Chapter 8

(Asgard- Day 6)

Hiccup stifled a yawn as he walked through one of the palace courtyards that morning. It was nearly noon and he was still pondering a conundrum that Astrid and himself had encountered on their date a few days ago while barely having gotten any sleep.

"Hiccup you are giving me a headache with all your thinking?" Toothless grumbled. "I have to live inside your head you know!"

"Well then maybe you could help me out here." Hiccup told Toothless. "You were living in the Dragon Realm. Do you know of any wars between the Asier and the Jotun?" Hiccup asked.

"Well you kinda have to be more specific." Toothless mumbled. "There have been plenty of wars between those two. Don't know what caused it though. The Dragon Realm doesn't really meddle in intergalactic politics."

"Well then, to the library we go." Hiccup stated.

"Why are you even so interested in this?" Toothless asked.

"It was just something that rubbed me the wrong way during our date." Hiccup told the Nightfury. "It was a great date, don't get me wrong, but it was just some of the waiter's remarks that got me thinking." As Hiccup was walking along he spotted Thor speaking with his uncles Ve and Vili. in the courtyard. He gave them a wave but they were so engrossed in their discussion that they didn't notice him.

After Hiccup arrived at the Royal library he opened the doors to see rows upon rows of books placed on golden bookshelves. "Hiccup don't you dare think of staying so long in here! We can't be late for the feast Odin is throwing tonight." Toothless admonished as the Nightfury also took in the grandeur of the large five storey library.

Hiccup was looking up and didn't see Meixiu spotting him. "Hiccup!" The young Chinese woman called again as she approached him. "What are you doing here?" Hiccup turned to greet her and noticed that Meixiu looked a bit nervous. "Is this about Astrid?"

"What about Astrid?" Hiccup asked as he gave Meixiu a confused look. Upon realizing her mistake, at almost mentioning the stab wound Astrid had gotten, the young woman quickly backtracked. "Oh... Oh... nothing. I was just wondering how your date went." She quickly said.

"It went great." Hiccup smiled fondly as he remembered that night. A lovely candlelit dinner upon the restaurant's veranda overlooking the Bifrost and the waterfalls. "It's also the reason why I'm here as well. I was wondering if this library has any information about Frost Giants."

"You're going to have to ask the librarian about that. Dagur and I mainly stayed in the magic section." Meixiu told him as she pointed Hiccup to a bookish-looking woman. The woman was probably about Hiccup's height and was currently bent over a very very large ancient tome while muttering something under her breath. Hiccup nodded and then just realized something "Wait, you said Dagur was also here?" He looked around but couldn't spot the crazy redhead anywhere.

"Yeah, it surprised me." Meixiu told Hiccup. "I knew he was following me to the library. I thought he might have become paranoid of me or something." She shrugged. "Turns out he wanted to check out the magic section same as me. He should be around here somewhere. I lost sight of him somewhere between the Wind magic section and the Archaic Shadow magic collection." Hiccup nodded and then went over to the librarian who still hadn't looked up.

"Excuse me...." Hiccup spoke softly but that still startled the woman.

"Ahhhhh!" The woman shrieked and held a hand over her heart as she tried to calm down. "Don't do that!" She quickly said as she looked at Hiccup.

"Sorry to startle you. I was wondering if you could help me." Hiccup told her while offering a smile. The librarian, having calmed down somewhat, looked at Hiccup inquisitively before saying "You're also a Midgardian? I haven't seen you before."

"I'm Hiccup." He introduced as Toothless, in his plushie form, materialized next to the librarian's tome. "And this is Toothless." The woman adjusted her glasses as she looked at the small Nightfury. "Oh my! I've never seen a dragon this chubby before."

"I am not chubby!" Toothless huffed as he puffed out his chest. The woman couldn't understand Toothless but Hiccup laughed and gave the little Nightfury a scratch behind his ears. "Oooooooh yeah, that hits the spot." Toothless happily sighed as his tail wagged.

"Oh where are my manners." The librarian gasped. "I'm Sigyn." She introduced. "I just get carried away sometimes."

Hiccup's eyes widened upon hearing that name. "Sigyn, the Norse goddess of Loyalty and wife of Loki?!" Sigyn blushed at the last part and stammered out a "WHAT?!?!"

Upon seeing her blush Hiccup asked "That's what the mythology on Earth says. Is it not true?"

"Oh heavens no." Sigyn exclaimed before giving a chuckle. "I can't believe that that story still exists. It was entirely based on a bluff."

"Ooooooh sounds interesting." Toothless spokes as he flew around the pair. "Ask her what happened."

"Toothless I'm not going to ask that!" Hiccup grabbed the small dragon out of the air and Toothless let out a small squeak. "Those events could be very private."

"I don't mind telling you." Sigyn laughed. "It seems your little dragon friend wants to know as well. But you came here for a reason."

"Uhm... yeah, I was wondering if you had some information of Frost giants....eh.... Johtuns." Hiccup explained. "I might." Sigyn pondered. "Most of the Johtun related information is in the vault however. Only the Royal family can access that. Please follow me."

Hiccup nodded and started following after the librarian. The woman looked petite and gentle but Hiccup and Toothless both felt that there was more to her. "She carries herself like a warrior." Toothless whispered to Hiccup.

"So... right, you wanted to know that story." Sigyn laughed as they passed rows upon rows of books. "I still can't believe people remember it even after all this time."

"What happened?" Hiccup asked now very curious.

"A couple of my friends and I visited Midgard centuries ago when the Norsemen just started expanding. The tales of Loki and Thor were already known at that time. We got into a bit of a pickle with the object we were sent to retrieve and had to face down a hoard of 'lustful' men." She explained. "We had weapons drawn and then suddenly my second in command shouted 'HOW DARE YOU DRAW YOUR WEAPONS BEFORE THE WIFE OF LOKI!'. I choked at what she had shouted. The men became hesitant then. Loki was already a well-known trickster and incurring his wrath seemed to put some fear into the men. We left without any problems afterwards."

"So you were never......."

"Norns no." Sigyn laughed. "I'll admit I did have a crush on the second prince some time ago. My friend knew that. She always told me to make my move but I just didn't think I had a chance." Hiccup nodded. Being here in Asgard did open his eyes. It seemed that the Norse myths passed down appeared to be more fairytale than reality. It was refreshing to get a first-hand account of certain events.

"Ah here we are." Sigyn said as she pointed towards a high bookshelf on the 2nd floor. She deftly climbed the ladder and came back with two tomes for Hiccup. "As I said, these are the only ones available for the general public. What made you look into the Johtuns in the first place?" She asked Hiccup who took the books eagerly.

"Well, I took Astrid to a restaurant in the city a couple of days ago." Hiccup explained as he found a table to read at. "The restaurant boasted food from the Nine realms but Astrid and I noticed that food from Johtunheim was not listed. When we asked the waiter why, he answered with a rather disgusted look that they don't serve Johtun swill at their fine establishment."

"Ah, I can see what got you thinking there." Sigyn stated.

"So I went around asking people if they knew more about the Johtuns and they all looked at me funny." Hiccup elaborated. "The children seemed scared of them, the adults think their monsters, and Tyr told me rather snidely that Johtuns only eat raw flesh."

"Tyr lost many compatriots during the wars with the Johtuns. I can understand his bitterness. And yes, the general public does view the Frost Giants as uneducated monsters. If it is their history you're looking for then you won't find it in these books."

Hiccup looked at the librarian critically. "The way you said it, you don't think they're monster do you."

"I don't, now." Sigyn confessed. "When I was young my parents would tell me stories of how evil Johtuns were. When I joined the Royal court a Frost giant messenger came with a scroll asking for a truce. Nothing came out of it though except for a few years without wars. But it made me think. We were always told that the Frost Giants were uneducated. That they didn't have much of a system of governance and yet they sent a well-worded scroll asking for negotiations. It's contradictory! Their messenger was clearly well educated and knew how to handle political situations."

"That is indeed interesting." Hiccup nodded as he looked down at the books. One was on Johtun physiology while the other was about the Johtunheim geology. Indeed none of these would be a lot of help.

"Maybe Odin could enlighten us." Toothless suggested and Hiccup agreed. If anyone knew what was going on here then it would be the Allfather. Hiccup thanked Sigyn when a moving shadow over the floor stopped by them and out popped Dagur. "Hiya Hiccup!"

"AAAAHHH" Both Sigyn and Hiccup shouted, shocked by the sudden appearance of Dagur. It was however Sigyn who recovered first and whacked the redhead with one of the tomes. "I told you a thousand times, do not use magic or conduct magical experiments within my library!" She admonished. Dagur held his head as he tried to duck away from the angry librarian. "Need I remind you that you froze an entire shelf of Alfheim poetry!" She continued on. "It took me a day to dry the books with wind magic!"

"It looks like even in the library things don't get boring." Toothless chuckled as both watched Sigyn chase after Dagur.

Later that night Hiccup and Astrid entered the great hall to see it decorated luxuriously. The couple was seated between Heimdal and Freya and hiccup saw the others already in attendance. Hiccup took a small sip of the strong Asgardian mead and pondered some things for a while. Nearly a week had already passed since they arrived in Asgard.

The two large ravens on Odin's throne drew Hiccup's attention and he noticed Thor's empty seat. Which was odd since the crown prince should have been present. Toothless took the opportunity to snag some meat off of Hiccup's plate and Odin made a speech. The hall erupted in loud cheers after Odin's speech but that didn't last long as the floor and walls of the palace began shaking.

"What is happening?!" Hiccup heard Odin ask as the shaking didn't stop, the large golden chandelier fell from the high ceiling and Asgardians scattered to avoid the debris. A loud explosion tore through the palace and the hall was besieged by falling debris as the doors were slammed open with tremendous force.

Hiccup's eyebrow rose in shock at what greeted everyone when the dust cleared. "This can't be good." Toothless said as he took on his full form and stood, plasma blast ready, before Hiccup. Standing in the now ruined doorway stood a figure none would have imagined.

"Thor" Hiccup whispered as everyone looked at the party crasher in shock.

AN: (insert evil laugh cause the author is sunburned and lazy) Looks like we just stopped where the prolog left off. NOW it's time for the story to truly start ;)

AN2: So a friend asked me if I could do a Black Panther story. I'm seriously thinking of writing one. There is so much to work with.