Chaos God, page 7
“Frida!” Ayen announced. “Welcome! We have gained two fine members to our village on this day!”
“So that means I can stay?” I asked the big blond man. Frida pawed at my foot and whined a bit. “I mean, we can stay?”
“Yes, I believe you have proved yourself to the people.” Ayen nodded thoughtfully.
“You have not fooled me,” Ryfon growled as he stalked past us, and he glared menacingly at Frida. “I will be ever watchful of your devious ways. You cannot fool everyone for long.”
“Silence, Ryfon,” Ayen huffed with exasperation.
Ryfon stalked off without another word, and Ayen motioned for us to join Wyn and Elora around the fire pit.
“Well done, Levi,” Wyn began, and he glanced down at Frida with a slight smile. “You have proven yourself and your worth to us this day.”
“Thanks,” I said, and I glanced around.
Wyn, Elora, Ayen, and a few of the older members of the camp had settled onto the stone seats around the fire pit. I settled onto the open stone beside Elora’s, and Frida curled up in a little donut shape at my feet.
“This is a curious manner of footwear.” Ayen inspected my boots curiously before he dropped them on the ground beside me.
“Thanks,” I said, and I pulled my socks back on and jammed my feet into my boots.
Then I looked over my shoulder as I realized the majority of the people hadn’t followed us back from the beach. I could see them hunched over in the distant shallows as they scooped up various crustaceans and edible ocean plants and placed them gently into the woven baskets I’d spotted all over the camp.
“They will gather a fine harvest,” Wyn said thoughtfully as he followed my gaze.
“You guys live off the things you gather from the beach, I take it.” I reached down and stroked a hand over Frida’s smooth skin.
“We are resigned to living off the land that we have access to,” Elora explained.
“This leaves us with limited options,” Ayen said, and he scowled as he stared off into the distance.
“Now that Levi has eliminated the problem of the wolf-sharks,” Wyn said, and he looked down at Frida where she snored lightly by my feet. “We shall once again have enough oysters, mussels, clams, and seaweed to sustain us.”
“Perhaps they shall even find a cluster of crabs,” Ayen said with a bit of hope, and he rubbed his large hands together.
“It’s a good thing I’m not allergic to seafood,” I joked. “What other kinds of food do your people have access to?”
“There is a small region of edible plants north of the camp,” Elora explained, and she pointed in the opposite direction of the caves I’d come from.
“Is that it?” I asked. “You don’t have anywhere you can hunt, or farms or anything?”
“The farms were destroyed when the lava fields spread,” Ayen said with sorrow. “We live off the land we can forage now, it is our only choice.”
I nodded as I digested the information. Based on the number of people in the camp, I wasn’t sure they’d be able to gather enough food to feed everyone. Even if they had managed to keep up with everyone, they wouldn’t be able to sustain that kind of life for very long. I wondered again where I was, what had happened here, and what kept the people from moving on to better places.
Several of the villagers, including Goren, his father, Ylva, and her husband wandered back up from the beach. They lugged their seafood-laden baskets tiredly and dropped them on the ground around the fire pit.
Goren’s father got to work separating the seaweed and cleaning the grime and dirt from the mussels. Meanwhile, his curly-haired son filled a meager amount of water into the cauldron and started to rearrange the fire to boil the water inside.
“We shall eat well tonight,” Ylva’s husband said with the tiniest spark of enthusiasm. Then he turned to me, and he nodded in thanks. “You have renewed our abilities to survive, Levi, and I am very grateful to you.”
The man nudged his wife and pointedly nodded in my direction.
“Rathal is right,” Ylva conceded, and she gazed balefully at her husband. “We would not have had food this evening if not for you and your efforts with the wolf-sharks.”
“Tell him thank you,” Rathal murmured quietly.
“Thank you,” Ylva grumbled, and then she stomped off and disappeared into one of the huts.
“I must apologize for my wife,” Rathal sighed. “Ylva does not trust easily, but be not fooled, we are all indebted to you, Levi.”
“I’m glad I could help,” I said with sincerity.
Rathal nodded at me, and then he trudged off after his wife. I did not envy the man his relationship, and it made me remember why I had been single for the majority of my adult life.
“Yikes,” I muttered to myself.
“Ylva has a poor attitude,” Ayen sighed. “But that is to be expected when one lives as we do.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s fair.” I glanced around as more of the villagers returned from the beach and joined Goren and his father in preparing the food for dinner. “Speaking of cranky people, where did Ryfon go?”
I couldn’t help but wonder what the one-eared asshole thought about my performance in the water, and he was nowhere in sight.
“Ryfon was rather displeased that you not only survived the wolf-sharks,” Elora said with a pleased smirk, “but you eliminated the beasts almost entirely on your own.”
“I helped as well,” Ayen said teasingly. “Do not forget my contributions, Elora.”
“Yes, Ayen.” The beautiful elf rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “We all assisted in the liberation of the beach, but you cannot deny that Levi did most of the work.”
“I suppose this is true,” Ayen laughed.
“I was glad to have you guys backing me up,” I chuckled.
“Ryfon has tried several times to handle the situation of the wolf-sharks,” Elora said, and her tone sobered quite a bit. “They have plagued our efforts to feed the people for months, and we have been on the brink of starvation more than once.”
“I take it Ryfon never had much success in killing the beasts?” I surmised.
“Quite,” Ayen said, and his tone was thick with derision. “Many of us had begun to be rather irritated with Ryfon’s boasting and complete lack of results.”
“Ryfon’s a bully,” Goren declared simply as he dropped handfuls of mussels into the boiling water of the cauldron. “He speaks of his heroics and genius, and yet we are no better off when he attempts to take charge.”
“Hush, boy,” Goren’s father muttered under his breath. “It will do us no good to anger Ryfon.”
“I don’t get it,” I said to the white-haired man. “I get the feeling that Ryfon is all talk and no follow through, so why does he seem to hold so much power in the camp?”
“Goren is correct in his assessment,” Elora said succinctly. “Ryfon is a bully, and few are willing to stand up to him.”
“The term is ‘bastard,’ not ‘bully,’” Ayen snorted through a scowl. “Even that is being tame where Ryfon is concerned.”
Goren smirked slyly at the beautiful woman and the brawny man, and I couldn’t help but notice the kind and almost motherly smile Elora gave him in return. I wondered about the relationship between them.
Silence fell over the group for a while, and the sun started to disappear behind the thick layer of black smoke that rose steadily over the volcanoes and lava fields to the west. The evening was filled with the rhythmic sounds of the villagers preparing dinner. The water boiled over the crackling fire, and the crack of broken shells as the clams and oysters were shucked filled my ears.
After a few minutes, my stomach grumbled loudly, and I realized just how hungry I was, and how dry my mouth was. There was a slight dehydration headache forming at my temples, and I knew I had lost a lot of water over the last few hours.
I cleared my throat, and the sound was like low grit sandpaper on a bed of nails. “Excuse me.”
“Quintus, would you please give Levi some water?” Wyn asked Goren’s father.
The older man’s white curls bounced around his face as he nodded, and his knees popped loudly as he stood to fulfill Wyn’s request. The more time I spent with these people, the more I thought that Wyn was really the leader of this camp, and they merely tolerated Ryfon’s authority because he was just not worth arguing with. The one-eared asshat really was a prick, and probably a narcissist as well. I smirked to myself as I realized how much fun I would have knocking him down a few pegs and putting him in his place.
“Thank you, Quintus,” I said to the older man as I took the leather pouch he offered me, and I took a long drink of the warm water. I couldn’t say I was surprised that the water wasn’t cold, the environment was so hot here, but it was still incredibly refreshing. I took several more swigs of the clean water, and then I tried to hand the pouch back to Goren’s father.
“Please.” Quintus shook his head, and he looked humbly away. “Keep it as a gift of my gratitude. You have helped to provide food for my son when I was unable to do so.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just nodded my thanks and tucked the pouch next to my hip.
“That is a great token,” Ayen murmured softly as he leaned close to me. “New leather is nearly impossible to come by these days.”
“I will take very good care of it,” I assured the big blond man.
By the time dinner was being declared as ready, my clothes had completely dried from the warmth of the fire pit, and Frida stirred as the smells of cooked seafood wafted around us.
A pretty woman whose long blonde hair fell over one side of her face passed me a flat stone laden with fresh oysters, mussels, and a small fried fish. She looked to be in her late thirties, was quite short, and probably wouldn’t even reach my shoulders.
“Thank you,” I said.
“My name is Sassa.” The woman brushed the hair away from her face. “You are welcome.”
I bit down on my tongue as I saw that the left side of her face was heavily scarred. The skin of her cheek was wrinkled and discolored, and the end of her left eyebrow was missing completely.
“Thank you, Sassa,” I said without breaking eye contact.
The pretty woman blushed softly on the unmarred side of her face and turned to fill another stone slab with food.
“Sassa fell into a lava pool many years ago,” Ayen whispered softly to me. “She almost did not survive the ordeal.”
“That’s horrible.” I frowned, and then I turned to look at Ayen.
The brawny blond man was staring longingly at Sassa, and he was intent on her every movement. Then he quickly looked away when the scarred woman turned back toward us.
A sly grin spread across my face as I noted Ayen’s reaction to the small blonde woman. I wondered idly for a few moments about why Ayen didn’t act on his interest in Sassa, but before I could find the opportunity to ask him, Wyn cleared his throat.
“I believe it to be unnecessary at this point, Levi,” Wyn said in an authoritative voice, “but I would like to officially welcome you to stay with us for as long as you desire.”
“Thank you.” I looked around the group to make it clear that I was thankful to each and every one of them for their hospitality. “All of you. I do have one question, though, if I may?”
“Of course, my boy.” Wyn gestured in invitation. “Ask whatever you wish.”
Before I could speak, Frida nudged at my knee, and she looked up at me with the saddest puppy dog expression I’d ever seen. Even with her predatory and beady black eyes, this one glimpse melted my heart, and she lifted one paw and placed it on my knee as she whined and sniffed at the fish on my plate.
“Alright, girl,” I chuckled as I realized she was hungry, and I looked around the fire in search of some scraps to give her.
“For you, Frida,” Ayen said sweetly, and he held his fried fish up in the air. “Catch!”
Ayen tossed the fish toward my wolf-shark pup, and Frida snapped it right out of the air with alarming speed. Then she settled back down in a donut shape to eat at my feet, and she happily gnashed her shark teeth without reserve.
“Good girl,” I patted Frida affectionately, and then I looked back up at Wyn.
The old man was waiting patiently for my question, and I thought for a second about how to phrase it. I figured blunt was best, so I just went for it.
“What planet is this?” I asked in a rush. “I mean, I kind of know that this isn’t Earth, so where the hell am I?”
“Dear boy,” Wyn said gently, as if he was a doctor who was about to deliver the news of a fatal prognosis. “You are on Asgard.”
“What the…” I gasped. “Fucking excuse me?”
Chapter 6
“You use strange words, Levi,” Elora murmured, and she gazed at me with curiosity in her amber-and-ruby eyes.
“What?” I asked in confusion, and then I shook my head. “Never mind, what do you mean Asgard? Like… Odin, and Thor, the God of Thunder? Are you kidding me?”
“Odin Allfather was once the God King of all this realm,” Wyn said wistfully, and a deeply sorrowful frown furrowed between his gray eyebrows. “That was long ago, and now all of the Aesir, the gods, are gone.”
“Gone?” I repeated. “Gone where?”
“They were defeated and killed in the time of Ragnarok,” Elora explained.
“Ragnarok, I’ve heard that term before.” I reached down and patted Frida gently.
“Ragnarok was the end of all things that came before,” Wyn elaborated. “It is what some have called Armageddon. The world-eating serpent and the giant wolf, Fenrir, broke free of their bonds, and they wrought chaos and destruction in the realm.”
“A world-eating serpent and a giant wolf,” I said with disbelief, and then I scoffed. “Yeah, of course, that fits with everything else I’ve seen so far. So, how did the demons come into play, then?”
“Once the realm was broken, and the Aesir were killed,” Wyn continued, “the world-eating serpent and Fenrir grew tired of this world, and they moved on to another of the nine realms.”
“Hang on.” I shook my head, and I raked my hand through my still-damp hair. “So the huge snake and the wolf destroyed the planet, and then they just left?”
“Yes,” Elora sighed.
“The destruction and lack of rulers allowed for the demons to rise and conquer what was left of Asgard.” Wyn leaned heavily on his carved staff as he continued. “In the beginning, after Ragnarok, we heard rumors that distant regions were still lush with green and animal life. We are in the epicenter of the destruction here.”
“Do you see the shining towers just there?” Ayen asked, and he pointed off toward the northern side of the beach.
I followed Ayen’s gaze, and through the haze of smoke, I spotted a bright, shining light in the distance. I lifted a hand and shielded my eyes against the intense reflection.
“This is all that remains of the Crystal Spire,” Wyn said. “Odin Allfather’s palace and fortress. It is empty and lies in ruin now.”
“Where we now sit was once lush green fields and crops of the capital city.” Elora’s face fell as she spoke. “The Broken Spire is all that is left of the once-great city of Odin and Frigg.”
“Frigg?” I repeated the unfamiliar name. “Sorry, I didn’t learn much about Norse mythology growing up.”
Elora and Ayen looked at me curiously, but Wyn’s silvery-blue eyes were kind like a helpful grandfather.
“Frigg was Odin’s wife,” Wyn answered, and he gazed at me with a strange expression for a moment before he continued. “Once the Aesir were hunted down and destroyed, the demons began to rise in great numbers from the bellies of the volcanoes.”
“They destroyed everything in their paths,” Elora continued. “They encouraged the lava fields to grow, and they hunted many of the animals into extinction.”
“Not all the animals, though.” I looked down at Frida asleep at my feet.
“The water hosts an immense variety of ferocious beasts,” Wyn agreed. “And the demons have little use for the seas, so they have remained primarily untouched by the chaos.”
The villagers had finished their meals and wandered off in various directions to other tasks. Goren, Quintus, Sassa, and two other men who appeared to be in their mid-forties whose names I didn’t know lingered around the fire. They listened intently to Wyn as he patiently answered my questions, and it made me wonder how long it had been since Ragnarok if men who appeared to be middle-aged were just as intent on the history of this place as I was.
“How long have you all been living like this?” I asked.
“Time is hazy,” Wyn sighed heavily, and I could tell he was growing tired.
“I do not remember a time before Ragnarok,” Ayen answered.
“How old are you?” I asked the blond man.
“It is hard to tell.” Ayen shrugged. “We do not have a precise way to measure time in years, but I believe I have circled the sun more than thirty times.”
“The time before Ragnarok is a distant memory for some of us,” Elora said sadly. “And for others, it is simply a lesson of history.”
“It was well before my time,” Goren said, and he turned to his father. “Was it not, father?”
“Yes, my boy,” Quintus confirmed. “You were born after the destruction of the Crystal Spire, but well before the lava fields expanded and cut us off from the rest of the world.”
“So, you haven’t always been trapped here?” I asked.
“Indeed.” Wyn nodded. “Many years ago, there was a path through the lava fields, and occasionally people came to us from distant lands. We accepted many travelers into our camp from far away.”
“Ryfon came to us from west of the lava fields,” Elora added.
“So, when Ragnarok came,” I began in an attempt to get a complete picture of the situation. “That’s when the demons took over? And nobody tried to stop them?”
“Of course not,” Elora corrected me. “The Valkyries fought valiantly against the demon hordes, their numbers were simply too great, and the proud female warriors fell like so many before them.”
