Revenge| Book 6| A novel in the Blue Moon series| An Avengers fan fiction series |

25- Glowing Fire

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Chapter 25:

Because of the incident with the wolves, plus the time it takes to bury the fallen soldiers, Loki and Thea's group is a day behind. This results in Fandral's army of two hundred villagers, plus Kyle, Emmaline, and Victoire, catching up with them just before they cross a river toward Fletohein plains. Loki had sent five scouts behind them to warn Fandral of any lingering wolves, but the cheerful Asgardian warrior shows up on time regardless.

Loki is still injured, but only his shoulder pains him much. So although this makes riding slightly uncomfortable, he's reasonably alert when Fandral gallops up to him on his piebald mare. Thea, who is riding between her father and Jack, lets out a cry of happiness when she sees Kyle trotting toward them on a gray, black, and white spotted mare. Victoire is seated in front of him, looking to be enjoying the ride, and Emmaline is riding a sturdy Clydesdale-like black horse behind her husband.

"How's it going with my favorite lovebirds?" asks Kyle. He looks a bit tired from the ride: facial hair dots his chin and his black hair is overlong and disheveled. Regardless, he flashes Thea his infamous half-moon smirk, then winks at Jack.

"Lovely," says Jack. "How's our favorite dad-to-be?"

"Lovely," says Kyle. He glances at Loki. "What happened to him? Wolves?"

"Yep," says Thea heavily. "They took out about twenty of ours."

Kyle's grin fades, but he manages to say slightly cheerfully, "Well, let's keep our chins up. We'll be getting to Fletohein tonight."

Thea wants to point out that Fletohein represents the beginning of the end, the beginning of the final and undebatably deadly battle with Neidra, but Victoire beats her to getting Kyle's attention. She twists around in the saddle and looks up at him. Her curls have grown long enough to be pulled up in a high ponytail, which rubs against Kyle's slightly dirtied, slightly sweaty black t-shirt.

"Is Veel here?"

"Nope, not yet," says Ky. "At least, I don't think so."

"Not yet," says Angelique. "I think he's two days behind us."

Victoire does not look very satisfied with this response, but all she does is sigh and play with the leather of the Asgardian saddle. Thea reflects that Victoire must have grown up a lot recently, especially considering she's only two years old.

They stop for a midday meal a little bit after the groups combine, resting on an open plain surrounded on one side by a ravine, from which the river flows out. Scouts stand at all corners of the collection of soldiers and horses and dogs. To be able to run away as quickly as necessary, the tents aren't set up- they remained tightly tied to the backs of the large plowhorses brought along just for the job of transporting large items.

Before the temporary camp is set up, one of the scouts reports sightings of a herd of wild horses at the bottom of the ravine, drinking water from the clear stream running through the valley.

"Should we run them off, my liege?" the scout asks.

"No," says Loki, dismounting Banamadr and scarcely (at least to Thea) disguising the pain in his shoulder. "Wild horses are a symbol of luck. Chances are, they'll run off on their own when the wind changes and they scent us."

Thea and Jack seem to have the same idea as each other, and they eat as quickly as possible, then walk hand-in-hand in the direction of the river. To get there, they have to clamber around some sheets of red rock, during which Thea almost falls twice, downward toward the ravine.