Power Play: Act 1 Svartalfheim (Ragnarok on Ice) (23 page)

Garm said the last part so loud that the others heard.

“Garm, why are you talking about Geirrod?  The ice giant has not left his citadel in many cycles.  I made sure of that myself.”  Thor seemed to be pretty confident about that fact.

“Then how do you explain the snow?  We need to leave now.”

Loki was laughing again, but Master Fenrir decided to be the voice of reason.  “Rumil, Garm, go find Jack and Sigyn and get them to safety.  If this is truly Geirrod coming then Thor, myself, and father will be able to handle this.”

“Jack and Sigyn are close, I detect their scent too.”

“Let us be off Garm, we can meet them halfway.”  Just as we left, I saw Master Fenrir shift into his great wolf form.  Loki and Thor were exchanging looks.  As they faded from view, I felt the strange sensation of all my hair standing on end.

“We know already, we were on our way to warn you guys!”  Sigyn and I ran into Rumil and Garm.  Apparently they were on their way to find us.  “What do you mean we need to get out of here?  They’ll need our help.”

“Young Jack, as much as you think you could help in this situation, Geirrod is the second most feared ice giant to their ruler Thrym.  Most beings in the realm refer to him as the Warlord due to his immense skill in battle.  Leaving this battle to Thor, Loki, and Fenrir is the best course of action.”

“Sigyn, what do you think?  Is there anything that can be done?”  Not that I didn’t appreciate Garm’s insight, as he was much smarter than I, but if there was anything to be done to help, we had to.

Sigyn crossed her arms and closed her eyes for a moment.  I could tell she, like I, didn’t like the thought of leaving a loved one.  “Come, let us hurry.  There may be a way to help them in my husband’s workshop.”

We followed behind quickly as she was headed towards the main house area.  Instead of going into the house, we veered off to the left and then down a door that lead to a cellar.  The first area of the cellar was a wine storage area.  Casks filled in barrels lined the walls and there were lots of bottles on different shelves. 

We continued on further and we came to a very large, thick wooden door.  Sigyn opened it with ease and as soon as we entered, it looked like we were in some mad scientist’s dream.

“What is this place?”  Rumil’s eyes were as big as saucers and the awe in her voice told me that if we made it to Midgard, I’d be buying her a chemistry set.

“This is my husband’s workshop.  Loki likes to conduct, let us call them experiments.  I told him countless times how useless his time down here was.  However, I must swallow my words now.”  She pointed over to the corner of the long table where there was many beakers filled with a black substance. 

I walked over to it and picked one up.  Looking at it, I could tell it was a powder of some sort.  Wait a second, could this be, “I think I know what this is.”  I took a sniff.  Sure enough this was gun powder.

“What exactly did my husband discover Jack?  He told me found this particular mixture in his travels.  He also said it was quite dangerous and to use only in the most dire of times.”

“We have this stuff on Midgard.  It is called gun powder and it’s highly explosive.  With the amount that we have right here, we can blow this giant right back to his own realm.”  The problem was how do we do it and in a way that doesn’t blow us up in the process.  “To use this properly we need a plan.  Is there anything about this giant that we know we can use against him?”

“Geirrod has an extreme hatred of both Loki and Thor.  It was because of their efforts quite a few cycles ago that we had no reason to fear him.”  Sigyn looked over at Garm, “Do you remember the story Master Garm?”

“Yes, the tale is one of legend in both Valhalla and Jotenheim for many different reasons.  Maybe hearing it will give young Jack and Lady Elf some insight they did not have before.”

Both Rumil and I shook our heads.  At that moment we all heard a loud crash that shook the entire house.  The battle was already in progress, we didn’t have much time.  “Garm, I hate to rush you but would it be possible just to give us the short version?”

“I will do my best.  I will tell you what happened as told to me by the Trickster himself.”

****

I cannot believe that giant oaf caught me, but alas here I am.  Odin help me if word gets back to the rest of those dimwits in Asgard that the Trickster was outsmarted by an ice giant.  Of course, it has been many days and with no one showing up, it appears I am stuck here for the long run.  At least I have my falcon friends to keep me company.

“Brother, are you in there?”

Was I hallucinating?  There in the window was Thor’s overgrown head.  I guess I should be more thankful, but I cannot help it.  “No brother, I escaped many sunrises ago.  What you see here is just a shadow left behind.”  Sarcasm was, after all, one of my many fortes.  “Of course I am still stuck in here!  I have not grown feathers yet and flown out!”

“Calm down!  I got here as soon as I could.  How you even managed this is beyond me, but stand back.  I am going to break this wall down and we are getting out of here.”

Of course he was.  I stood back against the far wall, silently hoping Geirrod would not hear, but I knew better.  This one was smart, for an ice giant.  Thor reared back with his almighty hammer and one strike was all it took.  The wall blew apart and I was free.

“Hop on my back, I think I can carry you and fly far enough to get us out of his territory.”  Just another humiliation to endure, but it meant freedom.  I did as I was told and Thor took off.  The Norns curse us; we did not make it very far.  The winds really picked up and pushed us down towards the ground.  The strangest part of it all was it also started snowing.

“Loki, what sort of madness is this?”

“Rumors were running rampant that this particular ice giant could actually control the winds and snow.  I truly did not believe it, as even the worst of them can only create a few little icicles.”

We landed in the snow covered field right in front of the castle.  The door swung open and Geirrod came out laughing at us.

“I anticipated such arrogance from Asgard!  They only send one to rescue Loki Firestarter?”  He whipped his hand through the air and a gust of wind knocked us both down.  “Do you not know who you are dealing with?  I am Geirrod, the Warlord, and the first ice giant to master the elements!”  Another wave of his hand and the snow intensified.

“Loki, if you have any good ideas, now would be the time to share them!”

I did not.  The wind and snow was so much that I could not even ignite my runes for fire.  It seemed my brother was having just as much trouble keeping Mjolnir crackling with lightning.  What we needed to do was direct his efforts elsewhere.  “If I distract him, do you think you can make him sizzle?”

“I only need a brief moment to strike.”

“Good, because a few seconds is probably all I can get you.”

I could not run into the wind as it was too strong, so I ran parallel.  I knew he had to have limitations to what was possible and within thirty paces I broke free from the blizzard.  The oaf was too busy making his storm stronger that he did not see me yet.  I ran towards him and I ignited the runes as best I could.  Fire formed in my hands and I let it grow into a good sized fire ball.  I was just in range and threw it towards Geirrod and just as it was about to hit him, a wall of ice formed and fizzled the fire out.

“It will take more than a fireball to stop me.”  He laughed at me, which irked me greatly.  I was about to retort with another when ice formed at my feet, holding me in place.  “You amuse me, so after I kill Thor, I will return you to your rightful place in my tower.”

I might not get along well with my brother, but I most certainly did not want to see the lummox dead.  Just as I was crafting another brilliant plan, one of my falcon friends landed on my shoulder.  I looked up and saw the other one circling the battlefield.  Not knowing what else to do, I turned and talked to the falcon.  “Do you think you can create a diversion for us?  Just long enough for my brother and I to put an end to this?”  I hoped the falcon spoke the Common Language.

It squawked twice and took off into the air.  That was kind of deflating for me, but I ignited the runes again and concentrated the fire at my feet.  The ice was thick but I knew I could break through it.

“Get away from me you stupid birds!”

I looked up and could not believe my eyes.  The falcons were dive bombing the giant!  He was trying his best to swat them away but they were moving too fast.  The storm was starting to falter!  I turned up the heat on my ice shackles and they finally broke.  I did not have much left but I created another fire ball and tossed it at the giant.  Not paying attention to me, the fire hit his head and his hair caught on fire.

“GAHHHHHH!!!!”  The giant’s cry broke through the valley.  He took his hands and using the cold started putting out the flames, but one of my falcon friends took advantage and put a talon into his left eye.  Another loud cry broke through and there was blood running down his face.  The storm had now died off completely and now in the middle of the snow field stood my brother, lightning covering his body.

“Now you pay giant!”  He took off at speeds I never could match towards Geirrod.  At the last moment, he jumped and took a mighty swing with the hammer.  Geirrod was sent flying back into his castle.  Thor quickly shut the gate to the keep and with his lightning, sealed the giant door shut.

“Nice one brother!  I take back at least five negative things I said about you!”  I ran over to him and gave him a hearty pat on the back.  “Though, if it was not for my fire, you would never have had the chance, so maybe I will take back only three.”

“Loki, shut up for once in your life.”  Then he started laughing.  I joined in because by all rights we should be dead and not the giant.  The falcons were still circling and I saluted them.

“THOR!!  LOKI!!”  Oh no, that did not sound like a dead giant.  “Run away like always little Aesir!  I will never forget what happened today.  Vengeance shall be mine!”

“I think we should take his advice brother, the time for us to go is now.”  The wind picked up just a little and it started to snow again.

“Not yet, let us see how great an ice giant he really is.”  Thor being the massive show off he is went out and found the biggest boulder he could find and rolled it in front of the castle gate.  I did not participate in such madness and just waited for the buffoon to finish.  Finally satisfied, we went back to Asgard.

****

“So this Geirrod’s been burned, battered by Thor, blinded in an eye, and fried?  And that still wasn’t enough to kill him?”  I didn’t even know what to say at this point.  The battle had been raging on, but down here we had no idea what was happening.  The story though did give me an idea.  I didn’t know if it would work, but we had to try.  “Alright team, I don’t know if this will work but we got to try.”

None of them had the look of confidence, but Rumil was the first to speak up.  “What do you want us to do?”

“We are going to have to move fast and split into two teams.  If this comes together, that giant won’t know what hit him.”

“Young Jack, I have learned in a very short amount of time to trust you.  However this plan is downright foolish.”  There was my new best friend Garm instilling all the confidence in the world in me.

“Did you think of anything else?”  That was met with silence.  “I’m not trying to kill myself, I promise.  But I am also not going to sit around and do anything and hope for the best.”

“You have a lot of faith that the one eyed giant will believe this ruse.”

“Well there’s only one way to find out, so let’s go.”  Garm and I set off towards the battle field.  It wasn’t hard to tell where the fighting was taking place.  Between the snow and wind picking up, we also heard dad’s howling and Loki’s crazy laugh. 

Finally we made it and could actually see what was happening.  The giant must not have been as strong as he was before; the snow and wind weren’t nearly as strong as Garm told in his recount.  However, the tall giant was seemingly having no problems using his ice to keep them all at bay. 

At around twenty-five feet tall, the giant was impressive.  His head was horribly scarred with burn marks and he wore an eye patch over the left side.  I could also see effects from this battle as his legs were clawed up and I could see fresh scars on his arms from both fire and lightning.  That was the extent of the damage though and I could tell that Thor, Loki, and dad were starting to run out of energy.

“The ladies are in position young Jack.  With the wind blowing our direction it was easy to pick up their scents.  They also should have a much easier time getting the arrows to the target.”

“Do you remember what you’re supposed to do?”

Garm glared at me.  He could be seriously scary when he wants to be.  “I remember exactly what my part is.  Now unwrap this ridiculous contraption and give me the signal to go.”

I unrolled the string to the homemade bird kite I put together.  Luckily, Loki had a lot of weird crap in his workshop and I found enough feathers and materials to make it look somewhat convincing.  The plan was simple in theory but ridiculous in practice.  I would operate the kite, hopefully distracting Geirrod due to his bad experiences with birds. 

The girls, each with three arrows jerry-rigged with explosive packets, would send them at the giant.  Rumil, with her last shot would hopefully pin the bird kite to the giant.  Once that was done all we needed was Loki to light the string on fire and set off the explosions.  Rube Goldberg would be proud.

“Garm, take care out there and don’t get killed.”

“Worry about yourself.  All I have to do is relay this lunacy to Master Loki.  You are the one going to be out there like a fool.”

I don’t know why, but I gave the dog a hug.  I’ve always had a soft spot for them I guess.  Garm just sighed and patted me on the back with his overgrown paw.  “Alright buddy, let’s show this ass-clown who’s the boss.”

I got the kite ready and got myself into my starting position.  After a silent five count, I gave Garm the signal and he went off towards the three of them.  The wind made it easy to get the kite up high and soon I was close enough where I could send it towards the giant.  The bird kite was too high and while I was trying to get it down closer to his head, the first arrow hit him right in the center of the back.

“WHAT IS THIS?!”  Geirrod let go a battle cry and it was ear splitting.  I had to hurry and make him think it was the bird or else he would go after the girls.  I finally got the kite lower and dive bombed it past his bad eye.  “USING BIRDS FOR YOUR DIRTY WORK AGAIN LOKI?!” 

He swatted at the kite, but being in his blind spot, he was missing pretty terribly.  He let loose another cry, a second arrow had hit him.  I gave a quick look over and saw Garm had made it over to the group.  Thor and dad went back on the attack, but Loki hung back.  Good, that meant he was being briefed. 

Thor and dad kept at it though, attacking when they could, but the ice giant was one tough hombre.  I kept running and eventually got the kite positioned right behind his head.  Just when it looked like the plan was going to be a success, a giant wolf came crashing down way to close for comfort.  I was knocked off of my feet and lost my grip on the kite.

“Dad, are you okay?”

He groaned and rolled himself over.  “Jack, do I even want to know?”

“The bird, that was me dad!  We had a plan in place to blow the giant up.”  I started looking around but the kite was floating away in the wind.  Great, there went our one chance to light the fuses on Geirrod’s back.  I quickly explained to dad what we were doing.  We needed a plan B.

“So you’re telling me that this angry giant now has five arrows loaded with gun powder on his back?”

“Pretty much yeah.  Good plan huh?”

He shook his head at me.  “Son, why don’t you just have my father throw a fireball at him?  Wouldn’t that be a lot easier?”

Well that would be.  In my experiences, the more convoluted the plan, the better story it was to tell later.  Now we just needed to ensure there would be a later for us.  Maybe what we needed here was simple.  “How accurate is he with those fireballs?”

“I’m sure he can hit whatever target you need.  Now get on, we need to hurry.  Thor can only hold him off for so long.”  I hopped on and dad road off towards Loki and Garm.  Thor was still fighting, but it looked like at any moment his strength would run out.  Geirrod spotted us running and sent a wave of ice at us.  Dad jumped over it and we landed near Loki.  I got off and ran over while dad went to give Thor back up.

“Gramps, I need you to come with me!”

“What did you call me?”

“You’re my grandpa and I’ve decided to call you gramps, but I need you to focus and come with me!”  Loki looked taken back for a second then gave me the okay.  I hopped back on Garm.  “Sorry man, but I need you to get us out this guy’s attack range quick.  Then I need you to go give Rumil the okay to shoot her last arrow.”

“I hope this plan is better than the last.”

“It is.  After some consulting, I simplified things.  Just tell her to aim it as close to as many of their other arrows as possible.”

We made good time and avoided the brunt of the battle.  Geirrod had taken to pulling huge chunks of earth up and tossing them at whatever target got close enough.  We had to dodge a few times but soon we were in the clear.  Garm dropped me off with Loki and went off towards the girls.

“Listen, Rumil’s going to shoot one last arrow.  Right before it hits the giant’s back, can you set it on fire?  All the arrows are equipped with the black powder from the lab.”

The look on his face was shear excitement.  “You plan to blow the giant up!”

“Yes, I do.  But I need your help.  Can you do it?”

Instead of the happy insane Loki, his face morphed into one of deadly calm.  “Yes, I think I can.”

Garm had made it to Rumil and a moment later I saw the arrow fly.  Loki closed his eyes and I could feel the heat from his hands.  As the arrow closed in on the giant, his eyes whipped open and he sent a small fireball right at the tale of the arrow.  The arrow lodged itself near some of the others sticking out of his back. 

Just like a fuse, the fire made its way down the arrow until it came in contact with the gunpowder.  Explosions filled the air and screams of anguish followed.  Thor and dad had taken their cue and were running as far away as possible.  Geirrod had fallen forward and his back, or what was left as it, was a mess.  Blood and bits of giant covered the landscape.

We started walking over and by the time we got to the smoldering giant, Thor and dad were there.  I heard a groan come from Geirrod.  “He still isn’t dead?”

“He will be soon Jack, but it looks like he still maybe conscious.”  Dad was back in human form and walked over to the head.  “Geirrod, who told you where to find Thor and Loki?”

I don’t know if it was a laugh or a death cough, but something came from the giant.  “That is a most interesting…”  A couple more coughs came from him, he didn’t have long.  “An interesting question indeed.  A light elf freed me and directed me where to get my revenge.”

Rumil, Garm, and Sigyn had finally reached the spot we were.  Sigyn hugged Loki and Rumil came over and was inspecting me to make sure I was still complete.  While this was going on, dad continued the interrogation.

“Did this light elf have a name?”

In a little more than a whisper the giant replied.  “I have no regrets for exacting my revenge against the brothers.  As I face death, I will answer this one last question.”  He coughed again and even more blood came out.  “The light elf who freed me is named Azmodeous.”