Rescue [Tiveden 1322 CE] (tag: Tyr)
She really needed to start thinking things through before she did them, Lottie reflected as she stood calf-deep in the snow. It would probably prevent predicaments like this one if she actually had a plan going into the situation, rather than trying to come up with one on the fly. Though part of this had been unexpected: she hadn't really thought she'd find an orphaned fawn, after all. And how could she have known that the decision to cut through the forest to get to Bifrost would lead her right into a pack of wolves? This really wasn't her fault.
It was just her problem. But it was one that she was going to handle, she vowed silently. Somehow. Her scarf was being used as an impromptu leash for the confused baby deer, and Philotes gave it a little tug to get the fawn moving again, even as a gust of wind sent a tiny flurry of snow down her collar. She shivered. Why couldn't Idun live closer?
Because there was no doubt where she'd be taking the parentless critter. Friendship had spent a good deal of time looking for the fawn's mother when she'd found him crying in the snow. And since her toes were rather numb, she was sure the baby deer was very cold too. No telling how long it had been out there by itself. Maybe it had been born too early. Most fawns came along later in the spring, after the snows had melted, for a good reason. Lottie knew she had to get the creature warmed up, and then figure out how to feed it, where to put it, and all of that added up to taking it to somebody that knew animals better than she did. She thought of Artemis, but that would be a long trip for such a little animal. So Idun it was, and that decision came very quickly. Dunnie was brilliant with critters large and small.
But somehow, on the trip through the woods, they'd picked up an escort of the shaggy sort. With big teeth. Philotes knew that wolves generally didn't attack humans unless they were very hungry or desperate. And attacking a god probably happened far, far less, since there was something about divinity that seemed to seep out of their very skin and animals recognized it. Or something. But Lottie didn't think the wolves were tracking her. No, they wanted the little fawn. They wanted him for lunch.
She wasn't naïve. She knew how the world worked. Big things ate little things to survive. And she really didn't want to deprive the wolves of a meal at this time of the year. Spring was just beginning to peek out from behind Winter's snowy skirts, but it would be some time yet before food would be plentiful again. But she'd taken the fawn under her care, and she wasn't willing to just give up on him. Or her. It. She wasn't giving up on it. She was going to get it to Asgard, one way or another, so Idun could help it.
She just had to keep staying one step ahead of the wolves.