Lucky listened to Jacob's rather inspiring speech. This guy is a pretty good talker, he thought to himself, listening. A good leader. Of course, he had some divine help, but hey, they all did. Just in different places. Once Jacob finished, Lucky felt himself nodding his head. Why not, Lucky thought. I think I can work with everyone for a while, until I figure out how to use the holes in my hand to my advantage.

Lucky looked at Jacob, grinned, and shook his hand. "Alright. Let's do it." Lucky pulled out a pair of keys from his pocket. "So I've got my own car, but it's a four seater, so there are going to have to be two groups. Gavriil, I'll ask you to drive my car. Be very careful with it, thanks. I'll take the second group and we'll see if there's a dealership anywhere around here. If not, then we'll just have to pick one off the streets."

"So, Gavriil, you pick three of us to go with you. I'll take the rest. We'll meet up in Bodie, see what's happening, and annihilate whatever seems big and angry."

Lucky got a text message back from his mother. Checking it, he frowned, and put the phone back in his pocket. "So let's get to it."

Gavriil's mental grasp and control of the situation vanished as soon as the beautiful god walked through the door. His senses, supernatural or otherwise, burned and strained to keep up in the mere presence of the more-than-man, while his usually calm and calculating mind faded, leaving only a blank white fuzz of happiness. A silly grin split his features, his eyes drifting out of focus, and the faint hiss of air between teeth a telling sign that he was now breathing through his mouth. The Russian, for at least the few moments, was naught but an empty vessel for Baldur's words. Only the minute twitches when the syliables dropped from the god's mouth indicated that Gavriil was still responsive. He blushed like a schoolgirl when the perfectly formed lips spoke his true name. The fact that such a wonderful being had descended to learn his name was true happiness. It wasn't until the true nature of the mission was revealed did fragmented thoughts begin again, fighting against the white cloud of fuzz that shackled his mind. There was a few moments of frenzied internal conflict as Baldur left the room, then the vacant expression of childlike delight turned directly into the grimace of shell-shock and abstract horror.

Hel's son slowly recoiled away from the door as if stung, seriously reconsidering his life choices up till this point. I was ready to do anything for that so-called-god. Anything at all. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, while blue eyes glanced around to confirm that no one had seen his little breakdown. He visibly shuddered, knees nearly buckling under the weight of his own fear. Terrifying. Horrifying. There is no need to wonder why the end times comes for them, this thing they call Ragnarok. They destroy reality just by existing in the same space as humans. What monsters. And... He glared around at his gathered companions, a faint grin that was half terror and half hopeful. ...we are like them. He glanced around to confirm that he was alone in his seeming despair, before his eyes fell upon the the most comical sight he'd seen in the aptly named "Runes and Things.". The wolf-woman was attempting to inspire some sort of camaraderie between the already dysfunctional group. She was failing miserably, it seemed. Even the huge ravens seemed to share in the Russian's mirth, abet a lot more loudly and several hundred times more obnoxiously. While annoying, they seemed a lot more earthy and calming than the witch and her raving overtones.

Even as his thoughts shifted to the crone, she managed to fill his veins with ice. She was lying as she leapt to the defense of the wolf-woman, and he could hazard a guess as to what it was about. She thought there was no hope. She expected them to die. Maybe she knew they would These thoughts brought him all the way back from the momentary breakdown, purging all of the remaining weakness he had shown. Cold blood and death were two defining traits that he lived his life by. Like some old cow's words could bring his sprits down. "Bring it on, you ol-"

It wasn't until Gavriil hit the floor the first time he regretted his harsh words. The second bounce caused him to recall why gravity was the worst foe for mankind. The third time he hit the ground and rolled out of the door, he was already inventing new and improved ways to curse old woman in Ancient Norse. Spewing various filthy words in all three of the languages that he knew, the big man rolled out the door and into the soft snow. He lay there for a time, attempting to sort out his mixed feelings about the situation at hand. For one, he was glad to be back in the welcoming embrace of the snow, and to again feel the crisp air against his skin. He had just been gifted a boon of untold strength in the form of a gun that a ghost was slaved to, and held power beyond his mortal comprehension(As of yet). On the other hand, he was stuck with an exceptionally dysfunctional group of allies. The amount of stabbings per hour together was not in the group favor, nor was it hopeful for times ahead. Two stabbings an hour meant that in less than a day, it was nearly certain that at some point in the next day Gavriil would find a large blade inside his person where he most certainly did not want it. In the midst of his crisis, Gavriil heard one of the other men begin to give a speech. He sat up to listen, balefully hoping that it wasn't supposed to rouse them to action, or get them to work together. He was wrong, and although he'd never admit it to anyone, the Russian knew it worked, at least to some extent.

It came as a surprise as the thief tossed his keys at Gavriil, who nearly missed them but snagged them on the ends of his fingers. His next words were rumbled without accent. "If the problem with transportation is solved, then the problem with killing the giants is brought up. Sword is like small splinter to them, gun like bee-sting. Therefore we need bigger weapon. I'm not sure if magic death rifle is magic death rifle for giants." He thought about the redundancy for a moment and then tried to explain what he meant. "It ice and they ice. Sure, it has bone of White Death, but I have no idea what it fires." His piece said, Graviil looked around the group for who he was going to take. The thief was unfortunately out of the question. "I'll take the healer, wolf girl, and man with killer necklace."

Although the intentions of everyone were to shame Soraya, she felt nothing but relief as the others - Dann, the ravens, the old woman - teased her. She had expected such a reaction, but she had accomplished exactly what she had set out to do: Jacob and Lucky weren't at each other's throats anymore. Besides, it was much easier to shrug things off as a joke than to take them seriously, she knew that. She smiled sincerely at all of them, the pressure lifted for a few moments.

The witch seemed eager to be rid of the group. Soraya felt the floor shift and crease beneath her feet, as though she were standing on a wave in the river. The shop seemed to be pushing her out, acting out the witch's wishes. Soraya bowed her head towards the elderly woman, making to leave, but promptly saw Gavriil and Eshna be tossed out the door on their bottoms. She quietly stifled a laugh. The rest had maintained their balance despite the shifty floor under their feet. Although she wanted to get out of the store, lest she receive the witch's wrath, the pair of ravens decided that now was the appropriate time to disclose some important information about the journey. They spoke in their peculiar way, mostly at each other and not with anyone. It wasn't until they finally registered the threat and took off flying that Soraya felt she could finally take her leave, having learned all she could from the birds. "Thank you," she said quickly to the witch as she hurried out of the shop.

Outside, the group regathered and were silent for a few moments. Soraya took that time to look at each of them, remembering their names from when Baldur had announced them to each of them. She could call them all by name now, if she had to. She doubted that any of them had the means to take down a frost giant, nevermind a group of them. As for her, she had a small flip knife that she'd had for years and was rather dull now, but that was absolutely useless as a weapon. Especially against a giant. It was more useful for cutting branches or stray strings on an old sweater.

Then, every unexpectedly, Soraya heard Jacob say that she had been right. She was surprised as she looked over at him. He seemed to be preparing to say something more, and she narrowed her eyes and listened. Although she had been suspicious at first, as Jacob spoke she warmed up to his ideas and found herself nodding in agreement. He had very skilfully restated what she had said, and was much better at rousing the group to the matter. She was glad that finally there was some understanding between them. Slightly embarrassed at the event having been brought up again, but relieved at the inch of progress they had made, Soraya decided to herself that Jacob would be a worthy ally. He looked to be in pretty bad shape, overall, but she had respect for him and hoped he'd become healthier in time.

Lucky sprang into action, revealing that he had driven to this place. He tossed the keys to Gavriil and declared that he would steal a car. Soraya's heart jumped a little with fear. She wasn't exactly comfortable with the idea of her pack mates riding around in a stolen car. But if it was completely necessary, she just hoped she didn't have to be one of the passengers in the stolen vehicle. Thankfully, Gavriil chose her as one of the passengers in Lucky's car. For a fraction of a second she wondered if that car was stolen as well, but worrying never solved anything so she dismissed the thought. Briefly she also wondered what had happened to Gavriil's once existent accent. She knew something sounded different, but she just now realized what it was. Did it have something to do with what the witch had said in that strange language? Despite now speaking clear English, his vocabulary and syntax were still somewhat off. He made a lot of good points, though. Soraya had been wondering about the weapons issue before. They couldn't just walk into a gun store and pick up guns. There were laws, after all. And most of them weren't even from this country. Although reluctant to vocalize her thoughts, Soraya knew she had to contribute something. "It's unlikely that we will be able to buy guns, as I'm sure you've all already realized. We may have to improvise. But unfortunately, we don't exactly know what a frost giant's weaknesses are in order to utilize them to our advantage."

If it weren't for the fact that she had already finished, Baldur's presence might have compelled Eshna to tie Lucky's bandage in some fantastic fashion. Maybe add in some ribbons or paint, as if to make it presentable for the grandiose appearance of the god in flesh. She couldn't help but remain taught and considerate during the entirety of his ominous and yet strangely warming speech. The myth all seemed to be coming together then, and she could understand why any of this was even necessary. The weapons made sense. Her medical prowess seemed all the more important then.

Despite the knick-knacks she already knew dominated the shelf, for a brief moment Eshna thought it wise to search the store for medical supplies. Nothing was to be found of course, but the consideration still pervaded her mind even as she and the rest of her so-called "brother's and sister's" exited the store abruptly. Lost as they seemed to be, even feet from the witch -their source of information- Eshna felt little worry about finding their way itself.

The snow bothered her infinitely more.

In her childhood she was quite accustomed to rain, having lived in the state of Washington, and experiencing several monsoon seasons prepared her for even the worst of storms, but the cold temperatures were simply all too much for her. Eshna clutched her arms tightly and shivered, breathing out a cloud of air and grimacing. The sight of light snow reminded her of the words Frost Giant and, terrifying as the prospect might have been to most, Eshna could only imagine their size with wonder rather than fear. Up till now, everything "divine" appeared quite normal to the untrained eye. She thought it quite possible even these Frost Giants might appear to them as but tall and meaty humans. Formidable, surely, but not invulnerable. Only experience would tell.

Sarcastically, Eshna replied to Soraya's concern, "Something tells me they're weak to fire. Just a guess but..." Puffing her cheeks in distaste for the atmosphere, Eshna motioned to get moving quickly. "We should probably hurry on then. I'd love to get in the car ASAP."

Jagred raised his brow slightly at Soraya’s failed attempt at speech, but otherwise remained silent. Her optimism was almost admirable, even though he doubted it would do much to help her against Frost Giants. The crows certainly agreed, and some other members of their group as well. As for his part, even though Jagred had formed his own opinion about the young woman, he didn’t feel the compulsion to share it. At least, not as vocally as the birds. Still, it wasn’t like he was going out of his way to not offend her sensibilities, he just couldn’t care less. Ideals like that could only hurt her in the long run, when this band of misfits fell part, eventually. Of that, he had no doubt.

Moments later, the crone began to hurl sharp objects at the crows, and as they took their leave, he figured it was his cue to get out as well, especially when the floor started moving beneath them. He managed to stay on his feet, but two others weren’t so fortunate. It was a comical sight to behold, and his lips twitched, but the smile was short-lived. What meager information the birds managed to give them before leaving was far from encouraging, to say the least.

When they were finally outside, Jagred relaxed visibly, filling his lungs up with the crisp winter air in deep, draw out breaths. The previous events weren’t actually on his favor, so he needed to at least clear his head for what came after. Who knew, he might come up with an actual plan to deal with Frost Giants. Like escaping. Because seriously, Frost Giants? They were sent in with a minimum amount of information about their objective, and only two of them had functional weapons. It didn’t take a genius to see where this was going. But then, while others in the group might pull of escaping, he knew he couldn’t. Not with this necklace on. Even though he didn’t know what the witch really meant by ‘misbehaving’, he wasn’t going to take the chance.

And then, another member of their group decided to try at speech, again. Jagred sighed, glancing briefly at Jacob, before letting his gaze wandered off. He thought this one would just be another disaster, like Soraya’s. And yet, somehow, it wasn’t. He didn’t show any indication of this, but he knew Jacob was right. He would have to just work with what he’d got so far, and at least, tried. After all, it wasn’t like him to walk away from a fight. He would hate to admit it, but deep down inside, a part of him was looking forward to this mission. Hopefully it wouldn’t be his last. As Jacob began asking for input about means of transportation, he crossed his arms and remained silent. Most of his luggage was still at the hotel, and he took a cab here, so there was no car to offer. Fortunately, Lucky chose that moment to reveal that he had one, and promptly gave the keys to Gavriil. He wouldn’t have protested either way, but when he realized that ‘man with killer necklace’ was refered to him, it made him chuckled for a bit. Killer necklace. Quite an apt name.

Once both Soraya and Eshna had voiced their thoughts, Jagred figured it was his turn.-“Right, no guns. I can work with that.”-Not like he knew how to use one anyway. Never had to.-“Maybe we can stop at a tool shop? If Frost Giants are indeed weak to fire, just as their name suggested, we might want to have some Molotov on hand.” And of course, it was a chance for him to pick up something for himself as well.

Lucky nodded as Gavriil chose his passengers, and grinned. "And that means I'll take Dan and Jacob. How do you spell Dan, by the way? Didn't catch that from Baldur. Along with that, does anyone else here have a phone? Soraya, maybe? Then both cars can keep in touch. We'll know where to meet once we arrive at Bodie."

"Also, concerning weapons. Esha, I think you'd make a good Sherlock with that deduction. We're going to need fire. So here's what we're going to do. Gavriil, you can just start driving, and stop at a gas station if you see one. See how much gasoline you can buy, and load it all up. We're going to head down to the tool store, maybe the IKEA I passed, and my group can see if we can grab some cheap cloths, and a lighter. Then we can see whether molotov cocktails are of any use on what may just be conscious ice. So, shall we?"

Lucky showed Gavriil to the car, a rather nice looking four door Acura that sat in a parking lot not too far away. Showing him how to operate the GPS and plug in the coordinates, he led Dann and Jacob off, walking along the streets to the hardware store that he had spotted on his way in. Hopefully Lucky was lucky enough to get the stuff he needed. Bodie was going to be having a city-wide barbeque soon enough.

The group had the basics of a plan set into motion, exchanged numbers, and split up to see what they could do before they arrive in Bodie. No less than an hour was spent messing with gathering materials to both fortify the vehicles, make molotovs, and other improvised weapons.

Lucky and his group were unable to find a reputable car dealership that would let them, on their funds, drive out in the car then and there. They did, however, find a less than reputable one. The car was still in mostly good shape, a crack in the window, but it was within their price range. Purchasing it, their plans for fortification and survival turned to that as well. They’d piece something together and then get on the road.

Soraya began her job of constructing weapons. It wasn’t necessarily something she was trained in, but she caught on fast enough, soon pumping out molotovs and such with a bit of natural speed. Medical supplies bought from a corner pharmacy were gathered as well, given the coming danger, and Gavriil, while others were shopping, had an idea.

While Bodie was now inhabited by Frost Giants of some number, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to see what he could find out about it as well. Using a cellphone, he went to the internet and researched Bodie, and found out that the town has been abandoned for quite some time. An old west ghost town, died shortly after the mines stopped being used. There was a ranger station and historical museum, but what he could find indicated that with the severe weather the area had been having this winter, the ranger station had minimal staffing, and the museum was empty.

There were almost no others present beyond the Frost Giants, Dwarves, and maybe 3 humans, if they weren’t already enslaved as well. On the positive side of things, the town didn’t see a lot of traffic, being far off the beaten road, and with so few there, there wouldn’t be much if any problem with them using any powers that may be useful to them, and other such force.

Wanting to see if mythology offered any answers on how to beat them, he was unable to come up with much other than hit them hard. He did find that the blood of the Frost Giants and others is sometimes fed to their slaves to make them supernaturally powerful, and deathly loyal to them as well. He shared all of this information with the group.

Once on the long road north, Highway 395, the group settled in for a trip, talking amongst themselves, sharing some details of their own lives as they got better acquainted. Perhaps they listened to music, and when they stopped for bathroom or food would stretch their legs a bit. It was indeed a long drive, and every hour seemed darker and colder than the last, although it was hard to wager for sure if that was because of the Frost Giants north, or the weather in general.

Dann, having purchased supplies he thought would make for a good improvised flamethrower, however, led the group in the car with him to some problems. Within he was building the device while the vehicle was in motion, making sure to comment on it probably being safe, and it being fine, and people should stop worrying as he hammered a bic lighter into a propane tank with a rather large nail. He noticed there was this horrible hissing noise, but thought that it was just a sign that it was working, and so maybe, after they got to another rest stop, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to test it out.

It was a bad idea to test it out.

When the two cars arrived at a gas station, the cheaply purchased car had been filled with quite a mixture of flammable gasses and liquids, making there be some sort of talk about waiting and letting it air out. Dann, however, wanted to test his new flamethrower! And so he did. Due to the great mental awareness of some of the others of the group, and some physical quickness as well, no person was injured in the ensuing fireball and explosion that destroyed the used car. And part of the gas station. Boom.

It was later agreed upon, after Lucky this time stole a car for them to continue going to their destination in, that Dann was to never ever ever play with fire again.

It was evening when the group finally hit the dirt roads on the way to Bodie. There was still quite some more driving to do, and the heavy snows presented some challenge to the cars as they tried to drag through it and the poor excuse for roads that the snow now laid upon. Eventually, the vehicles were able to make it to the outskirts of Bodie, where they saw a small security and ranger station, and a lone, but long, sawhorse blocks the road in. Inside of the station are some maps, and a cash box, where the ranger would be paid for parking or perhaps a map as well. There was also some blood splatter.

Bodie, on the other side, looks old and dead. There is no one to see for miles in any direction, and the only things visible are old run down buildings, covered in thick snow, the falling of which has seemed to die down. Groans flow through the wood of the structures as the still whipping and cold wind ebbs around and pierces the shacks.

There’s a dirt parking lot, and some old tiremarks in the snow leading to an empty parking spot. It seems the last car to drive here, left within a day or so. There also appears on its side, a single beaten up Yamaha motorcycle, although it seems as if it’s been there for some time now.

When the group had driven up, they had alerted the demigod already there. He didn’t know more people were coming, let alone people to help. Instead, he would think that they were a threat, a danger to himself, and so he hid until he could see more about them before attacking.

Angus had been there for almost a full day now, most of it alone. He hadn’t yet seen any Frost Giants, or Dwarves. All that he had seen was the only other demigod who had come with him be startled by the ranger, and kill him. There had been so much blood, and his kin couldn’t take it. He was freaking out, and drove off with the body to hide it.

That was what he told Angus, but he didn’t make it too far. In the bad weather and his frantic driving, someway along the way he slipped off the road without knowing it, and crashed, dead. A sight that the group missed on their way in, and may never even know either. A pitiful end to their story. Angus, however, still thinks that his brethren is out there and will be returning for him shortly, although he’s losing hope.

His first thought when he heard a car approaching was that it was his comrade, but two cars made him think otherwise. Maybe more rangers. Maybe the Frost Giants he had heard about. Would they even drive cars? He didn’t know. There weren't other cars here.

Everyone could look out and see what looked like a bit of blood in the snow leading towards where the tiretracks begin, though, starting from the ranger's station. Good omens abound.

Regardless, everyone had arrived, and they did share a mission even if they did not yet all know it yet.

In the distance, was their final target, the mines that they were told the Frost Giants would be. The only building that showed life, locked away behind a metal fence topped with barbed wire, as plumes of smoke come from the smoke stacks that top the structure atop the mines.

Jacob’s speech was not as cheesy as Soraya’s, but it was more persuasive. Dann shrugged at it, he did already said he was up to working together with the rest. Dann looked at Lucky, “Spell it how it you want, there’s not that much different way in spelling it.”

Dann’s preparation of an improvised weapon was an attempt to cobble a flamethrower together. He then put it on the backseat of the car he rode in and took a seat besides it.

Jacob had felt otherwise too distracted by his thoughts to pay enough attention to Dann's makeshift flamethrower. His mind was shifting sporadically from stressful thoughts of opiates and alcohol, to the detrimental effects of Ragnarok on his personal life. Would he ever see his mother again, would he ever get high again? As soon as he heard the popping hiss of whatever Dann poked a hole through, he flashed a quick glance to the backseat, however turned back to exit the car as they pulled up into the gas station. Once everyone was out of the car and gathered with the rest, he voiced his concern.

"Yeah, it's probably not a good idea to head along in a car filled with butane. Maybe Dann's contraption worked, I don't know..." He stated, his eyes widening just as Dann started to test his contraption.

The car that Soraya was in followed behind the new car driven by Lucky. When the first car pulled over at a gas station, Gavriil, Soraya, Eshna, and Jagred followed. Soraya saw Dann come out of the car with a strange device in his hands, and she squinted at it. Whatever it was supposed to do, she didn’t know, but it didn’t exactly look like it could accomplish anything. Before she even had a chance to ask, he decided to test it out. Fantastic plan.

Despite nearly getting blown to bits, luckily Soraya wasn’t close enough to be destroyed in the ensuing destruction. If anybody had gotten hurt she was pretty sure she might have wrapped her hands around Dann’s throat, but the best thing to do after destroying half a building was get the hell out of there before the cops showed up. If he does something stupid like that when we’re in the middle of a giants’ nest I’ll take care of him myself, I swear. But her anger faded and disappeared by the time they’d driven a few miles down the highway.

Jacob couldn't help but force up a weak chuckle concerning the situation. They'd just seen a car implode and probably ended up taking the gas station with it, and than they actually managed to steal a car. Smirking at Dann in the backseat, than to Lucky driving, he spoke up.

"At least no one got hurt. You still got your eyebrows, Dann?" He inquired with another chuckle.

“Yeahh, it should’ve worked,” Dann replied.

"Well it did work...in that it caused quite a spectacle. I'm surprised we managed to hightail it outta' there before the cops showed up. We're probably all over the local news right now." He continued with a wide grin, "so you're not exactly an expert in craftin' janky shit, where you from, Dann? Sweden? Denmark?" He asked.

“Denmark,” Dann said. “Frankly, if I have to craft with volatile stuff, I usually expect to blow something up soon after.”

"Hah!" Jacob laughed, "yeah, I grew up in Arizona, one state over." He said, pointing east. "Even in the winter, I'd bet money it's still 90 degrees out there. What about you, Lucky?" He casually turned his head toward the driver's seat.

“Me?” Lucky said, keeping his eyes on the road, “I’m just from Utah, Salt Lake City. Nice enough place. I mean, it was a terrible environment to raise a child. Look how I turned out. But hey, for how I turned out, it was wonderful. Was raised in the casinos, learnt how to play whatever games there were and steal money right below peoples’ noses, all the while staying legal.”

Lucky changed lanes, and continued, “Still a bit confused about that, with me being the son of Odin. I mean, seriously, the last time there was a trickster in that family, it didn’t go well. What the hell happened that made me follow the same route? Apart from just being raised that way.”

"Beats me..." Jacob mumbled. "I mean, at least you're aware of who Odin is. He's practically famous. Who was I, Freyrson? I've heard the name but I still have no idea what it represents..."

Lucky passed his smartphone to Jacob. “Have a look. Wouldn’t hurt, would it? While you’re at it, see if you can find any more on norse frost giants. Maybe it’ll list some myths or whatever of Thor beating one with some weakness. That could help a whole lot.”

Freyr wasn’t too hard to find information on. He did have his own Wikipedia article after all. As for particular weaknesses of Frost Giants, beyond all of the gods ganging up on them, Thor beating the shit out of them, or them being otherwise tricked by Loki, there’s not much information on defeating them. However, again and again mentions of just how powerful of illusionists Frost Giants are.

"Overall he looks like the god of prosperity...virility. Wowza..." As he read on, he squeezed two fingers between his eyes, closing them and sighing with a chuckle. "He was their phallic fertility god," he continued. "As far as everything else i'm reading, and what i've already read, there's not much on frost giants. The gods, our parents or whatever, really kicked their asses a few times. It says right here they're pretty powerful illusionists, so we should keep an eye out for any deceiving tricks."

Motioning Lucky's phone over to Dann, he inquired. "You want to check out more about your godparent?"

“Eh, I’ve heard that he’s some sort of god of skiing once,” Dann shrugged before moving to take the phone. “No harm done, I guess.”

“Huh, that’s pretty much it actually,” Dann said.

Upon driving, Gavriil seemed a lot more vocal in his complaints, being sure to honk at whatever irked him and yell rather vulgar and angry words in one of his three languages, seemingly at random. When the car finally moved out of the city and onto the road up to Bodie(Less things for the big man to scream at), he looked over his shoulder at the group that he’d gathered, before deciding to start the conversation. “Do any of you know much about this mythos we are a part of?”

Soraya had opted to sit in the passenger seat, mainly due to worry that she would get motion sickness if she were in the back. She hoped that the rest of the group didn’t have to learn about that little fact about her. She gazed out the windshield for the majority of her trip, occasionally glancing at her cell phone in her jean pocket. Though her parents had both been trying to text her, she was ignoring them. For now.

Gavriil’s words caught her somewhat by surprise, as she hadn’t expected him to talk for some reason. When no one else answered him after a very uncomfortable amount of time, Soraya felt obligated to. “Not very much. Maybe some high school stuff.” After a brief pause, she tried to sound a little less uninformed, hoping to bring up something she could contribute to. “Baldur, the god who came today, he said I was the daughter of … of Vidar?” Suddenly it occurred to her that she could look it up on her phone, and she felt fairly stupid for not having checked earlier. A lot had been going on. She pulled out her phone again and opened the browser, searching for the name by guessing its spelling. Soon she found the Wikipedia article she needed. She read aloud before she read it to herself. “A god among the Aesir associated with … with vengeance.” Soraya decided not to keep reading to the other passengers, instead keeping it to herself. She wasn’t exactly expecting that. Please somebody else say something.

For the majority of the car ride, Jagred kept to himself, occupied his mind with one of those crappy quizzes he had on his phone. He wasn’t completely anti-social or anything, mind, it was just that he didn’t enjoy small talk, instead preferred the calming silence. He glanced at the German bloke each time he swore too loud, his lips twitching with a smile. When Gavriil asked his question though, he turned back to his phone, which suddenly appeared to be very interesting. Soraya decided to answer first, mentioning about her apparent father, Vidar, in an awkward attempt to break the silence. Honestly, he didn’t understand why people liked to do this. It was like they couldn’t stand the silence or something.

However, since there was no harm in playing along, he decided to give his answer as well. –“ Mine’s Tyr. God of justice and heroic deeds. That sort of things. Don’t know much else. Well, and he also lost a hand to Fenrir when he put his hand into its mouth..”- He mumbled, fidgeting with his necklace. Hopefully, losing body parts didn’t run in the family.

It was a simple thing to listen to the people within earshot spout their heritage without lying. Almost no fun to be had. Vidar, the god of vengeance, something that suited the almost disturbing way that some carnivorous spirit flowed through Soraya. As for his toothy companion, Tyr, a god of justice. Again, suitable for the one that reeked of battle and danger. Gavriil snorted in time with the crack about the missing limbs, aiming to seem as helpful and trustworthy as he could in order to gather as much information as he could.
The large man filed away the knowledge that both of his companions provided as dirt to use another day, before carefully asking the question that he’d been sitting on since the god had spoke his true name back at the store. “Then do you know who Hel is? Something to do with ice, I expect.”

Without taking his eyes off the phone, Jagred simply shrugged –“Don’t know. Isn’t that what, the Norse equivalent of Hell? Not sure if there is ice down there though.”

---

With both cars parked and all of the group members gathered together in Bodie, they began to form a more substantial plan about their next steps. Soraya used the time to look around her and survey the scene. The trail of blood was certainly ominous, but so was the absence of life and the smoke being pumped into the air by a nearby chimney.

Soraya crouched next to the older tire tracks that were in the parking lot. “This is fairly recent, I think,” she announced to the group. She eyed the blood that was a few steps away.

Dann cocked his head towards the bloodtrack. “What now then? Split up and look for info around the bloodtrack or go to the mines?”

Lucky shrugged, stepping out of the car into the cold. “I’m gonna go see where the blood tracks lead. You guys can go do something else. I’ll leave the keys in the ignition, just in case we have to hightail it out of here.”

“Doubt it, if we need to get away that would mean either the Giants are right on our tails or the whole mountain is crumbling down,” Dann said. “For the former, unless we have a good head start, we’re going into our own coffin, for the latter, I really doubt we can outrun a mountain to get to the cars.”

Lucky nodded. “Fair enough. But might as well be prepared, in case we do have to make a hasty exit. Hey, maybe it’ll be our luck that the mountain skipped leg day.”

Soraya stretched her legs and breathed in the crisp air that reminded her so much of home. “It may be dark in the mines. Torches could be handy. If I can find some wood I’ll try to make some.” She walked over to the blood trail in the snow, using two of her fingers to lift a small bit up to her face for closer inspection. She knew she had an unusually strong sense of smell compared to most people. She hoped it would serve her well. “This isn’t fresh blood.” That much she knew for sure. “Twenty-nine hours ago. Don’t ask. But it isn’t leading to that building. It’s leading from it.” To her, it looked like the trail of spattered blood was headed to the tire tracks, which meant the vehicle that was sitting here. But she was sure her kin could figure that out themselves. “There were several wounds, sharp punctures in the flesh. I think they were bullet wounds.” She looked up at Lucky. “Be careful, okay?”

Soraya was quick to see that all the run down buildings were made of ample, and easy enough to pry apart, wood. Also, Soraya was actually able to tell that the blood looked as if it had been from just the day prior. Less than that, in fact, somehow able to ascertain from her senses, primarily smell, almost exactly how long ago the blood was spilled, and even a bit about what type of wound it was that would make the blood like this. It took her a few sniffs before she could tell that the blood was spilled 29 hours ago, from several sharp puncture wounds. Probably bullet wounds. A lot of them.

"Right, good idea with crafting torches, Soraya. Go ahead and pry apart some wood from these shanty buildings around here and get to work. Gavriil, go with Lucky and provide some back up, no telling what could be behind all this blood. Eshna, i'd have you tag along with them just in case someone's hurt and needs medical attention." He paused, surveying the smoke stack up ahead, behind the barbed wired fences.

"Jagred, Dann, you’re with me." He motioned two fingers over to him, walking subtly towards the smoke stacks. "Lets see what we can find out about the area beyond those fences, try to stay out of sight and don't get too close. We don't need any unnecessary risks, just a few quick looks and we'll rush back over here."

“For a few quick looks, it’s better if just one of us go or all of us split up,” Dann said. “I find it easier to stay out of sight alone, and if I get found, easier to hide.”

Jagred surveyed the blood trail with a detached gaze, his new found weapon clutched in one hand. Blood splatters hardly seemed like good news at the moment, but then, very few things were. Even the village itself felt ominous, which was rather expected. After all, with the name that almost spelt like bodies, he didn’t expect to be dropped off at a crowded tourist attraction or whatever. Glancing up at Jacob as he gave the order, Jagred raised his eyebrow slightly. Right, who died and left this guy in charge? The speech was impressive, there was no denying that. However, it hardly guaranteed his spot as the leader of their little group. Still, since no one seemed to be against it and not that he wanted the position for himself, Jagred just gave a shrug and followed.

Before he left though, Soraya’s idea reminded him of something, and he quickly dug through the pockets of his jacket. As a creature of habit, he always carried a lighter with him, despite the fact that Jagred had given up smoking years ago. Fortunately for them, it was still here, sitting snugly in the front pocket of his shirt. He tossed it to Soraya with a flick of his wrist, along with a comment-“Should’ve brought some flashlights at the shop. I don’t like torches. The smoke made my eyes awfully teary.”- With that done, he turned back to Jacob, his lips curled up in one of those smiles of his, all white teeth and no humor- “Alright. Lead. I will follow.”

"Dann makes a point, i'll let the both of you decide which direction you want to take. I'll try to creep up straight ahead without getting to close, we'll regroup back here. Don't try to take on anything by yourself, if you get caught, you run back over here, and fast." He ordered, as he continued walking as slyly as he could straight ahead, attempting to make as little noise as possible whilst additionally trying to remain unseen.

Jacob had started shuffling in closer, as Dann and Jagred disappeared from sight. The smoky stench filled his nostrils as he crept up for a closer look, however he had tripped up on a rather large rock covered in snow. As he fell forward, he couldn't help but shout out an expletive. Or two.

"Shit! Fuck!" He shouted, definitely loud enough for anyone or anything nearby to have heard.

As he fell, the right part of his rib cage landed directly on another rock covered in a layer of snow. Additionally, he tried to catch his fall with both hands, managing to cut his left forearm on his sword sheathed through his belt upon impact. After loudly whispering more profanities, he was made aware that it probably wasn't a good idea to continue scouting after making such a commotion. While not immediately registering the pain from his bruised ribs, he clutched his stinging forearm and hurried back to the main group.

Dann’s sneaking around yielded with him finding a set of oversized footprints. They were old and if he wasn’t looking around for signs, he would’ve missed it. He guessed that the footprints had been around for a week or so. Most of the footprints showed the giants going from the mines with some smaller people, which could be the dwarven or human prisoners or something, that they were taken out did not imply a good imagery. There were some prints that headed into the mines, but they were too faint and led to Dann assuming that there could be several giants patrolling outside of the mine. Probably the cause of the bloodtrack earlier, although he didn’t see any giant footprints there.

He considered his next move as he looked at the fence surrounding the mines. It’s probably a good idea to find another entrance other than a possibly watched gate. Nodding to himself, Dann set out to trying to find a point where they can sneak in, either via a hole on the fence or making a hole on the fence. The latter would’ve been easier if they brought a cutter with them though. Without it, there’s Jacob’s sword.

The result wasn’t nice, Dann found some signs of holes in the fence, but the patchworks on them made the former-holes harder to be used to break in. There were also traces of much,much smaller footprints near those spots, although with how faint they were, he couldn’t even guess whether they were breaking in or breaking out. With nothing else to go on, Dann started to head back to the rest of the group, before remembering about the map he was given. Taking it out, Dann used the map to look over the layout of the mine and its surrounding. After memorizing it, he returned to the group.

The map revealed area, landscape and structures on the surface, to Dann, but little useful information that he hadn’t already gathered from scouting. The map offered no look into the layout of the mine itself, it was too large a scale for anything of that nature. Likewise, it didn’t show the layouts of other structures, nor anyone on it. Other than its updating, it appeared to be a simple map.

Jagred’s trip had been less than eventful, for better or worse. As directed, he went to take a look around the mine. It was conveniently surrounded by sturdy metal fences, too high to climb over and too thick to break through. Or was it? He hefted his axe, considering the thought for a few seconds then promptly discarded the idea. This wasn’t a very good time for noises, especially ones that were loud enough to alert the giants of their presence here. With that decided, Jagred continued with his mission, moving along the walls, footsteps muffled by fresh-fall snow. For the next while, he came across nothing of particular interest, except for, maybe, the lack of security around this area. Which was a good thing, he supposed.

However, just as he was thinking of going back, something caught his eyes. From afar, it looked almost like an odd-colored patch of fence, but as he got closer, Jagred realized he had found a gate. Upon closer inspection, he also found that the gate was locked from the inside, and after a few failed attempt to reach it, he gave up. There was no way he could get to that lock, and even if he did, he wouldn’t know what else to do. That seemed like his cue to go back then. Maybe someone else from their group would know more about breaking and entering.

Soraya nodded at Jacob, easily accepting his transformation into a sort of leader of the group. Unless he gave some sort of awful order, she didn’t mind following suggestions. She wasn’t the type to want to lead, anyway. She almost didn’t catch the lighter that had suddenly been thrown at her without warning. She thanked her reflexes that she had. Despite feeling annoyed for about half a second after, she gave Jagred a look that said he was right. She did agree. Flashlights wouldn’t have been a bad idea. At least they knew for next time - if there were a next time.

She went to the nearest building and, upon realizing that there was no quiet way of doing it, ripped a loose board from the wall. None of the boards here were loose enough that they’d fallen away from the structure completely, unfortunately for her. She winced at the cracking sound that echoed from where she stood. Just one or two boards were enough to make four simple torches. She wrapped the ends in the same light fabric they’d used for the Molotovs.

Gavriil hadn’t moved after Lucky, instead choosing to stare suspiciously at one of the very few buildings in Bodie proper. He could feel something there. Something like his companions. The next words were slow and measured as the Russian carefully leveled his rifle at the building. “There’s something there. Feels like… Earthy? Like us, but not exactly like any single one of us.” An icy silence followed as Gavriil took a step forward, steadying the sights upon the doorway. “Perhaps another demigod?”

“Well it’d certainly be no friendly one,” Eshna commented, tracing Gavriil’s eyesight to the doorway, “Either he, she, or it is more cautious than we are, or it’s hiding on purpose.” She seemed more keen on believing the latter, evident in her tone and the intensity of her stance.

After eavesdropping on the new arrivals as best he could for what was probably far more time than was strictly necessary, Angus was jolted from his complacent hiding spot in one of the buildings by some loud cursing. Those had been some of the first English words he learned as a young man, from an Irish schoolyard friend, and they brought a smile to his face. He hoisted a large green sack over his shoulder with his right hand and ducked out of the shadowed doorway he’d been hiding in, his left hand held up palm forward in a gesture of peace and goodwill. He was a very large man with a beard that hung down to his chest, and he was dressed in a set of warm clothes that had been liberated from the now-empty ranger station, as would be obvious to anyone who saw the insignia on the sleeve of his black jacket.

“I guess you all are here for the same reason I am.” Angus’s English was heavily tinged with an accent from his native German, but he spoke well enough to be understood. “Sons of gods, right? And daughters, I see. I’m Angus Hartmann.” He paused and let his empty hand drop to his side, feeling that his introduction was enough to make his lack of ill intent clear. “Or Angus Njordsson, according to some birds. This Njord guy was some kind of god of the seas and fish. I did some research while I was here waiting for…” Angus trailed off and looked over toward the parking lot and the trail of blood that the arriving party had obviously noticed.

“About that, uh, the blood. There was another man who came here with me, called himself Rat Eye, nickname of some kind I guess. Looked like a rat, so it fit. There was a ranger here. When we drove up the place looked empty, and when the ranger walked out…” Angus shrugged uncomfortably. “Rat Eye was a twitchy guy. Old lady in the shop gave him a gun. The ranger was dead before he could even get a word out. Then the idiot who shot him decided he had to hide the body, and I couldn’t talk sense into him, so I helped him put it in the car and he drove away yesterday. I haven’t seen him since then, thought it might be him coming back when I heard cars coming. He was stupid, but I hope nothing bad happened to him.”

Angus paused briefly once more, but then continued on without letting anyone else get a word in edgewise. He’d been cooped up alone for almost a day, hiding in fear from the Frost Giants that were supposed to be lurking here, and he couldn’t help but spill out words like water from a broken faucet. “I heard you guys talking about making torches. Lucky for us all, I did some scavenging while I was waiting.” Angus hefted the sack slung over his shoulder to indicate that his haul was contained within. “Three flashlights, a first aid kit that looks almost new, a map of the town and the mines, and some snacks.” He finally stopped speaking then, obviously rather pleased with himself as he looked from one new face to another with a genial smile.

Jacob had safely managed his way back to the group while still clenching his cut arm, and having heard their newfound companion's introduction, he felt it proper they introduce themselves as well.

"Pleasure to meet you, Angus. I'm Jacob...Freyrson, I suppose." He paused, suspiciously eyeing Angus whilst still trying to keep up a friendly demeanor, his wounded hand wrapped around the handle of his sword as he continued. "I honestly don't care if you killed the ranger here or not, what matters is that you're one of us...and hopefully you're not some frost giant...'illusion'." He placed up two fingers at the mention of illusion, and continued.

"I'll let the rest of the group say hi, that's up to them. Some of us aren't exactly talkers." He chuckled, cursing and sighing under his breath as a tad bit of blood dripped down his left forearm.

"No, it isn't bad. Nothing that can't be patched and bandaged in a few minutes. Those supplies should come in handy, it'll be a big help. When everyone's ready, lets form a plan." He smiled, looking over his group and awaiting their introductions, or lack thereof.

At the very least, Eshna could detect the man was a demigod, and while it was slightly reassuring, there was still quite a bit of distrust she felt in him. Rather than a greeting, she kept to herself, albeit offering a faint leer at Angus before approaching Jacob with her own medical trinkets. Wordlessly, she did what she did best, and bandaged his arm with a piece of cloth she had retained from the witch’s shop earlier. Mumbling under her breath, she quietly chastised Jacob.

Good thing I’m here. Seems like this sort of thing is infectious to all of you.

Despite being slightly suspicious of the lumberjack who had suddenly come lumbering out of the building that Gavriil had pointed out, Soraya did share her name with him. But only her first name. And that was the only word she spoke to him. Now, knowing that he had three flashlights for them all to use, she glanced down at the now-useless torches, and shrugged. She might as well hold on to them, anyway. Maybe they had use yet.

She wondered quietly to herself why this stranger was being so helpful and talkative after having met the group all of ten seconds ago. At Jacob’s mention of a Frost Giant illusion, she gave the air around the lumberjack - Angus, he said his name was - a sniff to see if she could pick up anything strange about him. Not much, but he didn’t exactly smell odd to her so she assumed he was safe. At least she knew his personal scent now. His beard smelled distinctly of a man’s shampoo.

Gavriil lowered the gun, still very suspicious of this man who claimed to be an ally. Was being a demigod all it took? He shook his head, attempting to clear it of the cloudy thoughts of how trusting his newfound brethren were. They were free agents, which meant that the ‘bad gods’ could just as easily convince a demigod to go along with their plans.

Dann looked at the new demigod warily. He had arrived around the time Angus mentioned about someone stupid and missed most of the earlier conversation. Giving a nod to him, Dann remained quiet as Jagred showed up, not mentioning his finding until he was sure this person was not the owner of the smaller footprint he found together with the larger footprint.

As Jagred returned to the group, he paused slightly when noticing a stranger among them. No one seemed to be openly hostile though, so he assumed the man wasn’t a threat. For now, at least. He didn’t bother with introduction yet, instead turning to Jacob and informed him of his new findings, of course, loud enough to everyone to hear. –“Found a gate over there. Locked, but no one was guarding it, so anyone here know how to pick one?”- Only then did he give the newcomer a few passing glances, trying to get a proper read on the man. He was a demigod like the rest of them, tall, broad-shouldered and bearded. However, unlike their group, he was here alone. Strange, that.-“Where are your group?”-Jagred asked, leaning on his axe-“ You do have one, right?”

“Oh, you must not have heard that part.” Angus pointed toward the blood trail in the parking lot. “There was a guy with me, but he killed the ranger and then drove off to hide the body. Haven’t seen him since. Nobody else was with us.” He scratched at his beard in silence for a couple seconds, then nodded to himself. “I can’t pick locks, but I could probably break this gate down if we need to get through it. Or maybe break the lock with my shield. Won’t be quiet, but it should do the job.”

Lucky finally came back to the group that had assembled. Brushing off a few bits of dirt, he nodded towards his own group, and stuck his hand out at Angus. “Good to meet you. Name’s Lucky. Alright, so I checked around the entire area, but I didn’t really see anything, apart from the mines themselves. I stayed a bit away from their entrance. Personal safety and all that.”

Lucky looked towards Jagred. “I heard something about a gate? I’ve been picking locks since I was a child. Come on, show me where it is, I should be able to get it open soon enough.”

"Easy there, Lucky..." Jacob intervened, nodding his head toward Eshna as she finished up with his wound.

"We still need to form a plan, and after the commotion I just made there's a chance they'll be patrolling the area. Now if we're all done with introductions..." Sighing, he continued as he looked towards Dann. "Let's all gather around Dann and his map and decide the best course of action, remember that Baldur wanted us to kill or capture any of these giants as well as obtain the relic. I realize not all of us are exactly fighters, so let us conjure up a plan together."

“If you did make a commotion and they’ve started patrolling, then we should find someplace not in the open while we discuss what we’re doing,” Dann commented...

---

Soon afterwards...

---

The plan was set, and the eight of them had split into two groups as they finished looking at the map. The entire band found a gate closest to some cover, and the ambush group consisting of Jacob, Angus, Jagred, and Gavriil began to set up for their attack. Angus’ shield had been whipped by frost, and with him crouching behind some rundown buildings as well made it hard to see him and his companions now.

Gavriil set up shop further away, as he heard the screams of anguish slowly die down, quiet, mute for but the briefest of moments, until a voice began to speak to him in Finish. He was quick to understand it, and then a small chorus joined the voice as he aimed his rifle from afar. The voices were quiet, but as silence, a white noise that offered no distraction.

Jacob split from the ambush group for the first stage of the plan, using his sword to try to cut through the fence and make a hole for ease of picking it. Unfortunately, even his divinely sharp sword was not enough to cut through the metal on his own. Eshna, far his stronger, offered to take the sword, but found a sudden feeling of horror go through her very soul as she gripped its handle, dropping it immediately.

It was not meant for her to use, and she could feel that. Even offered, it wasn’t for her to touch. Jacob turned to Dann and Lucky, and it was their task now, as Jacob returned to his post in hiding. Before they could try to finagle a way at the lock, Soraya had already climbed to the top of the fence. Her feet were planted on it, and it was silent in its groaning, neither barb nor shift in the wind much of a bother to her.

Dann was the first she helped up and over the fence, letting his feet hit the snow as he then moved to investigate the mining facility closer. Lucky was next up and over, and he quickly moved to the lock. Eshna turned back towards where the ambush lay in wait, finding it hard to see them, and hoping that the frost giants would have similar troubles.

The mine was old, and in a horrid state of apparent disrepair at a casual glance, but Dann began to feel that some of this disrepair was actually false. When he tested it, he found himself right, the structure was in far better shape than it’d seem, and as the lights in the sky dimmed as but a solid moon-glow was all that remained outside, he found a side door into the structure. With his own map, and the map of the mines in mind, he felt a certainty that he could locate where anyone would be, and not walk into any sort of trap.

Lucky made short work of the lock, and the door swung open with a bit of a creek, as Eshna moved inside. They left the door open for when they’d be making their escape later. After making sure that there were no dangers outside of the structure, they began to try to lure them out. They made their loud noises, cries, shouts, and waited, listening, for anything.

A minute went by, and nothing. Another, and another, and yet still nothing. They banged things, and tried to make all the noise, running back a bit afterwards, but nothing came of it. A slight change in plan had to be made, they’d need to get closer to the mine itself, not just the structure, to lure them from. While Dann and Lucky worked on a lock, Soraya cast a look up at the moon, and saw something that Dann’s map had not revealed. There were some forms moving out in the open, in the great distance. She couldn’t quite make them out in the celestial mirror, but she didn’t quite have time to say anything. A pained scream, and a frenzied yell, both so distant, reverberating from underground to the surface. Temporarily letting what she saw slip her mind, Soraya joined the others at the door for a moment, to listen, to see if anyone was coming up.

Still nothing. So they finished getting inside the building, and moved on with their plan.

Within, there were small fires lit in piles of rubbish, and on torches on the wall, and old burst lamps as well. The floor was worn and scratched, and blood stained the floors and walls. A room full of lockers, all of them torn open, some missing their doors, and a few on the floor as well. One was imbedded in the ceiling, strangely. Lucky was the first to notice a limp and overly plump corpse. Bloated with rot, but frozen over hiding the smell. There had been quite the battle in here some time ago. Three days ago, Soraya could tell by the smells.

Dann moved from the lockers and supply rooms, and found that unlike marked on the map, there was no longer a door leading where he had wanted to go. The structure had collapsed a bit. Through the open roof above, he could climb up and over, though. Eshna volunteered to go first, being the sturdiest of them in case the wreckage was less stable than it looked. Right behind her, was Soraya, who took another look to the moon through the hole.

They were just on the other side of the pile.

Soraya reached to tap Eshna, and silently tell her, but Eshna twitched at the feeling, shifting suddenly causing a loud noise to escape from the pile that she was nearly on top of. That’s when it gave way, and she fell forward, alone, into the next room, the cafeteria. Her arms and torso were bruised from the impact, and her arms were scraped up something nasty. On her right shoulder, however, a larger scrap of metal had stuck itself, a metal bar from the ceiling that had gotten beneath her had pierced her, and Eshna was admirable in her ability to mute her cries of pain. Soraya managed to not slip and fall, moving down to Eshna, to help her in any way she could. Dann and Lucky were shortly behind her, when Soraya and Dann suddenly turned their attentions up. There was an elevator going up. Getting closer, lifting up from the mines.

Her companions tried to grip the bar stuck in her shoulder, and pulled. It began to move slowly, but Eshna grabbed it herself, and with them pulled it out in one swift and smooth pull. She groaned through clenched teeth, as she felt the open wound began to close itself. They needed a new, safer way to travel. Eshna, looking at the still sharp and dangerous rubbish pile, knew they needed to make a different way through the building.

It was then that Soraya pointed out the reason she tapped Eshna at all. She was wrong, it wasn’t danger in this room, it was the remains of another battle. Men and women, of all shapes and sizes were strewn about the room. The battle was over, but much longer ago. The stench, now that the worry of their companion was lessened, hit their nostrils in force. Lucky, Dann, and Soraya found themselves retching their stomach, vomiting their last meals upon the ground. It was awful. Eshna, however, was able to keep herself a bit more contained, tugging them along as the noise of the elevator was getting louder and louder.

They quickly made their way out of the room, and into a hallway, with little idea of what was happening outside.

---

Gavriil had noticed the lights first. Police lights, and he knew what they were doing here as well. They had blown up a gas station, and there were few destinations along the road they traveled since then. They must have tried to contact the rangers here, and seeing that they didn’t respond because they were dead, sent someone out to investigate, or more. The sounds of their sirens flicked on. They must have seen the car, and the plates. Also the blood, that wouldn’t be a good sign either. More cops were going to be on their way.

Hopefully they would be distracted by the Frost Giants to deal with them? Or maybe even help them fight the Frost Giants too. If not, he may have some talking to do.

---

The battles that had raged inside of the mine had drastically altered some of its interior design. The map that Dann had memorized was of little use inside of the crushed walls and corpses on spikes that blocked some ways, and gaping holes that made new ones. Other doors, were locked or barred. Moving in and out of the maze, the elevator doors were passed a few times, until in passing they knew. They knew that the elevator was at the top. Turning, they saw the doors open, revealing an iron gate and bars, as very human looking persons crashed against the interior doors, trying to jam their arms between the bars at the group. Their time to try to find a way out was gone.

---

Jacob, Jagred, and Angus heard the sirens, and had mixed ideas on why they were here. Before they could aptly do anything, there was a large crashing and breaking noise from inside of the structure. Faster soon than that, was a gunshot.

“Holy shit! Frank… his head. Man down!”

---

Gavriil had pulled the trigger after lining up the shot. It wasn’t necessarily even his idea. It was a sudden gut reaction, he had to fire. Reloading nothingness into the gun, another shot was ready, and he lined up the sights.

---

Soraya deftly jumped over a charging thrall, only for her leg to be grabbed by another. Her body was but limp in his grasp as he tossed her to the side. Eshna had been wounded again, taking the first brunt of their charge that broke through the doors of the elevator, but she was still able to catch Soraya, preventing her from going through a wall.

Lucky and Dann were throwing anything they could toss at the thralls to distract them long enough to not lay a good solid hit on anyone, when Dann spotted, and alerted Lucky to a door that led outside, and to help. All they’d have to do is unlock, or bust it down.

Eshna threw Soraya into the floor above them, and she pulled a good landing despite some of the floor below her giving way. These thralls, they had been among the attending ranger staff, according to their uniforms, but their enslavement had obviously given them enhanced strength.

The elevator had begun to make its way back down into the mines. Someone else was using it, but it wasn’t clear who it was. Soraya, was able to, with the time she had alone, to throw down a lit molotov at Eshna. Eshna had previously pointed out her protection to the flames within the mining facility, and Soraya was willing to test it out.

The glass, sharp and shattering, offered a different challenge to Eshna than the flames. While the fire was cool and smooth to her sense, the glass was still painful to her, cutting her up more, and the sudden blinding light of flame engulfing her and a thrall caught her by surprised.

---

Outside, the facility ruptured as an exterior wall was knocked through by two burning forms. A thrall and Eshna came crashing to the snow and cold outside. She was able to throw the creature off herself, and back into the building, as flames began to spread with more molotovs, unlit, thrown to support the burning of the wood, metal, and concrete building.

There were two options for those in the ambush. Either they could charge in where they were needed, or fight cops. They took charging to the mines while Gavriil kept the police pinned down with his sniper fire. There had only been two cop cars, five officers in total, and two were already down. The other three had already put in a request for back up, and wished to escape, but couldn’t. They were afraid, moving from their cover meant popping up and out to a sniper bullet.

---

Lucky activated his troubles aura, and almost immediately the ceiling in front of him collapsed under flames, putting a block between him and the thralls. There had been at least five of them in ranger outfits, and that collapse had bought Dann and him some time to get out as well.

Soraya had just avoided the floor giving way to flames and collapse beneath her because of Lucky’s aura and her molotovs. She wasn’t in an opportune position, but she could hear that things were getting far worse outside and below. Things were really falling apart, literally and metaphorically.

Even as the slaughter of the slow thralls raged on inside the now collapsing building, a different fight entirely unfolded outside. With the first two officers dead, Gavriil had forced himself to stop firing after a moments pause, glaring down at the wisp that screamed and writhed across the heart of the gun. He spat the next words in perfect Russian. <”I felt that, once-man. I will find a way to bring even more pain upon you if you ever take away control again.”> The only response was the wail that grew even louder as if to spite the large man.

It wasn’t pleasant.

However, there was something that he needed to finish, even if he hadn’t started. He glared down through the sights once more, focusing on one of the policemen who was attempting to sneak into cover. Gavriil pulled the trigger once more, planning to add yet another man to the growing list of collateral damage, but unlike his prior shots, this wasn’t a one shot one kill situation. The man was hit, and put back where he started, but now bleeding greatly. More police were on their way, he could hear so much. They’d still be at least an hour, but they needed to all be gone by then.

As Jacob rushed back to the ambush group, he eyed his blade strangely. What had compelled such a look of dread within Eshna's very eyes? Nonetheless, as he regained contact with his group, he settled in next to Angus and Jagred. Gavriil was no doubt settled in the second story of one of the surrounding buildings.

"Alright, Eshna and the rest of them are in. It shouldn't be too long now..." He paused, faintly hearing several loud commotions in the distance.

"Doesn't that sound like...shit, sirens. Lets hope Gavriil caught onto them by now." Dammit, Dann. He cursed in his thoughts, certainly they'd been tracked into Bodie following the destruction of an entire gas station.

Angus sat still with widened eyes, head tilted to listen to the sirens. He’d always had a healthy fear and respect for law enforcement, and he’d just recently helped someone try to hide a body, so his conclusion was that they must be after him. As he turned to say something to his companions, Angus heard a gunshot from Gavriil’s direction, then shouting from the police. He cursed under his breath for a few seconds, then came the noises and a bloom of orange light from the mining facility.

“Shit, guys, looks like they got into some trouble. I’m going to help.” Angus’s voice was clearly full of panic, and he gave Jacob and Jagred no chance to respond before he sprinted off toward the new light, away from the cops. Whatever the hell was going on up there, it would surely be better than dealing with the police.

"Fuck!" Jacob cursed under his breath, sprinting after Angus.

The fiery glow emanating from the building was surely a bad sign, just as another building looked as if it had partially caved in. He could see two figures on fire a short distance away, and sounds of yelling and banging about were heard inside the buildings.

Lucky winced as he felt...something...leave him, and watched as the ceiling collapsed in front of him, leaving Lucky and Dann safe. For now. Lucky rubbed his arms slightly feeling a shiver. Whatever he had just done, it seemed like it caused things to fall apart. My natural state, I guess, he thought.

“Well then, I don’t know about you, but hearing the police outside, I’d rather face them than get destroyed by some undead things.” Lucky muttered still staring at the collapse. Turning, he faced Dann. “Come on. Let’s get away from this hellhole, and go help Gavriil. Hey, maybe we can take some of the guns I’m hearing going off.”

Dann took a deep breath as they were outside, both to catch his breath and to refresh his taste from the stale air inside the mine. While the mine’s sudden collapse was a boon, Dann didn’t like that it blocked off another entrance. If things progressed steadily at this pace, they’d block down all the entrances to the mine before they recover the relic. Which was not a problem if their mission was only to prevent the giants from finding it.

He glanced at Lucky, who had seemingly tripped and fallen on his way out of the mine, and gave the latter a look as if he was a look of contempt that lasted for a moment. “That didn’t solve any…” He started before he blinked in realization. “No, wait, yeah, this might be helpful.”

Dann looked at Lucky again, who had now pulled himself up, ”Let’s go find the others and see if we can get the police to help us with the madmen trouble.”

Lucky shrugged. “I don’t know about getting them to help, but maybe if we direct those...things away towards them, then we can sit back and watch, and take care of whoever’s left. Fancy making a bet on it?”

“Then that’s them helping us either way, what kind of bet do you want?” Dann said. “That they’d cooperate to get us instead?”

”More like betting on which ones come out alive. We know it’s a win-win for us, we can just through some more excitement into the mix.”

Jacob, now having caught up with Angus, his sword was drawn and he approached what looked like Eshna in conflict with one of the forest rangers, both aflame. Just as Eshna charged back inside, he motioned to Angus.

"Well let's go in, then! The rest of them could be inside, they'll need help." He took to the opening in the wall Eshna had made, the room ahead of him burning up in flames.

Suddenly, Lucky and Dann saw yet another thrall come crashing through the wall, headed straight for them, holding a pickaxe in its hands as a weapon. Part of its face had been torn away by the wall it had just jumped through, and through the bleeding holes the former ranger’s brain was visible, skull fragments also chipped away from other fights it had been in. It pulled back the pick to swing, and the metal head of it flew off backwards and upwards, through a window and into the room adjacent to where Soraya is, causing the burning floor collapse to increase in speed, forcing her deeper into the structure lest she risk death.

”Actually, cancel that.” Lucky took a few steps back, pulling Dann with him, “my suggestion for this is leading this guy to the police for round one. Here, try to look as delicious as possible. Maybe we can get him to follow you. Ready t--”

Lucky didn’t have time to finish speaking, as a sudden crack of the pickaxe handle against his ribs sent him sprawling to the side and into the snow. His body lay sprawled upon the ground, a poor sight to see, and he obviously wasn’t going to be moving on his own soon. The thrall, as it so easily batted Lucky, quickly found its footing gone. It slipped upon the ground which had seemingly become a bit of ice instead of snow beneath it, causing the berserker to crash into the ground, but leaving Dann still standing.

Dann cursed on his lapse of judgement as the thrall bursted out of the building and hit Lucky resulting with a loud crack and sending the demigod sprawling on the snow. Fortunately, the thrall slipped off its footing and crashed into the ground. Thinking quickly, Dann drew out his knife and used it to try to impale the thrall’s stretched hand into the snow by throwing it. The knife hit its target true, but not with enough force to impale it upon the ground. Dann then went over to Lucky’s prone body, and having failed to be able to lift him to carry him away, started to drag him by the closest limbs that could be reached. Afterward, he moved, as quickly as he was able, towards the last place he knew where the distraction group were.

The pain was nearly indescribable. Lucky’s body was not in any state to be suddenly yanked along the ground, and he could feel shards of bone in his torso jumble around, causing further damage to him. He should have passed out, but he was still lucid, and he could tell that he was bleeding internally. If someone didn’t do something, something helpful rather, he was likely to die, out here in the snow.

Dann stopped dragging Lucky upon hearing the man’s pained mumbling, realizing that his wound was worse than he thought, a lot worse. He looked between his downed ally and the thrall..

”God fucking damnit. I really need to shut my trap sometimes...”Lucky coughed slightly, feeling the pain rolling through him. “Leave me here for now. Agh. Eshna. Get Eshna. The healing stuff worked last time...”Lucky felt his head roll back, and kept an iron grip on his consciousness. In his mind, he made a small prayer. Not something he’d ever done before, but the circumstances called for it. Odin, look, I know I’m not exactly the best of sons, but I ain’t the worst either. Hopefully. so if I can just hold on for a few more minutes, that’d be great. I’ll make sure to get you a hekatomb later…

So far, their planned seemed like a good one. Some would proceed into the mines to draw their enemies out, while he and three others would wait outside for an ambush. Knowing full-well his own affinity for stealth, or rather lack thereof, Jagred simply acknowledged his role with a subtle nod, then moved into cover behind one of the many ruined houses in the area. There was nothing left but to wait, and so he did, eyes trailed on where their companions had entered the mine. However, the sirens soon shook him out of his trance, and he jerked his head up in response, axe clutched tightly in pale fingers. Then the gunshot sounded, which didn’t really make the whole situation feel less shitty. They have destroyed an entire gas station, left a blood trail at the ranger station with its whole staff missing and just now shot at the police. Soon enough, reinforcement would come in, if they hadn’t already, then they would be stuck between a mine full of frost giants and officers with guns. One hell of a fight, it seemed. The thought didn’t bother him as much as he would’ve liked though.

When Angus got up and ran toward the burning building, followed suit by Jacob, Jagred frowned, torn between staying to fight the police and running after them to help their friends. After a few moments, he decided, and rushed toward the building. But just as he was finding the entrance, some figure in the distance caught his eyes. It was Dann. As Jagred drew closer, he noticed the mess. Lucky was on the ground, injured while Dann was trying to drag him along. Without thinking, Jagred lifted his axe and went for the thrall, a seemingly easy target at the moment.

And an easy target it was. The thrall was still pulling itself up when Jagred began to charge at it, and as it pulled the blade from its hand to throw at Dann, it quickly found itself sans most of his head. Striking true and striking with precision, Jagred swung the axe and cleaved straight through the already weakened skull of thrall, lobbing the top half of its head away from the rest of it, as its body fell limp to the ground. Brain, bone, and blood splattered on the snow, as the top half managed to land about half the distance between Jagred and Lucky. It was a strange sensation, and Jagred could feel his necklace almost pulse with a strangely comforting heartbeat as he slew the thrall. Perhaps there was more to the item than ripping his head off for misbehaving. Regardless, that was one thrall down, for good.

Angus arrived just in time to see everything, the thrall charging and taking Lucky down, then Jagred taking it down in one blow. He knew he could do nothing for the injured man, so he instead turned his attention on the burning building and pulled his shield off his back, readying it on his left arm as quickly as he could. There were two thralls trying to climb the burning walls, apparently aiming to get to the second floor. Putting two and two together, Angus figured that there must be someone up there that the thralls were trying to get to. Still running on a full tank of panic, Angus took no time to think about the danger to himself and sprinted toward the thralls. He felt a surge of wind envelope him and speed him along, knowing instinctively that this is one of his powers as the son of a god. Using the full momentum of his supernaturally aided running, Angus winds back his left arm and slams it forward, rim first, into the head of one of the thralls trying to climb the wall.

There is no kill, like overkill. Angus’s blow to the back of the head of the thrall simply burst the head upon the wall. Unfortunately, the wall didn’t stand the blow much better than the thrall, bursting into the building, and causing the ceiling to come collapsing down around him, crushing down on the other thrall as well. The pure speed and momentum of Angus’ charge was not yet spent, and with the thrall’s limp, lifeless body dragged behind him, Angus charged through yet a second wall and into another thrall he had not even been aware was present.

All was not well because of this, and with multiple walls collapsing beneath the weight of the building, and other supports burning in the fire, Soraya found the floor beneath her very feet suddenly gone. With expert dexterity, she managed to jump across falling debris to avoid landing in a rather dangerous pile of rubble and fire, instead landing on her feet safely still on the second floor. As the groaning of the building seemed to stop, it was instead replaced with a horrible rumble. The entire quarter of the building that everyone had previously been fighting within had begun to simply fall in on itself. Metal tore and wood splintered as Eshna too found herself and her thrall foe being engulfed by the structure.

Mere moments upon Jacob's entrance into the cryptic wooden structure, and thing's were already falling apart. Trying to locate Eshna, the sound of wood buckling and splintering overwhelmed the sound of crackling fires. It was Angus, crashing through several walls with his shield as the building began to give way. Fortunately, Jacob was able to get out of the way of the collapse before it crushed him beneath it. Unfortunately, he knew that Eshna was further inside of the building, and was not likely to be so lucky.

The night air was deathly cold, the snow just as much, and his opiate withdrawals contributed to the hot sweat that layered his face and body. Looking around, all he could hear was gunshots in the distance coupled with ringing ears. He saw Dann struggling to help an injured Lucky down the way, the rest were probably inside. He wasn't about to go shouting for help, because at this point he basically was the help. Cursing under his breath he dove into the burning, crumbling building, heaving up what broken up pieces of wood and debris he could.

"Eshna! Soraya! Where are you guys!?" He shouted, all the while climbing over piles of rubble, brushing off and shoving what he could to and fro.

The peculiar propensity to beating up the neighborhood boys was evidently a godsend (quite literally) under the pressure of flaming rubble. With minimal effort, Eshna could at least stand herself up from underneath it all, lifting countless beams and flooring onto her head and shoulders. Her exit wasn’t clear, but she was a bit more comfortable than simply being prone on the ground, and could begin to shuffle out from the burning mess. Ultimately though it seemed her divine blood could only get her so far, and the heaviness began to takes its toll. Even from within the crackling fires and shifting materials, she could distinctly hear Jacob calling out.

“Over here!” Eshna cried, trying her best to move around the rubble and get his attention with its movement.

A sigh of relief came over him as he heard someone call out. His heart nearly sunk and he feared the worst when he witnessed the collapse. Just barely managing to make out Eshna's figure on the other side of a burning pile of rubble, he began haphazardly crawling over splintering wood and metal straps and other debris. After a few physically stressful moments of nearly crashing through said pile of debris, he met up with his teammate on the other side. Covered in splinters, cuts and scratches, his body embracing the warmth of burning debris was at least a better feeling than the windy cold from outside.

"Lucky and Dann are outside," He stated, "Lucky's injured, he may need your help. If there's an exit nearby, you'll find him and Dann just outside. I'll try and find the rest, where did you last see Soraya?" He hurriedly asked, his heart pumping fast.

Pushing off the last bit of troublesome wood and debris from her shoulders, Eshna twisted her back a few times and patted her arms and legs down, checking for wounds. Looking skyward, she threw a quick finger towards the second floor.

“She’s probably still up on the second floor where I threw her. Hopefully she didn’t fall down. Try checking there, if you can,” she stated. Immune to fire as she was, Eshna still had trouble seeing in the brightness of the growing inferno. She checked for the closest way out before starting off to it. “I’ll see if I can help Lucky then, good luck and be safe,” she said, practically with sarcasm.

Jacob responded with only a nod in her direction as he surveyed the wrecked interior of the room he was in. It's purpose would've been unrecognizable at this point, and he wouldn't even know where to go to find stairs or otherwise a way up to the second floor.

An enormous cloud of suffocating dust rose up around Soraya and filled her eyes and lungs. She coughed hard and squinted, her eyes tearing up as she struggled to see. She could hear quite clearly floors and walls toppling over and crumbling on the ground, and distantly there were gunshots and shouts. Through her feet she felt the floor slipping from beneath her and instinct guided her as she ran away from the danger.

She paused for a moment when the floor was sturdy, but through the thick dust cloud that was gradually settling she saw two figures charging toward her. Just as she spun around to run, she saw a third figure, moving quickly and with great determination. She still ran. With her back turned, she heard a terrible crunching -- presumably of bone and flesh -- and smashing of walls. Again she felt the floor move and drop, but it was worse this time. The walls were coming down too. She moved, again with instinct, to the safest spot she could find with her feet. She kept her center of gravity low, and her weight was distributed evenly across her flattened feet.

“Soraya!” There was more to the shout, but all she could make out was her own name. She could recognize the voice, even though she’d only heard it briefly before. “Jacob! Jacob is that you?” she hollered as loudly as she could, more dust floating into her mouth. She hacked it out as much as she could.

She crept slowly and carefully towards the voice, hoping to keep her footing as she tried to climb down back to the first floor.

With no small amount of grace, Soraya was able to make her way back down to the first floor, from where she was upon the second. She recognized the area immediately, as where the elevator was when the thralls--

Then there was the sound of the elevator hitting the top, a dreadful noise not for its own sound which had become far more menacing after the disruption of normal function due to the interior of the elevator being torn asunder by thralls, but also for the fact that it meant certainly that more danger was upon her, and the others. The outer doors opened, grinding maliciously to reveal a lone figure.

Her form was covered in rags, and every inch of her visible flesh seemed scarred. Her hair was torn at different lengths, and missing from handfuls of her skull, and her eyes were crazed. In her hand, she held dagger, that appeared to be on a long chain wrapped around her wrist. Soraya knew exactly what this was, although she couldn’t say who the girl in the elevator was for certain. But she knew what she must be, and it wasn’t a mere thrall, this girl had been a demigod as she was before her mind and body were broken and turned towards the service of evil.

Dazed and slow, either the last bastion of her will trying to hold herself back, or as the result of too many head injuries, the demigod girl blankly glanced off, looking at but through Soraya her eyes in a glazed expression. There was a tangible pulse around her form, and her gaze became sharper, focused on Soraya, and her fists clenched around her weapon as her body became tense, and she took to battle.

Soraya dropped to the ground just in time to notice the sound that had occupied the back of her mind while she climbed. It was the elevator. Her breath caught hard in her throat, and her heart pumped a little quicker. She was frozen as she watched the elevator doors slide open loudly, almost painfully so. The sight revealed behind them sent Soraya’s heart a beat ahead.

Soraya noticed the woman’s hand tighten on the dagger, and there was no time to think. All she had on her person was the werewolf’s hide, and the torches she’d made earlier -- they couldn’t stand up to a dagger for long. She threw one at the woman and ran, knowing that she didn’t have the weaponry she needed to take her down herself. If she had to, she would use the remaining torches as batons, and pray to the gods for help.

She used the memory of Jacob’s voice to try to find him. She didn’t know who else would be in here.

The torch bounced against the side of the elevator without even passing through the threshold into the box, as the corrupted demigod lunged out almost blindly. Through fire and smoke, she darted forward, missing Soraya completely. Unlike the other thralls who would crash after a miss like this, Soraya heard no crash or tumble, and a quick glance backwards revealed that the demigod had planted her feet on the wall... and was now running along it behind her.

Chased by the monstrosity, Soraya dashed down a hall back into more heavily damaged and burning regions of the structure, dipping and diving under fallen crossbeams and wreckage as she was running. Every time she looked behind her, she swore that she was losing the demigod thrall, until she slipped into a side room discretely to catch her breath. There was only the sound of a crumbling building and fire around her, and she had to keep low to avoid breathing in too much smoke.

With lightning reaction, she was able to dodge as striking out through the smog came the dagger on the chain rope, lodged into the wall where her head once was. Her hiding spot wasn’t working, and she began to move again, as the blade was pulled out of the wall and went flying back into obscurity. She vaguely remembered where she was from the room she had left before hiding, knew the way out now, but it would require crossing the flame filled room with the hunting threat lurking within it.

With her options growing narrower every second, Soraya could almost give way to panic. Her instincts were begging her to run for the escape, but the rational side of her knew that was very risky. She didn’t have very long to make a decision. She said a quick, silent prayer, and used her current momentum to keep going as fast as her legs would take her. She hoped to take as complicated a route as she could manage, to maximize her cover and minimize the horrifying creature’s ability to follow on her heels. It was terrifying to know that she had lost sight of her enemy, but Soraya tried to calm the rising fear in her chest. She hadn’t found any of her companions, and she feared that she had just imagined the call. Perhaps they had ran to escape. After all, their plan couldn’t have gone any more wrong. Or maybe they had been … No, she would not think of that.

Taking her chances, Soraya dove back into the room, and into a strike to her chest. Toppling over, Soraya saw the figure almost shimmer as it became visible amongst the smoke again, the knife in its hand ready to strike down at her. But, there was a delay, a moment of hesitation, and that’s all that Soraya needed. Running on empty lungs, she scrambled to her feet and into the smoke, trying to maintain a fast pace as her chest burned for breath. She inhaled, sharply, unable to withstand her urge after having the wind knocked out of her, and took to coughing and choking as she got clear of the smoke, and stumbled out of the building and into the snow.

Coughing and kneeling on the ground, she could see that her companions were okay, for the most part. What she couldn’t see was the look on the face of any who turned towards her. Confused, she looked down, and gasped silently. The strike to her chest she took that brought her down wasn’t a blunt strike as it had felt in the moment. She was bleeding, from where something sharp, the knife, had managed to pierce the werewolf hide she was cloaked in. On the snow beneath her, was a growing slosh of red melting into the white, becoming just the slightest bit pink.

Dann had left Lucky to Eshna’s care before heading towards the sirens. He stopped halfway after hearing the periodic noise of shooting that came from Gavrill’s last known position. Dann would have to coordinate with the hardly-trying-to-cooperate man if he wanted to bait the cops in. Being shot at all the time would make things harder to get the cops against the thralls. Although he cancelled his plan upon realizing that there were only two standing cops.

Angus heard the rumbling collapse spreading throughout the facility as he crashed through the wall, but he didn’t bother himself with petty details such as the building falling down around his head. He had important things to think about, like breaking more heads. One was very close at hand, a thrall that he had just crashed into upon hurtling through the wall, and its head could certainly do with smashing. Angus cocked back his right hand, balled up into a fist, and drove it forward right into the side of the creature’s disfigured skull. He was well aware that just one punch may not do the job, so he wound his arm back again and again, pounding his fist into the thrall’s head repeatedly. It thrashed about but didn’t manage to do much before it died due to blunt force trauma to the head.

With the enemy at hand dead, Angus heard the elevator’s squealing sounds once more, which he figured meant there would be more thralls to deal with atop those still left alive. He decided to head back outside and try to find a less improvised way into the building, or maybe to stay out there and help protect the injured fellow if it became necessary. Angus turned round and tried to make his way over the rubble left by his attack on the first thrall, silently psyching himself up for more fighting to come.

Jacob had searched frantically for as long as he could, ducking under fallen and burning boards or climbing over charred debris. He felt oddly unaffected by the plumes of smoke and fire or charred wood scraping up against him. It was almost as if he could breath in the smoke like it was fresh air. As confusing as the whole ordeal was, he remained focused on trying to find Soraya and the others. Eventually he managed to trace his steps back around to the hole Eshna and the other thrall had made, and a sigh of relief came over him as he was regrouped with most of his companions outside.

"Oh shit..." He forced out, rushing over to Soraya and reaching his arms around her in an attempt to bring her to her feet.

"Are you alright? What did this to you?"

After his brief encounter with the thrall, Jagred lingered beyond the burning threshold, just as the screeching of metal on metal stopped. Whatever that was though, it couldn’t be good, so he ducked into cover behind a rumble pile just beside the entrance. Moments later, Soraya came rushing out, then fell to her knees shortly afterward, with crimson snow at her feet. Fortunately, Jacob was nearby and got to her in time. “Best get her to Eshna. That looks serious.”- He shouted, then turned his attention back to the entrance, eyes searching for any movement among the flames. Perhaps there were still thralls, ones that both Jacob and Angus missed while they were in there? He couldn’t tell, with the smoke thick in the air. It didn’t bother him as much as it should, but still enough to impair his vision. However, as he moved back into cover, his mind was set, ready to strike at whatever come through the door next.

It was almost a twitch, a strike that he hadn’t even intended to make, but when the blade had struck him in the arm Jagred reflexively grabbed it the chain hooked into it, and pulled. From the smoke and debris came a shimmering form that became clear with its rapid movement towards him now, and in that moment, Jagred’s axe swung around and chopped into the forearm of the thrall demigod that was pulled in. Upon the ground, dark blood spurted into the snow as it was clear that Jagred’s axe had cleaved straight through the girl’s arm, just below the elbow. The wail she let loose in response was deafening, the strike had certainly done its damage.

Laid upon the snow, she howled and pulled back, the torn muscles and shattered bone of her arm still spurting from her wound as she darted back into the flaming structure, her feet obviously uneasy with each stride she took. If nothing else, she was clearly disarmed now. Jagred, for his own part, was no longer stunned from the attack, and could take a moment to realize the damage that he had encountered. The blade was still lodged in his arm, and when he pulled it out, he saw that the blade was distinctly silver. Probably why it was so effective against Soraya. His wound was otherwise minor from what he could tell, and would recover well enough on its own if it were just bandaged.

Angus made his way out of the building in time to see the attack on Jagred, and the subsequent limb removing counterattack. He was already charging toward the strange person when she darted back into the building. Once more drawing upon his divine fleetness of foot, Angus sprinted into the flaming building behind the enemy, shield readied to strike as soon as he saw her. But he didn’t, as the girl had vanished into the smoke.

Angus looked around, frustrated at him not being able to find her. His lungs were having their own problems, as unlike some of his kin, Angus couldn’t safely breathe smoke. He began to cough, and sputter, as he searched for her, until he saw her too late to respond. Mid-cough, he felt a bloody stump shove itself into his mouth, and a shimmer in the smoke revealed the demigoddess thrall. Her eyes were still so hollow and broken, as she did something that Angus would not be able to quite describe how awful it felt.

Her arm, which had been lobbed off by Jagred’s axe, regrew in moments, jutting out from the stump, and straight down Angus’ throat. Her fist clenched down inside his chest, as she tore her arm out, ripping some of his esophagus out, so it would seem. Reflexively however, Angus’ body downgraded the assault on his insides into scratches instead of outright organ ripping with a sudden sturdiness to his entrails, as he stumbled backwards from the attack.

Angus’s coughing and choking became significantly more painful after having his throat clawed, but he managed to stay standing and somewhat focused. His priorities changed immediately from “break skulls” to “oh shit need clean air and probably medical attention,” and so he backed away, swinging his shield toward the woman as something of a combined threat and warding gesture. Once there was enough room between them for Angus to feel mildly safe about it, he turned round and once more embraced the swiftness of the wind to run, this time outside and away from the horrible danger and suffocating smoke.

Jagred stared down at the knife in his hand, and suddenly, a dreadful feeling took over his sense. Immediately, he dropped the weapon, as if it had burned him, then kicked it away just for good measure. The thrall was disarmed, for now, but that didn’t mean she was no longer a threat. Unlike those shambling corpses they had encountered earlier, this one was a fine cut above the rest. He needed to get her now, while she was still recovering from his last attack. However, before he could get to that, Angus charged pass him, into the burning building. Jagred sighed, his lips pressed into a thin line as he gave chase.

Upon entering the building, Jagred found that the flame and smoke didn’t bother him much, even at this distance. He couldn’t see well through the smoke, and it took a while, but eventually his eyes fell on Angus and the thrall. Oh. That can’t be good. As soon as Angus stumbled backward, he charged, swinging his axe at the thrall.

The thrall turned towards Jagred and held her newly regenerated arm at him as the very fires that were surrounding them suddenly burst as if fed by a gas leak. Jagred, for the first time he had been in the flames, felt the heat and some of the burn, but it was weak, and mild, and definitely not enough to deter him, much to the thrall’s evident surprise. However, as Jagred swung the axe for what would be a killing blow, there was a sudden tightness around his neck, and it jolted his aim slightly off, but unfortunately for the thrall it jolted his arm only a little bit up, and the blow struck her clean in the head. As the strike hits, a large shot of smoke and blood fills Jagred’s vision for a moment, but when he could see again, looking down he saw her crumpled body, fireaxe still embedded into her skull. She wasn’t moving, and her blood flowed forth to the ground pooling around her. Jagred noticed the tightness around his neck had also loosened.

Jagred stood still for a long moment, before leaning down to remove his axe from the thrall’s skull. It took a bit of effort, but he eventually managed to get it done with barely any blood on his hands. However, the weapon felt strange in his hand, light and familiar, no longer the clunky axe he randomly picked up at the tool store. Almost he had been fighting with it for a lifetime, and not just for a few minutes. The sensation confused him, but Jagred shrugged it off. Nerves acting up probably, a normal side effect when the adrenaline haze faded. Wiping black blood on the front of his shirt, he took one last look around, searching for any remaining threats in the midst of flames. Nothing emerged, so he decided it was time to regroup outside, before the flaming structure above his head gave way.

On her way out of the flaming building, Eshna tried her best at a crack-job healing attempt upon her own mishaps, covering the hole in her body with a light dose of poultice before tearing some cloth from her own sleeves and wrapping them around her lightly. It was clear her regenerative powers were superior to those of most of her comrades, and the clothing would be better served on them than her.

Coming upon the blood-soaked scene, Eshna took a moment looking upon the nearly-cleaved thrall and deduced easily that her medical attention was needed elsewhere. More surprised than terrified, she realized she was still slightly on fire, and promptly administered a hefty fist full of snow to put it out.

Before she could even question their ailments, a certain feeling in her head practically assured she already knew what the issues were. Eshna might have chalked it up to experience, but the specificity of her ideas cemented that this was another divine ability gifted to her.

“Hoho,” she chuckled, “that’s useful.” Taking a moment to consider her dedication to triage, she felt it was best to help Soraya stop the bleeding before offering greater time to Lucky’s unfortunate circumstances. With plentiful poultice, she covered up Soraya’s wound tenderly and ordered Jacob to apply pressure with a clothful of numbing snow.

“If it melts or begins to anyways, refill it. Keep it cooled off,” she directed Jacob. When he got the picture, she jogged to Lucky’s side and asked him to lift his shirt rather commandingly before letting him lay down on the snow properly.

“You’ve got some bad internal bleeding and some broken bones. I need you to keep still no matter what,” she stated. Poultice wasn’t going to work here, but the snow around could help defend against swelling inside. It would be cold, but he’d have to bear with it.

“This is going to be really cold, but I need you to relax and not tense up your muscles, okay?” Grabbing handfuls of snow, she layered it atop the wound site, directly applied to his skin. Like building a castle, she shoveled some to his ribcage as well, practically wrapping him in white. Standing up, she looked over her work and turned to Jagred, handing him some poultice to apply to his arm.

“Angus,” she began, “if it helps, swallow some snow to see if you can’t numb your throat. Take deep breaths and try not to aggravate it and cough.”

“Thank you, Eshna. I appreciate it.” Lucky felt himself rise up enough to respond, before going dormant again, clinging on to life with all he could.

---

And so that they had done quick work of the thralls, a light snow began to fall upon the area, as the winds picked up. The wind, and collapsing of more of the building, had made it easy to put the rest of the fires out, while still leaving access to the elevator. It hadn’t been called back down after the last thrall, still seated at the top and their most viable way down.

Angus, Jagred, Jacob, and Dann gathered in it, and hit the sole ‘down’ button that it had, as the outer doors closed with a horrid grinding, and the box began its slow descent into the darkness of the mines.

Yet, when they reached the bottom, and the doors opened, the area was remarkably well lit. Makeshift generator stations were buzzing audibly powering an assortment of electrical lights. The most obvious thing to be detected, was the smell. It was musty, old, stale, bloody, and cold. Death and dark rituals had occurred here.

They weren’t alone, but unlike what they had been led to believe, there weren’t an assemblage of Frost Giants, there was but one, a man of great bulging physique, standing at roughly ten feet tall, his hair and skin both pale. At his feet, was an ignition plunger, and wires. Jacob and Dann were quick to then notice through a slight shimmer along all the walls that the wires led to explosives lining all of the mine they could see.

“Hello, children.” The giant spoke, his tone gruff and cool, feeling as a slow moving shard of ice through the ears of those who listened, “It doesn’t have to end like this. I know why you’re here, and you know why I’m here. I don’t want to die, and you don’t want to die. I’ll give you all that I can, if you can assure me that you will let me leave here alive. Otherwise, no one gets what they want.”

“If you want your Heart of Winter, then you must let me leave. But more than that, I want a token of your promise that you will not kill me. A simple thing, if you’ve made it down here in this state. The girl’s dagger. You bring me that, and I’ll not blow us all up.”

Jacob was able to quickly size up the Frost Giant, even if they could get the trigger to all these explosives away from him, he’d still likely be enough of a threat to kill at least one or two of them. This was a very powerful being, and yet, he was so scared, on edge. What was it that had him so?

---

Gavriil was able to pull off the last shot, the last of the cops falling over dead. They wouldn’t be offering any further problems for the group, and they had vehicles, stronger and sturdier, and arms, and badges, and more. Useful gains. He took himself from his spot and began to move back towards the group gathered at the ruins of the mine building.

Eshna continued to take care of Soraya and Lucky, their injuries having been the most egregious and in need of her attentions. On her peripheral, she saw something move. Was there another thrall? Turning quickly to look, she saw nothing. Perhaps she was just paranoid. Shivering from her inadequate and burnt clothes, she turned back to her charges.

Soraya, though, she had seen something. There was a naked women moving about the building. She tried to say something, but couldn’t quite make the noise, and Eshna didn’t seem to understand what she was doing other than moving as if in pain. Soraya was helpless but to watch as the naked woman moved to the discarded arm and blade, and she knew who it was. She surged to gesture, and Eshna relented and turned, just too late to see the woman as she had run back into the building. However, this was something that warranted investigation.

Gavriil had returned in time for Eshna to direct him to the building, and Gavriil immediately sensed something, the feeling of rushing fire, and choking smoke, of spilled blood, and combat. The feeling of a demigod, but not any of them. Following her into the building, Gavriil happened upon the body left behind by Jagred, although it wasn’t where Jagred had left it. Someone had moved and stripped the body of its rags. Further, Gavriil, so intimately familiar with death from his powers, could tell that the body wasn’t dead, nor was it alive or any state of undead. It was just skin and some organs, but it had never been alive.

---

Down below, the group were shocked, as they stood outside of the elevator, only to hear the doors begin to close behind them, and the elevator ascend. Someone above had called it up again. A look of fear spread into the eyes of the Frost Giant, as it looked like he was close to just blowing everything up then and there. “Who’s using the elevator?”

"Our primary mission was to retrieve the Heart of Winter. There is no more need for more bloodshed, and while I don't know who is using the elevator, I'll try my best to calm them down. --”

“Calm them down!?” The Frost Giant snapped, “I don’t want them just calm. Tell me who they are before I kill us all.”

"It could be someone from our group, if not than I honestly have no idea. Maybe it's another one of your servants, like the forest rangers that attacked us. Either way, like I said, no one else needs to die. I don't think anyone else is in the area..." Jacob stated in a calm manner.

The Frost Giant was still twitching, not the most comforting of sights as he held in his grasp a means to kill everyone there, and maybe even those on the surface. This was a lot of explosives, and Dann could tell they were high grade. How he had gotten his hands on them was a mystery.

"Listen, like you said, no one here wants to die. If they are from our group, we can keep them calm, if not, i'm positive we can take care of them. Either way, we can get the girl's dagger for you, no problem..." Jacob continued.

Dann looked at the explosives with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity, and a bit of awe, before looking directly at the giant. It was clear that the giant was twitchy and won’t hesitate to use the detonator to kill them all if the one using the elevator surprised him. They would need to calm him down somewhat and Jacob didn’t seem to manage to convince the Giant directly. Perhaps trying to divert the giant’s attention would do, but to what?

“...Wasn’t there supposedly a dwarven population in this place? Where are they?”

“Most of them are dead, died protecting me, and setting up the explosives. The girl killed them before she was subdued,” answered the Frost Giant, truthfully. Apparently he was wanting to get a head start on their good graces for their agreement, or maybe he didn’t care that he told the truth any more.

“Most, huh? I assume the surviving ones are outside? Maybe with more of your friends?” Dann guessed.

He shook his head, “I won’t do any more talking, until I know who is in that elevator, and you then give me that dagger.”

Angus spoke up for the first time, his voice hoarse thanks to the damage inflicted to his throat. “We don’t know any more than you do. Could be an ally, could be someone else.” He paused to clear his throat, wincing at the pain that came with it. “Let’s just relax and see who it is, no explosions, then deal with it.”

Jagred stood at the back of their little group, white knuckles wrapped around his weapon. The discussion had reached an impasse, with the giant demanding to know who was in the elevator, and them having no means to find out. As far as he knew, it could be anyone, either members of their little group, or some stray dwarven thralls that were trying to find a way back to his master. To be honest, he was more concerned with the reason behind this giant’s nervousness. Obviously, they weren’t the first group to be dispatched here. There had been previous attacks, and by the looks of things around this mine, the damage had certainly been done. Which might explain all these desperate measures, with all the explosives and deal. Leaving most of the talking to others, Jagred turned his attention back to the elevator, waiting for the metal doors to open.

Something finally clicked into place for Dann, that plunger couldn’t possibly be the ignition source for the explosives. As he looked at it, it seemed to shimmer slightly. The device was an illusion, the source of the ignition to the otherwise very real explosives must be somewhere else. He nary had time to say this, when the elevator arrived at the bottom behind them, and the box groaned. With still more grinding and scraping, the doors opened revealing, none other than the demigoddess thrall.

Her appearance made the Frost Giant twitch, looking as if he was about to press the plunger down then and there, but he stopped short of doing it. The thrall girl stood, motionless in the elevator cabin for a few moments and the Frost Giant spoke, his voice trembling, “Attack them.”

She didn’t move at first, but remained perfectly still, “Attack them, or we all blow u--” he didn’t get to finish the word, as she charged into the group, and began to do battle with the gathered demigods. The Frost Giant visibly relaxed, his face turning into a smile, “Our deal still stands, children. Give me her dagger, and we have much to talk about.”

With undeniable grace despite her frenzied expression and form, the enthralled goddess ducked under Jagred’s first swing of the fireaxe at her form as she slipped by him. Pushed forward by winds, Angus attempted to smash and cave her head in, but her ankles bent and her body dropped, her knees warping slightly as she slipped lower still as the shield smashed into the ground where her head was moments ago. Jacob’s sword was drawn and stabbed into the ground where she was to be, but she had skidded to a stop just short of it. Straightening her form as she flipped up and over, away from Jacob’s slashing upwards, she bounded over Angus as he ducked low whilst Jagred swung again to hit her as she flipped. Instead, her hands landed on the flat of Jagred’s axe blade, and she used that to push her jump higher over him.

Angus rose with a fury to uppercut her with his shield as her flip finished, but at the end of his reach, her feet landed gently on the rim of the heavy shield. Jacob stabbed upwards, but her knife was quick into her hand, and she knocked the sword aside as the shield found itself surging higher as Angus jumped in an attempt to crush her into the top of the stone chamber, successfully at that. As stone and dust fell, and the girl’s form with it, Jagred postured his axe behind him to do an overhead chop of her into the ground. His necklace tightened, restricting his throat and nearly breaking the skin with such sudden sharpness, that he dropped the axe, until the necklace loosened.

Less bound, Jacob brought his sword down for a strike and impalement, going through her shoulder and into the ground. Angus, pulled his arm back as he stood over her, and brought the full weight of the shield and strength of his arm into her skull. Oddly enough, while it dented into it, he found that a coating of hard silver had engulfed her head, blocking quite a bit of the blow, and even rebounding his shield off of it. Jagred, his neck no longer crunched, held his hand out on instinct, and the fireaxe flew back into his familiar grip.

All the while, Dann was focusing his senses, trying to see just what all was real and what was an illusion in here. He had seen through one, perhaps there were others? The explosives were real, and even some of the wires were, but none of the wires were anything that would actually work with the explosives at hand. The explosives must have a remote trigger, something maybe no larger than a cellphone, or perhaps even a cellphone itself. In the distance, he saw a door, the writing on it was illegible, but it was obviously an office of someone important back when the mine was more active. On the door was a rather imposing lock, that did not come with the mine by any stretch. It was more recently made, and placed. Something was in that room, but what? Prisoners? The Heart of Winter? Other treasures?

With a grunt, Dann focused on the giant as the battle continued. Part of him wanted to join and help, but another part, the same part that notices the plunger was not the trigger, said that the giant was not to be trusted. It also brought some questions with it, who’s holding the trigger? Why would the giant needed them to take the dagger if the demigoddess were under his command? What’s in the office? The first theory he came up with was that the giant was stalling.

“What’s so important about the dagger?” Dann said while inching away from the fight and closer to the giant. He tried his best so that it appeared as if he was backing away from it instead of trying to get closer to the giant.

“I’ll be more inclined to tell you why I want the dagger, after I have it. Don’t worry, it’s not like having it will make me suddenly super strong and able to kill you, you should know better than that. Neither you nor I can actually use the damn thing,” the giant answered truthfully again.

“That doesn’t the situation much….or at all….” Dann said. He looked at the giant, trying to determine if he had the explosive trigger on his person while fingering his knife. He couldn’t.

Angus halted with his shield raised, about to slam the rim down on the girl’s head again. He looked up at the giant, having just had something of an epiphany. “Wait.. why don’t you just tell her to give you the fucking dagger? She’s your thrall, isn’t she?”

The Frost Giant looked a bit dumb for a moment, as he struggled to come up with a suitable lie. In the time he did that, the thrall girl wasn’t quite yet done fighting, as her leg sweeped up and hit Angus between his legs. The Frost Giant grinned, and then, of all things, spoke what came off rather well as the truth, “I want you to fight, and possibly kill her, so it’ll weaken you, so I’ll be even more sure that you won’t be able to kill me.” He shrugged.

“Didn’t work too well, did it? She seemed to go down as fast as earlier,” Dann said.

“I may be smart, by Frost Giant standards, but I’m only so bright. But, with her dispatched, could you kindly kill her so we can get on with our deal? I want to get out of here, you want to get out of here. I want to live, you want to live.” He seemed to be getting rather impatient, his shaking hands evident of nervousness, as one of them lifts up off the plunge and begins to straighten his clothes. A heavy coat, rather. Dann can’t help but wonder what’s inside.

“One question then,” Dann interrupted. “I found a set of giant footprints outside, friend of yours?”

“No more questions. Kill her, or we all die.”

Angus, though still somewhat writhing from the pain of solid shot to the testicles, takes the giant’s words to heart. “Fine, she dies now.” He raises the shield again and aims to send it crashing down on the thrall woman’s head again.

Dann decided to go for a risky maneuver, and spoke up about the plunger not being the real trigger, throwing a dagger at the Frost Giant. Not that it mattered, the Giant still had the real trigger on him, and with his hand having pulled it from his jacket, when the dagger was thrown, he pressed it. All the explosives went off in unison, killing everyone inside the mines.

---

Outside, there was a large tremor, and Gavriil could tell that something bad had happened below. Everyone down there was dead.

“Oh, shit.” All of a sudden all the rather familiar feelings of rushing water and battle that signified his demigod brethren vanished. That meant they either were suddenly too far away for him to feel them or they had suddenly met a rather untimely end. Gone to meet his mother, in fact. Turning slightly paler at the thought, he tromped over to the two women and Lucky, carefully stepping around the thrall corpses and the still burning hunks of wood. He hefted the icy rifle over his shoulder before talking hurriedly to Eshna in his oddly arranged English. “Healer, I think the ones who went inside are dead. Very dead. Possibly due to that tremor, and them being underground. Something took rags from a corpse, too. We are not alone here. We should take car, go, come back for artifact later. Best choice now, can see if I can talk to my mother about them, get them moving again.”

Lucky had come swimming back up from the dark at the feel of the explosion, and shivered as his nerves started to send their cold signals to his brain again. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around, seeing Gavriil talking about leaving, and Eshna standing there as well. Lucky felt within him, and felt his inner power. He would have to turn it off sooner or later, but it was probably the very thing keeping him alive for now. He left it alone, for now.

And so it came to pass, that the survivors of the Bodie Mission weakly gathered themselves and some ill gotten goods, and left the failure of their efforts behind. Strangely, they still felt a surge in their forms, as Lucky, Soraya, and Eshna’s bodies had a burst of healing. They all felt as if they had finished a chapter in their new lives, even if it was done in such failure.

Fire Giant Mission

After meeting at Runes and Things and being given their magical items of varying type, the group of ten demigods set out for the troubled town. They had been informed by the old woman, with Hugin and Munin providing extra commentary, that young and powerless demigods were being gathered in a Catholic high school in this suburban town and that the involvement of supernatural entities was suspected but not confirmed. Foley packed as many of them as he could in his new armored truck and off they went.

When they arrived, the group quickly learned that there had been a string of arsons in town lately, starting around the time the young demigods began going missing. By the time they made it to the high school, all that was left was a still warm pile of charred ruined. Upon snooping around, Kaya found that there were still a few burning coals left in the mess and that they could hurt her, despite her immunity to mundane fire. Kaya had a chat with Solana and Foley about the fire and they did a bit of research and collectively reached the conclusion that Fire Giants were probably involved with this mess.

A few of the demigods went out to question the locals about the whole situation and easily learned the whereabouts of the bishop who had been working at the school before it burned down. They went straight to the church to talk with the bishop, and Miera’s ability to detect lies triggered almost immediately. When she voiced her concerns to her companions, Kyle, who had formerly been a Catholic priest, started questioning the man on matters of doctrine. After finding enough inconsistencies to warrant the action, Kyle used his power on the bishop to force him to give up what he knew about the fires and the missing kids. They learned that he was a thrall to a Fire Giant and that he had been instructed to gather the young children of gods. The demigods then, rather foolishly, left the bishop alive and went to confer with the rest of the group. Jarrod, a former burglar, decided to stay behind and keep an eye on the bishop, just in case.

About an hour later, Foley received a call from their spying friend with the news that he had seen a bunch of people arriving at the church after the group had left, and that he had determined that the missing children were in the basement of the building. The rest of the demigods got ready to go on a rescue mission, and the more physically inclined people seemed eager for a fight. They piled into the truck and the couple cars they had acquired earlier and made for the church.

The bishop-questioning folks soon realized their horrible mistake in leaving the man alive when they left. There were half a dozen people gathered there, arrayed in front of the church with an assortment of makeshift weaponry, and an unhealthy glow coming from inside the church seemed rather ominous given their knowledge of Fire Giant involvement. The muscle of the group moved in and did their work with gusto. Garrett took out two of the thralls with his stone axe; Johan, a hulking Swedish fellow with a club that looked to be a tree snapped off at the base, took out another two; a diminutive Irish man who called himself Red managed to punch the head of one of the thralls clean off; the last thrall fell to Olivier’s rapier, and the cocky Frenchman posed and preened like a runway model as he landed the killing blow.

Most of the group proceeded into the church itself, though the less combat-inclined waited outside. They found that there was indeed a Fire Giant inside, along with the bishop and a few more thralls. The fighters of the group charged in with reckless abandon while Jarrod led some of the others to the door that led to the basement, which he opened by picking the lock. A thrall noticed this and came for them, and the thief told the others to go get the kids while he held the attacker off. Down in the basement, the gaggle of terrified children and young teens were huddled against one another and flinching at the sounds of fighting above. Miera delivered a rousing motivational speech and renewed their hope, then promptly herded them up the stairs with instructions to run like the wind and make it to the truck waiting outside, which they managed to do without any serious injuries thanks to Red diving in front of a blast of fire from the giant that had been aimed their way, sacrificing his life in the process. Foley drove them away from the madness as soon as they were all in the truck, mostly piled in the back.

By the time the kids made it up and out, all of the thralls were down with only Jarrod having died at their hands. Solana called her hippogriff in to help take on the Fire Giant, which it most certainly did, and without its aid the group would have likely all died. Garrett, Johan, and Olivier fought the Fire Giant on foot and did not go unharmed: Garrett took some minor burns, but the others died in the fray. In the end, Garrett’s axe plunged into the Fire Giant’s head and it finally died. With all the fire flung about by their enemy, the building was starting to burn down (as much as a stone edifice can burn down, at least) by the time the survivors packed into their cars and took off, pleased by the success of their mission but tempered by the knowledge that they were up against serious threats that could easily kill them all if they weren’t cautious. They all experienced a surge in power as they drove away, which came with new powers that they could only hope would keep them alive in the future.

Two things were for certain, they definitely weren’t just humans, and they had royally screwed up their quest. At least 10 of them were sent there, maybe more, and only 4 of them had survived. Worst yet, on top of that, they had failed their mission. They didn’t get the Heart of Winter. They didn’t get any Frost Giants. Even things that weren’t mission objectives, like don’t become terrorists, they couldn’t do. It hadn’t really sunk in just yet, but it was what they were now.

People would call them monsters.

Well, not all of them. Those with a silver tongue could get away with being called something more flattering. Gavriil and Lucky wouldn’t be monsters, they’d be something else. Demons? Who knew.

Such thoughts were heavy on the group. Who they were, and what their failure meant. Did it mean that the Heart of Winter had never been there? Did they all die for nothing?

Taking up lodging in a cheap motel, Soraya and Lucky were left to marvel at how much they had healed by themselves. Eshna and Gavriil had to just shrug and thank the gods.

They were still very much on the outskirts of civilization, and it would be easy to pull into the country and the wilderness to avoid dealing with people for a while, to lay low, if they had the supplies for it. Their mission in case of this failure wasn’t clear, Hugin and Munin had not shown up again with any news of what was next in store.

---

Unbeknownst to them, there was a group of terrorists in the next room.

Things had been relatively calm since their time at the church, and that was good. They knew that the Ravens would be able to find them again when they were needed for something, and hopefully fewer people will die as well. Not all of them were content with sitting idly by, and so they took to making trips out to enjoy themselves without gallivanting.

It had been days for them, and the days in the motel were long. There were some others that in the neighbouring rooms that they had interacted before, but they weren’t able to open up too much, and the others seemed to not want to either. They were probably drug dealers or druggies, or maybe just reserved people in poor straights.

It wasn’t until one morning that Gavriil found himself with the neighbours, alone. He had felt strange surges in divinity, but always thought it was just his fellows. This time, however, he was with them, and not the others. The feeling was distinct, and it was them.

It was a strange and awkward meeting for the two groups to merge. They shared some stories, and raised a glass to those who couldn’t make it. Less than a day into their meet and greet, Munin arrived alone to the group. He was the most sombre they’d ever seen him, and he wouldn’t say where Hugin was. All he could do was to say that the Heart of Winter was not lost in Bodie, it had been removed a couple days before the group had arrived, they were too late.

The gods were not confident to use their abilities to discern where it was immediately, for fear that it would just push Fate to force it into the hands of the giants faster for their knowing it. Instead, another group of newly awoken demigods were going to investigate the whereabouts while they still had some degree of cover. The two groups at the motel were to be contacted as soon as they knew where it was to come in with some fire power and get the Heart of Winter to safety. However, if they couldn’t just sit still, there was an opportunity to do at least a little good available.

Munin told the group of the edge of society and what was beyond, of other small towns with problems. Dark forces are equally afraid to act in the light as the gods were, but were growing bold on the fringes of society. Perhaps some investigating of the small towns around would lead them to discover more issues to face? Or, if nothing else, it would kill some time.

After Munin took his leave, it was almost an hour later when there was a knock at one of their doors, and a card slipped under through a crack. It was an invitation, with instructions to a small suite in a plaza, a very small law firm was located there. The one in charge, a Daniel Drakeman, was offering legal counsel to them, and most unsettling was that he knew they were demigods. Perhaps a trap? Or perhaps just another mythical being, like the witches or dwarves, knew of them, and wanted to get in good with the young demigods. Either way, they could recall seeing him on some ads around town, he looked like the type of lawyer who spent all his time chasing ambulances.

Not necessarily a lead on a new quest to pass the time, however, was another more pressing issue. Their descriptions were not yet known to the authorities, but they were on the look out. For all intents and purposes, this was a stealth mission and anyone and everyone could be someone dangerous to them. A civilian could inform the police, or could be a cultist or vigilante. Pressing on that, was a car that seemed to follow them if ever they left, and when glanced inside in passing, was full of cameras. Someone was following them, and was trying to get a picture. Worrisome.