Escape (tag Skadhi & Hermod) Njord was getting a headache. Whether it was from the irritation in Hermod’s voice, or the conciliatory tone Skadhi used only with Frigg’s son, or the fact that he was just utterly disgusted with this whole thing, he wasn’t certain. Really, he wanted to just walk away, but that probably wasn’t going to happen any time soon. So he was stuck. With a throbbing head and companions he wanted to shove off a cliff.
“That’s what we should have done with Loki,” he muttered under his breath. Really, that probably would have been much easier. The Trickster had been bound, hand and foot, and then some. Reasonably pointing out that Loki was a shape shifter had his companions coming up with various ways to restrain him in his different forms. In the end, they’d used them all, including a net.
Which he hadn’t had a problem with. Though it would have been nice if he hadn’t been the only one dragging it across the rocky ground. Njord couldn’t fault Hermod. The prince wasn’t a shirker, and he’d wanted to do his fair share, but Skadhi’s touchy-feely act had continued and Njord had ended up pulling the brunt of the weight.
Until he’d finally gotten tired of the constant flirtation, and told Hermod to pull for a bit. His intention had been to have a quiet word aside with Skadhi about staying focused on the task at hand. But somewhere between handing off the net and stopping his ex-wife from playing with Hermod’s collar, something happened. He had no idea what had happened, but something obvious had.
Because Loki was no longer in the net.
Now, there were raised voices and accusations and Skadhi was still acting strangely towards Hermod, and Njord finally had it. “Enough!” he snapped. One of the very few times he’d raised his voice, but he didn’t think they’d hear him if he didn’t. “Both of you, shut up! Did either of you see him get out? Which way he went? There’s still a chance to get him back.”
A chance that was growing smaller by the moment. And there was no way that Njord was going to “bait” another trap. He really wasn’t certain what he’d seen when they captured Loki at his home, but seeing a blonde woman rushing out just before they rushed in had led to some speculation. And some questions about just how Skahdi had managed to get someone that loyal to betray the man she loved. That, in particular, left a really bad feeling settled in the pit of his stomach. This was really starting to feel like a bad, bad idea. If they couldn’t salvage this, quickly, then this plan was a failure on every count.