The Rainbow Bridge stood waiting, as Magni looked back at the Asgardian side of his family preparing for war. It was so unfair, he was a man now, almost sixteen winters old, yet he was being sent back to Midgard whilst his twin brother, Modi, who was all of thirty minutes older, was being allowed to fight alongside their father, Thor and the All-Father!
Magni had expected, hoped, that he would be allowed to fight beside his father and grandfather at Ragnarök, only to find that he was going to be sent back to Midgard as Fimbulwinter set in.
“At least one of the family must survive” was how his father had put it when Magni had complained, and in fairness the prophecy of Ragnarök did not hold out a great deal of hope for the survival of anyone who remained here on Asgard. No, as the youngest male, even if it was only by thirty stinking minutes he reminded himself, he was duty-bound to return to Midgard and preserve his grandfather’s lineage as well as protecting his mother and her family should the devastation of the ‘great battle to come’ resound throughout the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil.
Reluctantly, he stepped onto the bridge and took a couple of faltering steps, hoping against hope that his father would call him back. Magni didn’t turn round though he desperately wanted to and when no one shouted out he accepted his fate and headed across the bridge, desperately trying to stifle his ‘unmanly’ tears.
He stepped forward as the bridge vanished from beneath his feet. However, instead of stepping out into the earthly home of his mother’s family, he felt disorientated as he found himself in a large torch-lit, stone-built hall standing before a young female stroking the massive head of a giant wolf several times the size of a normal beast.
The girl had silvery-white hair under a massive helmet with huge ivory-coloured horns. Her eyes were dark and glowed like the night sky, which seemed to be what she had formed her clothing out of. Magni was sure he was in the presence of a powerful Völva, a witch, or possibly some unknown goddess.
Before he could speak, a young blonde haired male dressed in strange but colourful clothes fell from the ceiling, landing just in front of him. A quick glance confirmed the man-child was unarmed, though in these strange days he could not discount his being a Seiðmenn or mage.
The girl standing in front of them smiled even as the giant wolf growled low in its throat, then she waved her hand towards them and their clothes changed. The boy was now dressed in a skin-tight blue and red costume, while his own furs, tunic and trousers vanished to be replaced by a top and trousers consisting of remarkably well-made and comfortable cloth.
Firewall immediately looked up and saw a small, but extremely muscular young man in a skin-tight t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off and well-fitting Levi jeans. As Chris’ tried to take in what was happening, two Viking war hammers suddenly appeared, floating, revolving round the other male like two moons in orbit, one glowing red, the other icy blue. Whatever they were, their sudden presence made the small but muscular youth smile.
He said something that sounded very much like the same language that Firewall had used to understand the Storm giants that had invaded Claremont some months before, Something about them (the hammers presumably?) being his?
Magni immediately recognised them as the hammers given to him as presents from his father Thor and his Grandfather Odin, The All-Father, a gift of two hammers, forged by the dwarves from fragments stolen from the hearts of the giants Ymir and Surtur.
The girl coughed to catch their attention. “I’m bored, so I want you two to entertain me. I do wonder what would happen if Ragnarök were real, how would you two playmates survive? Just make it fun!”
She gestured again in their direction with her hand, which they now realised has six fingers, as she said, “I suppose I had better ensure you share a common language at least, it’s only fair.” A spark flew to each of their throats a second before the great hall vanished and they found themselves standing beside a small lake on a mountainside, freezing as the remnants of an ancient, stone-built city on the opposite side of the valley burned.
The city of Asgard had been decimated, only the great stone gates remained upright, for the moment at least. It did allow Magni to orient himself even as their location flooded.
Chris tried to log in to the internet in the hope of finding a common language with his new companion, only to find the data-streams did not exist. No satellites, no communication towers, nothing it was as though they weren’t on Earth any more or, thinking of the hall and his companion’s appearance before the witch had altered it, could he have been sent back in time?
It was getting darker, due, Chris’ realised to increasing amounts of volcanic dust in the atmosphere. The combination of sulphur and particulates was making it hard to breath, but he resisted using his rebreather. In part, he realised, because he only had the one so couldn’t share it with his new companion.
It was now impossible to see the sun, the moon or the stars and it was getting darker by the minute, even as the area they were in was starting to fill up with water. It didn’t help that the ground was shuddering, but there was an uneasy regular rhythm to the quakes. Then, though the dusty darkness, strode a humanoid figure easily a 100 metres tall, his body sparking with the fire running through its veins. It held up its blazing sword as it strode by, heading Magni realised, in the direction of the rainbow bridge.
Chris was looking at the water lapping at his feet and muttered, “I wonder if those floating hammers of yours also act as a floatation device?” Magni spun round, surprised. “You speak the language of Asgard?” Chris’ smiled; perhaps he might not need access to the internet after all. “Is that what I am speaking? Is that where we are?”
Magni looked sadly on the blazing buildings and collapsing stone gates on the hilltop opposite and nodded. Chris’ muttered, “Well, for the record there is very poor mobile reception here, perhaps they need to change their internet provider?”
Magni shook his head in disbelief, the stranger spoke strangely, “Funny man” he replied. Chris’ felt a glow of pride that his companion saw him as another man.
The quakes continued, and they realised that the tremors echoed the giant’s footsteps, its flaming sword glowing brighter and brighter. “Frost giant?” asked Chris’ unsure of who or what he was seeing. Although he had never seen him before, Magni immediately knew that the figure had to be the giant Surtur. If he was loose then presumably so were the frost giants led by Ymir who had to be roaming around, possibly trying to escape back to Jötunheimr using the Bifrost Bridge.
“No, it is Surtur, the destroyer. Lord of fire.” Then he spotted something metallic hurdling through the sky towards them. It appeared to be a hammer and was likely to impact with the ground close to where the other male was standing. He appeared unaware of his impending doom, and Magni went to move towards him, only for the man to trip then step back.
A second later, an ornate war hammer crashed to the ground a few feet in front of Chris’, landing with a large splash where he would have been standing just before he had stumbled.
Magni immediately recognised it as Mjöllnir, his father’s hammer. It lay half buried in the mud and water with only the handle on view and failed to return to his father’s hand. How could that be, unless..?
He headed over to it, splashing and stumbling through the ever-rising water. He leaned over and grasped the handle, trying to pick it up. It didn’t move. He tried with both hands, and still it failed to budge. It would appear that Mjöllnir did not find him worthy to wield, at least not without his wearing Thor’s belt, Megingjörð.
Magni looked around him, sadness in his eyes. Where was his father? There was no obvious sign of anyone escaping the collapsing ruins opposite. Mjöllnir lay unmoving in the rising waters, making no effort to return to his father’s hand once more.
Magni started to move deeper into the waters, “We must protect the people. Come” Chris didn’t budge, “What people? I can’t see anybody!”
Magni spun round, anger in his voice at being confronted by reason. “There may be people in the city, possibly in hiding. We must protect them.” Reluctantly, Firewall nodded, “Okay, sounds like a plan.”
Then he again noticed that Surtur was heading towards Asgard’s only exit from this existence, the Bifrost at the roots of Yggdrasil, the great tree of creation that ensured the continual survival of the nine worlds and again glanced at his companion. “I, I cannot ask you to help. I assume you are not from here?” he asked. “I certainly am not, wherever here is.” Magni again looked at the blazing ruins opposite, at the valley between them filling up with dark, ash-filled water and again at Surtur as he strode away, presumably to stop any Asgardians from escaping.
He turned, I am Thor’son, Magni to friends and family and this is Asgard, home of the Æsir, the Gods.” Chris nodded, “Chris, or you can call me Firewall.” They started to wade towards the city, only for Magni to stop and stare at the giant figure striding away from the ruins. “If Surtur reaches the Bifrost, he will escape to cause further destruction and death on other worlds. We cannot allow that. We cannot allow him to escape.”
Conflicted between searching the ruins opposite for possible survivors and trying to stop Surtur, he paused. Chris’ on the other hand, couldn’t shake the feeling that he must have fallen asleep and this was just a bad dream. He was a stranger here and thought it’s best to follow his new companion wherever that might lead.
Filled with new determination (and the chance to get out of the water now risen to his torso), Magni and Chris headed back towards dry land and followed the giant figure as it headed away from the city. He was aware that they would not be able to catch the giant figure before it reached its destination.
The sky was getting even darker, and they stumbled with every step as the quakes from the giant’s footsteps increased in intensity. The water lapping at the newly formed mountaintop ‘shore’ was starting to ice up as the temperatures began to drop.
Behind them, they could just see the handle of Thor’s hammer as it begun to disappear under the ice as the waters froze over. He was about to turn back when they saw a small, skinny girl in her teens, not anyone that Magni recognised, flew out of the sky, grabbed the strap and pulled it loose before flying towards the sea and the Bifrost with it, holding it as though it weighed nothing at all. It made no sense. Why would this stripling of a girl be worthy to lift, to wield Mjöllnir when he, the son of Thor, was unable to do so?
He glanced up as a large shadow fell on them. In front of them stood four giant humanoid figures, each easily ten metres tall, striding towards him from the direction of the bridge. Apparently, they were fleeing the fire and wrath of a rampaging Surtur who had no love for the creatures of ice. When Ragnarök had started, they must have escaped from Jötunheim and now rampaged across the realm, bringing icy cold and death to all they came across.
Chris immediately recognised them as the same creatures that had invaded Claremont some months before, bringing a winter hell to the school, but here they apparently had no need for human ‘anchors’ to bind them to this realm.
The giants saw them standing on the hilltop, and three immediately turned to head towards them, each radiating an intense cold that made Firewall glad of the thermal protection that had been added to his outfit after the icy assault on the school. He still felt the intense cold regardless and glanced at Magni who seemed to be ignoring it completely.
One of the giants turned and seemingly headed back after the steaming figure of Surtur. Seems they weren’t the only ones that wanted to try and stop him. Unfortunately, the other three were giving into their immediate urge to attack them.
Magni smacked his hammers together, then unleashed both at the closest giant. They flew free and smashed into their attacker, but only seemed to bruise him, though the force of the blows knocked him back. It gestured towards Magni and ice started forming round his legs. His Asgardian physique protected him against the cold, but he was still forced to shake off the icy bindings.
To his surprise, his companion unleashed a series of light beams from his hands at all three of their attackers. Either he was a practitioner of Seiðr (magic) thought Magni or was his companion also of the Æsir?
The beams he projected cut through ice, melting it. The rays hit the first of the giants and caused him pain, but it wasn’t a serious wound, though it slowed it down. Firewall didn’t stop and turned to the other two with the laser beam slicing through their shields but again it didn’t do serious damage to either of them unfortunately as the hammers flew back to circle Magni.
One of them projected an icy blast at them both but to failed to catch them even as another giant flung spears of ice straight at Magni. His hammers tried to smash them away, only for some fragments to pepper him and rip through his top.
Magni responded by smacking him with both hammers as one of the giants reached down and tried to grab him and missed as Magni moved back even as Firewall unleashed a series of laser attacks again at all three giants.
It became a battle of attrition. The giants were big and slow but tough, while Magni and Firewall were smaller, harder to hit. Magni managed to parry the giant trying to grab him and hit back with a double hammer strike to the giant who had tried to spear him. The hammers hit him on the both temples at the same time, causing him to collapse to the ground in agony before falling unconscious.
A cold blast was the response from one of the remaining storm giants, but failed to freeze them to the spot. Magni and Firewall dodged behind the fallen opponent, before Firewall responded with his laser attacks at both remaining attackers. The closest staggered back as the laser cut through his tendons, and he staggered back as he continued his attack and again sliced into the other giant’s chest.
Magni unleashed the Surtur hammer on its own and watched it burn into its target’s chest, melting its icy flesh. Without the Ymir hammer to counter its effects, it seemed to do more damage on the storm giants on their own, and it caused its target to fall. The Ymir hammer flew high and slammed into the chest of the remaining upright giant and caused him to stagger back.
Firewall unleashed a series of attacks on the remaining giant and between them, though they slowly rendered the three giants unconscious. Without their control over the environment, the iced over water began to crack as the three giants began to sink into the floodwaters. They were too heavy for them to pull free and, in the distance, they could see Surtur approaching the coast and the bridge.
There was no way they could reach him in time but to their surprise, he suddenly turned and moved away towards the mountains that surrounded the coast. What the..?
Firewall turned to Magni, “Couldn’t you just throw your hammers and fly there by hanging on the handles?” he jokingly asked, only to see Magni glaring at him. He immediately apologised, explaining that he’d “read too many Thor comics.”
That caused Magni to spin round towards him, “My father Thor is known on your world?” “Yes, though whether it’s the same Thor, I’m not so sure.” Chris replied. They proceeded to head towards the coast. The corpses of warriors, fish and monstrous beasts had begun to float downstream now that the iced floodwater had begun to melt. Even Magni had to accept that Ragnarök had succeeded, it only remained for Surtur to burn the realm completely before presumably moving on to the other worlds.
After several minutes, they saw two men, unarmed warriors, running towards them, apparently fleeing the destruction of Asgard and they were being pursued by two monstrous hybrids, flying humanoids with the eyes and wings of a fly. Even Magni had never seen their like before.
He turned ready to help the fleeing humans – then he saw their glazed eyes, drooling mouths and heard their chattering teeth, which was unnerving and understood why they went bare-chested even in the freezing weather.
They were clearly berserkers, possibly even the fallen undead of Valhalla – when alive they were considered as “mad as dogs or wolves” and as “strong as bears or wild oxen,” supposedly capable of killing people with a single blow and supposedly neither “fire nor iron could bite them”.
They were also well known for not recognising and attacking their own warriors if they stood in their way. Worse, the fly creatures seemed to have decided to switch their attack from the two berserkers to them! Damn, they were both still tired after their assault by the giants.
Firewall recognised that the men rushing towards them were clearly high on drugs – had the Vikings of lore used something similar to PCP, Phenyl-Cyclohexyl Piperidine, or angel dust, he wondered, to create their berserkers? He’d studied the effect of PCP before. It was a dissociative hallucinogenic drug used for its mind-altering effects, which could result in hallucinations, distorted perceptions of sounds, and violent behaviour? If so, they may also be immune to the effects of pain whilst high.
As the two berserkers got closer, they could hear them giggling and talking. Both were repeating the same words in sync, and they were speaking in a familiar female’s giggling voice. “Odin shall open the halls of Valhalla and all of the honoured dead, who have spent all this time feasting and practising their fighting, shall issue forth against the giants and monsters. All is battle, and even the realms and various afterlives will be consumed in war. Fenris the wolf shall eat the sun and there will be darkness. Thor shall kill Fenris, but not before the wolf slays Odin. Then Thor and the world serpent shall fight, and both shall die together. The world sinks beneath the rising oceans and all is buried beneath a gentle snow. That is your fate unless you can defeat it.”
Magni tried to ignore them as he unleashed his hammers at the flying attackers, one at each of them. The Surtur Hammer hit the closest scavenger creature, but failed to bring him down. The Ymir Hammer was more successful; it left its target dazed and blinded in one eye, even as the first berserker reached and slid past a dodging Firewall. He was clearly off his head on magic mushrooms or some such. Firewall tried to laser the berserker still rushing towards him, but failed to hit him or either of the flying beasties he fired on next. In response, the fliers unleashed a vomit of acidic liquid towards them, but thankfully. He was able to dodge. The rearmost berserker was running right at Magni, seemingly incapable of changing direction. Magni merely sidestepped but as he did so, his attacker reached out and grabbed him by his t-shirt, tearing it as he collapsed, knocked to the ground by Magni as he tried to run past.
Before he could follow through, though, one of the fliers unleashed a blast of acid towards him. He dodged but was forced to tear the sleeve of his t-shirt off as a splash of the foul liquid landed on it and began to burn through the material. Several splashes also landed on the berserker he had downed, but he seemed to ignore the fact that it was burning his flesh. He gave the creature as it flew past a stern look then responded by flinging Ymir as it passed then dropped the Surtur hammer onto the chest of the berserker at his feet, hoping to render him unconscious.
Can the dead feel pain, he found himself wondering?
Ymir clipped its wing but failed to down ‘one eye’. He glanced down and realised that the berserker at his feet was somehow just ignoring the chest-crunching injury that the other hammer had supposedly caused. By Odin’s all-seeing eye, what did it take to knock them unconscious?
Firewall knelt down and snipered at both of the fliers, missing the one with the damaged wing flying erratically but managed to clip the other, causing it to fall only to recover before it collided with the ground.
As it tried to regain some height, it managed to splash Firewall with some of his acidic spit. His costume helped to protect him against being burnt, but the stench and fumes left him staggered as he tried unsuccessfully to concentrate and remember where he’d stored his rebreather. Instead, he rolled in the snow and scrubbed most of the foul liquid off.
The downed berserker tried to grab at Magni’s leg, only for the son of Thor to kick himself free. He looked up and saw a flier spit at him. Again, he managed to dodge as he unleashed the hammers, aiming them at each of the fliers. ‘One eye’ was hit and slammed into the ground, unconscious. The other hammer unfortunately skimmed past, only bruising it.
The berserker that was still on his feet rushed at the kneeling Firewall, who was forced to throw himself to one side while the drugged out attacker ran past him, unable to stop and turn. Damn, he needed to take out the fliers, not play British Bulldog with undead Vikings. He targeted the downed flier first and again unleashed a laser blast at it, for some reason limiting his own powered attack options to laser blasts. The downed flier had its wings severed by the blast and went into shock. Firewall had no time to congratulate himself. He unleashed another blast at the other flier still in the air, but missed.
Magni threw both hammers at the remaining flier and hit him, knocking him to the ground. The other berserker rushed Firewall as he managed to dodge again. Magni responded by rushing in and intercepting the attack, leaving the other berserker on the ground vomiting and sweating but continuing to try to fight.
Firewall glanced over, still staggered himself, and recognised the signs of drug withdrawal: the reddening of the face, his body twitching and trembling, the dilated pupils as he clearly began to suffer from delirium and seizures. Can the dead suffer from the DT’s, he wondered?
The twin hammers slammed the berserker into the ground and left him unconscious. They looked at him companion struggling to get up and elected to leave them, rather than continue the fight.
Firewall was convinced more than ever now that this was either a dream or an illusion after all this. The witch was clearly screwing with their minds.
They continued their journey as fast as they could, given Firewall’s current state, towards the Bifrost.
In the distance, they could just about see Surtur trying to plunge his blazing sword into the top of a nearby mountain, then through the twilight they saw a young girl stumbling towards them, looking disorientated and lost. Then behind her, they saw on the cliffs overseeing the sea, where the Bifrost should be, not a rainbow bridge but a man – definitely not dressed in normal Asgardian attire, in a green coloured open tunic and tailored trousers. There was something familiar about him to Magni but he couldn’t say what it was exactly. It was only later that he realised that he sort of resembled Loki in the way he looked and the dark colour of his hair.
Magni approached the girl, who appeared to be about ten years old, if that. Could she be one of the last surviving Asgardians? As he stepped forward, he attached both of his hammers by their straps to the hooks on his belt and greeted her as ‘sister of the Æsir?’ and extended his hand towards her. She smiled and responded in kind but to Magni’s surprise, he felt the icy cold touch of a storm giant as her touch turned his hand to ice. She looked scared and surprised as for a second her skin turned blue as she tried to speak but instead of words coming from her mouth her breath turned icy cold. He pulled his hand back fast as she tried to speak, but the words that came from her mouth were unfamiliar to him. The words she spoke did remind him of the language spoken by a prisoner of his fathers, a storm giant. Magni stepped back and tried to smile, “Be calm sister, we mean you no harm – you must have been born a storm giant and only now coming into your native abilities. You must remain hidden for your own safety.”
In response, she pointed towards the man standing waiting at the edge of the cliff, and then she started to walk slowly towards him. That’s when Magni realised that the rainbow bridge he knew was no longer present, its luminescent presence already gone. They followed her as she made her way over to the man, who smiled as they approached. He nodded at them as he spoke, “Magni, you must escape into the world-tree before Asgard is destroyed completely. For the prophecy to be fulfilled, two humans must escape into Yggdrasil.”
That was when Firewall realised that perhaps Yggdrasil was not an actual tree or even a physical entity.
The boy pointed towards the sea and a sparkling, multi-coloured portal began to appear in front of them. Was this the world-tree, or possibly a tunnel to the tree? Magni reached out to the man, “What about you?” He nodded, “I must remain behind to allow any other survivors, like this young woman born of both Asgardian and Jötun heritage, to escape the destruction. I shall guide her back to the relative safety of Jötunheim. You, however, must return to Midgard. That way a few might survive the great destruction, so I swear”
“Who are you?” Magni asked, “I am Bifrost, the traveller, and this is my calling and my fate.”
Firewall started to walk forward, “We need to leave and this appears to be the only way. Come on.” The portal had been opened in readiness for them. Wherever it terminated, it was intended for them, and delaying also meant the young storm giantess they had just met had to remain for longer as well.
Magni reluctantly agreed to follow though, stating as he stepped into the portal that he intended to ‘return with reinforcements.” Then behind them, in the darkened sky a vision appeared of two Viking men and they could hear them arguing, “I can see further than you can Loki, I can see all the way to the world-tree. Surtur cannot touch it and even now, two people flee the destruction and hid within its trunk. It is not the end. There is no end; it is simply the end of the old times and the beginning of the new. Rebirth always follows death. You have failed.”
As they rushed through the portal leaving the child-frost giantess waiting patiently for her turn to escape Asgard, they could see that Surtur raise his flaming sword to the sky and the mountains erupted, lava cascaded down the mountains to cover and burnt what remained of the shining city…
Then the portal closed behind them and they felt disorientated as the rainbow-coloured tunnel deposited them on the neatly trimmed grass of the football field at Claremont Academy, only to be surrounded by several of the teaching fraternity who immediately ushered them both towards the ‘Big House’ and Down Below. To Magni’s surprise, they all appeared to be speaking Asgardian, though he knew that couldn’t be the right. Whoever they were, his companion clearly knew them and seemed relieved to see them. He heard the man hobbling on his short walking staff say to him, “We need to get you and this boy out of sight before any of the other students see you. We need to debrief you as soon as possible.”
Firewall asked, “Ah, do we have any clothes for Magni here?”
Magni looked at his ruined tunic then looked down at his belt and saw only a single hammer – one side resembled Surtur and glowed flaming red, whilst the other side resembled Ymir and the head glowed icy blue. It seemed as though the two hammers had merged into one.
Back in Asgard, Bifrost closed the portal and immediately reopened it for the young girl, even as he made his stand against several storm giants rushing towards him. Whatever happened next, he knew prophesy had been fulfilled for as it was foretold, two humans would survive Ragnarök, a male and (technically) a female – he had not been deceived by her disguise – by being hidden in the branches of Yggdrasil – having been sent back to Midgard.
Later that evening in Mr Summers’ study
A few hours later, Chris and Magni found themselves standing outside Mr Summers’s study in the ‘Big House’. Through a crack in the not quite closed door (thank you, Mr Andrews!) they could hear and see what was being said inside.
“If legends are to be believed, Ragnarök already occurred over a millennia ago. At least if the scrolls of Edda are to be believed, so where has this boy, Magni, been for the last thousand years? And who delivered this?”
Summers reached over and showed the other teachers he’d gathered together for this student conference a chess set. The gold pieces were of the Æsir gods, including representations of Odin, Frigg (as queen), Thor and Balder facing off against the black figures; Loki depicted as both the King and the Queen pieces with Ymir, Fenris and Surtur represented amongst others – Odin’s gold chess pieces faced off against Loki’s obsidian set on an ancient oak chessboard.
“It turned up in my office this morning while I was sitting at my desk… It just appeared out of nowhere. It has to be related, surely? I have a feeling this is a down payment in kind for young Magni’s board and lodging…
It appears we have a new student to try to integrate into the school, who is seemingly an Asgardian demi-god. He’s illiterate, with no knowledge of modern day society. Thoughts?”
Student Councillor Dave Dean spoke up, “Having dyslexia and his being a foreign exchange student would explain his inability to read and write – we can use voice recognition software to teach him but how do we explain his lack of knowledge of modern day society, though?”
Doctor e’Azam, or “Creaky” as he was known to his ancient cultures students, smiled. “Ah, are you aware that there are settlements of pagans in Norway that have elected to abandon modern day society and are raising their families as though they were ancient Norse? A sort of Viking Amish, if you will. If Magni were to originate from the pagan settlement of Gudvangen in Vestland county in Norway for example, then that would account for his ignorance of modern day society. We would just have to ask him not to mention that Thor was his father, or at least not claim that he is, was THE Thor.”
Summers smiled. “So we have a workable plan, assuming Magni is happy to go along with it until we can figure out a way to get him back home.” He reached over to the chessboard and moved a golden pawn. To everyone’s surprise, one of the black pieces immediately responded by moving across the board of its own volition.
Growing up Meta, UK-Style! 