Chaz Hamilton turned off the sidewalk of one of the seedier New Amsterdam districts. Old brick buildings with metal lattice fire escapes, lopsided garbage bins surrounded by black plastic bags he definitely didn't want to dig into, and lines upon lines of cables weaving an unusual web in the air above multiplied the uneasy feeling he had as he paced down the very middle of the alleyway he found himself in.
"Why on earth did they send me for a meeting down here? I'm going to have to file a complaint with the HR department again for them sending me on wild duck chases again," Chaz said to himself aloud, trying to bolster his uneasy stomach. He glanced at the hand-written note passed on to him.
You must prepare them. People must be warned of the impending danger to all. Come to Angry Boa Exotic Animal Shop at 3pm on Thor'sday.
Chaz checked the time on his watch. 2:45pm. He liked being early for interviews, but in this case, he hoped that early to arrive meant quickly to depart as well. The deeper he made it into the alley, the worse it became. Old, tattered banners seemed to be hanging out of windows, creating an almost archaic, eerie atmosphere all around him. In fact, a dense fog seemed to have rolled from the street behind him. He couldn't see, or hear, any of the normal activity in the busy metropolis he worked in.
"Are you the crier?" A woman asked from a dark doorway into a basement level landing.
"Crier?" Chaz asked, confused and concerned. An unnatural foreboding gripped at his soul. Either his Editor-in-Chief was standing beside her waiting to fire him or the world was about to end. He didn't know which. "I'm Chaz Hamilton. You might have read some of my articles in the Sentinel."
"Ah, yes. You are the crier of the town. You spread notice far and wide when dire winds pass through the land," she said as she stepped up to the sidewalk. "He works very hard to prove himself to his father. You must get word to him so he may take note of his son's accomplishment."
"Who and what are you talking about?" Chaz spat. Dealing with sane people was one thing, but unseemly hags with prophetic warnings were not his department. "Did you send for me, cause sweetie, Krystal Fae is the one you want if you're going to be talking about witchcraft, doom, and gloom."
"You will listen to me, child of man, for I am Angrboda!" she exclaimed and threw off the heavy shawl that covered her head and face. As the heavy woven cloth came off of her head, she grew until she towered over Chaz by at least three times his height, nearly filling the entire space between the old buildings surrounding them. "My son deeds deserve to be recognized, his success praised, lest he uncoil his body from this world and the Ragnarok shall begin."
Chaz stumbled backwards and tripped on his own feet, falling into a waiting pile of trash. "Yeah. OK. Now I get it. You're Midgardsormr's mother, aren't you."
She shrank back down to humanoid size. "Yes. He has been proving himself against other warriors of the world for much of his time here, and approaches a significant milestone. The world must know of his great accomplishment."
"When is this going to happen?" Chaz asked.
"In a matter of a handful of revolutions of this world circling the sun," she said. "Midgardsormr shall visit the lands of Milwaukee, League City, and Gary. The signs say that should he triumph in those places, a battle beyond all others shall be fought soon after."
Chaz pulled out his datapad and checked the BADGE Fight Club schedule. "Yep. Milwaukee. League City. Gary. Those are the current locations for matches. I think your fortune teller is in league with my bookie."
"It is no mere fortune teller who reveals it. These truths are written in the stars themselves." She cast her head backward to stare at the heavens and spread her hands wide as if to embrace the sky.
"Yeah. Yeah," Chaz said. He shifted and worked himself up out of the pile of garbage bags. Checking his pants for stains from discarded leftovers, he looked at Angrboda. "I'll start getting the word out, but next time, just leave me a voicemail." He looked back into the foggy alleyway. "Can you do something about that, please? I'd like to make sure I don't fall off the edge of the planet or something as I go and start on the story."
Angrboda didn't stop staring at the sky, but she did gesture barely perceptively with a pinky finger. The fog recoiled back to reveal the street.
"Thanks," Chaz said as he hurried back to the city. "Some families are all about the DRAMA for everything."
0 Comments