When Rishi raised his hands to signal his friends to do their thing, Ishaan knew this wouldn't last long. Rishi shot himself up in the air, and then landed on the ground with a thud, electrocuting at least ten trolls and killing them instantly. Infinity War style. "Mother was right." Thrud said as her horse trotted over one troll and she jabbed her spear through another, "He is exactly Father's human version." Ishaan heard it since he was near, helping a Valkyrie bring down a particularly huge troll-woman.
However, as the creatures kept coming, Thrud quickly caught up with the champions. "Alright, guys, this Midgardian day is ending soon. That leaves with three days to end this week. Borgohain?"
"Yes?"
"Did you figure out the ending?"
Ishaan was guessing what the final story was going to be written like. With all the expected possibilities and a few of Utgard-Loki's illusion magic, Ishaan only realized it now. The end of his quest was never going to be pretty. It was actually going to end with a lot of pressure on him and his friends. Lest they fail, what was going to happen was something that was completely fateful. Sol's habit of choosing her own palace as her resting place for the last evening of every week had been finally picked upon by her arch-nemesis. Utgard-Loki had shown how the whole world would go dark, and had added that Skoll had eaten Sol. Heimdall, the guardian deity, the watchful protector of Asgard, was kidnapped at exactly this point. This was not coincidental. He nodded, and replied, "I do now."
"Good. I don't wanna know it. When you do, we all will know. Be careful." She turned towards the others, "Take good care of him. He still hasn't manifested his full potential. And you three know that. Saptarishi, I see why he talks of you all the time. Always wanted to see you in action."
"Thank you, Valkyrie Queen." Rishi said, "How is he?"
"He is fine. Just being him. Away from action, so super nervous and anxious."
"How is my patroness?" Aitri asked.
"She is doing well too, last I checked them out on facetime. She is busy controlling two over-impulsive kids and an over-nervous god." Rick and Aitri smirked at the 'over-impulsive kids' comment.
"Hope we can free Heimdall quickly and rid her of the impulses." Rishi said.
"That is why, you need to go. We, the Valkyries are strong enough to handle this. Please, progress. It is better to get to the warehouse quick."
"But your army will die." Rick said, "Let us help."
"They won't die. We can handle a few trolls. Now, go."
"Alright, you heard her. Let's go."
They turned to leave when Thrud called Aitri and told something in her ears. She nodded despite some confusion on her face, and caught up with them. Rick let the stone fly again.
"What was she saying?" Rishi asked.
"Why?" Aitri asked in reply. Girl definitely knew her walls.
"Oh, was I not supposed to be told?"
"No, no. Not that. Sorry, my PhD habits of asking questions in reply to questions." Aitri looked down, and said, "She said something about moving walls."
"Eh!" Rishi looked at Ishaan bewildered, "What on earth does she mean?"
"We can find out." Aitri said, as the two held hands and walked ahead, leaving Rick and Ishaan to walk side by side. "These two could sometimes get a room, you know?" Rick said.
"Why? They look cute together."
"Oh, you are new in the world of love, right? That is why. Try being crazy for a girl for two years, then you'll see. Hey, you had questions, you said? Maybe I could answer them."
"Yeah, I did." Ishaan surely wanted to ask them about the feeling thing back in Jotunheim. He went ahead and asked Rick. Rick chuckled, took a deep breathe, as the stone took a right turn through the trees. The Sun had touched the horizon, meaning another day was half-gone. They had three days maximum in hand after that half. Rick said, "You know, the thing people talk about in our daily lives of who our spirit animal is? Guess what? It is all real in this Norse world. Now, lemme."
Rick drew some sort of rune in mid-air, and some sort of a mystic board, will little light blue powder particles floating. "Now, watch close."
Rick flicked his fingers to draw images as he explained, all this while he kept an eye on the power couple and the stone. Apparently, every Midgardian has an animal spirit inside themselves, which they call a fylgja (fill-gi-yeah). That animal can be anything, from as small as an ant to as big as a blue whale, and from as real as a lion to as unreal as a unicorn. Ishaan wondered what his would be. Rick said that as the champions get better at their powers, they find their fylgja when they need it the most. And according to Freya, once they can properly take control of fylgja, like using it whenever they want, it marks the highest manifestation of a divine champion's power. So far, the three had found out their fylgjur (feel-gi-yoor; plural for fylgja). Rick constantly made figurines to explain. For Rishi's, he made a wolf, for Aitri's, he made a lioness, and for his own, he made a fox. "Now, I don't know what the junior giant wolf is planning, but if you have to beat him, you gotta find your fylgja, Ishaan. And you will. The animal inside always answers at the right time." Ishaan could only nod, as Rick showed him his palm to signal him to stop. Then, he pointed towards Rishi. "There, a live example."
Rishi's body was slightly bent. He was smelling something, constantly whiffing. "There comes the wolf." Rick said, as Rishi turned all around to smell something. His eyes were yellow, just like a wolf. Then, he did something even more wolf-like. He looked up and howled. Only then did Ishaan realize that they were surrounded by a pack of grey wolves, who seemed confused. "Felt them around us a few minutes ago." Rishi said.
"Now what?" Rick asked.
"Nothing." Rishi said, as he brushed his hands together, "They now believe that we are a wolf pack, and so, no need for fighting. They understand that we are passing by."
"Way to go, honey." Aitri patted Rishi on the back. This is the first she had called him honey in front of Ishaan. Aitri wasn't the complete affectionate type, unlike Rishi, who liked to show how he was lucky to have her as his girlfriend. However, not to get fooled, Ishaan could guess what Aitri could do if Rishi was ever in trouble. All in all, they made a pretty strong couple.
After a couple of minutes, the stone stopped flying, and dropped on the ground. Ishaan saw that they stood in front of an open area. With the Sun almost down, they could barely see anything, except for that there weren't any trees in here. Rick picked up the stone, and drew some rune that looked like:
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His hand lighted up, lighting up the whole area. Everything could be seen now. The area was a much clearer one than the rest of the forest. The trees seemed to have grown besides, making way to a huge circular area with just grass and small creepers growing on it. There was nothing to be seen that could look like some kind of a warehouse, but straight ahead was all trees and woods again. "So, a dead end?" Rick asked.
"Oh, Hel no." Aitri stepped up, "I feel something." She walked closer to the open area, stomped her foot on it twice, and said, "Something is under this. This platform is stone made. Plus, I feel the hollowness under. And here..." She pointed to a little line on the side of the stone platform, so thin that even Rick's light didn't cover, who followed Aitri's pointing finger, and showed it to the rest. Right, there was a line from which this platform opened some kind of gate underground. "There must be some kind of key or lever that could open this." Rishi said.
"Guys, this is a typical Uncharted situation." Rick said, his voice breaking with happiness, the light flickering slightly in his hand, "Oh, dream come true!"
