The Verdant Prince

Chapter 26: Lively Nightmares

"Y/N and Asmund, first watch," Orgnar huffed, throwing his bag to cool stone surface below him before hunkering down. Usually, it was the two foot soldiers who took the first watch, but I knew that this was only the start of my punishment. I nibbled on the inside of my cheek as I settled Bjorn down with a stolen apple. It wasn't long before I was slowly circling the makeshift camp, doing my best to avoid Asmund.

Asmund, however, was doing the opposite. He was attempting to make contact and cross our circling paths, but I quickly sniffed out his patterns and switched every now and then.

"Y/N, look you can't avoid me forever," Asmund pouted, keeping his back turned to me as he circled the camp again.

"I can sure as Hel try," I grunted, pausing briefly at near Loki's sleepy form. Asmund groaned and broke his circling pattern, walking right over to me. I stepped away from Loki and drew myself to the outer edge of the campsite. Asmund followed, hot on my trail.

"Come on, what do you want me to say? That I am sorry?" Asmund whispered sharply. "Well I am. I am very sorry but I couldn't do anything! They explained the plan to us and made us swear on our oaths that we wouldn't disobey and that we wouldn't tell you," Asmund said, his voice softening as he brought his hand up to my lower arm, attempting to caress it. I snapped my arm away from him.

"Why didn't Orgnar make we swear on my oath? Why didn't he just tell me?" I hissed. Asmund crossed his arms and closed his eyes gently, a hurt expression on his face.

"He knew you would try to disobey your oath. Your personal oath meant nothing to you anymore, since your family..." Asmund trailed off. "The point is, he believed that because you had nothing left holding your oath that you would just throw it away. That there was no one left to lay shame on but yourself, and he was right."

I scoffed, turning my back to Asmund and resuming my slow paced scouting, occasionally kicking a pebble or two to ease my extreme urge to strangle something at the moment. Asmund easily caught up, keeping stride next to me.

"But he knew that you would not disobey the Royal Oath," Asmund added as if it were going to help the situation. For further reference, it most certainly did not.

"Asmund, I did have something left," I said shortly. "But he betrayed me." I glared at him. Asmund shoulder's immediately sagged and he looked down to the ground in defeat.

"They would've attacked Asgard..." he mumbled.

"Yes. A small pack of women and infants would attack and bring Asgard to her knees," I hissed sarcastically. In anger, I turned my back to him, easily resuming my carefully stepped scouting rounds. I circled around my sleeping companions, only stopping briefly to glance down at Orgnar's sleeping form. He inhaled and exhaled gently, his normally furrowed eyebrows slack and relaxed against his wrinkled forehead. He slept like a child.

I bit back the strong urge to spit at him as I walked by. Asmund had been silent for a few moments, but that shouldn't bother me. Perhaps he was finally pondering his previous decisions, realizing how ignorant their cowardly attack was. I rounded a corner, shifting my blade in my hand with ease as I gazed out into the darkness.

It was darker in the valley that we had chosen to rest in. From our experience, Jotunheim never had truly dark nights like Asgard or Midgard. Jotunheim's sun usually set early and low rather than to circle and disappear. The several million stars and galaxies dusted specks of starlight and pockets of distant suns, causing the realm to be much no brighter than a dull rainy day on Midgard.

I had an eerie feeling that we would not want the usual brightness to shine down upon the valley and display its hidden creatures. The darkness concealed what most would not want to see lurk about in the night. I shivered.