Chapter 13 – Scylla

Thor and Peach charged into the main chamber, spying Osiris and Anubis as they searched the walls. "I do not see the scoundrel!" Thor announced, catching the attention of the two of them. "Foolish boy!" Anubis announced, "You took your time to arrive and then have the nerve to show up with what little help you brought!"

"Calm down brother!" Osiris said, "Anger will only cloud our minds!"

"Listen to your brother!" the two gods heard from the other side of the door. Thor stood proud as Shenlong revealed himself, towering over the two yet hunched forward as if weakened, "This bright young man has freed me while you two busied yourselves with the traitor." Anubis instantly lowered his head, "Shenlong!" his brother called out loud, "Shiva must be in here, we have not seen him leave, and he holds no ability for vanishing!"

"Move the chair of Odin!" the dragon said. Anubis and Osiris both turned to the center chair, "You mean the one Zeus has claimed?" the jackal headed god asked. "That chair is the chair of Odin, even Zeus respects that fact, now move it aside!" Shenlong growled. The two brothers looked at each other, and then at the throne. Grabbing an arm rest each, they lifted the heavy seat, and scooted it aside. Behind the seat, rose a crack in the walls of Yggdrasil, leading to what looked to be a natural chasm, a room much more vast than any they had ever seen. The walls made of thick wood, uneven and wavy, but still smooth. Moss grew up the walls, glowing a brilliant white and lighting the inside of the trunk with light. Mushrooms grew from the walls in what looked to be a spiral stair pattern, leading up into the tree itself. "By Odin's beard!" Osiris whispered.

Chase shook violently as he made his way toward the six headed beast guarding the gates of the city. 'Oh I hope she's not home!' he thought to himself, keeping his hood up. He hoped that his invisibility would keep him somewhat safe from the wrath of the beast he saw at the gate. He peeked around the corner of a house, spying nothing except the wall. He gulped, trying to calm his nerves as he tried not to think about what would happen if she could see through his disguise. He moved just a little more, spying the six headed creature gazing at the ground instead, "It's your shift Charybdis!" one of the heads said. "Try not to devour everyone that comes through these gates!" a second one said. Chase almost believed that she was crazy to begin with, but quickly felt the ground move, and open up right in front of the gate. It didn't crack, but instead just opened up, as if it were a mouth. The jaws sliding back and down, revealing a gargantuan maw with rows of teeth traveling down into the gullet as sand from the sides simply dropped into the hidden beast. Chase gulped again and tried to back off, but looked back up at Scylla, spying all six of her heads and the three dog heads glaring at him, "DECIEVER!" she cried out, all six head talking at once. "EEP!" he squeaked, and turned to run.

She was fast, fast from the start, quickly sliding around the corner of the building without damaging it. She lifted her tail and dropped it in front of the kit, causing him to collide with the large black scales, "You will pay for your trickery!" she said, and rushed in. Chase dove into the flesh and scale of the tail, causing Scylla to instead get six mouthfuls of dirt and sand. She spat out the revolting tast, one still spitting as the other five darted in again. Chase ducked his head and buried himself under her, getting her to bight herself with one of her heads, "GEYAAAAAAAAAAA!" she cried out, and the five turned to the head that had bit the tail, "Watch it!" they all said. "He's going to pay for injuring us!" the head called out, and once again dove for him.

"ENOUGH!" the six of them heard a very familiar voice call out and each of the heads stopped, turning to Odin as he and his Einherjar surrounded her. Odin, without fear of her, stepped up on top of her tail, and dropped down, reaching under the flesh of the tail, and picking up the shaking kit, "But Odin, we warned him not to sneak out!" Scylla announced. "What ails you young one?" Odin asked, getting Chase to look up at him. "This is my home, I'll not let her harm you as long as you honor your word!"

"Ttttttree!" Chase got out, and gulped, trying to calm his own nerves, "Shhhhhiva!" he continued, still shaking. "Can't find Zeus!" As Chase looked into the eyes of Odin, he could feel a power, a calmness overtake him as his nerves settled on a familiar face. "What do you mean can't find Zeus?" Odin asked. "Shiva has frozen the other councilors, and we can't find Zeus anywhere!" Chase said, keeping his eyes on the human god. Odin lifted his head up, gazing at the large tree, "So he's found it!" he said, and turned to Scylla, "Learn from this lesson Scylla, hear what they have to say before you try to take their life!" Scylla turned to the other five of her heads glaring at her. The head that had so angrily accused the kit simply lowered in shame. "Enough arguing, we march on the tree Yggdrasil, to save our world from the bitter cold of Shiva the Azure now!" Odin shouted as he stood upon Scylla's tail again, getting a cheer from his Einherjar. "We march, seeing battle again, testing our skills and proving once and for all that we are the superior warriors!" the god shouted again, earning another cheer from the warriors. "We'll not let Shiva destroy this world in his arrogance, we will defeat him, and send his Frost Giants to the pits of Hell!" as Odin finished, he Einherjar cried out again, and turned to march their way to Yggdrasil. Odin turned back to the monster behind him, "Scylla?" he asked, catching the attention of all six heads, "Will you lead our charge on the tree? I assume Thor sent this little one to fetch you for the battle!" Scylla didn't say a word, instead the six heads smiled, their sharp teeth grinning in vengeance as she turned to make her way to the front of the charge.

Osiris and Anubis stood on both sides of the dragon, holding the weak god up as they made their way inside of Yggdrasil. Thor and Peach leading the way as they hopped from mushroom step to mushroom step, climbing the inside of the tree to the next platform, or branch, neither could tell. 'The coast is clear.' Peach said inside their minds, Shenlong nodding as the two brothers heaved him up one more step. "I see no sign of the Azure." Thor said and turned his head, glancing in between two large roots that stretched towards the top of the tree. There, trapped inside what looked to be a pod of both ice and wood, sat Zeus. The pod itself was filled with clear ice, but the outside was wrapped in what looked to be a flower bud, the pink petals wrapping around it up to the face, allowing who ever looked towards him to see his face, "Zeus!" Thor nearly shouted, and walked up to the pod, "What manner of sorcery be this?"

"What? What have you discovered?" they heard Osiris ask from below. 'Zeus looks as if he's trapped inside ice, but the ice is surrounded by a flower!' Peach told them. "Concentrate little one, use your own mind to show us what this flower looks like!" Anubis shouted as he helped the recovering dragon up the stairs. Peach nodded, closed her eyes and focused on what she had seen. The picture came up clearly, showing the place and thing the bearded god was trapped in. "By the roots of Yggdrasil!" Shenlong said as he was helped up another stair, "That's a life pod! Not many know how the Mythos came to be, but Odin told me that the tree bloomed us into life, giving us the gift of life from the beginning. I had thought he was speaking in riddles to get us to think for ourselves."

'What about the ice?' Peach asked. "Someone has tampered with it." the dragon said angrily, "Turned the sacred bloom into a prison, as long as the petals are surrounding it, the ice is impenetrable!" Shenlong explained. "Then we'll peel the petals from his prison." Thor said, and placed Mjolnir to his belt, gripping the top of the petal on the outside, and pulling as hard as he could. "I'm afraid I can't allow that!" they all heard. Thor Peach peeked out from their hiding place, spying Shiva standing there, one ledge above them, behind him, ten or more Frost Giants ready for war.

Thor removed his hands from the petal, and reached down to the base, pulling as hard as he could to rip the pod out of the tree. "You have little power here!" Shenlong said as he and the other two reached the top. The dragon waved one of his clawed hands to them, telling the two that he could finally stand on his own. "Oh but that is where you are wrong Shenlong!" the Azure said, "I already have the power to grow my own army from the depths of this tree!" The ten Giants quickly became a hundred, then a thousand as they kept stepping forward, grins on their faces as wicked as the one on their master's.

End Chapter 13