for "mini_nanowrimo" hence no friends lock 11
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The Beginning of the End of the Golden Age of Asgard
It is one week to the day that Florence saw the first Viking ships sail toward the shore of their quiet little village. Hod thinks he knows a lot about chaos, after living with Loki the Trickster his whole life, but this is madness. The Vikings come and settle. They pull the ships ashore and set about repairing them after their great journey. They set up houses, optimistically called temporary, against the elements. He hears word that there are iron smith and carpentry workshops.
Hod tries to stay away from discussions of what to do as much as possible. He promised his father and his half-brother, he would stay quiet and stay out of sight. The scouts say women travel with them but they have no civilization. He hears reports of drunken, vicious fights. He tries to hear no more. The villages contemplating fighting for their lands but Hod feels only coldness inside his heart. They do not know what kind of warriors the viking men are. The villages does not realize how thy will put up a fight.
It takes only two days before a group of six young men come to the village. They break into the hall to look for supplies or food or drink, probably all of the above. One foolish villager, just a boy really, tries to stop them and fails. They hold his funeral the next day. His mother weeps miserably. His father seethes with rage and calls for blood. Indecision paralyses them.
Hod does nothing, does not walk or talk, barely eats anything. Florence is scared and confused. Everyone stays inside out of fear and hopes they will go away. They do not and walk through the down once more, taunting the people in their mother tongue. The villagers have no idea what they are saying but when they light a church on fire and it burns to the ground, the message gets across.
Hod is miserable. After one week and one day, Florence gets cabin fever and slips out of the house. Hod knows she is gone before anyone else, it was too quiet. His cold heart, fills with raging heat. He sends her parents into the town. He makes them check each house, to see if she has taken any of the children with her. They rush away, thinking they will catch her before she gets to the heart of the village and causes any trouble. They do not know her as well as they think. He grabs his walking stick and marches the opposite direction, toward the Vikings, as soon as he can not hear their footsteps anymore. He walks a long way, until he hears a language that makes him shocking homesick. He pauses to listen. They sound like hunters. They sounds like they have caught something. He hears Florence give a shrill cry, a sickeningly wet thunk and his blood goes still. They are a kind of hunter. . .
It is a blur. He is on them, holding his walking stick like a weapon. He may be blind but uses his heightened sense to find them one by one. He is no longer impassive Hod the Blind. He is Hod the God of Darkness and he kills them all. One touch, pulling the last of his Asgardian power out of him, to the chest, through chain mail and hearts are turned to stone. His Darkness seeps in and blood clots in veins, eye clouds and go blank, battle cries halt and die in their throats. There will be no Valkyries to that these cowards away.
Hod is panting. His heart hurts and he can feel a change in him. He is growing old. He used too much of himself, broke a promise to save a mortal child and now he can not regenerate. He is an old man. He is still a God. Florence throws her arms around him, fearless of his wrath and calls him her hero. He wraps his arms around her and steals a bit of her warmth and youth. He knows he doesn't have long now.
The village is in an uproar. The Vikings are moving on, scattered so quickly that the scouts have no idea what spooked them. Florence tells her parents she was hiding in a rock cave, looking for shells and crabs. It is believable and Hod is grateful for the ruse. He covers himself with a hooded cloak and claims to have caught a chill. Everything is explained away and seemingly back to normal. Hod spends two whole days, hiding, inside with Florence. She is not happy about this and finally demands him accompany her to the Viking settlement to look around. She is painfully curious but he can tell she will not go alone, a part of her is not as free as it once was. He gives in and goes. There is someone waiting for them when they get there. Florence hides behind Hod but he is not afraid and tells her everything is fine, even though he is not sure it is. She give the tall stranger a nasty glare and runs off to explore the beach.
“Brother,” Hod says as a greeting.
“You are not dead,” answers Thor.
“No. Not yet.”