Leader of the Pack
Aug. 5th, 2004 04:42 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsRahne, too, arrives in Asgard. Aside from getting picked up in the air practically first thing (must be a roommate thing), she gets very lucky (but not like that... exactly). She gets the giant to drop her, and then Hrimhari, Prince of the Wolves of Asgard and all around nice guy unless you're the type who provokes him to take a bite of your Achilles tendon, chases it off and introduces himself. Rahne is accordingly adopted by a pack of wolves and gets her Asgardian lessons from someone who actually likes her. And she likes. A lot.
Rahne was not processing. At least, not very well.
One moment, she'd been watching the infield and rehearsing some of the odder bits of baseball rules she'd had explained to her. The next, there had been fire out of nowhere, white light, and the sound of laughter. She had the idea she'd heard John yelling, "I didn't do it!" but between the roaring crackle and the equally crackly laughter, she thought she might have imagined it. That was probably unkind of her. Had he even been home?
Now, she was... definitely nowhere near a baseball field. And nowhere she'd ever been before, though some of the vegetation looked... she wasn't sure. Rahne shook her head, trying to clear it, staring around at the trees. Why was she in the middle of a forest?
And what was that noise...?
The ground trembled; branches cracked. Rahne's mouth dropped open as a giant pushed his way between trees and grabbed her in one huge hand. She writhed, transforming enough to claw and bite at it, and got a mouthful of strangely cold skin and blood for her pains. Desperate and rather crushed, she lunged for the web between thumb and forefinger instead of a knuckle the next time, and between that and a further kicking transformation, the giant's grip loosened.
Rahne dropped heavily to the ground and discovered she couldn't seem to get a breath. The hand reached down again --
And then the giant stood up abruptly with a loud yell, arms windmilling, and started stamping at something. She finally got her breath again and smelled not only the giant but another -- dog -- no, she thought, catching a glimpse of the brown-gray blur as it paused by the giant's ankle and then leapt away from a gout of blood. A wolf.
Its growl, under the giant's howl of rage and pain, sounded like laughing too.
Rahne got partway to her feet, crouching and ready to jump if the giant stomped at her. She was holding her breath watching the other darting back and forth, but she wasn't sure how to help.... And then all at once there was no need, as the giant, chivvied beyond bearing, stumbled off in another direction.
The wolf stood looking after it for a moment, and Rahne had time to notice that it was male, quite large, and one of the most beautiful canines she'd ever met, with clean lines and a thick coat. He shortly came over to her, sat back on his haunches, and grew into a form very like hers. Rahne gaped all over again, then shut her mouth sharply to try not to be rude. But her eyes were still very wide.
Then the wolf -- or wolf-man -- spoke. She didn't understand him at first and shook her head. He frowned -- at least she thought it was a frown, though his nose wrinkled up as if it were partly a snarl -- and tried twice more.
"I'm sorry," she started eventually.
"Ah!" The triumphant syllable was almost a bark. "There. I wanted to say that you need not fear now, though you might take more caution in future. Did you not hear the frost-giant's approach, to turn away from it?"
"I heard part of it," Rahne said, trying to gather her wits. "But I only just got here a moment ago... I doona quite know...."
The wolf-man frowned again, then leaned forward and sniffed her. Rahne held very still for this. "Well, this is a new thing."
She blinked at him. "It is? Er... what is?"
A laugh. "Why, you are. By your scent, you are from Midgard. I hadn't known there were wolves there who could take this kind of form!"
Her eyes widened again. "Midgard? ...Where is this, then?"
Her rescuer dropped back on his haunches again, eyeing her strangely. "You are in the enchanted forest of Asgard." Rahne forgot to breathe again for a moment. Asgard?! "And I think, from your confusion, that you may have been brought here on some trickster's whim -- have you any notion?"
"There was fire," she said hesitantly. "My friends and I... some were playing a game, the rest were watching, and then there was fire out of nowhere, and then I was here."
"Aah." That was definitely a scowl. "It sounds as though you may have run afoul of one of Loki's games."
Rahne stared at him and squeaked, "Loki?"
Misunderstanding, he shook his head. "Sound not so frightened. Formidable he is, true, and spiteful, but if you know not what incurred his displeasure, it may be that it is already spent with taking you from your home and pack. And if his ire is not spent, perhaps we might find out some way to mollify him, or appeal to the true Aesir."
Rahne had been speechless throughout this. Now she finally managed, "We?"
"I am Hrimhari of the wolves," he said, managing a startlingly graceful bow. "Prince of all the wolves of Asgard. You are far from home, and you showed courage and good teeth just now -- I saw you snap at the giant's hand to free yourself -- and then the good sense to keep out of the way." He grinned. "What is a wolf without a pack? Will you come with mine?" A pause and a doubtful look down at her body. "Though I do not see how you can bear going clad so, or why you do it. Are the garments magic, to be out of the way when you are all a wolf?"
"Oh." She swallowed. "Oh. ...I -- my name is Rahne." She hesitated then, and shifted back to full human form. "But I wear clothes because I'm no a wolf most of the time. Thank ye very much," she added hastily. "I'd be verra grateful if I could come...." She thought; she hoped. He -- Hrimhari -- had been nothing but kind so far, and she certainly didn't know enough to get on in Asgard (Asgard!) alone. But honesty compelled her to add, "But I doona ken very much about being in a pack, truly."
Hrimhari was staring at her. "Can you not become all a wolf, then?" he asked. "Other things I can teach you, but while you are fair enough for that form and I find hands can be useful, four feet are often better for running."
"Oh! Aye, I can, only not with these on...." She shifted to her transitional form again and noticed Hrimhari seemed to relax a little.
"Then you had best take them off, and hide them somewhere in case you want them again," he said matter-of-factly, "if you would come with me. Your fur is healthy enough to keep you warm. I cannot take on the form of a man, myself, and thought perhaps it was the same and one who began as a woman might not be able to take the form of a she-wolf."
Rahne was rather taken aback at this calm advice to remove her clothing, but he did have a point -- even if she was unreasonably flustered by his referring to her as a woman when she was only a girl. And she wondered why it disappointed her, all of a sudden, to learn Hrimhari couldn't become human... but she turned her face away, though the blush was hidden under fur, as she started to undress, and tried not to think very hard about the answer.
*****
Rahne spent weeks with the pack, and she had enough of a start with dogs that it didn't take her so very long to have a good idea what much of the conversation that went on without words meant. She thought she frustrated most of them quite a lot at first -- she didn't understand immediately; the stealth that let her catch a frog or a rabbit wasn't really all that impressive next to melting in and out of leaf-shadow as they could; she found the nights startlingly cold, especially when they went up into the mountains; she tired too quickly; she hadn't the first clue, as she'd warned Hrimhari, about what to do in a pack either socially or in the hunt.
But she did learn. If the pack communication didn't come naturally, at least she learned quickly to tell when they were annoyed -- and the rest didn't come so very slowly, not surrounded as she was. She found that her fur came in thicker if she thought about it hard enough, which earned her some strange looks. She might have been footsore for the first days, but she was grateful she'd run the paths at Xavier's enough that it wasn't worse.
Even Hrimhari must have been exasperated with her, at least a little, but he was amazingly patient. He didn't let her stop, but he showed her what to do, and he curled up next to her at night even once her fur was warmer and she grew more used to the climate. She learned to be silent enough not to frighten off their prey before time, even if she could tell she had a long way to go.
She learned how to frighten prey when she did want to; she learned that she joyed in the race together after a deer and the feel of her teeth breaking through fur and skin, the taste of blood and raw venison and the crunch of breaking bone. She still thought the deer beautiful, but she forgot to pity them.
It took her longer to learn to face down a half-hearted challenge from another member of the pack, because it took her over a month to understand that she was being challenged, that much of the time she was being deferred to, and why.
One of the eldest (and far too amused) she-wolves informed Hrimhari of her cluelessness so that he had to explain it to her, in the end. He demanded nothing of her, but his wolves could see what he desired.
He wasn't Christian; he wasn't even human. But he was handsome (in a canine way) and kind and admirable in every way she could think of, and he seemed to regard the Aesir and Vanir as due courtesy for their power and authority rather than the type of devotion she explained (stumblingly; this was not a situation she'd ever envisioned explaining theology in) that she owed, and was unperturbed by the suggestion that there might be a being more powerful than the Aesir who would outlast the end of the worlds. He listened, even when she spoke more of such things than she ever had at the school.
In the meantime, there were deer to eat and a pack to lead and care for and allies, or at least cordial acquaintances, to be maintained. And pups -- and one half-grown she-wolf from Midgard -- to teach.
Rahne had resolved to herself that it wouldn't be a good idea to fall in love at the school.
She supposed that technically she hadn't.
*****
Rahne was not processing. At least, not very well.
One moment, she'd been watching the infield and rehearsing some of the odder bits of baseball rules she'd had explained to her. The next, there had been fire out of nowhere, white light, and the sound of laughter. She had the idea she'd heard John yelling, "I didn't do it!" but between the roaring crackle and the equally crackly laughter, she thought she might have imagined it. That was probably unkind of her. Had he even been home?
Now, she was... definitely nowhere near a baseball field. And nowhere she'd ever been before, though some of the vegetation looked... she wasn't sure. Rahne shook her head, trying to clear it, staring around at the trees. Why was she in the middle of a forest?
And what was that noise...?
The ground trembled; branches cracked. Rahne's mouth dropped open as a giant pushed his way between trees and grabbed her in one huge hand. She writhed, transforming enough to claw and bite at it, and got a mouthful of strangely cold skin and blood for her pains. Desperate and rather crushed, she lunged for the web between thumb and forefinger instead of a knuckle the next time, and between that and a further kicking transformation, the giant's grip loosened.
Rahne dropped heavily to the ground and discovered she couldn't seem to get a breath. The hand reached down again --
And then the giant stood up abruptly with a loud yell, arms windmilling, and started stamping at something. She finally got her breath again and smelled not only the giant but another -- dog -- no, she thought, catching a glimpse of the brown-gray blur as it paused by the giant's ankle and then leapt away from a gout of blood. A wolf.
Its growl, under the giant's howl of rage and pain, sounded like laughing too.
Rahne got partway to her feet, crouching and ready to jump if the giant stomped at her. She was holding her breath watching the other darting back and forth, but she wasn't sure how to help.... And then all at once there was no need, as the giant, chivvied beyond bearing, stumbled off in another direction.
The wolf stood looking after it for a moment, and Rahne had time to notice that it was male, quite large, and one of the most beautiful canines she'd ever met, with clean lines and a thick coat. He shortly came over to her, sat back on his haunches, and grew into a form very like hers. Rahne gaped all over again, then shut her mouth sharply to try not to be rude. But her eyes were still very wide.
Then the wolf -- or wolf-man -- spoke. She didn't understand him at first and shook her head. He frowned -- at least she thought it was a frown, though his nose wrinkled up as if it were partly a snarl -- and tried twice more.
"I'm sorry," she started eventually.
"Ah!" The triumphant syllable was almost a bark. "There. I wanted to say that you need not fear now, though you might take more caution in future. Did you not hear the frost-giant's approach, to turn away from it?"
"I heard part of it," Rahne said, trying to gather her wits. "But I only just got here a moment ago... I doona quite know...."
The wolf-man frowned again, then leaned forward and sniffed her. Rahne held very still for this. "Well, this is a new thing."
She blinked at him. "It is? Er... what is?"
A laugh. "Why, you are. By your scent, you are from Midgard. I hadn't known there were wolves there who could take this kind of form!"
Her eyes widened again. "Midgard? ...Where is this, then?"
Her rescuer dropped back on his haunches again, eyeing her strangely. "You are in the enchanted forest of Asgard." Rahne forgot to breathe again for a moment. Asgard?! "And I think, from your confusion, that you may have been brought here on some trickster's whim -- have you any notion?"
"There was fire," she said hesitantly. "My friends and I... some were playing a game, the rest were watching, and then there was fire out of nowhere, and then I was here."
"Aah." That was definitely a scowl. "It sounds as though you may have run afoul of one of Loki's games."
Rahne stared at him and squeaked, "Loki?"
Misunderstanding, he shook his head. "Sound not so frightened. Formidable he is, true, and spiteful, but if you know not what incurred his displeasure, it may be that it is already spent with taking you from your home and pack. And if his ire is not spent, perhaps we might find out some way to mollify him, or appeal to the true Aesir."
Rahne had been speechless throughout this. Now she finally managed, "We?"
"I am Hrimhari of the wolves," he said, managing a startlingly graceful bow. "Prince of all the wolves of Asgard. You are far from home, and you showed courage and good teeth just now -- I saw you snap at the giant's hand to free yourself -- and then the good sense to keep out of the way." He grinned. "What is a wolf without a pack? Will you come with mine?" A pause and a doubtful look down at her body. "Though I do not see how you can bear going clad so, or why you do it. Are the garments magic, to be out of the way when you are all a wolf?"
"Oh." She swallowed. "Oh. ...I -- my name is Rahne." She hesitated then, and shifted back to full human form. "But I wear clothes because I'm no a wolf most of the time. Thank ye very much," she added hastily. "I'd be verra grateful if I could come...." She thought; she hoped. He -- Hrimhari -- had been nothing but kind so far, and she certainly didn't know enough to get on in Asgard (Asgard!) alone. But honesty compelled her to add, "But I doona ken very much about being in a pack, truly."
Hrimhari was staring at her. "Can you not become all a wolf, then?" he asked. "Other things I can teach you, but while you are fair enough for that form and I find hands can be useful, four feet are often better for running."
"Oh! Aye, I can, only not with these on...." She shifted to her transitional form again and noticed Hrimhari seemed to relax a little.
"Then you had best take them off, and hide them somewhere in case you want them again," he said matter-of-factly, "if you would come with me. Your fur is healthy enough to keep you warm. I cannot take on the form of a man, myself, and thought perhaps it was the same and one who began as a woman might not be able to take the form of a she-wolf."
Rahne was rather taken aback at this calm advice to remove her clothing, but he did have a point -- even if she was unreasonably flustered by his referring to her as a woman when she was only a girl. And she wondered why it disappointed her, all of a sudden, to learn Hrimhari couldn't become human... but she turned her face away, though the blush was hidden under fur, as she started to undress, and tried not to think very hard about the answer.
*****
Rahne spent weeks with the pack, and she had enough of a start with dogs that it didn't take her so very long to have a good idea what much of the conversation that went on without words meant. She thought she frustrated most of them quite a lot at first -- she didn't understand immediately; the stealth that let her catch a frog or a rabbit wasn't really all that impressive next to melting in and out of leaf-shadow as they could; she found the nights startlingly cold, especially when they went up into the mountains; she tired too quickly; she hadn't the first clue, as she'd warned Hrimhari, about what to do in a pack either socially or in the hunt.
But she did learn. If the pack communication didn't come naturally, at least she learned quickly to tell when they were annoyed -- and the rest didn't come so very slowly, not surrounded as she was. She found that her fur came in thicker if she thought about it hard enough, which earned her some strange looks. She might have been footsore for the first days, but she was grateful she'd run the paths at Xavier's enough that it wasn't worse.
Even Hrimhari must have been exasperated with her, at least a little, but he was amazingly patient. He didn't let her stop, but he showed her what to do, and he curled up next to her at night even once her fur was warmer and she grew more used to the climate. She learned to be silent enough not to frighten off their prey before time, even if she could tell she had a long way to go.
She learned how to frighten prey when she did want to; she learned that she joyed in the race together after a deer and the feel of her teeth breaking through fur and skin, the taste of blood and raw venison and the crunch of breaking bone. She still thought the deer beautiful, but she forgot to pity them.
It took her longer to learn to face down a half-hearted challenge from another member of the pack, because it took her over a month to understand that she was being challenged, that much of the time she was being deferred to, and why.
One of the eldest (and far too amused) she-wolves informed Hrimhari of her cluelessness so that he had to explain it to her, in the end. He demanded nothing of her, but his wolves could see what he desired.
He wasn't Christian; he wasn't even human. But he was handsome (in a canine way) and kind and admirable in every way she could think of, and he seemed to regard the Aesir and Vanir as due courtesy for their power and authority rather than the type of devotion she explained (stumblingly; this was not a situation she'd ever envisioned explaining theology in) that she owed, and was unperturbed by the suggestion that there might be a being more powerful than the Aesir who would outlast the end of the worlds. He listened, even when she spoke more of such things than she ever had at the school.
In the meantime, there were deer to eat and a pack to lead and care for and allies, or at least cordial acquaintances, to be maintained. And pups -- and one half-grown she-wolf from Midgard -- to teach.
Rahne had resolved to herself that it wouldn't be a good idea to fall in love at the school.
She supposed that technically she hadn't.
*****
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 02:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 03:11 pm (UTC)(Loved loved loved the line about "Adopt an over-stressed staff member.")
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Date: 2004-08-05 03:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 03:25 pm (UTC)Poor 'Yana though. She has the worst luck in mentors.
...Well, so does Amanda.
Loki has a weird sense of the appropriate.