All the thresholds, before crossing them
One should look ahead,
Look attentively to the road:
One cannot know beforehand which enemies sit in wait
To guard the area.
Gestaþáttr, Hávamál
'I came to see if it's true,' Viridi's high voice rang out, breaking through both the total calm and largely uncomfortable silence that had remained on Pit and Kaira's short travels so far.
The angel was startled, causing the fair-skinned girl to look at him. It seemed that Palutena had told the blonde goddess about the trip's tension so far, and how Pit had no idea how to start a conversation with the brunette.
He made a quick gesture to Kaira that everything was fine, despite his shock.
'You almost gave me a heart attack!' Pit mentally complained about the sudden communicating from his laurels. He then let out a large sigh.
'If I hadn't said anything, you'd still be left walking in silence right now. Besides, who's gonna stop me?' mocked the Greek goddess of nature. 'What's going on here, anyway? Cat got your tongue?' the blonde asked, only further pushing his buttons.
'Making friends of any kind isn't really his strong suit,' Palutena butted in, 'but especially not with human girls.'
The goddess' laughs rang out smoothly in unison, but before Pit could try arguing with them in his own defense, he realized his new traveling 'friend' was saying something.
"Did... something happen?" asked the girl, still guiding him along the path.
"Whah? Uh, no! No. Why do you ask?" Pit asked, sounding nervous.
"You're making the same face I do when you keep talking on and on." Apparently she had noticed his expressions this whole time.
"Oh, it's just... really... cold out here." Pit stumbled over his own words, still trying to block out the conversation that had just happened in his head. "But hey, I was wondering something," he spoke, trying to change the subject. "What's the horse's name?" Kaira seemed to be in a talking mood, so he thought it might be good to keep up a conversation with her.
"Gunvor." She answered him, though Pit looked a bit confused, so she continued. "It means to be careful during war."
The quiet of their trip settled in once more, and as the minutes passed by, the mood became heavier with the sudden appearance of strange birds.
At first they circled high overhead, but everything took a sudden, high-adrenaline turn when these creatures that seemed to be like crows or hawks dove downward.
"This looks bad," the violet-eyed girl spoke, not understanding what was going on around them.
The problem seemed clear to Pit as well, so the two took off as fast as their horses could run. The only thing they could do was try getting away from those strange birds as soon as possible.
"What are those things?" Pit called out, as Kaira drew a bow and and arrow from the bag her horse had been carrying.
The terrifying birds continued sweeping down rapidly, but didn't fall into the snow. Instead they would rise back to glorious heights, ready to dive again and again.
'Falskragoj,' Virid commented from the angel's golden crown, 'They're a species of mutated crows... an abomination to nature.' Her voice was filled with disgust.
'Their way of attacking is with their beaks,' Palutena spoke. Pit looked at the situation before him, on his guard. His traveling companion had already prepared to let her arrows fly and hit the crows. But with the speed their horses were running at, not all of her arrows hit their marks. 'If they catch up to you, they'll probably try breaking your arm, Pit.'
'These disgusting things can detect your life energy. They do this with the humans, too. And that energy only gets used to keep making more Falskragoj...' The tone of the blonde goddess' voice clearly showed the complete repugnance she had for these creatures.
"Look out!" Pit called to the Nordic girl running with him, as more enemies had appeared, ready for battle. She listened to his warning, as the crows had managed to catch up to them.
"There's more?!" Pit was concerned, knowing that if he was to travel with a human, it probably wasn't the best idea to reveal his powers as an angel to her. But he needed to think of a plan, and fast.
He took a firm hold of his horse's reigns to try and separate himself from Kaira and handle the birds himself. But to his surprise and even the goddess', the birds followed. They split off in various directions overhead, with some still after Kaira, and some now after Pit.
The angel used his quick reflexes to guide the horse around the birds as they swooped down, but still more were flying at high speeds up ahead. As one managed to brush the horse, leaving it with a shallow wound, Pit finally decided it was time to take the offensive.
'Pilverloh,' the Goddess of Light spoke to her angel.
"The what?" Pit questioned, but a joint attack of birds with black and white wings caused his horse to move back to Pit's traveling partner. The birds also seemed to throw feathers with the flap of their wings.
As Pit tried keeping control of his horse, Viridi quickly explained what these beings were.
'They're hawks, modified by the dwarves.' She was well aware of other beings as herself, a nature goddess. 'There are way too many atrocities here... I'd say these hawks look hungry, and are probably all fighting together for food.'
As she explained, Pit took out his own bow that he had brought along. It was one that could split into two swords for melee attacks. He skillfully used his own light power in a natural way.
Pit saw his travel companion trying to stay on course and not waste any of her arrows, making sure every shot counted. She was fully focused in both trying to shoot accurately and also keeping her horse under control.
The two continued shooting at their unpredictable targets.
"Nice aiming," Kaira called out over the loud sounds of horses and birds, still trying to decrease the enemy numbers as much as possible.
'Good teamwork, as well,' the goddess of light commented, sounding pleased. 'I'd say you work even better with her than with Pittoo.'
'She acts like she works alone,' the angel added. It was easy for him to see, as he does the same for his own missions.
Their attackers reduced in number easily as the two worked together. Little by little, they were able to slow down on their horses, as well.
Kaira breathed out; her face had gotten more color after all the adrenaline of fighting so suddenly.
There was a stray bird still standing, but it did not dare to approach the two. Pit took this opportunity to check in with Kaira, who surprisingly seemed to be intact for the most part. Most notable was that even her horse was only left with minor wounds.
"Those were Falskragoj and Pilverloh... it's been so long since I've seen a group of them that large," she explained. The girl would have asked Pit where he got that bow, but the sight of some birds circling around at a distance was what currently had her attention. The birds seemed to be waiting.
The ground below the travelers moved with tremors, and it quickly became clear why those creatures would not come any closer. Little by little, the shaking earth became more intense until the horses did not dare to keep moving.
'I think they've got you trapped,' Palutena spoke, trying to see through Pit's crown.
'Don't put the horses in danger, they've already worked too much,' Viridi added, taking note of the situation. Of course, it was in her nature to think about the animals before anything else.
The horses seemed agitated, putting Kaira on her guard as well. She drew her bow again, eyes searching for the source of the trembling.
It was then that a gigantic creature rose through the ground, and the horses reared up onto their back legs. The Norse girl, caught off guard, easily lost her balance. She looked surprised and was ready for her inevitable fall to the ground.
In the time it took for Pit to activate his reserved flight ability, he could see that this new creature was of monstrously enormous size. Its face was deformed as mud fell off of it. Branches and even whole trees made up its strange body. The top part of the creature was covered in snow, and its eyes were frozen solid.
Both horses took off very far, almost around the creature, looking for somewhere safe to go for the time being. Meanwhile, Pit took Kaira in his arms before taking to the skies, looking to fly as high as possible. The creature stretched an arm out to catch them, but Pit had already reached a high altitude. He was focused on finding somewhere safe, so he could get Kaira out of there.
"Now what was that?" Palutena's voice rang out, not caring that Kaira would be able to hear her. She had responded via special communication Pit had brought along, a Landvaetir, of protective earth spirit.
"Are you sure it wasn't just a giant mole?" Pit asked.
"It could've been, but probably a very rabid one," the green-haired goddess answered.
"Wow, then they really need to vaccinate the creatures around here," Pit spoke, a bit dramatically.
Within a few short minutes of flight, Pit had landed in a forest and placed Kaira on solid ground. She immediately backed up from him, trying not to panic. Everything that had just happened, and everything she saw... it was a lot to put into words, so she began waving her hands around while thinking.
"Holy Kvasir, just what the hell are you?" she spoke, taking more steps back to distance herself from him. He had wings, which she had clearly seen without his cold weather cloak in the way. She began wondering just what kind of trouble her dad had gotten her into, making her lead this guy around.
As the angel was faster than her, he cut off her path. "Look, there's an explanation for all of this," he said in his somewhat cheery tone. He even held his arm out to show her that he was keeping his distance, but to her, this was a clear sign people used when wanting to start a fight. Misunderstanding him, she quickly took him by the arm and made a move to strike at his heel with her own foot.
Pit was quicker, dodging out of her grasp and knocking her down with his elbow with a more full force. After hitting the ground, Kaira rolled to the side and tried to knock him off his own feet as well, laying on her back and using her legs to catch him off guard.
The angel would not be struck so easily, causing Kaira to hold onto his leg and instead give him a swift kick and leave herself an opening.
But she didn't get the chance to hit him, as she instead lunged but took too much pressure on her palm in doing so.
"What happened?" Virid's voice broke through the tense moment. "Did you already win? Damn, I barely got my popcorn ready."
After struggling for a while more with no success, Kaira stopped trying to fight back. "Alright, that's enough," she muttered, the tone in her voice giving away her disappointment in losing.
"Hey, easy," Pit spoke, trying to calm her down, as he noted the darkening in her eyes.
"Since the weird being who just finished kicking her butt is the one saying that, I don't know how much you expect those words to work on her," the blonde goddess commented to the angel. "If I was her, I'd still wanna stick it to you."
Viridi's comments really didn't help the situation. After all, Pit already knew that was probably what was going to happen as soon as he let the girl go.
"Pit, relax. Sit with her and put her hands on your laurels." The angel obeyed his diety, now sitting back into the snow.
Following his orders, Pit then took Kaira by the wrists to guide her. She sat with him, knowing she was in no position to start another fight with such a... strange creature.
The angel set her hands on his crown.
"Pleasure meeting you." A woman's voice rang through when the younger lady touched the crown, or rather, the voice of Palutena. But it scared her so much she almost fell back to where she was a moment before.
Pit laughed after seeing the girl's facial expressions, taking her hands again and putting them back on the laurels.
"I think it's time to explain why you've bumped into Pit," the mature voice of Palutena spoke once more.
"Hopefully you guys can understand each other better, y'know, 'girl talk' or something..." Pit muttered nervously, sounding a bit tense, but still trying to be respectful.
"Were you exiled?" was the first question that came to mind for the girl with violet eyes.
"It's something more complicated than that," explanied the goddess to the human. "You see, in our lands we had some troubling situations come up, which leads us to believe Hela might've been involved."
"Hela, the goddess of souls who died without honor?" She blinked increduously a couple times before continuing. "That Hela?"
"The very same... we want to uproot her plans before she can use them against your people," added the goddess.
"Or before Loki catches on." Kaira's purple eyes had a cloudly look, though her face maintained a certain stillness.
"I thought you'd have more questions," Pit butted in, furrowing his brow.
"I'll... ask later."
"In that case, I need you to guide Pit until we know we're on the right path. As a goddess in your lands, I can think of a number of reasons why I can't take charge down there myself," the goddess of green hair clarified respectfully to Kaira, as the girl was receiving the information quite well. Pit even had the confidence to let go of her wrists at that point.
"Then... I'll try not to be a deadweight."
"What a modest human she is," Viridi spoke up, causing Kaira to look startled all over again. Pit tried not to laugh, though he thought it was funny how she jumped back so easily like a little scared animal.
"That's Viridi," the angel explained. Kaira nervously reached for the crown again, clearly unsure of how to feel after getting shocked like that.
"Well hello. I guess you're actually pretty rude after all, thinking you're too good to talk to me-" the blonde goddess's rambling was unwelcome to the human girl, who let go of the crown on purpose this time so she didn't have to hear any more of it. Which Pit found pretty funny, too.
"Well, if we're going to be working together... you should wear clothes that fit in more with the people around here," Kaira decided. "It'd help you to go unnoticed."
The snort of one of their horses, Gunvor, was heard not far off. "It looks like our ride is back."
"How'd he find us?" Pit asked, confused.
"As my father says, he is capable enough to find me... wherever I am. I don't really have a batter way to explain it than that." Kaira spoke.
When the horse approached, the girl took out some clothes. "My dad knows this well, so he decided it would be best to leave important things like all this entrusted to Gunvor here."
'What a smart horse,' the goddesses echoed from Pit's crown.
The girl passed the clothing to Pit, who went to change behind a tree.
"Maybe they'll fit a little big on you," Kaira called out, waiting on the Greek angel.
Pit stepped out, revealing new clothes that were a mix of elements from his usual look and some Nordic. The hood he wore was cream-colored and held in place by a red jewel on his shoulder. Below the hood, he had on what looked like white bearskin, and a long-sleeved yellow sweater with fine details on the front. The golden band that usually went on his arm was now on the outside of his sleeve. And his leather belt also served to hold weapons.
Another leather belt went around his shoulder opposite the jewel and down across his torso, made to hold even more weapons. And finally, he now wore guards fixed to his boots.
But the one detail Kaira couldn't brush off was that the angel not only looked older, but also taller. Before, she knew that Pit had to look up a bit to see her face. Now, he was actually taller than her. His facial features also seemed more defined, and his hair was longer, too.
"How did you...?" Kaira began to ask, doubting the whole thing.
"It's angel magic," Pit answered innocently. Truthfully, he could just change his size at will. The last time he had done this, Pit made himself the same height as Lady Palutena.
Kaira rolled her eyes at him, but quickly stood on guard when she heard a strange sound in the distance. Pit did the same.
He brandished his twin swords that could attach to form a bow, and she took out her lance to strike quickly.
"We should get moving," Pit told her. He knew they'd have more challenges to face due to who he was. A being on a different level than the usual here in this land.
And he also knew in that moment that the easiest part of their journey, was already behind them.
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