The God of Calamity’s Wife

Saoirse heard Sirius' cry before a flurry of injuries inflicted on her. Including a gaping hole as if Sirius had been stabbed through the chest.

She felt Sirius filled with fear and dispair and a feeling came over her that she usually pushed from her mind and that was annoyance.

She gritted her teeth and suppressed the urge to wail at the pain.

Sroka took Lachlan and held him with terror in her eyes as she watched an invisible person attacking.

"What is attacking you?! She cried out alarmed.

"Nobody." Saoirse spat falling to her knees. Her wolf got angry but she was also stubborn. Leave it alone. She commanded her wolf. Her fangs that had appeared faded away once again. Unlike Sirius, her beast respected her.

"Then what's happening?"

"Someone is attacking my husband."

"What? Well isn't he fighting back?" Sroka asked.

"He never does." She said in a tone where Sroka suddenly understood that this annoyed Saoirse but she chose to say nothing.

"Why?"

Saoirse sat down and drank some blood to heal herself, then drank a bit more so that Sirius would be ok wherever he was. She let out a sigh. "You'll understand when you're older." She replied. "I promised him I would be by his side a lot time ago and I'm sticking to it. He's traumatized by his father, and he's scared of himself. He's scared because he can't control his beast, can't tame him, and his beast is very….unruly. Today was the first time in 900 years that I finally got to see him."

Sroka listened to this and had a few questions that honestly hit a spot in Saoirse's heart that was locked away. "Well weren't you traumatized too? If you're married to him, shouldn't he confide in you and shouldn't you have seen his beast before? You don't even know what kind of beast he is?"

"I don't want him to become the person who ends the world. There's a prophecy that a wolf and a dragon will end the Gods. He must have thought he was a dragon."

"He is isn't he?"

Saoirse shook her head. I don't think so. He has such a wierd dialect of beast that I can't understand and dragons speak the language of the Aesir like everybody else.

"Also, he has hair in his beast form and dragons are all scales. He has a white flowing mane and his tail has hair at the tip as well."

"But I saw him breathe fire!"

"Yes I know he can do that."

"Then he's a dragon! He has wings like a dragon and breathes fire, so he's a dragon!"

Saoirse shook her head. "I think something's going on here that we don't understand. Besides, dragons are on Jormunganders side of the family, not the side that is born with beasts. If he had a beast, it should have been a wolf."

Sroka was puzzled at this one. "A beast that resembles a dragon, but isn't related to one then? Like convergent evolution, like thylacines and wolves, one is a marsupial and one is a canine."

Saoirse nodded.You cannot become a dragon, it is not a familiar. A dragon cannot transform into a human or occupy one's body.

"Or a vampire's body." Sroka specified. "So whatever beast Sirius has, is a familiar?"

"Yes. A familiar is a beast that can pair with a person."

Sroka tried to think of any other familiars that existed in the realms. Wendigos are a familiar, they bond with a dead corpse and animate it. Though they cannot make themselves look alive.

Mermaids have a half transformation, as do satyres and griffins.

Valkyrie have wings. Gods have familiars sometimes.

Selkies have a familiar; they can turn into a seal.

This was all that Sroka could come up with. "I'm sorry Saoirse I do not know."

"Don't worry yourself. I'm sure in time, we will understand him. The important thing is he keeps his sweet nature even if it's annoying."

"But I liked it when he ate Odin, he can vanquish the realms and take it all for himself!" Sroka declared. "He can take it all and you can be his queen!"

Saoirse blinked, startled. "Sroka—" then she registered what Sroka had just said, "Wait, you said he ate Odin?"

"Yes." Sroka said, "Sirius can be my father and you can be my mother and I can be a princess!" Sroka declared boldly, her voice rising. "Shame on my real father for denying me a kingdom while giving them to all his other children! Shame on him for pretending I wasn't his."

Saoirse let out a long sigh, shaking her head. "It won't work that way. Me and Sirius don't want power. We want Odin to remain king."

Sroka frowned, her arms folding across her chest. "Why? Odin is horrible!"

"Yes, but Alastor is worse."

"That sounds like a waste," Sroka said bluntly. "If I were you, I'd be on my own side."

Saoirse paused, Sroka's words striking deeper than she cared to admit. She looked at the child beside her, so young yet so insightful, and considered the weight of her advice.

"Maybe," Saoirse said quietly.

(Narrator here: I was thinking the same thing as this girl when I put the two of them together. The two of them had always vanquished in their past lives, I didn't know what happened. Alastor was raising him up to be a monster, what had gone wrong?)

But then Saoirse's expression darkened. "I'm sorry Sroka but I just don't think Sirius is going to want that power for himself. That's the only problem. I just don't know how to change his mind."

She stood now that her wounds were gone and picked up Lachlan. "You saw how he acted when he thought I was pregnant? She-wolves usually hunt even when they're pregnant to make their cubs strong and he wouldn't have approved. He wants for me to be safe. Not be a part of a war."

"Well what do you want?" Sroka asked.

Saoirse hesitated, then smiled softly. "To be with him. To have children. To make a legacy greater than my brother's." Her smile deepened, but I'm a beast. I get restless, your idea… that was my first thought when I heard about the prophecy too. To fight back!

To not have Odin or Alastor as king! I've never told anyone that before."

She gave Sroka a hug. "I think I would want that very much, to be on a third side."