---

---

---

---

Lara had been following the group, and she mostly kept quiet at the moment. She wasn't sure what else she could add for the moment, as she didn't want to get lost from Elizabeth and Arnora. She did walk to the docks with them and spotted the dwarves as well. She knew that if they borrowed the boat, it would not be a free ride, so she went to reach into her bag to pull out her purse. She always had some money on her, especially gold. Gold was a good currency between those of the nine realms.

As they approached the boat Lara felt herself start to freeze up. Boats and ships meant the sea and deep dark water. The cold fear creeped up her spine, then down to her feet making her stand there on the dock like a statue. Why had she volunteered for this mission? Why was she going to the depths of Helhime and out to ocean?

Right she as doing this for her friends... but she couldn't move at all. She was stuck, feeling as if her feet were becoming one with the wood under them.

---

---

Finally, Runa's words were no longer a lie - the residual effects from the stupid squirrel had finally subsided. She was able to breathe without feeling like a thousand poisoned darts were puncturing her lungs. The queasiness in her stomach lifted and while her eyes were red, she was no longer crying. She dried her eyes with the bag of her hand, smearing her makeup. She sighed slightly, staring at her palm. She wished the afterlife had better quality mascara. "I'm fine, we can keep moving," she said to Klara slightly. It was funny - now that she was calmed down, it wasn't the threat of the entire universe stressing her out, it was the mascara smudges on her face and now on her hand.

She followed along the others, resisting the urge to wipe the mascara off onto her clothing - she'd just need to find a wet cloth or something, she didn't want her clothes to look horrid as well. The docks were rather gorgeous. It was easy to see here how old Boston was as a city. There were tons of ships, most of them probably for fishermen of various trades. She wondered if they'd see any of those Duck vehicles that she heard existed in America. Arnora directing them towards the bar struck her as incredibly odd. Also, there was a problem - she knew America had strict drinking laws and she wasn't old enough to drink. She stuck towards the back of the trio as they went into the bar, hoping that she wouldn't stick out and instantly get tossed out by some bouncer.

---

---

---

---

"Alright Runa, as long as you're sure about it," she responded with a slight smile to her. She followed along with Nadia and Runa as they headed to the docks. Of course, following along after Arnora and the others seemed to be a bit of a waste of time since Arnora decided that they should split up right then and there, and directed their group to go towards the bar instead. So now they were going their own separate ways away from the others, she was fine with getting away from Elizabeth at least, and she thought nothing more of it.

Klara followed after Nadia into the bar, and she glanced over at Runa, noticing the mascara and makeup smudges on her face, "So, maybe we can get you to a bathroom or something to try and get the smudges off, okay?" she added as she glanced around the bar and noticed that there were people who looked to be dwarves as opposed to normal humans. "Runa you can relax, there are a lot of dwarves here, see how they are shorter then a normal person? We're fine," she whispered to her, not sure what else to really say about it as she followed after Nadia.

---

---

---

---

---

---

Nadia watched for a moment as Arnora, Lara and Elizabeth went their sperate ways, she eyed the dwarves for a moment, she still wasnt sure why they were being directed towards the bar. She eyed the dwarves that were in the bar, some of them were just talking amongst themselves and enjoying their drinks. "Yeah if you'd like we can go to the bathroom and you can get freshened up a bit or something, it's up to you really." Nadia said as she started to look around the bar, before finding a door that looked like it was a bit out of place, and started to make her way over towards it and opened the door.

Once the door was opened it revealed a rather dark looking street, she looked around seeing that the buildings looked kinda similar as well, before realizing that the door led them to Nidavellir. Which explained why there were a number of dwarves in the bar itself as well to, Boston was was always the closest connection point to the other realms from what she remembered. "Looks like this is the little connection point to the land of the dwarves." Nadia said towards both Klara and Runa as she took a few steps out of the building and looked around seeing some dwarven inventions as well to. She just needed to find out how to get to she leaned herself up against a wall waiting for Klara and Runa to join her.

---

---

---

---

The two dwarves smirked as they talked amongst themselves, before making their way onto their ship motioning for the three women to get on as well. "So where are you headed anyway?" One of the dwarves asked as Arnora climbed onto the ship as well, looking at Elizabeth before going and finding a seat on the boat and tossed the dwarves a sack of gold coins over towards them before finally speaking. "We are headed to Niflheim, if you guys can get us there as soon as possible." Arnora asked, the two dwarves looked at one another before nodded as the other counted the money.

"Sure thing ladies." One said before heading into the wheelhouse of the ship and started it up. "Are you okay Lara?" Arnora asked seeing Lara looked like she had frozen up or something for some reason as she stood up and made her way over towards her. Once both Elizabeth and Lara were on the boat it started to slowly move into the harbor.

---

---

Not being able to see, Elizabeth was at least a bit more tuned in to what her other senses provided her, so when Lara stopped walking, she knew. Exhaling a tad, she didn't want to have to deal with another person being unable to drag themselves past their based human instincts, be it fear, hatred, or otherwise. She knew you couldn't yell somebody out of their emotional state though, and turned in what she assumed was her direction, and said, "What's going on? Are you alright?" She wasn't a sociopath by any means, but she her concern at the moment was not, in all honesty, with Lara's emotions, but rather how they might impact the situation at hand.

She didn't like seeming cold, but it just felt like there was a lot on the line here, and nobody was taking it as seriously as her. She normally wasn't monstrous, but that was the role it seemed she had to play today, mostly because she was worried that if she didn't keep pushing and trying to keep things together, one way or another, literally everything would end up falling apart. They were on a clock, and she wanted people to keep to it. She put on a smile though, and tried to make herself seem softer than she was, she wanted Lara to feel safe, not make her angry or feel worse.

---

---

---

---

Lara almost didn't register that Elizabeth and Arnora were speaking to her until she took a deep breath and mentally slapped herself. "Ah, sorry. I'll be fine... sorry to make you both worry." Lara forced herself to take that first step again towards the boat, and swallowed her emotional turmoil. Yes, she hated being out on the water, especially when it was so deep, but they were on a deadline, and they had a task at hand.

Her legs wobbled as they got on the boat, and the first thing she did was grab one of the life vests and tugged it on over her chest and buckled it. Yes, it was really nothing special, and given the fact that Lara was already dead she shouldn't worry, but... she didn't want to drown. She could almost feel of the water tingling up her neck, and as she was desperate for any thing to tether her back to reality she reached out and grasped Arnora's hand before she realized what she was doing. "Ah, sorry!"

---

---

Runa was incredibly confused as to why Boston had a bar filled with little people. While she was fluent in English, their vocab tests in school hadn't really covered mythological creatures. She had to use context clues and when Klara explained that dwarves were shorter than average, she assumed they were just little people. Maybe it was nice that they had a place like this to gather, who was she to judge? She certainly didn't have any idea of what that life must have been like. She had blushed slightly though when Klara offered to help her go fix up her makeup. "It-it's fine, thanks," she said meekly. Nadia had started moving towards something purposefully and Runa followed her, having very little idea what they were doing there.

She followed Nadia through the door and frowned, confused as to what had just happened. They had taken a tree and now they just had to walk through the door in a bar of short people? Nadia repeated the word dwarf and Runa realized that she probably wasn't understanding it correctly. "Oh, do you mean dverg? Like... the little men in Snehvit og de syv dvergene? Who sing to the princess?" Runa asked quietly.

---

---

---

---

"If you say so Runa," she said, giving her a bit of a smile still as Nadia continued to lead the way for them and she glanced around at the bar that they were in. Hearing Runa's words, Klara more or less shrugged, "Not sure I understand what you are referring to Runa," Klara admitted. She wasn't exactly sure what she was referring to with dwarves singing to a princess or something like that, it was beyond strange to her. The idea was just really weird, so she figured that she was better off just admitting she didn't understand what she was talking about.

Now her attention turned to the door that Nadia had opened leading out into a weird street or something of the sort. She followed out into the area, and looked at Runa and Nadia, since she now had no idea what it was that they were supposed to do given their circumstances. They were heading into the land of the dwarves after all it seemed like, who knew what could happen now. "So, anyone got any ideas for what we do now? Or should we just ask for directions and hope we don't run into trouble?"

---

---

---

---

---

---

Nadia looked towards Runa for a moment, she didnt really understand Norwegian sadly as she looked at Klara when she said that she didnt know, but it kind of sounded like Snow White in her opinion. "Did you mean Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?" Nadia asked, that was the closest thing that she could think of actually Nadia really didnt have any kind of idea where they would actually be going as she gave Klara a slight shrug. "I'm not sure, I think we can go and ask someone for help or something." Nadia said as she started to slowly walk down the sidewalk.

"Soooooo what do you like to do for fun Runa?" Nadia asked Runa turning to look at her, hopping to at least get to know the girl a little bit more, and making some small talk couldnt hurt at all really either. Nadia then paused for a moment as she saw what looked like a forge of some kind and decided that would be a good place to ask around. She noticed a lone dwarf working away pouring some molten metal into a cast that looked like it was a sword of some kind.

"Hey there, was wondering if you could help us with some directions?" Nadia asked looking at the dwarf for a moment as he turned to look at the three women tilting his head to the side slightly. "The name is Brokkr what can I help you with? We dont get to many einherjar around here." He asked taking off his thick gloves and tossed them to the side and went to sit down on a nearby chair. "We were wondering if there was a way to Niflheim or something like that?" Nadia asked, as the dwarf started to think for a moment.

---

---

---

---

Arnora looked at Klara as she held onto her hand, and gave the woman a smile as she motioned for her to take a seat. "Why dont you just take a seat and relax okay?" Arnora asked looking at her for a moment as she went and took a seat as well, looking out into the water for a moment she knew how to use different kinds of boats even modern day ones thanks to being in Valhalla. Though she really preferred long ships more than anything since they were used the most during her time when she was alive.

Everyone would feel the ship suddenly shaking violently, Arnora stood up to try and see what was going on, when she caught a glimpse of something really huge under the water. The boat came to a sudden stop as the water shifted and another big wave hit the ship when a large serpent came out of the water, Arnora paused for a moment as she realized that it was jormungandr the World Serpent.

---

---

---

---

Lara nodded at that and sighed a bit at that as she sat down and did the old trick of putting her head between her knees. She made sure to take deep breaths up until the boat started to shake and rock, and she looked up. She let out a cry as she felt the wave hit the ship and she nearly fell out of her seat. She then stood up when she looked at the serpent and her expression grew from worried and nervous to furious.

"Duck!" She yelled to her companions before tugging at her necklace. With a simple word the pendent grew into her long spear and she threw it at the serpent. It squarely landed in it's face and got stuck there. The serpent writhed a bit in pain as it struck true, and Lara couldn't help but smirk a bit. With a tap, her bracelet turned into her trusty round shield and she looked to Arnora and Elizabeth. "Seems we're not getting a smooth ride this time."

---

---

Getting onto the Boat, Elizabeth was uneasy. There were pluses and minuses to being on a boat; there were limited places you could be attacked from, sure, but once you were you couldn't run. That along with the fact that she was a lousy lookout made this less than ideal for her. A few moments after they had all boarded, she fell back as the ship shook. Whatever had come, she knew it wasn't something good, and she quickly got to thinking of how she was going to deal with it. She couldn't see it, but she was sued to that, so as soon as she fell down, she reached into her bag, and started sketching.

Rune magic was fickle, but she had a good idea for what she wanted to happen. Throwing off a Thurisaz rune into the water, she waited before following up with an Isa rune. The former was able to do its job, but the later couldn't follow through, and just kind of fizzled into ink and paper as it hit the water. Not hearing what she wanted, she rose and turned towards the general direction of the assault, and started throwing flames at it. She could hear another wave being tossed at them as she did though, and the flames fizzled in the air as they made contact.

---

---

Runa's face dimmed slightly with the revelation that Klara didn't know what she was saying. She really wished that she had a dictionary with her, or even better, Google Translate. There were just so many niche words being said that she couldn't quite translate within the context. Nadia thankfully came to the rescue - Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. That must have been the English name for the movie, it sounded right to her so Runa nodded. "Erm, I like exploring nature, especially at sunrise... And, um, reading fashion magazines," she admitted, her face turning a bit red as she figured Klara and Nadia probably weren't into fashion at all.

She didn't really have any suggestions on what to do, as Runa didn't even really understand why they were there in the first place. She didn't understand how travel between the realms worked, as everything seemed to have arbitrary rules. Thankfully, Nadia took charge, asking a dwarf for directions on how to get to their ultimate location - Niflheim, the realm of Hel. Her mind briefly flashed to the visions she had had shortly after she died, with the lines of dead and the gatekeeper. She shivered a bit at the idea of going there in person.

---

---

---

---

---

---

"When I was alive I loved the outdoors so much, and went on hiking trips all the time with my cousin and mother to." Nadia said towards Runa and smiled towards her at least they had something in common. Fashion wasnt really her thing though but she didnt dislike it either. Brokkr thought for a moment, at the Einherjar's question, looking at the three of them for a moment before smiling a little bit. "I can tell you, but you'll need to do something for me first though." Brokkr said as Nadia looked at both Klara and Runa, they didnt really have much of a choice really in the matter. "Alright then, what do you need?" Nadia asked, crossing her arms over her chest she was hoping that things would go a lot easier and the dwarf would be able to point them in the right direction on where to go, but he wanted them to do a task first.

"My brother, Sindri has barrowed my smithing supplies for awhile now, I loaned them to him and now I need them back." He said as he stood up and cracked his fingers slightly. "Do that for me, and I can get you where you need to go." Brokkr said, as Nadia nodded slightly as she stretched slightly. "Where is your brother then?" Nadia asked crossing her arms over her chest. "He will either be at his shop just on the other side of town or over at a nearby bar just down the road from here." He said as he thought for a moment. "I can get you some warmer gear for your travel there as well to." Brokkr told them, Nadia smiled and nodded towards him. "Thank you." Nadia said as she started to turn around and left the building, and headed down the road. "Hopefully there isnt any other kind of twists." Nadia whispered.

---

---

---

---

"See you ladies in Helheim!" The two dwarves snickered seeing as the World Serpent was pissed off now after being attacked, the two dwarves then walked over to two tarps that were on the back of the boat. Arnora watched as they pulled out the jetski's and then managed to get them into the water. The World Serpent turned its attention to the two escaping dwarves and instantly went after the two of them, quickly diving under the water.

"Lets get going now." Arnora said as she quickly went for the wheelhouse seeing that the keys were still inside, Arnora turned the boat back on and started to push the speed to the boat as quickly as it would go. Arnora watched as the two jet skis were quickly eaten by the World Serpent. Causing a massive wave as well, nearly tipping the boat over, Arnora managed to keep it from capsizing, she looked at Lara for a moment. "If it comes up, take the wheel I have an idea." Arnora said, as she noticed the World Serpent's attention was back to them again and started to follow them.

---

---

---

---

"Um..." she started to say, not entirely sure what Nadia or Runa were even going on about. "Who is this Snow White person?" Sometimes how long ago she had died was a bit of a hinderance, since it meant that she knew absolutely nothing about what happened in the world outside of the hotel. Including any sort of newer stories or something like that. Which also meant that she knew nothing about half of the things that Runa and Nadia likely knew about, which was somewhat a bit of a hassle for her. It couldn't be help though at all.

Klara did perk up slightly when Runa mentioned reading fashion magazines and what not like that, "Ooooooh I haven't had much of a chance to actually keep up with that on Earth, you should totally talk to me about that later!" she said, giggling happily when she turned to look at the dwarf who was talking to them and Nadia mentioning where they were heading. It didn't surprise her that the dwarf asked for something in return. It made sense in her mind, and she nodded her head listening, before heading after Nadia when she headed off to go deal with this situation. "Hey don't worry! We'll get this sorted out and be able to head on our way quickly!" she was preferring to stay optimistic about things, but a part of her was pretty sure that they would probably get stopped more then once on their trip.

---

---

---

---

"Cowards!" Lara yelled at the dwarves as they left, just before getting swallowed by the Serpent at that point. It seemed that they got what they deserved, but at the same time Lara had to wince. They had been swallowed whole and there as no guarantee that they would make it out alive, in fact, they were most likely doomed to die in the serpent's belly.

She could see Elizabeth trying to help them with her spells and it seemed some worked, and others did not. She stepped up to the helm of the boat, and realized that her spear had come back to her when she had turned her back to the beast. "I'll take the wheel if needed, but do you care to share your plan with us?" She was worried, even more so when she saw the serpent come back and start to follow them again.

If she was going to die here... she wanted it to be in the belly in the beast instead of the dark vast water before them. Yes, it was a terrible thought to have at the moment, but it was the one she clung to.

---

---

Elizabeth grunted as things continued to worsen. Running away from something on a boat was hard, in a lot of ways, it was just a matter of speed on the open ocean, it wasn't like you could hide or try to lose somebody around a corner, you just had to be better, either through speed or might. Not confident in their ability to kill this thing, whatever it was, she drew another rune, Lagaz, and placed on the floor of the boat, gritting her teeth. She knew continued use like this would eventually take something out of her, and she didn't wanna risk getting exhausted before they even reached the castle.

The current beneath them began to pick up, increasing their speed, but not shaking the world serpent. Turning her ear towards Arnora, she called out, "What's your idea exactly? Tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it." She kept her fire at bay for the moment, not wanting to step on her toes. If she had an idea she wanted to execute, she wasn't going to et in the way of it. She kept her writing materials out, ready to sketch out whatever was needed to get them out of this, if need be. She'd probably need to rest through the rest of their journey, but if that was how it was to be, so be it.

---

---

---

---

---

---

"Oh yeah I totally forgot that you are an old hag still, you still look really great for your age still by the way Klara." Nadia said teasingly, she of course was joking, Klara had been in Valhalla for a hell of a lot longer than she had been by a couple hundred years or so. "Whenever we finish this quest i'll see about smuggling some classic Disney movies. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is an old fairytale that ended up getting a movie by a company called Disney." Nadia explained as she continued to walk, she looked over at Runa gently resting a hand on Runa's shoulder and smiled.

"I think there is some fashion activities back at the hotel, if you want we could go and look for something whenever we get back." Nadia offered, she just hoped that would help ease Runa's worries about being in Valhalla. Nadia then paused for a moment as she looked at a bar, remembering that Brokkr mentioned that Sindri could be there. "I think thats the place right here." Nadia said as she started to enter the bar and looked around, seeing a bunch of older looking dwarves. Not to many were young looking really as Nadia walked over towards the bartender.

"Hey, you wouldnt happen to know if there is a dwarf named Sindri here by any chance?" Nadia asked, the bartender looked at the three ladies for a moment and then gestured towards the set of stairs nearby. "He's in the gambler parlor you will have to wait until the game is over though." He said, Nadia smiled and nodded. "Thank you." Nadia said as she turned to face Klara and Runa. "Did you guys want something to eat or drink while we wait?" Nadia asked.

---

---

---

---

"Well, i'm a daughter of Skadi so I have ice powers, so if I can freeze him or at least the water nearby it should slow him down." Arnora said looking at both Klara and Elizabeth, hopefully that would give them an idea what she was going to try and do. "So if you have a rune in there to with an ice spell or something that could help to." Arnora told Elizabeth as she started to walk over towards the rear of the boat, seeing the World Serpent still gaining on them.

Arnora put her hand into the water, and it slowly started to freeze the water behind them slowly, but she saw that it wasnt slowing him down really. Arnora decided to do it again and started to put more power into it, seeing the World Serpent was having a bit of a harder time now as well to it was helping somewhat at least.

---

---

Runa stared at the transaction with confusion. They were being sent on an errand to get someone's tools? She had never really played video games, but she was at least familiar with the concept of a fetch quest and this felt like one of those. Couldn't they just tell this man that they were on a mission to save the universe and forgo this process? But she guessed that if that was a safe choice, Nadia would've said something - or Klara would have. She stared at Nadia and Klara, trying to wrap her head around this life she was in now. Or this un-life.

She followed Nadia and Klara out of the building. "... So we're going to find his brother and get his things, and then he'll help us?" she asked. She couldn't focus on Klara wanting to know about fashion, she was just trying to get her bearings on how everything worked here. The place that they stumbled into next didn't look like a place she'd ever been in - the place smelled like alcohol. She glanced around, seeing all of the very short, very old people sitting around. It was like something out of a fever dream.

"Um, I'm good... Do... do we need to eat?" she asked, not too sure how being dead worked.

---

---

---

---

"Fairy tale?" she asked now, a bit confused. "Well, okay, guess we'll do that later right? Makes sense, if we get some downtime of course," she added, not too sure what else to say to the other two. "And don't call me old! Just because I died a few hundred years before either of you were born..." Klara didn't tend to like to think about how old she was. Or really how long ago it had been since she had really been out walking around among the living on Earth. It had been a long time since she had been alive. Anyone she had known years ago were long gone at this point, so not like she couldn't disappear to Earth for a little while and just blend in there.

Her attention was pulled away from her own thoughts towards Nadia as she spoke to a few of the other dwarves at their destination and the talk about having to wait for the guy's game to be over or something like that. Well that was boring, now they were going to have to wait and hope that they could be patient long enough to get the stuff from him and hope that they could move on from this rather quickly. They had a job to do after all, so here was hoping that they could just deal with this quietly without getting into a fight. Of course, a small part of her was hoping that they'd get into a fight, since that would be fun in her mind, probably a bad thing though with Runa being new to all of this. "Nah, I'm good," she responded to Nadia.

---

---

---

---

Lara took over control of the boat as Arnora took over and put her hand in the water. Lara's focus turned forward as she steered the boat, following some instinct. She wasn't sure why she was following it, or where it was going but she had to follow this instinct. Hopefully what Arnora was doing would slow the Serpent, but there was no guarantee.

"How much further do I need to go? I am not sure where we need to go, and I'm not that great with boats!" Of course, right as she said that, she lost control of the boat, and she managed to knock not only herself over, but Arnora and Elizabeth. "Ack! I'm sorry guys!" She blushed as she tried to get up, to get back in control before everything spiraled out of control again.