Fire and chaos and screaming and a haze of magic was what they teleported into when the spell released them into what had once been the Asgardian palace. Corpses that had once been Vanir and Asgardian warriors littered the ground, abandoned amidst the fighting. All around, warriors screamed and fought, clashed and struggled. With the creaking and toppling of marble, a pillar and a section of wall collapsed just behind them. Loki was only just able to teleport them to the other side of the room before it struck where they had been standing.
Three pairs of eyes turned to them and then they were caught in the fighting themselves. Sigyn had only enough time to grab for the spell she had used to conceal the scepter and then she was moving with it, clashing and stabbing and weaving. Loki was at her back, moving with her, guarding her against their blades. Metal sliding against metal, blades sliding through flesh, blood spattering their clothes, spells on the tips of their tongues, one thought pulsing through their minds. Protect each other.
They fought both Vanir and Asgardians alike, some they killed and some they were able to leave unconscious, but they fought and won every step out of that room. In the hall, they discovered exactly how strange the realms had tilted themselves. Asgardians fought alongside Vanir against the Siege Wolves and there seemed more to Sigyn's eye than there had been in the camp. Bodies were too tightly packed together to mount a proper defense or to even raise their weapons without hitting friend and foe alike, but the wolves had neither problem as they darted in and around feet, dragged down unsuspecting warriors and tore out throats.
While they were frozen and watching in disbelief, one wolf seized a fallen, screaming Vanir by the shoulder and started dragging him away. One Vanir dated forward to try and help, but the other wolves closed and protected the retreat. The face wasn't familiar, but the screaming was and it had Sigyn darting through the tangled bodies, the reek of death, and chasing the pair. She was lighter than the warriors without her normal armor and the leaps she took over the wolves startled them even as teeth snapped at her heels and their heavier forms turned to follow her. Howls started the moment they saw her, drowning out the sounds she knew to be Loki fighting to follow after her.
Down the hall, around a corner, weaving through the line of dead, and through a shattered wall she chased them into one of the open courtyards where she stopped dead in her tracks. Behind her, she heard Loki's startled oath at the sight of so many neatly arranged bodies-Asgardian and Vanir alike. Amongst them paced a large, white wolf that was achingly familiar.
"Fenrir," Sigyn breathed and then Loki was shoving her into the room, his back to hers and a snarl on his lips. Her hands tightened on the scepter when the dozen or so Siege Wolves turned their attention from the Asgardian or Vanir they seemed to be guarding.
Large amber eyes framed by white fur took her in before a voice ordered, Down. Dame. One of pack.
The wolves laid their ears flat, but their stances shifted slightly to a less aggressive posture as those looking after injured turned back to watch their charge. From behind her, she heard Loki cast a spell that had her turning and reaching a hand out, the counter on her lips before it struck. "Loki, stop," she whispered in his ear. "Fenrir is commanding them. He has ordered them to stand down. Attacking now may push him to attack us." He turned his head only just enough to see white wolf regarding them. Then, one of the Vanir was screaming again and convulsing and Fenrir was suddenly more interested in that individual than them.
The wolves surged in at that, pushing at their legs until they no longer blocking the entrance. A few crowded around the convulsing Vanir, laying muzzle and paws on shoulders and legs so he didn't hurt himself. Fenrir nudged him onto his side and simply watched as the body changed, the legs grew shorter and thicker. Muscles crawled beneath skin and made Sigyn a little nauseous just looking at it, but then the hair started to sprout and it was no longer an issue.
When it was done, when the muscles had finally settled again and the hair finished growing along the length of his body, he was no longer a Vanir, but a Siege Wolf who had once been a warrior. Sides heaving and torn clothes still clinging to his shoulders, the Siege Wolves howled their welcome for their new brother as he tested new limbs and keened piteously. Fenrir slid up against him and held him steady while he tentatively put weight onto all of his legs and looked back at his tail.
Sigyn had to grab Loki's arm to remain standing upright. It hadn't been something she thought she would ever see again, the transformation of a warrior into wolf form. Her own son had been bad enough, but to witness it with no one holding her back, with no caster managing the spell, it had been something else entirely. Was there a spell active? Was it her own son controlling the magic? There was too little known of them for her to make a proper assessment.
"Fenrir," she said softly and he turned his head to look at her. "Fenrir, come here." She let go of Loki's arm and crouched at his level, holding out one hand while the other maintained a grip on the scepter.
Dame, he said again and eased the new wolf onto the side of an older wolf before he trotted to her, tongue lolling out in a happy pant. Around them, all eyes of the Siege Wolves turned to them and had Loki stepping closer to his wife. The movement had Fenrir coming up short and laying back his ears as he growled at Loki.
Sigyn straightened and stepped back until her back was pressed to Loki's side. "Fenrir, if you attack him, I fight with him. He is my…my mate. Do you remember him? Loki is not your kin, but he adopted you before Odin took your other form from you. He called you his."
Where was Odin? The question echoed through her like a bad taste in her mouth. Between waking from the dream and fighting their way out of that room, enough time had not passed for Fenrir to have freed himself and gathered this many wolves.
A brief flash of an impossibly tall figure presented itself to her and then was gone before she could truly register what was happening. Second sire, Fenrir said to the other wolves and the growls eased. Dame. Two of pack.
She couldn't hear what was replied, but the wolves surged around them and into the room, around the unconscious warriors to exchange positions and tend to each other's wounds. Fenrir closed the distance between them and she dropped the scepter as she bent to embrace him. His fur was scratchy against her cheek.
"Does he…remember us?" Loki asked from behind her. "He certainly seems to recall you."
Yes, Fenrir replied and when Loki said nothing to it, she realized that she was the only one that could hear him. Dream speak, he added to her unvoiced question. Spell of Prey. Dream speak, dame. Dream.
Fenrir yelped suddenly, but there was no physical reason for it, no spell that she had felt surge through her son. She smoothed her hands down his furred sides and glanced discreetly around the room again. Dream indeed. Now that she looked and knew what to look for, she could see it. Fractions of their reality sewn seamlessly together like a patchwork quilt. It shifted-just a little-in certain spots and shimmered for a brief second before settling back into place. How much memory, how much true reality? How to tell Loki without alerting their warden?
She straightened with one hand still fisted in Fenrir's fur. "He remembers us," she said. "But I think it would be best to leave this room. They'll have followed us here."
His eyes lingered on the new wolf for a moment, then he nodded. "Of course," he said and held out a hand to her. She released her grip on Fenrir to take it. The moment her fingers twined through his, she felt the surge of his magic through her-a jolt as much as a warning. She returned the jolt and he smiled grimly. So, he was as aware of their situation as she was. His gaze flicked to the scepter as he took a step back and she followed. Around them, the wolves shifted and watched them.
With a deft movement, he spun her into his arms and gripped the scepter where her hand closed around it. The spell released itself through the jewel and hovered for a moment before it shattered into a thousand fragments and rained down upon the image they were trapped within. The room dissolved into the darkness that filled the cracks between time and space. There was nothing now, save themselves and the image of their son. Fenrir pressed against Sigyn's legs and she felt the growl rumble through him before he, too, vanished with the spell.
Loki's spell completed itself and they were thrown out of the darkness into a blinding light. They hit the ground with such force that Sigyn was jarred out of his arms and the wind was knocked from their lungs. Blinking rapidly and gripping the scepter tightly, her free hand scrabbled blindly against stone looking for her husband.
Around them, she could hear murmuring voices, familiar voices, and she felt the cold fear of certainty settle into her bones. Cool warmth found her wrist and hauled her to her feet, putting her back to another's back. She blinked the last of the stars away and she felt Loki shift himself until their stances mirrored each other's. With her vision clear, she suddenly wished that she were still blind. This wasn't something they had planned for, wasn't something they had ever dreamed would happen.
Angrboda stood at Odin's side, gazing down at the two of them from beside his throne. Fenrir was chained and bound between them, Angrboda's fingers twining idly through his fur even though his hackles were raised and he looked to be contemplating the best way to bite her. In her peripheral vision she could just make out the forms of Asgardian warriors on one side of the room and the Vanir standing with their Siege Wolves on the other. The only sound to echo through the room was that of silence. Amber eyes turned to look at her sidelong and she felt the question without the need for him to ask.
Under the stars and by the light of the moon, Heimdall watched Thor's progress on the last leg of their journey. He waited for them at the point they had arranged by way of the warriors that had caught the Vanir. A curious glance had him looking towards the glade where he had last Seen Loki and Sigyn, but-as expected-they were gone. Another look towards the palace and his king had him freezing and forgetting how to breathe. After that, the night was a blur of abandoned plans and the rushing to gather their warriors to mount a defense. When they persuaded Thor out of flying off to join them he wasn't pleased in the least when he learned what they had had planned, but it was swept aside for the greater concern of their current situation. They knew, even before they set out, that they would be too late, but it didn't stop them from trying.
"The return of the Usurper and the Murderer," Angrboda said, her voice ringing out through the silence. "We might have known. Where there is one, the other follows like a…wolf." Odin just looked strained at her attempt at humor and Fenrir growled softly, his gaze still on Sigyn.
Odin rose from his throne and most of the attention in the hall shifted from them to him. "Liesmith, you were banished from the halls of Asgard for crimes committed. Why have you returned?"
His shoulder brushed against hers when he turned his head to glare at the king that had raised him and the Vanir Queen. "I was under the impression that Asgard had been attacked and required some sort of assistance. The state of the city certainly indicated such assistance was needed," Loki said and a few of the warriors flinched. Sigyn didn't miss a beat of it. Whatever had happened since she had last seen Angrboda, it had had a substantial reach and effect.
Odin's one eye glittered with barely reigned anger. His gaze switched to Sigyn and his lips thinned a little more. "And you, once of my court, why have you returned? Have you reconsidered the loyalty for which you were cast out?"
Sigyn actually laughed at that, her grip tightening painfully on the scepter. "You cast me into the Void for refusing to allow you to implicate my husband in the crimes that the Vanir accuse me for. There is no loyalty to reconsider," she bit back. "There is only bad blood within the ruling families of Asgard and the Vanaheim."
"Then you leave me no choice but to order your arrest. Lay aside your weapons and disable your spells and you will not be harmed," Odin said.
She saw the mutiny in Angrboda's face, saw the dangerous gleam in Odin's eye, and then heard Fenrir order, Hunt, before he bit Angrboda's wrist. The Siege Wolves turned on their handlers, she shot at Odin, and Loki summoned the Casket of Ancient Winters and unleashed its full fury on the Asgardian warriors. Odin parried the blow and shattered Fenrir's chains with it, Angrboda screamed, and most of the Asgardian warriors froze where they stood while the Vanir were chased from the throne room by their own wolves. Fenrir shook the bones in his grip until they broke and made his aunt scream all the more when he dragged her back, using her as a shield against Odin. Sigyn advanced up the stairs, firing steadily at him.
Fenrir jerked Angrboda forward, throwing her balance off, then lunged for her throat. Angrboda rolled away and slipped down the stairs, trying to scramble to her feet. With most of the warriors frozen or fleeing, Loki turned to see his wife had closed with and engaged Odin. Sword against scepter, spell matching spell. Between the sparks and the fizzle of magic, he saw her hand slip for the dagger that she carried and sink it into his side. Odin grunted and stepped away, she followed, closed the distance, engaged again.
Angrboda rose, a spell glittering on her unbroken hand, her gaze locked on Sigyn. Fenrir leapt at her from the stairs, she screamed, and he landed where she had been. He turned back to watch his dame, ears flat. The sounds of another fight made him look to his left and growl when he saw three warriors bearing down on his second sire, too close for him to use the Casket. One bound and he had one under his paws, his teeth in their throat. A gurgling scream, the convulsing of muscles beneath his claws, and his prey lay still. Blood dripping from his muzzle, he looked back to his second sire to see him bury a dagger into one's throat and block a downward stroke from the other. Beyond him there were six more closing in.
"Fenrir! Help her!" Loki yelled at the wolf and sent the White Alpha springing up the stairs in time to watch Odin's sword slice through the scepter and bury itself in her shoulder. As she screamed, he leapt past her, claws extended and fangs bared in a snarl. Odin saw him and vanished before he landed.
Using her uninjured hand, she carefully removed the sword and exhaled sharply with the pain. Blood trickled from the wound even as she set a spell into it and called, "Loki! The spell has been set. Go! Activate it. I can't follow him. We can handle things here!" He cast them a dubious look over his shoulder just before the howls of the Siege Wolves broke the din of his fighting. "Go! This is the only chance we have!"
Dame injured. One pack return, Fenrir commented. The other remains on Hunt. Join second sire if see him.
One final spell was thrown, one last look exchanged with her, and then he was gone in a swirl of shadow and a flutter of cape. Only then did she allow herself to sag against Fenrir when he pressed against her legs. Her uninjured hand clenched in his fur. "We've come this far to retrieve you," she whispered and his ears flicked back towards her voice. "Anything else is just extra."
Prey still needs hunting, he said and she laughed, struggling to right herself.
"That he does," she answered. To the warriors that had paused, she projected her voice, "You can either lay down your weapons or I can allow my son to order his wolves to rip you apart." Behind them rose the growls of thirty-odd Siege Wolves. Predictably, a few threw their weapons down and scattered behind the frozen warriors. Switching the rest of the scepter to her uninjured hand, she smiled at those that remained and said, "Shall we begin?"
It was short and it was bloody and she remembered only the throbbing of pain, the clash of steel against steel, the flash of her magic, and the screams of those felled beneath steel and fangs and claws. Wolves pressed against her legs, ushered her from the room, away from the slowly melting ice and the warriors that were starting to twitch. In the hall, she saw the first of the carnage that the wolves had wrought. Pieces of flesh that she could identify were strewn across the floor, bits of armor still clinging to an arm or a thigh amidst the splashes of blood.
Her gaze skittered across the blood soaked wolves that were her escort. Effective, she would admit, but what happened after the battle? Fenrir's amber gaze caught hers as though he had heard her thoughts, but he gave no answer. As they left the hall, a shockwave that shook the entire palace and cleared the dust from the rafters had her running with the wolves at her heels. They met little resistance and those that they did meet fled at the sight of a full pack.
He had divided himself into six clones to tackle the six warriors that had joined Odin the moment they teleported outside. Engaged with Odin too close to employ the Casket, he had fallen back on magic and steel. There were no tricks that Odin did not know, no spells of his that would give him the advantage. There was only the memory of each betrayal and the rage that those moments gave him to fuel his every movement.
Between the moments that steel struck against steel, they dodged, danced, backed away, circled, parried, and pitted spell against spell. He wasn't certain when he realized it, but he could see where Odin was holding back, knew where he was pulling his strikes. It wasn't an advantage, nor something born of weakness. It was simply…Odin was holding back. He pressed, tried to draw out the power he knew to be tamped down, but no taunt, no jest could push his once-father into fighting with full strength.
Then, Loki found his back pressed to the outer palace wall, both hands caught with daggers barely stopping Odin's blade from slicing into his neck. Muscles straining, he caught Odin's gaze and almost dropped his guard at the tired resignation that he saw. "The spell, boy, complete it," Odin said, voice low enough that only Loki heard him.
The words left his lips and wrapped around Odin before he even thought about it. Loki registered the sick relief that swept across Odin's face just before a sharp pain punched into his side and his once-father vanished in an explosion of power that knocked his head against the wall. After that, he could only clutch at his side and stem the flow of blood while he eyed the crater they had made. It was a victory, he realized with a hollow feeling. Victory and revenge had been snatched from him and knowing it was done gave him no satisfaction.
He leaned heavily against the cracked wall and simply stayed there, breathing hard. One by one, the magic for his clones exhausted themselves and winked out, leaving the warriors suddenly without an opponent and looking around in surprise. A few of them gathered to the edge of the ruin and stared at where their ruler had been only a moment ago. It took them a few moments, but they came to their senses and turned to pin him with angry looks, their hands tightening on their weapons. He measured what magic he had left and found it wanting. There was enough left for a few spells, but not enough for him to find Sigyn and Fenrir and escape with them. Hollow victory or not, there was still plenty of fighting to be had.
As the first warrior took a step towards him, he stirred away from the pillar and flicked a dagger into his hand just before howls announced the arrival of a pack of Siege Wolves. The warriors flinched back and turned their gaze to the newest threat and then fled at the sight of the White Alpha leading his pack. Sigyn darted away from Fenrir and straight for Loki, dropping the sheared scepter to rip away the bloodied armor. It was her own dagger buried past the hilt in his side. The skin around the wound had the raw, shiny look of a serious burn.
"A parting gift," he explained when she looked at him. "When he realized what kind of spell I was using."
"Lovely," she grunted, fingers already tracing a spell around the dagger. Fenrir and his wolves gathered around them, forming a protective ring. Some watched her work with interest and others kept an eye out for any lingering enemies. To her son she said, "Recall your other pack and any that remain outside the palace. Once I'm done with this, it is best that we leave before Thor and the other warriors return."
His hand settled on her shoulder and flared briefly with magic. She cast him an annoyed look for further healing her wound, but she didn't protest. Finally, she was able to ease the dagger out of his side and immediately applied pressure to stem the flow of blood. As she applied another healing spell, the second pack and a few stragglers returned from their various hunts.
Others sent after heir further out. Not full pack, survivors of battle fought, Fenrir said after a moment. Both packs here. Where go?
Loki looked around at the sixty assembled wolves and suppressed a groan. "You don't plan on leaving them here, do you?" he asked.
Even knowing the question was rhetorical, she answered, "No and an inter realm teleportation for all of us is too much to ask of you in this state and I don't have the power to give you for multiple jumps, so we're walking and camouflaging ourselves." With her hands still pressed to his side, her gaze suddenly darted to the east before she grinned. "The stables will have been far enough away that they took no damage. If we're to be named traitors and thieves, would you like to add one more of your blood to this ransack little group?"
Loki's eyes darted towards the stables as well and, just for a moment, longing flickered through his gaze before it vanished behind the steel wall of his will. He shook his head. "Sleipnir is no more than an animal now and we've no time or power to spare to keep the wolves from trying to eat him."
One bloodied palm cupped his cheek and turned his face to hers. "Fenrir has regained his sentience. I helped him do that. We can do the same for Sleipnir, if you're willing. He's your blood, your choice, but if you ask my opinion then I will tell you to steal your child back. At the least, he deserves better than this."
His fingers wrapped around her wrist in a tight grip. A child lost before he had married her, Sleipnir had always been his greatest regret as Fenrir had been hers. "Then we steal another of our children," he said softly.
Evening, with Asgard's shining city at their back and the mountains looming ever presently before them, she decided they had walked enough for the day. Maintaining a spell and walking with most of Loki's weight braced against her uninjured shoulder was something that she was just as glad to be done with as never do again. Having two packs of wolves at her heels and constantly pushing Fenrir to keep them from trying to eat their horse companion was also something that she wished to never have to contend with again.
Choosing a relatively sheltered spot from the elements, she managed to coax Loki to sit against one of the trees where he watched her weave the spells that would shield them from sight, sound, and scent as well as discourage anyone from trespassing too closely to their camp. Sleipnir, still nervous and shying from the scent of so many wolves, chose to stand near his sire and keep one eye on the wolves even as he dipped his head to graze.
A midnight black wolf sidled up alongside Sleipnir and received a mild electrical shock, a well-aimed kick to the ribs, and a sharp yip of an order from Fenrir for his trouble. Sigyn didn't even have to turn around to know that the wolf was slinking off to lick his bruises.
Sigyn could only smile momentarily when she felt Loki's magic ripple to settle alongside hers, reinforcing and accentuating the spells she had already set into place. Then, she had to return to the task of forcing the last vestiges of her power to answer her commands in precisely the way she needed. With sweat shimmering on her brow and the last of her magic finally evaporated, she turned to find his gaze on her.
She paused before approaching him, studying the way that his expression pinched and the way that he frowned. When she came within arm's reach, he lifted a hand to hers and tugged her down until she was straddling his hips and he was able to fit his arms around her waist and bury his face in her shoulder. Smoothing her hands down his shoulders and carding her fingers through his hair, she absently noted that he wasn't shaking and that his grip on her wasn't tight enough to tell her that he was afraid. He seemed…exhausted…and that was it.
As the silence stretched, she kneaded her fingers into his shoulders and sought out the knots that had gathered in his muscles until he released a shuddering sigh and said, finally, "We…underestimated him and he…surrendered. At the end, he surrendered. He knew what spell I intended to use and he allowed me to use it. I haven't the faintest idea of what that means for our future, because I don't…know if it worked." And didn't that just sound like it had been ripped out of him to even contemplate admitting?
Carding her fingers through his hair again, she sighed softly. He wasn't just exhausted, he was doubting himself. "It's okay, Loki, it's alright. If this is another of his schemes, then we fight him when he comes for us or our children and we keep fighting until we're done, but-" and here she felt his arms tighten briefly around her "-when we've a little more power, we can check your spells and see whether or not they host someone living. You did think to incorporate that kind of safeguard, yes?"
He huffed with disdainful amusement, but answered, "Yes."
"Then, we check when we're a little stronger," she said, certainty creeping into her voice, but he still didn't release her or lift his head. There was another question burning at him that she could feel in the tension and lines of his body.
When the last of the knots were gone from his shoulders and Fenrir was beginning to circle them curiously, Loki released a shuddering sigh and asked, "Were we…in the right, Sigyn?"
If she'd had the chance, she'd have ripped Odin's face off and handed it back to him with a smile and a knee to the groin for ever making Loki doubt himself when he should have already known the answer to that type of question. "Loki, love," she said, drawing her fingers through his hair again, but he resisted her draw to get him to look at her. "No. We weren't in the right, but if we had been done right by then we need never have done this. Who are we to choose who lives and who dies as they please? But who was Odin to decide how our children were to be treated and killed when we, the parents, still had right by law to raise them?" And he finally, finally relaxed his grip on her enough that she could lean back and cradle his face between her palms as she continued, "We weren't in the right for killing those that we did, but I wouldn't undo it for all the gold or time in the universe. I wouldn't trade our children for any throne within the nine realms or any outside them. They are worth every ounce of blood I shed, every life I ended and I would do it all again if I had to."
She saw it settle in his eyes and in the lines that smoothed away from his features and she darted a quick kiss against his lips that made him smile a fraction. "You, female, are insane," he murmured and she chuckled.
"Yes, well. It takes a special kind of insane to be married to you," she returned.
And when they checked in the morning before moving on, the spell registered something living inside the wards. Loki still didn't feel the sense of satisfaction he had thought this victory would bring him. Instead, he felt only relief when he looked at Fenrir and Sleipnir and he decided that it was enough, for him and them.
When Thor and his warriors finally arrived, they found that the fight had already been fought and lost. There was only the tending to the dead, cleaning away the debris, and chipping their warriors from the ice left. The treasure room, they reported, was miraculously left untouched despite that their ruler was missing. The warriors tending to their dead brought to his attention the worrying fact that there were so few Siege Wolf corpses among the Vanir.
Finding his mother directing the aftermath of the battle brought him little relief despite that she was alive. Explaining in private what he knew to have truly happened to his father left Frigga a little shaken and a little grief stricken even as she looked more than a touch hopeful. And when she asked the hard questions, he had no answers for how long was proper to wait until he allowed the nobles to crown him or even if he should call his siblings traitors.
Scouts sent to sweep the area around where the Vanir camp produced the expected news. They had fled or vanished and there was no sign of Angrboda. For the moment, Thor set that aside to deal with first securing their walls and the immediate area around them. When that was done, Thor ordered Heimdall to return with the merchants and other non-warriors so that the rebuilding of the city could begin in earnest.
For their part, the people were just as happy as anything with the news that most of the invading force had been killed in the battle that had taken their king. They were unsurprised to learn that their fallen prince had had a hand in Odin's disappearance. Over the next few weeks in the evenings when they had had just a few too many drinks, they would converse quietly over the ways that Odin was rumored to have treated his younger, adopted son. They also took note of the way that Thor seemed reluctant to send any number of warriors after them or name them traitors. Their heir might not have had a hand in his father's disappearance but the way that he almost refused to pursue his siblings told them enough of where his loyalties lay.
Besides, who could forget the way that the second prince's wife had healed their wounds for little to no coin over the years? And then they had to wonder how being less than a warrior had earned as much spite as Loki had for fighting with magic-unless you were one of the warrior class? Therefore, it wasn't surprising that most of the non-warriors found their sympathy leaning a little towards the second prince and his wife rather than their missing king and why, when it was discovered, a little glen was quietly passed over when they did their own hunting. A few individuals even went so far as to discourage the warriors from passing anywhere near that particular glen with stories of better game further into the mountains and miles away.
When the chaos had finally settled enough for them Thor to receive reports on less important items such as the inventory of the stables and what horses were still in good riding condition, no one understood why he laughed uproariously over the frantic report that detailed the theft of his father's once prized steed. It took him a week after that to soothe the head groomsman's pride and get him to return to work.
Three weeks later
Sigyn let the branches of the willow flow from her fingers as she noted the third group of individuals that week look over their hiding spot with interest and then deliberately turn away. If she hadn't known which spells were in place and how well anchored she and Loki had made them, she would have sworn that they knew the wolves were sunning themselves in the glen just three feet from where she stood.
Fenrir lifted his head from the back of one of his packmates and watched the three Asgardians wander away, likely looking for fruits and places where they could set a trap for small game. Then, he returned his muzzle to its former resting place and shut his eyes. Nonpack two-leggers strange, he commented sleepily to her.
She only chuckled before she turned back to renewing the spells on one of the Siege Wolves who had contracted a nasty infection from one of his wounds. The beige wolf looked longingly at the sun where a number of her packmates had gathered and then back to Sigyn. Another moment and she started to fidget and prick her ears when three wolves leapt up from the pile and started a game of chase. They were, of course, careful to avoid the area where the non-prey and second sire were enjoying the sun under the shade of an oak. Sigyn released the female to their game before she joined her husband and Sleipnir in the shade of the oak.
She was still amazed, sometimes, how little effort it had taken them to acclimate the eight-legged, dapple grey stallion to the packs and the packs to Sleipnir. There had been the initial mistrust of predator and prey, but Loki's familiar scent and her coaxing of Fenrir had worked wonders and their children were no longer looking to eat or brain one another.
"Another day, perhaps two, and I will be confident that the wolves who were wounded will be able to withstand an inter-realm teleportation," she said, plucking his journal from his hands to settle against his chest before she gave it back.
"I told you we could have started transporting the stronger ones a week ago. I was strong enough to teleport a number of them a week and a half ago," he replied, making a final notation before he snapped the book closed and vanished it and the quill.
"And this matters how?" she asked. "Tony will have needed time to find a suitable place for us anyways. This just ensures that we have a better chance he has finished dealing with the human laws for such matters." She felt his chest rise and fall in a quick sigh. "Oh, don't be like that, Lok'. I know you're bored, but I want to be absolutely sure."
He chuckled and flicked a bit of hair into her face. "I am not bored as you deem it. I have simply been…idle…too long and I wish to separate Sleipnir from the packs. Tell me you do not see the way that some of them look at him when they think we are not looking."
She tilted her head back against his shoulder and the look she gave him was a mix of amusement and disbelief. "Yes, I've seen it, but I also take note of how quickly Fenrir is to bite those that do try to look at him like another meal, but, I do see your point. Tomorrow is soon enough for us to begin looking at where Tony is on acquiring the land and what spells might be possible to cast in the meantime."
The journal appeared again in his hands and he settled it in her lap, flipping to a particular page. "Now that we have that settled, I want to ask your opinion of something. I have an idea of how we might be able to reverse the effects of the spells that Odin did, but-"
"There is no way to undo a spell anchored into their bones," she interrupted shortly, shifting the book away. It hurt too much to hope and she wasn't sure she could take what hope his ideas would instill in her.
He snapped the journal shut and vanished it, leaving his hand free to turn her chin up so he could catch her eye. "I remember the first cardinal rule of magic well enough, love, and I'm not suggesting that we tamper with the fundamental laws. What I am thinking we may be able to do is teach them to shape-shift, but that would depend upon our ability to teach them how to cast and if they even have the ability to use magic." His eyes slid to Sleipnir's sleeping form and he added, more quietly, "It will also depend greatly upon whether or not we can help restore their sentience to a point where learning magic can be something more useful than a means of survival."
Her eyes closed against the flare of hope that clawed its way into her heart. She had been right, the hope was bitterly painful because she knew the chances of failure. It wasn't until Fenrir trotted over to lay next to her that she realized she had turned her head into Loki's shoulder to hide the tears. It would be, she realized, a task much harder than capturing Odin.
A/N: Thank you to my reviewers: wbss21, no-MY name's Anonymous, and Maia2. Your reviews, as always, are a pleasure to receive and read.
To the rest of my readers: This chapter took a little longer to write since it did turn into something about twice the size of what I normally write. I considered breaking it into two different chapters, but the events interwove themselves far too tightly for me to even look at it like that. Hopefully, you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Also, feel free to take a look at the poll on my profile page. The answers may have an impact on the sequel.