Breefolk

*Professor Farnsworth voice* Good news, everyone! I've finally decided on a title for this first story arc as I'm writing the ending of it! (No, this is not the final chapter of it, btw, there's still one or two more to go.) I just wanted to let you all know. I'm going to edit it back into the first chapter, but the title of this arc is "Bride and the Beast."

Oh shit.  Oh shitohshitohshitohshit.  “Oh shit,” I breathed.

“Step out of the car and face me,” growled the familiar voice in my head.  One look at Cat’s face told me she had “heard” it too.

“I’ll just go,” I whispered.  “He only wants me.”

“No, Crys!” cried Cat.  “It’s too dangerous!”

I shook my head.  “What choice do I have?  We’re alone here, and Fenrir can trash this car if he wants to.”

I opened the passenger side door and stepped out of the car.  I turned to Cat. “Whatever happens, I want you to get the hell out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you,” she said, and the look of determination on her face made me love her even more.

“I’m not playing around here, Cat.  I need you safe. Please, just promise me you’ll get to safety?”

Cat looked like she was about to cry, but she shook the tears out of her eyes and gave me a quick nod.  “I promise. But don’t you do anything stupid, okay? I mean, on top of going one on one with a giant wolf.”

I tried to give a reassuring smile.  There wasn’t a whole lot of confidence behind it, mostly because I genuinely have no idea what I’m doing.  I shut the car door and turned toward Fenrir. Fenrir, for his part, stepped aside and allowed Cat to drive past.

“You don’t have to do this,” I told Fenrir, trying to imitate every hero ever.  “We don’t have to be enemies.”

“My father demands his Bride,” was Fenrir’s reply.

“But why must you do what Loki wants?”

I’ve never seen a canine that looked so intelligent and expressive.  Fenrir’s eyes went wide in confusion. “He’s my father. He deserves my loyalty.”

I winced as I instinctively thought of my mother.  Her demands could be harsh, but she did care for me in her own way, didn’t she?  No. She cared only for the idea she had of me. As soon as I had shattered that idea, she cast me out without even a second thought.

“Loyalty?” I said.  “Loyalty is earned. What has Loki done to earn your loyalty?”

“He FREED me!”  Fenrir’s rage was palpable, but I could see my question had shaken him.

“He freed you only to make demands of you.  He could have saved you from Asgard at any time.  He let you be imprisoned for centuries. He chose now, as soon as he wanted something from you.”

“ENOUGH!”  I reeled from Fenrir’s psychic assault.  I didn’t even have time to recover before Fenrir had pounced, and I found myself beneath his massive paws.  I dodged my head to the side as he attempted to bite my face off. My fist impacted his soft belly below the ribcage, causing Fenrir to recoil in pain.  I used the opportunity to roll out from underneath him and jump to my feet. I ran towards the beach, which was now illuminated by a soft, red-orange glow as the sun was just over the horizon.

I could hear Fenrir’s massive paws striking the ground with every step he took.  I didn’t need to look to know he was right on my heels. The rocks here were not as high as they were back where we had set our “stakeout,” so I reasoned it was a safe jump down the five or six feet to the sand.  In retrospect, this was not a good plan. I’d forgotten how hard it is to run on sand, and I hadn’t jumped far enough to give me a decent lead. I looked back to see Fenrir hurtling through the air straight at me.  I closed my eyes and braced for the impact, but the impact never came. Or, at least, not with me. I opened one eye to see a massive, translucent, green creature standing before and grappling with Fenrir.

The enormous, troll-like creature seemed to be made of the same energy the kobolds I’d made before.  Had I made this thing? If so, that could be useful, if only I had some control over it. As it was, just as I started thinking about it, the troll disappeared in a poof, and Fenrir dropped to the sand, once again ready to chew me a new ass.

Remind me never to use that phrasing in my internal monologue EVER again.

“So, your control of your powers are growing,” growled Fenrir.  “That May make you more challenging prey, but it also means Father will have less work to do when I bring you to him.”

“Oh, good,” I snarked.  “I’m sure he’ll give you plenty of head pats and belly rubs for that.”

I dodged Fenrir’s lunge.  “I’ll have you know I’m a hound of culture,” he said.  “I prefer a good chew toy!” His jaws snapped shut just inches from my waist.

“Wow, getting into the snark game, are you?” I quipped.  “That line was awful, by the way.”

Realizing that I had no reasonable means of escape, I was going to have to find some way to keep Fenrir fighting without actually knocking me unconscious.  I decided now was as good a time as any to try my trump card. I cartwheeled into the air over Fenrir’s head and landed on his back.

Just one problem: I landed facing backwards.  Fenrir reared up, and I hung onto his fur for dear life as to keep from falling off and landing face first in the sand.

“Very well,” Fenrir said as his front paws landed back in the sand.  “This just does half the work for me.”

I could hear… something behind me.  It was a sound something like a “vworp,” and then a “slorp,”  and then a sound that sounded like wind blowing across a plain.  I turned my head to see what was going on and caught a glimpse of a large, oval shape of something bright and white, and Fenrir was getting ready to jump right into it.  With a “yipe,” I let go of Fenrir and jumped off his rump to faceplant into the sand. I heard another “slorp,” and got to my feet, spitting out sand only to find… nothing.  No bright white oval floating in mid-air, no giant, psychic godwolf. Just miles and miles of sandy beach and the rising sun.

Then I heard another “vworpslorp” behind me.  I turned just in time to see Fenrir leaping out of a portal right at me, and I dodged out of the way just in time to avoid his jaws clamping on my head.  Instead, his surprisingly sharp teeth grazed my left shoulder. However, it didn’t even scratch. Remind me to thank Agni and the boys when I get a chance.

So, I find myself fighting a giant, psychic, portal jumping godwolf on a battlefield made of some of the most difficult turf I could imagine, and I’m already getting winded.  I’m well and truly fucked. I’m doing the best I can to avoid getting any lasting wounds, but before long, I’m trapped between the Fenrir’s jaws and the rocky cliff wall.

“If you do not yield, I will have to beat you down until you can no longer resist,” Fenrir growled.

“You’re asking me to give up my life!” I yelled.  A desperate plea, I knew, but I was running out of hope.  “More than that, you’re asking me to give up the life of everyone.  I’ll be a prisoner.”

“Do NOT speak to me of prisons,” Fenrir growled.  “A thousand years I was locked up in Asgard.”

“And you’d do the same to me?”

“If it means my freedom, then yes!”

“But… you’re already free?”

“Yes, thanks to my Father.”  Fenrir’s reasoning was flawed, but I could already see that he’d had enough of words for now.  He lunged at me, no longer trying to bite me but just to beat me against the rocks. I didn’t have enough energy to resist.  My vision blurred, and my ears rang from blow after blow. I could already see the angels coming to take me to the afterlife.  It was over.