Fated

Chapter Two

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The rain was heavily drenching the workers in the field, the sounds of hammers pounding on wood reverberating loudly in the hollering wind. Scratching his muddy fingers through the back of his bright red-hair, Ikol paused in his work with a tired sighed, wiping his dirty and drenched face.

Through all the night, he couldn’t at all sleep, fearing if that spirit decided to come back and haunts his dream; which surely is MUCH worse then meeting it face to face. He had heard many stories of spirits – mainly the Kobold, little house-spirits, or even the Meinvaettir – to be visiting people especially in their sleep but he scratched them both out of his list. Kobolds are known to be tiny, so they can’t be it. Meinvaettir actually harm people, which he gave great thanks to the Gods that nothing had happened to him, so it wasn’t them either.

Then what is it?! Ikol mentally thought in fear and frustration, now ruffling his head with his free hand. Shaking his head to get rid of his thoughts, he went back to work; knocking the thick wood deep into the mud with his hammer to make a long tight fence so the running water wouldn’t flood the vegetable field where everyone took part in planting through all the seasons they’d suffer.

“Ikol!”

Ikol looked over at the fence he’s making with squinted eyes to identify the smiling girl who had called his name. “Lif?”

The girl giggled, showing the basket from under the long robe she wrapped around herself to block the rain, “I cooked this for everyone! Take one!”

Ikol gladly would for his stomach have been grumbling for a while. But once he lifted his dirty fingers, her brown eyes widened and she slapped it away, not letting him touch any of her food. Lif reached into the basket on her own and presenting him a round tasty biscuit, holding it up as if indicating she would feed him herself.

Noticing the teasing and jealous stares from the workers, Ikol’s eyes inwardly narrowed. In one movement, he snatched the biscuit and popped it into his mouth, grinning at the pouting girl and went back to his work. He could hear her sweet laughter that surpassed through all the noise and felt her delicate hand slapping him upside the head before leaving, passing her biscuits out to the others.

“You’re lucky, Ikol,” Leifthrasir mumbled rudely from beside him, crunching onto his given biscuit loudly and helping by tying the wood poles tightly to prevent any water from leaking through, speaking with a full mouth, “Lif mostly pays attention to you.”

Ikol smirked, not facing him. “Same goes for you, Lifthrasir, though it’s you who mostly pays attention to her.”

Lifthrasir choked, quickly spiting the remainder of the biscuit out from his mouth before having the privilege of knowing how it felt to be lacking air from his lungs to survive. His eyes were hard and serious, glaring at his smirking friend. “I’m not interested in anyone, let alone Lif having any interest in her own cousin like me.”

“Eh? Like you? Of course!” Ikol smiled innocently at his blank face, “I didn’t hear what you just said except at the end. You should confront your feelings for her, you know.”

If possible, the redhead could have sworn his always-so-rude friend is flaring in fire with obvious rage. Ikol noticed it would be a good time to find another spot to work on, hauling a long thick and heavy wood onto his right shoulder, removing it from blocking the others way.

Waving at the angry Lifthrasir, Ikol turned in a full circle and cringed when feeling the end of the wood he’s carrying smacking him right across the face as the body dropped. Staring down at his fallen friend, Ikol quickly dashed away before he will find himself knocked down with not just the log he’s holding. While running, he looked over to the smiling Lif silently.

Sure, Lif is quite an attractive young woman and many had noticed her greatly, not to mention the size of her breasts – which he would never allow himself to stare at, no way! – was a huge bonus to the lecherous men in this small poor village. But unlike the others, Ikol is, surprisingly enough, not interested in the girl…not even a spark of it can glow in his eyes at the mere sight of her.

Without looking, he threw the log away with amazing strength, his eyes widening in horror when hearing a loud cry before it landed on someone, flatting the person to the muddy thick ground…and that someone appeared to be a female…a very angry female indeed…

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Walking harshly through the thick and tight forest, Runa, clad in traveling clothes which only fits for the summer, walked through it with ease, waving her hands with a surge of magic that would bend stubborn branches and many others that are in the way for her to walk easily. The rain continued pouring, making it harder for her to see but she didn’t let any of that bother her for she had a mission to complete.

Before she can grin, almost reaching out into the open, she held back her shriek when tripping over a dead log and held her balance quickly. Angrily, she kicked it roughly and continued her journey. From there, she slipped, slide, cursed, stopped to kick off clumps of mud, cursed some more, then squished her way off the track for a better trail but failed until finally reaching a hill where the crowded field was seen with a sigh of relief.

A hand lifted to block her wet violet bangs away from her absorbing crystal eyes; she looked through the faces of each of the peasants who were all too busy saving their harvesting field from flooding to notice her.

“Too many…” She muttered, sliding down the slippery hill with a much louder curse and towards the workers for a better view. Right when she set foot upon the field did she look up when a darker shadow towered over her before finding herself buried to the ground with a loud cry when a thrown log crashed right into her.

Runa can hear many yelling voices from above, but all were too shocked at the display to even help! Squashed between the muddy soft floor with a log on top of her; it wasn’t so surprisingly that she is royally mad. Not just mad, but she swore whoever threw this at her is going die in the most painful and tortured way possible.

Many fingers finally gripped onto the log and it had taken about two men to carry such a heavy weight off of her when it only took just one man to throw it. Forcefully standing up on her own, glaring at whoever would dare come near her, she stood up slowly and grinded her teeth from the gooey mud that covered her back heavily.

“Who…?” She paused, glancing at each of the workers who had froze from just the threatening feeling coming out of her cold crystal eyes, “Who threw that at me…?”

Everyone immediately pointed their fingers at Ikol who was trying his best to sneak away. He had wanted to lend a hand for his carelessness – surely he did! – but from the mere sight of the fuming woman once she was released, he couldn’t help but crawl away.

Ikol winced once caught, looking up almost sheepishly. “Sorry about that, I didn’t see you there…”

Instead of seeing to it that a limb was severed or even a corpus of Ikol remained, which the strange woman’s eyes had promised, her face lightened up, reaching out to grab the collar of his shirt, dangling him in the air near her face for a closer look. Ikol appeared to be quite a tall guy, but hanging about three inches off the ground made him look like a shrimp; which didn’t help as much for the woman is apparently shorter than him.

“Are you Ikol?” She suddenly asked him, not releasing him from the awkward position yet; aware of the stares they’re receiving.

Ikol’s lid lowered, his fear of the woman gone, “I don’t know you, do I?”

An answer from her was not what was given, but promptly eating a mouthful of mud when she dropped him was her next silent words; the result of her anger from earlier. Not letting him regaining from his shock, she swiftly grabbed him by one of his ankles and dragged him. The crowd unconsciously made a path for them to walk, cringing each time when the poor Ikol banged his head repeatedly from anything in his path from logs and boulders to drowning in a large puddle of mud.

“Which of these houses do you live?” she asked him, raising an eyebrow when hearing bubbles coming from him; his head was stuck into one of the puddles. “If only they don’t look the same, I would have figured it out by now.”

“What do you want from him?”

Runa raised her head to the angry Lif. “I’ve searched far and wide for this boy here and have many things I need to talk to him about. Can you kindly show me the way towards his home?”

Lif blinked, surprised at the woman’s words. For a woman this scary, she can talk really formally and generously. But that doesn’t mean she had the right to be dragging Ikol like that! Lif glared at her, “Release him at once!”

“Ah…getting an attitude now, are we?”

“Just let him go and I’ll show you the way,” Lifthrasir volunteered rudely, a rough hand on Lif’s shoulders to silent her, “Ikol can walk by himself.”

She smiled warmly, noticing the bubbles coming from Ikol had stopped. “Well, someone needs to carry him if it’s far.”

Lif cried out worriedly, rushing to his side when she released his ankle. Lifthrasir still held his gaze with her silently, his brown eyes narrowed, having a suspicion that this stranger is not at all normal.

“So? Are you going to lead the way?” She reminded him before he can ask, flicking her head to the unconscious Ikol. Lifthrasir snorted, rubbing his stinging cheek from the accidental attack sent by Ikol earlier while walking over. At first, he had wanted to do something to hurt Ikol for a little revenge, but after seeing what he had gone through from the lady alone he completely changed his mind.

Lif looked up at him. “You’re not going to trust her, are you, Lifthrasir?”

“We don’t have a choice, do we? It’s obvious that she’s not going to leave unless she’s satisfied with whatever she wants to talk to Ikol about,” Lifthrasir retorted, heaving Ikol’s body over his right shoulder and grunting from the heavy weight, “Lif, why don’t you lead the way for me?”

“But…” Lif looked at the woman, who seems to be around her age and is now looking around her with little interest, “I don’t trust her…”

“I don’t think anyone does and I’m sure no one dares to kick her out of the village. Go on, I’ll be behind you.”

Lif nodded, making sure he followed closely behind her as they walked past the amused woman. With a short shrug, Runa climbed over the muddy ground after them with a scrunched face, trying to wash the mud off her clothing from the back with the still rainy weather.

Lifthrasir tilted his head towards her. “Your name would be…?”

“Runa,” she responded, not pausing from her cleaning.

“How do you know Ikol…?” And they all stopped in front of a small building where they entered. Lif was quiet, also wanting to know the answer while Lifthrasir gently placed Ikol on their small and hard bed.

Runa grinned at their waiting expression. “I actually don’t.”

“What?”

“You two can leave now, I want to have a private conversation with him alone,” she demanded, dragging a chair loudly beside where Ikol is resting though it wasn’t that far, consider the house is pretty small itself. Runa waited, glancing over at them. “Aren’t you leaving?”

“Not when you’re alone with him, no…” Lif frowned at her. “Don’t you need a bath and change of clothing?”

In the blink of an eye, Runa sat with her arms and legs crossed, a grin spread on her lips with her clothing completely clean and dry. Lif shrieked in shock while Lifthrasir grumbled, not affected from the sudden change. “I knew you’re more than normal…the closest I can guess is you being a seid.”

“A seid?” Lif pointed at her in disbelief, “A witch who travels to many villages to help giving effective advice…someone to trust?”

“It appears so, Lif…”

Runa shifted on the hard seat. “Can you two leave now?”

“Not until Ikol is awake,” Lif said stubbornly, facing to the side. Lifthrasir gave what seems to be between a shrug and a nod, twisting his soaked shirt dry as the water dripped loudly to the floor.

The corner of Runa’s eyes ticked, but a thought suddenly came to her mind with an evil grin before closing her eyes and mumbling a short chant under her breath. The two can only watch when the dripping water was sucked up to form a glowing orb of water, resting in the palm of the seid’s hand, their clothing immediately dry.

“…Hehehe….haha….” They could hear her chuckling before both eyes widened in disbelief from her loud laugher. “BWAHAHAHA!”

Lifthrasir had about enough. “What are you doing?!”

“An idea came to my mind,” replied Runa, somewhat back to her normal self, bouncing the water orb in her hand, “You did want to see him awake first before leaving and that’s what I’m intending to do.”

Before Runa can merely drop the orb directly in Ikol’s face, both Lif and Lifthrasir held her hand back as Lif cried, “We’re leaving! Just stop!”

And the orb disappeared with Runa grinning, “Good, now let go and leave.”

It was a trick, Lifthrasir knew, but he wouldn’t say anything further while leading his cousin out the house into the rain. Before closing the squeaking door, Lifthrasir paused, looking back at her. “Promise you won’t do that again…?”

“You have my word,” Runa nodded, watching the door closed behind him. Slowly, she faced back at Ikol, having no patience and gave a flick of her hand lazily. At her command, the bed bounced powerfully, knocking the poor boy off onto the floor at her feet.

Ikol, eyes snapped open, looked up at her. “What was that all about?!”

“I knew you were awake just when your friend put you into the bed. How long were you going to pretend to be sleeping?” she said dryly, looking down at him while he stood, “I didn’t promise him that I wouldn’t throw you off the bed, so I still kept my word.”

Double checking to see if the bed is still cursed, Ikol sat down on it. “Who are you…?”

“Didn’t you listen to a word I said when your friend asked me the same question?”

“Then what do you want from me? It’s not normal for a stranger to be coming here asking for me when I never met you before.”

Runa glared at him. “And it’s not normal or nice to be throwing logs at people in the middle of a muddy, rainy day either.”

His face colored, going nicely with his bright-red hair. “I did apologize…”

“And I have shown you my gratitude,” she snorted, ignoring his blank look and fidgeted on her seat, “This is the most uncomfortable chair I have ever sat on in my entire life.”

“Then take the floor,” Ikol grumbled, only to cower when she nearly threw the chair right in his face.

Calming down, Runa placed the chair back to where she got it from, now standing on her feet and looking down at him. “I have some important things to discuss…”

“I’m listening.” Ikol muttered, clearly wanting to complete this unknown business so she can leave before she could hurl the chair at him.

“Do you know who Loki is?”

“…No?”

“You heard of the other Gods and Goddesses than, right?”

“It’s common for everyone to know them,” Ikol said, tapping his lip in thought, “I heard stories that many people had been helped by the Gods or Goddesses themselves if you seek them.”

“Then how do you not know Loki?”

“Was I supposed too?” Ikol glanced at her when she threw her hands up in frustration. “Look, if you’re here to tell me to praise this so-called-god Loki, I’m going to decline.”

“And WHY would I want you to do that when this Loki is clearly the one prophesized to be ending the universe?” She threw the confused and shocked boy a sardonic look. “I’ve been given a mission from one of the Norns themselves to search for you. You have been chosen to do a very…cruel…task.”

Ikol’s jade eyes brightened. “The Norns? You actually talked to one of them? Usually the ones from high class ranks get to meet them so they can give a gift for a bright future!”

“I said you’ve been chosen by them to do a task,” Runa repeated through gritted teeth, “I cannot tell you anything further because I will be the one to take you there to Asgard to meet them.”

Ikol seemed horrified. “Asgard…?”

“A world where the Aesir Gods lives…”

“And they chose me because…?”

“I don’t know! Randomly, I guess?” She shrugged, annoyed at his disbelieving look. “And I’m not lying. Why else would I be here to find you? It took me a long time to know where you were!”

He scratched behind his head in amusement. “I still find this hard to believe. Me, chosen to do some kind of task for the Norns? Lucky it’s me who you’re talking to, otherwise any other would laugh in your face.”

Ikol luckily ducked in time when the chair flew over his head and smashed to pieces against the hard wall behind him as he predicted she somehow would. Runa reached out and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him roughly out the door and into the rain. They walk passed Lif and Lifthrasir while Runa shouted, “Don’t follow us!”, before leading him away to a deserted area where no one can see them.

“Where are you-” His question was stopped when she threw a thick wool cloth in his face from out of nowhere. “Eh?”

“Wear that and try to cover yourself as much as possible,” Runa reprimanded, “By now I think the Gods in Asgard should know about the ‘Chosen One’ and the task you’re given, knowing Odin. And since we’re going to their place, they might want your head.”

“Are you serious?” Ikol placed a hand around his neck. “You mean you weren’t joking with me about all of this?”

“I don’t lie about this serious stuff, Ikol,” Runa snapped, her eyes now closed in concentration, “Skuld, the Norn of the Future, has given me the ability where I can bring us to the Bifrost whenever we want.”

“What’s a Bifrost?”

“A rainbow bridge connecting from Midgard, a world here towards Asgard, the heavens. Since we’re not anywhere near that certain bridge I’m going to take you up there. Now quiet and let me get on with this.”

Ikol completely shut his mouth, arms covering his face from the powerful wind, unable to speak at the display in front of him. Her arms where spread wide apart; her face softened – which seemed a bit strange to him – in a deep trance, the wind and rain circling around her. But all of this happens in a blur for the rain was ruining the sight given to him, but the blur was what reminded Ikol that he had seen that figure somewhere.

Or more rather, a figure of what he had seen last night, Ikol’s eyes widen, She’s…it’s her!

“Let me welcome you to Asgard, the World of the Aesir Gods,” Runa grumbled unenthusiastically, looking up when a small rainbow fell upon her, her body glittering from the light, “Alright, come with me and step into this light. I’ll explain everything on the way.”

He can only stare, stepping back with shaky legs. “You’re serious?!”

“And what are you running away from?” asked Runa, seeing him sprinting towards the village. “Stupid fellow…”

Before Ikol can go any further, he began to slide back as he grunted in confusion, his eyes widening in fear when his body began to slide faster towards the seid despite his protest. Once he was within reach, Runa grabbed hold of him tightly, feeling them both lifting into the air once the light touched him.

“I advise you not to speak unless you want us captured,” Runa said, ignoring his struggling cries, “So just act like a normal companion of mine and let me do the talking, got it?”

But Ikol wasn’t able to respond and only cried out with tears in his eyes when they shot up into the sky like a bullet, the light disappearing with them, leaving the world behind…

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