Jötunheim

Chapter Nine: Storm
~BlackRoseRaven

They had to move more carefully during the day than Antares would have liked: at first they had just galloped through the trees, but that had led them to nearly run headlong into a snoozing earth giant.

The giant had been a great, ugly beast that seemed like it was more rock and bark than it was living thing: it had stodgy, thick legs and big, swinging arms that looked like stretched wood. It was overgrown with moss and mushrooms, flat face nearly buried in the mud of the river it had sprawled out beside, one arm stretched up the riverbank, nearly as long as its humongous body.

It was naked, but there was a massive, primitive spiked club carelessly dropped nearby that looked like a small tree with several broken, rusted swordblades and spears and metal pipes jammed wildly along its length. Antares couldn't help but almost marvel over this for a moment before hurrying after his sister past the snoozing goliath: he couldn't imagine the kind of damage a monster the size of a house could do with a tree covered in bits of sword.

They moved on, quieter, more carefully, and it was a good thing they did: they were barely able to sneak carefully through the tall grasses along a drainage ditch that had been carved in the earth at the bottom of a humongous field that earth giants plodded carefully through, tending to thin, bizarre trees that grew massive fruit that should have been too heavy for their gangly, leafless branches, as well as smaller, stouter trees that produced what Innocence identified as a much more enticing substance, at least to her: ambrosia, the fruit of the gods, which could be used to concoct all manner of elixirs and potions.

She stared at one of these fat, pumpkin-sized berries, then grinned as Antares winced before the mare vanished from the spot. The grasses whispered as an invisible shape disturbed them, and Antares hissed in frustration as he stuck his head through the tall grasses, whispering furiously: “Don't do it!”

“I'm gonna do it!” Innocence whispered loudly back from beneath her glammer, hurrying across the field to the closest ambrosia tree: she leapt onto the trunk and scrabbled quickly up to a branch, light flickering and bending around her body before she blinked onto a berry, then squawked as it tore loose and they both fell to the ground, the mare half-flipping and thumping loudly down on her back with the ambrosia clutched to her stomach.

She groaned, then winced as she heard thundering footfalls approaching: but by the time the giant reached the end of the row and leaned curiously down, all it saw was some grasses rustling in the distance as some small animals or bugs hurried quickly away.

Innocence cackled, the ambrosia safely tucked away into her portable pocket dimension, back in full visibility, covered in dirt and smeared with juice as she proclaimed: “I am the best!”

“You're the worst.” Antares grumbled, and then he questioned: “What are you even going to do with that, anyway?”

“Eat it.” Innocence shrugged. “Make pancakes. Powerful pancakes!”

“You're the worst.”

They continued onward, pushing hard where it seemed safe to, darting across grassy fields and trying to keep under some kind of cover. The further they pushed, the more giants they encountered: some tending fields, some repairing vast, strange structures, and at least one working at an immense forge carved in the side of a humongous mound that Antares couldn't tell had been carved from natural, jagged stone, or if the giants had built the hill themselves out of slabs of rock.

They pushed as far as they could, but Antares started to get a little more uncomfortable as they passed what was clearly a warning totem: a massive pole jutting from the earth in the center of a field, topped with an immense skull. A dragon... or something even worse, Antares thought, judging by its elongated grin and the remaining, cracked horn.

“Never seen a dragon with a face like that. Don't think I'd want to, either.” Innocence muttered.

“A wyrm of some kind. Probably an extinct species...” Antares murmured as they hurried through the field, before he frowned, then suddenly grabbed his sister and hauled her quickly over to a sprawl of shrub, the mare squawking, then quieting at the look on her brother's face and instead following his gaze.

She was shocked to see several giants plodding towards them in the distance: but even as they drew close, she could barely hear their footsteps, or feel the reverberations of their passage. These goliaths of living stone and wood moved almost soundlessly, their bodies covered in animal pelts and scaly hides that seemed less like armor and more like symbols of rank and status.

But they were all armed, as well, and as primitive as their stonework weapons looked, these weren't makeshift like the giant with the club earlier: one had a humongous stone axe with a blade scrawled with runes, another carried a heavy staff topped with a massive, thrumming crystal.

The patrol passed by, and Antares grimaced before he muttered: “Well, the good news is that Mutt and Dad are gonna be slowed down by them. The bad news is that this looks like a scouting unit, and I'm starting to think they take defending Yggdrasil a lot more seriously than we might have thought.”

Innocence grumbled, but didn't have any argument for him: they moved quickly on instead, pushing as far as they could. But as twilight began to fall, they were stopped not only by the encroaching darkness, but the fact they ended up reaching a massive fortification, a fortress made of logs and slabs of rock and living, ancient trees that stretched to the sky, their mighty branches supporting immense platforms that were further shored up by log supports and coils of vine thicker than Antares' body.

The giants patrolled the fortifications ceaselessly, and while Innocence figured out where they could possibly camp – and if they'd have to just settle for withdrawing from this monstrosity for now – Antares took a quick look around the edge of the immense structure.

This fort was as large as a castle, if not a small city, and the giants had it locked down extremely tightly. As night fell, gemstone lanterns hung off branches and hammered into the walls glimmered to life, casting everything outside the walls in light of all different colors: it was painful to Antares' eyes, leaving him to wonder if the giants saw things differently or if they were just used to it and didn't care about filtering the glow produced by the gemstones.

Some of the moss and the mushrooms growing out of the trees was also phosphorescent, he noted, turning the shadows of huge bugs crawling over them into leering monsters. And yes, the bugs were another problem Antares wasn't too keen on: beetles almost as big as him, humongous centipedes that could devour a pony whole, giant spiders that lurked in treetops and caught flies the size of boulders in their massive webs.

The giants didn't seem to mind the bugs at all: then again, most of them were thirty to forty feet tall and made out of rock, so the bugs were like, well, bugs to them. All the same, it was creepy watching several beetles crawl all over one of the stone giants standing outside an immense gate, not twitching even as they frittered their way underneath the animal-skin tunic he wore.

“These guys are weird.” Antares muttered, and then he shook his head before turning to hurry back towards Innocence, sensing her out with his magic.

Sin had managed to find a niche in the outer wall of the fortress, camped in a crooked little space between two warped logs. Antares joined her by the little blue fire she had made, the mare grumbling: “It's not great, but we should be safe here.”

It was cramped and dirty and Sin had definitely burnt a few bugs to death to secure the area, but all the same Antares couldn't help but smile as he said: “It's fine, Sin. So what do you think?”

“It's too big to go around, isn't it?” Innocence asked morbidly, and Antares nodded. “Great. Then we'll scamper through like rats.”

“I mean, at least it shouldn't be too hard to get through, right?” Antares said unhelpfully, and Innocence gave him a dry look before the stallion asked: “Can they track us at all?”

“Their magic is... primal, earthy, like... well, I guess probably just like what you'd expect.” Sin shrugged. “They aren't looking for us so I don't super know for sure, but they don't seem to have a real passive sense for magic and they aren't like, trying to keep anyone out.”

“That's what got me, too. They're a little apprehensive... I saw some tenseness in the giants on guard duty and the patrol that passed by me. But they're looking out for something big, not someone like us.” Antares paused and then knocked on one of the massive logs, calculating in his head: “So the wall averages at least eighty feet high. It stretched further than I can see in the dark in either direction. It's kind of circular, but that seems more like an engineering accident than anything else. I saw a few even bigger gaps than this one in the walls, but they don't really seem to care all that much about them.”

“Dumbasses.” Innocence huffed.

“Maybe not.” Antares shrugged, saying pointedly: “I mean, we're especially badass. We're like aliens with cosmic powers level badass compared to most of what we've come across so far.”

“True. We did kill like a thousand elves.”

“Like a thousand.” Antares agreed solemnly. “They probably suspect Jötnar or a dragon or something before they suspect us.”

“I mean I am kind of a dragon. Tyrant Wyrms are kind of dragons.” Innocence said helpfully.

“Yeah, exactly.” Antares nestled himself against the cramped wall with a grunt, then winked at her as he said. “So as long as we keep quiet and move carefully, I think we'll be just fine.”

It was a terrible prediction to make, but Antares wasn't especially worried about slipping through the giants' fortress without being detected: he was more worried about what was going to happen after the fact. Yggdrasil was close now, and he had the feeling this was only the first of ever-tightening defenses they were going to encounter.

The night was interrupted by one strange event: a sudden storm rolled in, and the earth giants became extremely agitated. It was enough that Innocence went off to scout what was going on, and after just half an hour, she hurried back to their little hidey-hole and hissed: “Gotta go!”

“What did you do?” Antares asked, but Innocence only shook her head hurriedly before she gestured at him wildly, barely giving him enough time to throw on his satchels before, to his surprise, she led him quickly into the fortress, and not away from it.

They hurried alongside the outer wall, sticking in the shadows, staying low in the grasses and weeds to avoid detection from several pacing giants. Once the coast was clear, Innocence bolted across the dirt path to the inner wall, Antares following quickly to a thin gap between a log and a massive tree that they were able to painfully squeeze through to enter a guard barracks.

It stank of soil and sweat, Antares grimacing as they hurried past empty cots and discarded blankets. He didn't want to admit how apprehensive it made him to see all these empty beds: what had happened to put every giant in the fortress on alert?

“Are you going to tell me what happened or what?” Antares grumbled as they stopped in an archway, and Innocence bit her lip as she leaned out before wincing and ducking quickly back into the doorway, pushing Antares around the edge as a giant came thundering down the hall.

He thankfully stormed past, and Innocence wheezed before she looked at her brother and said awkwardly: “Storm giant.”

“Oh.” That explained the thunderstorm. And... “Oh no. He's miffed about what you did at Giant's Reach, isn't he?”

“Oh, way to blame it all on me, Tarry. Some big brother you are.” Innocence huffed, then checked the hall before she darted across it, and Antares followed her quickly to another room, wondering if this was what it felt like to be a rat. “He's definitely way more sensitive to magic than the giants and I think he might have seen me while I was sneaking around the fortress.”

“So why exactly are we moving towards him, then?” Antares asked waspishly as they hurried through a dark room full of inscrutable shapes. He groaned when they reached the far side and Innocence lit up her horn just enough for him to watch as she crawled into a thin gap, the stallion dropping on his belly and wiggling carefully forwards as he mumbled: “This is what I get.”

He emerged next to his sister in an ugly strand of bushes, in what Antares first mistook to be a courtyard of some kind. But then Innocence grasped him and carefully pulled him through the wiry plant life, and when he was able to poke his head out, he realized that while this was overgrown with wildlife, all of that abundant life was centered around and growing towards a massive orb in the center of the courtyard, the enormous sphere of cracked crystal thrumming with life-giving power, wrapped in vines and ivy and blossoming flowers.

“Ah.” Antares said, as Innocence grasped him and quickly pulled him towards the crystal. She led him through the tall grasses and weeds into the dipped earth that surrounded the massive, life-giving stone, and they skidded down into a crater, Antares unable to help but groan in disgust as they ended up in stinking, mossy soil beneath the enormous stone platform that held the stone in the air.

“This is basically the stone giant's food supply. They must regenerate from the luminous energy it gives off.” Innocence informed, and Antares looked at her moodily as they lay in the muck underneath the gemstone, the stallion doing his damnedest to ignore the fact he definitely felt something crawling over one of his hind legs. “Don't worry. I drove off most of the bugs.”

“Then what do I feel crawling on me?” Antares hissed, and Innocence winced as she looked back over her shoulder before she squeaked at the sight of the millipede that hurried busily by.

The siblings traded looks, then they both shuddered before Innocence said awkwardly: “Look. We'll just hide here until the storm giant goes away. He won't be able to detect our magic beneath this big energy orb thing. Then we can get the hell out of here.”

Antares grumbled under his breath, before he muttered: “Why are these huge magic orbs always on some kind of pedestal like this?”

“I don't know, maybe because if you plant the life-giving magic orb in the ground it causes stuff to grow wildly all around it and then you're cutting down weeds every time you want to use it?” Innocence grumbled back, shouldering her brother roughly. “It's already making all the flora in here grow out of control. Imagine what it would do if they hadn't salted the earth and put it up on a platform!”

“Calm down, thunder-panties. It was just a question.” Antares grumbled, and the two grouchily shoved at each other before they both settled into the muck to wait.

After an hour or so, they were disturbed by a growing sense of sizzling static in the air. The two ponies slowly looked up from their hundredth game of tic-tac-toe to stare out from beneath the plate of stone they were hiding under at the sight of massive, sandaled feet and the edge of stainless robes lingering at the edge of the crater.

Antares and Innocence huddled together, the mare whispering: “Maybe he's just uh... getting a snack?”

“I uh. I don't think so.” Antares mumbled back as one of the taloned toes tapped slowly. “But maybe if we're real quiet he'll just go away?”

There were a few more moments of silent, frustrated static, before a voice growled down to them, echoing painfully in their ears: “I know you're down there. What are you doing here? Why did you destroy Giant's Reach?”

The two looked at each other, and then Antares cleared his throat before he said awkwardly: “Um. Hi there, um... hi. I'm gonna come out. Please uh... please don't squish me.”

“That will depend entirely on your answers.” growled the storm giant, and Antares winced before he sighed and crawled quickly to the gap, nervously sliding out, then staring dumbly up at the sixty foot tall goliath that towered over him, its thunderbird head and sharp avian eyes glaring down into his very soul, beak clacking in distaste at the sight of the pony.

“Wow you're big.”

The storm giant didn't look amused, crossing his arms as he slowly tapped a foot, and Antares winced at the wind that idle gesture of irritation produced before the pony waved lamely and said: “Hi. I'm Antares Mīrus. I'm uh... trying to get to Mimir. Preferably before my parents do. Mutt, and Dad, I call them. I call Mutt 'Mutt' because it's short for Móðer, because she's my Móðer. She's my mother, too, but I have a mother too, so we call her Móðer to make it more distinct. I have three parents.”

The storm giant slowly rubbed the base of his beak with two fingers, and then he asked irritably: “Where is the magic user?”

“Oh, that's my sister! Hey, uh... Sin, uh. The giant... sorry, I didn't get your name?” Antares grinned and gestured helplessly up at the storm giant with a hoof, but the goliath only glared back at him in response. “Uh... the storm giant would like to have a word with you.”

Innocence wiggled her way out from under the platform, then she winced at the size of the giant before she visibly psyched herself up, puffed out her cheeks, and blustered out a threat: “I'll fuck you up. I fucked up that big-ass wall and I'll fuck you up too.”

The storm giant sighed in exasperation as Antares gave a wheezy laugh before he quickly put his sister in a chokehold, making her squawk and flail as he grinned lamely up at the storm giant and said hurriedly: “She's a real kidder! You know that Valkyrie sense of humor, she got it from Mutt! Ha ha... ha.”

“Of course. Midgard horses. Odin's ponies.” The storm giant looked distastefully between the two, before he leaned down. “Troublemakers.”

“I mean... yeah.” Antares admitted.

The storm giant studied them for a few moments, then said contemptibly: “What would make troublemakers feel as if they deserve an audience with Mimir? Especially after destroying a vital part of Yggdrasil's protection?”

“I mean... vital? I dunno about that...” Antares mumbled, and when the storm giant glowered at him, the stallion dropped Sin as he spread his forelegs and argued: “A wall is great and all but it's still only a wall! Just like this is... basically a wall of giants. We're really dumb and we were able to get in just fine. I imagine you're smart enough to know that if someone smart wanted to get in-”

“There are defenses ahead as well. But the smart ones are generally too smart to come this way at all, or even think that Yggdrasil is worth their time. None travel to Mimir any longer. He will not give answers to anyone who makes the journey, pony. Any more than Yggdrasil will bear fruit for all those who reach its leafy boughs.”

“I think he'll answer our questions, though.” Antares said, and then he hesitated before asking: “Is Yggdrasil in danger?”

The storm giant eyed him moodily, then non-answered: “Yggdrasil is always in danger.”

“I can be mystical too, you know.” Innocence grumbled, then she badly imitated the storm giant as she waved her head back and forth: “Great trees attract a thousand parasites! Hum-hum-hum, I am big old wise giant I can say anything and no one will ever backtalk me because I am too scary, hum hum hum I am smart.”

Antares stared at Innocence, and Innocence huffed before her brother turned a lame smile to the giant and said awkwardly: “Please don't squish us together.”

“But if you are gonna try and squish us, we're a team!” Innocence declared. “And you'll have to squish us both!”

“Nope.” Antares immediately said, and Innocence gasped and stared at him with a hurt expression. “Hell no. You did this to yourself. You can get squished. You'll be fine. You've survived worse.”

“Oh, fuck you, you-”

“Enough!” the storm giant thundered, glaring between the two of them, and both ponies winced and looked awkwardly up at him in the static-riddled silence that followed.

The goliath rumbled as he closed his eyes and brushed a hand over his feathered scalp, and then he said in a low, irritated voice: “There is movement all across Jötunheim. I am not blind to it: the renewal of Asgard and the empowerment of the mortals has had consequences for our realm. We are not innocent in this. The storm giants have chosen not to act, and we must pay the price for that.

“Tell me, travelers. Tell me why I should let you go. Why you are not responsible for the lives you took at the Giant's Denial. Why you choose to sneak and fight your way past the earth giant guardians, and why now, only after you are caught, do you beg for safe passage from one of Jötunheim's lords.”

Innocence glared up at the storm giant, and Antares let his smile fall away, straightened as he answered clearly: “We are responsible for our actions. For all of them. And we will continue to be responsible whether you allow us to pass or not: we will do whatever is necessary to reach Yggdrasil, and Mimir.”

“Are you threatening me?” the storm giant asked in a low, dangerous voice, as thunder rumbled through the clouds above.

“No. I am answering your question.” Antares replied evenly. “We'll go through you if we have to. And you know as well as I do that there was no way any of these people, giants or otherwise, were going to ever let two ponies from Midgard get safe passage all the way to Yggdrasil. So we did what had to be done. And I think your concern isn't really about us, or what we did: I think you're worried about someone else.”

The storm giant measured Antares with his eyes, his gaze cold and heavy, but there was a tell there: Antares weighed it silently, then said quietly: “We aren't the threat. And if we get there first, maybe we can stop whatever is. It's... kind of our thing.”

He gave a small smile, and Innocence nodded firmly before she added brazenly: “Or we can just kick your ass and be on our way, too, so uh... flock off, feather face.”

“Wow you did not just say that. What are you, twelve?”

“You know, I'm the only person here offering quality contributions right now-”

“Oh, well, excuse me all to hell for thinking that it was better idea to negotiate rather than bluff and threaten-”

“Hey, it's not a bluff, I'll totally-”

The storm giant glared at them, and a blast of lighting hammered down between the ponies, making them both squawk and leap hurriedly to either side. Innocence huffed and Antares smiled in apology, but before either of them could say anything, the giant spoke:

“I am neither intimidated nor amused by you arrogant lower lifeforms. I will not let you pass because of threats, or promises...”

“But you are letting us pass.” Antares said, absently reaching up to cover Innocence's muzzle before she could spout off and ruin this narrow chance they had to get through unscathed.

The storm giant looked at them for a few moments, then he knelt, slowly, leaning far, far down, until his beak was hovering just above them, his head turning so one sharp orange eye glared down into Antares' own. “I am. And do not mistake me, this is not because I care whether Mimir lives, or dies. But Yggdrasil is the root of all realms, and those who are called there are never called without reason, and never allowed to reach it unless it was meant to be.”

“Wow, nice excuse.” Antares said before he could stop himself, and then he winced when the giant snorted sizzling fog over him.

“Inevitability is not an excuse, and it is not as comforting as you seem to think it is. Inevitability only means that even the greatest of the Jötnar will inevitably fail, when destiny so wills it, and fall to the chosen among you worms.”

Antares grimaced a little as he wiped awkwardly at himself, and Innocence shifted as she visibly did her best not to yell anything stupid at the goliath. And after a moment, the storm giant straightened slightly before he simply snapped his fingers, a surging ring of energy whirling into being and opening window into another dark part of the world. “So here is my answer, horse. Go through the portal to new unknowns, or stay where you are, and we'll what a hundred stone giants have to say about destiny and Yggdrasil.”

“I uh. I bet that would be very poetic, but I get the message. Come on, Sin. Let's go.” Antares nodded awkwardly at the storm giant, heading quickly for the portal, and he hesitated only long enough to toss the storm giant a lame 'thank you' before he stepped through.

Innocence paused in front of the portal, then loudly blew a raspberry up at the storm giant before she hopped through as well, landing on the other side and squawking as it slammed close behind her close enough to clip the hairs of her tail. She hopped forwards, then danced around in frustration as the reek of singed hair filled the air, while Antares was already looking at the stars as he sank his hooves into the ground, muttering: “Really. Well, that's an interesting turn of events...”

He paused, then absently kicked Sin to get her attention before he glanced back at her and said: “We're on the other side of Yggdrasil. Probably a little further away than we were before, distance-wise, and the terrain here is obviously a lot harsher...”

Antares absently lit up his horn, tracing the light it created back and forth through the rocky wasteland, nothing but dirt and sand and jagged stone slabs. “But that might actually work to our advantage. I don't feel any presence of giants near here.”

Innocence grunted, then she licked one of her claws before reaching up and firmly squeezing Antares' horn, making him wince as his magic died out with a sizzle. He scowled as the mare's eyes closed in the darkness, feeling her own magic thrumming outwards, invisible but powerful as she muttered: “Yeah. No lifeforms for a few miles around, at least. But something nasty is definitely out there, hunting around, you dumbass, and it got a whiff of us when you put up your magic.”

“Do we move or do we set up camp?” Antares asked, and Innocence paused before she flicked her horn, creating a dim blue flame that silently whirled around them before it floated over to a jagged chunk of stone that jutted from the earth a short distance away.

They made their way towards this, and Antares winced a bit as he realized it was a massive charnel stone, half-covered in dust and stained with the ashes of those who had been burned upon it. A few lumps stood out of the ground here and there nearby, forming dirty mounds and ashen piles, and Antares mumbled: “Oh no I don't want to camp here.”

“Dead people are nice. It's the ones who don't want to stay dead that you gotta worry about.” Innocence muttered as she half-shoved Antares towards one side of the dune of sand and debris that had overspilled the shattered stone table. “Besides, I don't want to think about running into a literal giant wight in the darkness.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Antares sighed, blowing his mane back out of his face before he simply sat back and let Innocence quickly set up a warding circle.

Soon, they were resting in the safety of a blue bonfire, the runes faintly thrumming beneath them: they were silent, napping on and off in shifts for a little while before they ended up just sitting side -by-side together, Innocence wrapped in a blanket and Antares mending the damage their cloaks had taken over the long journey.

“We're gonna be okay, yeah?” Innocence asked quietly.

“Yeah.” Antares answered without hesitation, giving a small smile. “And yes, I know what you're really asking, and... hey. Maybe we were wrong. That storm giant seemed pretty concerned about Yggdrasil. As concerned as I imagine a storm giant can be, anyway...”

“What if it's Mutt he's concerned about?” Innocence murmured, half-hiding her face beneath the blanket.

Antares softened, then he smiled a little before he said quietly: “You're not worried about that. You're worried about Morgan. About Twilight.”

“About Mom.” Innocence was silent, her eyes glimmering beneath the cowl of the blanket over her head. “It's fine if Luna's a bad guy. Mutt can be a bad guy all day because she'd never be any good at it. But... but Mom would be a really good bad guy. Mom would be a really scary bad guy. And I don't...”

She quieted again, then smiled a little from beneath the blanket, murmuring: “Remember when I was a stupid dumb idiot all those years ago? And I was all like 'ho ho ho you could never be as good at being bad as me' and stuff and I always just thought I got all my super-coolness from Luna?

“I wish sometimes I was still as dumb as a bug in a rug and thought Twilight was turned into a Lich on accident, that it wasn't something she ever accepted, that she really didn't have to try hard to be nice and she was just a big soft baby all the way down. I wish I didn't understand how... I've got all this passion and I'm like a firecracker and pop, pow! Off I go, but just as fast my mood spins around. That I know I got from Mutt, however that works.

“Twilight's not like that. Twilight... remembers everything. Plans and details every last thing. She figures out things, logically...” She quieted. “But not all the time. Sometimes she does things just to make the ponies she loves happy. Sometimes she does things to protect them. Mom is one of those few people who can turn her emotions off, or do what emotions tell her to in a heartbeat, whatever she decides fits the moment better.

“I was just a selfish brat. Now I'm just a selfish bitch fumbling her way towards the greater good. I can kill without really thinking all that hard about it. A few people, at least.” Innocence stared into the flames, and she heard the screams, watched as the rotworld they had failed to save shattered apart, heard her own shout of furious, disbelieving denial mixing with Antares' cry of disbelief. “But Mom could order her own son to destroy an entire world, and never flinch.”

There was silence for a few moments, and then Antares finally murmured: “You really mixed up that metaphor.”

“Yeah. But it still worked.” Sin answered, and then she sighed and dropped her head on her brother's shoulder, and Antares gently wrapped a foreleg around her as they settled into silence, with nothing but the crackling of eternal flame to give them comfort in the darkness of this long, cold night.