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"Brother, its me! lets stay together! Brother?"
"RAAAAAAGH"
"Brother?!"
Lights went out for the young prince of Nidavellir. A monster he called brother struck him with a mighty attack.
It was all darkness moments after. A darkness and silence that lasted for who knows how long.
"I loved you as a brother Otr, how could you?" a familiar voice echoed in the dark, interrupting the silence. "Fafnir and you are my family!!"
"Shut up!" Otr reprimanded.
"You decieved your family? So I was a mere toy?" the voice of the jotun princess said with disgust. "to think I fell for you! you are nothing more than garbage!"
"Awww did you think you could keep fooling everyone? You are a heretic, a traitor! Fafnir was a mistake and greatest mistake was to even think of you as a person! You are the mistake of the mistake!" Eitri's voice spewed her poison in the dark.
"I want to go home! I want to go back!" Fafnir's loud wail came in like thunder, sudden and loud. A voice telling of agony and pain.
All the voices were going on and on, echoing from a dark void. Otr's helpless cry did nothing to quell the voices. But Fafnirs wail was the loudest.
"Please shut up!" Otr kept crying to no avail.
"Otr... why? why did you do this to me?!" Fafnir addressed Otr amidst his intense pain. "I trusted you Otr!"
Otr grabs his head and falls on his knees. "I wanted to be with you forever! You are my brother!-"
"My brother?... Why would a brother wish me this fate?!" Fafnir groans in pain "I dont want anything to do... with.. agh.. with the one that caused me this pain... that wont let me go home..."
The voices grew louder and louder. thorny plants began to slither and wrap Otr, squeezing him with the thorny vines.
"But Eitri made you this monster!"
"I did not want to kill! I wanted to go home! You made me kill...you denied me my home... and you destroyed the family I made." Fafnir replied. "Reginn was the one who brought me peace..." Fafnir's voice fonally calmed down on the last sentence.
The vines squeeze Otr and begin engulfing him.
"Brother... Im sorry..." Otr pleaded. "I dont deserve to be called family..."
"You are?" an unknown voice asks. "Who is guilty of this fate?"
"Me. I was so desperate... I wanted my brother forever. I wanted it all... and I lost him... and-"
The vines engulf Otr and silence takes over once again in the dark. Dead silence sets in once again.
"Urgh... where am I?" Otr felt dull and pretty heavy. His head hurt. He did not recall anything he saw while he was out, but the stress remained in a second plane.
The dwarf looked around at what appeared to be a battlefield. There were pools of blood, abandoned weapons, and fallen soldiers everywhere, both dvergr and human.
"Ah right! Fafnir!... where..." as Otr looked around, there were several bits of what appeared to be Gullinbursti pieces. Eventually he came across the face that was unique to Fafnir's Gullinbursti. "Reginn... she did it." his hands began to shake as he picked up the face plate. "Brother why?... I" he recalled the last thing he saw before his lights went out. Fafnir's behemoth form launched an attack on him. "This is not what I wanted."
Suddenly steps were heard from a short distance. Otr turned around quickly, dropping the face plate in the process. "Who is...?"
"Answer me this. Are you dead?" a tall man with an intimidating appearance approached Otr. His body was glowing blue, and his face pale. He was followed by a woman of similar appearance.
"Me? Who are you and why do you care?"
"Just answer the question." the woman stated.
Otr flinched as a purple glow in the shape of a butterfly flutters from behind him andonto the woman's finger.
Otr put two and two together from the strangers' appearance.
"Im going to Hel this soon, I see. Tell death to just take me to her realm already." He said, with defeat on his voice.
"No. Death sovereign doesnt personally take the fallen anymore. Hel was felled by none other than the summoner your sister fought alongside with. I no longer take people to that realm in her name either. But I still have come for you." The tall man took a step forward.
Otr stepped back. "That was never my sister. And that summoner...They took everything from me."
The tall man frowns. "You threw it away. You already had everything. A family. A title. Love. A home. Despite the sins you commited you had everything to live a life and redeem yourself. But you threw it all away in a delusion of power and greed. Greed over someone."
"Wait how did- just who are you?" Otr tensed up.
"We are people left behind by others. People with no home. People with sins that made us monsters. But people that wish nothing but peace and a better fate for those that were close to us." the man replies with a soft tone of voice.
The butterfly on the woman's finger flutters and morphs into a human shape with wings. The femenine figure with dark colored clothes and thorny vines made apparent what she was. It became obvuous she was the culprit behind the hellish nightmare.
"The horrid nightmare... you did that." Otr realized. "what do you freaks even want from me!?"
"Your wish is to bring Fafnir back to you." the woman spoke. "Is that all?"
"Yes, now please leave me alone if you do not have him or can bring him to me." Otr wajnted to be done with it.
"That is an incomplete truth" said the dokkalfar. "You want the people that you called your family back."
"Fafnir is the only family I had."
"False. You also considered princess Reginn one of yours. Nightmares are a manifestation of guilt. I did not fabricate your nightmare out of my own doing. I brought up what you harbored inside. Nightmares always carry truths one wishes to hide the most."
"I know you know I am terrible! what could you want from me?" Otr yelled at the strangers.
"Your aid. We want to bring loved ones from beyond. The gods made a deal with us. But we wont take for granted that they will fullfil their end on their own accord. Eitri must have shown you ways to mimic the power of gods, but with us you will learn their weaknesses." the tall man takes a step forward. "You can have Fafnir back and mend your ties with him and Reginn. This is your only opportunity."
"I cannot be free of sin. I will not fall for yet another delusion. Leave me alone."
"It is not for your sake only. It is mostly in their name. Does your brother not deserve peace?" The woman raised her eyebrow.
"You cant speak for him. Go away." Otr looked away.
"If you insist..." The three of them left the place quickly. They vanished in seconds. Otr didnt even see the method in which they did. He just raised an eyebrow and huffed.
He spent time afterwards in the desolate land, trying to figure things out. Where to go. What to do. He took with him the mask of Fafnir's Gullinbursti.
He suddenly thought about the summoner. Perhaps the dame power he thought he could destroy would be able to bring his brother back. Then, the goal was clear. Otr ventured into Askr with no hesitation, he kept going with no hunger or thirst to feel, only fueled by motivation about his brother. His Gullinbursti was destroyed in the field, therefore he carried on a foot. Days went by until he finally reached the realm of Gates. His mission was to take the summoner. The summoner could summon fallen heroes thus he deduced he could bring Fafnir back to life.
One cold autumn night, Otr snuck into the castle. He shed his cape and put the Fafnir mask within it in order to shrink his silhouette, leaving his belongings inside a bush a few meters at the entry gate to the castle. Being small was good for stealth, especially with a black tight outfit during night time. Otr payed no mind to the cold of the night. He advanced stealthily from the gate and squeezed in gaps on the walls. The plenty of bushes in the outdoors and gardens were perfect for someone his size to take cover. He approached to the headquarters of the order of heroes.
Suddenly, he hears talking and the ground thuds at a pace of footsteps. Otr quickly takes cover.
"Say, princess Reginn, I know that when we finishing paying what we owe to the summoner, we will go back home. Once Dagr loses you can take her to Nidavellir." Nott's familiar voice was heard at a distance.
"Hey! Im not going to lose! Though I would gladly accept taking care of our little sister 24/7. We are going to have all the fun in the world!" Nott's sister was also present.
"Thanks ... well I truly appreciate your company. After all that happened I really do." Reginn spoke with less energy as usual.
"Aw sweet Reginn I know you miss your siblings very much. Both of us are genuine when we tell you that you are welcome in Jotunheimr as a family member. You are pretty strong too! Our mother would be impressed." Nott takes Reginn's hand.
Otr was watching with revulsion. The stupid crybaby and the dumb princess together, of course.
"I just wish I could give Fafnir what he was looking for. I still think about what he said. He wanted to go to his home." Reginn looks down.
"Dude, the man was probably having the worst time. Being this giant lizard thing yelling at all directions must have been really... intense, if not, painful. You gave him some peace. Wherever he is, Im sure he is proud of you and thankful." Dagr picks up Reginn and lets her sit on the jotun's forearm.
Otr's lip twitches like that of an angry dog upon hearing someone speak for his brother. Yet he keeps listening.
"I miss Fafnir very much..." Reginn began to cry. Nothing surprising. "I will never have the times I had with him and Otr. I-"
"The little piece of trash? He decieved everyone!" Nott exclaimed, indignant. "Honey get over him. He does not deserve you."
"Dont speak ill of him! I am not saying he isnt guilty but, He wanted the same thing... He was genuinely happy when the three of us were together." Reginn sniffed a snort back in, with little success to contain her runny nose. "I sometimes think that maybe the three of us could have headed to Fafnir's home... Maybe that way Otr wouldn't have done what he did. Fafnir would have loved to take us both to his home, he said so when-." Reginn broke into uncontrolable crying. Fafnir did share some last words with Reginn. "th-the three of-"
And then Otr remembered one more thing.
"Reginn is your sister? You have taken good care of her even after all of this, Otr!" Fafnir's voice from an old memory played in his head. "I am amazed at how good brother you are! It is a pleasure to work with you!"
Otr however felt a sting. A sudden jolt of emotional pain. He shed a tear. "No no no that is so stupid... stupid Reginn..." he tried to hold back to stay hidden. What Nott told Reginn next he could not pay attention to, not even to where they went.
Otr was overwhelmed by feelings and realization. He couldnt move. He stood there trying to hold his sadness. The realization that Fafnir loved both growing up. That Reginn was at no fault from the beginning and that her last action was because he caused it. If he was not so insecure and selfish, perhaps things would have gone so differently. And so did the thought kept rolling down as a tumbling rock down an endless steep path. The thoughts were paralyzing Otr in spot, even letting loud noises to come from his nose and occssional whimpers.
"Who is there?!" a voice was heard. "An inturder!"
"Ah s-shi-" before Otr could finish cursing, the ground beneath him opened. A gap beneath him swallowed him whole, leaving only a fading orange glow behind as it closed above him. Otr hit ground below as if he fell from some height.
"So, are those waterworks real or not?" A femenine voice called. Otr looked up. It was the intimidating people he encountered before.
"W-wait where am I-you again!?" Otr quickly wiped his face.
"You never told us if you were dead." The tall man spoke. "But it looks like you certainly did die, yet you cannot rest in peace."
"Wait what do you mean?"
"Have you eaten? have you felt parched? did you feel any cold?" The woman asked. "Look at your skin."
Otr looked at his skin. It was very pale, blue in some way, even. It felt dry too. He pressed against his wrist. He felt no pulse. He was dead.
"I am dead..." He said. "Then why am I still here? Why am I not rotting on the ground?!"
"Because we made a gamble." the man said. "We wager that you had redeeming qualities and sheer motivation that comes in line with our intentions. The kingdom of the dead now has its resources to the disposal of its dwellers. What the sovereign of the dead left behind we now put to use for greater good. we made the gamble with a valuable resource that is limited here in the realm of the dead. "
"Dont get it wrong. Your actions towards princess Reginn disgusts us. But we now know you would try to do one more thing right. And by the way, your brother is not here in Hel. We do not know where he is, as we do not know where our people have gone to, but likely if we get ours back, you get Fafnir as well." The woman took a step forward. "We ask you again, do you want your brother back? Do you think he should have a second chance? even a chance to go to his home?"
"He does." Otr responded. "I owe him everything. Including the time with Reginn. He loved her so much and I couldnt help to feel jealous. Guess it took me this much to think about it. I wanted to make him think home was where I am... when I did not listen to what he wanted. I am nothing without him, but I want to be the brother he deserved, but never got from me. I know it will not wash my sins away, but if I can undo his end, that is the very least I can do. And not only for him." Otr looked up at the tall man. "You better know what you are doing. Do not make me lose the time I dont have."
The tall man extends his hand. "Come with us, fellow sinner. You are not alone. "
Otr looks at the hand. It takes him a second to extend his. He shakes hands. The woman hands Otr his belongings he left behind which included his cape and the mask.
"My name is Alfonse. Yes, I was the prince of Askr, a different one. But you should call me Líf. She is princess Veronica of Embla, but please call her Thrasir. Our dokkalfar friends, Triandra and Plumeria should be waiting for us. We must not make them wait any longer."
The three of them enter a gate manifested by Lif which shuts after all of them go through.