Summary:Ran takes Fenris and Astryd for a swim Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Fenris did indeed wind up having to do the doggie paddle. Ran took them out to the gathering storm on a battered old fishing boat and gave them a blessing that would make it easier to both breathe and move underwater but after that she said: "I need to hold this storm in check up here. Your bother is directly below us, down past the deepest shadow. Hopefully the blade is there with him. Either way, watch out for Tethys brood."
And then it was over the side with them.
Old Wolf is in wolf shape and swimming down as best he can. The light faded several hundred meters back so it's not entirely clear what 'down past the deepest shadow' means though there is still lots of 'down' to go.
Which is not to say they can't see. Fenris can and so can Astryd but it's an odd thing, Ran's blessing. It's not like seeing the daylight world. It's more like… knowing where things are based on the noises they make. But with your eyes. If that makes sense.
People romanticize the briny depths - but that's only because most never go below a few feet. Up there, the sun still penetrates the water and it's generally colourful. Down here … it is not. It's being locked in a dark room perpetually.
Astryd had stripped to her underwear before diving into the water - it's cold in the water but as an Asgardian she can cope with that, mostly. What she couldn't cope with is being restricted by garments that dragged at her should she have to fight.
And she expects to fight.
The Maeljin coils about her invisibly, waiting for the next moment it can tug on her emotions and draw more negative from her. For now it's disappointed but it knows it just has to bide its time and they are approaching the World Serpent.
They can talk down here, thanks to Ran but Fenris hasn't said anything. He's too concentrated on heading down. When he does break the silence though, he seems worried. "I won't be able to go with you all the way. My brother may wake up if I get too close to him." And that would precipitate Ragnarok, mean the ruin of this world and undo all the hard work that they have done to this point.
"Be wary what you- wait. Something's coming."
Something is. For beings are closing in on them, moving fast. Astryd can perceive that they are 'merfolk' of a sort. Half fish, half human with needle sharp teeth. Sirens, possibly. The brood of Tethys that Ran had warned them about. They are unarmed and unarmored but they have wickedly pointed claws at the end of their finger tips.
They come from above. Two peel off and head for Astryd, one trying to hit her from the front, the other from the back, sandwiching her in a flurry of underwater bloodletting.
"I know." Astryd answers. She's been distant from Fenris for a while and it shows in her conversation. Short, informative, but succinct. "I … would like…" she cuts off as the Sirens arrive, and pulls the pin from her hair - it immediately becomes a shield and sword.
"Really gentlemen, if you want an Astryd sandwich there's better ways of doing it…" she growls, her blade slashing out at one coming for the front and bashing the other in the face with her shield. It still leaves one behind and he gets his claws on down her back, opening slash marks that do start to bleed. If she'd been anything less than Asgardian that would have been the end to it - for now, it's more of an inconvenience.
Fenris isn't left alone either. He has two to deal with himself and no weapons. Just claws and teeth and a thick pelt. The sirens score hits along his flanks, tearing them open and making him bleed into the dark water but one of them is too slow and a chomp of massive jaws catches it and crushes the tail, leaving it helpless and dying. He turns to face the other.
The one Astryd hit in the face goes tumbling with the force of the blow and that desynchronizes the next attack as the one she slashed at has to duck down and out of range before coming up. That means the next rush comes at her singly. One from below and then about five seconds back, one from behind again. They can smell the blood in the water and they think they might have her.
But she is of Asgard and even in their element she is far, far from helpless as she has just proven.
Astryd spares a glance for Fenris - he is hers to protect after all and starts to angle herself so she can put her back his … sort of. It won't happen immediately, she has three sirens to deal with - well two at the moment. And that's what she intends to do.
The one coming up from beneath gets a heel to the face and using the momentum that gives her, she twists, putting her sword in the path of the one coming from behind. At the same time, her shield comes round to connect above and to the side, pushing the Siren down further with his mate.
Fenris is doing a dangerous dance with the one remaining siren trying to attack him where the siren lunges, he snaps and the siren pulls away. Someone is going to overcommit and then that person is going to be in a world of hurt. A WORLD of hurt.
Astryd skewers the one behind her and it goes limp, dead in the water in a very literal sense. That leaves the two below her which are at least now in the same direction. One tries to grab her leg and claw it up, being as it is unprotected by armor. The other is floating dazed, still not having recovered from its bells being rung a second time.
The current has shifted. It's flowing downward now. They're being drawn deeper.
"You must disengage, my heart. We are being drawn deeper. We do not how far below your brother is." Astryd manages to grunt, finishing the statement with a hiss of pain as the claws of the Siren rake her inner thigh and knee. That *hurts*.
Rather abruptly, the blonde deftly moves to the blade to her left hand and reaches down with her right, grabbing a handful of hair and wrenching up and around. The Siren swings in arc towards the one fighting Fenris - hopefully she can hit it as lunges again, giving Fenris the opening he needs.
Fenris moves to the right as Astryd hauls the caught Siren upward and catches both of them in a chomp. Then he grunts, acknowledging her and begins to swim up, fighting the current to get away. The Raven in the meantime finds herself being drawn down, down, down. Faster and Faster. The darkness grows deeper if possible and soon she can perceive the sea floor and upon it a great serpent. It is coiled in impossible ways and the head is nearby. She cannot sense a sword but that is the least of her worries at the moment.
For storms are not the only thing its dreams are conjuring. The water gives way to fragments of fitful dreams thrown off by the great beast. Nightmares of Ragnarok, of a world endlessly drowned in a black ocean, of chains, of sorrow. They brush past her as she descends and it will be a battle not to be caught up in them.
Astryd slices the final Siren as she passes, ichor gushing from the slit in its throat. There's a sadness in her that she hadn't said more to Fenris as they parted - she hopes she lives to regret that.
It grows colder down her and it's not at all calm - it should be but the serpents dreams are upsetting the currents. The blonde passes through a 'vision' of Valkyries riding to war in front of Odin. His harbingers and protectors against Ragnarok. In the distance, a great black wolf has just eaten the sun - that is their destination. "No… I will …. find the sword." With a powerful motion, Astryd tries to break free of that vision and move closer to Fenris' brother.
"Brother. It is Astryd. I need you to calm …"
There's no verbal response and no mental one, but the shards of nightmare do seems to slacken. And then she sees what is the cause of all the trouble. Freyr's blade, the dancing sword, is stuck in Jorgamundr's jaw. It's a small thing but the enchanted blade HAS to be causing him pain.
Speaking of pain the water here is now hot. Hot with the serpent's thrashing and hot from its boiling insides. The creature shifts a little but that small movement sends a pressure wave that nearly knocks Astryd over.
She has to get the sword.
Astryd doubts the world serpent knows who she is but breathes a small sigh of relief as the visions abate a little. "Thank you brother." She murmurs, wincing at the blade that sticks in the jaw. "Did you try use it as a tooth pick? There are better things than that I am sure."
Between her wounds, which are still weeping blood and the heat of the water that turns her skin pink then red, Astryd is struggling to keep concentration and keep the maeljin at bay.
The shift has her reaching out automatically, grabbing on to the serpent to stop her spilling over. The sword and shield transform to the hair pin that she tucks into her underwear and then using all her strength, she heaves forward, hand over hand.
It doesn't come loose at first. She sits there straining in the increasingly hot water trying to pry the blade loose. It's stuck between two scales and the wound weeps ichor. But then it moves and once it does it just slides out. Into her hand. Jorgamundr shifts again and causes waves underwater. Surely that also causes waves above. The fragments of nightmare just… stop.
The world serpent settles down into a more fitful sleep. And she has the blade. The water is no longer pulling down and she can't detect any other beings nearby though… surely it would be bad to assume that Tethys and her brood aren't at least watching.
Blisters form on Astryds skin as the water starts to boil about her. She doesn't let go and doesn't let the maeljin get a grip. She almost lets go of the serpent when the sword comes free, but she holds on by dint of will - buffeted in the waters by the wave.
"Sleep now brother …" she murmurs as the serpent settles into its watery bed. Astryd spends a moment to check the wound and when she's satisfied that it will heal, glances around. Burned, exhausted and wounded, the blonde starts to ascend. If Tethys and her brood come after her, they'll pay.
The serpent is left in the darkness behind her and she comes up. She passes the signs of their earlier fight, clouds of blood in the water, but encounters no resistance as she comes back to the surface. When she breaks free to open air, the waters are calm. The storm has dissipated and Ran's fishing boat is floating there with a smaller but still quite wet Fenris on it.
"There she is." Ran says sighting Astryd and tosses her a line.
It's a long swim up and Astryd hurts but she grips that sword in her hands.
Gasping as she breaks the surface, the Raven clutches at the line using it to help herself get into the boat.
"My thanks, Lady Ran. My quest was successful even though Tethys' brood tried to stop us." The valkyr holds the sword out so both can see it "It had wounded the Serpent and was disturbing his sleep. I would say that someone had almost done it deliberately." Now she thinks on it, it's the only thing that makes sense.
"My Lord, how are your wounds?" Hers are very obvious - the scalding and the slashes.
.~{:--------------:}~.
"I am not seriously hurt." Fenris says. "I am however very wet."
"And he smells." Ran adds. And Fenris does indeed smell like wet dog which… makes sense. He is very like a dog in many respects and smell unfortunately is one of them.
"So it is true…" The sea goddess says as she looks at the blade. "What will you do with it?"
"You'll have to wash the hair he sheds, from your boat I'm afraid." Astryd says as she sits gingerly, mindful of her wounds.
"I must give it to the Finder in exchange for assistance to … neutralise … Gurim Ur."
"Then make haste. Whatever is happening it has portents of fate written around it. Why else would the serpent toss in nightmares?"
"Why else indeed." Fenris says rising. "Come Astryd, let's get to the Finder. Quickly." He tears open a way and steps through. Still dripping wet and smelling like dog.