The Ragnarok

Stories in a Storm

A loud c***k of thunder shook the house near midnight. It was the kind of thunder that rumbled from far over the sky, shaking and stirring everyone awake. The thunder wasn’t what caused Lottie to leave her bed though, there was a crashing coming from inside the house, downstairs, where no one was supposed to be right now. 

“Robbers?” She whispered, holding the covers up to her chin. Her courage got the better of her though and she went to investigate the sound. “Hello?” She called down the stairs, hoping that if it was a robber it’d be one of those friendlier ones. 

“Lottie?” Helen rubbed her eyes, opening her door slightly, “What’s going on?”

Pointing downstairs she held a finger to her lips, “I think someone broke into the house.”

“What?” Fen who had also popped his head out growled rushing off ahead of everyone ready to throw this robber out on their ass. 

“Wait Fen!” Lottie rushed after him with Helen on their heels, “They could have a weapon.”

As they rushed into the living room they saw the source of the crash. The TV was in shambles on the floor with Jordan leaning over it eyes wide. “Sorry, did I wake anyone?”

“Jordan?” Helen pushed her way past everyone to look at the damage, “What are you doing up?”

“Well, you know,” Awkwardly he tossed himself around the small space he confined himself to, “can’t sleep.”

“It’s the bloody thunder.” Fen huffed, throwing his arms in the air. He turned to the others as if it explained everything, “He’s still scared of storms.”

“I am not!” He called back just as another burst of lightning and thunder that was much closer this time beamed through the windows sending Jordan crouching down. 

It was a sight to see this towering giant of a man cower at the mere light and sound from the sky. Lottie however didn’t find it amusing, instead she rushed over to place a hand on his back, “It’s okay.” she smiled, “We’ll stay up with you.”

“We will?” Fen sneered but sighed once he got a look at Helen’s more stern face, “Oh fine.”

“OH oh!” Lottie jumped, her giddy voice was all set with a plan. “Let’s swap bedtime stories!” Rushing back into the kitchen she grabbed a flashlight, “Here’s whoever has the flashlight gets to tell their story.”

“Why are we doing this?” Fen grumbled

“Two reasons.” Holding up her fingers she directed them right into Fen’s face, “First, it gets Jordan’s mind off the storm. Second, it’s fun.” she pushed the flashlight off to Fen who was reluctant while holding it in his hands, “You first.”

“Me?” Rolling his eyes he took a seat on the couch as everyone else gathered around crossing their legs on the floor. They were much too eager for Fen’s taste to hear some made up nonsense. Even Jordan, who should want nothing to do with it, was using this opportunity to stick close to Lottie, which did not go unnoticed by Fen, and after their conversation earlier he knew Jordan was doing it on purpose. “Fine,” there was one story that came to his mind, something that he could easily disguise as a bedtime story. “Once upon a time there lived a young man,” rolling his eyes again he added the cheesy flavor, “in a kingdom far far away.”

“Oh get on with it.” Helen scoffed, kicking her foot at him.

“Fine, The young man wasn’t royalty but he still fell in love with a young maiden from the king’s family. She was the most gorgeous and beautiful thing he had ever seen, she radiated a light only outmatched by the sun. Not one to turn away someone who flattered her, the young maiden accepted the man’s advances. Soon they had plans to get married. The man went to the king, told him of his plans with the maiden, and was immediately laughed out of the castle. The man came from nothing and was nothing better than an animal to the king, there was no reason he should allow such a union.

The maiden and young man continued to meet in secret until the king found out and decided it was best to run him out for good. The king was smart, so he knew anything he said, his subjects would believe. So the king one day came up with a prophecy. It said that the young man would be the death of the maiden and the kingdom. He would even go as far as to kill the king himself in the end. 

The young man was branded an evil monster and cast out of the kingdom, but the king wouldn’t stop there. He knew if he let the man go he’d just come back. To truly know the man was no longer a threat the king surmised that the youngman needed to be imprisoned for the rest of eternity, that way he could be sure the young maiden would stay away from him.

The young man wasn’t hard to find, but trapping him was a different story, he wasn’t weak by any means, so the king devised a contest for his subjects. Whoever could make the strongest chains that can hold the young man for the rest of eternity will be granted a king's favor. 

In the end three worthy competitors came forward, two were from the king’s own family, and one was from a lowly outlying town who were special craftsmen. The king knew it wasn’t going to be easy to get the man in the chains and she so sent a messenger to inform the man that he would be allowed to marry the maiden if he could break free from all the chains the king bound him in.

Finally, it was a test the young man knew he could pass. Nothing could hold him, he was the strongest in the kingdom, so he accepted with glee and went back to the king ready to take on the challenges. 

The king chose first his own son’s chains, it was a powerful heavy chain that took multiple people to carry and wrap around the man. Once it was wrapped the man broke it easily as if he was tearing apart bread. The second chain was from his cousins'. It was beautifully decorated and not as heavy, but still quite strong. It took a little extra effort but still the man was able to break it.

The third chain it turns out wasn’t a chain at all but a thin piece of thread that shined like silver. The craftsmen who made it were very proud of their work, it was light so only one person was needed to wrap it, but before it could happen the man took an audience with the king. 

His belief was that after this thread was wrapped he’d be trapped forever, he knew the craftsmen were magical, so why would he think the thread would be any different? So it was decided that he needed collateral. If this was really just about his marriage to the maiden if he couldn’t break it he needed reassurance that the thread would be taken off him so he could go free. The king nodded and asked all of his subjects who would set themselves up with the man. No one volunteered at first until the captain of the guard stepped up. He was a brave knight who found only pleasure in war and bringing justice to others. 

The young man was happy such a person stepped up, there could be no denying this was going to be a fair trial with him ready to throw down his sword arm. So the guard put his sword arm in the clutches of the young man as he was wrapped. The bonds were longer than the chains so it took considerable time to finish, and once it was done everyone stepped back.

It took hours and hours for the young man to finally say enough. The thread would not break, and the more he tried and struggled, the tighter those bonds would get. He looked over to the king sighing with defeat and accepted that he was not good enough to wed the maiden. 

The king at that time went back on his word ordering the young man to be placed in the deepest dungeon never to see the light of day again. Maddened with rage and betrayal the young man tore the arm off the guard, ripping it to shreds as he was hauled off never to be seen again.”

“That’s it?” Lottie looked over at everyone, “That wasn’t a happy bedtime story.”

“Not all stories have happy endings.” Fen shrugged, passing the flashlight off to Lottie, “What did you think the man and maiden would get together?”

“They should have. The maiden should have helped the young man. If she really loved him she’d have helped him right?”

“Lottie-” Helen raised her hand as she looked at Fen’s downward expression, “that’s actually a story our family used to tell us at night. It’s kind of a famous one.”

“Well that’s a terrible story.” She crossed her arms and searched her thoughts for her own tale, “Fine, I’ll tell you one my father used to tell me then. We’ll see whose parents are better storytellers.” Sticking her tongue out at Fen she flicked the flashlight on resting it in her lap, “Once upon a time there lived a fairy princess. She was the shining jewel of her kingdom, all loved her and knew she was the kindest bravest girl.”

“This better be going somewhere.” Fen huffed.

“Hush,” Lottie answered, “It was told to a five year old girl,”

“None of us are five.”

“I didn’t interrupt your story, you know.” Clearing her throat she continued, “Anyway, the princess set off one day to answer reports of there being trouble on the outskirts of her kingdom. There she met a party of humans who were getting dangerously close to their kingdom. Now the humans weren’t aware of the fairy kingdom since it was well hidden so the princess needed to make sure that it stayed hidden and safe. She disguised herself as a human and broke all the machines and tools she could find with her fairy magic. 

The humans decided to give up and go back home for a while. When they returned they brought more humans and more tools with them and began to once again cut down the forest. The princess did the same thing this time, only she also tossed in a little mischief like stealing the human’s shoes, hats, and lunches. Well at this point the humans were getting really upset and scared that something was after them. 

When they came back a third time they brought a special human with them, one that was born to hunt strange oddities. This hunter was able to quickly see it was the work of a fairy and while the princess was up to her games one night the hunter trapped and caught her. 

The hunter decided to take the princess back to the human’s village to show her off to the world, he was also going to use her to make potions and medicine since fairy wings are supposed to be very magical. Well on the way back to the village the hunter was attacked.

Something invisible in the trees killed the hunter and set the princess free. The Princess wanted to thank the invisible help, so she begged them to show her who they were. To her surprise the neighboring elf kingdom’s prince had come to save her. While he walked her back home the two of them fell madly in love and decided that they would spread the good news to their people once they were back home.

Unfortunately for the Prince and Princess the humans had finished their logging and tore right through the two kingdoms, there was no one left to share the good news with. Instead the prince and princess decided to start a kingdom of their own. They travelled deep into the human world and discovered a place they could share together. Once they settled down they had a beautiful little girl and lived happily ever after.”

“Oh come on.” Fen grumbled, “My story was way better than that.”

Lottie shrugged and smiled snarkly, “It’s not a contest. Besides, mine was way happier.”

“Oh yes.” rolling his eyes he bent low to Lottie’s level, “Two genocides is way happier than one prisoner.”

“My parent’s loved that story,” she huffed, tossing the flashlight to Jordan, “I’ll have you know that it was requested night after night by me.”

“Oh sorry, I didn’t know I was insulting the only fan of the story.”

“I kind of liked it.” Helen smiled, sticking her nose up at Fen, “Jordan smiled too, and was way more distracted by Lottie’s than yours.”

“To be fair.” Jordan piped up, “I’ve heard Fen’s so many times it’s like I’ve lived it.”

“Your turn then.” Fen narrowed his eyes at the obvious inside joke letting him know it was not appreciated in the slightest.

“That’s fine. I think I’ve heard enough stories for tonight.” The flashlight continued it’s trip around the circle to Helen.

“I mean my stories aren't that much fun either,” she shrugged, “I'll give it a go.” She searched her thoughts for the right story, one that wasn’t too dark, but all the stories the ghosts shared with her were always about their deaths so this was difficult, “Oh,” she snapped her fingers, “Once upon a time there lived two brothers. One was clearly favored by the mother while the other was stricken blind at birth. The blind brother was an excellent marksman though and could hit any target from any distance. Well the mother grew worried that something would happen to her favorite son so she made a deal with the gods of fate. She spent years and years making sure they would make him immune to everything that could harm him. After many years of giving the fates everything in return for each individual immunity the mother was content her favorite son would be safe. 

There was one problem though, the mother had forgotten to add mistletoe to the list of things that couldn’t harm her son. So with his new found invisibility the two brothers found a new game called try to hurt the favorite. The blind brother threw everything he could at his brother but nothing would harm him. It was a pretty fun game for a while until a trickster discovered the game. He approached the blind brother and offered him a simple arrow made from the branches mistletoe. The blind brother thought it was just a simple arrow and so he fired the shot killing his other brother instantly. 

When the mother found out what had happened she sent out all her forces to catch this trickster and bring about the worst punishment she and her husband could think of. They decided that the trickster should be strapped to a rock inside a cave with a viper hanging over him. Every so often the viper would drop poison onto his face slowly torturing him for the rest of his days. 

The trickster’s wife, though determined to help her love, snuck into the cave with a small bowl and held it over her husband’s head, shielding him from the poison. The bowl however wasn’t nearly big enough to last so once it’s filled his wife must leave him to pour the contents out in a river near the entrance of the cave. When she comes back there are always new marks on her husband from the poison. The trickster stays like this too, and will never be set free. 

As for the brother that was killed, his mother forced her husband to travel to the underworld in search of him. He met the ruler there who agreed to give him back his son on one condition. Everyone must be sad to see him dead. The father rode back to his wife and commanded everyone he knew to spread the word to weap in sadness for the loss of his son.

Everyone did weep, everyone except the evil trickster, and so the ruler of the underworld refused to release the son. The mother was grief stricken and wept while the father was for the first time in his life powerless. The ruler of the underworld was victorious and with her new tenant in the underworld she lived happily ever after.”

“Umm…” Lottie looked around the circle. Fen and Jordan both seemed to like the story, but it wasn’t exactly a fun bedtime tale, “So are these all stories that you grew up with?”

Turning to Lottie, Helen nodded, “We had eccentric parents you could say.”

“Very eccentric.” She laughed shortly, “You know the storm’s pretty much over right now.” getting up she flicked the light switch a few times, “Looks like we lost power, it should be back by the morning.”

“Go on up to bed.” Jordan smiled, “Thanks.”

“Anytime.” Flicking her thumbs up at him she turned back to her room.

Once she was gone Jordan looked at his siblings, “So had to get your greatest achievements out in the open did you?”

“What?” Helen scoffed, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“And you.” Turning to Fen, he continued, “What was that about?”

He shrugged, “I couldn’t think of a*********s. You all got to live your lives, I had Tyr and he was not very talkative after the whole arm thing. You can imagine how boring it got.”

“You better hope she doesn’t put the pieces together.” Helen giggled, “Though it was cute hearing about you as a little wolf pup.”

“Oh hush.” waving his hands in Helen’s face and tossing his foot her way he lounged back on the couch, “her story her parents told her though.”

“Yeah,” Helen chewed her lip, “That didn’t sit right with me.”

“I have a question though.” Jordan looked around and leaned in to his siblings, “Where are her parents? She never talks about them. Are they really a fairy and elf?”

Helen shrugged, “We’d know if we see them. I just thought she was a descendant, I didn’t think she was a first gen.”

Content that the storm had passed, Jordan took his leave, he just couldn’t bring himself to sleep on solid ground. The waters of his pool were calling to him tonight. With him leaving Helen also took back to her room. It was far more comfy than the floor since Fen was taking up the entire couch. 

“Don’t be up too long.” Helen jabbed her finger in Fen’s stomach as she walked by, “Good night.”

“Yeah yeah.” he grumbled tossing over getting back to sleep.