"Did you bring the thing I requested?" I asked of the form beyond the portal, the rain falling all around the hood visage of the creature that stood out in the driving rain and storm, with the fury and power of nature pulling at his garments, trying to tear them asunder. The figure, with eyes the were deeply set in darkness stared at me from within the depths of the hood that it wore, stared at me, with a gaze that could have caused Medusa herself to freeze cold in her reptilian tracks.
"What?" it demanded, and the hood pulled back to reveal Julian, who looked more than a little displeased to be out in the rain. Behind him I saw another figure, who seemed even less pleased than Julian himself, of course neither's displeasure was any surprise, considering the hour was nearing midnight, and I'd called them up only an hour ago, probably rousing them out of nice warm, soft beds to get them out in this storm to come to my house.
"I asked if you brought someone with you, and I can see the answer right in front of me, so why don't you both come in and dry off," I told Julian, fully opening the door and ushering the two inside. Luckily, with only a few candles burning, the inside of my house was lit almost the same amount as the outside world, and so their eyes need no time to adjust, however mine obviously did, for as I looked to the figure beside Julian, expecting to see Kokoro, I was instead startled to find it was someone else entirely, and my surprise obviously registered on my face, because Julian pointed at the man beside him.
"Jon, this is Dominique, Dominique, this is Jon, he's the one who called me up," Julian said, and I held out my hand to the newcomer. He took it shook it quite vigorously, though whether this was natural for him, or because he was made at me for getting him outside in the storm I was unsure.
"Alright then, how about you tell me what was so important it could wait until morning?" asking Julian as I led them both through my apartments entryway, and into the living room, the instant we stepped inside both of my companions stopped, and I smiled at their reaction, for the sight truly was impressive, with candles everywhere, casting off pale light that shifted and moved with every stray motion of the air around them, casting shadows about that were at once creepy and soothing to the eye.
"Expecting a power outage?" asked Julian, and I shook my head.
"Not exactly. Julian, do you remember what I told you I was doing last month, when I left for a week and a half?" I asked him in return, and he thought for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah, you said you were going tomb raiding, or something like that," he answered, and I sighed at it, shaking my head.
"Not tomb raiding, that's such an ugly word, as it sounds like grave robbing. I was on an archeological dig in northern Scandinavia, although why they assigned a tech to something like that, I'll never know," I stated, scratching my chin as I tried to think of yet again why the company I worked for, a technologies broker, would even be doing such digs, but then shook my head to clear it of such thoughts.
"Anyway, while there I happened on this," I said, and then pulled off the table an old stone tablet, covered in what looked like squiggles, and after staring at it a moment, Dominique tapped it with his finger and then looked at me.
"So what? You wanted us to look at this by candle light during a storm?" he asked, and once again I shook my head.
"No, not that exactly, you see, the rune on this tablet contain a powerful spell, something to give the caster the perspective of Odin, the All Father of the Norse gods, or in other words, omniscience," I told them, my voice excited, but when I saw the slightly dazed look on their eyes I realized they didn't recognize the word.
"I mean it can help us to know everything, about everything," I explained, and Julian nodded excitement growing behind his eyes, though Dominique seemed a bit more subdued, looking from me to Julian, and then putting up his hand to interject between us.
"So you wanted us to what, read some old legend that supposedly magic?" he asked, and I shook my head, though it was Julian who answered, having had similar doubts in the past about such things.
"I don't know if you believe in magic or not, but believe me, with all the stuff that Jon and Kokoro do up at their job, I'm willing to give this a shot, especially if it means I never have to study for another test again," he said, and looked towards his friend in askance, and after a few seconds hesitation, Dominique stepped forward.
"Alright then, let's see if this works, so what do we do?" he asked, and I clapped my hands like a giddy school boy as I pulled out two robes from behind a chair and shoved them at the others.
"Just put those one, and then come here," I said, walking over to a table set up at the center of the room while slipping into a similar robe. As soon as the other two joined me I pointed for them to sit down on pillows I'd set on the floor for them, and then gently set the tablet down on the table between us.
"Alright, now all I need is for you two to sit there, as this spell calls for three people to cast it, but it says only one of us needs to do the actual casting, so just sit there, and don't move," advised, and Dominique looked around at the candles, and then at the tablet, and seeing he had a question I merely held out my hand in a gesture that told him to speak it.
"So, are you gonna sacrifice us, or something to gain the favor of the gods in the heavens, or some such like that?" he asked, and I vehemently shook my head back and forth.
"No not at all. This is a simple rune spell. All I really need is for the runes to be written down, and then I just have to say them, in any language, and the spell should activate. What form the activation will take, I have no idea, but if I'm right about all this we shouldn't be hurt at all, though if you don't feel comfortable, you can leave now," I told him, motioning towards the door.
"No, I want to stay, but one more question, why couldn't this have waited until morning?" he asked, and I nodded, understanding why he would want to know.
"Well, because the tablet says the heavens must rage for the spell to work, and they're certainly doing that tonight. Besides, if this doesn't work, I've got my television all set up with some good movies, and some snacks in the kitchen, so we can do something with the rest of the night," I told him, and he nodded, despite how childish that suggest really was. With him out of questions, and us all in our places I held up my hands palms flat, towards them, and without waiting to be told the joined their against mine, so that our arms formed a kind of triangle around the tablet, as depicted on the top of it.
"Ancient Gods, born from Yggdrasil's fruit, I beseech ye, we gathered here, neath the light of candles made from the fat of Fenrisulfr brethren, while the heavens overhead rage with thy fury, ask a boon of ye. Grant us that which makes Mjolnir's strike sound like a drop of water, and Jörmungandr length but a span of feet. Oh ancient ones, grants us the perspective of Great Odin, All Father, that we might know the world as he does," I commanded, and the tablet's runes burned brightly, as the storm outside seemed to rage all the more strongly, and the flames of the candles, burning around us, leapt upward, and began to circle us in a ring of fire, taking my eyes off the tablet, I stared at the other two, willing them not to move, and bravely they stood their ground, but then as the rune for Odin went alight, as the others before it, I heard a new sound, and looked to find that a stray bit of dust had worked it's way into Julian's nose, and sneezing, he fell backwards, and penetrated the circle of flame, which vanished instantly, leaving the three of us in he darkness for a moment, until I found the remote and turned on the TV.
"Are you okay, Julian?" I asked, searching about for the light switch, but my friend grabbed my hand, nodding.
"Don't worry about. I'm sorry I broke the spell though, that was getting good," he said apologetically.
"Ah, don't worry. We can always try again later. For now though, how about those movies, and the snacks?" I suggested, to which both Dominique, who had seemed slightly dazed until that moment, and Julian quickly agreed, and Dominique even offered to go get them, and I was tempted to let him while I set the movie up, but still I was the host, and I was supposed to do all the work.
(If you can't guess, the one who goes to get the food will remain normal, while the two who remain will get shrunken so choose your giant)
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author