Finding Fenrir (Underworld Chronicles Fanfiction)

Awake

Chapter 24: 

I felt warm and still. When I opened my eyes I was looking up at a wooden panel, either the canopy of a bed or a wood-slatted ceiling. The room was lit by a warm amber light and I was snuggled into the blankets of a comfortable but firm bed.

I frowned sleepily, reaching up to touch my neck to investigate a dull stinging ache there and found thick bandages wrapped around my throat. My frown deepened as my groggy mind wondered when I'd gotten hurt and by whom.

"Easy." Said a deep but quiet voice near me as a hand moved to gently brush my questing fingers away from the bandage. I looked toward the voice and found the young blonde from the trial, the one with the axe.

I regarded him with quiet confusion and he smiled softly. "You." I acknowledged and his smile got a little bigger, becoming crooked and warm. "You beat up Thor." I said, almost in a whisper. My throat felt very dry.

He chuckled. "I did." He replied as he picked up a cup of water with a straw in it and held it out to me. I barely moved as I took a grateful pull from the beverage. "Just relax. We had to try some pretty intense stuff to get that collar off you."

I looked at him, frowning in drowsy confusion still. "It's off?" I asked and my voice sounded small.

He nodded. "Yep." He answered. "We made sure that hunk of junk won't go anywhere near your neck again."

"Really?" I asked, feeling a small shiver of apprehension as I reached to finger the bandages again. "No one will find it?"

"No one will be able to find ashes in a giant's digestive tract, I promise." He answered quietly, shooing my fingers away from the bandages again.

I stared at him for a long moment then sighed as relief flooded through me for the second time in my life. I seemed to sink deeper into the bed as more of my muscles relaxed. "Your name is Skoll, yes?" I asked, remember Forseti saying is name before sending the blonde to deal with Thor. The warrior nodded calmly, watching me with dark hazel eyes. "Where is Forseti?" I asked finally, unable to keep the question down any longer.

"Trying to calm your brother down." The blonde responded and offered me another drink of water.

I drank some with an inward wince. When he pulled the glass away I asked, "Jor is upset?"

"Oh yeah." Skoll answered, chuckling ruefully.

"I should go to them. Jor is fearsome when he's upset...and I am already feeling better." I added the last with regard toward the cup of water.

The young warrior seemed uncertain then finally sighed. "Well you definitely look better and I was told to give you whatever you wanted, so...." He reached down to uncover me carefully, revealing that I'd been dressed in a loose tunic and pajama pants before being put to bed.

I yipped in some surprise and dismay when he leaned down and simply picked me up and carried me from the room with no apparent effort. He had one arm around my back while the other arm was wrapped under my legs at the knees. This said a great deal to me both about his strength as well as the state of my own body to weight so little. I flushed with shame but stayed still as he moved through the house, at least being a small, cooperative burden.

He walked down a few corridors then pushed a door open with his foot and immediately I heard voices shouting. "You are a madman!" was Jormungandr's familiar voice. "Surely there were ANY other ways to remove that collar!"

"It has been upon him for centuries, was crafted by dwarves and gods, I beg of you please, tell me your solutions that might have been better. Besides...it is already done." Forseti. Calm. Logical. "Thanks to Loki's curse he will regenerate, perhaps better than ever."