Time in Flames (Book 1)

Chapter 8: The Forest

Mered was escorted back to Mobius in a brown suit. The TVA agent looked at him with a confused glance.

"I'm not wearing the tie." Mered protested. "This collar is bad enough."

"Fair enough." Mobius relented. "Sorry about the collar, but I don't need another variant going AWOL on me."

He let Estrid remove her collar, or were there more variants that Mobius had lost? He scratched around the collar. Mobius was desperate, but why? He was so terrified of letting him and Estrid teaming up, yet Mobius was taking him to see the one person he wasn't supposed to meet.

"Sir, we're ready." one of the agents declared.

Not much information was getting out. He was going to have to probe. "How did you know where she went?"

"We barely got it." Mobius explained. "It's not often a situation like this happens, but we were able to get a lock on where the portal was opened to."

"You don't track them through that thing?" Mered asked, pointing to the gold device.

"It's a tempad, and no. Normally variants don't let us stay still long enough to trace the portal."

He was getting close. Mobius was letting his guard down. A little more probing and he would be in. Mered gave the mustached man a thoughtful and amused look. "How does it work? If I'm working with the TVA, I need to know how this operates."

Mobius shook his head. He put a finger to his head. "You're smart, you know that? You had me there for a second. I almost forgot that you are a spy."

"I prefer the term agent."

"Same difference in your line of work."

The audacity of him. S.H.I.E.L.D. was more than some spy organization. They protected people. In many ways they were the literal shield of the people. To degrade him to some puppet that followed the orders of his country tried his patience. Mered felt an itch at the back of his head. He gave a slow nod. He had to play the part.

Moments later, Mered was stepping through a gold portal into an unknown time. The first thing that greeted him were trees. A quiet forest that gave him a sense of peace. As beautiful and peaceful as it was, it felt foreign. The trees, the grass, the sound of a creek. It was all just like it should be, but something was different about it.

"Where are we?" Mered said, staring at the environment around him.

"Asgard." Mobius answered plainly.

It was impossible. This was too much like Earth to be Asgard, wasn't it? The trees seemed no different from other forests he'd seen. Whenever he'd imagined Asgard, he had expected something more magnificent.

"Disappointed?" Mobius broke his train of thought.

Mered shrugged. "Figured it'd be shinier."

"You have no idea. This is just the outer part of Asgard. The inner city is what you're thinking of."

The TVA agents went to work soon after. They searched the area, looking for any sign of Estrid and where she went. Mered looked around for anything he could. Something didn't seem right. Horse tracks were made in the dirt. They seemed fairly fresh. Mobius seemed to have noticed shortly after.

Mered gave him a quick questioning glance. If Estrid was traveling on horseback, there was only one person that had a chance of at least keeping up with her. Mobious's expression said it all. He took a deep breath, pinching the ridge of his nose between his fingers.

Mobius waved his hand with a sigh. "Fine, go."

The super soldier grinned as he took off down the path. The cool breeze brushed on his face as he raced after the tracks. He eventually slowed, but there was still quite a bit of air left. As he jogged, he heard the sound of a stick snapping in the distance. Mered stopped, but only for a moment. Something told him that he didn't want to know what that was. He kept on only to find the tip of a spear being swung towards his face. Mered bent backwards as the obsidian blade slashed over his head.

He managed to make enough distance to see who attacked him. It was a young brown eyed woman. A heavy contempt set in her expression as she stood at the ready with a double headed spear in her hands. She lunged at him with one blade. He went to dodge, but was fooled by a fake out. The woman had swung the back end around. Mered caught it, but was flung back by the followthrough.

His back slammed against a tree. His vision cleared up as the spear came spiraling toward his chest. He moved out of the way as it sunk into the hard wood of the tree.

This must have been Estrid. If that was the case, he was going to have to hit hard and fast. He sprinted forward, pushing off the tree and planting a left cross on her face. Estrid stubbled a bit with her hand on her jaw. She didn't look stunned or even angry. She just looked confused.

Estrid stretched out her hand. The sound of the spear breaking loose from the tree alerted Mered. He rolled under the flying weapon, narrowly dodging the hit. Estrid was back on the offensive. Another strike sliced open the front of Mered's shirt across his gut.

Her speed was incredible. For someone that seemed so young, she had more skill than most agents from S.H.I.E.L.D. Estrid went for another attack, sweeping Mered's legs from underneath him. Mered tried to get upright, but Estrid's boot pushed him back down, her obsidian blade held inched from his neck.