Page 17 of Thorulf

Chapter Six

THORULF HAD NO ideawhat to think when colors sharpened around him, and a tiny transparent green dragon shot through the front door and whipped upward, clearly having a wonderful albeit rebellious time. Up and up she went, squealing with delight without making a sound, flapping her minuscule wings for all she was worth.

“Hey, that’s me when I was little!” Jade exclaimed. “Really little.” Though everyone else had vanished, she, Thorulf, Dagr, and Maya remained. Though confused, she grinned at her other self. “And just as rambunctious as ever.”

“It’s a memory,” Maya revealed. “Of you in Helheim.” She looked at Dagr. “Like Hel said, my sisters passed through this world, too. Born of Leviathan and Destiny Forging in Fire then born onto Midgard.”

“Yet it doesn’t look like Jade’s heading that way,” Dagr noted with amusement when Goddess Hel, just as transparent as tiny Jade, stormed into the Keep after her.

“Jade,” she roared. Her godly voice carried all the way to the top of the sky-high windows above the great hall. “Get back here. You donotbelong in this world!”

“You’re responding to her telepathically.” Maya cocked her head as if straining to hear. She bit the corner of her lip, rolled her eyes at Jade, and shook her head at the tiny green dragon still zipping up and up. “You’ve declared you like it here. That there’s too much fun to be had to leave just yet.”

“Is that allowed?” Jade chuckled and squinted, trying to see her tiny self, she was so high now. “I mean, can’t Hel just flick a wrist and whisk me along to be born on Earth?”

“Usually, that’s how it works if need be.” Dagr crossed his arms over his chest and considered his mother Hel as she paced and cursed and kept ordering tiny Jade back down. “Yet it seems, like Maya, you’re different than most, Jade.” He glanced at Maya. “I think all your sisters are.”

“What does that mean exactly?” Maya asked.

The corner of Thorulf’s mouth twitched in amusement when tiny Jade perched on a window ledge and peeked one large emerald green eye over the edge, wondering if Hel would pursue her all the way up there. “I’d say it means the same rules don’t apply to you and your sisters as most souls.”

“Precisely.” Dagr looked between Maya and Jade. “Which changes everything, really.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Maya murmured, evidently following his meaning.

“Care to enlighten us?” Jade prompted when their attention returned to her other self, who now tip-toed along the ledge as though that would somehow hide her from Hel.

“It means because we were born of something so unusual and powerful, we have more freedom than most.” Maya smirked when tiny Jade peeked another eye down, clearly hoping Hel would come play. “I think maybe this explains why our energy fluctuates so much in our world. Because it’s only one of many we existed in.”

“Existed?” Jade frowned. “But I’m transparent, so obviously, this is temporary. My dragon’s a ghost right now.”

“No, she’s a memory right now,” Thorulf corrected. Having seen his cousin’s memories of the moment Maya came to be under the ash on Helheim, he tilted his head in question. “She should be solid like Maya was, shouldn’t she?”

“Only if she was born into this world which I don’t suspect she was.” Dagr’s attention returned to tiny Jade, who pulled back sharply when Hel’s eyes narrowed in on her. Her dragon did a little happy dance, obviously under the impression she’d gotten the goddess to play after all. Eager to keep the game going, she took flight again as if daring Hel to follow.

“No, I don’t think she was born here either.” Maya clearly sensed something. “If she were a Helheim dragon, we’d know it.” She looked at Jade with surprise. “I don’t think any of us were born directly onto Midgard.”