Secret of Frost and Moon

In Anticipation of Exploration

Alaia Skyhawk: Someone mentioned that in Norse Mythology Loki was the god of fire. Truth be told I didn't bother researching on this occasion, since I'd seen Loki mentioned in relation to winter and snow so often in other stories with him present. So I guess I'm just sticking with it that way now lol :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

~(-)~

Chapter 106: In Anticipation of Exploration

Raucous laughter and cheering filled the fire-lit hall, where almost every one of the dozens of wooden tables was surrounded by or buried under the mass of inebriated Vikings within the room. The guest of honour had become somewhat forgotten by now, due to the drunken state of the majority, yet he didn't mind. No, Jack sat at the single quiet table in the room, sipping from a tankard of ale while next to him Hiccup cringed in embarrassment at how rowdy everyone was being.

The Spirit of Winter smiled to himself, finishing off what was his sixth drink as Hiccup glanced at him. The young Viking seemed a bit surprised.

"Someone your size should be slumped under the table by now. I'm bigger built than you, yet two of those would leave me senseless."

Jack set down the tankard, chuckling.

"Perk of being an immortal. My body doesn't digest anything I eat or drink. Instead it just becomes energy an hour or so after I've swallowed it. I'd have to drink something a lot stronger than this to actually get drunk. Closest I've even been was when I tried my friend North's 'Mortals Do Not Touch' vodka. He's from Russia, and vodka is one of their specialities. His version of it is about ninety-six percent alcohol, which is lethal for a mortal to drink unless it's watered right down. Seven shots of it made me tipsy for an hour, while seven left North weaving drunkenly through the hallways for the same."

Jack grinned. "He might mass over four times what I do, but he's warm-bodied and I'm cold, so it affected me a lot less and slower than him. He's banned me from challenging him to drinking contests."

Astrid, who had just arrived at the table and so heard the conversation, sat down opposite the immortal. She then gestured to indicate the drunken idiocy going on all around them.

"I guess that sort of explains why you wanted to see this."

Jack laughed.

"Nah, it was an excuse to get them drunk enough so that when they learn certain truths about Odin, Loki, and Thor, they accept it a bit easier."

Astrid glance at Hiccup, eyebrows raised.

"Truths? Did this guy really come for a 'social' visit?"

Hiccup face-planted onto the table, his tone bland as he muttered into the wood.

"No, he came to talk me out of trying to sail to the mainland again, which I was planning to do by the end of the week. He invented the 'social visit' story to spare me a lecture from my dad." He raised his head again, sighing. "He also confirmed something I'd figured out for myself, about Odin."

"And what would that be?"

Jack used a small ice mirror to refill his tankard without leaving the table, interrupting as he did so.

"You familiar with the idea of stories 'taking on a life of their own'? You know, where one person tells it, then another, and another, and by the time it's been around a few years it gets completely blown out of proportion?"

Astrid stared at him, and shrugged as she considered what was going on all around the great hall.

"You get a lot of that around here. Usually about how great or strong people are, when they're bragging about it."