The Child of Light and Shadow

Alfheim

MARCUS

"Is that it?" Patrick asks, his stomach growling as we ogle the strange, rodent-like animal we've been tracking for over an hour. "That doesn't seem right."

"It's definitely it," I reply. What other kind of giant rodent would there be? The thing's the size of a baby horse.

"The color is all different," Snow grumbles. "Maybe it's a different one?"

"No, no," I sigh, shaking my head. "The man would have told us if there were other giant rodents around. That's not something you just forget."

"It's a bit bigger than what he described," the Apostle says, hesitant to move in for the kill. In case you're wondering what this is all about, I'm going to give you a recap.

First we came through the Doorway – you know, after Jonah kindly shoved me through it. We wound up on Alfheim, but it turns out there are two Doorways on the island, and the one that was previously linked to the one the djinns use isn't close to civilization. In fact, we wound up near the coast. Though the Enlightened Sea looks tempting, it's really not meant to be swam in. There are over a hundred types of sharks, krakens and reavers, and those aren't even the dangerous ones! The snakes are what you have to watch out for. Just look at Jonah for example. Of course, it didn't help that the coast we landed on was called Blood Shoals. That's what the fishermen told us, but we didn't stick around long enough to find out why that's so.

One thing we notice instantly is that it's incredibly sunny here. As in, there's no mist of doom and gloom. We still haven't figured out how, but the fishermen did pray to the angels of Eden before getting in their boats, so Patty declared that they were responsible, and that was that.

"Fuck it," the Apostles in question curses, then lifts his dagger and throws it forward. It misses the brownbara, which is actually black in color, and the rodent runs off into the depths of the jungle. "Shit."

"Smooth move," Snow tells him, snickering despite almost certainly being in pain from hunger. We've been lost in the damn jungle – or forest – I don't know the difference – for two stinkin' days, and haven't dared to eat any of the berries. There seems to be a creek present every so often, so at least we didn't dehydrate. Still, not having a lot of fun right now.

"You're more and more like Jonah every day, little dude."

"Thank you."

"Not a compliment."

He huffs after that, turning away from me. "I'm hungry."

"I know, little dude." I turn to the man in charge, wondering if he's aware of my secret. A strong mage like him might be able to see through my glamour, even if there are two layers of it. Not only did I use a Glamour Pool, I also added a touch of my own illusions, anchoring the spell to the necklace around my neck. This appearance is just easier to get around in, since the buttholes of Valhalla aren't too kind to my people. I don't think Patty's the type of guy to care, but I'm so used to this appearance, it's hard to turn back. Besides, my parents are both illusionists, too. It's the magic attribute everyone in my family has, save for an uncle who went missing when I was young. None of the guys I met after joining the Festival of Death know I'm descended from Alfheim. Hell, most people don't even know there are kingdoms other than Valhalla. Education was never a primary concern there, which is probably why it was such a shithole. Though, now that we know Ozymandias is playing with the devils, I suppose it's possibly he gradually ran it into the ground on purpose. I'm not even sure how much our dear king, whatever his true name may be, knows about the kingdom.

"That wasn't a brownbara," Snow says with a hint of uncertainty, and then I notice that a strange shadow has fallen over us.

"Is there a massive version of that thing behind us, most likely its mother?" I ask, freezing up.