Avengers Generations

Chapter 30

Einmyria shivered against the sudden blast of cold air and blinked her eyes open. Gasping with disbelief at the familiar wood, she looked fearfully up into the face of the man who held her so tightly and tried to shrink away from his evil grin.

"Asgard...?" She questioned hesitantly "How have you done this?"

A cat pounced from seemingly nowhere and lighted on the man's shoulder. He reached with his spare hand and stroked its head affectionately before answering. "I have discovered many things your father knows nothing of." He replied in his drumming, deep voice.

He placed the princess down and released his hold on her, and for a moment she thought of running away. A movement to her right caught her attention, and she turned quickly and instinctively, but there was nothing visible amidst the trees.

"Do not run, pretty one." Hrimthurs commanded her "You know not who I will send after you."

Einmyria swallowed hard and stood up straight and majestically - she would not let him see her broken spirit. "Where are you to take me?" She asked bluntly.

Hrimthurs waved his fingers gently toward the trees before answering. He seemed to be taller now than he had on Midgard, but Einmyria had never been so close to him. "We shall go to my palace." He informed her gently "And there you shall die."

Einmyria felt faint at his words as a white horse cantered out of the wood... She wondered how he meant to kill her, though she didn't wish to think about it.

"You shall ride Maila" Hrimthurs said putting a giant, dark hand on the horse's neck and directing the creature toward Einmyria. The princess knew not why he would allow her to ride instead of walk, but she did not refuse the gesture. Hrimthurs lifted the princess into the back of the unsaddled mare, and she grasped its mane gently.

The giant -almost the same height as the princess on horseback- walked alongside her, leading the beast through the maze of trees. His dark locks of hair swayed back and forth with the motion, and his great robes billowed in the cold breeze.

Einmyria hadn't known it to be so cold in Asgard, and could not explain the strange weather. She still wore her black S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, which covered her from shoulders to feet but provided little warmth. She shivered, and even her heart seemed to tremble, but she did not tell her captor for fear that he would see her as weak. She knew she had to remain strong and represent her father's crown, so she sat upright on the horse and braved the cold.

She rode in silence for what seemed to be hours as the overgrown path twisted and turned like the great World Serpent himself. The sun -which seemed colder than Einmyria remembered- sunk down to the far edge of the world as the horse walked gracefully and steadily. The waning sunlight only made the breeze sharper, and Einmyria discovered that she had lost feeling in her nose.

Hrimthurs glanced up at her with his deep, hollow eyes as if he had heard her thoughts. His brow creased slightly at the sight of her, and he put a huge hand to her cheek. "You are cold as stone." He rumbled with a hint of concern or anger in his voice "Why did you not tell me?"

Einmryria didn't know how to answer, so she chose to remain silent. The giant himself removed one of his dark robes, and placed it around the princess, letting it fall gracefully on either side of the mare and over her flanks. The garment provided no relief at first, though Einmyria had expected it to be warm with the man's body heat. However, it grew slightly warmer as she wore it longer.

Finally, as the sun was just kissing the world's end, the trees thinned and revealed a spiraling, white stone castle - the likes of which Einmyria had never seen even in the most fantastic of dreams.

"What palace is this?" She asked in confusion. She had never heard of it before, despite being well educated in all of Asgard's great structures.

Hrimthurs looked at her with a satisfied expression. "It is my house." He answered simply as they followed the curve of a hill down toward the beautiful castle "What do you think of it?"

Einmyria answered the man with a cold, blunt tone. "I think it may be the most fantastic structure I have ever seen."

"Thank you."

The sun had disappeared by the time they arrived at the palace, and Einmyria felt faint with the cold. The stone gates opened without aid as the giant approached, and closed behind them, sealing them into the gardens which surrounded the castle's walls. The plants poked out of the ground in a brown, scraggly mess lining the dimly-lit pathway.

"I apologize." Hrimthurs said as he touched a leaf and watched it crumble in his hand "I am not a skilled gardener."

"Why should it matter to me?" Einmyria replied quietly as she shivered, barely able to keep herself upright on the horse "Should I be concerned for the groundskeeping of the place I am to die?"

Einmyria was not aware of it, but the statement caused Hrimthurs to feel a jolt of grief. He did not want to look at her and see the pain and fear in her gaze, but out of the corner of his eye he saw her tilt over. He turned just in time to catch her unconscious, nearly-frozen body as it fell from Maila's back. He held her there, wrapped in his own dark cape, and looked into her pale face with a sort of wonder... This was not the angry face of his enemy Thor, but rather the face of a beautiful, innocent child.

Hrimthurs allowed the mare to return to the stable, and he carried the princess into his stone fortress gently. He tried to hold her close, but he knew it would not warm her - he had long ago lost the warmth of life.

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