"Yes, please, your grace."
"Freya will suffice," she answered with a smile, just as a slender woman in a green dress walked into the room carrying a tray with a pitcher and two glasses.
"My lady," she said and put the tray on the table, pouring a goblet full of honey colored liquid and offering it to the goddess.
"Mead?"
"Something better…" She winked and waited for the servant to pour me a glass. When she did, I gasped. Her pupils were slit like a cat's and were three different colors, each winding around the other, and her ears were pointed. I was staring at an honest to goodness elf. Lornca was an elf, too, but appeared human with pointed ears. The one standing in front of me had inhuman eyes, long tapered ears, and her skin was almost green. She was beautiful.
I lifted my left hand, the one not holding the goblet of whatever she had poured for me and spread my fingers between my middle and ring finger. "Live long, preposterously."
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. Thank you for the wine."
She bowed and left Freya and I sitting there, the goddess staring at me, and me staring at the floor trying not to feel like an insignificant bug. "So, why am I here?"
"Do you remember getting here?"
"Yeah. It was a long friggin' walk, ten miles through the snow barefoot, uphill both ways."
"And what were you doing before that?"
"Eating and getting stabbed!" My hand started shaking, and I almost dropped the goblet. Clutching it in both hands, I managed to get it to my lips and take giant gulp.
I swallowed fucking fire.
Literal flames licked my gullet as I tried to swallow, gave up, and let the liquid dribble out of my mouth onto my chest. The only thing I could do was lick my sleeves. So, I did.
"Are you all right?"
"Ntho. That burnthed."
"You are supposed to sip it, not inhale." She was laughing at me. In fact, when she wiped the corners of her eyes, little drops of amber fell to the polished floor.
"Wait. How am I here? Am I dead? Why does liquor burn a dead person? Should I even be able to drink? Where exactly is here?"
"Slow down."
"Sorry. Not every day you die."
"Not unless you are cursed."
"Am I?"
"No. I think you might actually lead a semi-charmed life, child. You died in battle. The odds were half that you would end up here."
"And the other half?"
"In care of Odin."
"And that would be bad?"
"If you wished to spend the rest of your existence here, no. But the odds of you ever seeing Midgard again would be nil."
"Oh. So…you're going to send me back?"
She nodded. "Once the mortals around you get over the shock of your untimely demise and try to heal you. I shall."
I set the goblet down on the table and stood up, slapping my knees as I did. "Sweet!"
"Sit."
I sat.
"You're not even going to ask why I'm going to send you back?"
"I'm sure you have your reasons."
"Or at what cost to you?"
"Do you like rice? My parents have a ton of it. Like literally tons. I can hook you up."
"I need you to focus."
"I don't think I can. I mean, you're not the first person, I mean goddess, to ask me that. Okay, you might be the first goddess, but literally hundreds of people, teachers, et cetera, have tried to get me to focus. I mean, there are prescription medications that would probably help if I wasn't a kitsune-Inari half-breed. I mean, I tried some Adderall at a club one time, but Special K seemed to work a little better, but that was more sleepy than focusy–"
She snapped her fingers, and my voice left me. I tried talking but only a bunch of wheezing sounds came out. "There. That's better."
I blinked at her in Morse code.
"As I was saying, I will send you back once they heal that fragile mortal coil of yours. I am keeping your heart beating slowly. Hopefully, you do not lose too much of your life blood before they can magic you back to health. Make no mistake, if it were not for my power, you would truly be dead, and there would be no going back. Consider it payment for the services you are going to render."
I blinked at her in confusion.
"You are going to kill Fenrir."
I blinked at her in shock. Then I looked around the room worriedly. If he even had an inkling…
"Do not worry. He cannot find you here. This memory, and our plans to rid the nine realms of any danger he poses, will be locked behind an unbreakable seal in that little brain of yours."
I blinked in consternation.
She stood up and walked around the table, taking another sip of her god-wine before setting the goblet down. I cringed away from her. She scared me a thousand times more than Fenrir ever had.
Deftly dodging the goblet with her ass, she sat down on the table in front of me and leaned closer, her nose nearly touching mine. "Are you afraid?"
I nodded.
"Good. That is as it should be. Fenrir is formidable. I do not envy the position he has put you in."
I opened my mouth to speak, gazing at her imploringly. With a snap of her fingers, my voice came back to me. "Help me."
"I am helping you."
"Not to kill him, to get him out of my head! I can't stand it anymore. I can't have a single solitary thought to myself. Help me break the chain he put on me." I started sobbing halfway through my rant, ending with my face in my hands.
Her gentle touch on my head burned like fire. My sobs turned to screams. "The chains that bind you are the same that bind him. If he has not found a way to chew through them, there is not a god in the nine realms who could aid you. Killing him is the only way to be free and to eliminate the threat to Asgard."
She doesn’t want to help me. She wants to help herself.
"No. By helping you I am helping the clan of gods who made me one of their own."
Shit. She can hear my thoughts.
"Quite clearly, and I must say that they are not any more organized than your speech."
I hope she can't tell how much I admire her and want to be like her when I grow up. She is the most magnificent goddess I have ever seen, and I bet she could break Fenrir's chains with a snap of her glorious fingers…
"Nice try."
"It was worth a shot."
She reached out and lifted my chin with the tips of her glorious fingers, forcing me to stare into her eyes. "I do see why he picked you. You have more power than you know, and you are quite the little entertainer."
"Amusing or annoying. I get both from different people. Sometimes the same people. Like half and half. Set a trashcan on fire and you get a laugh one day, do it again and they roll their eyes. People are so fickle."
"But not you."
"Nope. One speed. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, Captain Stubing."
"I do not recall any Torpedoes fired at the Love Boat."
Her knowledge of pop culture surprised me. She laughed when I blinked in shock. "You have cable?"
She shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment. "It is time. They have healed you and are frantically trying to get you to open those pretty little eyes of yours." She started blinking rapidly, producing a tear in the corner of her eye. She wiped it and put it in my palm. "Just so you know this wasn't a dream," she said and closed my fingers around the tiny sliver of gold. "One last gift from me to you," she whispered and leaned back in, gently kissing me on my forehead. Warmth spread through me, and I closed my eyes, relishing in the feeling. When I opened them, I smiled up at Hiroki. "Hey, foxy."
"Kaede-sama," he whispered and collapsed on top of me, sobbing.
∞ ∞ ∞
Gasping, I sat up in bed, alone in the infirmary. At least I was alone in my curtained off area. After Hiroki had collapsed on top of me, I fell asleep stroking his hair. I vaguely recall the frantic voices of the guys, but they were muffled and not really making much sense. The only things th
at felt remotely real were Hiroki's sobs against my chest and the warmth of the gold in my hand. I didn't even need to look at it to know it was there, or what it meant.
"Hello?" I didn't yell, the pain in my chest wouldn't allow it, but I managed to croak it out loudly enough that the school nurse opened the curtain and blinked at me in surprise.
"You are awake." Lornca gave me a small smile.
"Kinda sorta. My chest hurts though, you got anything for that?"
"I am almost afraid to give you any medication."
"How about a drink?"
She blinked again in surprise. "I see no harm. I have some wine…" She got up and headed for her office.
Sighing, I tried to sit up in my bed, but the pain was almost overwhelming.
That should suffice to teach you to be more careful. I am surprised you survived.
Don't get all choked up over it or anything.
Fenrir snorted in my head. It was your own stupidity that put you in danger.
Hey! She literally came at me out of nowhere. There was nothing I could have done. Nobody could have stopped her.
You could have.
Uh, I was turned around.
When you bested her in battle? You should have taken her life. It would have been the honorable thing to do, and you would not have almost died from your lack of foresight.
My hindsight isn't much better than my foresight. Can you shush now? Everything hurts.
Should I not offer to heal you?
They did. I'm put back together, but everything still hurts.
Do you wish to be made whole once again?
No hurty?
No pain, he answered with a chuckle.
Maybe. Can I try the wine first? See if that works?
No.
Thunder boomed outside the infirmary windows, or maybe it was just in my head. Either way, my ears were ringing, and I lost vision in my left eye as the white walls illuminated around me. Lornca came running through the curtain, stopped, and dropped the bottle of wine she'd been carrying. The bottle shattered against the ground, splashing red liquid over her bare legs and shooting glass across the room.
Without taking her eyes from me, she reached in her pocket and pulled out an ordinary looking, gray stone and held it palm up before her. I braced for the blast, but she simply spoke to it. "Headmaster to the infirmary, please."
"You have rocks for intercoms?"
She nodded, unable to even blink.
"What?"
Shaking her head slightly, she walked over to the nightstand table beside my bed and opened the drawer, pulling out a hand mirror. She held it out in front of my face, and my fingers swept up, running over my skin to feel for the glowing blue tattoos in the mirror. Of course, I couldn't feel them, but the light was blocked wherever I touched. Even my eyes were glowing, as well as the chain around my neck. I'd seen them once before, and they faded after time. I just hoped they faded again.
No, they will not. Fenrir's voice chuckled in my head.
"Fuck. At least my chest doesn't hurt." I nodded appreciatively as I stretched my shoulders, testing my newly healed flesh.
The door to the infirmary burst open, and Tatsuo skidded to a stop just inside the doorway, my father trailing in behind him. He took one long look at me, closed his eyes and swallowed, and ran across the room. A hit, a slap, maybe some finger shaking. I didn't know what to expect. Wrapping his arms around me and sobbing was the absolute last fucking thing in the universe I'd ever imagined. He even repeated my name over and over as he held me and shook. I blinked at Uncle, helplessly. He just smiled.
"Father?"
My uncertainty brought him back to reality. He let go immediately, standing and straightening his clothes, wiping his eyes on the back of his hand. "You are awake."
"Hai."
"When the nurse called, I feared the worst. I am relieved you are all right."
"What happened?" Uncle Tatsuo asked the nurse, not me.
"She woke up, complaining about pain. I went to get her something, and when I came back, she was no longer in pain and covered in runes."
"Just my face," I said defensively.
"Daughter, look at your arms and legs…"
I looked down and cursed under my breath. My hands were free, but tiny little Viking axes and other glyphs completely covered me. I looked like an Icelandic raver princess. "Seriously? How the hell am I supposed to sleep? I'm a kami-damned night light."
Uncle Tatsuo chuckled softly but stopped as soon as my father turned and glared. "It faded the last time."
"I'm not so sure this time," I said, not wanting to tell them what Fenrir had said. Or that he was even talking to me still. I sure as shit wasn't going to mention Freya. Or think about her.
"Only time will tell," Tatsuo answered, nodding solemnly.
You wish to not glow?
Uh… Duh.
Find me…
Glow, it is.
One way or another, Little Fox, you shall do my bidding.
You forgot to say, "Muhahahaha."
I do not understand.
Nevermind. But blackmailing isn't cool. You're supposed to make me want to do your bidding. Not force me into it. That's just evil and pisses me off, making me want to do the opposite of what you want. Evil. Eviiiiil.
I shall impart unto you great wisdom. There is no evil. There is no good. There is only desire.
Desire?
A man kills his brother for his gold. Another man kills his brother to save the life of his wife. One has just reasons. One does not. But no matter the reason, both are dead.
That just hurt my head.
Fenrir's sigh hurt it even more. When the room came back into focus, all three of my visitors were staring at me with a look of something much greater than worry. Maybe fear. "What?"
"You stopped glowing," my father said in relief, but he was still staring at my face.
"Well that's good," I breathed out the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Until I noticed my father still staring at me. "What?"
He took the mirror still in Lornca's hand and held it up for me to see.
The runes weren't glowing, but they were still there. Faint and gray, almost like a tattoo. Just the twin axe runes on my face, the rest were gone. "Well, I guess it is better than looking like a glowstick."
"They are almost…pretty. I do not care for their significance, but they are hardly noticeable."
It was Fenrir's attempt at a compromise. I could live with that. Thank you, I whispered to him, meaning it.
I shall leave you to your guests. Make no mistake, you will come find me.
I'm more inclined to do so now. I wasn't lying, either. I still wasn't going to do it, but the odds of it happening did increase one-millionth of one percent. If I had to choose finding him or gouging out my eyeballs with a rusty melon baller and then rinsing the wound with yak spunk, I might go look for him with sunglasses and a blindfold.
"Kaede," Tatsuo started, sighing before he continued, "it is dangerous to keep conversing with him. The more interaction and stimulation he has, the more he wakes."
"You're preaching to the choir, Oji." I smiled at him. I hadn't called him Oji, the Japanese word for uncle, since I was a little girl. "He keeps talking to me, trying to force me to go to Helheim and find his body. The glowing runes were his latest ploy."
"You must not!" Lornca sounded almost panicked.
"Really? I shouldn't? 'Cause I was just about to go to Helheim, you know, where that other god who hates my guts and wants me dead, lives. Was just about to go grab a taxi…"
"My apologies."
I looked back at my uncle and my father. "Seriously, if you two can do something about Mr. Chatty, I'm all ears. But I can promise you I'm doing the best I can." I gulped internally, thankful I couldn't share Freya's plan with them. Not that I was going to go through with that, either. I couldn't kill a mouse, let alone a wolf. Or a god. Or a wolf god. "Well, dying takes a lot out of a girl. Think I'm gonna
grab a snack and head to bed."
I stood up to leave and six hands pushed me back down. "You aren't leaving." Lornca was the first to get the words out.
"Uh… He healed me. I'm fine now."
"I'll be the judge of that after a few days of recuperation."
She didn’t know me very well. The odds of me sitting in bed for two days doing absolutely nothing were about as good as me charging into hell to free Fenrir.
"Sure, Doc," I said and popped to the other side of the room, waving and slipping out the infirmary door.
"Let her go," Uncle Tatsuo said with a chuckle.
Chapter 6
"Are you sure?"
I looked at Hiroki and nodded. "I feel fine. What am I supposed to do all day? Sit in our room and do absolutely nothing until they serve lunch?"
"No. You would get into way too much trouble. Maybe you should accompany me. But you are not to lift anything heavier than the weight of your good judgement."
"I don't have any good judgement."
"Precisely." He knocked my hands away from the buttons of my white shirt and slowly started to do them up, one by one. I grinned at him the whole time and kept twisting, touching his hands with my boobs.
"You getting distracted? Huh? Huh?"
"You are going to need more than that to distract me, Kaede-sama."
I gasped. "Did you just say I have itty bitty titties?"
His eyes widened, and he stared at me in contrite dismay. "Kaede-sama, I would never! I meant that it would take more than…" He trailed off, finally realizing I was teasing him.
Grinning, I reached out and caressed the front of his pants. "Something like this, perhaps?"
"Hai. That would do it." He fumbled with a button. "But please refrain. You are the one who wished for food before class. We will not make it to breakfast."
"Hmmm. Might have to find something here to suck on then. I'm suuure you could find something to eat."
He fumbled with the last button, ignoring me completely. "Had you not returned to the room last night complaining of starvation, I might be more inclined to feast upon your flesh and let you devour me. Perhaps after class. If you behave yourself."
Oh, it's game on now, bitch. I saw it as a moral imperative to make him bust a nut before the end of Home Ec. Maybe even in Home Ec. Whip up a fresh batch of man chowder when Professor Shfinkterheim wasn't looking.
A Tail of Two Kitties: A Reverse Harem Academy Tail (The Fox and the Hounds Book 2) Page 5