“I anticipated such arrogance from Asgard! They only send one to rescue Loki Firestarter?” He whipped his hand through the air and a gust of wind knocked us both down. “Do you not know who you are dealing with? I am Geirrod, the Warlord, and the first ice giant to master the elements!” Another wave of his hand and the snow intensified.
“Loki, if you have any good ideas, now would be the time to share them!”
I did not. The wind and snow was so much that I could not even ignite my runes for fire. It seemed my brother was having just as much trouble keeping Mjolnir crackling with lightning. What we needed to do was direct his efforts elsewhere. “If I distract him, do you think you can make him sizzle?”
“I only need a brief moment to strike.”
“Good, because a few seconds is probably all I can get you.”
I could not run into the wind as it was too strong, so I ran parallel. I knew he had to have limitations to what was possible and within thirty paces I broke free from the blizzard. The oaf was too busy making his storm stronger that he did not see me yet. I ran towards him and I ignited the runes as best I could. Fire formed in my hands and I let it grow into a good sized fire ball. I was just in range and threw it towards Geirrod and just as it was about to hit him, a wall of ice formed and fizzled the fire out.
“It will take more than a fireball to stop me.” He laughed at me, which irked me greatly. I was about to retort with another when ice formed at my feet, holding me in place. “You amuse me, so after I kill Thor, I will return you to your rightful place in my tower.”
I might not get along well with my brother, but I most certainly did not want to see the lummox dead. Just as I was crafting another brilliant plan, one of my falcon friends landed on my shoulder. I looked up and saw the other one circling the battlefield. Not knowing what else to do, I turned and talked to the falcon. “Do you think you can create a diversion for us? Just long enough for my brother and I to put an end to this?” I hoped the falcon spoke the Common Language.
It squawked twice and took off into the air. That was kind of deflating for me, but I ignited the runes again and concentrated the fire at my feet. The ice was thick but I knew I could break through it.
“Get away from me you stupid birds!”
I looked up and could not believe my eyes. The falcons were dive bombing the giant! He was trying his best to swat them away but they were moving too fast. The storm was starting to falter! I turned up the heat on my ice shackles and they finally broke. I did not have much left but I created another fire ball and tossed it at the giant. Not paying attention to me, the fire hit his head and his hair caught on fire.
“GAHHHHHH!!!!” The giant’s cry broke through the valley. He took his hands and using the cold started putting out the flames, but one of my falcon friends took advantage and put a talon into his left eye. Another loud cry broke through and there was blood running down his face. The storm had now died off completely and now in the middle of the snow field stood my brother, lightning covering his body.
“Now you pay giant!” He took off at speeds I never could match towards Geirrod. At the last moment, he jumped and took a mighty swing with the hammer. Geirrod was sent flying back into his castle. Thor quickly shut the gate to the keep and with his lightning, sealed the giant door shut.
“Nice one brother! I take back at least five negative things I said about you!” I ran over to him and gave him a hearty pat on the back. “Though, if it was not for my fire, you would never have had the chance, so maybe I will take back only three.”
“Loki, shut up for once in your life.” Then he started laughing. I joined in because by all rights we should be dead and not the giant. The falcons were still circling and I saluted them.
“THOR!! LOKI!!” Oh no, that did not sound like a dead giant. “Run away like always little Aesir! I will never forget what happened today. Vengeance shall be mine!”
“I think we should take his advice brother, the time for us to go is now.” The wind picked up just a little and it started to snow again.
“Not yet, let us see how great an ice giant he really is.” Thor being the massive show off he is went out and found the biggest boulder he could find and rolled it in front of the castle gate. I did not participate in such madness and just waited for the buffoon to finish. Finally satisfied, we went back to Asgard.
****
“So this Geirrod’s been burned, battered by Thor, blinded in an eye, and fried? And that still wasn’t enough to kill him?” I didn’t even know what to say at this point. The battle had been raging on, but down here we had no idea what was happening. The story though did give me an idea. I didn’t know if it would work, but we had to try. “Alright team, I don’t know if this will work but we got to try.”
None of them had the look of confidence, but Rumil was the first to speak up. “What do you want us to do?”
“We are going to have to move fast and split into two teams. If this comes together, that giant won’t know what hit him.”
Chapter 50 - Revelation
“Young Jack, I have learned in a very short amount of time to trust you. However this plan is downright foolish.” There was my new best friend Garm instilling all the confidence in the world in me.
“Did you think of anything else?” That was met with silence. “I’m not trying to kill myself, I promise. But I am also not going to sit around and do anything and hope for the best.”
“You have a lot of faith that the one eyed giant will believe this ruse.”
“Well there’s only one way to find out, so let’s go.” Garm and I set off towards the battle field. It wasn’t hard to tell where the fighting was taking place. Between the snow and wind picking up, we also heard dad’s howling and Loki’s crazy laugh.
Finally we made it and could actually see what was happening. The giant must not have been as strong as he was before; the snow and wind weren’t nearly as strong as Garm told in his recount. However, the tall giant was seemingly having no problems using his ice to keep them all at bay.
At around twenty-five feet tall, the giant was impressive. His head was horribly scarred with burn marks and he wore an eye patch over the left side. I could also see effects from this battle as his legs were clawed up and I could see fresh scars on his arms from both fire and lightning. That was the extent of the damage though and I could tell that Thor, Loki, and dad were starting to run out of energy.
“The ladies are in position young Jack. With the wind blowing our direction it was easy to pick up their scents. They also should have a much easier time getting the arrows to the target.”
“Do you remember what you’re supposed to do?”
Garm glared at me. He could be seriously scary when he wants to be. “I remember exactly what my part is. Now unwrap this ridiculous contraption and give me the signal to go.”
I unrolled the string to the homemade bird kite I put together. Luckily, Loki had a lot of weird crap in his workshop and I found enough feathers and materials to make it look somewhat convincing. The plan was simple in theory but ridiculous in practice. I would operate the kite, hopefully distracting Geirrod due to his bad experiences with birds.
The girls, each with three arrows jerry-rigged with explosive packets, would send them at the giant. Rumil, with her last shot would hopefully pin the bird kite to the giant. Once that was done all we needed was Loki to light the string on fire and set off the explosions. Rube Goldberg would be proud.
“Garm, take care out there and don’t get killed.”
“Worry about yourself. All I have to do is relay this lunacy to Master Loki. You are the one going to be out there like a fool.”
I don’t know why, but I gave the dog a hug. I’ve always had a soft spot for them I guess. Garm just sighed and patted me on the back with his overgrown paw. “Alright buddy, let’s show this ass-clown who’s the boss.”
I got the kite ready and got myself into my starting position. After a silent five count, I gave Garm t
he signal and he went off towards the three of them. The wind made it easy to get the kite up high and soon I was close enough where I could send it towards the giant. The bird kite was too high and while I was trying to get it down closer to his head, the first arrow hit him right in the center of the back.
“WHAT IS THIS?!” Geirrod let go a battle cry and it was ear splitting. I had to hurry and make him think it was the bird or else he would go after the girls. I finally got the kite lower and dive bombed it past his bad eye. “USING BIRDS FOR YOUR DIRTY WORK AGAIN LOKI?!”
He swatted at the kite, but being in his blind spot, he was missing pretty terribly. He let loose another cry, a second arrow had hit him. I gave a quick look over and saw Garm had made it over to the group. Thor and dad went back on the attack, but Loki hung back. Good, that meant he was being briefed.
Thor and dad kept at it though, attacking when they could, but the ice giant was one tough hombre. I kept running and eventually got the kite positioned right behind his head. Just when it looked like the plan was going to be a success, a giant wolf came crashing down way to close for comfort. I was knocked off of my feet and lost my grip on the kite.
“Dad, are you okay?”
He groaned and rolled himself over. “Jack, do I even want to know?”
“The bird, that was me dad! We had a plan in place to blow the giant up.” I started looking around but the kite was floating away in the wind. Great, there went our one chance to light the fuses on Geirrod’s back. I quickly explained to dad what we were doing. We needed a plan B.
“So you’re telling me that this angry giant now has five arrows loaded with gun powder on his back?”
“Pretty much yeah. Good plan huh?”
He shook his head at me. “Son, why don’t you just have my father throw a fireball at him? Wouldn’t that be a lot easier?”
Well that would be. In my experiences, the more convoluted the plan, the better story it was to tell later. Now we just needed to ensure there would be a later for us. Maybe what we needed here was simple. “How accurate is he with those fireballs?”
“I’m sure he can hit whatever target you need. Now get on, we need to hurry. Thor can only hold him off for so long.” I hopped on and dad road off towards Loki and Garm. Thor was still fighting, but it looked like at any moment his strength would run out. Geirrod spotted us running and sent a wave of ice at us. Dad jumped over it and we landed near Loki. I got off and ran over while dad went to give Thor back up.
“Gramps, I need you to come with me!”
“What did you call me?”
“You’re my grandpa and I’ve decided to call you gramps, but I need you to focus and come with me!” Loki looked taken back for a second then gave me the okay. I hopped back on Garm. “Sorry man, but I need you to get us out this guy’s attack range quick. Then I need you to go give Rumil the okay to shoot her last arrow.”
“I hope this plan is better than the last.”
“It is. After some consulting, I simplified things. Just tell her to aim it as close to as many of their other arrows as possible.”
We made good time and avoided the brunt of the battle. Geirrod had taken to pulling huge chunks of earth up and tossing them at whatever target got close enough. We had to dodge a few times but soon we were in the clear. Garm dropped me off with Loki and went off towards the girls.
“Listen, Rumil’s going to shoot one last arrow. Right before it hits the giant’s back, can you set it on fire? All the arrows are equipped with the black powder from the lab.”
The look on his face was shear excitement. “You plan to blow the giant up!”
“Yes, I do. But I need your help. Can you do it?”
Instead of the happy insane Loki, his face morphed into one of deadly calm. “Yes, I think I can.”
Garm had made it to Rumil and a moment later I saw the arrow fly. Loki closed his eyes and I could feel the heat from his hands. As the arrow closed in on the giant, his eyes whipped open and he sent a small fireball right at the tale of the arrow. The arrow lodged itself near some of the others sticking out of his back.
Just like a fuse, the fire made its way down the arrow until it came in contact with the gunpowder. Explosions filled the air and screams of anguish followed. Thor and dad had taken their cue and were running as far away as possible. Geirrod had fallen forward and his back, or what was left as it, was a mess. Blood and bits of giant covered the landscape.
We started walking over and by the time we got to the smoldering giant, Thor and dad were there. I heard a groan come from Geirrod. “He still isn’t dead?”
“He will be soon Jack, but it looks like he still maybe conscious.” Dad was back in human form and walked over to the head. “Geirrod, who told you where to find Thor and Loki?”
I don’t know if it was a laugh or a death cough, but something came from the giant. “That is a most interesting…” A couple more coughs came from him, he didn’t have long. “An interesting question indeed. A light elf freed me and directed me where to get my revenge.”
Rumil, Garm, and Sigyn had finally reached the spot we were. Sigyn hugged Loki and Rumil came over and was inspecting me to make sure I was still complete. While this was going on, dad continued the interrogation.
“Did this light elf have a name?”
In a little more than a whisper the giant replied. “I have no regrets for exacting my revenge against the brothers. As I face death, I will answer this one last question.” He coughed again and even more blood came out. “The light elf who freed me is named Azmodeous.”
Chapter 51 - Valhalla
No one said anything for a long time. Loki decided the giant deserved a proper burial and had set him on fire Viking funeral style. His body was too big to move but eventually all that remained were ashes. The fire too had burnt itself out as we looked on. Garm had tried numerous times to get in touch with Hel with no luck. Each time he said it was as if the connection had been broken.
“We need to find them and quickly.” I felt like I needed to say something. All these incredibly powerful individuals looked lost now. They needed a captain, someone to rally the troops. It was my turn to step up and help them. “We should break off into two teams again. One should return to Svartalfheim and the other should go forward on towards Valhalla.”
“Who should go where son?”
“Dad, I want you to lead up the team to Svartalfheim. The dark elves know you and will listen to what you have to say. Loki and Sigyn, would you go with him as support?”
Sigyn answered for them quickly. “Of course dear, we will find out what we can and make sure the situation is stabilized.”
“Okay, Thor, Rumil, and Garm – you’re with me. We’ll track down the delegation and confront Azmodeous. Do we have any questions before we split up?”
No one said anything. I hugged dad and Sigyn one last time. Loki just patted me on the back and gave me one of his knowing psychopathic looks.
Just before they left, dad looked back one last time. “Jack, the most important thing for you to do is get home. If the chance opens up, promise me you’ll take it.”
I didn’t know what to say. The thought of abandoning my friends for my own wellbeing didn’t sit well with me. “I can’t make that promise dad. After all, I’m as hard headed as you.”
“At least promise me you won’t die doing anything stupid then?”
“Now that’s a promise I’ll do my best to keep.”
Knowing that time wasn’t on our side, everyone wished each other good luck and both groups were on the move in opposite directions.
“If they took the most direct path, we should be able to pick up the trail from here by day’s end.” Thor then set the pace and the rest of us followed.
A few times I reached over and grabbed Rumil’s hand and gave it a squeeze. I knew she was worried about Hargna but something told me that elf was a hard one to kill. Eventually, we stumbled upon the remains of a camp just as the sun was going down.
Thor looked around a little bit too. “I agree with your assessment Jack. I see no signs of a struggle either.”
“Azmodeous would have chosen his spot well. My people would have come prepared for a fight.” Rumil was right. When they were attacked, the dark elves would have put up one hell of a fight.
“Wasn’t an Aesir traveling with them? Hod or something?”
“According to Mistress Hel, yes he met them and was escorting the party the rest of the way. He would know the area and if he was in on the plot could have lead them to an ambush sight.”
Garm had a point, just how deep did the plot go? “Why don’t we rest here for a bit, then we can use the darkness to help us track without detection.”
We all sat around the burned out ashes from the previous fire. Thor, who took the brunt of the damage from Geirrod’s attack quickly fell asleep and Garm was out pretty quickly after him. They both deserved a few hours of peace. Rumil and I however were wide awake.
“We’ll find your dad, you know?”
Rumil had some tears in her eye, not quite crying yet but maybe on the verge. “I know Jack. I just hope we find him alive.”
I pulled her close and kept an arm around her. She started to cry and I didn’t say anything. In times like this I have learned it’s best to let it run its course. Eventually she stopped and when she wiped away the tears, she even gave me a smile.
“Thank you, I feel ready to confront whatever it is that is waiting for us.”
“We will together. No matter what, we will face the unknown together.”
“Thank you Jack. I think we also need some rest for our travels tomorrow. We move out at sunlight.” Hey, I thought I was in charge here.
The sunrise brought us all out of our sleep. After a few minutes to clear the cobwebs, all four of us were ready to go. We continued on from the campsite towards Valhalla. It took another full day of traveling at quite a fast clip, but soon Thor passed warning that we were entering the heart of Aesir territory. The closer we got and we still hadn’t seen any signs of a struggle. This was getting weird.
Power Play: Act 1 Svartalfheim (Ragnarok on Ice) Page 23
