The Fox and the Hound (A Poki Story)

Ch IV - Valhalla

One Month Ago

The large marble doors to the throne room opened, revealing the thirteen Olympians in their full godly glory. Annabeth took a deep breath as she walked up to stand in front of Zeus, the king of the gods, and bowed.

Zeus sighed. "Let me guess. You want us to help search for your missing boyfriend."

Annabeth stood and started speaking rapidly. "I know this is the fifth time this month that I've called a meeting, but would you please reconsider? Percy has been missing for months and we haven't seen a hair of him-"

Annabeth's mother, Athena, cut her off. "Stop prattling! You have asked us this many times, and our answer will be the same, we cannot help you Annabeth. I have said this before, but none of us gods can sense Mr. Jackson in any of our domains. He is not on this Earth any more, nor is he in the Underworld."

Annabeth's eyes lit up. A clue! "Did you say 'this Earth'?"

"Yes, but I don't see-"

"Could he be on a different planet? Is there any other life in this universe? Universe! The multiverse theory. Is that really a theory?"

"Annabeth!" Hades yelled, getting her attention. "You're spiraling."

The blond smiled sheepishly before heading straight back to business. "But what about what I said? Is there any life in this universe? No," she answered herself. "Even if there was, there is no way using any of Earth's technology to get that far. What about the multiverse thing?"

"As far as we know," Apollo paused. "Actually, do we know anything about that?"

"Don't the Norse have some legend that talks about the multiverse?" Aphrodite asked. Everyone looked at her, amazed. "What? I'm more than just a pretty face, you know!"

"She's right, though," Athena affirmed. "Yggdrasil, The World Tree. It has one branch in each world, aka universe."

"Are you saying the Norse could help us?" Annabeth asked.

"Maybe they could," Zeus said. "We can't though, so could we please adjourn this meeting, already?"

----------

"This was a bad idea!" Annabeth yelled as she ran down the halls of the Hotel Valhalla.

"I know!" Blitzen yelled from beside her, barely audible above the howls and barks of the wolves chasing them.

Pause. How did this happen? << Rewind.

Annabeth had decided she needed to talk to a Norse. Her cousin, Magnus, was a Norse demigod. A son of Frey. But the problem was, he was dead and in the Norse afterlife for those who die in glorious battle. Aka, Valhalla. Annabeth, being Greek, couldn't get to him by herself. So the most logical conclusion was to find one of Magnus's friends, Blitzen or Hearthstone.

She had no idea where Hearth was, so she had to find Blitz. Last Annabeth had heard, the dwarf opened a clothing store in Boston called Blitzen's Best. She had headed there and recruited Blitz to get her into Valhalla.

That was where it started going wrong. Blitz said the best way to sneak into the hotel was through the back door of his shop. Apparently, there are 540 doorways into Valhalla scattered throughout the Nine Worlds. And one happened to be the back door of Blitz's store.

So they snuck into the hotel.

Blitzen looked at a plaque next to the door they had come through. "Yes! We're on the right floor." He waved for Annabeth to follow him then rushed down the corridor.