Jörmungandr and his Family

An Ancient Fear

The rain poured from the sky, stinging Loki's face like bullets. A flash of lighting flickered, accompanied by a horrific boom of thunder that shook the ground, but he didn't stop.

Every time his foot connected with the ground, the mud would suck it in like quicksand, making it ten times harder to run through the swampy marsh.

A newspaper article describing multiple drownings in the swamp on the other side of the city that had first caught Yamino's attention. Eight victims in the last six months, the small black text had read.

They had first suspected some sort of ghost or spirit haunting the 438,000 acre wetlands, but before now, there had been no killings, disappearances, or anything that would attribute to a haunting or a dark aura to haunt that place. That left some sort of demon, or creature, probably something like a juvenile Kraken. But it didn't really matter what sort of creature it was, Loki had urged, it was evil, it was killing innocent people, and they needed to take it down. That would bring him a step closer to being accepted back in Asgard.

Yamino had been reluctant, suggesting that they should try to figure out exactly what it was, so they could be more prepared, but his father was anxious and stubborn. Anyway it was, it wasn't a spirit, which means it could most likely be killed with fire, silver, beheading, or any other sort of physical weapon that they had stored for these kinds of cases. It would be a simple job – go out, kill the creature, and be home in time for Yamino to make his delicious meals.

That had been before the sudden thunderstorm had manifested in the sky. It had started with a crack of thunder in the distance and some drizzling. Yamino had shot him a look, but his older brother Fenrir, who was in the form of a small black lab puppy, just smirked and pulled on his brothers green ponytail. "Not afraid of a little water, are you little bro?"

Loki told Fenrir to stay in the car since he didn't want him to get all muddy, so Loki and Yamino went into the swamp to find the creature. The rain had picked up the further into the swamp they got. The mud sucked them in with a gloop as they walked along the water's edge.

After twenty minutes, it was so dark that Loki could hardly see a few feet in front of him, even with the beam of the flashlight. The thunder and the howling wind created a cacophony of noise that wrapped around them, trapping them, suffocating any other sounds, even their own thoughts. The rain pelting down was soaking them to the bone, and Loki had turned around to yell to Yamino that he was right, and maybe they should call it quits until the next day. But Yamino wasn't there.

"YAMINO!"

Loki had bellowed his son's name over and over, but his voice was sucked away by the wind so that he could barely even hear it. How long had it been since he had seen his middle child? Ten minutes? Twenty? He had assumed his son had been behind him the whole time, but the storm would have kept him from knowing that he wasn't.

Loki sprinted back through the swamp, eyes drawn to the ground to try to see where his sons footprints had stopped, but the rain had washed away any trace that Sam had ever been there.

"YAMI! YAMINO!"

His voice was starting to go horse, and his throat ached, but he would not stop - could not stop. This was his own stupid idea, Yamino had said they should wait. Going out in a storm, unprepared, it was an amateur's mistake. Loki could hear his own voice berating him in his head.
'As long as I'm around, nothing bad is gonna happen to you.'
What a fat load that was - how many times had Yamino had to pick up the slack and work himself  raged because of him?

The minutes ticked by, and Loki was getting frantic. He had called Yamino's cell phone, knowing that he wouldn't pick up, but the storm had blocked out the sound of his ring so that Loki wouldn't even be able to hear it if it was right next to him.