Born Immortal

Born Immortal Chapter 31

Ormar made his way slowly through the thick layer of dead leaves and old plant matter that had settled on the ground in the thick forest, accumulating over the years to form a spongy surface that muffled sounds and let his dark skin blend in perfectly. The smooth scales on his belly passed over this cushioning warmth of long dead decay with barely a whisper of movement in the air around him to signify his passing.

He flicked out his forked tongue and tested the scents that made up the mosaic of life and death around him. He disregarded the small animals that were normal in the heavily wooded area and concentrated on the smell of the patrolling Aesir that were crossing through the trees on a regular basis.

Ormar would have wrinkled his nose in distaste if it were possible in the form of the large Python he had chosen for this mission. He always preferred to take the form of a snake when he was out to do harm and Loki had promised him the opportunity to do a lot of harm tonight. Not just any harm, though, tonight would let Ormar do some damage to any Aesir he came across and that was well worth the effort.

Ormar hated the Aesir; they had driven his Vanir family out of their home during the war and set them out to live like animals on the empty tundra of the frozen North.

The truce that had ended the war didn't reach into the hearts of people like Ormar who lived and breathed resentment and spent their time dreaming of ways to get back at those they saw as oppressors. Loki had traveled the world gathering those darkly simmering persons together and keeping them ready for their chance to get back what they saw as their right.

Ormar had been ready and waiting when he got the call from Loki to come and put this plan into action and he was so excited by the destruction to come that he could barely contain it. He had to keep telling himself to slow down and stick to the schedule so that he wouldn't mess up so many months, and even years, of planning.

He slithered slowly over to a spot where the trees began to thin out so that he could coil his powerful body in a patch of sunlight and keep watch over the driveway that led to the garishly large mansion that sat within the forest, separated from the woods themselves by a smooth expanse of landscaped gardens.

It made Ormar seethe inside to see these Aesir villains living like kings while the remains of his own family were forced to live in the shadows on the outskirts of civilization, squeezing a meager living out of the humans that had been allowed to breed themselves into domination. If it weren't for the Aesir council of elders and their draconian methods of ensuring obedience to their laws, Ormar would have single-handedly decimated the human population to put them back in the livestock yards where they belonged.

Ormar waited patiently all through the day, soaking up the energy from the sunlight that he basked in, for the movement he had been told to expect. He was able to stay in his animal form for as long as he wanted because he also had the genetic mutation that affected Loki and his offspring, allowing them to use energy only during the change itself and afterwards reverting to normal energy usage. Ormar soaked up as much as he could now, though, because he knew he would need to change at least once during the night to come and he didn't want to be vulnerable.

He raised his head as he heard a car coming from the direction of the house. The sun had only just sunk down below the horizon but Ormar didn't need much light to tell that the big truck wasn't the car he had been told to watch for. He kept his head up and was on the alert; he had been told that the Alfar prince would be leaving the house right at sunset.

It was well after dark by the time the loud roar of the flashy Italian car finally passed Ormar's hideout and Ormar felt a rush of relief; the long wait had stretched his patience to its very limit.

As the Maserati drove off away from the house, Ormar slowly uncoiled himself and headed for the rendezvous point with the Nithavellir that Loki had recruited to take care of the guards. They were only able to do jobs at night since their bodies weren't capable of processing the heat and radiation from the sun, it would burn them to a crisp; but it was late enough now for them to have gotten themselves in place.