The Ragnarok

Midgard's First Night

Helen opened the door to the bathroom placing both her hands on her hips tossing her brother a surly look. “Human form at all times. What if I didn’t stop her from coming in?”

Jordan shrugged, he has sprawled out in a half snake form allowing bits of his lower half to coil in the tub while the rest stretched all around the room, “I have a compromise,”

“I’m listening.” 

“I need a giant pool for my room. I can’t stand being out of the water for so long.”

“We’ll work on it.” tossing a sneer with the corner of her mouth she turned back around, “Just don’t let anyone see you.”

She re-entered the room ready to finish up the healing session. He should have been too weak to move, but he wasn’t where she had left him at all. Fen was a much older spirit than her or Jordan, but the amount of poison in his blood should have kept him out for at least a few more hours. 

Back on the porch Lottie heard more stirring, it took most of her willpower to not go inside to check, the lights hadn’t shown up yet, which was very unusual for them. So, she thought, what was the harm in going to check in on them again? It wasn’t like she didn’t trust them, they seemed fine enough. There was definitely something odd, but Lottie thought everyone was odd. 

With another bang, Lottie swallowed the last ounce keeping her from not going back in. It wasn’t the large towering athlete or the small anorexic girl, instead, it was a halfnaked, black haired, average built man. The light in the kitchen revealed tattoos she hadn’t noticed before, partially because the one around his neck was obstructed by his shirt at the time. The tattoos were the same pattern, one around his neck and two around his wrists; they looked similar to fencing with a border that mimicked a twisted cord with dark gray almost black coloring. 

“Is this all you have to eat?” he gruffed and Lottie shook her head releasing herself from the trance. 

She took another look and saw that he had left the fridge open and all her pre-made meals were being savagely torn into. “Um, what are you doing?” She didn’t want to seem like the unwelcoming roommate, but he just completely ruined her lunches for the week. 

“Eating.” He said like it was an inconvenience.

“Yes, but why are you eating my food?”

Looking around again he acted like this was some kind of joke, “I’m hungry.”

“Fen!” Helen jumped into the room sprinting over to her brother, “You’re awake.”

“Yes,” Lottie answered for him with aggravation rampant in her voice, “He’s awake, and he’s eating all my food.”

“I’m so very sorry about this Lottie.” Helen bowed, slapping him on the back of his head, “Fen, manners?”

“I’ve been trapped for several hundred years eating nothing but scraps, you honestly-”

“Oh boy!” Helen gasped cutting him off, “Aren’t you the drama king. Let’s get you back to bed.”

“What?” Fen tossed her a look like she was the one who was crazy now. Granted they hadn’t seen each other in over a hundred lifetimes, but he was sure she wasn’t this quirky before.

“Fen.” she growled through gritted teeth, “You’re being rude, get upstairs.”

“But I’m hungry.” He growled back, “And you’ve got a lot of explaining to do little sis.” 

“GET UPSTAIRS!” She barked sending shivers down the spines of everyone in the house. 

“Fine!” Mustering up his strength he grabbed one of the bowls holding pasta, “I’m taking this though.” 

“It’s fine.” Lottie ran her hand through her hair, “Just bring it down later I guess.” She sighed and took another look at Fen as he walked out, apparently the three tattoos weren’t the only ones he had. A large tribal wolf’s head howling was sprawled across his back. It complimented the others quite well while also giving him a stronger bad boy vibe. 

Helen followed Fen out of the room right on his heels huffing and puffing the whole way. She made sure to not let him turn around or say anything sassy back. Fen took the opportunity to continue to shovel the noodles slurping them as an added attempt to get on his sister’s nerves. 

Once they were back in the room she grabbed Jordan out of the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. “You two are possibly the absolute worst at maintaining a low profile you do realize that right?”

Fen looked at Jordan and offered him some of the noodles, “Good to see you again.”

Jordan tossed him a nod but passed on the food, turning back to Helen, “When’d dog boy get up?”

“Enough!” Helen growled, “Do you even understand the situation we’re in?”

Poised to answer Fen held up a finger but erred on the side of caution letting Helen continue.

“Jormungandr and I needed to find a place to hide while we figure out what to do.” She started to pace back and forth her entire plan unraveling slightly at the edges, “While we are here I am Helen, he is Jordan, and your name is Fen. Don’t go around using god names, or god powers because it will definitely bring the wrath of Odin down on us all.”

“So the pixie is part of your plan, how?” 

Helen wanted to argue about the status of their unsuspecting roommate, but pixie was probably the nicest thing she was going to get out of Fen. It was time that she picked her battles, “She and the many many ghosts in this house hide us. As long as we maintain our mortal forms and a sense of normalcy Heimdallr won't be able to locate or sniff us out in any capacity.”

“I was wondering when you were going to get to the ghosts.” Fen took another look around the room, “They don’t seem to like me very much.”

“Don’t take it personally.” Helen reassured him, “They don’t like any of us, but we have an understanding.” Helen winked in a general direction of the room. Her abilities to commune with the dead seemed to be coming in handy now more than ever. In the underworld everyone was dead, up here she had to flex her muscles, some that haven’t been used in quite some time. 

“Now onto the very obvious spell on my arms and neck.” Fen twisted around trying to get a good look at his back, he was able to make out a small portion of the howling wolf, but the entirety of the tribal tattoo was annoyingly unknown, “Who is responsible for this?”

Quickly, before Fen could get any wrong ideas Jordan pointed to Helen, “The one with a heart of a witch.”

Flashing back a sarcastic thank you grin she folded her fingers together pleading to Fen, “Please, it’s merely a precaution. It keeps you in the house and in your mortal form, don’t think of it as a prison, think of it as a probationary agreement.”

Fen narrowed his eyes, “What did you use to bind the spell?”

Not wanting to anger him further she turned to Jordan, “Well, mortal hour says it’s past our bedtime. Shall we Jordan?”

“Helen?” Fen lowered his voice looking up at her while he continued to study the markings on his wrists

“Be grateful she saved your ass.” Jordan spat, inserting himself between his two feuding siblings, “With Gleipnir in use here it means Alfather can’t use it on you, Tyr can’t use it, and it keeps you safe too.” Walking up to Fen he towered over his older brother, he hadn’t been this close to him in centuries, “You know the last time we were together you were much bigger than me.”

Fen couldn’t help but c***k a smile and dropped his argument, “Tyr said you’ve been eating whales, I figured he was joking to get me jealous. I’m glad to know it wasn’t a lie.” With another sigh, he turned back to Helen, “Thank you, for getting me out of there. I’m not ungrateful, I’m just-” he paused turning to look up at the sky. He almost forgot that was a possibility now. Even if he was locked away in this house it was far more comforting than anything Odin has given him. The window alone was enough to calm his anger. That bright moon in the sky welcomed him unchanged after so many years. “Thank you.” He said again, taking a seat in the rectangular light cast through the window. 

Helen and Jordan turned to leave but before she could shut the door behind her she turned back, “Oh, one more thing.” She smiled, drawing Fen’s attention, “You’re going to need to make up with the roommate.”

Fen glared back at her as she shut the door. Sure, he might have gotten off on the wrong foot with her, but honestly, if it was back in a different time she’d have run back to her hill or rock to hide. 

Not one to want to stay bound to one spot, Fen walked over to the window looking out into the forest below. Lottie was sitting below looking out too, searching back and forth for something. He wanted to figure out what it could be, but after their first interaction turned sour he figured letting her have her own time was more important. 

Helen took the room across the hall from Fen's; it was facing toward the rising sun, which would present a few problems for her in the morning. Tomorrow she’d find a way to get everything just right. They were going to be staying here a while and the more comfortable everyone was the better. 

Jordan ended up with the last choice of the bedroom at the end of the hallway. It wasn’t small by any means and was probably intended to be the master bedroom when this was meant for a family. The windows on both the walls gave him a rising and setting sun, but it wasn’t something he was ever going to appreciate. The cool waters of Asgard were calling to him, he missed the crushing depths of the sea, the blackness of the deep, and the echoing of the water on rock. It may have intended to be a prison at first, but it was where he was able to grow and prosper, now he was going to need to get used to this old house, that reeked of ghosts and fairy.