gift of the gods

The green and yellow neon sign above the rustic cowboy bar blazed, lighting the snow-filled parking lot for the local Gleipnir Bar. As a young boy made his way past the entrance, looking no more than nine or ten. Covered with pure, white snow he gathered the attention of the whole bar. Quickly quieting the building, the little boy stood tall.” I want to learn how to kill a werewolf!” He stated loudly. Finding the scene all too funny, the whole bar filled up with laughter as they returned to their own business. Looking around trying to find someone, anyone to help, he noticed a large man in the back of the building make his way out of the booth to walk towards him. Once again, the bar went silent as everyone around watch the large man they knew as the King make it to the tiny boy. “what’s your name, son?” the gruff tone in his voice rumbled through the ears of everyone inside the bar, sending fear into the already nervous bartender. “ My names Phoenix Lucien Blake, sir. But my family called me Lucien” He spoke up, just as the large man lowered himself to one knee. “ I want to learn how to kill a werewolf sir.” At this point, a smile crossed the mans face, as a idea ran through his mind. Lucien could see the curiosity that shown in the mans hazel eyes and the faded scar parting his right eyebrow. The ridged mans face almost gave off a dark intention yet, Lucien never budge from his spot. “ Well, Lucien, my name is Rollin. Now, why is it that you want to learn how to kill a werewolf? ” the bar slowly started to pick up noise once again, but most stayed quiet to hear what was being said by the two at the door. With a deep breath, Rollin could smell the fear and anxiety, oozing off the bartender at this point. Swallowing the lump that suddenly formed in his throat, the bartender had feared that he would’ve been discovered. Lucien held back the tears as he basically screamed with anger, his response. “Cause those Odin forsaken fleabags, slaughtered my entire family, including my half-brother.” With the air growing stiff at the boy’s words the whole bar went on alert, only to relax when they noticed the kings hand raised as if to silence the already silent bar. Not noticing the scene around him, Lucien waited patiently for the Rollin’s response. Yet, at this point the man behind the bar was all but sweating through his clothes as he tried to think of a plan to quickly get rid of the boy. While waiting for the man’s response, Lucien catches sight of the young girl sitting at the table where Rollin was sitting. Lucien then turns his attention to the bartender who looked oddly familiar. However due to being in hiding during the slaughter of his family, all he got was the side and back view of the man who slaughtered his brother. Lucien, keeping this detail in mind, turned his attention back to Rollins direction. With a large smile, Rollin’s large frame straighten back to his 6’5” build. His broad shoulders squared back, Rollin turned to face the bar and moved behind Lucien to almost show him off leading him back to his booth. “Otaktay! Bring me a water for the boy and another glass for me.” Nearly jumping out of his skin the man behind the bar only spoke to agree as he did what he was told. The closer the two got to the Rollin’s booth a head full of long raven black hair finally poked her head up and back towards her father. “hey daddy I want another refill please?” she spoke softly, as her eyes reflected the love for her father as Lucien noticed they matched her father’s. Seeing the girl pop her head up and hearing her speak, Lucien’s attention turned to her. He couldn’t help but stare slightly as he was lost for words on how to say hello. Deep down he was kicking himself, but at the same time, he never really knew how to talk to girls. He sunk down into his seat and tried to hide the fact that he was completely speechless at this moment. His mind clouded as his thoughts raced just at the sight of this girl. He recalled how his father used to tell him about the way his father felt about his mother, and Lucien began to wander if this was what he was feeling. Right at that moment Otaktay made his way to the table with the order and just as he started to place it down the little girl looked over to him and spoke up. “How, much longer tell the food’s ready?” tilting her head to the side she glanced over the boy sitting next to her. “Are you hungry?” “The food will be around shortly, is there anything you would like to add to the order for the boy Sir?” Otaktay looked over to Rollin, fear filled his eyes. Lucien sat up in his chair, realizing the voice he just heard confirmed his theory from earlier. “excuse me for a moment.” Before anyone had a chance to respond to his statement, Lucien shot out of his chair. In the blink of an eye, the 75 pound child brought his foot up as high as he could, and then just as quick, brings all of his weight down with his foot. All you hear, is the sound of the metal slamming down against the man’s pinkie toe and the concrete below. Lucien then sat back down as he is one hundred percent sure he just broke the man’s pinky toe. With a smirk on his face, Lucien turned his attention back to the girl. “if they have any chicken, preferably grilled, I’ll take a grill chicken salad and an order of fries.” Rollin throws back, releasing a booming laugh, as Lucien finished his order realizing his assumption was correct about Otaktay. “The boys got some balls on him man!” The bar filled with loud laughter, only pissing Otaktay off even further. The scrawny man slowly limped away, as his toe already started to heal. “Adalwolf, Get the boy his order!” Rollin finally calmed his laughter long enough to look over at his daughter to reveal an even bigger smile. “Well, Lucien my boy this is my daughter Serena. Serena put your phone done and say hello.” With an unimpressed sigh Serena placed her phone down and turned to face Lucien in her seat. “That was really impressive.” She moved a lose strain of her long hair out of her face, as the two locked eyes for the first time that night. Watching the scene before him Rollin couldn’t help but mentally pat himself on the back. “we’ll you two I’ll be right back get to know each other a little more, after tonight Lucien is returning with us back to Texas tomorrow.” With those words spoken Rollin slid out of the booth and headed for the bar to speak with one of the other customers waiting. Lucien locked eyes with Serena, as his mind clouded again and his heart raced. “honestly I didn’t do it to impress anyone, I have my reasons but I truly don’t like that Otaktay fellow as your father calls him. As for that little stunt I pulled, needless to say, he had it coming.” He felt as though Serena couldn’t care less what he had to say, he just stated his opinion on the matter and turned his attention to the table. He soon began to use his finger like a pencil and traced the outlines on the tabletop. He felt alone, even though he was surround by the dozens in that bar and grill. With a sigh Serena turned around and dug in her purse for a few seconds. She suddenly pulled out a small note pad and what looked like a pink glitter gel pen. “ Here, you look like you want to say something but at the same time you want to get it off your chest. So here you can either draw or write.” Holding the pen and pad out waiting for him to take it she could see her father start to make his rounds around the bar. Lucien took the pad and pen, and jotted down a few notes. He looked at her before looking around. He turned his attention back to the pad as he would write something down, then scribble it out, write something down, scribble it out. He did this several times. He never took into account his pressure of writing verses scribbling. He then hands her back the notepad as he sighed and laid his arms across the table and then his head down on his arms. The visible message Serena would be able to read was, ‘the guy behind the bar killed my brother.’ Lowering her head just enough to hide behind her hair Serena’s eyes grew wide, flipping the page to see what else was written. Using the etching technique, Serena discovered three messages. The first being, ‘I’m not sure what love is, I’ve had it explained to me, yet I don’t know what it is.’ The second message read, ‘why am I going to Texas? I don’t even know where I am now!’ The final message, relating back to the first, was an attempt multiple times to spell Serena’s name and looked like he got close twice. Lucien kept his head down, keeping his eyes away from Serena, as he didn’t truly know what to say or how to say it if he did. From the outside, he was calm and collected. However , on the inside, this child was a wreck. He was falling in love with someone he’s never met in his life, going to a place he’s never been to, and oh, yeah, he watched his brother get brutally murdered in front of him. Flipping to a empty page Serena took her pen and answered two of the three statements. The first being his question about going to Texas with a simple ‘because it’s what my father wants.’ The second happened to just be the spelling of her name. ‘You was close but it’s just Serena.’ Ripping the sheet off she goes for her phone to text her father about the first statement she read. Quickly sending the text and making sure he received before putting her phone away and sliding the answers under his arm, watching his every move at this point. Lucien looked at the paper slid under his arm as he raised his head up. He took an old pencil from his pocket, looked like it had one maybe two more sharpens left in it. He first circled Serena’s name several times, being extra careful not to cross the circle with her name. As for the Texas response, he looked up at her, nodded and looked back down at the paper. With a faint voice, he spoke to her. “I’m not sure how you knew my thoughts but now I’m kind of shocked.” He then remembered his first statement and turned as red as a cardinal. Then retreated into his little cubby of his arms. Being the shy kid he was, especially in front of a cute girl, he took the paper again. He wrote down a simple message to her. “I don’t know why your father decided to take me with you, but I don’t know how to say this with words so...” He handed her the note and sat back in his chair. ‘I really like you but I don’t know how to Express it. You probably don’t feel the same, so I will try to figure out what’s going on and how long I’ll be with you all'. Checking her phone for her father’s reply she decided to write back. From the distance Rollin was secretly watching the two after the text she had sent him and looked over to Adalwolf who had just left the kitchen with their food. “Oh good Adalwolf, after this I need you to go find Otaktay for me and take a couple more men with you just in case.” With a serious face as the words left his lips he quickly began to smile once more as they made their way back to the table. At the table however Serena was writing back a response to the young Lucien. ‘my father likes to give a home to those that don’t have one so for now you’ll always be welcomed with us, also don’t give to much thought we’ll see what happens for us.’ Passing the note back just as her father made it back to the table. Wrapping a arm around his shoulder as the two men stood at the front of the table. “ Lucien, my boy this is Adalwolf, he's one of my closest friends, he'll be the one you come to if you can’t find me.” As Adalwolf shrugged the big man’s arm off his shoulder to place the food on the table. “You need to eat boy; besides you’ll have long days ahead of you from now on.” Rollin smiled taking his seat once again than looking over to his daughter. “Now Serena hunny, how would you feel if Lucien her came and moved in with us on the Ranch?” The idea ran through her mind and she nodded her head with a mouth full of food. Holding a finger up as a way to pause her father so she would have time to answer. “I would like that.” Finally finishing the bite, she shot a glance over to Lucien with a smile. “it’ll be fun having someone other than my father to ride with when you’re gone.” Returning to her food Rollin smiled. “Then that’s that, starting tomorrow kiddo you’ll be living with me and Serena here, and as a bonus your task is to get strong so you can protect her when I’m not around.” Digging into his food just as Serena went to protest. Lucien spoke up. “sir, not to add fuel to the fire or stir the pot, but Serena is a capable woman. However, I would not hesitate to repay the favor you’ve shown me today by laying down my life for her. I won’t make the same mistake again. I couldn’t save my brother or my parents, and with you two as my witnesses, I vow to the gods of old, I will track down that pack and gut every last one of them. In the meantime, I will learn, train, do whatever it takes to protect your daughter and my new family.” The fire in Lucien’s eyes told no lie, he meant every word he spoke. Little did he know, that fire burning inside him, caused his nails to dig deep into the grain of the table. He glanced down to see this and quickly retracts his fingers. “Um…” Lucien just stared at the gouges he made with disbelief. He looked at Rollin with concern. With a slight kick to his ankle Serena caught his attention and all she could say was. “you’re going to be okay we’ll help you figure this out. As for you father.” Whipping her head his direction she sent a heated glare to the oversized man stuffing his face, freezing him in his tracks. “I don’t need a baby-sitter I can take care of myself, just as Lucien said.” Lucien spoke up. “Serena, I meant no disrespect. However, I lost one family already, I’m not about to lose another one. You may not like it, but I vow to Odin, the all-father, that I will lay down my life for you, Rollin, or anyone of this family.” Just as he spoke Serena mumbled under her breath low enough that the noise from the crowded over powered it. “I never said I didn’t like it.” Going back to eating her food Rollin who with his sensitive hearing heard every word. “Oh well the thing is the only family hear is Adalwolf. We own a ranch in Texas called the Ironwood. That’s where you’ll live with us in the main house.” Finishing his food Rollin spoke with a smile of excitement. Lucien scarfed down his salad and his fries, which at this point were already room temperature. He looked around before excusing himself from the table. Rollin, if paying close attention, would notice a certain object in his pocket, and a lighter in his hand. He looked back at Rollin and the table, with a smile he said. “well, that only means one thing, I have a bigger family to protect.” He then walks outside and proceeds to light up a cigarette, sighing heavily. “Brother, I failed you once. I won’t fail you again.” He growled as he looked at his cigarette. Noticing he wasn’t paying attention to those around him Rollin took the chance to teach him the first lesson of his new family. “You won’t be needing anymore of these till you’re a few years older.” Thumping his large fist over the top of Lucien’s head and removing the cigarette from his fingers and tossing it to the snow, leaving it to fizzle out. Lucien grumbled but accepted the fact. He sighed as he looked up and a pile of snow fell on his face. He shook the snow off and walked around the parking lot. He needed to clear his head, but the more he thought about it, the more it pissed him off. Lucien paced so much; it caused the snow he was walking through to clear in his path. With a thick rumble of a laugh Rollin watched the boy. “Come back inside, you’re not going to start making Serena wait on you. now are you?” Lucien shot a glare at the large brute of a man. “No, I guess not.” He growled, kicked the snow and proceeded to make his way back inside to the table. He looked at Serena. “pardon me for walking off. I needed to clear my head.” “your good, it’s understandable besides I would have done the same in your position.” Serena shrugged her shoulders and finished off her food. Rollin looked at the two and mentally patted himself on his back for his choice. After that the rest of the night went smooth and filled with joy between the Serena and her father. Every so often Lucien would join the two in conversation tell they made it back to the hotel the family was staying in. Lucien was placed in the room with Afalwolf for the night. Once the 4 had woken up and started moving around it was time to head back to Texas with their new family member.