Faye gathers what she'll need for a week long trip. A satchel of hacksilver, easily stored foods from their storage, a waterskin filled as much as she can risk, and her Leviathan Axe.
Her husband hasn't come home for two months now. While his absence isn't in any way new to Faye, Kratos has never been gone for so long. She trusts him to protect himself, but the dangers of her land are still foreign to him. Waiting even this long could've been unwise. Possibly catastrophic.
She settled her heavy furs over her shoulders and makes for the door. As she steps out of her cabin, met with chilling wind and flurries of snow, a small voice calls to her.
"Mommy!" Little Atreus gasps, following after her with his own supplies. It's nothing more than a second water skin, a few bites of deer jerky, and his favorite toy. He tries to drag his bow along, but he's still too young to even hold it up right.
Faye had originally wanted to leave her son behind. No where is safer for him than within the stave, but he's only four. He cannot cook or make his own fire. Should he get lost within their woods, the winter would freeze him to death. And if not the winter, animals would seek his meat.
Kneeling, Faye gently takes the bow back and sets it aside. Then, she lifts her boy into her arms and tucks him under her furs, settled his small form into the very strap she used to carry him as a babe. She rests snuggly against her chest and holds her tunic with small fingers.
"Are you ready, Atreus?" Faye asks.
"...It's cold." The boy complains, but he doesn't let go of her.
It's as good an answer as any. Faye begins to walk toward the edge of their forest. "I know, Little One. If your fingers get numb, tell me."
She fights with herself, even now. What if Atreus falls ill again? What if he grows hot with fever and there are no herbs or remedies to find? What if, by trying to find her husband, she loses her son instead?
The knowledge of his future does little to ease her anxieties. Her death is never something she thinks of fondly. There is a reason she left the shrine back in Jötunheimr.
As they leave the protective stave, Faye feels a shift in the air. It smells of danger, like a creature is lurking nearby. Gripping her axe tighter, Faye picks up her pace, her every sense alert. Nothing will catch her off guard.
A few hours into their journey, Atreus grows restless. He wiggles in place, then leans away from her to observe their surroundings. Then, as he's had enough confinement, the boy headbutts her collar. "Down!" He demands.
"Will you keep by me at all times?" She asks.
"Yes! Down, please!" As Faye stops to let her son down, she tugs off a rabbit pelt to wrap around his shoulders. He takes it in one hand, then holds hers with the other as they begin to walk again.
Her son waddles to keep up, his much smaller legs working twice as hard. She does slow for him, but only just enough. They still have a long ways until they make it to the Lake of Nine.
"Hey, Mommy?" Atreus asks.
"Yes, My Son?" She doesn't let her eyes leave the path ahead.
"Did the man die?"
Faye loses her focus. Atreus still finds it difficult to remember the man who comes to live with them every few weeks is his father, not a stranger. Though, with how little Kratos has actually interacted with his son, they might as well be strangers.
She plans to put a stop to that as soon as they find him, no matter the reasons he may have to keep away.
"No, Atreus. He's simply lost."
There's a pause. "Is that why he keeps leaving? Because he gets lost?"
The question makes Faye's heart ache. "Yes, in a way. Your father is very hard on himself." Atreus stares up at her. "He's mean to himself. He thinks very mean things and it makes him want to leave." The forest is nearly silent around them. "But he's never been mean to himself for this long."
"Oh." Atreus says. "Maybe-maybe, we can help!" The boy lightens. "I wanna draw a picture! Will he like that?!"
Faye squeezes Atreus' hand softly. His gloves keep most of the heat, thankfully. "Yes, I think he would love that." She can already imagine Kratos receiving such a gift. He would grumble and huff, but his eyes would soften into liquid gold. He would bring it with him on his hunting trips, as another reminder of his family.
"And I can share my toys! Like you said!" Atreus grins. "I'll let him play with my wolf, since he's sad. But not all the time. I wanna play with my wolf too." As if remembering the toy, Atreus stops them to show off the wooden wolf Kratos carved for him. The teething marks are still clear along the tail and ears.
"That's a good idea." Faye smiles. She doesn't know how her husband can bare to leave. Though, it's not fully true. She knows his love for them is full, but his guilt is far stronger. His fears and worries plague his mind, even as she tries to free him of their burden.
Faye realizes too late that the forest has gone deadly silent. She stops, her eyes scanning over the trees around them. When Atreus asks for her, she ignores him, the warrior in her searching for any sign of disturbance.
There, just past the furthest trees. There's a small clearing that seems unnatural. The grass is kicked up into large chunks and a few trees have fallen, their edges splintered and broken. Not made by an axe.
They move towards the clearing with slow, silent movements. Faye pauses just as she can make out more of it, confirming that the damage was unnatural. A fight must have taken place here.
Knelling, Faye slips her hand out of her son's hold. "Atreus, stay behind this tree. Do not move unless I come for you, understood? Do not move."
Her son looks confused and scared. When she tries to pull away, tears form in his eyes. "No! Mommy-"
"Shhh! Please, My Son, I will come back for you. I promise it, I will. But you must stay hidden!" She whispers.
This time, Atreus lets her stand again, though, his hands are still outstretched towards her. He bites his lip as he watches her take a few steps away. He will not move.
With that comfort, Faye looks back to the clearing and calls her axe in hand.
With powerful strides, she steps past the splintered trees and immediately sees a large gash through the ground. Snow and earth have been kicked up all around here, the trees that once stood in their way are now crumpled like nothing more than fragile weeds.
She walks down the path a few strides before she sees a figure limping toward her. Faye raises her axe, immediately noting the stranger's build and clothing. Slim but strong. Shirtless with sort cropped hair at the top and a beard.
"Stop where you are!" Faye declares. "Were you the one to cause this?!" She gestures all around her.
To her surprise, the stranger laughs. He doesn't stop, still limping closer with a wicked smile on his bloodied face.
He stops several yards away.
"I have no business with mortals." He snaps, spitting blood into the snow. Faye watches as his wounds knit themselves back together.
A god? Possibly Vanir, but she can't take the chance that he's Asire. "I seek my husband. If you know nothing, then I will be on my way." A chance at peace.
The god's smile grows and he stands up fully. His eyes flash with insanity, but he doesn't move otherwise. "Ah, I see. And here, I spent all this energy on nothing. Two fucking months-" He steps forward and Faye readies herself for a fight. "-for nothing!"
Two months.
"Where is the man you fought?!" Faye glares the god down. He's shorter by a good degree, but she knows better than to judge strength by one's height. "Where is he?!" She seethes, the axe blade glowing until it's covered in frost.
The god swings his arms casually, his focus divided. "What? That foreign god? The one I killed?!"
She doesn't rise to the bait. "Impossible." Kratos wouldn't fall like that. He couldn't...
A knife is thrown before her. It's a small, thin blade. The one Kratos made upon their son's birth. A gift for when the boy is older.
Faye's heart squeezes as she kneels to pick it up. It's been dirtied with blood, but there is no other difference. How...her husband...
"I will say, bastard put up a good fight. It took several tries just to predict his fighting style, and even more to beat it! But even he couldn't make me feel. A shame."
Rage, so hot and all consuming that she no longer knows another emotion. Faye stands, her chest heaving as she looks back to the god. Her husband's murderer. "You..." Faye hisses, her words burning like the fire of Muspelheim mixed with the agony of every giant lost to the Asire.
Thousands of voices speak with her as she says, "You will die by my hand!"
A whispered spell, then Faye throws her ax at the God's chest, sending him flying the way he came. She gives chase, her muscles working to push her forward faster and faster until she's reached the god.
"Ah, what a day! The All-Father will be pleased about this!" He stands despite the axe in his chest. "But this isn't my fight." His smile drops.
Faye recalls her axe and pulls back for a second throw when she's knocked away by a deafening crack. She lands hard, then looks up in time to see Thor land beside his half-brother.
The shorter god goes to slip away as lightning dances around Thor's hammer, soon traveling over the rest of his body. Faye runs for the fleeing man, an angered cry ripping out of her throat.
"You will not get away! Thor cannot protect you!"
Mjölnir slams into her side, pinning her to the floor. She cries out and scrambles to move the overwhelming weight.
From this angle, Faye spots a prone form in the distance. She stops, her breath escaping her as she sees familiar red tattoos against ashen skin.
"Kratos..."
Lightning bursts from the hammer and Faye screams once again, pain blinding her. She can barely manage to swing her axe, her muscles stiff and spasming. Mjölnir is knocked to the side and the assault of electricity ends.
She does not look to Thor once she is freed, nor does she follow the god's half-brother. Instead, she runs to her husband, her heart beating in her chest. Faye lands beside him, her frantic hands looking for any signs of life.
The fire that always seemed to burn just within his skin us now gone. His eyes are closed, as if in sleep, but there is no rise and fall of his chest. There is no soft snore. Faye grips at his armor, searching for a wound to heal. Something.
"Get up!" She begs. "Get up, Kratos! Come home with me!"
There's blood in his beard. It trickles from the open gashes across his face. They look so horrible against his pale skin, like the blood circling him in the snow.
"Was it for nothing?!" Faye holds his face, her fingers digging into his cheeks before the energy leaves her. "All that time wasted in guilt...we could've been a family. We both could've held him. Our boy..."
Thundering footsteps stop just behind her. She ignores them, lost in the life they could've had, if she had known. If only she knew. Is that not her purpose, as protector of the giants? Laufey the Just, but who is she here to judge? Who does she have to protect anymore?
All she cares for is gone.
"I want a proper fight." Thor spits.
Faye caresses her husband's face with a gentle brush of her knuckles. "Rest now, My Love." Her voice cracks into a whisper. "Rest." She knows he deserves it. She just wishes he wouldn't leave her alone.
"Fight me!"
The Leviathan Axe frosts over as she lets go of her husband. Slowly, she stands, blood staining her tunic and hands. Her grip tightens as she glares at the God of Thunder. "You will have your fight."
Faye lets her rage consume her.
Atreus shakes as he watches his mother clash against a very big man. It's loud and terrifying and he wants nothing more than to away from here.
She screams as she swings the axe. Atreus can't tell if she's hurt, but it sounds like it. The animals he helps with mother often scream. He always hates when they cry like that.
The cold feels sharper suddenly, right against his cheeks. He shivers and pulls his mother's pelt tighter. It's so cold.
The cold falls down his cheeks and then brushed his chin. When he tries to warm up again, a wet spot forms on his hand.
"Well, well!"
Atreus screams as he turns, his little heart beating fast. It's that man! The one mother was yelling at!
He creeps closer, a weird smile on his face. It's not like the one Mommy gives him. This one is too wide. "You must be the giant's little brat, huh! Is that your momma, Boy? That her getting beaten?"
Atreus doesn't move. His legs shake and he almost falls down.
The man gets closer. "Oh, but the foreigner was your papa, huh! That makes you half god! Oh, All-Father will like you! Maybe as a gift, hm?"
Twi hands reach out for him and Atreus tries to run, but he's grabbed by the arm. His skin pinched and he cries, trying to pull away. "No! No!" Atreus screams, his eyes leaving the scary man to go to his mother. She's really far away now.
A hand squeezes around Atreus' mouth and he screams louder, the sound muffled. "Nuh uh! Can't have you calling for Momma, can I? You know, they really are good for nothing!" The man picks him up, pinching more of his skin as the boy is grabbed roughly. The rabbit pelt blows to the snow, settling right beside his dropped wolf toy.
Atreus tries to reach for his very favorite toy, but the man keeps him held tight. They begin to shuffle away, leaving both toy and mother behind.
"Mommy!" The cry is smothered, not near loud enough to reach his mother's ears. Especially not as she's thrown through the air again by that big man.
She grows further and further away, until Atreus can't see her. He kicks and fights, but the man just won't let go. He screams for his mother, fat tears making his vision blurry.
He will never see her again.