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Rated M for Mature

Appropriate for readers 18 and over. May contain extreme violence, sexual themes, nudity, or profanity.

Note- This spin-off series takes place after the events of Thor: The Asgardian Chronicles, Chapter 155- The Memory of Marion.

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/forums/fan-fic-8/thor-the-asgardian-chronicles-chapter-155-the-memo-2350326/

The Grim and the Lion, Chapter 21- The Bear That Shall Not Die

At this very moment, the Warriors Two were currently looking for Kelvin, the young lad who had been almost been sacrificed by the likes of the tribal Asgardians. But so far, he was not to be found, since the forest of the island was considered to be too huge; even for the Warriors Two to take upon a long search.

Aye, it took that long and this made Volstagg the Lion, furious. He still wondered what made Kelvin ran away. Perhaps, it was something like a wild bear would come after the boy. Or perhaps, it was those tribal Asgardians whom they had thus ran away, whilst the rest had been fought and killed by the Warriors Two.

Hogun became silent as usual. But he cried out, "KELVIN!" and just once, and that was it. Whereas the lion warrior yelled a few times.

"It is no use, Hogun," Volstagg said. "He could be anywhere."

The grim warrior nodded and he, who had tried to use his instincts to locate the boy, hoped to uncover his tracks.

But the mud was too deep, and for the boy to run off, might have not come here, or that he could have gone somewhere else. Aye, Hogun was still not that good at his tracking instincts, after all. He would have to work better on it.

Then there was a scream. The loudest scream that you could ever hear in the history of Asgard.

"Aye," Volstagg agreed. As he was about to follow Hogun's tracking instincts (which proved somewhat a failure), a roaring sound came out of nowhere, and that it had turned out to be his belly.

Hogun looked at him, questioningly.

Volstagg said, "I have not eaten for a few days, my friend. Though I still sometimes fart, I am damn hungry."

Hogun nodded and agreed in silence.

Volstagg sighed and wished that he could have brought those wonderful applecakes with him. At least a pack. But... he was warned that if he ate any more than he could, he would not able to move any further than that. Aye, it happened one time, and this forced the Lion to lose a bit of his weight. But then he stopped, because he was damn hungry, after doing all that workout (Aye, Asgardians do workouts in Asgard too).

Anyways, they both followed that direction, which Hogun was now leading (hopefully right), whilst Volstagg's belly kept grumbling...

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The man who had screamed, had turned out to be... the old man who ran off, whilst Captain Bohar (who was now dead) and the rest, faced the large, Asgardian bear.

But you would certainly ask why he had screamed in the first place. Well, it would seem that the... wild bear had come back to life!

Which would be impossible though, because the mysterious Paxton was sure that he had killed it, with his new dagger. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The bear was moving slowly, and at the same time, it was injured, so that made it still alive, and not dead. Not yet, anyways.

Paxton was not too surprised of this. He had heard tales of Midgardian bears being killed by a few blows, here and there. But not this one. Aye. This one was huge compared to Midgardian standards, and that it would still be alive, after being attacked for a few times.

The bear was coming at them, again and that made the old man screamed and then ran, again.

The others who had hid themselves amongst the bushes, ran as well, because the wild animal seemed to be coming towards their direction.

Kelvin was running too. Though he may not know that he was not the only one, he became panic-stricken when he saw those tribal Asgardians, currently looking out for him. Not to mention, they wanted to perform the sacrifice, again.

The boy shook those bad thoughts away, whilst running. And at the same time, he felt guilty of running away before he could wait for Volstagg to come and get him.

Maybe, I should have stayed a bit longer, Kelvin thought. But no, his running instincts had kicked in, when he saw those mad Asgardians with slightly, contorted faces. Aye. You could not forget those horrible faces in your entire life.

And so, Kelvin kept running until a few moments later, he stopped. He noticed a pond of clean water.

Well, at least he was lucky to find it, because he was damn thirsty. Too thirsty, perhaps. And when was the last time, he had drank?

So the sixteen-year old lad knelt down and cupped a handful of water in his hands, and then sipped. Ah, nothing like fresh water, and he thought that there was none here on this island.

Perhaps, there was some water here, after all. But not much food, except for the fruits, which either didn't help much to satisfy a man's belly.

Whilst drinking more of it, two men stepped behind him.

They quickly grabbed him from behind, and that Kelvin was about to scream when the man, with the horrible face, kicked his gut.

The boy lost his breath, and then they took him, again.

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The winter storm was still brewing. The guard who was sent out to search for a horse, stopped and almost lost his breath. He was so tired right now, that he wished he could find a place to stay for the night.

Then after a few moments of rest, he went on, and that it seemed to be neverending. He even thought of those wonderful applecakes. Aye, he was not the only one, but he was not fat either. Those cakes had been made by an Asgardian baker a long time ago, until the day she died. And so, the secret ingredients had been passed down to many generations in Asgard, so that more cakes could be eaten in everyone's belly.

Aye, this guard was hungry alright. Too hungry, in fact. He could have at least had something in the morning, before he set out on a mission to find a single horse. But no, orders were orders, and this had come forth from General Hakir, the Eastern Asgardian who had joined Lord Halgrin and his men, not many months ago, and that he had proved his worth when Commander Grak was not around.

Anyways, the guard kept going as usual, until he saw two paths that led to different directions. Now, he would have to ponder which one he had to take, that would lead him to the local village.

He thought for the moment, and remembered a childhood game, which most Asgardians had played often, at the playground. So he pointed his finger and then counted one and two, and one and two, what should I do? And then he picked the one on the left. Why? Because it was the one that he pointed his finger at, so he went in that direction (which later on, would turn out to be wrong). Aye.

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The guard was not the only one, who had suffered the heavy storm. A group of three people had ventured out into the deep forest, right after they came off the road, where still nobody was to be found. Well, one or two, as of late, when they had come back from a local tavern, and not realizing that the storm would approach anytime soon, despite what the old bartender had said to them. And guess what happened? They were both dead.

But these three people... they had not stopped, for they needed a shelter. Lady Layna was having trouble, pulling up the reins of her horse, whilst it still neighed and neighed, much like the b@$t@rd horse that ran away from Chalgrin Hardstone.

Now, whilst this was happening, her only maidservant was currently sick, due to the fact that she had not eaten any food lately, along with the rest. Well, who was to blame? There was only one person here, who cared not a thing about her, until he decided to let the Lady of Aggbir and her maidservants to escape from Hardstone Castle.

Aye, his name was Gilfurd the Torturer. In fact, it was strange for him to help them afterwards, but Layna had questioned his motives, and the reality of it, was that Gilfurd had claimed to seek back his enchanted sword.

So, the search went on (not the sword) but the shelter. It would seem that the unwanted storm was not allowing them to do such as that. Sure, it could happen in real life. It could also happen in any of the nine realms, except for Muspelheim.

The horse neighed again (the tenth time) and was jumping up and down, and this threw off poor Layna and her maidservant down to the ground.

Gilfurd shouted at the animal. Of course, he did not call him, b@$t@rd, but instead, he spoke in a... horse language.

"Neigh, Neighhh."

Now this was too surprising, since this hooded torturer seemed to have many skills, other than speaking in an animal language. Maybe not too many, not much the same level as Erik Masters.

The horse stopped. Gilfurd had already calmed it down, and said a few soft words. "Neigh... Neigh..."

Both of the women slowly got up. Then Layna said, "How... How did you do that?"

"Aye. I can speak many languages, including animals, of course."

Layna did not say anything to that, and then realized she had almost forgotten about her maidservant.

Gilfurd said, "It would seem that... your horse was scared off."

The Lady of Aggbir looked back at him. "Why?"

The torturer pointed his finger down towards a dead body.

Both women screamed.

To be continued in The Grim and the Lion, Chapter 22- Vengeance.

Hmm, a dead body. Eh? But who was it? Find out in the next chapter of The Grim and the Lion.