Page 1 of Loki

ONE

It was a perfect night for fishing. Loki barely had to drop his hook in the water before another cod took the bait, ready to be hauled into his boat before he dropped his hook again. Another hour, and he'd have managed to catch enough fish to last them until next month.

Until the fish stopped biting.

After perhaps a quarter hour without so much as a nibble, Loki pulled up his line. The bait was still there, but the fish must have gone. He eyed the baskets of fish he'd already caught. He could go home now, with his bumper catch, or he could head out into deeper water, and see if he could find the fish again.

Then again, if something had scared them, he might sail off the edge of the world and still not find them. Or worse, if there was a sea monster about, it might decide he'd make a tastier meal than any fish...

Speaking of meals, it was likely dinner time, and Mother would have his waiting. Best he head home. He could go fishing again tomorrow.

Decision made, Loki turned his boat toward the shore.

Only to see a crowd gathered there, a great number of shadows on the sand. As he watched, new figures joined the throng...but not from the village. No, they walked out of the water, like nykr. An army of nykr, headed for the village.

Loki forgot about the fish, and his boat. Much like the nykr, he, too, could transform, and he took the swiftest form he knew, flying as a falcon back to the village.

"The nykr are coming!" he cried as he burst into the longhouse.

Mother and Father exchanged a telling glance.

Mother shook her head. "Nykr never attack the land. Not unless they are under a spell..." She paled.

"This Jarl Erik's doing. Him and his witch," Father spat. "How many did you see, boy?"

Loki swallowed. He hadn't stopped to count. "At least a hundred. More, maybe."

Another glance passed between his parents, before his father nodded.

"Run, boy, run, to warn Odin!" Mother said, even as she and his father reached for their spears.

Loki looked longingly at the stack of spears, wanting to fight, too.

"Bring back help. Warn them, so they can come and fight off Erik's raiders before they reach anyone else!" Mother hissed. "No one can run faster than you!"

That was true, Loki had to admit. No one else could shift their form into any animal they wished, like he could.

So he shifted back into a gyrfalcon, and flew.

Flew...but not fast enough.

He could scarcely breathe by the time he'd reached Odin, tired enough so that he almost tumbled out of the sky at the man's door. Then he'd had to remember how to shift back to human, so he could wake Odin, and tell him what had happened.

Precious moments flew by until Odin and his warriors were ready.

Loki flew ahead, leading them onward...to what was left of his home.

When Odin's men arrived, they found him back in his human form, crouched beside the body of what he barely recognised as his mother. The village was a smoking ruin, and he hadn't managed to find his father's body. Maybe he was in one of the still burning houses, or worse, burned to ash already.

There was no sign of the nykr, except for the carnage they'd left behind.

Tears and snot had streamed down his face, like the orphaned child he was, but Odin had ordered him to rise, and Loki had, unable to disobey.

Then a spear was placed in his hand, a spear taller than he was, and as Loki's fist clenched around it, he swore he would make Erik and his men pay. Erik had stolen his family from him, and Loki would spend every breath in his body making sure Erik knew the same pain.

Whatever it took.

TWO

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