"If you need a break let me know," Laufey spoke tenderly to Atreus.
"I'm fine, just, just keep going," Atreus said with a red face and watery eyes.
Laufey dipped the needle into the black ink and continued with the tattoo on his neck. "ᛚᛟᚷᚾ ᚺᚢᚷᚱ" The sounds vibrate off her tongue with each line. Hoping the words will remain with him throughout what he will soon endue. That throughout everything he will learn about himself and his future, he will keep a steady mind.
She mapped out his entire journey years ago, never knowing if he would one day follow her markings. She had to prepare for the road to come, she had to make the most out of what little time remained. But acknowledging his safety from inheriting her burden caused a calming acceptance of what was yet to come.
Laufey finally finished and set the tools down and reached out to his hand and removed the black bloody cloth she wrapped around his right arm. She had inscribed several runes onto the boy's main arm.
She leans down and placed a kiss onto the runes tattooed twice around his arm "ᚺᚨᛈᛈᛊᚲᛖᛃᛏᚱ." She hopes the kiss would provide even more luck.
"Mom..." The boy blurted out, somewhat embarrassed, somewhat in pain. "Once you're ready, we'll go hunting together," Laufey said slowly standing up. It had been a while since her fever returned, she had to use her time wisely before she became bedridden again.
Atreus brought the arrow back slightly. "This bow is different from the other. You have to pull it back more." Laufey says. Atreus listens to her and reaches his arm back more, it made his aim uneven and shaky. He aimed it at the boar, then loosed the arrow. He hit it. The arrow sunk into the front leg of the animal as it attempted to run, falling flat onto itself.
Laufey put both her hands onto his shoulders and squeezed proudly. "You'll be feeding your pack in no time." She said placing a kiss on his cheek and ruffling the fur on his newly crafted wolf pelt vest. He laughs through his nose and shrugs her off slightly. "Mom..." He smiles.
She rushes out and with her knife, kills the struggling animal. Not looking to see if Atreus was watching. "Help me bring home so we can get it cleaned up."
Atreus readjusted the vest, nods and rushes forward to help carry the animal home.
She kept inside while it was raining that day. A dull yellow cloth drapes over her lap she had been sewing all day. It was almost finished, still, a little more work to do.
Her eyesight starts to blur slightly. She begins to feel the room spinning, then she dropped the scarf and needle. But she caught herself before she fell. She had to keep going a little while longer. Once she was finally finished she folded up the yellow scarf up tightly and placed it on Atreus' bed. She begins working on a new project. A small bag with golden detailing. It took her almost a month to complete it.
Atreus sat twiddling a spoon in his hands while chewing with his mouth open. After he swallows he begins playing with the stew chunks in his bowl. Kratos grumbles disapprovingly as he watches the boy. Laufey was already finished eating, she sat back and looks at the two of them.
They don't look alike from most angles. But sometimes in a certain light, she could see Kratos in the boy's face. She knew they both loved each other. But they had a long way to go. She remembers the way Kratos and Atreus would play in the front yard. How happy they both made each other long ago. She says a giants prayer in her heart that they may find their way back to that.
"Atreus." Laufey started.
"This evening, your father and I will be gone for a little while. We won't be back until late in the night or possibly tomorrow morning."
Kratos looks up from his food, this was the first he heard about this as well.
"I'm leaving you with a big responsibility young man. You must watch over the house while we are away and have breakfast ready in the morning."
Atreus's eyes glisten with pride. "I won't let anything happen while I'm gone!"
Laufey smiles slyly. "Come again?"
Atreus panics. "I mean, I won't let anything happen while you are gone!"
Another grumble erupts out of Kratos, but she simply smiled at him as he blushed.
As the two of them got farther and farther away from the house Kratos walked closer and closer beside her. She giggles softly, not looking up to what she assumed were all too familiar hungry eyes looking down at her. He brushed his hand along her side and down to her swaying hips. She playfully sways them productively as she walks. Then her 40 plus-year-old hip bone lets out a loud pop as her body candidly reminds her just how old she has become. "Oof." She quietly says but the sound of her husband chuckling drowns it out.
She kept walking through the dark woods, both hands gripping tightly onto the Leviathan. She forgot how heavy it felt, how many years has it been since she has swung it? They approached the boat and both got in. She paddled them close to the tree she had wanted to see one last time.
After getting out of the boat and walking a short distance, they approached a tree with her yellow glowing handprint on it.
"I see you are feeling romantic tonight," Kratos says walking up to the tree. He places his left hand onto the white trunk.
"I'm surprised you remembered it, how many years ago did we swear ourselves to one another here?" Laufey asks placing her own left hand next to his own.
"Speak, what is on your mind?" He says dragging his hand across the wood and over to her own. It was at this very spot over a decade ago their hands were tied together, reciting their vows to each other.
With his hand over top her own, She pushes against the tree.
"My time in this world is coming to a...-"
Kratos pulls her hand away from the tree and crushes her entire body into his chest before she could finish. In the rush, she droped the axe onto the ground.
"Enough." Was all he said.
She places her hands onto his lower back, slowly she drags her palms up to his shoulders. "Kratos..."
"Faye enough, I will fix this. Whatever has befallen you I will cure." He loosened his hold on her, then tighten it once again.
"This is not something you can prevent my love." She says, rubbing her face into his chest.
He pulls away and lets go of her. "Let me try."
She picks her axe back up. "Follow me." She says walking past the marked tree, past the barrier. Kratos grabs her hand before she took another step. "You are not well enough to travel this far out. What if something attacked you?"
She pulls her hand away from his and tosses him the leviathan.
"I'll be fine." She winks, walking behind him and attaching something onto his harness.
Kratos looked at the axe in his hand and back to her. She attaches the world serpent ring Tyr gave her onto his back. "This will keep your hands free."
With both her hands guiding his own, she shows him how to place the axe into the ring, then motions for him to hold her hand. She leads them out of the barrier and outside the forest.
Once they reached a clearing she could start to feel her sickness begin to overcome her. She wobbled slightly in her next step but they are suddenly besieged by a draugr. Kratos swings the axe down before the creature could hurt her. Another crawls out of a nearby bush and pointed to her as if alarming others nearby. Kratos makes quick work of them, slashing one's chest open and decapitating the others. As he got farther away from her to fight them off one snuck up behind her and attacked. He threw the leviathan at the monster and sent it flying backward into a nearby rock. He kept fighting with his fists until they were all dead.
Laufey did not fight back. But once Kratos was finished she felt a swell of achievement. She hadn't seen her husband fight in years. This showed her he was still a force to be reckoned with.
Atreus would be safe while traveling with Kratos.
She tried recalling the axe from the draugr impaled onto the rock. It didn't respond to her. She understands why, it really was close. The weapon had already realized. It flew past her and into her husband's hands. He hooks it onto his back and brings his hands down her body. Checking to see if she was injured anywhere.
"I'm fine my love." She smiles, then she takes his hand and pulls him farther away from the trees, hoping to get a better look at the sky and soundings.
The further they leave the forest the foggier the air became. She sniffed once and coughed, he looked to her worryingly. But this cough wasn't from her sickness. She recognizes this smell. She looked around for where the brazier could be. Finally, she looks up and sees it. A scorn pole. It was spewing a thick green poison fog out from it.
"What is that?" Kratos asks following her eyes to look at it. "I saw them many times during my travels. I called them scorn poles. That green fog is poison, don't ever directly breathe it in." She touches the leviathan. "Throw the axe into the flame." He looks at her for a moment, then he picks the axe up out of the ring and hurls it onto the flame. The axe extinguishes the poison fog and replaces it with a cool frost.
Once the smog disappears from the air the night sky comes into view. The full moon and stars shine brightly down below them.
Right below the moon, she could see the outline of a mountain top. On the peak, they would find the portal to Jotunheim. Again, he followed her eyes.
"Before I die." She starts.
"Faye I said enough." He turns to look at her.
"Listen to me." She continues.
"Before I die, I need you to promise me something."
"You will not die!" He grips his hand underneath her chin and brings her face upwards to look at him. "You are the light that pulled me from the darkness. I will not see that light extinguished."
Quickly he brings the hand gently to her cheek to cup it lovingly. "You saved me Faye, you take care of me, of our son. Let me take care of you." He says.
"I'm going to be alright Kratos. It's time for me to go home." She looks into his eyes weakly, she could feel the world begin to spin slightly but had to keep going.
"Your home is with me." He rasps.
"Kratos please listen to me, I need...-"
She loses her balance and stumbles backward onto the ground. Kratos catches her before she falls. A scalding heat forms in her throat. Her forehead felt as if she were on fire. She swallows and pushes through the pain.
"When I die, I want you and Atreus to scatter my ashes from the highest peak in all the realms."
"Faye the boy still needs you as much as I do."
"Please Kratos, do this for me!"
He pulls her closer and cradles her head in his arms.
"You're right. My home is right here" She places her hand onto his heart. "With you and Atreus."
She moves her face up to kiss him softly, only to pull away slightly from him and whisper into his lips. She kept her hand presses down over top his heart.
"You must keep me home, keep me right here, always and forever. Then I will become as immortal as you."
He silently presses his forehead against hers and motions his face down to touch her cheek with his own.
For a moment she feels the wetness of blood from his previous fight absorb into her skin. Then she remembered, draugrs didn't bleed.
He scoops her up in his arms and holds her in both arms as he walks back into the woods. Once he passes the scorn pole he summons the leviathan back and repositioned her into one arm as he catches the weapon. Hanging it onto the ring on his back. He moves back to cradling her once again, walking home silently.
The next day Atreus sat with tears streaming down his face as she told him of her last request. His father stood in the doorway behind him. A yellow bag with golden stitching in his hands.
"You will travel with him to the highest peak in all the realms. The road will be dangerous my love. You must listen to your father." Atreus sniffled frantically, Laufey pauses to give him a moment to catch his breath. "He will protect you, and you will protect him." She reaches out her hand and smooths the back of her fingers down his cheek. He rushes into his mother's arms and cries. Kratos walks silently outside.
While the boys ate dinner she stayed in bed. Writing in a freshly bound journal she had made. Her golden handprint on the cover of it. She wrote Atreus instructions on how her body was to be prepared. Along with her favorite flowers and herbs, she requested mistletoe be scattered along her body before they burn her. Introducing the boy to the plant that would soon come to shape his destiny. Her own way of trying to steer the prophecy back on track. She had marked the trees she wanted to be used for her pyre. The final tree being the one she was married at, a tree keeping the barrier up between her family and the outside world. It would expose Atreus to the cruel gods, but he was ready. And even if he wasn't, his father would be there to protect him.
That night she tucked Atreus into bed. She leans into his forehead and placed a kiss onto his skin. He wraps his arms around her neck and kisses her cheek. Something he had stopped doing the older he got. She keeps still as he forcefully hugs her neck. Allowing him to be the one who let go first.
She brushes her fingers through his hair. Years ago she started cutting it this way. A whisper of a happy memory, her brother, always smiling at her with bright blue eyes. She wonders if Atreus would get to meet him one day? He looked so much like him.
He was missing the beard though she thought. She wondered what Atreus would look like with a beard? Would he grow it long and wild? Or maybe trimmed and braided? Or would he take after his father's old style and cut most of it off except for a little patch on his chin? Laufey smiled, thinking of how silly Atreus would look donning his father's old fashion sense. Tears quickly bubble up in her eyelids as a cruel realization hits her.
She will never see Atreus grow up.
See how tall he gets, hear his deep mature voice, watch him fall in love with a person or passion, be there to comfort him during his moments of triumph or failure.
What will he dreams and goals be What will he struggle to do on his own?
At that moment her resolve was floundered. Immediately, she embraces her son, refusing to let go.
She can't.
He will be lonely without her.
And.
She isn't done being his mother yet.
How could she be?
She still has more to teach him, doesn't she?
Surely there must be more to teach and show him?
In a painful attempt to hide her bubbling fear, Laufey inhaled her emotions along with her tears, leaning in to kiss his forehead again.
"I love you, mom." She hears Atreus say.
Atreus, her little boy. She feathers her hands along his back.
He isn't so little anymore. He's grown so much from that first night she held him in her arms.
And he will keep growing.
The tears disappeared inside her as a comforting warmth found it's way back into her heart. The boy leaned his face up and kissed her cheek.
Laufey kisses Atreus one last time, then let go of her son.
She lay next to Kratos. Tucked into the crook of his arms. Safe and warm. She could feel his hands bringing the tips of her hair to his face and inhaling her scent. She remembers this exact moment years ago. Her, safe in her husband's arms. She pushes her way up to her Kratos' face and kisses him softly on the lips. Sleep was almost upon him, he lightly returned her kiss. Laufey wiggled her way safely back into her husband's loving embrace.
Her husband holding her, her son sleeping peacefully next to them.
She was so happy.
Laufey Closed Her Eyes.
The end.