Tyr x Reader

Thirteen

"What are we looking for this time?", you asked as Tyr walked down a very old road with you on his shoulders.

All around trees of enormous size grew, with leaves as red as the evening suns rays and branches so dark that they could have been made of firewood.

It smelled of wind and grass. But there was also a certain kind of sweetness to it. Like blooming flowers and fruits, ready to harvest.

Your gaze wandered along one of the trees that had paler leaves, more orange to the colour, with strangely shaped things that hung from its branches.

They were fruits, bright yellow with purple dots sprinkled all over.

A memory tugged at the back of your head. When you had been a child your mother had told you stories about these fruits, that she had been obsessed with when she had been pregnant with you.

"Doesn't this look familiar to you?", Tyr returned the question and stopped so that you could have a moment to take everything in.

A deep breath made your chest go heavy.

"What do you intend to find in the ruins of Jötunheim?", you asked.

Gently, he let you slip off his shoulders, caught you in his arms and set you down on the ground.

For the first time in what felt like eons did your feet flinch as the bare soles came in contact with the grass and moist soil below it. You could feel the coolness of the earth below you.

Every single breeze felt like the world around was live. Something in the back of your head stared to tingle as you closed your eyes and took a deep breath.

"Home.", you whispered. "Abandoned and forgotten."

"You remember."

"I always remember. Will always remember. But sometimes memories blur over time. Sometimes they get corrupted but what I wish would have been."

Tyr passed you, moved up to a tree and grabbed one of the fruits. He managed to pull it from its stem with his sheer hands, tore it into two uneven pieces and offered you the larger one.

Gladly you took it. Sweet smelling juice ran over your hands, down your arms. Out of habit you lifted them and caught everything with your tongue.

The salty sweat of your skin mixed with a nutty yet savoury undertone.

"Even if we wish, there is no way to change the things that have already passed.", he said and took a big bite, seeds and the peel included. "But even with fate leading us there is a way to make... alterations."

You scooped the seeds out with your bare hand before digging into the bright flesh with your fingers and tearing pieces off to shove them into your mouth.

With slow steps, Tyr took the lead down the road, past broken spears and damaged shields that lay in the grass, already halfway overtaken by nature.

Wrapped in silence the two of you walked along a river while chewing away on the fruits that gave you such a comforting feeling of familiarity yet made your heart ache with the loss that could never be recovered ever again.

More armour of your people paved the way, hundreds of thousands of damaged shields and broken weapons. They made strange metal noises as you walked on them, almost as if they tried to scream in agony one last time.

A cold shiver crawled down your spine. Perhaps this was just your imagination, it had been a while ever since you've last set foot in Jötunheim, but somehow it felt like you knew this place.

Your eyes wandered up and suddenly your heart skipped a beat.

Not far in the distance stood a mountain, lonely and so unmoved by everything that had happened. And around that mountain could hands be seen, fingers that tried to reach up all the way to the top.

Giants. Or at least what was left of them.

Corpses, wrapped in dust and nature.

"I wish I could have spare you the sight.", Tyr stood in front of you to block away the view. "But the giants had knowledge that I yet fail to reconstruct."

As if hypnotised you just stared at his stomach. You didn't even blink or more. All you did was stare.

A feeling of emptiness spread in your chest. It felt like the ground slipped away from under your feet. And perhaps this would have been better. All you wanted was to forget.

But how could you?

After all, remembering was your strongest ability.

Your mother had always said that every being always died twice. Once when the heart stopped beating. And again when they were forgotten by everyone who was left behind.

You would remember forever and thanks to that they would never die entirely. However, it was also a curse that would haunt you for the rest of your existence.

"What do you wish to find here?", you finally asked and closed your eyes to shut out the sight of the ones that you once knew as friends and family.

A deep breath could be heard from Tyr. He seemed to regret.

And yet, he knew as well as you that neither of you would make it through Jötunheim alone. He needed you because you knew this realm like someone who had grown up in it. And you needed him in order to not loose yourself in all of these painful memories.

"Forgive me.", the feeling of his hand stroked over your shoulder.

Swallowing hard, you shook your head. Sucked in air started to burn inside your lungs. Your head started to feel mushy and heavy.

"Don't worry about me.", you finally breathed out, opened your eyes to meet his gaze. "We are here for a reason, are we not?"

"We are."

"Do you care to share it with me?"

He hesitated.

"Not yet. If you are comfortable with that."

Now it was you who needed a moment to think.

"In you I trust, Tyr.", you grabbed his to give it a squeeze. "But I also trust you to tell when the time is right. If it's fates will or not."

"This is not a matter of fate.", he said.

Confused, you frowned.

"If not fate then what?", you asked with a tired smile.

He shrugged, halfway amused, halfway unable to explain it himself.

"Desperation?"