Page 1 of Thor

ONE

When he spotted the plain at the end of the pass, Thor couldn't help but grin. He quickened his step, eager to finally meet Jarl Erik's men in battle.

This was what they'd trained for. Planned for. Yearned for, since the day they'd returned home from a raid only to find Erik's handiwork. No one left alive, and the village still smouldering. And what Erik and his men had done to his sister, Sif...

Even now he had trouble banishing the image from his head. She'd looked like she'd been mauled by a beast. Deep gashes that slashed from her face down the chest of the tunic Thor had recognised as one of his own, slicing flesh and fabric so that she would have bled out from her wounds quickly, had they not killed her outright. And clutched in her hands, those cold, stiffened fingers not relinquishing their hold even in death, their father's hammer. Sif had fought with her last breath, Thor did not doubt, and was likely in Valhalla with all the other warriors right now, but she deserved more. She deserved justice.

Thor's thirst for vengeance had smouldered ever since. Finally, he could unleash the full fury of its flame on Erik and his men who had taken everything from him.

But even the crunch of his boots on the snow could not drown out the worried whispers of those who followed him.

"One of the scouts didn't come back."

"They could be waiting for us. Ready to ambush us."

"What if..."

Indeed, what if?

Thor lifted his hammer high into the air. "What if, when we leave the pass, we come charging out of the snow and straight into battle? Oh, the glory of it. To fight and die in battle, to be reunited in Valhalla with those who died in Erik's cowardly attack on our village? Or to be victorious, and send Erik to Hel with all the other cowards?" He shook his hammer. "Onward to glory!"

"Onward!" came Odin's shout from higher up the pass. As well he might. He'd lost his wife and sons in the raid – he had more reason for vengeance than all the rest of them put together. "To victory!"

The other men picked up the cry, until it became one wordless shout that carried them all forward, boots no longer crunching but pounding, like the beat of a hundred drums, first at Thor's back and then on his flanks, as eager to enter battle as Thor himself.

If Erik didn't know they were coming, he knew now. Thor hoped the man quaked in his boots.

"For Odin and glory!" Thor swore as he raced out onto the plain.

And straight into the battle he'd prayed for.

He swung his hammer until it dripped with blood, and still the battle raged. For every man he felled, two more seemed to spring up in his place. Like some sort of sorcery.

"For Odin and glory!" he roared again, and he heard the answering call from far fewer men than before. He fought on with renewed vigour, for those who were already waiting in Valhalla.

Afternoon faded into twilight, and still he fought on. Another and another and another.

Then Erik's men seemed to pause, as though they'd heard a command he had not.

Had Erik ordered them to surrender or retreat, like the coward he was? Elation welled up in Thor's chest.

"For Odin!" he shouted, rushing forward into the fray.

He was forced to halt, as Tyr and one of Erik's men blocked his way. Erik's man fell, and Tyr lifted his axe to deliver a killing blow...only for the most enormous wolf Thor had ever seen to fasten its jaws around Tyr's hand.

The axe dropped to the ground.

The creature reared up, extending its claws, and raked them down Tyr's front, before dragging them free from the dead man's flesh to unleash a fountain of blood. Tyr collapsed, sightless eyes staring up at the Valkyries no doubt coming to collect his soul to take to Valhalla, as the slashes on his face and chest wept his lifeblood into the snow.

Just like Sif...

"For Sif!" Thor roared, charging the creature.

Was it a wolf, or a man? Or some unholy union of both?

The creature rose up from four legs onto two, so that it stood taller than even Thor, and grinned. It was a wolfish grin, but the expression in its eyes was definitely human.

Whatever this thing was, it was an abomination. A monster that deserved to die. For Sif and Tyr and no doubt countless others it had slain.

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