Asgard and Olympus, Chapter One

...Whoops, again. Bad Quill.

So this may turn into a Sunday-updating blog. Or you could just check back every Monday and find that I've updated on one of the weekend days.

Have a first chapter.

ASGARD AND OLYMPUS

CHAPTER ONE

 Everyone knows that the Æsir and the Olympians, while not openly hostile to each other, are not friends. (Humans are excepted from this figure, of course; they barely know what’s going on around the other side of their little world, let around what goes on across the Nine Worlds.)

That is why Hela Lokidöttir (otherwise known as Half-Born Hel, Hela Half-Rotted, or Queen of the Norse Dead) is currently standing in her father Loki’s house, staring at Hermes with a mixture of surprise and confusing and wondering why in the Nine worlds the Greek messenger god is here in Asgard.
Asgard. As in, home of the Norse gods, the Æsir. It’s a wonder Thor hasn’t decided to take offense at Hermes’ intrusion with his hammer Mjollnir.

“Are you finished staring?” Hermes asks.

As if he didn’t do a double take when he saw Hela’s…condition. (Hela Half-Rotted isn’t just a name; the entire left half of Hela’s body is cold, blue and black; dead.) “Yes, quite finished. What are you here for?” 

“I’m Zeus’ messenger. You get three guesses.”

Oh for the love of Odin. He’s as bad as Loki. “Who’s the recipient of this message?” she asks. Normally she isn’t this blunt, but really, this visit to Asgard was supposed to be just a simple break from Helheim and the dead, a time to see her father and brothers, and now here are Greek gods running around and complicating things. (Hela is not fond of unexpected complications; she prefers not to have to deal with them.)

Yes, gods, because apparently Hermes broguht the god of war and the goddess of love along. Ares and Aphrodite. (And Thor is really showing restraint about the whole thing; under normal circumstances he’d have chased Ares out of Asgard and the god of war would have been lucky to get out alive.)

“Odin,” Hermes says, and Hela blinks and takes a second to remember what he’s saying ‘Odin’ to. (Oh yes; she asked him who the message was for.)

That would explain Thor, then. “I suppose it’s all confidential and such,” she says, moving towards a stool with the intention of sitting down.

“Anyone with an eye could figure it out, actually,” Hermes says cheerfully. “You have noticed the strange occurrences, haven’t you?”

Hela sits down, arranges her skirt. Her mind whirls; of course she has noticed the frost in strange places, the curiously scorched footprints, the signs of dragons and werewolves and empusa mobilizing. The marks are up and down the trunk of Yggdrasil, the tree that supports the Nine Worlds. “But what does that have to do with you and Zeus and Odin?” she manages.

Loki chooses that moment to emerge from the other parts of his house, just in time to hear Hela’s question.

Hela jumps up, ignoring the painful protest of her dead leg (it doesn’t like sudden movements, but to Helheim with it she has not seen her father in centuries). “Father!”

“Hela!” He catches her in an embrace, Hela hugging him tightly.

“I hate you right now,” she mutters despite this display of affection. Hermes lets out an undignified snort.

“Everyone does at one time or another,” Loki says, unconcerned by the declaration.

Hela pulls away. “You could have warned me--”

“Don’t you know by now I never warn anyone?”

Okay, he has a fair point. “Well, you could have met me at the Bifrost, told me there were Olympians here, that it was a bad time to come or something--”

“On the contrary,” Loki says, suddenly looking serious. “It’s an excellent time to come, because Hermes brought a message asking Odin to join in an alliance with the Olympians against a possible threat.”

Hela closes her mouth, which has been ever so slightly open. “A serious threat, then,” and her tone is solemn.

“Yes. And it would be better if you were here in Asgard if it comes to war.”
Hermes sits down on another stool. “On the vaguely related subject of meeting family and all, I think I hear Ares coming.”

Hela wonders what that has to do with meeting family (she has a vague notion that Ares and Hermes are related, but she doesn’t really know). Loki, however, seems to have a very good grasp of the situation as he immediately turns and heads back into the depths of his house, towards his back door. “Tell him I’ve gone to see Thor or something. That should keep him off my tail.”

“Will do,” Hermes says, laughing. Hela looks to him, an unspoken question in the air. “He and your brother Jormungand both took snake form earlier today and went to terrorize Aphrodite,” Hermes explains, still laughing. “Ares was angered by the disrespect to her.”

‘Meeting family’ would mean ‘get Jormungand and get out if you value your life’ then, and Hela smiles and then laughs.

She pauses, then asks tentatively, “So how serious of a threat does Zeus think it is?”

Hermes shrugs. “I’m here, aren’t I? That should say something.”

It does, and Hela doesn’t quite appreciate the statement. She gives Hermes a curt nod of thanks and stands, turning to go.

The door bursts open and Ares thunders in, sword drawn. “Where is he?” the Greek god of war shouts.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific, Ares,” Hermes drawls, looking innocent despite the mischief in his eyes.

“That elf Loki,” Ares growls. Hela laughs, because while Loki is half elf (and half Jotun, or frost giant) nobody around Asgard has ever called him ‘elf’ and meant it in a derogatory way, as Ares seems to. They usually call him ‘Jotun’.

Ares doesn’t get the joke and rounds on her, furious. Hela smiles sweetly as Hermes smothers snickers. “My father is not in right now,” she says. “he said something about going to meet my cousin Thor. After all, Thor has been away for ages hunting giants, and Loki’s been very busy, and they’ve been dying to see each other. They’re very close, you know, almost brothers--”

At that point Hermes completely loses it and falls off his stool laughing. (Anyone who knows Loki and Thor knows that they have no particular fondness for each other.) Hela takes advantage of the distraction and neatly ducks around Ares and out the door into the forest.

Yes, today is an excellent day so far.

(Aside from the promise of impending doom, of course…)

IMPENDING DOOOOOM.

Okay, I'm done. =P Sorry about that. Hope you enjoyed, drop me a line if you liked it. Yep. Bye. See you Saturday. (Hopefully. It'll likely end up being Sunday again. XD)