FierroChase adventure, with Samirah and Sleipnir!

Tracking an eight-legged horse

(Sleipnir artwork above credit to artist!!)

Alex skidded and slid through the mud. I clung to her for my life. Samirah yelled helpful encouragements like, 'keep going!' And 'watch out!" When the giantesses mammoth feet got too close. She threw a ginormous pair of binoculars at us at one point, which Alex jumped over with an almighty leap, and my butt went airborne while I screamed. Jack yelped and shot towards my neck, becoming a runestone again just before skewering my trachea.
"Down here!" Sam called and Alex launched to the right and I nearly went left.
We descended a steep muddy bank, Alex's hooves loosening ice and snow until she was practically on her rump sliding down a small avalanche. Sam was still floating beside us, looking back at our pursuer. The giant was still shaking fists and cussing at us, her shaggy camo clothes flapping angrily. She attempted to follow us down and Sam's eyes went wide.
The giant dislodged the top layer of earth with her huge toes, unintentionally or not, she seemed pleased, as a rumbling landslide rose behind us.
Alex hit the base of the hill and ran left, Sam following. The landslide erupted at the bottom but left us alone. The slick mud all over me was making Alex incredibly testing to stay abroad.
The children of Loki dashed for some trees as the giant fell on her back and descended the hill in an ugly mass of tumbling green and brown.
"Here! Quick get under my hijab!" Sam landed behind a thick tree and squatted down, pulling her green hijab from her head and unravelling it quickly. It shimmered, from green to the colour of the tree trunk. Alex stopped so suddenly I went over her head. She seemed to grin at me flat on my back at her hooves then changed into a green and pink iguana, plopping onto Sam's knee. I scrambled up next to Samirah and she draped the hijab around us, just big enough to conceal two teenagers and a lizard.
The giant was up and stomping around, calling insults, searching for us, throwing trees temperamentally.
Sam and I tried to breathe as incoherently as possible. Alex sat looking at my finger, perhaps deciding whether or not to chomp it. She had pink spots on her back, the bright contrast making her look poisonous. I wondered if she now had a venomous bite. I moved my hand slowly out of reach and jumped as the ground shuddered beneath us.
Samirah grabbed my sleeve. Be still.
I could hear the giant just beside us, could even smell her.
"Where are you little gnats?" She spat. We could see her shadow passing by our camouflage.
When the ground ceased to tremble, Samirah peeped out of her hijab.
"Okay, quick." She whispered, pulling it off. Alex turned back into a person. I sensed that he was male now. I had some interesting theories as to what triggered him to switch gender right now.
Sam slung the hijab back round her neck and we all snuck through the trees, across the table-sized footprints amongst the tree roots. I was extra cautious, because the giant was wearing camouflage clothing with potential magical properties.
"Thanks for the horsey ride." I said to Alex, as we snuck through the trees.
"Never again, Magnus." Alex replied quietly, scowling, and maybe wondering if the sounds of my bones cracking under his fists would have the giantess on our heels again. Wait, under all the mud and grime did his cheeks redden a little?
We all noticed the hoofprints at the same time. They were hard to miss, there were so many of them, obviously made by a single eight-legged horse. A very large one. Did giants have giant eight-legged horses of their own?
"Sleipnir." Sam the Wise pointed out, confirming my suspicions. "Let's follow them."
We followed the tracks through the trees for ages. Sleipnir appeared not to have gone quietly at times as the hoofprints sometimes trailed in long slide as if the stallion had planted his hooves and refused to walk.
Only once we heard the furious crashing about of the giantess in the far distance.
I was glad Sleipnir's tracks led away from the forest destruction made by the giant.
"So, Alex," I start, because the silence, aside from the occasional faraway rumbling in Jotunheim, is unnerving.
"The answer's no." Alex says.
"What? I wasn't going to ask for another horse ride."
Alex snickers.
"Why did you skip fighting today?" I ask.
"Because you guys said run and hide instead."
"What? I meant- stop messing with me."
Alex chuckles again. "I know what you mean." He says, and his expression becomes steadily guarded once again. "I was talking...to my mom."
Samirah and I stare at him, astonished. By 'mom' Alex meant Loki.
"Why? You don't like -" I stopped, trying not to hit a tender spot.
Alex didn't seem phased. "I didn't want to talk to Loki. He appeared in a vision, while I was doing pottery in my room. It didn't end well, I smashed the vase I was working on."
I wince.
"What did he talk to you about?" Sam asked, her voice gentle, but her face twisted sourly.
"He commented how nice I'd looked in my wedding dress." Alex grumbled. "As I quote, 'I'm so honoured you wanted me present at your wedding.'" Alex made a violent motion with his hands, as if demonstrating how he destroyed his clay piece at the time.
"He's just trying to get in your head. Rejoicing in his freedom, it sounds like." I sigh, reminding myself of our failure to keep Loki restrained. He was out and about now, organising our doomsday.
Alex gave me a side glance, his bottom lip tucked under his front teeth, sharing my disheartened mood, his eyes seemed to be saying, "It wasn't just your fault, Maggie."
Eventually we saw a clearing up ahead and heard a whinny. We ducked behind some more trees. In the clearing, Sleipnir was tethered to the base of a particularly thick tree. I looked up to see if the tree was the leg of a giant and felt silly realising it wasn't.
Sleipnir was looking directly at the tree we were peeking around. His ears were pricked and his eyes very alert. He was enormous, with hooves that could squash me flat. His hide was dapple grey and his mane streaked black and silver. His eyes reminded me of Alex's left one; liquid Amber, warm but fierce. Sleipnir's rectangular pupils were intense, his nostrils quivered. He was very heavily muscled with strong long legs. A noble steed for Odin the all-father.
He bobbed his head and whinnied again.
Alex pulled me back behind the tree and we all conferred.
"He's going to wake the giant." Alex murmured.
I looked back over my shoulder and eyed the sleeping mountain at the other end of the clearing. What I had thought was thunder for the last hour was actually the snoring of Sleipnir's captor. I'm glad I hadn't made a daft comment earlier to Sam and Alex like, "I wonder if it's going to rain!"
"Looks like he slept through the giantesses stomping about earlier. I think we'll be ok if we're quick." Sam said, looking at Sleipnir. "Although...that rope holding Sleipnir doesn't look, you know, normal."
I poke my head back around he tree. Sleipnir bobs his head again, eager to be freed. The rope tying him looks normal to me, but I understand Samirah's suspicion. It was quite thin to be tying such a great, strong stallion, and after bounding Fenris Wolf, I had learnt not to judge magical ropes by first appearances.
The knots - one at the base of the tree and the other around Sleipnir's neck - looked complex. Not to mention the base of the stallions neck was far out of reach.
"Let's go check it out." Alex said, stepping softly out into the clearing. Sam went to grab his arm but instead just said 'wait'. Alex paused.
"Magnus and I are good with horses, we'll approach him, you keep lookout." Sam reasoned. I just scratched my head, looking up at Sleipnir's gold eyes.
Alex promptly sat and pulled out his garrotte to fiddle with, facing the other end of the clearing.
"Okay. Let's go." Sam motioned me forward.