a feast to celebrate. Planked salmon doused in salt and dill. She prepared the wooden stakes and carved out small corresponding holes for them in the large slab of cedar, soaking them in water for the better part of the day. The salmon she had caught early in the afternoon still needed to be deboned. After the plank was ready she began preparing the fish. It was triple the amount of food they normally eat in one sitting. She used twice the amount of salt on the fish and the entirety of dill she had stockpiled. It would be the best-tasting meal she'd have eaten in years.

Once the fish was nailed onto the plank she lifted it up towards the fire and leaned it against the small log she had used for a chair. She didn't want to get up and walk away, else risk it burning.

He entered the house loudly. Dropping a bag at the door. She would rummage through it later. She needed to finish chopping the carrots. Once everything was ready to eat she made their plates. She walked over to him and set his down on the floor, she sat down next to him with her own plate in hand. Smiling from ear to ear. The fish was juicy, salty, and the dill enhanced everything about the flavor of the fish. As she chewed she struggled to keep in squeals of happiness. Real seasoned food!

The man made no remarks on the meal. He quickly cleaned his plate and drank most of the water from his wooden cup. Then he stood up and walked over to the opposite side of the cabin and prepared his sleeping roll. "Σπάταλος." She hears him say before his breathing signifies he was asleep.

She looks down at his empty plate and sighed. Gathering the rest of the food up and cleaning the area she used to cook on before she walked to the other side of the cabin and fell asleep in her quilt and blanket.

"F-esh" He spits out.

"Close. Fish 'ish'" Laufey says. She was pointing to a small picture of a fish she drew in the dirt.

She pointed to the boar.

"Roar." He says.

She snickers slightly. He grumbles annoyingly, standing up to walk away. She grabs his hand, "I'm sorry, please don't go." She says looking at the back of his head.

He grumbles again and sits back down, but didn't let go of her hand. With his other, he pointed to her. "What?" He questions, looking at her.

She smiles, they had the better part of a month behind them since they finished the house and this was the first time he ever asked for her name. She pointed at him. "What's your name?" He titled his head slightly, something he did when he was trying to figure out the language.

She lifted the hand he was still holding and brought it to her chest. "Faye." The man stilled, allowing her full control of his arm.

Laufey brought their hands to his chest and allowed him a moment to say his own name, but he didn't respond. She tried it again. Bringing the two hands to her chest. "Faye." Then back to his. He still didn't answer her. Her smile fell weakly as she placed her free hand over the top of their joined hands. "We'll try it again tomorrow." Silently, the man released her hand as he stood up. He turned away from her and walked out the front door, not returning home till much later than he normally does.

That night after dinner when she took his plate from him she pointed at herself. "Do you remember?" She asked him.

"Φως." He says quietly.

It was a strange emotion that washed over her when he was around. She assumed he enjoyed her company, but never took it any further than she assumed a man would. Laufey knew what love felt like, she had felt it as a young girl. This wasn't that, maybe not yet at least. A heaviness hung over the entirety of it. He was to be the father of Loki. Was he that and nothing more? No need to bring love into this right? It would be the easiest thing to do, and probably the most kind-hearted in her mind. She wouldn't ever truly love him anyways. He was simply a means to an end. Should she start trying to seduce him and try to restore the prophecy she had so carelessly ruined? He appeared much older than her, he probably has more 'experienced' than her in this matter. No wait, she knew he was more experienced. He had a family after all according to that woman.

Then her mind wonders from seducing him to his supposed past crimes according to Athena. She didn't trust the goddess, then again, what if she was right? What if he did kill his wife? What if he truly did murder his own child? Maybe she should stick with keeping her distance from him and expedite the conception of Loki, and nothing more.

He left early that morning, as usual not saying goodbye or even acknowledging her. She gathered up Her bedroll and put it onto a shelf he had made them a couple of days ago.

She walked outside and into her newly started garden. She picked up a hoe and started harvesting the potatoes and onions. She would need to replant several things, still figuring out the best way to arrange everything properly. The rutabagas and turnips didn't make it.

She realized something as the spring air blew against her sweat drenched forehead. She can't remember the last time she dreamed since he arrived. How could she had not noticed this until now? Her entire life had been visions and prophecy screaming loudly into her head. But around him, everything was, quite.

He arrived back earlier than normal that day. He was bleeding, she dropped a basket of potatoes and rushed over to him. He held out a hand to establish he was alright. "What happened? Come inside. Take your boots off they are covered in blood."

She holds onto him and leads him inside.

He was hot. Strangely hot, was there a fire close by?

Once inside she pulls a newly crafted chair up to the fire and motions for him to sit down. She unlaced his boots and removed them, placing them over to the door. Then while standing behind him she removed his harness. He was bleeding from multiple spots but the worst was a bite wound on his shoulder. A bear? She drops a cloth in a bucket of water next to the fire pit and places it on his shoulder. He doesn't move as she wipes the blood from the wound. After cleaning it up she brushes her fingers along the open wound, she feels two teeth broken off inside his flesh. "Hold still." She plucks both out and tosses them into the fire. He transitions from breathing in through his mouth to breathing in through his nose. As he does the wound begins to slowly close up. She pulls her hand back and gasps at the sight of his flesh mending itself.

She walked around to his side next to the front door her hands still covered in his blood. "Guess you didn't really need me to do any of that." He rose from the chair slowly and turned to face her. His expression was stern and direct. He walked up to her and stood unnervingly close, towering over her. She felt her heart rate increase. He leaned down slightly.

"No." He crudely says. He picked up his boots from the floor next to her.

He walked out of the house and back into the woods. He left the front door open. Bitterly, she slammed it. Then, awkwardly reopened it to bring the bucket of bloody water to discard into the forest.

She went back to her garden and resumed her work.

"Tell me your name." She said looking at him across the fire pit. He said nothing, continuing to eat his dinner. "Please tell me, your name." He set his plate down and picked up a cup of water to drink. As he went to pick back up his plate she stormed over to him and snatched the plate from his hands. It got his attention, he grows at her annoyingly.

"No name. No food." He finishes drinking the rest of his water and stands up and heads to his bedroll, closing his eyes. She threw the rest of the food into the fire, then stormed out of the cabin in the dark. Summoning her axe at the doorway. She walks off into the night to gather her self.

She sat high atop a birch tree, dangling one of her legs off the branch while leaning against the trunk.

She was a fool for not hitting it off with the frost troll.

This was impossible, why did he infuriate her so much? She looked up to the sky hoping to find tranquility in the stars. But there weren't any in the sky tonight. A darkness slowly lumbered, engulfing the moonlight and she struggled to see in front of her for a moment. Then she hears it.

Thunder.

She feels the panic beginning to surge in her stomach. Lightning flashes in the distance. She gasps and quickly climbed down from the tree. She tripped on her last decent and fell onto her back. The lightning strikes again. It was getting closer.

She ran back towards the cabin as the rain began pouring down in sheets.

It strikes again. So close she feels her heart rumble in her lungs.

She flings the door open and the man shots up from his slumber. Panic washes over his face as he looks at her. She wasn't sure what she looked like herself. Then it strikes again.

She hears them, her family.

She hears the shrill screams suddenly silenced by the horrifying sound of his hammer crushing through their bones.

The sound her sister in law's body made when it crashed down onto the earth.

The feeling of her blood raining down onto her face.

"Faye?"

She feels water on her face even now, dripping off down onto her hands.

A warmth suddenly enclosed her, she struggled to breathe for a moment.

Then another crash of lightning pulls her back into her nightmare. "Please, make it stop." She spoke out loud to herself. Then after a lightning bolt strikes yards away she sees him.

"Faye!"

Her brother, she sees the god storming out through his eye. His screams, she screams along with him and tries moving her hands to claw at her face in horror. Something was preventing her arms from moving. She struggled to free them, screaming as the sound of his body fell. She felt sick, then, she felt darkness.

She awoke with her neck aching as if she had slept on it the wrong way. Then she looked down and saw she was sleeping against the man's chest. He was leaning against the wall and had locked her face down onto himself. It wasn't comfortable, he was restraining her arms behind her back with his hands. Her legs were locked underneath his own. She tried to free herself but felt him reflexively squeeze back. Tightening his grip.

"What's going on? Stop, let go!" She shouts.

He awakens suddenly and lets her go. They both rise up from the floor. He doesn't remove his eyes from her as he speaks. "Kratos." He says slowly. She was still waking up and didn't understand.

The skies continued to dump endless rain down the next several days. Laufey worried about her garden outside becoming flooded. The man, Kratos, didn't leave to go on any outings while it was raining. They sit across from one another, the sound of water dripping down into pots from several leaks in the roof.

"What from?" Kratos asks from across the room looking at her. She looks up, this was the first time he has ever been the one to start off a conversation. She hesitated, what does she tell him?

"From, up?" He said pointing to the ceiling.

She looked up to the ceiling then smiled. "Do you mean the mountains?"

He raises his finger higher above his head. "No, up." He brought his hand down. "You are a god?"

Her smile disappeared, and she sat upright. "No." She spits bitterly.

That seemed to amuse him.

"You?" She asks.

"No, only you."

"That's not fair."

"Where is family?"

"Dead." She says

"How?"

"Stop, it's your turn, where are you from?" She interjects.

"What killed Faye's family?"

She sucked air through her nose. "War."

He paused for a moment, then continued. "How you were in my land?"

"You mean 'how were you in my land?' A woman, she claimed to be a goddess. She tricked me into helping her and owed me a favor. She sent me there before something killed me. Then she sent me back"

Why was she lying to him? Was she lying? No, but she was being dishonest. He didn't give her time to think more about it.

"Where are the blades?" He asks coldly

"Underneath the ground."

He crossed his arms and continued on.

"How old are you?"

"Old." She says

"Lies."

"Excuse me?"

He sat back as if he were a tactician that just finished solving a puzzle.

"You are a child, caught up in events beyond your understanding."

She stood up and leaned forward, ignoring his sudden extensive vocabulary. "Child?"

"Enough, I am done. Stay quiet until morning."

She balled up her fist. "I know a little about you. You're a god."

"Do not speak anymore." He rumbles.

"Is that how it is? I'm just a simple mortal, made to follow your kind's commands?"

"Silence woman."

"Or what, you'll kill me?"

In a sudden fit of anger, he stormed over and cornered her against a wall. His face was sullen and firm as his body let off a slight heat. "You know nothing of me."

"What gave you that scar on your stomach?" She says with her back pressing against the wooden wall.

He lifted his right hand and placed it onto the wall behind her. She continues talking, ignoring his intimidation tactics. "Where is your family?"

He lowers his eyebrows.

"Why won't your arms stop bleeding?"

His dull yellow eyes were furious, he picks his left hand up and reaches for her, but then puts it against the wall above her head, now blocking her from escaping. She quickly looks away from him to see where the Leviathan was. He follows her eyes, then brings his mouth up in disgust as he looks back to her. His eye color was changing from yellow to orange she noticed.

"Go on, woman. You will need...-"

Laufey softly places her hand on his cheek interrupting him. She rubs her thumb against his face tenderly.

"I just want to know more about you."

She had never seen the man caught so off guard.

While hesitating, he removes both hands from the wall and slowly lowers them to his side. His orange eyes close and he leaned his face into the embrace of her hand for a split second while exhaling. Before she could do anything else he backs away and walks out the front door. She stood against the wall for a couple of moments, her heart was pounding in her chest.