“After my wife passed away I was quite depressed and even living in Midgard was more of a curse than anything. My only joy was being there to see my son grow up but then watching him go through trials and tribulations like I had caused me to think I’d cursed him.”
“Dad, that’s ridiculous; it was and is my life and only I can screw it up, not you.”
“Thank you Jack, sometimes your old man’s a fool.” He smiled, which I took as a good sign. “One day after I met you at your place for breakfast, I was walking home when I saw him again. The scars on his face had healed well but I could tell he wasn’t all there, mentally. He told me that I needed to leave Midgard, that if I wanted to save the only person who meant anything to me, that I needed to go back to my cave and wait.”
“Who was it dad? You’re avoiding telling me something here.”
“Let me finish. The only person who I cared about anymore was you. I asked him why I had to leave but he said nothing. He handed me a returner and said it would take me to the Great Forest where I once freed him. He called this his retribution for freeing him all those cycles ago. In the blink of an eye he was gone.”
To think that this confrontation had taken place so close to my place made me sad. After breakfast, I had gone down into the basement to wash my practice jersey for later in the day.
“I wanted to go back and say goodbye, but I didn’t know how to explain all of this. I just had to trust his judgment and take the chance. It turns out he was right, you needed me here son.”
“Dad, just who is this man? Who is my grandfather?”
Rumil finally piped in for the first time since retelling the story of us being attacked. “He has the right to know, even though it is not the most comfortable of topics to share. Jack is strong enough to handle the truth.”
Dad sighed and looked away. After a minute he spoke. “Jack, the mystery man in this whole story is obviously your grandfather. But please remember things are much different here than they are in Midgard.” Another deep breath followed. “The name of your grandfather is Loki.”
Chapter 33 - Icing
So my dad was a giant wolf and my grandfather was a lunatic. I hoped they had enough money to cover my therapy bills when, or if, I ever made it back home.
I think all three of them expected me to have some great meltdown about this latest revelation, but after awhile you become numb to it all. I just shrugged and said, “Well that kind of sucks.”
The tension from the room disappeared and they all laughed either with me or at me, I couldn’t tell. Finally, Rumil broke the silence with a question that I probably should have asked much earlier. “So how did you save Jack?”
Dad looked a little uneasy. “Well he needed blood and he’s my son after all, so I let your shaman use mine to replenish his. Hargna, it might be more appropriate for you to tell the rest. This isn’t my area of expertise.”
“It was quite simple actually, the blood of your father acted as the healing agent. It seemed to speed up the body’s natural healing process. We did have to use quite a bit to stabilize you at first, but once that was accomplished the puncture wounds began to close up within hours.”
“Good lord, how long was I out?”
Dad and Rumil looked at each other. Rumil was the one who fielded this question. “Well Jack, you have been here four nights so far. We were actually getting worried, but now you have awoken, thank The Norns.”
Forgetting that I had been shot in the chest due to how well it had healed up thanks to dad’s super blood, Rumil gave me quite the hug. It both hurt and felt nice all at the same time.
Hargna made mention that he had a few things to do around the Darklighter Stronghold and said he would check back in later. After he left, dad began to pepper Rumil with questions about life in general. I guess she had visited him on a few occasions when she was a lot younger.
“Well kids, I’m sure you two would like to discuss things without overprotective parents around, so I’m going to go see if Hargna needs any help. But before I go, I have both a request and a gift for you Jack.”
“What do you need dad?”
“First, I’d like to know if I could have Hrotti from you. It was originally meant as a gift from my dad to me and even though we rarely speak, I would like it.”
Who was I to turn my dad down? “Of course you can dad, it was meant to be yours. I’m sure you could use it better than I could anyways.”
“From what I hear you definitely could use the practice. That is why I have a gift for you.” He pulled a dagger out of the sheath attached to his side. It looked very much like the dagger he had described earlier in his tale.
“Dad isn’t that the dagger Alviss made for you?”
“Yes it is, but much like my father wanted to give me Hrotti, I want to give this to you. I didn’t name it or anything because it’s my tooth they used and that’d seem ridiculous. Seeing as it’s yours now and all, proper weapons should have a name.”
“Thanks dad. I’ll try to do you justice and come up with a cool name.”
As he got up, he gave me a pat on the shoulder and told me once again how I made him proud once more. With both dads gone, I could see Rumil was full of questions.
“Are you sure you are okay with everything? I have lived here all my life and what your father told you would be enough to make anyone rethink everything.”
“At the end of the day, he’s still my dad no matter what he is or who his dad is. I know it might sound weird but I’m just glad my dad is okay and that he’s here now.”
I looked down at my new dagger. Hrotti had served me well and saved my life, but this one felt more like mine. Maybe one day I’ll have kids and can continue our weird family tradition of giving them a dagger. I also had to give this thing a name. All the cool weapons had names after all and this weapon deserved that.
“So let’s come up with a name for my dagger shall we?”
Rumil and I sat there for a long time throwing out silly names. At first, we tried to be serious about it but then it just dissolved into who could come up with the dumbest sounding name. When I unleashed dingleberry, I got a confused look. Once I explained it to her, confusion turned to revulsion.
“That is foul Jack Skelton! Why would humans come up with names for such things?”
“Well that’s because humans are crazy and we do crazy things Rumil.”
She huffed and looked away. “We all know what crazy things you have done. I forgot one thing,” and like that she just started crying and whacking me with her hands. It was like zero to sixty in a split second. “Never ever do that again! By all rights you should be dead! You are a foolish man, you stupid, foolish, sweet man!”
I knew she was upset about what happened and it was about time she let it all out. But if I hadn’t of taken the arrow, who’s to say the situation would’ve had a happy ending? Fate was smiling on me greatly as witnessed by all the miraculous events that occurred to make sure I survived this day. When she cried herself out, I got the nerve to speak again.
“I know you were worried, but I’m still here. Let me make it up to you.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“Well, I could tell you a story about my life on Midgard. How about a story about the greatest hockey game I ever played in?”
“This hockey is the violent competition played on ice you were telling me about when we first met?”
“Yeah, that would be the same one.”
“I would enjoy that very much. I expect this to be a most exciting story!”
Well I hoped it was exciting, but I knew for sure that it was a pretty damn good game. Just thinking about it made me feel like home again.
****
“Hey Jack, is that your dad in the stands I see?”
I looked over to where Stansky was pointing and sure enough, my old man came out to the game. Things haven’t been easy for him lately.
“Holy crap, it really is him.” He looked over and I gave him
a thumbs up. He gave me one back and smiled.
“I know it’s been a few months, but are you guys doing okay?” Stansky knew both of us had taken the loss of mom in that car accident badly. She was the glue that held the family together.
“I’m holding up better each day, but dad just doesn’t seem to have the will anymore. I can barely get him to come over now that Meg and I are divorced. I think he was hoping that she’d see the error of her way and come running back to me.”
“I’m glad she didn’t, I would’ve had to smack you around. I never liked her, not even for a minute.”
“Stansky, Skelton!” The lovely dulcets of Coach Clayton’s voice rang through the air. “Would you school girls quit gossiping and get ready! We got face-off in five minutes!”
Coach’s rant brought me back to reality. The Huskies were in town and most of the guys on the other team still remembered my playing days with them. Most of them probably agreed with management’s decision to send me packing. It was time to show them who was still playing at the top of their game.
I took the opening faceoff and won it cleanly. I don’t know if it was because we were playing the Huskies or because dad was in the stands for the first time in weeks, but I felt incredible. I could already tell I was in that zone where nothing could go wrong.
Stansky had the puck and was moving into the offensive zone. He chipped it deep and I went after it. One of the Huskies got there first but I lowered the boom on him. The crowd went crazy, filling the air with electricity.
Marty Callahan was on the right wing opposite Stansky and he got to the puck before the Huskies could. He skated around and sent it back to Stansky on the left side of the goal. The defense collapsed and left me wide open as I drifted back to the right side. Stansky saw it and sent a beautiful pass my way. Winding up as high as I could and coming down as hard as my arms would let me, I crushed the puck. The Huskies’ goalie had no chance as the puck went right by his outstretched glove and into the back of the net. Less than thirty seconds into the game and I already scored. Coaching huh? Not this guy, at least not yet.
There was no more scoring in the first period, but each time I was out there I either got a good shot off or blasted someone into the boards, firing the crowd up even more.
When we got to the first intermission, Clayton was fired up. “Skelton, that is man’s hockey out there! Damnit son, you are playing like a man possessed!”
He then turned on the rage and bit off Oleg’s head. “Thorston, I swear to whatever God you pray to, that if you take another stupid penalty I’m going to shove your precious stick so far up your ass you’ll be tasting wood for the rest of your miserable life!”
The rest of the intermission was then taken over by the assistant coaches who went over what plays they were running and how to counter. Within no time, we were headed back to the benches to start the second period.
The first two shifts were pretty uneventful. It was when Thorston’s line got out there that the fireworks happened. One of their goons took a run at Stansky, who was pulling a double and got him pretty good. The ref signaled for a penalty but Thorston took things into his own hands, vigilante style. It took one punch to knock the goon’s helmet off and another to lay him out cold on the ice. I remember Clayton nearly wetting himself.
“Did you boys see that? I love it! Skelton, you’re heading up the power play headed our way. Put that biscuit in the basket if you know what’s good for you!”
Sure enough, there were matching fighting penalties but the Huskies’ goon was also called for a two minute charging penalty, so we were on the power play, just as coach predicted. For the first minute we couldn’t get the puck into their zone, but after a quick line change that got Stansky and Callahan back on the ice, we took control.
Callahan sent the puck to the top of the zone where I was manning the point. Stansky had drifted in front of the goalie and I could see he was blocked pretty well, so I did what I did best, I unleashed my slapshot. I wound up and let it fly as hard as I could. This time, the puck hit one of their defensemen in the leg. While he went down like a sack of potatoes, the puck ricocheted off of him and right into the back of the net. The place erupted and the organ struck up the fight song. The Huskies couldn’t stop us on this night.
Unfortunately, that good feeling didn’t make it out of the second period. With two minutes until the second intermission the Huskies captain Jake Kent got a good bounce and put the Huskies on the board.
Once we were in the locker room, Clayton laid into us. “How the hell did you boys let them get back into this game? When we get back out there remember what we do. We shoot, we hit, and we put the puck into the back of that damn net!”
The start of the third didn’t inspire much confidence. I’d just ended my shift and delivered another brutal hit, when the Huskies got an odd man rush into our zone. A few passes later, they had tied the game at two. Between our lack of effort and Clayton close to having a coronary, I wasn’t sure we could finish the game.
The third period was as mean and angry as any I can remember. Thorston came back from his fighting penalty with vengeance in his eyes. When he was out there, no man was safe.
Callahan had a chance to give us the lead again but his shot hit the post and bounced away. As the game started to wind down and overtime seemed inevitable, Clayton called a time out.
“Listen boys; don’t play this one for me. Look over at Skelton, this team thought he was trash. Do you want a team that thought our captain was trash to win in our damn house? I didn’t think so! Now get out there and end this game so we can enjoy an early night!”
I didn’t like being brought in as the motivator but he had a point. I didn’t want to lose to these guys, especially with dad here. It was time to end this.
We started our final shift with Callahan stealing the puck and coming back into our zone to gather the troops. He started going on the right side and to clear a path for him, I drilled one of the Huskies’ forwards hoping to steal the puck from him. Callahan shot into the zone and dumped it down for Stansky.
I got into the zone as fast as I could as Stansky sent it back to Callahan. The Huskies went after him as he had a clear shot to the goal. For some reason, he didn’t shoot it. Stansky was yelling like crazy and Callahan waited until the last possible second before he took a hit and passed it to me.
No one was in the middle with me again and their goalie was helpless. I rushed towards the goal, faked a shot, and then slid the puck right into an open net. My third goal of the game and it was the winner.
I looked up and dad was going crazy. Clayton was yelling and hitting everyone in sight. With less than five seconds left on the game clock, we did the face off, the buzzer sounded and the game was over. You would’ve thought we won the cup that night. Everyone mobbed me after the game and the best part was the postgame get together afterwards. Dad actually popped in to Hooligans and had a beer with me.
****
With the story over, I prepared myself for the questions to follow. As it turned out, Rumil had remembered quite a bit of what I’d told her from before. This time the questions were more centered on the minor details such as penalties and play stoppages. Her biggest gripe was icing the puck. In her opinion it was a complete waste of time and detracted from more hitting.
“When you called it icing, I just expected something more exciting. To give such a name to something that has no point does not make sense to me.”
That just gave me an idea. “Hey, why don’t we give it some meaning then? Doesn’t Icing sound like a pretty cool name for my new dagger?”
Chapter 34 - Changes
Dad had laughed for awhile when I told him what I decided on naming my dagger. “Your mom would laugh at that irony! She thought icing was a total waste of a call.”
“Well then, this dagger will be in honor of all women who don’t understand the sport we love!” That snarky comment got me punched in the arm by a very strong elf-girl.
�
��Jack,” I could tell dad was about to go into something serious, “you need to learn to fight. Taking a beating and getting a lucky strike in isn’t the way to survive here. Starting tomorrow, Hargna will assign you with a dark elf to teach you some basic one on one combat technique. My hope is that you never have to use anything you learn, but here it’s better to be safe than dead.”
It was Hargna’s turn to continue this train of thought. “You are still healing from the attack, but I think the sooner we can get started the better. Tomorrow, I would like you to observe and maybe get a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses. Each one of our races has them and so do you as a human. Find out yours and how to use them against us.”
I sat there thinking for a little bit. The fact they wanted me to learn basic fighting skills meant that it might be awhile before I was able to get home. That lead to the thought of did I really want to go home which in turn started blowing my mind.
Pulling myself back into the present and hoping to just think about one issue at a time I looked over at Rumil. “I thought you were going to protect me and now I need to learn how to fight? Giving up on me already?”
“No Jack, never! That is not what this is abo…” I know it was mean but I can’t help myself sometimes. Dad knew what I was up to and I could see he was barely keeping a straight face.
“Rumil, I’m just kidding, to lighten the mood you know.” The rest of us starting laughing but Rumil put on the mad face. No matter where you are, men will always annoy women to no end.
“I am glad you all find such humor in my confusion and discomfort.”
“Well everyone, it has been a long day for us all. Let us retire to our rooms and see what tomorrow brings shall we?” Oh Hargna, you really knew when to get out of the oven when it was getting hot didn’t you?
I got the silent treatment most of the way back to Rumil’s room, but when I went to open the door, I got a sharp pain in my chest and winced quite a bit. Did I totally play up the still wounded and physically vulnerable card? You’re damn right I did. And did it work like a charm? You’re damn right it did. From that moment on she was right back to her sweet and caring self, with a touch of overbearing. After getting ready for bed and lying down, I could tell there was still something on her mind.
Power Play: Act 1 Svartalfheim (Ragnarok on Ice) Page 13
