deceived, by illusion

[purposeful_glory]

Sigyn goes on hanging around the Three and Thor and Loki. Fandral, charmed in spite of her vocal disgruntlement, doesn't go so far as to kick him out of bed for her embarrassment, let alone insist on kicking him out of their practices; Hogun is too quiet to bother objecting if she harbors negative opinions; Volstagg is put off but not enough to throw her weight behind her objections. Thor considers his fighting respectable enough, and Loki doesn't mind the addition at all.

Loki wants to be queen one day and has not neglected learning to talk to people, learning the names of important sorts - but she has neglected assembling close friends (why should she do such a thing when she can tell them so little about herself?), and piggybacks on Thor's. So she is invited along when Thor decides she wants to go hunting for giant aurochs and thereby enjoy the supposedly superior flavor of fresh-killed beef one has personally killed.

And when Sigyn asks if he can come, well, nobody contradicts Thor when she says "Very well," even though this follows a longish pause.

Aurochs, come out, come out, wherever you are.

Comments

[thevictorious]

"It's just so—" He gestures vaguely, unable to properly articulate his difficulty. "Imagine that you want to learn to read, but there is no such thing as a letter or a word, only entire books set out all of a piece. The finest of scholars can discern with careful study which part of the book is written on a particular page, and use that understanding to create new books. Except that it would not take me ten centuries in that scenario to figure out how letters worked."

[purposeful_glory]

"That... sounds very frustrating. I've never tried to learn anything as poorly organized as that. No wonder you stopped."

[thevictorious]

"I stopped as soon as I realized that it was stop or spend the next thousand years in pursuit of true literacy."

[purposeful_glory]

"And then you and your spare brain picked up feint-heavy combat skills instead."

[thevictorious]

"Oh, I already had those."

[purposeful_glory]

"Ah, here I was thinking you chose unconventional after ruling out convention."

[thevictorious]

"Oh, I was always going to end up a disgrace to society; the only question was precisely what manner of disgrace."

[purposeful_glory]

"What were your other candidates?"

[thevictorious]

"Oh, far too many to list."

[purposeful_glory]

"The highlights?"

[thevictorious]

"Many were the sort of thing one hears in a bawdy tavern song. And I don't remember the rhymes."

[purposeful_glory]

"Pity. The rhymes are often very cunning."

[thevictorious]

He giggles.

[purposeful_glory]

They've been moving into more sparsely vegetated areas throughout their hike, and have now come to a small rise, gently sloped, soft underfoot. It will be a good place from which to view any aurochs that might be beyond it.

[thevictorious]

Sigyn takes two steps onto the rising ground.

Then he pauses, and takes two steps back.

"I don't mean to alarm you," he says, "but I suggest that we head back the way we came. Immediately."

[purposeful_glory]

Loki pauses, steps backwards, and says, "And what is it that you don't wish to alarm me with?"

[thevictorious]

She probably knows better than to make sudden movements if he tells her; she doesn't seem like the type to intentionally provoke a creature that has been known to give entire bands of warriors trouble when there are only two of them and Sigyn at least did not come armed for battling fearsome monsters.

"Landwurm."

[purposeful_glory]

Loki continues to step backwards carefully.

Oh, yes, that wrinkle in the hill does look a little nongeological.

"Ah."

[thevictorious]

"Let's hope it isn't hungry," says Sigyn, moving slowly away from the hill but keeping both it and Loki in sight. "The last time I was this close to a landwurm, I nearly died, and it's not an experience I yearn to repeat."

[purposeful_glory]

"I've never been this near one before." Sloooow stepping. "I wouldn't guarantee I'd die, but I don't want to try it either."

[thevictorious]

"I am glad we agree."

Now if only they can achieve a safe distance from the landwurm without anything drawing its attention to them and without it deciding they would make a nice afternoon snack.

[purposeful_glory]

Is this slightly heaving coil of wurm a worrying sign?

It's enough to shake Loki's footing; she has a choice between tumbling down the "hill" or jumping. She chooses jumping.

This kicks aside enough of the moving bit of wurm to reveal that its face was right under her.

Its face is now displaying its many teeth, and advancing quickly after her while she reaches the peak of her leap.

[thevictorious]

To the extent that it is possible to be prepared for fighting a landwurm, Sigyn isn't. He brought his hunting bow, a short sword, and miscellaneous knives. Without a perfect opportunity, which this isn't, the bow won't do much more than annoy it. The sword isn't all that much better, especially considering how close to the wurm he'd have to get in order to use it. In short, trying to engage would be utter foolishness.

But here is Loki, who doesn't want to be eaten by a landwurm either, and in fact probably holds this preference more strongly than Sigyn does, and who is currently in midair above its lunging jaws.

This logic comes to his mind all at once, not in an orderly chain but as a unified vision, and he draws his sword and hurls himself at the monster's head. He manages to get between it and Loki. Well done, Sigyn. Now the next step in the plan is to survive its redirected attention and, if he is very very lucky, stab it in the eye before it eats him.

[purposeful_glory]

This is a little complicated for any plan which involves Loki engaging with the landwurm, and she certainly isn't going to abandon him to its maw.

Lævateinn shoots out to colossal length in her hands, bladed on both ends, and she kicks off the ground as soon as she hits it to leap back wurmward. She can't match the wurm's reach if it decides it wants to strike her, but she can be really hard to swallow, if she keeps her grip on her weapon.

The wurm gets stabbed in a coil. Its skin is thick stuff easily mistaken for mossy ground, easily scratched but not easily parted, and trying to cut it too deeply will make it easy to wrench her spear away - but all she wants is to re-distract it, away from Sigyn. Its jaws snap shut on air and it looks between its possible targets. Its coils shift beyond its swaying head.

"Run!" she hisses, except then a tree behind them creaks, and it turns out there is more of the wurm there.

There is more of the wurm everywhere.

"Fuck!"

[thevictorious]

Sigyn declines to run. As soon as the wurm misses its bite and looks away, he darts to the side and tries to climb those shifting coils. If he can get behind or on top of the head, he can kill it the same way he killed the last one.

Of course, the last one was much smaller. And he had a longer sword. But he can still manage it, if he is both perfect and lucky.