Bodil.

  Tyr and I moved into the forest to gather our strength. "Tyr, I need to know more about you. Why were you tied up really in that barn? You worked for William, so why?" I questioned him.

  "Because when William started to throw children in the mouth of the mountain, I also that he lied to me. I am not an evil man, Bodil. When people stopped volunteering, William started to make demands. When his demands were not met, he had his men...us throw them in. Men, woman, children. It didn't matter to William, as long as he was getting what he wanted." He told me.

  "Which is what?" I asked.

  He looked my silent for a moment then said, " I think you already know what he wants. I know who you are." His words made me freeze. He could see my tension and raised his hands in front of him, "I swear, I will not harm you, Bodil." He stepped back. "I could have killed you by now if I wanted you dead."

  He was right, he probably could have killed me already, and who would stop him from doing it? I took a deep breath and sighed. "Alright, who am I?" I questioned him.

  "William called you Bodil. Said you and your Brother were going to help him bring on Ragnar?k." He said this staring into my eyes, not looking away.

  "I will not be apart of whatever this man wants from me. I don't even know William, aside from what Toa mentioned about him."

  "Well, William knows you, and he knows that you are more then you let on." He said half laughing.

  "I am the same as you, or anyone else." I said sternly. He raised his eyebrows and nodded, "Yeah."

  "So where in the mountain are Kara and Toa?" I asked him for a change in topic.

  He didn't answer right away. "Not far. Tell me again, Kara had a vision of the mountain, fire flowing from it?" He asked me.

  "Yeah, two nights ago. We were coming to help the people relocate to a safe place. Kara said the island was changing." I explained.

  "Well why would she have a vision of people she was meant to save, if they were already dead?" Tyr asked.

  I shrugged, "I don't know." I had a thought that I wasn't willing to share with Tyr. What if we weren't meant to save the people of the village, but rather know they were sacrificed to the mountain itself.

  "Tyr, what is William's plan? Is he helping the Ud?de break the doorway between the realms?"

  "He told us that there was a war between gods, fought for centuries. He was choosing sides early." He said quietly.

  "Choosing sides..." I repeated. "So Ota really can't fight this fight without us."

  "What? Ota? Why would Ota need help from mortals to fight his own fight?" He asked me.

  I stared at Tyr. He knew more then he was leading on. I shrugged and started to pick up sticks and smaller burnable items. "Who knows? Maybe we should continue to trust in Ota, Gorn, all the gods and they will continue to grant us the luxuries they have granted us. Without Ota, the magic will leave these lands."

  Try smiled, "Is that a bad thing? To be blessed by new gods?"

  "Is it a bad thing to live without magic?" I paused pretending to think about that. "Listen, I think that a lot more people would be dead right now without magic, don't you?" I asked him.

  "What about the people here? Wouldn't they be alive without magic?" He asked.

  "Deeds like that... Dark magic is not the same as encouraging crops to grow, or using magic to protect yourself and your family. Or helping the sick live. There is so much more good to magic."

  "You are right. Its not the same, that's why I couldn't stand by William after what he did. I won't be apart of Ragnar?k." He said looking at his hands as though he was disgusted at what he had done with them.

  "Tyr, you must have known what William wanted. He paid you to be apart of it." I said without sympathy.

  "No. Not exactly."

  He started to build the fire with me. Silently building up the sticks and dead leaves, then sent a small flame from his finger tips into the depths of them. I reached my hands out to warm them up. I sat beside the fire and cleared my throat.

  "I know you know more then you are willing to tell me." I said looking into the fire. I reached my hand out and pulled a small flame from the fire letting it dance in my hand. I was natural when I didn't try to use the magic.

  "William was a liar. For all I know he lied about your brother and you as well."

  "All you need to know is that we are no more special then two fauns born together. Our story is not a happy one." I told him.

  He looked at me from the side, "So you are not a god." He said it flatly.

  "No. I am nothing." I whispered.

  Tyr put his hand on my knee. "No one is simply nothing." He laughed a little.

  I smiled and pushed his hand off of my knee. "Back up, I am not as friendly as you may think." We both laughed.

  A roar filled the air. It felt as though it was coming from right behind us. The roar was guttural and made my skin crawl. I jumped to my feet. "What the hell is that?" I asked in panic.

  He was stomping the fire out already, "How would I know? Whatever it is, we don't need to gain it's attention." He said in a rush. He stepped towards me and grabbed my wrist and began to run. I wasn't going to argue that whatever it was, hiding from it was definitely an option.

  We stayed as quiet as we could hiding against a large tree trunk. "Where is it?" I asked Tyr in a whisper.

  "Shh" he hissed at me as he pointed towards a giant shadow. It wasn't moving. Did it know we were here? Was it watching us?

  I could feel sweat dripping into my eyes, I didn't dare to wipe it away, I was to scared to move. The shadow gave a groan as it raised itself to its feet. "What is that?" I asked again hushed.

  Tyr didn't respond to me. I turned to look at him, he was staring at the beast not moving. "It's William's pet. A shadow sent to hunt us down. It really was to easy leaving that farm."

  He sighed and finally looked at me. "If we can get to the cave entrance, I am sure it wont follow us inside."

  I nodded, ready to run. "Let's go."

  Tyr stood up and immediately starting running in the opposite direction of the shadowed beast. I followed him running as fast as I could to keep up with him. Again a roar filled the air, being so much closer to us this time I could feel it in every part of my body. Fear filled me. My throat was tight, my heart was pounding in my chest. Was I about to die? The air around me seemed to thicken, everything around me pausing. I felt my breath catch in my throat, and then a painful pop in my ears. Everything was stopped around me. A fly was stuck floating in a single spot in the air. I poked it thinking it would float away like a seed in the wind. It only moved slightly out of place. What happened? I turned to Tyr thinking he was also unaffected by whatever was happening, however he was also frozen.

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  "Well isn't that great." I hissed to myself. What was I supposed to do? Leave Tyr here after he had helped me? Sighing out hard I pushed Tyr over causing him to fell onto his side, but still he didn't move. Now he just laid on the ground in the same position he was standing. I grabbed his arm and started to pull him as hard as I could, being that he was a lot bigger then I was. I stepped back out of breath hoping the freeze would last as long as we needed it to. I looked around in a panic for a place to hide. Ota where are you now?

  "Damnit, what am I suppose..." I am so stupid, I thought. I reached my hand towards Tyr, imagining him raising off the ground. His body complied with my thoughts and he floated upwards just high enough I could pull him effortlessly. I ran pulling him with me. He was still heavy, but without resistance I was starting to make distance between us and whatever shadow beast was coming for us.

  I spotted a small cave entrance in the side of the mountain and went towards it. It was a hole probably made by bears, but at this point I would take my chance with a bear before I stuck around outside to find out what was coming. Tyr started to protest behind me, pulling his arm from my grip. I spun around and let him drop to the ground with a thud.

  "Ugh, what the hell is happening? What have you done to me?" He protested as he pulled him self to his feet. Another roar but farther away from us filled the air again.

  "You want to talk? Or you want to hide from whatever that thing is?" I asked him out of breath.

  "Yeah, yeah. Let's go." He followed me as I ducked down and went into the cave.

  Behind me a light rose from a flame, Tyr has summoned a little fire in his hand to light out way. We moved silently into the tunnel.

  "I thought this would have been a bears den or something, but its more like a tunnel." I whispered.

  "One of many in this mountain. It is old after all." Tyr said to me as if this was knowledge everyone knew. "We should be careful though, William's men would have scouted most of the tunnels by now. We don't want to come by anyone, especially if William is still." He stopped talking and looked at me. "Murdering people." he sighed out.

  "Maybe we do." I said coldly. "If he has hurt Kara..." I shook my head, Kara was important to me. I haven't known her long, but she is family. Family I didn't know I had. Family I wasn't about to let someone take from me. "I'll kill this William if he hurts my family." I said to Tyr not looking at him, but staring into the dark tunnel in front of us.

  He didn't say anything to me for a few moments after that.

  I stopped walked an leaned again the wall of the tunnel. "I need to rest a moment." I admitted.

  Tyr sat on the ground, and set his flame in front of him. He flicked his hand slightly and made it larger warming the space around it. I was cold. Cold from fear of that shadowed beast. I sat beside Tyr and warmed my hands.

  "So William wants to help the Ud?de. Why?" I asked him. "And no lies." I said more stern.

  "He said they will bring a new world, once of peace. One were the awakened can live in without care or worry. A lot of our kind would like that. We shouldn't have to worry about using our magic in the open." He said

  "Why can't you? Where I come from, magic isn't even known of." I told him. "The awakened are called Heks. Myths. Not real."

  He nodded. "Most parts of the world are like that. It shouldn't be like that."

  "Magic can be dangerous, no?" I asked him. "Our ancestors left for a more peaceful like here on Nef. And now someone is taking advantage of the changes happening in our world. Tyr, the Ud?de will not bring the life William has promised you. They will bring destruction. They will dominate this world without intervention." I shrugged. "They must not be allowed to come here. Not only will they kill human lives, they will kill the gods that protect this realm." I looked at him, wanting to know if he understood the destruction he was apart of, regardless if he liked it.

  "William found a crack in the mountain. Inside near the river of fire. I was a sealed by a door. A door with the symbol of the gods on it. For years him and others searched for ways to open it." He looked in my eyes. "I know who you are. I know you were once before, many many years ago. It was your families blood that opened seal. William grew tired of looking for the twin souls. He actually thought you were both very much dead." He stood up and stretched his back and warmed his hands over the flame. " Then he found that your family actually stretched right back here." He looked at me waiting to catch up.

  "Kara." I said. My stomach started to tighten. "He led Kara to the mountain. But the vision? How?"

  "William is not a good man. If there is one thing I will regret for the rest of my life, it will be that I met and worked for William, got that?" He was emotional as he said this, his cheeks reddening and his eyes glossy. "He knows and does things I have never seen another do. I don't even know if he is truly like us at all."

  "What? You think William is more then a mortal?" Could William be a descendant of a demi god? I was thinking deeply about this when Tyr grabbed my arms crouched in front of me, startling me out of my thoughts.

  "He's has already brought one Ud?de here." He was sweating.

  "Are you alright?" I asked him.

  "Never again will I be alright." he hissed. Then turned to the tunnel and pointed at something. "There. Down there, I can feel it. Can't you?" He shook his head and then covered his ears with his hands. "He is here." He laid on the ground and curled up like a sick child. This man was large, and muscular. A man who I would have thought as a brave man. What was happening?

  I stood up and looked down the tunnel into the dark. He was right, something was there. I could feel a buzzing in the air like lightning had just struck, but only slightly. I stepped over Tyr laying on the ground whimpering and started to moved into the darkness. This was not an Ud?de. This was something else.

  Moving carefully not to trip over something, I kept one hand against the side of the short tunnel wall. Something was pulling me towards it. Something familiar, yet new.

  The tunnel stopped at an opening that led into a small cave. The top of the cave hung with stalactite reaching down creating a sort of maze. I worked through them to come to a door of metal. I pushed against it wondering if it would open. It didn't budge. I lit a small flame in my hand like Tyr did earlier and held it up to see the door. There was no handles, and no locks that I could see. Pushing against it a second time, and then kicked the door hurting my toes.

  "Ouch." I could hear Tyr down the tunnel moaning softly still, assuming he was still in pain from whatever he was feeling. "What the hell is keeping this locked?" asking out loud.

  Deciding that I would go to Tyr and try to wake him up from whatever was happening to him, and if he knew if this door was possible to access so we can get out of here. Turning away and only a few steps away I heard the metal hinges creek on the door. Looking back at the door I found it open, inwards. Hmmm. That small voice that keeps you from thinking twice about things started to sound off a thousand reasons why I should in the least wait for Tyr to open that door. I didn't I walked back over and pulled it open.

  Darkness...