Sigyn's Story Book one: Necklace of Harmonia

chapter four

Two days into the voyage Sigyn had grown used to smelled of Mead on the dwarf who navigated the boat she took to Norway. In fact it didn't bother as much as it did the first day she met Dodeg, or maybe he was just avoiding her because of her husband.

Sigyn laid in the underdeck bed, barely asleep when the ship began to jostle wildly. Sigyn was up faster than a rabbit and ran up to the deck.

"Dodeg!" she yelled. She suddenly stopped, seeing the water was relatively calm. Then the boat lurched to the side.

Sigyn ran up to the steering wheel and saw Dodeg slumped over the wheel. Sigyn pushed his shoulders to let a look at his face. He let out a long breath that smelled so heavily of meal, it stung her eyes.

"You are a fool." Sigyn scorned the dwarf.

"It idn't me doing most 'f the rockin'" the dwarf argued in a slur.

"You're a horrible liar."

"What ever ya say, yur fokin' majesty."

The boat violently lurched again and the dwarf hit the desk. Sigyn's first instinct was to take control of the ship and took the wheel in her hands. It took all of her strength to hold the wheel, but she managed to keep the boat from capsizing.

The goddess looked over the dark sea. The air was cold and the waves were small. She squinted her eyes and watched the moon light reflect over the surface of the ocean. Suddenly Sigyn spotted a thin object breaking the water's surface. It looked like a fin.

"Dodeg." Sigyn kneeled neck to the Dwarf. "You must steer the boat." She hissed.

"I've got it." the dwarf still laid on the deck but placed one hand up on the wheel.

Sigyn stood up and withdrew the fish gutting knife from her boot. SHe made her way to the railing of the ship and looked at the waves below her. The water lapped over itself in rolls of salt and foam. There was a sort of fin coming through the water next to the boat. Sigyn watched the fin's luminescence in the moonlight. It was hypnotic and large enough that she told reach out and stroke it.

" 'oly Fock!" Dodeg cursed.

Sigyn whipped around to be face to face with a very, very large serpent. "Jörmungandr." She whispered.

The serpent jolted forward to strike Sigyn, but the goddess was fast enough to evade the attack. "What is the meaning of this Jörmungandr, don't you remember me!" She shouted at the beast.

"Stop talking to da damned thing." Dodeg was now on his feet but had to slump on the wheel in order to avoid fitting the deck again.

The beast struck at Sigyn again, ramming the deck and leaving a dent. Sigyn slashed at the serpent with the the fishing knife. The snake pulled back in a jolt of pain. Sigyn could see she had cut the beasts enormous eye. It would be painful but not enough damage to take his vision. His eye alone was larger than her. She could see every muscle under his scales pulse and could feel the energy behind every burlyness.

"Damn it Jörmungandr, you best not leave me with the option the kill you!" She yelled. Jörmungandr reared back his head the rammed it at the ship again. Sigyn rolled away, but the serpent's fangs cut into her thigh.

The powerless goddess held her thigh in pain. She'd never felt such a pain before. She had died many times and obtained many wound in her long existence, but she had never felt the stinging venom of a snake before.

The next thing she knew she was coiled in the snake's muscles far above the ship. The feeling of the air being sucked from every inch of her body, choked her. The serpent looked her in the eyes. His large yellow ones burning her turquoise ones. He opened his enormous mau and Sigyn could smell death on the snake's breath.

Sigyn's vision was slowly narrowing and all she could see were the fangs of the serpent ready to chew her up and spit her back out.

"Jörmungandr." Sigyn pleaded breathlessly.

Suddenly Sigyn felt weightless, and began to fall. She landed on the ship but it didn't hurt. Sigyn gasped desperately and opened her eyes. She could see the serpent swaying back and forth frantically. There was something long lodged in the serpent's eye, a spear perhaps. Sigyn rolled over to find herself on a yellow inflatable raft.

When she finally caught her breath she rolled off of the rafts and kneeled on the deck. She could see Dodeg on the other side of the deck. He was being slid across the ship by the monster's waves.

The goddess scanned the ship until something slid against her leg. It was a harpoon gun. She quickly grabbed in before in had time to slide away. It was bulky and at least a yard and a half long. Sigyn looked around for another harpoon but couldn't spot one. She held the wheel of the ship, looking around still for a harpoon.

Jörmungandr let out another shrill cry as it used its tail to pull the weapon from his eye. The goddess watched helplessly as the weapon landed in the waters and sank.

Then Sigyn noticed something. The front of the ship was long with a pointed pole coming off of the front. She looked up at Jörmungandr who was still getting used to his new loss of depth perception.

The goddess turned the ship hard to port toward the serpent. She held the wheel steady as the waves crashed against the ship and serpent screams filled the air. Sigyn closed her eye and braced for impact.

***

Sigyn felt as though the sea were swallowing her. Its ice cold presence on her skin made her human body scream for air. She couldn't see in the dark waters no matter which way she looked.

The goddess began to contemplate giving in to the ocean and dying when she felt her head breach the water's surface. She could see snow in the air, and feel it under her body. She was on land now. She couldn't focus on anything.

Sigyn could hear a voice but couldn't tell who it belonged to. She blinked, trying to fight sleep away.

There was a room with ice like walls, and a rocky ceiling high above the goddess.

There were white foxes nipping at her face, but she couldn't move.

Then there was a face. Sigyn blinked. A woman's face hovered over Sigyn, and though she couldn't move or hardly see, it was Skadi.