I nearly started sobbing when I discovered what "presentation of the dead" meant. I stared in absolute horror and anxiousness as the first video clip was played. The Other Einherjar was nothing short of impressive.
In a rock climbing accident she was able to save a complete stranger, jumping down on a ledge to help them up when a baby rock giant started throwing a fit. She pushed them up with one hand, the other wrangling with the pudgy rock baby. She stuck her pickaxe in its face, stopping the earthquake from its cries. Then the mom materialized to the side of the mountain and promptly flicked her off with a twitch of her sediment eyebrow. She tumbled down the canyon, the Valkyrie vision zoomed in on her mangled corpse on the rocky ground below.
Cheering erupted across the hall, meanwhile my fellow newbie looked like she was about to puke. "Well done brave Eliza Bell! Your deeds are satisfactory for your stay in Valhalla. Now for the Runepicking!" Helgi cried.
I kind of blanked out at this part but I remember a glowing tunes tone being fished from a bag and Eliza being claimed as a child of Heimdall, which really got a kick out of people.
Next was my turn to look like I was going puke. I calmed my heart rate down a bit and lifted my chin, attempting to look brave. I still felt like I was on the verge of tears, because I was not ready to see it all happen again. I shuddered, sending a slight shock wave through the tables closest to me, rattling their plates and floofing up their hair like a gust of wind.
My eyes widened at my mistake and Sam punched my shoulder, gritting her teeth in frustration.
It didn't go totally ignored, a few of the Thanes glanced at me wearily. "And now, last but not least, Taylor Johnson!" Helgi bellowed over the excited chatter.
I clenched my hands in anticipation as the video of my death flickered onto the screen.
...
Okay okay, I already warned you that I'm not going to describe this part of my story, there's no way I could do it without being a complete emotional mess. So here we have the experienced writer, Mangus Cheese to help me out.
Magnus's POV
It's not Mangus, it's Magnus rhymes with swagness. And if you know Annabeth's last name you know mine. Respect to the Chases, eye catchers of the Gods. Come on people.
Taylor looked like a complete wreck sitting next to Sam. Her face got really pale and sat in her seat shivering. That's when I felt a weird force pass through the room, nearly spilling my drink. My eyes widened when I saw the Thanes turn around and look suspiciously at Taylor.
"That is her?" Hearth signed next to me.
I nodded.
"Not good."
"Thanks captain obvious we know already."
Hearthstone only glared at my snarky response and remained silent. Well, I mean he's always silent, but he drew himself in, thinking hard to himself instead of cussing at me in ASL.
The Valkyrie vision flickered on the screen. The hall grew silent as the warriors sat on the edge of their seats in preparation.
Surprisingly, Sam took the video in a dark house. Most battles and heroic things happened outside. The room was hard to see, so they adjusted the brightness and dimmed the lights in the feast hall.
A creak echoed through the house. Taylor sat up with a jolt and didn't hesitate to wake up the person next to her, clamping her hand over their mouth so they wouldn't make a noise. I peered closer and realized it was her little brother.Tiptoeing off the bed with her brother in her arms, we were able to see a good shot of both their faces.
My heart melted, he had Down syndrome, he looked on the verge of tears as footsteps came closer Through the house.
Taylor moved swiftly and deliberately, I felt Jack buzzing on my neck impatiently and decided to let him watch too, for once he didn't utter a word when he came out.
Taylor moved to her window and opened it, helping her brother through it. She whispered hastily, "It's fine Cole, I love you, I love you. It will be fine. Stay on the roof, the ladder is all set up I'll come and get you fast and we can go get a slurpee. Okay? Stay here. I've got to make sure he won't come after us."
Right as she shut the window Cole began to cry but he nodded through his sniffles, moving out of the way of the window and curling up in a ball.
I looked away from the screen and watched as a tear slid down Taylor's face, too entranced to look away, but still a face of horror masked her.
Taylor stood alone in her room. She snatched up a baseball bat from the corner and hid in the shadows. The brightness of a phone screen illuminated her fearful face. The phone short circuited and began to smoke. Taylor smothered it with blankets. Then she reached for what looked like a water balloon near her art supplies.
She stood waiting , her body hovering over the door handle. The footsteps padded upstairs, a jingling sound and a low growl came with. Taylor's eyes were glistening as she took a deep breath, baseball bat in hand. We finally found out what she was waiting for, the grandfather clock sounded through the house and she slipped out of her room noiselessly.
A tall, broad silhouette stood in the hall, his gloved hands fingering a family photo.
You couldn't see his face, but his eyes held an evil red glare. Before he could register her movement, Taylor chucked the water balloon at his eyes and came at him running with crazy fast speeds, shoving him back down the steps with a yell.
The Einherjar cheered as she swung over the banister with the baseball bat in hand, landing above his crouched figure. The water ballon was filled with red paint, it should've blinded him.
Should've.
Taylor Aimed a swing at his head, just as she lifted it, he turned over with a gun pointed at her chest. She spun away and slipped on the wood floor, turning over the couch and ducking behind it as the bullet barely missed her. Another shot rang above her head, shattering a glass vase. Taylor took a large shard and threw it widely. It jabbed into his arm, winning another cheer from the undead warriors around us.
The man didn't even wince, but he wasted time pulling out the glass, Taylor had already sped to the kitchen. Hiding in the shadows of the entrance, she waited till the intruder came near, she swung the bat and it connected with a satisfactory smack, sounding like it cracked his nose.
It only splintered the bat. Whatever that thing was, it wasn't human.
Taylor scrambles backward in shock and let out a blood curdling scream.
"Taylor!?" A small, little boy voice shouted in response from outside.
The intruder stuck his nose up toward the sound and looked as Though he had forgotten all about her.
"Little ones work better." He grumbled, starting to move toward the sliding glass door that lead to the back yard.
"NO!" She yelled, jumping at his arm holding the gun.
Before she could get enough weight on it to knock it out of his hand, his other arm reached out like a viper and snagged her neck, pinning her in the air against the cabinets with just one arm.
Taylor struggled against it, the hand with the bat hitting his legs and torso the best she could, the other trying to strain for the knife block.
Her nimble fingers snagged a small steak knife and she plunged it into the arm that was holding her.
The strange man didn't even flinch. Just looked down, mildly amused my the knife embedded in his bicep. He pulled down his paint splattered ski mask and sneered.
Taylor raised her chin and spat on his face in defiance.
The man's face contorted, squeezing her neck tighter. "I only came here for one, so lucky it's you." He laughed crazily.
He sniffed her, "demigod blood is muddy, powerful, but also weak."
"Wh—a?" Taylor managed, flailing and clawing at the hand that held her, face turning purple.
"I don't even have to waste a celestial bronze bullet on you." He said, skillfully adding another bullet to his revolver.
He pressed the cold metal against her forehead and grinned sinfully. "Rot in hell you halfblood filth. The world is too good for your kind." He whispered into her hair in another language, I recognized as greek. "Death to all the God's ." A short pause as he pulled back and pressed the gun harder to her forehead.
Taylor wasn't looking at him though, her eyes were glued to the window, where a little head of blonde hair and blue eyes stood watching. "Run." She mouthed, her vision edged with black.
He spoke for the last time, snarling " Death to god of thieves, death to your father." And pulled the trigger. The baseball bat slipping from Taylor's dead hand, blood streaming from the bullet that was just shot into her brain.
The lights came back on with a vengeance. Everyone blinked in awe and confusion. The only sound was an attempted sneeze. Slowly, eyes peeled from the screen and landed on Taylor, sitting next to a shocked Sam.
She had not moved, her face set with an unreadable expression. Only the slow tears streaming down her cheeks and dripping from her jaw showed how much pain she was in.
Finally Helgi cleared his throat and stood. "Give it up for Taylor Johnson folks! Bravery exhibited like no other!!" He bellowed as ten thousand warriors stood and clapped with him.
"A standing ovation." Alex whispered to me.
"Not know, be ready." I sniped back, seeing Hearthstone's pale hand reach for his bag of runes.
We all kept our eyes on Taylor as the feast hall took a seat. She brushed the tears away and graciously accepted a hug from Sam.
Taylor's POV
I'm back again. No further comments.
As Sam pulled me in, she whispered to my ear, "be ready."
I held my chin high, meeting the eye contact of everyone who was near me that's stared.
My eyes rested on Helgi I refused to look away first, I could tell I made him uncomfortable.
Good. I thought to myself before I remembered no I need them to like me.
"Taylor Olson, do you know your parentage, clearly you are a demigod of some sort based on your death video."
I did not change my face, I did not move my eyes, "no, I have no idea who my dad is."
Helgi turned away and pondered this, "well based on your performance I don't doubt that some honorable war god is your father."
He attempted to smile warmly at me, it didn't work with the chunks of meat in his buzzard beard. " We will seek wisdom from the runes, unless the All-father wishes to intercede?" He asked hopefully, like he truly had no clue what to make of me. He wasn't wrong.
Odin did not show up, his chair remained empty and his Ravens remained bored, preening their feathers and not bothering to even give a squawk of understanding.
"Very well." Helgi said, slightly disappointed, "bring forth—"
Between the roots of the tree, where the waterfall hit the dark lake, a massive bubble erupted. On the surface of the water we're three 9 foot tall women shrouded in white.
Except for the sound of water from the waterfall, the hall was dead silent.
"Not again!" Sam cried in frustration, banging her head against the table.
"What's happening." I asked nervously, getting ready for the moment we've all been preparing for, when I would get found out and promptly chased out of Valhalla by angry axe wielding Vikings. Good thing I'm fast.
"The Norns have come to read your fate, why does it have to be the Norns? The All father would've been better than this."
I took this as my cue to stand nervously, I caught Magnus and my hallmates readying themselves too.
As they glided closer I asked, "fate? You mean like the 3 fates that control a persons life?"
"The Norse equivalent yeah." Sam muttered.
They stopped twenty feet from my table and spoke in an eerie tune all at once. "Taylor Johnson. You don't belong."
If it wasn't for Sam smartly grabbing my wrist, I would've sprinted away in terror. Their voices were as cold as ice, freezing me to the spot, chills going down my spine.
In the upturned hand of the middle norn, half a dozen stone runes appeared from the gathered fog. She threw them up into the air, they all glowed and floated dramatically for about 1 millisecond before clattering back down.
"That's never happened before." Helgi observed. The Norns looked as confused as he, and tried again unsuccessfully. The runes not even glowing this time.
Sam looked up at me in worry and her jaw hit the ground. Everyone followed her lead and stared in awe at me. More importantly, what floated above my head. A glowing gold holographic with the caduceus and Greek omega symbol spun above me, shrouding faces in a warm golden light.
I glanced down at Alex and the rest of my hall mates, they had sprung up. Alex shook his head and tossed a knife up to me. I could read his eyes. Just Incase.
By the time the symbol faded my hall mates had pushed and shoved to stand next to me.
All of the Thanes rose, weapons in hand. Scowls across their faces. I knew what they were thinking, intruder.
More people began to shuffle around, the flying Valkyries even turned toward me, waiting for me to make any sudden moves.
Everyone almost forgot about the creepy Norns. Clearly they didn't appreciate that and yelled in a loud clear voice so powerful that it doused the cooking fire with cold frosty breath.
The mark of Hermes, she has been claimed
But An einherjar of Valhalla she must remain.
Two worlds are destined to collide
Only she can calm the tides
Seek out the camp for heroes like you
Amongst the living it is time to rise anew
Be prepared one and all
This was no mistake, if ignored the worlds will fall
Yeah... after all that was said all hell broke loose.