Chapter One
A god that hated June was considered to be an abomination and yet that was exactly what Freya of the Emerald Forest did. It wasn´t so much that she disliked the lingering sun rays on her skin or the longer nights, but she hated what her fellow god´s did during this time of year. Summer meant more mortals and more mortals meant more killings.
Freya supposed they couldn´t help it but she missed the old days. The days when humans still feared creatures like her and avoided the rivers like the plague. Nowadays mythological beings were forgotten, thought to be nonexistent all up until one of them put their claws into your mortal flesh.
Poor, poor humans, they suffered so much just because they had forgotten to believe. Oh well, in the end they only had themselves to blame.
The valley in which Freya lived was in full bloom; green luscious grass, clear sky, flouncing rivers and ravines and in the background, careless mountains with only the slightest sprinkle of snow on top. It was a valley, good enough for immortals but also cherished by mortals which was why they shared it.
Not that the mortals knew, of course.
Walking across the field, Freya noticed a woman and a man working on their crop. They didn´t notice her, since the First Realm was invisible to humans. Or at least as long as the immortals decided to not make it visible.
“The crop has been perfect lately,” the farmer said. He smiled at his wife, a loving smile that made Freya a little envious. “All thanks to you, bunny bum and your magical hands.”
Freya snorted. His bunny bum had nothing to do with it. Their crop was good because she was helping out. She squeezed a couple of water drops from her long, dark red hair and it fell to the earth that immediately swelled. The mortals gasped, seemingly unable to believe their eyes. In the past they would have said thanks to the god, maybe left an offering but now…
“Look,” the woman gawked. “I really do have magical hands.”
Sure take all the credit, Freya thought. No need to thank me for all that I do for you. Freya shrugged. They couldn´t help that they were blind to the myths that weren´t really myths around them. She decided to go back to the river because soon it would be dusk but then she stepped on something cold.
Frost. In June? This was the third time it had happened these past few weeks. Odd, Freya thought and warmed the grass with her fingers and she felt it sigh from relief and if she listened closely, she could hear a small thank you. At least the grass was polite.
Her hands raked through the buttercups that were blooming so sweetly and their herby smell made her giddy all up until it was replaced with something else, something else that smelled like a….Ogres!
Not again!
Freya´s senses switched on and she quickly hid behind a tree, its voluminous crown immediately spreading, helping with cloaking her. There were several Ogres´s and they dragged their lurching bodies around.
Vile spies of Wryfell! They had spied around the valley for quite some time now. They looked smaller than they actually were, because their backs were always harshly bent. But Freya knew that right before a Ogres struck, he would unfold into a creature of nine feet who screamed to numb all your senses just before they ate you alive.
She kept out of their way, but they weren´t searching for her. The mortals remained blissfully unaware, even when the claws of a Ogres hung just in front of the man´s face but that was a good thing. A Ogres was a hideous sight.
Freya hurried down to the river, throwing cautious glances at the Ogres´s but they remained nonthreatening…for now. If they tried to attack her, she would jump into the river and swim as fast as lightning to safety. god´s were the best swimmers out of all the immortals. On land they were so and so, not skilled as the Vila´s with the elements and neither were they as clever and malicious as the witches but in the water nobody could keep up with them…, except for maybe the nymphs.
The sun was high up on the sky and Freya shielded her eyes from the rays sparkling over the river. It was beautiful of course, the river but a dangerous beauty that Freya was very much familiar with. As always she felt the magnetic pull from the water that occurred when she had been separated from it. The water welcomed her; the temperature perfect and the feel of it like silk. When Freya first had become a god she had found it difficult to accept her immortality but the river had soothed her, assured her that this was her home now. And with time she had gotten used to it but that didn´t mean she didn´t miss being a mortal.
She missed having a soul which was in fact a very useful thing to have. If the other god´s had known that she cared about souls, they would have screamed with laughter and then tormented her for even thinking like that. They enjoyed what they were but Freya didn´t.
The other god´s, Dasha, Cass and Armmie waved for her to come join them but Freya turned around, rolling her eyes behind their back. She didn´t feel like one of them, she supposed they should be like sisters to her and yet they weren´t. Unlike the other ones, Freya wasn´t as malevolent, sure she could be mischievous and perhaps push some boundaries a little too far but she wasn´t evil.
“Come on Freya,” she heard Cass shout. “It will be fun, we promise.” Dusk was settling and soon screams would echo over the river, mingling with delighted laughter.
“Can´t right now,” Freya called back. “I have to brush my hair.”
“She always has to brush her hair whenever we do this,” Dasha muttered. “If she wasn´t already dead I would have perhaps drowned her
