Chapter Eleven
As they neared theend of the run, a recognizable ember flared to life, so pure and clean. Sk?ll responded to his Pack Alpha’s ember, welcoming him back to the running bond by pulling him. He hadn’t intended to, but he was so happy to feel that ember again and not the confused mess that had repelled or pulled for support or flared to fight for the past five days since they’d picked up the hikers. Now he just looked forward to seeing Steffen again. He’d been worried. Tristan’s worry and frustration of not running had been the constant companion as the hugest tank uncle had stayed with his sick mate and traveled the shorter route with the Cubi, Beta, and single Alphas who’d fallen under the pressure of not having a mate.
The strong bonds to Hati and Freki let Sk?ll share in the excitement to see Steffen again, and they sped up, on Hati’s initiative, to get to the next planned campsite faster.
Seeing Steffen play with Rasmus, Torben, and Tristan in Vargr form as they closed in warmed Sk?ll’s heart, and he hurried there.
Freki got there first, though, skittered to a halt, and toppled Steffen, who shifted to human as he hit the grass. Freki shifted, too, and pulled Steffen up.
Steffen immediately hugged Freki tightly. “Thank you for challenging me. I’m so proud of the strong and steadfast Alpha you’ve grown up to become.”
Freki hugged Steffen back. “Any time, Stef.” Freki stepped back and held Steffen at arm’s length. “How are you?”
“I feel awesome and ready to run, Alpha of all.”
“That’s the answer we were hoping for!” Freki put an arm around Steffen’s shoulder and led him toward Sk?ll, Hati, and Geri, but their embers weren’t the only excited ones, and incoming embers steered directly for Steffen.
Alexander reached his dad first and hugged him tightly. “Fuck, Dad. I was so afraid for you.”
“I’m good, son, I promise.”
More came over to hug Steffen, and Thyra shifted to human, hugging and rocking him.
The Alpha that Rasmus had hit went to him, smiling. “I see you have your Pack Alpha back at his best again?”
Rasmus grinned. “Yeah.”
“I look forward to meeting that side.”
Steffen pulled back from Thyra and looked that way, then at Thyra. “I have a mess to clean up.”
“Go do that, my dear.” Thyra came to stand with Sk?ll, who watched his Pack Alpha closely. Considering how he’d fluctuated, Sk?ll wasn’t missing a beat with him now.
Steffen went to the Alpha with his hand out to shake, and the Alpha took it. “I heard a tale of a usually level-headed Beta swinging at Alphas. That says something about how far I fell.”
“And from what height.”
Steffen smiled. “I remember what I said, but I can’t imagine ever doing it. I’m sorry for being a jerk.”
“Sickness certainly earns you some slack. Don’t worry about it. I look forward to running with you again.”
“Thank you. Oh, and I put blankets out...” Steffen still looked awkward as he walked away from the grinning Alpha. He steered directly for Sk?ll, Hati, and Geri, who group-hugged him. Isbait had warmed so much to the Pack Alpha that he joined in. “I need to debate something with you. The Draugr curse. I think I learned something important about the fever that followed.”
“Okay.” Sk?ll squeezed his shoulder. “We’ll just shade and scout, then join you and Ela around a fire for dinner.”
“I’ll get that going. No wait, you want yours raw, right?”
“No, I’ll join as Vargr.” Sk?ll shifted to his Warlord form and trotted off to find the V?lsung, who were gathering to divide up the watch. The shading exploded from Sk?ll, and that of the other Warlords followed, letting them run the area that now counted all of Denmark, some of north Germany, Norway, the top third of Sweden, and Malm? at the bottom of Sweden. Their shadow wolves had a lot of running to do. In fact, they were too few Warlords for a territory that size, even though a pack with three Warlords and thirteen Warriors had joined recently. That was a far cry from all V?lsung, so his ember pulsated to draw more to his cause.
Vargr, Feral, and V?lsung had different ember pulls, he’d learned, and he finally controlled which ones he sent out. He wondered what the pull of a Fenrir ember would feel like.
“Seek incoming friends and foe and travel tomorrow’s trail as far as we shade now.”
“Warlord!”
“Sk?ll! Sk?ll!” Steffen sprinted to him and stopped, looking baffled. “I can see. I can see and smell everything in shade.”
Several Warlords turned to look at Steffen as baffled as Sk?ll felt. They needed to know everything about what had happened to Steffen after the Draugr curse. But then he was trusted by Wolf, and Sk?ll felt a new level of respect toward his Pack Alpha.
Bothild came over, studying Steffen. “How intriguing. I look forward to hearing more.”
“Join us after we’ve scouted.”
“Yes, Warlord.” She turned and sent her wolf ahead.
“The huge band of Sleipnir will reach us tomorrow or early the next day,” a Warlord announced.
“Vargr and women on horseback come this way from south-east,” another announced.
Sk?ll found nothing exciting but pegged a few houses where the humans seemed upset at the sudden darkness. He didn’t care, though, and kept going North. There, he found something interesting. From a ridge, he saw the colorful clothes that Elakdon had talked about. They were on their way south on horseback. He’d half expected them to come on reindeer or sleds, but the horses were probably due to them having been told that they’d be joining a running bond with humans on horseback. Oh, and no snow for sleds. Either that or Sk?ll’s limited knowledge let him think in stereotypes, only. There was a big possibility for that, and he looked forward to learning about a new culture. If he had time. “The Sámi council has sent their Rigr to meet up with us.”
They scouted for another twenty minutes, then reeled in their wolves and found their posts or tasks.
Sk?ll let the shade drop and joined around the fire where meat would soon sizzle.
Hati, Freki, Elakdon, Randr, Steffen, Tristan, Rasmus, Thyra, Bothild, Navidon, his constantly watching Warlord Magnus, Marisol, Stallion Bjark, and General Madsen plus a few soldiers already sat around the fire, making everything cozy.
Sk?ll joined Rasmus, who didn’t cuddle up. Oh, yeah, Warlord form, so Sk?ll shifted to his Vargr form. Now he got attention. But other than getting a kiss from a once again artistically focused boyfriend, Sk?ll had to focus on something very interesting.
“Please start from the top,” Sk?ll urged Steffen.
Everybody looked at Steffen.
“I was so out of it. I thought we’d arrive at the Cubi House today, but then I learned I’ve been unconscious for five days!” Steffen looked toward the four Rigr, still out cold, yet Sleipnir was trying to feed one water with a spoon.
“You’re the first to wake up,” Elakdon said.
Steffen looked around. “Man, I hope the others pull through and help shed some light on whether it’s just a weird dream or something real.”
Freki grinned. “Well, with a good long nap, you must be ready to run hard tomorrow.”
“It wasn’t a nap.” Steffen’s tone sobered them all up. The haunted look in his eyes certainly did. “It was a fight.” He looked at Sk?ll. “If this wasn’t just a dream, then I know what the Thrall is. The traitor.”
Sk?ll sat forward. “Yes?”
“The ember is the fire that Rigr put into their chests, and it burns the pollen from a loofa-looking vegetation. I think the Karls who can fight it rise as Rigr or are Rigr from being able to. Thralls can’t, so those Karls become Thralls by sinking into despair and give up on everything. But Rigr can fight it. And Alphas are then Vargr Rigr.” Steffen looked at Bothild. “And if I’m not mistaken, V?lsung are immune because of the power of the wolf in you. Vargr are too human, and humans are the ones who have this...allergy.”
“It changed you,” Navidon said.
“How so?” Elakdon asked.
“Like it changed Randr. When Pack Alpha Steffen was infected, he sometimes provoked my burning hunger. Before that? No emotions other than seeing an attractive man. He kinda looks like you, Nol.”
Elakdon smiled. “We’ve noticed.”
“Now? Now I find him attractive and hot. I don’t like being penetrated because of...what happened. I rarely find pleasure in fantasizing about a man, but...Randr and Steffen? Absolutely, I’d enjoy giving them blowjobs. I even think I trust them enough to receive one, but I don’t dare. What if I get afraid that they’ll hurt me? Especially with Randr. That would turn sour, right?”
“I don’t know. That would depend on how afraid, but, yeah, let’s not test that!” Elakdon looked at Steffen. “Keep going.”
“I had the weirdest dream of being split into three,” Steffen said. “Human, Vargr, and feral side. We walked a desolate and never-ending road, and the mountain I merged with my feral side was nowhere in sight. My human side grew more and more apathetic. As he got dressed, actually. No will to do anything. I goaded him into running by provoking him, endlessly. I had less and less contact with the ember as he got more and more dressed, and the feral side got more and more sick. Then I noticed what looked like a blue loofa, and it emitted pale blue pollen. It hit the human side’s eyes, and he wiped at them like the Rigr did when we ran into Draugr.” Steffen looked at Bjark. “Do Sleipnir know of a plant like that?”
“Loofa...” Bjark looked off in thought. “What is that?”
“It’s a squash-like thing that, when dried, can be peeled and becomes like a rough sponge,” Sk?ll said.
Bjark nodded. “Sponge, so like a coarse fungus?”
“Yeah, that sounds right. Or coral. It was soft to the touch, though.”
Bjark thought for a moment more, then shook his head. “But a fungus would make sense. They can easily cause hallucinations.”
“Hence why I use them sometimes,” Marisol said. “But are you sure that the fungus isn’t just a mental representation of something?” Marisol looked at Steffen. “I remember that you’re visual, and visuals are often merely something symbolic. Was there anything else like that?”
Steffen thought for a moment, poking the fire with a stick. “The shirt the human wore. Klaes destroyed it once, thinking I wasn’t living up to my duties as Pack Alpha, so he beat me up. The shirt didn’t survive. And yeah, that’s my weakness and one I struggle with. Shirking responsibility until the ember grows angry.”
“That was very early on after you rose.” Tristan put his arm around Steffen, who gave a thin-lipped smile and poked the fire some more. “You were acclimatizing to new responsibilities.”
Steffen nodded. “What tempted me in the dream was that I just wanted to hand over responsibility so that I could be with you. If I was Beta, they can’t keep us apart because of that stupid rule.”
Tristan hung his head. “But you never will because that would feel wrong.”
Steffen merely nodded, and their shared pain was visible in their expressions.
They hurt so bad when apart, and Sk?ll’s close bond to both made him feel it sometimes. Right now, he felt their pain at the prospect of being separated. Just thinking about being separated from Hati made Sk?ll hurt.
“That rule will have to be changed,” Hati said. “Especially when considering how many Alphas are now mated.”
“So, you battled blue pollen in your fever dreams, and now all your senses function in shade?” Sk?ll asked.
“Yes. Did I conquer that right from winning that fight?” Steffen looked at Bothild. “Is there any lore about this?”
“None that I know, but there are plenty of stories about similar battles, be they against demons, ghouls, or various kinds of temptation,” Bothild said. “V?lsung was chosen because nothing on this earth could tempt us to turn our backs on the Fenrir prince.”
And those who did had to die. The mere thought made Sk?ll imagine the taste of their blood as he tore them apart for their betrayal.
“What tests outside the poisonous snake survived in lore?” Sk?ll asked.
“Battles, of course. And yes, a battle of the mind was one of them.”
“But no fungus infecting anyone?” Steffen asked.
Bothild shook her head.
“Mushrooms, even the tales of the Berserkers using them, are a later addition,” Thyra said. “Around the Middle Ages.”
“The Fly Agaric has a calming effect,” Randr said. “When used right and in a dose that doesn’t make you puke or go into paralysis. We used mushrooms quite a bit back then, and it was mainly culinary and as...coffee.”
“Yes, always heat mushrooms to kill or lower the toxins. But a loofa?” Bjark looked off in thought. “Can you draw it for me?”
Steffen chuckled. “I’m best at stick figure level, but I know a great artist.” Steffen smiled at a beaming Rasmus.
“I’ll get my new sketchbook!” Rasmus ran off.
Sk?ll’s gaze followed him, happy to see Rasmus’ mood lightening again.
“Something seems off with your theory, Pack Alpha,” Bothild said.
“Which part?” Steffen asked.
“The part about Alphas being Rigr among the Vargr. If I understand this right, then Vargr are all descendants of the Rigr who put the burning stone into their chests, yet as we see with the four human Rigr, too, all Rigr fight the blue pollen. Like you did, too, yet you were the last to go down and the first to wake up because you have the strength of the wolf and the burning stone to aid you.” Bothild nodded toward the human Rigr. “They have none. Not even a mate.”
Sk?ll contemplated her theory along with Steffen’s and tried to remember what Marisol had said when they’d found that old stone.
Rasmus joined them again.
“How much of Marisol’s vision at that old stone did you manage to put down?” Sk?ll asked him.
“Quite a bit.” Rasmus shuffled through some loose pieces that had been tucked into the back of his sketchbook. “From the dome of Ymir’s skull, a burning stone fell, so mighty men of the past, both Karls and Earls alike, took a great task upon themselves. They sought north and south, east and west, inside the earth and in the sky for the door to Muspelheim. And once they found that burning stone, the bravest Rigr rose. They crushed the stone, and they hid the fire of Muspell in their chests. There it slumbers as it waits for the risen warriors to prepare. Asir, Vanir, V?ttir, Dwarves, Seids, and J?tnar sidr was planted in Midgard. And as it feeds the sidr of old, Yggdrasil grows from the last piece of the burning stone, waiting for the seidr to harness the fires of Muspell.” Rasmus pointed to Navidon. “And this is where Marisol turned to tell him to let it burn the Thralls. And Rigr, Rigr...it’s time to rise,” Rasmus looked up. “Valkyries will fly.”
“What does seidr and sidr and all that mean?” Freki asked.
“Seidr is a form of magic, personalized in the form of V?lve,” Elakdon said. “Others can use it, too, but none master it like they do. As if that power is born with them. And sidr means, in this context, a custom. The old Norse beliefs are still known as a religion in Denmark under that name. Hinn Forni Sidr. Means the old custom. It can also mean semen, but not as in...cum, just that it passes something down. Same word, different meaning.”
“And the rest are the gods, nature spirits, and other beings of the time known in the north,” Sk?ll said.
“Vanir, counting the elves, were us,” Elakdon said.
“And J?tnar?” Freki asked. “All I know is from Marvel.”
“Yeah, wrong!” Elakdon chuckled. “The J?tnar names are weird. Like...mountain yeller. They were the oppositions to the gods and could be personifications of traits not liked.”
“Someone’s called hairy finger,” Randr said.
Elakdon snickered. “Yeah, and very blind. And many were wolves.”
“Sleipnir is of a J?tunn father,” Sk?ll said.
“And mother.” Elakdon grinned. “Loki is his mother.”
“What does Sleipnir’s dad’s name mean?” Freki asked. “I mean, if he’s a J?tnar.”
“J?tnar, plural, J?tunn, singular,” Elakdon corrected.
“Skip the old Norse grammar lessons, please, I’m not as geeky as Sk?ll, so I won’t remember it anyway.”
Elakdon chuckled. “Svadill means dangerous or slippery. Fari is to travel. To fare. Like, wishing someone farewell. This is the opposite.”
Freki nodded to himself.
“J?tnar is now just a group of what no one knows what to do with,” Bothild said. “But maybe in some of those weird names, the name signifies something important enough to become remembered in the form of a powerful being? Wet and Sleety and his son Wind Chill could simply be something important to something else.”
“Personifications might be how things were remembered and not ancient superstition,” Sk?ll said.
Elakdon nodded. “It was. How to tell stories has changed with technology. Verbal stories passed down were often in rhymes to help the ones passing them on to remember them. So, things had to rhyme, and words were changed or made up to fit. Stories told in images fit different needs.” He took Rasmus’ sketchbook and held it up for them to see the black swans. “Now, in the time of easy writing, long ballads can be explored in length, while in Platonic times, they focused on long dialogs.” He handed Rasmus his sketchbook back. “In my time, we often shared wisdom in the form of sayings, and we ascribed them to wise people like Odin or other gods to add some merit. Remembering them that way and keeping it alive became a way to remind everybody in society of the customs that were our common societal norms.”
“You used sayings?” Freki asked. “Like rhymes and stuff?”
“That, too.”
“A Rigr is awake!” Sleipnir shouted.
Sk?ll, Hati, Freki, Steffen, and Elakdon shot to their feet and ran there, finding one of the soldiers sitting up on his own, looking around, confused.
Steffen went to kneel next to him. “Hey, Vestergaard.”
The soldier looked at Steffen, seemingly confused. “There were so many. They kept coming.” His chin wobbled. “I couldn’t save that many.”
“It was a dream,” Steffen whispered. “A long dream. You’re awake now. But what did you do in that dream?”
Vestergaard squeezed his eyes shut and hung his head. “Accepted every war medic’s toughest responsibility. Choose who lives and who not to waste time on saving.”
“And then? What happened then?”
The soldier looked up. “Then more died, but those who lived came to help me, while piles of corpses, young and old, just kept getting higher and higher.” He rocked back and forth, and he sniffled. “And I...I...” He looked disgusted. “I let V?lsung feed on them. Waste not, want not, and strengthen the bond of the allies. I accepted that my ways will not bring us forward together.” He looked up. “And then they all stopped dying.”
“Any blue in there?” Steffen continued to prod.
Vestergaard nodded and accepted a steaming mug from Sleipnir. It smelled like broth with herbs. “There was a doctor there who gave people blue tea and bread, telling them it would make them better. But it never did.”
“How did you feel about that doctor?” Elakdon asked.
“I...” Vestergaard looked up. “Killed him. When he fell, gold fell out of his pockets, and the ones he’d given the tea to stole it all, even his clothes, and left his body in the mud. Their eyes. Their eyes became the color of the tea. Pale blue.”
Steffen turned his head to look at Sk?ll. “My human side had a pale blue glow to the white in his eyes, too. It grew stronger until I found a way to fight it. To burn it away.”
“Burn, yes.” Vestergaard looked up, clearly still finding his legs in the world. “I burned the plant he used to make the tea, and I persuaded others to help me. A lot of them started eating it instead, so...I killed them, and I burned the bodies the V?lsung didn’t want to eat.”
“What put us off the meat?” Bothild asked.
“It tasted...too spoiled.”
“Were those the words used?” Marisol asked.
Vestergaard shook his head, closing his eyes. It made him sway as if still dizzy, and Steffen immediately reached out to steady him. “They said the meat was sour. Or not sour enough. I don’t remember clearly.”
Elakdon looked at Sk?ll, but he didn’t say anything. Apparently, something was lining up in his head to be divulged later, and Sk?ll looked forward to it.
“Let’s get him to the fire,” Randr said.
“And a shower,” Steffen mumbled.
Yeah, sleeping for a week didn’t allow much focus on personal hygiene, and the guy needed soap and water.
“I will help our Rigr,” the Sleipnir said.
“How are the hikers?” Vestergaard asked as he was hauled to his feet. “The broken leg?”
“He was flown to the hospital,” Elakdon said. “The rest are still here.”
Soldiers ran to them, obviously eager to see their friend, so they all retreated to the fire, leaving Vestergaard a moment with friends and hopefully a bath.
“He had a dream, too, fighting something,” Steffen said. “And something blue poisoning people.”
“Poison can be used as medicine in small quantities,” Stallion Bjark said.
“Can a poison make people into ghosts or zombies?” Freki asked. “Like Draugr?”
“Magic exists,” Elakdon said. “It’s just a common word for what we haven’t been able to classify with science yet. But, Bjark, do you think that plant is hallucinogenic?”
“Well, I certainly hallucinated,” Steffen said. “Maybe Bothild is onto something. What side wins in the end seems to be our best side, while the worst is the Thrall, remembered in lore as all the unattractive traits. Sloth being one. In my case, I came out the winner.”
“And your ember burns pure and strong,” Freki said.
“Karls return from their inner battle as the strongest version of themselves, now called Rigr, while those who lose the battle are called the Thralls?” Elakdon asked. Everybody nodded because they apparently all understood that as being the case.
“But what does that have to do with Cubi?” Freki asked.
“No Cubi were present when facing off against Draugr, so we don’t know,” Elakdon said.
“Except Marisol tells Navidon to burn the Thralls,” Randr looked at Navidon. “Do you want the one who just woke up?”
Navidon shook his head. “Like with Pack Alpha Steffen, my respect and trust in him rose.”
Elakdon widened his eyes, then covered his head, shaking it. “This is very confusing. I’ve never met a sour-feeding Cubus whose feeding pattern was so...cut and dry.” He looked up. “No, actually, the other way around. Usually, they just want to spread pain and fear. It’s like they turn hateful. And painful to the touch at all times. I can sometimes feel them before I taste their dose.”
“So maybe there are more like me, never discovered, because we feed on pure pleasure, too?” Navidon asked with a clear hint of hope in his tone.
“That’s definitely a possibility. If not for taking you to my bed, I would have missed your dose, and your existence would have gone unnoticed.”
“Also, most are found before their eyes turn red,” Randr added.
“Do you ever have dreams with pale blue in them?” Marisol asked.
Navidon nodded. “But I think that might be because it’s my favorite color. That and fiery red, which is also always in my dreams.”
The soapy scent of wet-wipes joined them as Vestergaard came over. He’d been joined by the hiker woman, Jane, while the last hiking buddy was somewhere else. Jane sat next to Navidon, who smiled at her, while Vestergaard collapsed on a bare spot close to the fire and helped himself to a hunk of meat, which he hoovered.
“Start slow,” Steffen said. “Trust me.”
“Just one piece, I promise,” Vestergaard said around the mouthful.
Sk?ll had a theory, so he shifted to his Warlord form and shaded, studying Vestergaard. The soldier was, at first, too busy with gorging, but then the chewing slowed, and he looked around. “Something changed.”
Bothild smiled at Sk?ll. Yup, she knew what theory was being tested. Could Vestergaard now see behind shade because he’d won the right after battling the blue pollen? Or could only Steffen from being of Wolf?
“Can you see?” Tristan asked. “Smell the meat in your hand?”
Vestergaard looked directly at Sk?ll, nodding. “What does that mean?”
“That I trust you, Rigr,” Bothild said. “Because you are trusted by Wolf.”
“I can see, too,” Tristan said. “My senses were never as limited as Vargr but never at the level of my mother. But is it only your shade we can see now? Or I can see, I mean.”
“Your ember grew confused, too, when we met Draugr,” Steffen said. “Then aggressive. And then it burned pure to be fair, and it has burned strong ever since.”
“Very clear and focused,” Freki added.
“And my senses are no longer limited, even a bit,” Tristan said.
“When we run upon new shade, Warlord, I find it important to test the big son of Thyra’s theory on what shade he can see behind,” Bothild said. “The same goes for the others, of course.”
Sk?ll nodded, agreeing.
“We’ll cross some lakes tomorrow,” Freki said.
Vestergaard shot him a sidelong glance, shoving the last meat into his mouth. “I still stink?”
Freki grinned. “You’re no spring flower, my friend.”
“I’ll go see to that. Thanks for the meat.” Vestergaard struggled up, and Freki supported him in his endeavor, but he walked fine as he chose his heading.
Sk?ll looked toward the last fever-ridden Rigr. “Two up, two to go.”
“But the blue can’t be a coincidence now, can it?” Steffen asked.
“Tea and bread,” Bjark said. “Fungi can be used in both. I will seek our collected knowledge of it.” Bjark stood and walked off.
“Loofa. Like this?” Rasmus handed his sketchbook to Steffen, who moved closer.
“Kinda more sharp edges and thinner arms. Like the holes in a sponge are more angled? It’s difficult to describe.”
“I think I know what you mean.” Rasmus drew more.
Sk?ll shifted back to Vargr and scooted closer to enjoy a relaxing evening around the campfire with his Pack Alpha back in good health.