Once Brynja had reassumed her human form, she dashed back whence she'd come, the cold and choking wisps of presentiment carrying her back to Harald. Although she was still unclothed, Brynja had not the patience to to seek her raiments out; she urged her legs on to devour the distance, impervious to her naked state. She should not have left him alone, but he had seemed ill-disposed to company...even that of a unassuming swan. It had therefore behooved her to leave him to his solitude lest he pelt her with more rocks.

Before she gained the clearing by the brook, she slowed her pace and picked her way carefully through the fallen pinecones, twigs and leaves, mindful of not alerting Harald to her presence. She would watch him from the shadows and appease her anxious heart that he was hale at least, if a little downcast. But when he spoke suddenly, she was caught off guard and froze to listen curiously. She was not, however, prepared to hear a second voice, the silky timbre of which imbued her with both ire and dread.

Not him!

"Who are you?" Harald inquired.

"Ask not who I am; but what I am," came the dreadful reply.

"What are you then?"

Though Harald's mouth was pulled taut and his jaw clenched noticeably, Brynja was pleased to see that his countenance remained stoic for the most part. But she knew the stranger — could see that he was not fooled by the chieftains cool mask. Harald could not, alas, disguise the smell of fear that permeate his skin, nor the telling beads of sweat that gathered at his brow.

"A friend; and I think you are in need of a friend just now."

Run, Harald! she urged him silently, but he, perforce, remained where he stood as she edged closer to where she might observe them better from the safety of a dense thicket.

"And your name, friend?"

"I think you know it already, young king."

Do not speak his name!

"Loki." Harald's voice had become no more than horrible whisper. He watched the god incline his head with an amused grin.

"Very good, Blood-drinker," said the dark one.

"What do you want from me?" Harald asked hoarsely.

Loki clicked his tongue and shook his head as he circled the chieftain, shifting his lazy gaze over to where Brynja hid behind a thicket. She bristled with the knowledge that he sensed her presence, but remained crouched and hidden nonetheless.

"Want? You think I show myself to demand something of you." His face was instantly shadowed with hostility. "You insult me."

"I meant no offense!" Harald was quick to assure the god.

"Good." Loki's brow therewith cleared of displeasure as he smiled again, his friendly disposition once more restored.

He is toying with you!

"But if you are not here to punish me, why then have you come?"

"I heard your cries! It was I that felt the bite of your anguish when Odin sought to turn his ears from you." Loki edged closer and leaned down to place his strange eyes level with Harald's. "For my part, I wish only to help you in the Allfather's stead."

Liar! Brynja's fury had evidently radiated across the space that separated her from Loki, for his lips quirked even further before he transferred his gaze surreptitiously to her hiding place, and then back to Harald.

"You are our undefeated hero; paeans should be sung to your victories, yet the gods remain unwilling to aid you. But not I. I who have hearkened your call and see fit to vouchsafe your request; it is wickedly unjust that you suffer so."

"My request, you say?"

"Aye. You want her womb to bear your seed, do you not you?"

"More than anything! I would do anything!"

Brynja grimaced to see the fervor, and madness, return to Harald's eyes — the same lunacy that had called a god of Asgard to him in the first place. She was almost loathe to watch, but forced herself to stay. Would that she might intervene and chase Loki from his side. It was, however, never a good idea to anger a god, especially this one.

"How very predictable. I am pleased to hear it." Loki answered approvingly. "Howbeit, I do not require any sacrifices from you; not just yet. But you will have a child!" His smile was positively savage.

"And in return?" Harald inquired suspiciously, which dimmed Loki's smirk somewhat.

Good! There now, he is not as foolhardy as you thought him to be, Loki.

"For the time being it is enough that my wishes parallel yours. I seek what you seek."

"Wherefore? I did naught but yell imprecations at your brother and Freyja. Why aid me?"

"You think me without compassion, but I would show you differently." Loki then stepped away from Harald and inspected his perfect cuticles nonchalantly. "However, if you would rather not have my assistance..."

He doesn't!

"I would!" Harald then took a calming breath and once more sought to assure the god. "I do want your help."

"I do not have all day, Blood-drinker," Loki drawled. "Be sure."

"I am."

Brynja's blood congealed as she listened, her fingers digging into her thighs and her nails impaling angrily at her flesh the while Loki bared his teeth in another horrific smile. As the blood dribbled down her legs she watched Loki reach into his cloak.

"Excellent. Tis done then." The god removed an odd-looking, red sphere from a hidden pocket which he then presented to Harald.

"What is it?" Harald took the object and inspected it dubiously.

"Eat it," Loki commanded. "Tis a fruit." That said, he whistled shrilly, causing his black wolf to leap up from where it had been reposing nearby. "Come, Váli." He then began to make his way back to the shadows, but turned and cocked his head impatiently when the chieftain called out for him to wait.

"That is all?" Harald cried, his eyes wide with incredulity. "If I eat the fruit-"

"When you eat the kernels within, you will have one chance to sow your seed; even the most fallow womb will bear your fruit. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Harald swallowed warily, but complied immediately and split the fruit as Loki watched on keenly.

After the chieftain had consumed all the seeds, Loki nodded his approbation and withdrew, disappearing into the gloaming like an eerie phantom. When she was sure he had gone, Brynja sprang out from where she had been concealed, and marched over toward him.

"What have you done!"

Harald's brows, consequently, shot into his hairline as he gaped at her, for she was still quite naked and her thunderous expression, no doubt, an impressive thing to behold. When she reached his side she cuffed him sharply over the head, glaring her disgust the while he drank in the sight of her. He seemed to want to speak, but his jaw yet hung on the floor and finally he gave up, deciding instead to resume his gawking.

"Where is it!" she growled.

"Where is what?" He moved away, rubbing at his smarting head, to sit alongside the brook with an infuriating grin plastered across his features.

"The fruit!" She tapped her foot expectantly as he reached over to grab the discarded peel. Brynja took it from his outstretched hand and brought it to her nose, sniffing it skeptically. "I do not recognize this fruit."

He shrugged his shoulders, clearly unconcerned. "Tis a fruit, what more do you need to know."

The insouciance of his manner provoked Brynja to sudden violence and she abruptly threw the red pith into Harald's phlegmatic face. He managed to turn his cheek so that it ricocheted off his temple, but when he brought his eyes back to her they were not amused.

"Careful, Brynja," he warned with a dark glower.

"It is too late for that! Bah! You men are senseless creatures!" she railed, throwing her hands in the air. But Harald's face had once again become stoic as he watched her breasts bounce in sync with her fury. "Why would you engage in negotiations with the likes of him! Are you mad! He is a trickster!" And a shape-shifter... But then so was she, whether in her swan or raven form.

"I didn't negotiate! He said he wanted to help me, and I accepted. There was no ulterior motive behind-"

"There is always an ulterior motive with Loki! By thunder, are you so naive, Harald?!" The tone of her voice was unavoidably derisive, and she could see that it rankled him, but he said naught while he considered her words.

"I know I was hasty, but what business is it of yours," he sighed wearily.

"I care about your wellbeing, you stupid man!"

"I wish that you would not; this doesn't concern you."

"Oh, but there you're wrong." With steely resolve, she knelt at his side and grabbed his chin firmly, hooking an insistent, searching finger into his mouth before he had much time to protest.

"Ack!" He slapped her hands away. "Have you lost your senses, woman!" Sputtering furiously, he pushed her from him ere she had chance to find any remnants of that which he had heedlessly swallowed.

They sat thus, each staring fiercely at the other and neither willing to back down. Finally Brynja relaxed her shoulders and sat back against a rock, opposite him, regarding Harald thoughtfully as she swung her knees open and closed. She snorted ironically as she noticed his eyes roving hungrily between her thighs.

"Poor, Harald," she mocked. "You made a deal with the devil..." Still his eyes remained fused to her mysterious depths. "Alas, I cannot let you keep your word." At that, he glanced up at her, his breeches straining with obvious agitation.

"Speak plainly, woman," he growled, his fists clenching over the red and brown leaves scattered over the forest floor.

"He has always played his tricks and games, but I will not let you be his pawn."

"I am not yours to protect." He was becoming discomposed now, as evinced by the moisture gathering atop his flushed skin the while he admired the curves of her body and the dusky blush of her rigid nipples.

"Wrong again, Harald." As she stalked towards him on all fours, she could hear his heart beat syncopating to a lusty, excited tempo. "In this moment...you are mine."

The pupils of his eyes had dilated and his scent become musky as she drew nearer. His reaction had, by now, wholly affected her and she wondered if it might be the strange fruit that he's eaten, or if she herself was the cause. But what did that matter; he was hers for now. She smiled her arousal and lay a firm hand over his chest, pushing him forcibly into the bed of leaves.

He made no objection as she straddled his thighs and leaned over him, positioning her heated core against his hardened flesh. Brynja moved her hips in a slow, teasing motion, coaxing him ruthlessly till finally the friction became unbearable and he, with sudden force, sheathed himself completely in her welcoming depths. For a moment, neither of them moved. Instead they savored the building tension, the sweet, maddening ache of clenching muscles, and the hungry burn of unsatisfied flesh.

Brynja bit her lip and raised her face up to look over his head into the shadows converging in the the twilight hour. There stood the wolf, its hackles raised and its yellow eyes watching them. But Brynja only smiled, reaching for a stone — as Harald had done earlier — and, just as her lover dug his blunt fingers into her hips, she cast the missile towards the carnivore skulking nearby.

The wolf instantly bolted, but not before she caught a brief glimpse of Loki's imperturbably visage in the shadows; and then he too was gone from view. She almost questioned whether or not she had seen the sylvan daemon, yet all too soon she forgot him as she lost herself in Harald's magnificent body.

"Why did you eat the seeds, you fool." Brynja crushed her lips to Harald's before he could answer and drove her hips tirelessly against his, pinning his shoulders to the ground.

As the pressure swelled where they were joined, she arched her back, leaning her hands against the slick iron of his tense thighs. He, meanwhile, swept his hands roughly across her breasts and taut belly as their rhythm intensified, and her sight grew unfocused. Then, when they finally reached the peak of that beatific crest, they were, as one, plunged into mindless rapture, their release affrighting the birds from the boughs overhead.   

⭐️ I know a lot of you will hate me for this, but these characters have a life of their own and I have to let them tell the story. Have faith though, there is sort of a happy ending ;) ⭐️