Cristobal Rodriguez ♦ Coyote (coyoti) wrote in paxletalelogs, @ 2017-04-01 08:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | coyote, hod |
someday i would get out of that basement
Who: Chris [Coyote] & Ben [Hodr].
What: Coyote goes a'lookin' and ends up in a new place; Hodr's there, and things happen.
Where: Hel.
When: A long, long time ago. But not so far away.
Nose to the ground, Coyote was trying to find his way to this 'Mount Olympus,' but rather than finding a mountain, he was finding stalactites. Stalagmites. Rises in the ground, except extending in the opposite direction. Wherever he'd found himself, it was certainly not where he might be able to find Ares Miaiphonos again, and though he felt a tiny bit saddened by this idea, the fact that he'd gone from his own world into something so bizarre was enough of a curiosity on its own that he felt satisfied investigating this particular mystery.
His paws and nails scrabbled against the rough terrain, and he quickly came across another being. Hopefully, this one would be able to direct him.
"Excuse me, friend," he started, his coyote's larynx somehow more than capable of producing human speech, "But I think I've gotten a bit turned around. Can you direct me to Mount Olympus?"
Hodr paused a moment before replying. He was hardly the tallest of the Aesir, but the voice was still coming from somewhere below his face. A child? But it was hardly a youth’s voice. A dwarf, then? Whoever it belonged to, it was unfamiliar.
“I don't know. I have never heard of it before.”
It was strange too that he hadn't heard any footfalls. Just the faint clicking of a dog’s claws.
Coyote came to a stop, his tail swishing over the ground as he looked around.
"Then perhaps you can tell me where I am? There are many caves where I'm from, but this looks nothing like the ones I've been through before. In fact, I'm not even quite sure how I got here..."
“You are in Hel. And if you can't remember how you arrived then perhaps it is all the better for you,” Hodr replied bitterly. If only he could forget the circumstances of his own arrival in the land of the dead. “Your mountain is likely beyond your reach now.”
Canting his head, he studied the stranger he'd come upon.
"I know you live underground, friend, but why the morose attitude? The gloom has its own...charms." Coyote moved a touch closer, scrutinizing his host. He rose up on his back paws, standing like a man, and waved one paw in front of the other man's face. "What kind of travelers do you get here? Surely you must see some interesting sights. I've not heard of this 'Hel' before, but I like new places."
Blind he may have been, but he still had his other sense and when Hodr felt the slight breeze as his new companion waved in front of his face, his own hand rose in response, swatting the air in front of his face as if he might dispel the nuisance that way. “Very few travelers willingly visit the land of the dead and fewer still leave it. And I see nothing, as I'm sure you've figured out by now. Does that answer your questions?”
Coyote stepped back, snatching his paw away from Hodr's face and tucking it and its twin behind his back. "My apologies, friend, I didn't mean to offend. Would you care to show me around this place? You find yourself in the company of a very willing traveler. I'm sure there's some exit I can find out of this place. You'd be surprised where I can fit," he added, mirth bubbling around his words.
The mirth failed to reach Hodr. Instead his frown only grew deeper at the idea. “You want a blind man to show you around? Willing or not you can't be that desperate.” Perhaps there was a point when he would have tried his best to help the other. But that was before Loki. He was warier now.
Coyote smiled wide, though Hodr could not see the gesture; his canine teeth were sharp, but there was no malice in the expression. Carefully reaching out, Coyote took one of Hodr's hands between his paws and settled the appendage on one furry shoulder.
"Here, I'm happy to lead. And you can explain! Sound fair? Just because you're out of a pair of eyes doesn't mean you don't have a working tongue. Seems like it's been working just fine so far," he offered in return, and took two steps forward. "That work all right? You ready to get this show on the road?"
“What are you?” Hodr asked in reply, his fingers flexing gently and inquisitively against the fur, but not pulling away. Not yet at least. He was wary, yes, but also curious. What manner of creature would willingly wander into Hel and then offer to guide him?
“A wolf?”
"Close," Coyote answered, bristling only slightly to be compared to his larger, sometimes faster but not always cleverer cousin. "Coyote. Have you never heard of one before?"
He did not wait on the man's answer. "Tell me your name, now that you have mine. We'll walk a bit; perhaps you need a stretch. It could even improve your mood!" He said it less to be teasing and more to be encouraging, though the string of words did not necessarily concoct such a sentiment. He set off at a slow pace, careful to make it easy enough on the differently-abled man, keeping the man's touch close. All around him was little more than darkness, more rocks; nothing of interest or note. Sight was one thing; his other senses provided a chorus of things to explore. The scent of rich, wet dirt, mixed with ashes, though they were not from any once-living fire. The sound of running water, pouring through cracks in stone, rushing through a riverbed. Something cracked; something flinched. He would find these things, in due time, and discover what there was to be seen, for there was always something.
“I am Hodr.” His mood didn't sound considerably improved, but perhaps it just needed time. He certainly didn't seem to be at all hesitant in his walking, keeping pace easily with Coyote, reading the subtle shifts of the body under his hand and adjusting himself accordingly. There was caution there, yet on the whole it was practiced, the motions those of someone who had lived his whole life in the darkness.
“I've known one wolf. Does a coyote look the same? Or more like a hound?”
"I'll consider that ignorance on your part," Coyote replied, working to soften his rising hackles at being compared to a dog. "I am far closer to a wolf. Smaller, perhaps. But no less important." Soothing his own ego, Coyote brought them within sight of huge, descending roots. At first, he thought they were some kind of odd column, bending and breaking with the weight of the huge, stony ceiling above them, but then realized that the larger trunks had smaller tendrils arching off of them.
"What is this? I've never seen a tree this massive before!" He led Hodr toward one of the roots, the claws of his back paws clicking on the ground. He reached one of his forepaws out, lightly brushing the root, feeling that it was, indeed, alive.
It was a long moment before Hodr finally replied. Despite the fact that the creature was acting as his guide, he left Coyote’s side to approach one of the great roots on his own, touching it tentatively. “This is Yggdrasil. The great ash.” His voice was hushed and reverent, every motion, every expression on his face echoing the holiness of the place. Yet he seemed uneasy at the same time. “The tree that contains all the realms. I haven’t been this close to it since…” Since the day that Baldr died. “Since I was in Asgard.”
"Asgard?" Coyote noted the man's somber tone, but could not separate it from his previous demeanor. Obviously this tree was a holy place, and that was something he could respect. "Is that where I am now? In that... Hel is part of Asgard? I have traveled quite far from home," he muttered, shaking his snout.
Hodr shook his head, almost as puzzled as his companion. He had never come across someone who did not know something this simple and basic before. “No. Hel lies at the tree’s roots. Asgard is at its crown. The gods live there and the dead here.” He paused and looked up as if he might see straight through the roots and rock above them to something far beyond. “Do you really not know that or are you playing some sort of trick?”
"I appreciate the notion that I'm omnipotent, but even the great Coyote lacks general knowledge of places he's never seen," Coyote grinned in reply. "How big is this tree? It seems massive, especially to reach all the way down here. Can one travel with the roots? If it connects things, there may be a way for me to climb back out."
“Didn’t you hear what I said? It contains worlds in its branches,” Hodr replied, annoyed and frowning in the direction of Coyote’s voice. “It’s bigger than any one tree, bigger than every tree in Midgard and Asgard combined. If you can climb up through the roots you’re welcome too.” But after a moment his tone softened somewhat. “You really should. The living shouldn’t be here.”
"I'm certainly going to try, friend, but first...let's sniff around a little more. Is that water I hear?" Coyote couldn't see far enough in the darkness to ascertain where the river or falls or whatever it was making that noise, but he could certainly follow both his ears and his nose. He brought Hodr's hand back to his furry shoulder, and they were off again once more.
"You know, you really should work on your temper... It's no wonder you don't get many visitors down here, what with the lack of hosting one might find..."
“It’s the underworld, what were you expecting?” Hodr grumbled as he fell to following Coyote once more. “A royal welcome? A feast in your honor? You can leave this place and I can’t. You have life and choices, yet you’re the one who insists on going sightseeing with the dead. Now how do you think your temper would be if our places were reversed?”
Coyote turned, dropping Hodr's hand from his shoulder. He had patience, but not the endless patience of the sun or sky.
"If you'd rather I leave, you only need say so. My apologies for attempting to offer some company in this dismal place. Your attitude, friend, leaves much to be desired."
“Trust me, I’ve good reason for it.” Even as he grumbled, Hodr was turning back the way that he had come. He didn’t have the time or desire to tell his story to those few who didn’t know it and he made a poor tour guide. This Coyote would find his own way back to whatever realm he called home without Hodr’s help, just as Hodr would find his way back on his own. Surely it wasn’t abandoning the other. More a mutually dissatisfied parting of ways. At least, that was what Hodr could tell himself.