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The Samhain Gate
12/8/2008
In the moment Iris was too stunned to react, Tyr slapped her again.
She jumped back, out of range, “What the hell are you doing?”
He stepped after her and slapped her again. None of the blows were particularly painful, just annoying, “You don’t like that?” He slapped her again, “You need to get fast enough to stop me.” Again. “Speed is everything.”
She saw it coming this time and tried to jump back out of the way, he only grazed her with the tips of his fingers.
Tyr smiled at her, “Better. Don’t try to get out of the way. Stop me.” She managed to get her own hand up to deflect the next blow. He stopped mid-motion, and grabbed her hand, pulling her close to him. “Too slow, girl.” Iris was getting pretty fed up at this point and kicked him in the shin.
“Ow!” He let her go and jumped back half a step.
“Oh, sorry!” Iris cringed a little, remembering he was a god, after all, “Sorry!”
He looked at her, “Why? I had it coming. You need to tap into that aggression, and never, ever feel bad about it. Run with me.” He took off across the Hall. He paused at the door, “Come on, Iris!”
She caught up with him more easily than she expected to; he steered her down the slope and towards the rocky beach.
“Speed is the most important thing,” he wasn’t even breathing hard, “but stamina is second. You must be able to out last your enemies.”
“I hate to tell you this,” Iris was surprised she was still able to speak, “but I’ve never exactly been the athletic type.”
“You are now. Remember I told you you’ve been given some of the powers of the Aesir?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That includes strength, stamina, and speed. You just need to learn to tap into them.”
They reached the beach, the tide was out and boulders were exposed above the waterline. “Come on! Try and catch me!” He was laughing at her as he leapt onto one of the rocks.
Breathing was becoming more difficult, but Iris jumped after him. Tyr laughed and took off across the beach, leaping from rock to rock. She scrambled after him, expecting to end up in the water at every jump. About halfway down the beach there was a huge gap between rocks, Tyr made the jump easily, Iris wasn’t sure she could manage it. She was moving too fast to stop and jumped as hard as she could. Time seemed to slow as she moved through the air. She looked down and could see fish swimming in the water between the rocks. Iris landed solid on the next rock, her knees buckling from the force of her landing. She caught herself on her hands, tossed back her hair, which had come loose, and was surprised by the incredible feeling of power thrilling up through her entire body. She wasn’t even breathing hard anymore. She laughed and looked over to Tyr.
He smiled at her, “That’s my girl! Keep going!” He took off across the beach again. Iris followed, feeling the power come up through the earth, into her legs, and bubbling through her chest. She laughed, an irrepressible expression of the sudden joy that came with the power. She could run! She felt as though she could run forever.
Tyr came to the edge of the beach, where a larger outcropping of the bedrock was visible. Without stopping he leapt and pulled himself up—one handed, but with both elbows—onto the ten-foot high ledge, then sat and looked at her expectantly.
Iris wasn’t sure if she could pull herself up, but the newfound feeling of power wouldn’t allow her to stop now. She jumped, went higher than she intended, sailed over the ledge and Tyr’s head, and slammed into the cliff face.
She lay on her back and all she could think was that cloud looked just like a fluffy mongoose. “Ow.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Iris could see Tyr staring intently away from her, seemingly fascinated by the ocean. His shoulders were shaking with repressed laughter. She managed to move her leg enough to kick him.
He turned, “I’m sorry, but you should have seen the look on your face right before you hit that wall.”
“You should see the look on your face when I kick your butt.” She pulled herself up into a sitting position, trying to suppress her irritation at him, and rubbed her neck. “Ow. Stupid rocks.”
He was still laughing at her, “It’s all good fun until someone gets hurt. Then it’s hilarious.”
Iris hated being laughed at, “Your support is underwhelming.” She stuck her tongue out at him, “Asshole.” Some of the ache was fading but Iris expected she was covered in scrapes and bruises. She looked up the wall of stone and could see a series of fresh chips out of the rock face where she’d hit. The marks were at least six or seven feet above them. She was amazed at herself; how was jumping that high even possible?
“How did I do that?”
“You have a new strength now.” He glanced up at the rock face, “Although, you might want to work on toning things down a little.” He tried to slap her again. Iris saw it coming and grabbed his wrist, then tried to slap him. He pushed her hand out of the way with the stump of his wrist. The tips of her fingers brushed his beard.
She laughed at him, delighted with herself, “Almost had you!”
“You’re learning faster than I expected. You’ve always wanted to do this, haven’t you?”
She thought about wanting to empty her can of mace at an attacker, then kick the crap out of him while he was down, “I suppose.”
“Good. You need to channel that aggression.” He leaned back on his elbows, “The creatures you’re going to fight aren’t going to hold back. They are going to try and kill you if they can.”
Something had been nagging in the back of her mind for hours, “What happened to the last champion?”
“Actually, we haven’t needed one for several decades. The barriers only weaken at certain times, and there hasn’t been a proper alignment for quite a while. The last was in Siberia, in 1908 of your calendar.”
Something clicked in her brain, pieces of a documentary she’d seen, “Wait, you mean Tungusta? That was supposed to be a meteor!”
He shook his head, “No, a salamander from Muspelheim managed to get through to the Midgard. Fortunately, it was in a sparsely populated place. It was also cold, which helped Alexi defeat it.”
Iris was getting tired of people throwing around complicated names of things she’d never heard of, “Wait, Muspelheim?”
“One of the nine realms, it is a land of fire, heat and desert. The salamander that crossed through was a creature of fire. Alexi was the champion we selected.”
“What happened to him?”
“He managed to kill the creature, but died in the process.”
She bit her lip, “Does that happen every time?”
“No. Several of our champions have lived long lives after restoring the balance.”
She sighed, “So, assuming, I don’t die, what happens after the balance is restored?
“Don’t worry about that now. All I want you thinking about for now is training.”
“Wait, when is this. . .imbalance going to happen?”
“We-ll, it’s sort of complicated in your case.” He glanced around, and for the first time Iris noticed the light was fading, “We should head back to the house, anyway. I can explain your situation better over some food.”
She stood up, still aching but not incapacitated, “Alright.”
“Race you!” He stood up and took off back up the hill towards the Hall.
“Cheater!” She ran after him.
* * *
“It works like this,” Tyr said around a mouthful of bread and stew, “usually when the Realms get out of alignment it’s only for a few hours, or, at most, a day or so.”
Iris took a bite of her own stew; it was spicy with garlic and pepper. They were sitting at the head table in the Hall. The blonde girl Iris had seen earlier moved around unobtrusively, filling mugs, and adding and removing dishes. Except for the three of them, the room was empty. A fire had been lit in the pit directly in front of them; the smell of smoke making Iris think of campouts with her father. She took another bite, and pushed a lock of her hair out of the way. Setting down the spoon, she quickly pulled back her hair. She was sweaty from the run on the beach and dirty from her encounter with the cliff, and wished she’d had time for a bath before dinner.
“Unfortunately,” Tyr continued, “this time it’s a little different. Several things are happening at once. The most important is Samhain.”
“Sow-in?” She tried to pronounce it as he had, “What’s that?”
“It’s the end of the harvest season, and the beginning of winter. You usually call it Halloween.”
She set her spoon down, “Wait a minute. So, you’re telling me that monsters are going to magically start appearing on Halloween? That sounds like every bad horror movie ever made.” Iris dunked a hunk of bread into her stew. “I think I’ve been a pretty good sport so far, but that’s just silly.”
“Actually, Halloween is a day too early. Samhain is the first of November. But that’s not why you’re here.”
“I hope not,” she said around a mouthful, “since we have the first of November every year and I don’t see any monsters running around.” There was something relieving about the timing. Years of watching horror movies made it a little easier for her to put in context.
“The barriers always weaken around that time, but normally not enough to let anything through.” He took a drink, “However, this year, the day falls in with a full moon, which will weaken them further.”
Iris sensed there was more than that; she’d seen Halloweens with full moons before and never run into any monsters. “And?”
“Clever girl. There’s also going to be an alignment of certain stars. Individually, none of these things are a problem. Together, they’ll weaken the barriers for over a month.”
“A month?” Iris almost got cider up her nose, “I have to run around fighting things for a month?” Her stomach twisted. If the last champion had been killed fighting a single monster, how was she supposed to handle this for a whole month?
“Not constantly. The breaks will be intermittent, and sometimes there are breaks and nothing comes through at all. Having a champion is mostly precautionary.”
She wasn’t about to believe that, “Huh, tell that to poor Alexi. What happens if I don’t want to fight monsters?”
“You won’t have a choice. Provided you survive the testing, you will be marked. Anything that gets through will be drawn to you.”
She tipped her head back against the back of the chair, closed her eyes and took a deep breath, fighting down frustration. “Peachy. Tell me again, why me?”
He sighed, “It was a mistake.”
“At least you’re big enough to admit it.”
“I am sorry, Iris.”
“Sorry isn’t going to put my life back together.” She lifted her head and looked at him, “I mean, seriously, what kind of gods make stupid mistakes like this?”
“Even gods can make mistakes.”
That didn’t sound very god-like to Iris, but she didn’t want to debate theology. Theory wasn’t going to do her any good right now. She wanted to punch someone until they could fix her life.
“Have any other revelations that will probably lead to my horrible death?” He didn’t say anything. “No? I’m going to bed.”
She pushed her chair back and strode off across the Hall. Iris almost expected Tyr to stop her, or say something. He didn’t.
Slamming the heavy door to her room helped alleviate Iris’ aggravation somewhat. She paced the room, wanting to break something. It wasn’t fair! Why should she have to deal with inter-dimensional rift monsters? If she’d worked a little later, or left a little earlier, none of this would be happening. It was all so stupid. She went to the chest and pulled out the chemise. She stripped off her shoes and clothes, and threw on the chemise. Getting out of her dirty clothes helped relax her a little. She pulled out the brush from the chest, sat down, and began brushing her hair. Brushing had always helped calm her down. After a few minutes her pulse slowed and the desire to punch someone in the head began to fade. She continued brushing, wondering if her hair would continue to grow while she was here. Showing up at work on Monday with noticeably longer hair, that would be interesting. She fingered one of the shoulder-length tresses, and noticed that the lamplight brought out auburn in the brown. She turned and noticed for the first time that someone had set a lighted oil lamp on a stand by the bed. The window was shuttered as well.
Tired now that her anger had burnt itself out, Iris set the brush down. She could be as angry as she wanted, but she wasn’t getting home until someone took her there. Iris had no idea what would happen if she tried to get back on her own. She’d be eaten by inter-dimensional rift monsters, probably. She was bending down to take off her socks when every muscle in her body gave out. It was all she could do not to tip forward onto the floor. She was suddenly so tried Iris wasn’t sure if she could make it into bed. She eased her way along the bed, holding onto the dark beams for support. She managed to climb in, sinking deep into the feather mattress, and was asleep before she could blow out the lamp.
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