Games We Play -Shaman

"C'mon! I am sure you can do better than this!" Skadi goaded Raynor as the pair raced through the snow on their skiing slates.

"You do realise that I don't have snow-related divinity!?" The Shaman complained to his 'wife'. He couldn't keep up with her absurd speed as she was skiing circles around him.

"Ha! That is you complaining! Did you forget that you beat me three times in a row? If you truly want, you can easily keep up!" Skadi teased him back as she continued to play around him.

Of course, this much noise caused some beasts to surface and try to ambush the group.

But the Jotun Goddess would jump and deliver a devastating punch which would shatter the beast's head like a watermelon. 

With a smug look, she dropped to the ground and looked at her 'Husband'. 

"See! Nothing to worry about!" 

"I don't worry. I am sad to see that it's a wasted resource." His sigh was exaggerated. He won't be able to skin more and make more of this lovely white leather. 

She eye-rolled at him as they continued to ski towards Raynor's and Ullr's temporary base.

Once there, Raynor proceeded to collect his stuff and store it away. 

Skadi had a curious look as she realised that he could just store things away like it was nothing! That made her jealous! Such an ability is handy! 

Less than fifteen minutes later, he finished collecting.

"Do you have anything to pick up from your place? I can store it away." Raynor asked her with a small smile.

"Do you have enough space?" She enquired.

"I have more than enough space for gear and clothes if you want." He said with a slight shrug.

"Well, my gear is creatable on the spot, and my leather clothes—Hmm, I don't think I would need warm clothes on Earth. I have been there before a few times. It's a peculiar place." She said with a slight frown, recalling her experience in Scandinavia. 

"Still, we should collect them. We will be going on all sorts of strange hunts, and with mana weaving, I can make them very durable and weather resistant." As he explained to her, she walked over to his side, removed her glove and proceeded to touch him. 

"Damn. To think that someone like you does exist. Just how long did it take for you to make this?" She asked with an unreadable look on her face. The Goddess feels that her pride as a hunter is being challenged, more like being stomped to the ground. 

"He did everything with manual labour. I watched it in person." Ullr, who was standing next to them, commented on his work. 

"No magic? Just mundane tools?" She needed a double take on this. 

"Indeed. His magic weaving comes from synchronisation with nature. So, even if he can't use magic normally, he can still wield shamanism. It's pure effort, very admirable." Ullr explained what he observed. He noticed that Raynor very rarely uses his mana. He prefers spiritual energy. Such a particular brand of development can only be achieved if the Shaman never practised magic. Instead, he went straight to souls and nature. Such a thing can only be done in lands as wild as Asgard's eighth other realms. Midgard could never have something like this. Not in this age and time when mana is so dominant. 

It only confirms what Raynor said before. He was spirited away, went to a wild world and practised shamanism over there. 

"...I see. Me judging you by your mana reserves was a mistake." She sighed and removed her dandy hand from his clothes. She placed her glove back on. 

"Then let's go. I will take you to my place." She motioned for them to follow as they proceeded to travel once more.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~~

After a couple of hours of intense travelling, the group arrived at a place that looked like a fortress built on the side of a mountain.

It was made from pure ice as if carved from a block of ice: the walls and gates. The keep in the middle of the fortress was as if created from a singular block.

Giants were walking all over the massive fortress guarding it!

"Damn, that's a big castle. And I have seen big ones!" Raynor commented as he looked at the fortress. He has seen big ones in Westeros. The bigger they build, the better it is. 

"It's not THAT big. The leader of Jotun has a bigger castle than mine." Skadi brushed the compliment aside, though a slight blush was on her cheeks. It was starting to annoy her that he was constantly complimenting even the most minor things!

Regardless, they walked inside the keep, and the hunters followed the Jotun Goddess to her sanctuary. 

Raynor started to notice some of the things the Goddess likes. She was a proper huntress. He could see that she had trophies.

Something he wants to start doing as well: a trophy room would be an excellent addition to the lodge he was building in Dragonstone. 

Sure enough, they ended up in her room, where a big wardrobe was. 

Once she opened the pair, she noticed rows of white fur clothes. Nothing more! 

The Shaman decided to abuse this knowledge. He shall make some fancy hunter clothes once they return to the regular world. 

"How many should I take with me?" 

She asked him, as she had no idea. 

"Couple, the rest we can buy or make ourselves," Raynor explained to her. His explanation made her slightly frown.

"... 'Buy'? Is that a term used for exchange?" She questioned her. After all, in Niflheim, the concept of trading doesn't exist. It's to kill and make something out of it.

"Yes. Now show me what you want to take with you." With a nod, he walked over to her and asked. 

"Right."

The Jotun Goddess started to pull out fur clothes from her wardrobe. 

And Raynor just kept on storing it away.

Eventually, she finished with her selection. And the pair proceeded to walk towards the massive double doors. 

But then the Shaman looked at the throne room. The Goddess had.

He stroked his chin. 

"That could work." He said with a realisation. His outburst caused the Goddess to look at him with confusion.

"...What could?" 

"My powers." He clarified with a small smile as he started to look through his inventory.

"What do you mean?"

"A quick travel method." He pulled out one of his banners, walked over to the throne, and placed it behind it on the ice wall.

The moment he did that, there was a reaction from his power.

A new quick travel option just popped into his menu!

'Curious. So it appears it depends on my desires.' He concluded after this try. He tried to look for means to access Niflheim at will, and now he found it. 

On top of that, depending on desires, he can make it his land or a rapid travel point.

It's a neat ability to have.

"Another shaman power? Or is it something else?" Ullr pondered as he looked at this development from a distance. 

"No. It's power given to me by whoever spirited me away." 

"I see. Then it appears this is where we will go our separate ways." The Hunter God realised this after understanding how this power works.

"No. We need to let him out. The moment I leave this place, my giants will be loose, and they can attack you." Skadi said with a smirk. 

"That won't be necessary." 

The pair looked at each other and then at the Norse God.

"I will use Bifrost." 

"Oh, that is cool." Raynor immediately realised how cool this would look!

Skadi let the Ullr leave the fortress before Ullr looked at the sky.

"Heimdall, you can pick me up!" 

Next second, a beam of rainbow lights slammed into Ullr's location, picking him up. The next second, he was gone. 

"...Damn, that is cool," Raynor mumbled to himself, seeing that in action!

"So that's how he appears and leaves Nilfheim!" Skadi pouted while seeing this for the first time.

"You have been fighting him for centuries, and you never even considered how he enters and leaves Niflheim?" Raynor jokes.

"You saying 'fighting'? That's a strong word. He would come here, kill three Jotuns, and leave. Which parts are fighting? I fought him maybe ten times in total over centuries." She explained with a distasteful voice.

"Your existence here has caused centuries of my work to go wasted. You killed more Jotuns than Asgardians did over centuries." She explained while lazily waving her hand. 

"One of the reasons why I accepted to be your 'wife'. Even if you are a human, you disregarded the threats and charged right into them. One could say you get what you deserve for such recklessness." 

"Oh? And that is a gorgeous wife?" He teased back.

For a second, she narrowed her eyes and got closer to him.

"Since we are alone, we can start discussing 'things'."

"I am here too, you know," Tsufaame said with a huff and crossed arms. 

"You are his pet ghost; I don't see you as a separate being." Skadi 'burned' the Leviathan without even looking at her.

"My question is, does my 'husband' have other wives or children?" The Jotun Goddess asked with slightly narrowed eyes. 

"No kids, but I do have a fiance. A Sitri devil."

"...Oh? I want to talk with her." Skadi requested with crossed arms. 

"You can do that once we leave Niflheim; I don't think devils were created for a place like this." Raynor joked as he looked around the icy wasteland.

"You can summon her?"

"Of course. I even tamed the current Leviathan."

"...You could summon Satan Leviathan to fight for you?" The black-haired Goddess looked surprised.

"Indeed. She is one of the few summons I have. I can summon wolves and birds. Oh, as well as a Gremory. She became my bed warmer." 

"...I see—I see. It appears I need to join the 'battlefield'." 

"...oh?"

"It's not a battlefield for you, but for me only. Women fight women's battles. A male should not stick his nose there." She explained to him in the simplest of terms.

"I get the drift, but you forgot that I am the one who makes them appear and disappear," Raynor said with an eye roll. 

"Yes-Yes, I understand." 

After that, he grabbed her hand, and the Shaman transported them to Raynor's House. It took a second for Skadi to understand where she was. The transition was extremely smooth. 

"...Hmm— What the!?" The Goddess looked around for a second. She looked very much out of place.

"This is my place. Follow me." He took her hand and proceeded to lead her to his house.

Once he entered the house, he realised that it would be a pain in the ass to take his shoes, so he used his interface to switch his clothes. 

His other clothes were his school uniform. After all, he went with Ullr right after the classes.

Sensing that his mother and father were in the house, he swiftly removed his sneakers and put on his slippers. He pulled the confused goddess to the corridor and then to the living room, where the pair watched TV.

"I am back!" Raynor, with an excited voice, declared that he was back!

"Ray! Where have you been? You were nearly gone for two weeks! People were looking for you!" His mother immediately started her speech. 

But then she noticed a beautiful lady dressed in white furs. 

"...Who is she?" She asked with a curious look. There was something strange about her, and it was not the clothes. 

"That's the thing! I met Viking God Ullr outside the school that day when it was snowing. He took me to Nilfheim, where we were hunting until now. 

And this!-" Raynor wrapped his hand around Skadi's waist. 

"Is Goddess Skadi! She is one of your future daughters-in-law!" The Hunter dropped the bombshell as the pair looked at the black-haired goddess with wide eyes. 

"..."

"..."

"..."

His mother stood up and walked over to the pair of hunter and huntress.

"Let me get this straight!" Shaman's mother proceeded to name things.

"You meet a Viking God." She pointed at one of the fingers. To which Raynor nodded.

"Went to some strange place with him." His mother pointed at her second finger.

"Niflheim. It's a realm of eternal ice with many Ice Giants." Shaman clarified to his clueless mother.

"That!" 

"And then hunted for two weeks." She pointed at her third finger.

"Yep!"

"And then, in the process, got close to a Goddess?" She pointed to the last one with a raised eyebrow.

"Indeed. We tried to kill each other. It was glorious!" Raynor, with a smug voice, told her the spicy detail.

The pair of his parents looked at Skadi. Who slowly raised her hands in defeat.

"I tried, I honestly tried, but I couldn't kill him. I am ashamed to say that I could not kill this human; my skills, which I sharpened over thousands of years, were useless." The Goddess told with a resigned voice.

"..."

"..."

His mother swayed from one side to another. She controlled herself and didn't collapse this time around. 

"I need a drink."

"You already finished that barrel? I can give another." Raynor swiftly suggested he was in a good mood after all!

"...Ugh! It's not what I meant! You are such a clueless child! Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?" His mother massaged her forehead.

"...I don't get it. It's not that I did something strange…" Raynor released Skadi's waist and crossed his arms. He was pondering on her words.

"You just told me what you did! Something like that!" She snapped back, and one of her eyes was almost bloodshot from anger.

"it's not. I am a hunter, so I hunt stuff. It's like going to work. Besides, I am good friends with Asgard now. We have Gods watching over us now. We are at a far better place than ever before." The Shaman smoothly explained to her.

Instead of saying anything, she just raised her hand in defeat, the same way Skadi did a few moments ago. 

"So, what kind of wines do you have, son?" Finally, Raynor's father chipped in. Up to this point, he was watching the whole thing as if it was a show. He already resigned himself that his son was different; only Raynor's mother had some delusions that nothing had changed. 

"A bunch! From all over Westeros and Essos. Those are two big continents—"

Raynor proceeded to talk about the wines. 

~~~

Sometime later the same day, Skadi started to feel hot; being dressed in furs wasn't helping her with that either.

The pair sat in the kitchen; the Hunter made drinks for them. His mother already started making food.

"We should get spare clothes for you~." 

"There is no way in Helheim you will dress me in a dress!" Skadi got defensive around her clothes and dressed in those uncomfortable clothes!

"Is that a challenge, I hear?" Raynor narrowed his eyes on her. Their auras started to surge; the temperature proceeded to drop in the whole house. 

Raynor's aura was flaming white, while Skadi's was icy blue.

But at that moment, Raynor's mother slammed her frying pan on his head. 

"...Ow!"

However, she looked at the frying pan. That smack has bent the frying pan!

"Be careful with those. These things cost money." The Shaman pointed out that the frying pan got broken, not that she banged it on his head.

"What is your head made of?" She complained seeing that her favourite frying pan got destroyed!

"Same material as always."

She deadpanned at the answer.

"No fighting in the house. In fact, why don't you two buy some clothes?" She suggested it to the pair. 

"Hmm, I guess. I have lots of gold. I could sell it to a jewellery store." Raynor quite liked the idea. 

"You have Sona, so call her, and she can arrange some stuff for you." 

The moment Shaman's mother mentioned Sona, Skadi slightly stiffened, and she started to think about how to deal with this situation. 

"Besides, Goddess Skadi has to meet her." She looked at her frying pan while mentioning that.

"Call me Skadi. It's weird the whole 'Goddess' thing when it comes from Raynor's mother." Skadi chipped in as she stopped thinking momentarily and requested to stop the whole goddess thing with a pained look. 

"As you wish. For now, you can take some of my clothes." 

"My thanks." 

~~~

Sona felt a cold chill wash her over as she finished her talk with Raynor over the phone for the first time in two weeks! 

What she learned made her bite her nail from frustration. 

'To think Asgardians are involved in this by the Satans! How quick do they work!?' Sitri Heiress proceeded to hold her head.

Norse Pantheon is the worst opponent for her to have! Raynor fits with them like butter on bread! 

And now he is back from a hunting trip in Niflheim! She can't even recall if Devils had even been there! That's a Norse Realm.

But worst of them all, Raynor 'conquered' Skadi. He even bragged that he defeated a Jotun Goddess. 

'Knowing him, he made her into another Summon or performed something on her.'

The Sitri Heiress started to feel that this situation had placed her butt on fire. If she continues like that, she will become a 2nd rate! 

For now, she changed her clothes, left her home, and walked towards Raynor's home. 

She needs to notify her sister that Asgardians made contact with Raynor. She doesn't want her to end up in some sort of misunderstanding. 

Around fifteen minutes later, Sona stood in front of Raynor's house. She rang the bell after making sure she looked presentable. 

A few seconds later, Raynor opened the doors, and Sona's eyes bulged out when she sensed his mana levels! 

'He is a High Class!? In two weeks!?' 

For a second, her glasses nearly dropped as she dumbly gazed at him.

~~~

For More Advanced Chapters (+9 chapters, 27k words), My Pat: Pat reon.com/DragonsFics