Valhalla gets a new resident

Recyling dumps us at Fenway

"You leave at dawn." Odin's voice echoed in my brain over and over again as I watched the stars sink and sun begin to awake from my upright position in bed. I didn't even try to sleep at all, but I was too nervous to be tired so it didn't matter anyway.

I couldn't stop thinking about what Sam said. I didn't want to walk right into the unknown enemy's hands, I mean, whoever it is must have planned this whole thing, why else would an assassin go out, kill me, and send me to Valhalla? Like what Magnus pointed out, it was unlikely that me being here wasn't a deliberate move.

The only thing that I felt that I knew was the ultimate main goal of whoever we were facing. He wants to kill the gods, and I assume that it wasn't just the Greeks. Well, theres that and the even more obvious fact that by throwing the two pantheons at each other was a way to divert our attention away from the real problem. I mean, it had to be a distraction of some sort.

A distraction from what though? That's the only thing that matters. I pondered all of this as I got out of bed, already fully clothed and packed. I left behind my family portraits, tree engulfed living room, paints and decked out closet. I made myself a to go cup of coffee and didn't look back.

Even if I succeeded in the quest, who knew where I'd end up in the end. Mallory had told it to me straight, which I appreciated: "You don't belong here."

She's right of course, and I didn't want to, Valhalla wasn't home, even if I did have some new friends. My only point of existing in this place was for a purpose I didn't even believe in. I was thrown into all of this, just for being born. What's worse is that I don't know what I get out of it, I had already died once.

I had my sword strapped on my back plus a few other stray weapons in my hiking backpack, an extra pair of clothes, first aid kit, water bottle, some cash, and a protein bar. I had my loose messy bun tucked under a baseball cap and a sweatshirt, the one I died in, on. A Valhalla shirt underneath. Now that I'm thinking about it, the whole outfit pleasantly reminding me how dead I was.

I met up with my hall mates and we sleepily started walking, Magnus leading the way.

I side glanced at Hearthstone and sipped my coffee, studying the stranger intently and not caring if I looked creepy. He was clearly an elf, his sharp jawline, nimble fingers that fidgeted with his candy striped scarf and bag of rhinestones. That, the slightly pointed ears, and multiple times he was called "elf" by Hearth was all I needed to know. He was also deaf, a painstaking fact that made awkwardness grow. He could read lips, I could tell as he frantically payed close attention to a person's face when they talked, his grey blue eyes zeroing on their mouth.

But that didn't matter, because I knew about two words in ASL, all of which are not appropriate to say depending on what age of kid is reading this if you know what I mean. It meant in any conversation or questions asked ended with either a nod or a shake of the head. That's what made it so awkward, I'm not a fan of silence, I'm a talker, what can I say? Well, with Hearth what can I not say if you know what I mean. At least Magnus had the sense to formally introduce us on the way, so we were strangers no more. Still awkward, but at least we both knew that the other knew each other's names.

Did that even make sense?

I sucked it up though and it wasn't long till we were at this alleged trash shoot in another random hall in the vast Hotel. Looked like it was nothing special.

I crossed my arms and took a last swig of my coffee. "So what? Do we just jump in and it will spew us out in a random place in the mortal world?" I cringed at the use of the word mortal, reminding me that I wasn't.

"Yeah that's the gist, so who's first?" TJ said, clapping his hands and rubbed them together, grinning in his union uniform that he refused to take off.