by Per Holbo
***
Making a Gilling
The battle was over almost before it begun. Gilling had managed to get a few blows through Loki´s sword parades, but he evaded all of them easily as if he´d been fighting a child. Then, with a swift swing of his sword, he had forced Gilling to parade high, but before his sword even touched Gilling´s, he´d drawn it back by pulling the hilt up and towards himself with a loose wrist, twisted his body slightly to the side to avoid the tip of the sword and then let the movement of the sword continue behind himself, to the right and up and finally swinging it hard around Gilling´s sword gave him a severe blow on his shoulder. A skilled warrior would´ve continued fighting, even if he hadn´t seen it coming and made counter measures, but Gilling wasn´t the least skilled. Instead of moving back to regain a fighting position, he just dropped his sword and put a hand to the wound while dropping to his knees pleading for mercy.
In a split second, Loki was over him and forced him down with his free hand, while placing the tip of the sword at his throat.
They both froze and stood in that awkward position for what seemed to Loki to be minutes, but to Gilling probably felt like hours.
Then, to Gilling´s surprise, Loki suddenly stood up straight and sheathed his sword. Gilling stared at Loki as he picked up his bag and began tidying up the place in the dim gray light from the big moon, removing all the torches and tugging them in his bag. He was waiting for Loki to be done with it, believing he would come back to finish him off, but then his eyes widened in disbelief as he watched Loki leave the burial ground and head up the narrow path to the academy.
He waited for a while as he tried to decide what to do, still somewhere deep in his mind wondering if this was all Loki´s idea of a morbid joke and that any time now, he would come running and kill him, best as he believed he was off the hook.
But since nothing happened, he finally gathered the courage to get up from where he was lying and walked up the graveled path. He breathed heavily as he tried to catch up. Despite his fear of Loki, this was all too strange and he felt he needed to figure out what was going on. At last his eyes caught the light gray silhouette that had to be his vanquisher and he sped up a bit to get close enough for Loki to hear his whispering.
“Loki!” He huffed. No answer.
”Loki! Please! Wait up.”
”What is it?” Loki didn’t even look back, but kept on marching toward the top.
“Yeah!” Gilling whispered, “What was that?”
“What was what?”
“That… down there… why didn’t you kill me?”
“Because I need you.”
“Need me? For what?”
Suddenly Loki stopped and turned around on his heels.
“You sure, you´re ready to hear it?”
“Hear what?”
Loki watched him come close with a strange look in his eyes. Gilling didn’t know quite what to make of it and to Loki, it was clear as crystal, he had no clue what was happening.
“I want to be an officer,” Loki said.
“So?”
“You will help me accomplish it.”
“I don’t understand. How?”
“You know what they all think of me, Gilling… with my family history, it´s highly unlikely they´ll ever make me an officer… But you can change that. You will put in a good word for me through your father, and they would have no choice but to appoint me to attend officers´ training school.”
Gilling looked puzzled for a moment, before he realized what Loki was asking of him, but as it dawned on him, the look on his face went from wondering to outright anger and despise.
“What?!?! … Why would I risk my career for you?”
“Because I just beat you fair and square.”
A short silence fell over Gilling as his brain worked like crazy to find words.
“You are insane, Loki, you know that? Give me just one reason, why I, the son of a General, should put my career on the line to promote yours? The son af a banish…” Gilling stopped mid sentence at the look on Loki´s face clearly telling him not to go there.
“I´ll give you a good enough reason, Gilling,” Loki said smiling wryly, “You will help me. You will put in a good word for me, because if you don’t, I´ll put in your own words for me.”
Loki touched a virtual key on the device on his wrist and soon Gilling could hear the sound of his own voice: “I don´t agree with you, but I do accept your terms,” he heard himself say.
“You recorded a private conversation! That´s dishonorable!”
Loki tilted his head to the side looking at Gilling with despite.
“What do I have to lose, Gilling?” he asked, although it really wasn´t a question, “just think about it. What could possibly get worse for me? I have no friends here; you saw to that; our superiors hate me for my family´s past and as it is, there is no chance in Muspelheim I would ever become more than a simple foot soldier. So, Gilling, tell me: what do I have to lose?”
***
Get more!
“Making a Gilling” is a prequel to “Skrymers Glove,” a Science Fiction/Norse Mythology blend. Want to know more? Then read on:
War in the Milky Way!
Two races, Aseir and Vanes, have allied against the brutal Yetten forces bent on dominating the entire galaxy. During experimentation with the Fyrkat device on planet Earth, two human children, Tjalfe and Roeskva, are abducted by the Yetten and now it´s up to Thor, Loki, Balder, Freya and Sif to rescue them. Unfortunately there is a traitor among them and evidence does point to Loki, Thor´s best friend and Thor struggles with the questions burning inside: could Loki really be the traitor or is something else going on? And will they succeed in saving the children´s lives?
Author´s blog:
https://talesofholboshire.blogspot.com
Per Holbo on twitter:
@HolboDen
