Chereads / Jotunheimr Rising / Chapter 2 - Meeting the family

Chapter 2 - Meeting the family

Thanks to the memory's of my body's former owner I was able to distinguish where I am. I still can't get over how beautiful this place is, like a winter wonderland and I don't feel cold at all. As I continue my journey,

I hear voices in the distance. I crouch slightly and move towards the voices quietly, as I get closer I realize I can understand what they are saying but I know it's not any language I've heard before.

"We will not leave until we find him, I won't return to my mate telling her I lost our son."

"Don't worry brother, I'm sure we'll find him, he is a strong male and will find his way home." From what I can make out there are two people conversing some distance away, from the context of the conversation it must be my father but I will stay alert just to be safe.

I walk closer but as I do I pick up a familiar scent due to the change of the wind. Now I am certain that this is my father, so I pick up my pace. The two voices become alert but once they see me they rush over. "Thank the gods you're alright my son." Said my father before wrapping me in a tight embrace, but only for a second as he quickly released me and stepped back.

"Have you lost your mind, why did you separate from the group?" The second voice belongs to a woman, after getting a good look I realize that this is my aunt Reyn. She is quite tall, about six feet seven inches. Yeah tall must run in the family, my father is an inch or two taller than me. They both have horns but my aunt's are noticeably slimmer and end at the crown of her head instead of the back like my father and I.

Father is actually more muscular than I am, but his hair is pale blue unlike my white. He has many scars running across his bare chest and arms, his beard is long, reaching down to just above his chest with beads in it and some parts braided. He has similar tattoos as mine but they are older and a bit faded.

My aunt is built like some amazon warrior, muscled arms and shoulders that fit her frame. But not thick, just defined and look flexible, with a taut abdomen sporting some abs.

Toned legs with thick muscled thighs, like a sprinters legs. Hair in a single braided ponytail that reaches her lower back, but her hair is a darker blue than father's.

Her tattoos are only on her arms but they look far more intricate than father's.

They both have the same ice blue eyes as mine. "Boy! Why do you not speak?" I realize that I've spent too much time staring at them and have not responded. I smile and say "sorry for worrying you father, Reyn, but you won't believe what happened to me."

Reyn looks curiously at me, "well, what is it we don't have all day." I stand back and turn the snow around me to water than form six disk like shapes and turn it to ice. Six ice disks with sharp edges spin around me then I launch them at a tree and the tree is cut to pieces and falls spectacularly kicking up snow.

Now the previous owner of this body had the gift with ice like all of my people do. However, only a few can actually manipulate it to such an extent as I have just now, and none can turn it to water. Both my father and aunt can manipulate ice but at most form walls or sharp daggers.

In fact most of my kind only go as far as being immune to the cold.

"By the gods, Laufey how did you do that? You were always more proficient with ice than most but this is much greater." Reyn was so surprised but did not make too big of an expression.

Father was as stoic as ever but I could see traces of shock and happiness in his eyes. "Well boy, explain" father said. "When I fell off that cliff I was sure I would die, but then I tried to use my power to arrest my fall. It was too slow and I kept falling, but then I felt as though something just clicked in me and at the last moment my power came much easier.

If not for that I would be dead right now."

Father nods "their have been cases of such events but very rarely, and never to this extent. Well it's to be expected, you are my son after all, I must have passed on some amazing power hidden inside me which has led to this."

Reyn sneered, "what fucking power, it took you twenty one hundred years just to get to your current level of proficiency. Don't even try to act like you had some special seed that caused this."

At this point they started going back and forth slinging insults but I could tell it was all in good humor, just normal sibling trash talk.

Wait, did she say twenty one hundred years! He looks like he's in his mid forty's. Well I did ask for a long lived race. "Hmph, wait till Nal hears about this, miracle seed my ass.

Come on let's head back, we don't want to worry the tribe any more than we already have." With a nod they start running and I follow suit. It seems they started a competition of who could make it back first and picked up the pace. The light must have made this body stronger since I was able to keep up with them but chose to hold the rear, the old Laufey would never have been able to keep up.

Unsurprisingly Reyn won, I mean she is much leaner than him and moves with the grace of a cheetah.

We arrive at this huge gate made of dark blue ice, with walls made of the same material that goes for miles in either direction. The gate is riddled with carvings of large wolf like creatures being ridden by people.

It was beautiful, father signals the guards on the walls and the gate slowly opens. I wonder how they managed to move this monstrosity, each door is at least twenty-five feet high and ten feet thick. The wall is more impressive standing at least forty feet high and who knows how thick.

Once we enter the gate began closing and we went on our way, it took us twenty minutes to reach the end of the corridor and on the other side. Along the way I saw countless murder holes. Once we make it to the other side we check in with the guards and they have dark blue hair. Once done we head towards the center of this settlement, and it is huge.

So many people all over the place and still plenty of room to expand, the buildings are Viking style with all kinds of figure heads on them, though mainly wolf designs.

A river seems to run through the place and off into the frozen ocean. I do find it odd that there are not many kids running around. The residents all look happy and enjoying life, it's surreal seeing so many non human faces but I got over it pretty quickly. As I expected the hair colors seem to range from pale blue to dark blue.

As we walk people greet father and Reyn, well it's to be expected as he is the chief and she is the greatest shield maiden. I got a few nods of recognition as I'm the son of the chief, but by no means am I treated like some young master or prince as strength is the true ruler in this society.

Not even the chief's son is exempt from this, as the title of chief is not hereditary but earned through trail by combat.

After an hour of walking, mind you we are really tall thus increasing our stride and we do move fast, we reach a huge longhouse at least double the size of an average home. This is not the hall were meetings are held but the personal house of my family. Before we even reach the fence a little girl of about ten comes running to me and leaps at me crying up a storm.

I catch her and hold her close, "what's wrong little one?" I ask, she looks up at me with her tear streaked face "I missed you so much, I thought you were never coming baaaack." And she buried her face in my chest to cry some more.

After she calmed down she pushed me away, "making me worry like that, stupid brother." And with that she was off, that was my baby sister Blyra and she is a cute little thing but is spoiled by the family.

She has light blue skin and pale blue hair with ice blue eyes. "Oh now look what you did, she will be in a foul mood all day now" Reyn said as she chuckled and made her way inside with father right following soon after.

After entering the house I'm greeted by three beautiful women. The one in the middle is my birth mother Nal, to the right of her is Narnsa, Blyra's birth mother, and to the left is Katlei, my brother Valgar's birth mother.

They were all gorgeous, Nal was the tallest at six feet five inches, she had white hair like mine and a curvy body. Not much muscle but still a decent amount, I took after her in looks.

Katlei is six feet four inches with dark blue hair and eyes. Narnsa is the shortest at six feet two inches and is a thick woman, not fat mind you but thick in all the right places. She has pale blue hair and blue eyes. None of them are warriors and just manage the household, so they are housewives.

I walked over to them after father kisses them in greeting and heads to the kitchen to eat. I hug Nal tightly which surprises all of them as I'm not known for such things but she seems to enjoy it and hugs me back comfortingly. "What's wrong Laufey?" "I thought I was going to die mother, in that moment I thought of the three of you and how little time we've truly spent together."

Narnsa and Katlei hugged me from either side and we stayed like that for a few minutes. "Come on let's get some food in you, after that long day you must be starving." Narnsa said and we all went to the kitchen, father and Reyn were gorging themselves with food at an insane rate. I grabbed my plate and sat with my mothers and ate with them, we talked about their day and I just listened enjoying their company.

After eating I helped them clean and turns out Valgar is staying at a friend's house training and won't be back till a few days. Once done cleaning we just lounged in the room the whole family, even little Blyra joined us.

Soon the day came to an end and I made my way to my room to sleep after a long day. Before I could fall asleep my door opens and Blyra walks in closing it behind her, "I still haven't forgiven you for scaring me so to make sure you don't get lost again I'll sleep here tonight."

I couldn't help but chuckle and snatch her up placing her under the covers and she fell asleep in moments. "What a first day, what a family, what a life." And with that I drifted off to sleep.