Fire

Chapter Thirty Nine

I wake up in an unfamiliar room in an unfamiliar bed under golden sheets dressed in a long sleeved gray dress. I scooch backwards until my back hits the headrest of bed. I begin to hyperventilate. I am in a new environment, in a bed I don't remember getting in, wearing a dress that isn't mine and that I don't remember putting on. A guard pokes his head through the golden double doors to check on me causing me to let out a scream. I vaguely see a third guard running away as the one that poked his head in and his friend enter my room. 

"Please calm down, there is nothing to be afraid of," the second guard tries to assure me as they approach the bed I am currently cowering on. They try to seem unthreatening but as I don't know where I am or how I got here, their efforts are futile. They are holding weapons and carrying armor and I am here in nothing but a cloth dress. The first guard reaches out and touches my arm, scaring me. Out of instinct, I go to access my powers to shield myself, but instead I let out a shriek and the all of a sudden the guards are pinned against opposite walls. Not a minute after, a beautiful woman enters the room the through the open doors.

"Release them," she demands.

"I don't know how! I didn't even realize I had done it," I explain in a rush.

"Deep breaths, calm your mind," she tells me. "Imagine a man holding up each of the guards that are pinned up against the wall. Then imagine the men release the guards so they are back on the ground and have the ability to move on their own accord," she coaches. I try to do as she says. I visualize the men pinning the guards up on the wall and then releasing them. But something went wrong with the last part and instead of gently lowering them to the floor, I end up dropping them. 

"Oops, sorry," I mutter, biting my lip. 

"At least they are down, that's the best we can ask for. Guards, you are dismissed," the woman says. As the guards are leaving, I study the woman. She has long blonde, curly hair, fair skin, and wise, piercing blue eyes. She seems familiar but I can't place where I know her from. 

"Go on, out with it," she says.

"You're not Frigga are you?" I ask uncertainly.

"Yes, I am Frigga," she replies. My eyes widen and my jaw drops. I now know exactly where I am.

"I'm on Asgard. In Valhalla," I whisper.

"Yes," she confirms. 

"Wait, this means I must be dead," I exhale. The poison couldn't have possibly worked that fast. It was barely in my system for five minutes. That can't be enough time for it to be absorbed into my bloodstream.

"Now before you get too far into the terrible thoughts that I can basically see going through your head, let me explain. Yes, I am Frigga and you are in Valhalla. But no, you are not dead, at least not permanently. You were very close to being dead. The medic that was supposed to give you painkillers, actually did do his job, though he laced that painkillers with a very deadly toxin, Jormungandr's venom," Frigga explains.

"So he gave me painkillers to hide the poison?"

"Yes and no. Jormungandr's poison is tasteless and odorless. No one would have been able to know that he had given you poison without drinking from the cup first. The reason he laced it with painkillers was so that your friends and family wouldn't have known there was something wrong with you until it was too late and you were already dead. You see, Jormungandr's venom has very... unique properties."

"Why do I have a feeling I'm not going to like your definition of unique?"

"Because you aren't. The venom causes extreme pain that has often been compared to torture-" I scoff at that and she gives me a funny look. I just shake my head but tell her to go on. "Once the symptoms of the poison set on, there are hours of unrelenting pain before death finally takes its hold. But, with that there are ways to stop death once the pain starts. Most commonly used is to drain the attack's blood slowly, forcing the body to create more to replace the lost blood. This way, the toxin gets out of the victim's blood stream faster and usually, within a couple of months, the victim makes a full recovery. But if the venom is laced with pain killers, the chemical combination cancels out the pain and causes a quicker onset of the poison, causing death within twenty minutes which is faster than one can carefully drain a body of blood without killing the person."

"Yeah I get it, so then if I didn't die, why am I here?"

"Because it is time for you to step up into your father's footsteps," she says bluntly, as if that one statement holds all the answers.

"I'm sorry, my father is the leader of the Ahlstrom tribe, what does that have to do with me being almost dead and in Valhalla?"

"You remember how when you were younger, your parent pulled you out of your warrior training and forced you to be a priestess even though there hadn't been any for many, many years?"

"Of course I do."

"Well, before you were born my husband, Odin, as well as myself visited your parents. We revealed to them that your mother was a descendant of the last of the fire clan. They were shocked but they did not anticipate our next request, or rather demand. We asked them, more specifically your mother, to conceive a child with our son Loki that will grow and take its father's place. You see Loki has been locked away for treason against the realm and is sentenced to be executed but we need someone to take his place that is just as powerful and has the same magic as he, which could only be his child. Hel has her own duties as death, Jormungandr is surrounding Midgard and keeping it together, Fenrir is guarding you, and Sleipnir is the steed of my husband so none of them are fit to step up to take the responsibilities of their father. So that left us only one option-"

"Me. Yeah okay. But back to the part about Fenrir guarding me... Like, my Fenrir? The Fenrir that I grew up with and is my best friend Fenrir?"

"Yes. Fenrir was given a human body that can change into that of his wolf form. His memory was erased of everything except that he needed to find and protect you. He was given a fresh start. A human life and a family he could rely on."

"So, did you plant Dalla in my life too?"

"In a way. You see, Heimdall, our gatekeeper, took a liking for Dalla's mother. They met in secret and eventually had a child together, not that anyone in your village except Sara knew that."

"The Gatekeeper and the Wolf." I mutter to myself. Aurora was right, in more ways than she could have known. "So what happens to me now?"

"Now, you are to get dressed in what is laid out for you on the table in the room attached to this and meet me in the throne room, as I have things to discuss with my husband while you are getting ready. When you are done, we will discuss where we go from here," she explains and without another word, she turns around and exits the room, leaving no room for discussion and me to find my own way.