Chapter 75: Peace

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"Should I just put this here?" Thor asked Jane as he entered her new lab, carrying two boxes.

Both were full of files and documents she had thought to be lost forever.

"Yes, just put them to that side." She pointed to the far corner, where boxes full of equipment she had made by hand were stored.

Her pointed eyes watched as the other SHIELD people were bringing in all the things they had taken from her earlier.

The reason for this turnaround, funnily enough, was Thor. He had somehow convinced Coulson to include Jane and Erik in whatever they were doing here, as they might be able to help them with the case.

Jane was equally surprised and fearful to see this guy smooth-talk a government agent, the same guy who had smashed a cup in the café because he thought it would get him another drink. He, of all people, convinced Coulson.

Not to mention that he had gotten her to agree and work with SHIELD somehow on top of that.

Honestly, she still didn’t like the idea.

Still, here she was in their premise, far from the town, and it felt like someone was always watching their every move. Even now she wanted to just go back, but this was her chance to one-up this rude organization that had little manners and thought about people’s feelings.

And more than that, Thor had promised he would protect her if anything happened. Well, that was more of a verbal promise; it wasn’t that important to her decision.

"Jane, stop looking at him; we have work to do." Erik rubbed his eyes while looking at the numbers.

"I wasn’t looking at him." She got defensive. "I was just... thinking while looking in that direction. Yeah."

"Ok then, would you like to continue working while looking in his direction as well?" Erik raised a brow at the slight shine of expectation in her eyes. "That was the part where you laughed."

"Of course, I know." Jane chuckled nervously and busied herself.

Even if they had taken all her equipment and data, SHIELD hadn’t been twiddling their thumbs the entire time. Even if it irked her, they had perfect data on the days she had marked in her plans.

It was just a touch better and more detailed than what she could’ve gotten by herself and Darcy’s random acts.

"This chair is nice! Do they have intern positions open?" Darcy was leaning back into the newly unwrapped chair that was just a touch more comfortable than the ones they had.

Jane wouldn’t admit that they were, in fact, far better than the ones she had in her lab. Still, as the day came to an end and she headed for the private area assigned to them for sleeping after having a little drink with Thor.

He was still outside, sitting by a bonfire with the laptop. It had a routine for him. Help out during the day, eat, then read. Even if she admitted that Princess Mononoke headed towards an interesting direction, Thor’s reading seemed a bit more personal. He didn’t even notice when she went to bed.

But after reading it over and over, Thor had changed a lot. And in a way, that was all she needed to think about.

Rather than obsession, Thor had developed a deep irritation for two things regarding Princess Mononoke.

First was Eboshi. It wasn’t that he hated her completely, even if she had turned her weapons on the gods of the forest and coveted the iron; that wasn’t all to her.

The people she ruled over respected her deeply, from men to women, from fit to those cursed with disease. They saw her as a benevolent ruler who cared for her subjects, and she was indeed that.

But that didn’t excuse her actions against the forest and its inhabitants.

He wasn’t happy with her insulting Nago, and he certainly wasn’t pleased when she tried to kill San, who only wanted to defend her home and family from the invaders.

The Wolf princess had surprised him greatly as well. She had great courage and determination. Thankfully, Ashitaka had saved her when she tried to assassinate Lady Eboshi by storming the Iron Works all on her own.

He had impressive strength, and even after getting shot through by the thing they called a gun, he took San out of the Iron Works, and only then did he collapse.

Now this was where his second irritation came in. The Skald, or as Jane called him, the writer, had decided to end the Chapter right when San let Ashitake rest in the water of the Dear God’s forest.

These things called cliffhangers were surely made by an evil mind. Thankfully, a new Chapter should’ve arrived today, and he could read what followed at last.

The work he had been doing during the day wasn’t tiring, and he still had enough energy; even if he slept a few less hours, it wouldn’t affect him in the long run.

Thor poked at the keyboard with his index fingers and narrowed eyes like a hen pecking at food.

It took him ten minutes to open this thing called a browser and another ten to open the website where the story was.

The Chapter started with the forest spirits looking into the distance. A giant creature walked in front of the moon, towering over mountains and everything below.

The two pages were fully covered, making Thor observe each detail of this creature’s body that looked like a starry night. This might be the Deer God, or the last challenge Ashitaka had to face to lift his curse.

That’s how it was in Asgardian sagas.

But it was established in the next few pages that this creature was something the Deer God changed into during the night. And as night became day, he returned to the deer form.

This deer god reminded him of the four stags of Yggdrasil he had read about in that one really old book his father had made him read as punishment. Not to mention the flora that sprouted from this Deer God’s each step. It resembled the ones he had seen in Vanaheim.

’Is this Skald indeed from there?’ Thor thought for a moment before he turned the page.

The deer god healed Ashitaka’s wound after taking the life of the plant San had placed near his head. However, when Ashitaka woke up, the curse was still there.

"Can it not remove the curse?" His question went unanswered as he went back and stared at the new herd of boars that had arrived in the forest.

It was a white boar this time. And it came with an army.

But Thor returned to the page where Ashitaka looked at the curse. This was confirmation that he would meet his end by this curse.

’Is there truly no way?’ He couldn’t help but think about his own situation.

The peace with Jotunheim was agreed upon as long as he stayed in exile. The moment he returned, with his powers or not, it would cause war. Thor had held hope that when Allfather woke up from Odin’s sleep, he would think about something.

But watching Ashitaka, he also started to wonder what would happen if there was no chance for his return. Would he be able to stay as calm as this guy that hadn’t even lived a fraction of Thor’s age?

’What would I even do in that situation?’ He could only turn the page as tears flowed down Ashitaka’s face while San fed him.

It was an interesting way of feeding someone who couldn’t chew, that was for sure.

However, the situation became tense when the boars arrived to meet Moro and San. They were furious that the Deer god healed a human, but didn’t help Nago.

’So, Moro also has a poisoned human stone.’ Thor’s mind went back to Lady Eboshi and her actions; he shook his head quickly as the large boar arrived.

The white boar, Okkoto, smelled Ashitaka’s hand and with it the source of the curse, and of Nago’s death.

"Should we die even to the very last, we will leave the humans in awe."

"An all-out war..." He was stuck on that part as the boar declared his intentions and left.

There was a genuine feeling of respect in his heart for Okkoto; he sought a warrior’s end even if the enemy had strong weapons.

But his mind was more focused on why the Deer God didn’t meet Okkoto.

Maybe this deer god really had no way to remove curses? Or was it something else?

The story went back to Eboshi, who was fighting another army of humans. And the monk from before reappeared. Thor didn’t have a good feeling regarding him even now.

And it was spot on, as this guy was working for the emperor. The same Emperor who had driven Ashitaka’s people out. And now he wanted the head of the Deer God, thinking it conferred immortality.

Thor wondered what this emperor had in mind while issuing such an order. And he was asking others to do things for him. A man like that was the Emperor?

But it seemed like Eboshi had accepted the request.

’Why would she do that?’ Thor wanted an answer, but the Chapter ended right there.

"Damn it..." He sighed, another one of those cliffhangers.

This Skald was lucky this wasn’t Asgard, or the listeners wouldn’t have let him go until he had finished the entire story.

Still, his thoughts were mainly on the war about to happen inside the story.

Eboshi and the Mikado’s men were aiming for the Deer God, and the boars aimed at Eboshi. Not to mention the external factors like the wolf tribe and the human lord named Asano.

It was a complex conflict where anyone could be ambushed at any time. Thor had never thought much of this before because he had the power to walk through ambushes.

But in his current state, would he be able to do the same?

Would he have the courage to march into Jotunheim as he had done before? Yes, he would have the courage, but not the strength to back it up.

’Did I really have the strength to fight Jotunheim alone?’ Even if he supposed he had the power, he could only think about why his father had sought a peaceful way.

A war involving two realms, he had only heard of it in sagas; never had he witnessed it or been in one.

But Allfather was all-powerful. He had conquered the nine realms before. He held the power to destroy Jotunheim; then why did he choose peace instead?