It had been about an hour since they had gotten to Helheim, and Fenrir wanted to either strangle Jörmungandr's progeny or rip off his ears. Maybe both, so that he would never have to hear the wretched songs they got his Priestess to quote from an odd form of human entertainment called: old children shows.
Apparently, Truth and Dare's great-grand-something's decided to show them what they watched when they were kids... resulting in a headache he could not remove, due to the said headache being Aspen, whose default when nervous is to apparently sing him to brain death.
"Ah questing we will gooo~
"Into this cursed ra~iin.
"We're ill-prepared and undertrained, with no practical knowledge of this terrain."
"A brute," she pointed towards the sky—aiming for the moon no doubt, "a girl," she pointed to herself, "two brothers," she pointed toward him and Jörmungandr, whose blank stare told him everything he needed to know about his precarious mental erosion, "and a braai~n," she screeched a high-note, pointed at Anubis who mustered a smile so weak, Fenrir felt his pain in his soul, "hiking up this inclined plaai~n!"
Now, do not misunderstand him—he likes Aspen, a lot. She was a decent, earnest girl with the best of intentions, but by Nidhogg's claws, he was extraordinarily close to smashing his avatar's brains out or silencing his sense of hearing forever for her to stop.
That was why, even though he did care of this sweet little girl from the bottom of his stone cold heart, his camel's back was finally broken with that high-note.
As such, he finally spoke up at the end of her banshee song in a remarkably dull and exhausted tone, "Aspen, you've been giving us a soul-weeping serenade for the last half hour with those Finicks and Fable or whatever show's songs; I beg you, if you want my mental faculties to be functional for my older sister, you have to stop. Now, if preferable. Actually, maybe even five minutes ago—or half an hour ago. Just stop."
She stared at him opened mouthed at his blunt way of speech and turned to Anubis for maybe some back up, but the god's resigned and empty expression further attacked her singing as he gave his own two cents.
"I know you just want us to cheer up little one, but I'm sorry... I'd rather face and listen to Bes's screams against evil than listen to one more song."
Tears were starting to form in her eyes at this point, and she turned to Jörmungandr, who had remained deadpanned and silent this entire time, in an attempted to get some gratification for her singing ability.
It was a foolish attempt.
"...It was deeply moving... and inspiring—I even remembered, very clearly... why I hate the world again... thank you, for renewing my purpose in life."
Out of all the comments, this was probably the worst one she received, as it was framed as a word of gratitude for something horrific.
The young lady made sure to keep her tears to herself as they walked in suffocating silence. However, it was strangely comical that now that she had stopped, the journey and the time seemed to move faster as in no time, the rotting remains of a grand stone castle greeted their eyes.
"At least you were right about the 'hiking up this inclined plain' part," Fenrir quipped as she caught her breath from the nonstop hike up a rather large hill.
"I'm sorry!" she yelled, annoyance from his jab seeping into her expression before she punched him in the arm—which made him worry as even though he felt nothing from it, she probably hurt herself—and marched down the hill angrily where she proceeded to slip on mud from the rainfall and fall flat on her rear.
"Ow, ow, ow!" she yelped while slowly recovering form the fall's shock, hissing at her bloody hands which had been scuffed against rocks while attempting to save herself.
'This day officially sucks; I've signed it in blood and stamped it on the ground now, so it is actually official. Screw everyone, everything, and OW,' she ranted inwardly while Fenrir hauled her into his arms, wrapping his cloak around her before walking to the castle with her remaining in the princess carry.
In fact, it was done so smoothly and nonchalantly by him that only five minutes later did Aspen fully register their position and became slightly flustered that she was dirtying his clothes with her muddy rear end.
"...You can put me down now, the pain is more or less gone... I can walk," she mumbled, hiding her burning cheeks in her hood as she noticed Jörmungandr's curious yet blank gaze piercing the side of her head.
Her Patron had the audacity to laugh, "Not a chance. In fact, I should have done this from the beginning the moment it began to rain like this—I'm sorry I neglected to do so."
"No... I'm happy you let me walk like this... in the hospital, I was never allowed out when it rained due to my weaker constitution, and walking was almost out of the question..." she trailed off while affixing her gaze to the castle of the dead that steadily grew larger as they closed in on it.
Fenrir's expression rapidly grew sad and stoic at her quiet words; they had never really addressed her condition in her 'real' body, though he had picked up on it, that something was wrong with her physically in the other world:
The way she would sometimes look surprised when she awoke with no aches, how she would fidget with the inside if her wrist where a scar remained, even the manner in which she took in the natural outdoors as if they were a great, undiscovered paradise waiting to be explored all served as a silent witness to her previous hardship.
"Don't worry," he said, holding her tighter as he started up the looming entrance grimly, expression stoic and matching with the other higher beings.
"No harm will come to you while I am here," he strode forward with determination on his countenance.
And she believed him.