A Frozen Heart Worth Fighting

Ear piercing screams echoed off the walls and ceilings of the large golden house. A few seconds would past then the screams would began again, ever so slightly becoming louder.

In the large bedroom of the home, both men and women hurried around the large bed. The bed held one single person, a woman. This woman held the hand of a nurse. The nurse was telling the woman she was going to be okay. The longer she held the hand of this woman her hand would become freezing, she’s have to let go and warm up her hand up before holding it again. With worried fill eyes the nurse looked to the others around her, silently asking for their help.

What felt like a lightning bolt shot thought the woman, causing her to scream in pain.

“Where is Baldur? Shouldn’t he have returned by now?”

One of the women asked out loud.

“We need-”

Suddenly the large gold and bronze doors opened. Baldur hurried in with a handful of palace guards behind him. In the middle of the swarm of guards was Odin the Allfather and his wife Frigga.

“Is Lady Liv alright?”

Baldur asked one of the nurses, hope still in his voice. However the grim look in the nurse’s brown eyes stopped his hope in its tracks.

“Out of my way. Out of my way.”

Frigga told the nurses around her as she made her way to the bed.

Odin followed his wife as the guards went off and stood on the outskirts of the room.

The queen sat at the bedside of the slowly dying woman. Looking her over Frigga could clearly see the woman’s swollen stomach. Placing her hand on the bare stomach, she could feel the fierce and repetitive kicking of the unborn child underneath the skin. Frigga left her hand of a second too long and her hand turned cold as ice in less then a second. She ripped her hand away and looked at the closest nurse.

“How long has she been like this?”

“Hours my Lady.”

The nurse said on the opposite side of the bed.
The queen looked at the face of the woman. Sweat covered her body. Her beautiful wave like hair was clinging to her forehead and around her face. Almost all the colour from skin had turned white. What stood out the most to Frigga were the woman’s eyes. The irses were a pale yellow, because of the pain the beautiful eyes were glazed over in fear and pain.

“Please.”

The woman said through gritted teeth. Frigga couldn't take her eyes away from the helpless soul that laid before her.

“I want the child to live. Take my life for it’s.”

“No. My Lady, you -”

The nurse on her side said gripping her hand tighter.

“I am too weak. No please, my child.”

The nurse, whose eyes were now forming tears, looked at Frigga.

“I… I… I can’t.”

“Shh, darling. It will be okay.”

Frigga motioned for one of the nurses to take her. When Frigga was the only living soul in front of the woman, she asked a nurse of a knife.
“No! You can’t!”

The screams of the nurse, who was at the woman’s side, echoed through every set of ears in the bedroom.

“Please remove her.”

Odin ordered. Nearly all of the nurses took part of removing the young brown haired nurse from the room. The girl did not give up without a fight. She tried with all of her might to break the bonds that took her from the bedroom.

Frigga closed her eyes and gripped the hilt of the knife tighter. She listened as she heard the cries of the young nurse and the woman in front of her. The large door slammed shut and Frigga closed her eyes.

Her eyes shot back open when she felt the cold grip of the woman on her arm.
“Please. My child…”

The woman breathed, looking up into the eyes of the realms leader’s wife.

“that child’s father… he must never know of it’s presents.”

The last words rolled off of the woman’s cold lips and another scream filled her lungs. Her hand let go of the queen and latched onto the bed sheets.

With her free hand Frigga placed it on the woman’s face.

“Shh, my dear. It will all be over soon.”

Then Frigga plunged the blade into the skin of the woman’s stomach. The screams only grew louder.

A nurse rushed to the bed and stood at the woman’s feet.

“Must I…”

“Remove the child. Yes.”

The nurse looked at her hands then to the wound that was created less than a few seconds ago. As a nurse she thought that blood would be weeping out of the wound, but no blood came.

In one quick moment the nurse’s hands were in the wound. When her fingers were inside it felt like she had walked outside in a winter storm. Her hands stopped when she felt little fingers wrap themselves around her wrist. Moving her hand along the arm of the child and stopped when she found the armpit. She did the same with her other hand.

“I have it.”

“Now pull dear.”

The older nurse pulled with everything she had. When her hands were finally back the warmth of the room the cries of a small newborn child finally came upon the ears of the room. However when the nurse looked at her hands that still felt like ice, she saw that they were not the pale peach colour they were before, now her hands were green, purple, and black. She let out a skull splitting scream as her eyes widen.

Two nurses ran over and one took the child, while the other took a look at the women’s hands.

“It’s a girl.”

The nurse cried when she saw the child in her hands. She changed the position of how she held the newborn, so now the head was rested on the nurse's chest.

Frigga cut the cord that connected the child to her mother. The she felt the cold hunting hand of the woman on her again.

“You have a beautiful daughter.”

The woman nodded with a small hint of a smile on her lips.

“Skathi. That is her name.”

“Yes, as it should be.”

“May I?”

The woman asked looking at the nurse who held her child. The nurse passed Frigga the baby, before giving the baby to her mother, Frigga made a blanket appear around the new child.

With her weak hands, the woman held her crying child.

“She must stay hidden from Thjazi.”
The woman said in a voice above a whisper then she coughed, blood fell on her almost white lips.

“Be safe, my Skathi.”

More violent coughs came from the dying woman. With one last breath she kissed Skathi’s forehead.

All eyes in the room were on the child.

Frigga placed her hand on the woman’s forehead, moving her fingers over her face, closing the woman’s now sill eyes forever.
Another nurse came over, taking Skathi from the cold hands of her mother.

When Frigga stood, she turned to look at her husband.

“The child is part frost giant.”

Odin stated, to which his wife merely nodded.

“Also part Asynjur. We must keep her in Asgard.”

“Frigga, you know we can not do that.”

“Your son is a frost giant. Why can't you accept this one more?”

Nothing came from Odin. The king could not come up with a rebuttal against the child.

Frigga took a few more steps towards Odin, so she was toe-to-toe with him.

“Skathi is the child of Thjazi. She doesn’t stand a chance anywhere else. Please.”

Odin looked to the nurses who were wrapping the woman in the sheets from the bed.
“The child is to be your student and nothing more.”

Frigga smiled at her husband and kissed his cheek.

“Thank you.”

With those words she left Odin’s side and told the guards to help with the body. When the guards arrived the nurses were looking in the wound of Lady Liv, seeing that she was frozen from the inside out. They couldn't touch the body without feeling like it was the dead of winter.

Odin walked towards the crib that held the child. As he stood above, looking down at the now sleeping baby, placed his hand on the skin of her arm. When his fingertips rested on the pale white skin, what felt like icicles jolted up his arm. Quickly ripping his hand from the child. When his hand was at his side he could still feel the aftermath of the ice.

Taking one last look at the child he turned away, making his way to the large golden doors.

Notes

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