Wotan's Hounds Ch. 04

Odin held out his arm to Jord, and she took it. Sif had explained that I would be next in line, so Tony and I took our places in front of Brunhilde, and I could feel her eyes burning into the back of my neck with hatred. She gasped as the tattoos on my lower back were revealed, but it was Thor who leaned forward and asked me what they meant.

"It's my brothers' names in runes; Froh is on the left and Siggi is on the right. I got them done last month with them; Froh has mine and Siggi's names, Siggi has mine and Froh's. Do you like them?"

"Yeah," Thor replied. "They're cool."

"Thor, you're fifteen; everything's cool," Brunhilde jeered. "Tattoos are childish and worthless."

"Oh," said Tony, contemptuously over his shoulder. "You won't want to see any of mine then."

"I do," said Thor eagerly. I could see a little bit of hero worshipping going on here, and it only seemed to annoy Brunhilde more. She sniffed and stuck her nose in the air.

Double doors in the wall behind Odin's chair in the meeting hall had been swung open, and led us through to a courtyard. The smooth floor boards vanished and lush, thick grass replaced them. The roof was covered in thin clear glass that showed the night sky above us.

In the middle of the room, in a sunken pool, a pale statue of a hound loomed tall; a copy of the inlay on the floor of the meeting hall. I followed Odin around it, and up to a square of tables that were set up at the far end. Odin stood at the centre of the top table, and people arranged themselves around the others. Tony and I were placed to Odin's right, while his wives were on his left with his other children spread out beyond them. Gelert and his family were beside us and I was pleased that we would have someone other than Odin we knew to talk to. While we were waiting for everyone to find their seats, Gelert introduced me to his first wife. She was very pretty and looked a lot like Du, who was sitting a few seats down, and who had waved to us when we came in. Once everyone was settled, Odin raised his hands for silence and the clan turned to watch him.

"Today we welcome a new member of my pack and our clan, my eldest daughter, Flosshilde. She has been lost to us for these past eighteen years, along with her brothers who will be joining us at a later date," Odin began. "But now she has been returned to us and we should rejoice in that fact. She brings with her a human, and something many of us thought we would never see has come to pass; a non-were, here in our most private chambers. We should respect his desire to learn of our history and culture. Who knows, perhaps this is a chance to recapture the age of understanding between our two peoples. I will ask my daughter and her consort to now stand that all may see and acknowledge them as part of my pack and our clan."

Tony and I stood, the whole room watching us. I hadn't realised that people from outside the estate were coming, and the room seemed overflowing with curious eyes and noses. I wanted to giggle so badly at Odin's description of Tony as my "consort," but I managed to hold them back until we sat, then I buried my face in Tony's shoulder. He patted my back, he understood.

The food had been put on the tables before we entered the room so that everyone could participate in the feast, and now we started to eat. There was home-baked bread, still warm from the oven and oozing sweet honey; there were plates of the roasted venison, sliced thin as the meat was so rich; tiny buttery potatoes; carrots and leeks without the crunch cooked out of them; three brace of pheasant per table and huge bowls of tomatoes and courgettes picked that afternoon and topped off with chopped spring onions.

Carafes of red and white wine, jugs of cider and mead had been set out for the adults, while there was apple and elderflower juice for the children. I couldn't believe the amount of food that was in front of me, and I wanted to try it all. Tony took a careful sip of the mead before he let me try it. I'd asked him keep an eye on me so I didn't get stupidly drunk and make an idiot of myself, and he was right when he said it was really nice. It was sweet and rich but not too strong. He kept me away from the cider though, on Gelert's advice.

Everything was very civilised, with muted voices and soft clinks from the cutlery. Odin looked positively smug with how everything was going, sitting in his chair sipping on red wine and picking at a little of the venison. Thankfully there were no more speeches and once everyone had eaten their fill, small groups began to form. Tony and Gelert were at the centre of one, with Fib joining them from the Pict table, and they moved out to the quiet gardens at the back of his apartment with a couple of jugs of the mind-blowing cider. I went with them, as did Du, Fane, Drem and Fib's wife, Cadha. Thor was looking longingly after us as Brunhilde talked his ear off, and I held out my hand for him to join us. The brilliant grin that lit up his face was reward enough for me. I figured he didn't get to have much fun, and when Du glanced sideways at me in askance, I leaned in close and said, "He's an ok kid, just give him a chance away from that stuck up lot." Du shrugged but left it.

It gave me a taste of how much power I had as Odin's daughter, something I wanted to think over when I had the time later on. In the meantime, we were firmly ensconced in the garden with the stars and gibbous moon adding to the light from the oil lamps and candles dotted around on empty benches and tables. Tony, Gelert and Fib were trading stories about their lives while us youngsters were either gasping in shock or giggling wildly, especially as we took illegal sips from the jugs passing us.

Thor had hidden himself away behind Tony and me, sitting very quietly, like he was afraid he would be told to leave if he was spotted. As the night wore on and became the early hours of the morning, the men continued talking, moving from outlandish tales to more serious matters, about tales of unrest in the North of Scotland and the Baltic states. Fane and Drem added in their views where they could; the rest of us settled down and listened to them hazily. Cadha was gently teaching me to control who I sent my thoughts to and it was working when Tony nudged me softly with his foot and told me it was time for bed.

When I grumbled about having to move, Fib and Cadha invited Tony to grab a couple of blankets and sleep in the garden with the rest of them. As it wouldn't have been the first time he'd slept out in the open, I raised my head sleepily and nodded for him. When he got up to fetch them out, the others dropped what clothing they had on and changed.

I was a little shy about getting naked in front of so many people but I guessed it was one of the things I was going to have to get used to. When Tony came back out, he helped me to stand – a mix of the cider and the long day was making my head feel very woozy – and get undressed. I stretched out tall and shook myself, then crouched down and changed. He placed a fur on the ground and took off his shirt. Turning on to his side, he opened his arms and I crawled into the little snug made by his body. He stroked my fur down my back and asked, "What does it feel like when you do that? Change I mean."

I couldn't think of the words to describe it, there weren't any, so I sent him the feelings; how the hair tickled as it grew; how my bones felt like they were being smoothly but firmly squashed or stretched into their new positions; how the muscles slid to cover and bind them, and finally how it felt when my tail sprouted from above my arse, like someone was pulling my spine out from behind. It was a weird mixture of sensations, true; however it was second nature to me so it struck me as odd that someone I knew didn't know how it felt. Cadha lifted her head, and told me to tell him he'd find out soon enough if he practiced hard with his lessons.

Then she looked at me in surprise, "You can speak to him when you're like that?"

"Yes," I said. "I can do it when I'm human too. Why?"

"Oh, no reason," she replied thoughtfully.

I could tell there was more to it than that, but I was just too sleepy to push it any further. Telling myself it was another thing to think about in the morning, I laid my head on Tony's chest and slept til the morning sun stuck its rays round the side of the house and woke us all up.