The end - the beginning
#2 of Random
I couldn't help it, after seeing the love one of our p...
I couldn't help it, after seeing the love one of our players ( flexiblesurvival.com ) had for the dedication they commissioned me to make, I just had to tell their story, and the story of the dedication itself.
Copper, the wonderful, copper taste of blood. Opening my eyes, my jaws still clamped around the slowly chilling neck, I scanned around me.
It was a fucking catastrophe, it wasn't meant to be like this, none of it was. The story had it all laid out, the story had it planned.
Those fucking gods, one last time they had to ruin things.
First, Hati, he had begun his journey, seeking the moon out, his claws and fangs primed to tear the thing apart. Thor had chased him, certain that he could beat my son, kill him and get back in time to slay the serpent. Their fight had gone too long, he killed my child but in doing so, gave the serpent, my brother, his chance and laid waste to Vidar, slaying the boy who was destined to kill me. With his last ounce of strength, he cast his spear.
I shook my great body the spear's wound on my flank, far from fatal, causing much pain still.
Odin...
I looked down, my eyes meeting the old god's single, staring eye.
The old bastard went insane, destroying the serpent, spreading it's poison out, killing most of the jotun.
Slowly, after giving one last tension of my jaw muscles, hearing the destroyed bones grate, I let go, letting the old one finally fall, laying in a pool of his blood mixed with his sons, along with the twin corpses of his pets.
"Skoll" I whispered, limping over to his form, where my other son lay, his jaws around Surtr's throat, the flesh around his muzzle seared and burnt, "You always were too forgiving, not to mention loving of a good fight."
Movement, the slightest of twitches in the corner of my eye drew my big head around and I saw her roll to her back, the sword of Surtr buried in her side.
Loping over to the fallen goddess, I leaned down, nosing at the wound, pushing the heavy blade from her side, heedless of the burning I received.
"Why?" a soft voice, the voice of the one who gave Skoll's death meaning, asked.
"Stupid, loved to fight." I replied curtly, licking at the wound, tasting, again, the rich, burningly hot blood of a god, "Lay still, this won't be pretty..." I whispered and pressed my tongue into the flesh, digging the still-burning embers of the jotun's sword out, swallowing them, taking the hurt and anger into me and leaving her wound clean.
"We are the last, wolf." her voice is harsh, her hand reached up and clinging to my ruff. Stepping back, I let her use the hold to rise, "This wasn't meant to happen, the Edda..." she adds, Freya looking at the crumbled walls, her anger rising.
"Bifrost is gone, the jotun are gone, the gods are gone. We are all that is left." I snarled, the anger burning me just as hot as it seemed to burn in her and it was then that I looked up, away from the walls, to see the dim yellow in this woman's eyes and I know it mirrored my own. "We will slumber, rest, let midgard live on, the only kingdom left."
The words hurt to say, they hurt still, but they were all we could do. Bifrost destroyed, we were stuck here, even I couldn't travel to this world without it to guide me.
"I can't believe... " she whispers one last time but doesn't resist as I turn, leading her, still leaning over my shoulder, toward the outside.
Padding along, I felt the goddess trip, several times, almost fall, but she kept her feet at each stumble, something in the pair of us knew, if either faltered, the other would fall too, we were all that was left and there simply wasn't enough energy, alone, for one of us to do what was needed.
Finding a comfortable spot, in the warming sun, the sun my child failed to swallow, I finally gave and laid down.
Freya didn't protest, simply falling down against me, more a collapse than just 'resting'. Face beside that horrid wound in my side, her own flank already, slowly, starting to heal, I felt her tongue touch my aching wound and I lifted my muzzle, a deep howl breaking the silence and after a few laps at the wound, so did Freya, her human voice mingling, just as sad, as my own.
Our bodies settled, our throats still raised, so much grief was not a fast thing to expel, as humans would measure, it would be an aeon.
It felt like forever.
Finally, something jolted, midgard, normally lacking in such, gained something new, something odd, something almost magical, but at the same time it gained something a whole lot worse.
A muzzle lifted to my own, licking at my cheek, "There are more gods there now, vying for the mortal's praise, they are getting it, slowly." Freya whispered, her altered form not a shock to me, how could it be, we knew each other and each other's grief so very well.
"They would be a good hunt, but too many for an old wolf." I replied, not moving.
The crackling sound, a tearing, burning, searing gap in the worlds exploded into being, not far from us and we could both smell what was on the other side. Midgard, but something else came through, something very odd.
We could see them, tiny, so very tiny, and they flowed around us, over us, into us. The last of our wounds healed in a moment and I felt Freya rise, quite steadily, onto all fours and lean down, nosing at the scar where the god had laid his mark, "Come on old wolf, what would two more gods do to the balance, besides, don't you smell them? Their blood?" she growls and I couldn't help it, my nose drank in the scent from that void and dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands of god's scents flowed back.
Pulling myself up by willpower alone, I turned to her, noting her bright, glowing yellow eyes. All at once we both were in motion, darting toward the rift, our idyll was over, there was a hunt to begin!
-
"Middle of summer in the city my arse!" the skunk churred, working to fight her way into the biting cold, mostly protected by her fur, "Never got this cold in Australia." she adds, trudging, head down, into the heart of the blizzard.
The shapes flowed through the white out, dark on light, barely seen, only ever from the corner of her eyes. A skip of fear passed through her, how could it not, if those she was seeking were legitimate, they had hunted more than skunk girls in snow.
"Stop!" a snarl tore through the wind and I raised my head, trying to make out the talker only to take an involuntary step back. Fully as tall as I was, but at the shoulder, grey-black pelt, thick and heavy, a wolf stood, piercing eyes staring at me, "Tell me what you want, mortal, what brings you to seek death?"
Stepping forward, a snarl in my own throat, a growled out, "No, you know what, fuck you, fuck this snow, fuck all this shit, I am sick of being talked down to by fucking gods and demons and every mother fucker just because they have more power, more magic, I am sick of it. Fight me, kill me, whatever, but don't deride me, or I will kill you." I had snapped, my brain was on fire with the anger, the white hot rage that those words had brought. I had no weapons but my paws and my body, no armour but my fur, my anger didn't care, it had come here for an answer and had chosen my death instead.
A long howl rose, rippling up my back, causing my mind to cloud and, in the moment, as I saw that huge wolf raise his muzzle, I couldn't fight it, I lifted my short, skunk snout and let loose with a disjointed skunky howl.
All the anger, all the rage at what the world had become, what these 'gods' and 'greater beings' were doing to it flowed over me and I soon felt hot bodies brush past me, some swiping their muzzles near, others pissing on the ground beside me, on and on I howled, my ears ringing with the big wolf's call until at last they stopped and I felt able to let go the cry, one thing still burned, burned hotter than ever.
The anger.
"Come, we hunt." the wolf said simply, turning, loping off into the snow, short yips and howls following him, with his pack. Called, my mind dancing, forcing my body to follow like a marionette, I took off, running, adding my own voice to theirs, hearing them encourage me, call me, take strength in my own assertion.
It was amazing, I never felt the need to shift my form, flow to a wolf, they welcomed me as what I was, more for my state of mind than my form.
On and on we ran until a sound pierced the constant yip-howl, instinct I never knew I had recognised this, prey had been found.
Flowing, the pack parting, I ran on and on, the calls steering us, a sure hunter, the big wolf, guiding his pack with his voice as he loped after the quarry. They ran fast, the prey, but they were never going to be fast enough, as one part of the pack grew weary so our group took up the chase, our eyes one, our teeth tearing through the air, our every pace guided by the alpha.
The prey stole one more frightened look at us, my mind clicked that it was some kind of wood spirit, a dryad or some such, but in the moment it looked, He was there, in front of it.
Red flashed on the air, his jaws closing down on the minor deities throat, clamping down with a force that could crush the world and in an instant we were on them too and I found my own, smaller muzzle, wrapped around the things wrist, using the weight of my body to hold her arm down, keep her from working any magics. We held like that for minutes, the brightness, the light fading from the creature. Finally, the hot smell of offal filled my nose and I knew the hunt was over, letting go my grip, turning I had a wet mass of flesh dumped in front of me, the thing's heart.
"Eat, join us, you have the heart of a wolf, gain the body of one." his voice said and without a thought, I lowered myself down and began to tear the muscle apart, swallowing it.
A long low howl rose, one of joy, more than just for the hunt.
My flesh began to ripple, the black and white spotted fur growing coarser even as my limbs began to snap and twist, lengthening, growing heavier muscled.
Dropping to my side, the burning energy of the thing's life force burned in me, feeding me, feeding my wolf.
Snarling, twisting around, my tail stiffened, the only place where my fur grew shorter, losing it's lustre. Twisting around, my mind screaming, soon joined by my throat, I felt as every bone in my body, seemingly one by one, shifted and twisted, the energy of the dying god fuelling me to grow, become larger and, like the other wolves, quadrupedal.
Not a stranger to such movement, I threw myself to my feet and snapped at the first wolf near me, my mind easily counting it as gamma, but a pack-mate all the same. All at once, jaws closed over my neck, pinning me down, holding me into the bloody snow. It was my Alpha.
Giving a whimper, twisting to roll to my back, offer my throat, he loosened his grip, letting me, offering my bared throat a lick before drawing back, "Good girl, now tell me, first daughter of Fenrir, Lylianna, how does it feel, to take on the duty of ending all this madness?"
Turning and gazing up into those piercing yellow eyes, noticing now, for the first time, another wolf at his side, equally strong gaze meeting my own.
"Eager." I snapped, my eyes glowing yellow with excitement, even as I saw both of theirs reflect that, dancing with approval.
"Then we hunt, daughter, we hunt." the second wolf said, voice distinctly female and, as I noticed for the first time, her belly swollen with pups.
Wow, I know that is not how the Edda or any of the norse mythos reads, but I wanted to paint a nice 'clusterfuck', and that ending to Ragnarok is likely one of the biggest that could happen.
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