for "mini_nanowrimo" hence no friends lock 12
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The Beginning of the End of the Golden Age of Asgard
Hod and Thor are at an impasse. Both acknowledge that what The Norns said would happen, did not. Thor refuses to believe Odin played any part in it. Hod has truth on his side and argues that it is not very likely that a blind man, God or not, could make it all this way without help/ Thor helpfully points out the newly upturn dirt that is now a Viking burial ground thanks to Hod the Blind's capabilities.
“Believe what you want, brother. Odin changed our fate. I am here.”
“Are you really who you say you are?”
“I believe we only know one shape shifter and last I heard, he was taken care of.” Thor nods, never the most intelligent of the Gods, accepting this statement as fact.
They sit on a wooden bench left behind and Thor begins to fill Hod in on the whole story of capturing Loki. Thor explains how Odin found him hiding in the woods in a house with windows on every side. Odin sent a search party out made up of Thor, the brilliant Kvasir and a handful of selected servants. They found a tightly woven mesh of string laying in a fire and Thor explained to Hod that it was a net, made to catch fish. Hod nods thoughtfully while he considers this new contraption. It sounds useful in hunting, leave it to Loki to come up with something like that. Thor continues, telling Hod how Loki changed himself into a salmon and tried to stay in the creek for as long as he could. He was slippery and sly and Thor found it almost impossible to keep hold of the small Loki fish with his huge hands. He explained to Hod that he grabbed the Loki fish by the tail and held so tightly that is lost it's shape and begin to taper slightly at the tail. Thor seems particular proud of this accomplishment and points it to Hod twice, who listens patiently, always keeping an ear out for Florence's young voice. Thor explains how Kvasir wanted to bring Loki back into the great hall to be judged one final time and then killed by Vali the same way Hod was supposed to have been. Thor speaks slowly as the tells this part as though pieces are falling into place in his mind. He tells how Odin appeared so suddenly, before Loki could turn back into his God form and ushered all the servants away, least they see something not meant for tihier eyes. Odin, Thors says, took them to a far away, long abandoned mountain, lived in only by a colony of bats, accompanied by Loki's wife Sigyn and their two sons, Narvi and Valli. Odin forced a dark green liquid into Valli's mouth, who at once turned into a vicious and hungry wolf. He pounced on Narvi and begain to tear him apart while Sigyn screamed and screamed and then fainted onto the ground. Odin took pity on her, giving into a rare moment of compassion and the wolf Valli is let loose to run out of the hallowed mountain and out of Asgard. Thor explains how Odin told him how exactly to use Narvi's insides to bind Loki to a rock. Odin cast runes while Thor does this and Loki is bound so tightly that he cannot even shift into another form to escape. Odin had a giant, evil snake conjured and it wrapped itself around the rock formation above. It slowly begins to drip venom into Loki's eyes. He can not move his head. He cannot escape. He will be punished forever. As a parting gift, Odin gave Sigyn a large, silver bowl and tells her, if she so chooses, she may hold it above Loki's face to catch the venom. Hod shakes his head in disgust when Thor tells him that she stays.
“It doesn't make sense,” Hod answers and Thor simply shrugs his shoulders.
“Who are we to judge their love or her loyalty?”
“What next, brother?”
“Odin said told us you were dead. He said The Norns foretold it. I have never known that to not come to pass.”
“It will come to pass but not by Vali's hand that I know of. I suffer now, without Idun's golden apples, and I do not have long left. A year or two at most”
“What will you do with your time left?”
“I will live, Thor. I will live life the best I can.”