NOVEL WEB Adventure Time in Niflheim!
*Vol.1: Tales of a God.
Chapter 16 - Adventure Time in Niflheim!
Here is the new chapter!
Thanks for waiting!
Without further ado, enjoy the chapter peasant!
- 1 week later...
- Location: Miðgarð Underground (Midgard) / Niðavellir.
Pov. Third-person.
A person walked slowly through an underground cave of Miðgarð (Midgard), known as Niðavellir.
That person was Loki.
Who was he looking for? The renegade dwarf from the kingdom of Niðavellir... Responsible for forging one of the most feared swords in the Norse pantheon... The famous Dáinsleif.
Loki walked through the darkness until he reached an area on the edge of the Niðavellir realm and began to hear the sounds of a hammer.
Loki, knowing he had found who he was looking for... He just smiled.
A short time later, a dwarf could be seen working...until he stopped working and looked towards the shadows.
"... What you want?" asked the dwarf.
And then from the shadows... Loki appeared.
"...Hello Dáinn... You are a very hard dwarf to find... I came here to offer your chance for redemption" said Loki with a smile.
"... You speak about redemption... What do you have in mind?" asked the dwarf, now called Dáinn.
Loki then started talking.
"Well… what's the biggest redemption for a dwarf?… 'Make the impossible possible', right? That's your code…" said Loki.
"...I don't deserve to live by such a code... Not anymore..." explained Dáinn, sighing in sadness.
"... Are you sure about that?" asked Loki.
Loki then proceeded to walk around Daínn's makeshift forge.
"Looks like you still live by this code, even if you say such words of regret," Loki said, pointing to some swords and armor in a corner.
"...I'm still a dwarf...I'm not forging for redemption... I'm forging because it's in my blood, I forge to not forget WHO I am and WHERE I came from..." replied Daínn, narrowing his eyes towards Loki.
"Oh? I see~... But have you thought about going home? To your dwarf brothers?" asked Loki curiously.
The question seemed to get a reaction from Dainn.
"...Every day..." replied Dainn softly, looking at the ground.
"So here's your opportunity... If you forge two unique items... I will convince Odin to talk to Hreidmar, your leader, to accept you again..." said Loki with a smile.
This seemed to have caught Dainn's attention... But he was still hesitating.
"…My exile doesn't have many resources…only the basics like gold, silver, and obsidian…" said Daínn.
But then, Loki held out his hand... And it was then that Daínn noticed a small vial of bright golden liquid... Something he had never seen before!
"... What is it?" asked Dainn, mesmerized.
Loki then placed the vial in Dainn's hands as he said.
"The tears of sorrow of a particular goddess... Everything it touches, if it's not alive, will turn to gold... But if it touches something alive? Not even I know what will happen. I will provide you with all resources you need... And you will forge two items for me" said Loki.
But still, Daínn was curious about the tears...
"How did you get such an item?" asked Dainn curiously.
"Hmm... Let's just say a playful 'squirrel' owed me a favor... He collected the tears quickly while the goddess was sleeping" explained Loki, smiling.
But then Loki stopped smiling and stared at Daínn.
"So... Do we have a deal?" asked Loki, extending his hand to Dainn.
"…Yes," Daínn replied, reaching out and squeezing Loki's hand.
"...Excellent," said Loki smiling again.
- Location: Niflheim.
Pov. Thor.
Convincing Odin to give in to Fenrir's freedom wasn't easy... After all, I would practically be releasing the 'god slayer', and that made Odin's paranoia to be at the limit.
But after showing Odin what I could do with my strength, as well as runes... He gave up and authorized me to take care of Fenrir, but I would be responsible for whatever Fenrir did.
My uncle Loki obviously, didn't like that I wanted his older 'son' as a kind of 'mascot'... I won't lie, the situation was really weird, by logic Fenrir would be my 'cousin', but for some reason, according to Odin and Loki, Fenrir could not 'think' like Jörmundgander... This means that Fenrir was driven by the old animal instinct.
In short, Fenrir could differentiate: 'friend' from 'non-friend', just like a dog... With a slight difference.
The 'non-friend' can become 'potential food' very quickly.
To be honest, many gods can start calling me crazy for wanting to 'tame' something that can kill you with a single bite. However, I was really thinking long-term...
The advantages of having Fenrir as a guard dog were many!
The problem would be 'convincing' Fenrir since he was imprisoned by those he once called family...
According to Odin, he thought that if they treated Fenrir with love and affection, he would grow up docile... But one thing Odin didn't count on was Fenrir's rate of growth. According to Odin, Fenrir can now devour a god mounted on a horse in a single bite and this was getting too dangerous...
So even though Fenrir has proven docile... The gods decided to imprison him because of fear.
It is a pity, but fear can blind even the wisest of men.
Currently, I am confident that I can subdue him with my strength... But that will not grow the bond of trust I intend to have with Fenrir.
My 'fishing' adventure was with a simple objective: to find one of the only items capable to destroy Gleipnir.
Jörmundgander's poison.
But the poison was too useful and unique to be wasted as mere chain-breaking acid, so I took a large amount, nearly 10 liters.
"May I know what you're weighing?" said a voice.
I looked towards my traveling companion.
Sif.
"It's nothing... Just thinking about how to proceed when I find Fenrir" I explained.
She just nodded in understanding.
Why was Sif following me? Well... I didn't see any 'island' called Lyngvi on my last visit to Niflheim, even though I went to the famous lake of the dead called Amsvartnir, I didn't see any islands in the middle of the lake or even a bridge, Sif said she had found by accident the rune that caused a bridge to appear in the lake... Unfortunately, Sif wasn't very precise with her description of where she found this rune, so I asked her to accompany me.
Basically, Sif would be my guide on this journey.
She would only accompany me to the bridge, the rest was off-limits as it was forbidden for her.
"I think we are already approaching the river Gjöll (Gioll)," Sif said.
"Yes... I can already hear the screams of the souls... Is she still there?" I asked Sif with a sigh.
"Ugh... It almost certainly she does... After all, she can't leave the bridge for too long" replied Sif.
"*sigh* I just wish the 'personification' of fury wouldn't have to get stuck in the river of 'turbulence'" I said regretfully.
"You can say that again..." said Sif.
When we approached the famous river of reincarnation, or river of 'turbulence', called Gjöll (Gioll), we could see the bridge that crossed the river, that divided the lands of the living from the lands of the dead, the bridge was called Gjarllarbrú, and had as a guard a Jotun, who was the 'personification' of fury, called Móðguðr (Modgud).
"Stop right there! No living will cross the bridge of the dead without my permission!" shouted a voice.
We looked towards the voice... And we saw a fully armed warrior.
The 'personification' of fury, and the only guard of Gjarllarbrú... Móðguðr (Modgud).
"Móðguðr (Modgud), it's been a while…" I said with a nervous smile.
She seemed to recognize me from my last visit.
"YOU! Do you know the problems you caused?! Because of you, Níðhöggr came out of his lair in Náströnd earlier and made a big mess!" she yelled pointing at me.
... In my defense, it's hard to find a Draugr when it's an appetizer of Niflheim's dragon snake.
"Thor... What did you do?" whispered Sif in my direction.
"...I think you already know, but it's quite difficult to find a Draugr far from Náströnd without Níðhöggr having devoured it... For every 1000 Draugr that appear in Náströnd, only 1 manages to get out of there and wander in the forest of the dead ... So I thought it best to go straight to the source, but it looks like Níðhöggr thought I was just another Draugr... Let's just say I made him have a toothache he'll never forget..." I explained whispering to Sif.
"What do you want now Aesir?!" asked Móðguðr (Modgud), rudely.
"…We'd like to cross-" I didn't even get a chance to finish as I was interrupted by the angry Móðguðr.
"No! I won't allow you to cross Gjarllarbrú! You're just going to cause more trouble again!" said Moðguðr.
"*sigh* Alright... While I find your anger at me understandable, I really need to cross this bridge... So... What do you want for allowing us to cross Gjarllarbrú?" I asked.
I really didn't want to cause too much trouble, she's just trying to do her job...
I offered something because Móðguðr, as much as she was the 'personification' of fury, she was known to be very bipolar...
On the one hand, she was quite easy to annoy, on the other hand, she was...
"Hmm... Maybe there's something you can do... What's your profession?" said Móðguðr, in consideration.
She was quite calm when she wasn't angry...
In short... She was a little crazy, and sometimes she said nonsense... Like now.
"... My profession?" I asked, unsure of how to respond.
"Yes...I need an animal tamer right now...You see, the water of Hvergelmir is being defiled by 2 creatures...Get rid of them and I'll let you through whenever you like" explained Móðguðr.
Strange... As far as I know, Níðhöggr is the only thing that dips into Hvergelmir, aiming to gnaw on one of the three roots of Yggdrasil, and the only root that extends to Niflheim.
Níðhöggr feeds on 'life' from the root of Yggdrasil and 'death' from the bodies of Draugr.
"You said, 2 creatures... What are they? And how has Níðhöggr not killed them yet?" I asked.
"Unfortunately, the 2 creatures are faster than Níðhöggr, and... when they start to run, the sound of drums resounds in the sky... They started drinking Hvergelmir's water some time ago... I just found out when Níðhöggr once returned from Hvergelmir extremely angry, so I went to investigate... I was surprised to find those two things..." said Móðguðr, with a grimace of anger.
"...You couldn't even capture them or kill them?" asked Sif in surprise.
Móðguðr's grimace seemed to have worsened.
"I already told you… Those things are MUCH faster than Níðhöggr. In fact, Níðhöggr didn't make any scratches on them... When I went to investigate, I could only get their glimpse before they started running," explained Móðguðr.
"Have you seen them? Then… What do these creatures look like?" asked Sif.
Móðguðr seemed to be... Embarrassed?
"They are…goats," replied Móðguðr.
Well... That's it, folks!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Don't forget to leave your comment!
Forgive me in case of grammatical errors... I tried. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I still haven't figured out how to link images in the paragraph... Someone pls help me!