MUSPELHEIM: SKYLAR
Skylar was the first to rush over to Victor's side when he woke. The boy's eyes were red, he was breathing heavily, tears were streaming down his face. She draped one of the silk tapestries they had found in the trove over him, she lowered her voice and whispered to him: "It's fine. We're here, you're safe."
Moments later Maximilian rushed over, and without so much as a word, Victor tearfully grabbed Maximilian and hugged him. Maximilian was very shocked as he hugged Victor back: "Victor? What's wrong?"
Victor sniffed: "I thought I lost you. Lost you forever."
Maximilian hugged Victor closer: "Whatever do you mean?"
Victor coughed in tears: "I had a dream. You died. In front of me. You wanted to say something. You fell off a cliff."
Maximilian squeezes his eyes shut: "I promise I'll stay with you Victor. Nothing will stop me from coming back for you."
Victor spoke softly: "Say it."
Maximilian confusedly said: "Say what?"
Victor broke off the hug and looked Maximilian square in the eyes: "What did that you want to say?"
Maximilian shook his head: "I'm sorry Victor I don't know."
Internally Skylar felt like screaming. How could the boys be so blind to it? She could feel it in the way the boys looked at each other, the way they seemed to always be there for the other, the same train of thought. She cast her mind back, the first thing Victor thought of when she took him was rescuing Maximilian. She was touched by their bond. But as much as she enjoyed seeing the two of them grapple with themselves, she could feel the light creep in through the small hole in the cave, it was morning and they needed to go. So she walked over and lightly tapped Victor's shoulder and both boys looked up. She gestured at the thinly carved pathway up to the oculus: "We have to go."
Both boys picked themselves off the ground. Maximilian grabbed his sword and started walking up the steps out of Fafnir's cave. Skylar and Victor followed comfortably behind.
Out of Maximilian's earshot, Skylar turned to Victor: "You love him. Don't you?"
Victor went pink: "Of course I do. He's my friend."
Skylar sighed and shook her head: "You know what I mean."
Victor laughed quietly: "Am I really that obvious?"
Skylar stared off into the distance as they walked up: "You'd be surprised at how much I can read both of you. So I'm interested in what you see in him that draws you in so?"
Victor exhaled wistfully, he stared at Maximilian several meters ahead of them: "He's been with me, saved my life. I used to always moving, nothing constant, not even my parents. Always facing life on my own, but when I'm near him, I feel like I have someone that would be by my side any time. He's the one thing in my life that seems constant, permanent, inevitable. He always knows what to do so that my dark world becomes tints lighter. When I felt I was falling, helpless on Asgard, Niflheim against Hrym, when we first arrived here and we were attacked, he protected me and as someone who had to fight nearly 15 years on their own without so much as a friend, as someone who can tolerate how weak and hopeless I can be, even though I'm no longer as weak, I value his company, as someone who I trust and can look sideways and always count on being there. At first, I stuck to him because I needed to be protected, then I trusted him as a friend. I guess I didn't know how much that feeling has grown until I took that icicle for him. The point is, I love him. And I would take that icicle for him all over again."
Skylar patted her friend on the back: "I believe you Victor. If Maximilian hurts your heart, I will kick him somewhere painful."
Instinctively Victor stretched out his hands: "Please don't!"
She smirked at him: "All right, I'll leave your wonder boy alone."
And with the end of that confession, as if on cue, the light shone on their faces. The two joined Maximilian at the summit, and took in the hellish sunrise. While the dirt was a blood red, the sky was a smoky orange, but almost a kilometre in front of them were a collection of obsidian and stone spires in some unholy coral, dragons circled the spires like vultures circled prey, geysers of lava spurted molten rocks out erratically. The complex of spires, Surtur's black fortress was encircled with a ring of columns topped with individuals braziers that burned an angry red.
Next to her, she felt Maximilian draw his sword: "Let's go get out of here."
