Chaos God, page 14
“I love this part,” Elora whispered excitedly, and her amber-and-ruby eyes glowed with child-like joy.
“Thor took Lady Sif to the chamber of the gods,” Wyn went on. “Thor raged and thunder rumbled all the way on Midgard from the god’s anger. He demanded to know who had scorned his lady wife. Together, the gods discovered that it was Loki, the god of mischief who had done this trickery, wearing Sif’s hair on his head like a wig.”
“Ha!” I snorted as I imagined the smirk on Loki’s face, and the meathead Thor getting all mad. Of course, Sif was really the one who had gotten pranked, and I felt bad for her, but wouldn’t her hair grow back? If I was her, I would have found a way to prank Loki back better.
“Odin commanded his son Thor not to kill his brother. Thor lamented that he longed to kill Loki for this treachery, but Odin declared there would be no killing in Asgard or among the gods.”
“Sounds like Thor was being a dick,” I said dryly. “Loki was just trying to have a bit of fun.”
“Loki has ‘fun’ in many stories.” Elora smirked.
“Good,” I snickered.
“Then, Odin made The Call,” Wyn added, “which was so powerful a magic that none of the gods could refuse the summons. All of the gods who were not already present in the chamber gathered, and Odin publicly demanded to know how Loki would right this wrong.”
“What did Loki do?” I asked with barely contained anticipation.
“Loki cried out that he could not make Lady Sif’s hair grow back instantly,” Wyn said. “He claimed there was no such magic as this, and Sif should just wait for it to grow back naturally.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t offer to give the wig back.” I snickered.
“His brother asked for Sif’s hair back,” Wyn began as a smile crept to the corner of his lips, “but Loki said he was quite in love with his new hair piece, and he found that frolicking in the fields and pretending to be Sif was so enjoyable; everyone should try it.”
“Fucking asshole,” I started laughing. “I love this guy.”
“Thor’s rage surfaced, and he bellowed at his brother to make things right. Loki fled from Asgard, both to escape his brother’s wrath, and in search of a way to repair the damage he had done. He knew that the Giants of Jotunheim and the mortals of Midgard would have nothing that could help him, so he fled under the ground to the Gnomes.”
“Gnomes?” I breathed. I hadn’t seen that coming.
“Loki was clever.” Wyn nodded. “He knew that the best way to gather help from the Gnomes was with flattery, and so he praised their works to the skies and beyond. Because the Gnomes were not the wisest of peoples, and they had been treated poorly by everyone their entire long lives, they were not clever enough to resist Loki’s flattery.”
I stifled a laugh at that. Wyn smirked slightly at me before he continued, and I listened intently. I found that I enjoyed the history of Asgard like a favorite story I had forgotten about long ago. There was something familiar about the way Wyn wove the stories with his words as his hands wove the net.
“Loki then requested the Gnomes to make a cap of golden silk that would fall to the floor,” Wyn went on. “The Gnomes crafted a great cap of golden threads that were as fine and soft as silk, and Loki promised them the earth and sky in exchange for the cap.”
“That sounds like it’s going to come back and bite him in the ass,” I mused.
“Lucky for Loki,” Wyn chuckled, “the Gnomes were not clever creatures. They gave him the cap, and he returned to Asgard to present his gift to Lady Sif. Loki told his brother’s wife, ‘Remove your scarf, and you will once again have beautiful golden hair,’ and when Lady Sif placed the silken cap upon her head, her beauty was restored and all of Asgard rejoiced.”
“It sounds like Loki had more honor than the stories on Earth would have led me to believe,” I said.
“He was filled with trickery and mischief,” Wyn assured me. “But Odin Allfather’s younger son was still a god of Asgard. He had a true heart and loyalty in his own way, and he was very young when he cut Lady Sif’s hair from her head.”
“How young was he?” I asked out of curiosity.
“I am not certain.” Wyn shrugged dismissively. “The story varies, but he was somewhere around a thousand years old. It was well before my time, that I am sure of.”
“Wow,” I breathed.
“You have heard stories of the gods on Midgard?” Wyn asked a moment later.
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “I never paid much attention to them, but people on Earth know about Odin, Thor, Loki… I’m sure people who were more interested in the history knew more stories.”
“Hmm,” Wyn hummed, and the look on his face told me he was amused by the fact that the stories of his world had survived on Earth.
“Tonight!” Ayen’s booming voice announced suddenly. “We feast!”
“Was there a good harvest?” Elora asked, and she laid her half-finished basket aside.
“We came across a large group of crabs!” Varian confirmed.
“Huzzah,” Elion declared.
“What good fortune,” Ylva said, and even her sour face seemed to lighten with this good news.
“Odin has blessed us this night,” Quintus said with praise in his voice.
A soft murmuring of agreement rippled through the group, but it was quickly killed by Ryfon’s unwelcome return to the fire pit.
“Odin is dead,” Ryfon corrected the white-haired man with a snotty tone. “All of the gods are dead. They cannot bless us now. Old fool.”
Everyone’s faces fell a bit at the harsh reminder of our reality, and I wanted to punch Ryfon square in his stupid face. I debated the idea for a moment, but I didn’t think that was the best course of action to bring the mood back up. Instead, I stood and walked over to inspect the steady dribbling of clean water into the basket beside the fire. The woven basket was more than a third of the way full at this point, and I knew there would be enough clean water for everyone to have with their dinners.
“There’s good news in this basket as well,” I said to the group, but I looked pointedly at Ryfon as I filled a small wooden cup with the warm liquid and brought it to my mouth. “Mmm.”
The water was almost as satisfying as the disgusted sneer on the one-eared bastard’s face.
“You’re an enormous dick, you know that?” I glared at the elf.
Chapter 10
If you’d like to see a map of the area around the encampment, you can find it on my Patreon (search Google for ‘Patreon Eric Vall’), or you can find it in my Facebook group (Search for ‘Eric Vall’ in Facebook Groups). It’s also linked on my website at www.ericvall.com
Ayen burst into boisterous laughter, the kind that came from deep in the belly, and Elora struggled to cover a smirk behind her hand.
“What does that mean?” Goren asked, and though his eyes were clouded with confusion, his mouth smiled alongside the sound of Ayen’s laughter.
But the boy would have to wait for his answer.
“Admit the truth and be done with this facade!” Ryfon blustered. The one-eared elf stomped over to me, and he jammed a single angry finger at me. “Reveal your true face, Demon, and I will expel you from our camp and our lives.”
“I’ve already told you,” I growled, and I stared down at Ryfon’s anger as my frustration began to rise. The fact that this asshat was almost half a foot shorter than me really ruined this intimidating stance he was trying to throw at me. “I’m not a fucking demon.”
“Lies!” Ryfon screamed at me, and he was so irate that his voice cracked, and his face turned red. Then he turned and stared accusingly at the others. “Slanderous lies! His presence here will destroy us all, can you not see that? How blind are you?”
“Levi has done nothing but help us since the moment he arrived!” Elora hissed, and I could see she’d lost the careful hold on her anger. “What advantage would a demon possibly gain from helping us in these ways? If Levi was a demon, why wouldn’t he have just slaughtered us the moment we let our guard down? He slept in our camp all night long. That would have been the perfect opportunity for a demon to rend us limb from limb, and yet, here we stand with enough clean water for all!”
“Elora is right!” Goren bravely spoke out.
Everyone turned to look at the black-haired boy, and I saw him falter slightly under Ryfon’s withering gaze. Goren set his jaw with determination and held his ground, even though his clenched fists trembled at his sides.
“Goren, you don’t have to…” I started, but the boy stopped me with the fierce point of his chin.
“Levi has helped us,” Goren reiterated, and though his voice shook, he spoke loud and clear for everyone to hear. “He killed the wolf-sharks, he fought the demons alongside the other warriors, he has created clean water for us!”
“Petty tricks,” Ryfon scoffed, and he waved his hand dismissively. “Charades to gain your trust.”
“He had our trust long before he gave us water,” Ayen’s deep voice joined in the conversation, and he moved to stand beside Goren. “The boy is right. Levi has given us no reason not to trust him, and we have accepted him into this camp.”
“Guys,” I tried to interject. I didn’t need the whole camp picking sides, though it was pretty clear they’d pick me over this bastard. “It’s okay…”
“I do not trust him!” Ryfon shouted stubbornly over my half-hearted protests, and he turned back to glare at me like I was a huge pile of rotting garbage that the others were offering to him as dinner. Then the jackass turned his shoulders square toward me and puffed out his chest. “I demand satisfaction.”
“I will happily beat the ever loving shit out of you,” I said, and I reined in my anger as it reared its ugly head deep in my chest.
I’d learned long ago that I had a temper, and letting it loose was rarely the right thing to do. It had taken a long time, many high school detentions, and a few alleyway fistfights to teach me how to keep a short leash on my anger. By the time I started prizefighting, I had it almost completely in check, so I hadn’t felt this close to a full rage since I’d been cheated on by the longest girlfriend I’d ever had.
It was right after my dad had died, and Kayla and I had been dating for almost three months at the time. I’d started to think maybe she could be the one, and then she started acting shady as hell. I’d confronted her about it, and finally she’d admitted that she couldn’t deal with my grief over my dad’s death so she’d cheated on me with a mutual friend instead. I’d broken up with her on the spot, gone home, and trashed everything in my dad’s house. The neighbors had called the cops because of all the noise, but when they saw I was alone in the house, they just told me to keep it down and left.
Now, as I stared down at the red face of this piece of shit, mightier-than-thou, egotistical fucker, I felt my blood boiling. My mouth got hot from the rage I suppressed, but I knew I would only beat him into a bloody pulp if he pushed me to do it. I’d much prefer to get him to give up and leave without a fight, but the angrier he got, the less likely that possibility seemed to happen.
“Who even put you in charge here anyway?” I asked through a carefully constructed facade of calm indifference.
“The only person who put Ryfon in charge was Ryfon,” Ayen informed me, and the injustice he saw in that fact was clear on his bearded face.
Sassa leaned close into Ayen’s side, and she nodded in agreement with the big blond man’s words.
“What Ayen says is true,” Quintus agreed with a firm and quiet voice as Goren nodded emphatically beside his father. “There was no decision among us to put this small, petty man in charge.”
There was subdued but firm agreement from everyone in the group. Azariah and Arlindra gritted their teeth and glared aggressively at Ryfon, and I could tell the two blondes were happy that someone was finally standing up to the prick. Even Ylva shot me a small nod of approval as I held my ground against the bastard.
“Filth,” Ryfon growled angrily, and he took a step closer to me. “You have poisoned their minds against me.”
“I haven’t done anything but help,” I said honestly. “But I do have a theory about you.”
“Is that so?” Ryfon said condescendingly.
“Yeah.” I crossed my arms over my chest and straightened up to my full height. “I think you’re working for the Demon Lord.”
A collective gasp rippled through the small crowd like the shockwaves of a huge stone thrown into a quiet pool of water. The people clung to the edges of their seats, and I wanted to stop and get them all popcorn to enjoy with the show.
“Outrageous,” Ryfon said, but I could hear a sudden fissure of tension in his voice.
“Is it, though?” I asked skeptically, and I dropped my hands to my sides and started to pace casually around the fire pit. “Where do you go all the time? You conveniently disappeared when those lava demons attacked, and then you showed up right after the last one was killed.”
“I was fighting on the outskirts of camp, of course,” Ryfon proclaimed with false chivalry in his voice.
“Uh-huh.” I nodded and continued to walk slowly around. “And what about the supply shack?”
“What about it?” Ryfon demanded, and I could tell he felt confident about this one.
“A demon set it on fire,” I said. “That demon knew exactly which building would cause us the most damage. He set it on fire and then quickly raced off toward the Demon Lord’s castle.”
“What?” Elora gasped, and she stared at me with wide amber-and-ruby eyes.
“I saw him running off as the shack burned,” I explained to the gorgeous elf with a softer tone. Then I turned back to my interrogation of Ryfon. “How would a demon know exactly which building to destroy? I would expect that any random demon would just start burning any building and move on to as many as he could before he was found out. This one knew what he was doing, but how did he know?”
“Nonsense!” Ryfon cried. “He clearly began at the edge of camp with intentions to move inward, and he was found before he could do more damage. We should consider this to be a stroke of luck for us, not question it as sabotage!”
“Sure, let’s go with that.” I shrugged. “Let’s also completely ignore the question of why, if you were the only one fighting on the outskirts of camp, you didn’t see him and stop him. Let’s just let that slide, shall we? And we can skip right to why you’re so happy to sacrifice your own people to the Demon Lord every full moon.”
There was a curious chorus of “oohs” through the crowd as I pointed out the flaws in Ryfon’s defense, and the idea of why he hadn’t seen a demon burning down the supply shack in the very location where he’d claimed to have been hit particularly hard.
“I do not enjoy this duty,” Ryfon said piously. “It simply must be done.”
“I think you’re more than happy to keep all of these people under the Demon Lord’s thumb,” I said loud and clear so that no one would miss my words. Then I turned to look at all the people. “You don’t have to stay here and be sacrificed one by one to that Sauron-wannabe in that castle.”
“Do we have another choice?” Elion asked softly.
“Of course!” I said.
“Do not let him fill your heads with foolish hope!” Ryfon howled.
There it was.
Ryfon had been the killer of these people’s hope. At the very least, he was part of the reason the mighty silver-haired Valkyrie had no hope left of a better way of life.
My temper flared into life like a sleeping dragon roaring awake after centuries of slumber only to find his entire horde of gold had been stolen right out from under his nose.
“There is always reason to hope,” I said pointedly.
“We cannot continue this way!” Ryfon demanded, and he glared at the people around us. “I will not remain here with this… this imposter! You must choose. Either he goes, or I will go.”
Elora was the first to move, and she immediately walked to my side and looped her arm through mine. Then her amber-red eyes stared hard at the one-eared asshole who stood arrogantly several paces away from us. Ayen was right behind her, and he came to flank my other side with Sassa beside him.
I glanced at the pretty scarred woman, and she smiled softly up at me.
Then Goren and his father moved determinedly to join us, and Arlindra, Azariah, Varian, and Elion were the next to make their choice clear. A little more slowly, the other members of the camp made their choices, and Ryfon was left standing alone on the other side of the fire pit.
“It seems that we are all in agreement,” Wyn, who had been listening quietly, finally spoke up, and his voice was clear and strong. Though he didn’t move from his seat, we could all tell he was siding with me. “What will you do, Ryfon? Will you finally have a scrap of honor and fulfill your promise to us?”
“I see how things are.” Ryfon scowled, and he seemed to blatantly ignore Wyn’s words. “After everything I have done for you, you choose this stranger over me?”
“Everything you have done for us?” Elora repeated with disbelief thick in her voice and on her lovely face.
“I lost an ear for you people!” Ryfon cried. “Do you not remember the swamp demon who attacked in the night, Elora? I saved your life from the beast and lost an ear for my efforts!”
“You know that is a bald-faced lie,” Elora grumbled with exasperation.
“I can understand the lack of loyalty from these peasants,” Ryfon spat, and he sent a withering glare at the other villagers. “But why, Elora? Why have you abandoned me? Why do you choose this stranger over me?”
