Ragnarök

5 | Freyja's Magic

"No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason."

Rosalind in As You Like It (Act V, Scene II)

❆

"What are you writing, Aunt Snow?" Mary Lou asks, sneaking up behind Snow. The elder one almost jumps out of her seat, banging her thighs against the hardwood of the writing table. Mary Lou laughs and her dimpled cheeks get wider, her curls bouncing.

Wow, she looks so much more like Freddie the more I look at her, Snow muses.

"Young lady, it's not okay to sneak up like that and scare people!" She tells the eleven-year-old redhead as she raises a finger to make it authoritative.

"But you did the same thing with Mother when you were young," Mary Lou justifies as she sits down on the bed next to the writing table, running a hand through Laufey's fur, making her purr.

"Ugh, you're too attentive for your age," Snow groans, not wanting to rub off her playfulness on Mary Lou. Makayla would not like it at all. On the other hand, Lou seems way more interested in Snow's business.

"What are you writing, Aunt Snow? Tell me!" She asks, dangling her legs. She puts both her arms around Laufey and rests her head on the big cat's back.

"It's just a letter. For a Vike," The brunette replies as blood rushes to her cheeks.

"Ew, you're blushing! My social studies teacher said that women aren't supposed to get affected by Vikes. They're men," the little one scrunches her nose.

Snow shakes her head. "It's not like that, honey. It's just that - " She stops herself midway. It's bad enough that she has such thoughts and she need not impart these to a child, especially the Queen's offspring.

"Snow? Can we - " Makayla says as she enters Snow's room.

"Oh, Lou! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at evening school?" The mother asks, hand on her hips.

"Shoot," the little one says as she quickly hops out of the bed, her hand hitting Laufey's snout, making her bare her teeth in a growl, and Lou apologizes, sprinting for the door.

The thirty-five-year-old Queen tries to capture her, but Mary Lou has got the legs to rival Laufey, a snow leopard. It is at times like these she wishes Veronica had trained more with her. Makayla misses that woman too much, sometimes.

Snow captures the moment on her camera that she keeps handy at all times, chuckling upon seeing the mother and daughter in their own lovely world, wondering why this side of Makayla rarely surfaces. She has her calm demeanor and authoritative face on at almost all times that Snow feels her sister Makayla slipping away from her and becoming the strict leader and dictator the position of All-Mother demands. But in some corner of her heart, Snow believes that Makayla is better than any Queen Valhalla has known despite what history has to say. And when good happens to this place and beneath, it will happen through her reign. Somehow.

"Snow?" Makayla continues where she had left off. "May I have a moment with you?"

The younger one gets out of her chair. "Of course, Mackie." She uses the nickname, knowing that Makayla is no more in Queen Mode. And she gets the confirmation from her sister's smile.

"Did you check out the portfolios I asked the Valkyries underground to give you? Did you find anyone you like?"

Snow did go through the portfolios that morning, but her mind was roaming over the name Freddie was about to suggest. It's crazy how she trusts in a Vike so much. It's bloody crazy.