Norsemen!

Gunny sat on his front porch with a cup of coffee in his rocking chair watching traffic pass by on the main road. Yngvilder still limped around on her cane but managed to come through the front door, using her cane and carrying a cup of coffee. She sat next to him in another rocking chair and Gunny laughed.

"What's funny?" She asked as she slowly sat.

"Well...look at us!" He said with a broad smile.

"We look like two old people on the front porch!" He laughed out loud nearly spilling his coffee.

"You're rotten, you know that!" She said with a frown.

"Why?" He still had a smile as he looked at her, sipping his coffee.

"Here we are trying to have a nice time and you want to make fun of it."

"Well...?" He said, setting his cup on a small table between them.

"Tell me it's not the truth!" He still smiled.

"I guess you're right," she had a slight smile.

"I'm glad you are calmed down now, though. I thought we would have to lock you up somewhere for awhile."

Gunny looked embarrassed.

"I know. I don't know what happened, I just went off for no reason."

"That's NOT what Doc Roberts said!" She frowned at him. "He said you had a nervous breakdown and that could be dangerous if you don't get some rest."

"AND...take those pills he said you had to take." She added.

He looked at the small glass bottle full of pink pills he pulled from his pocket.

"These are sedatives, dear!" He sighed. "All I do with these is sleep."

"That's right. General Jackson said you went three days with no sleep before your breakdown. So now....SLEEP!"

"OK...OK. I will not move from this rocking chair for awhile, I give my word." They sat in silence watching people in the street for awhile.

They saw people walking next to the road only fifteen yards away and most would wave to them as they passed but one older man stopped in front of their house.

"LOOK!" Gunny said and pointed at the old man. Yngvilder set her cup on the small table and leaned forward.

"What do you want this time...ODIEN?" Gunny said loudly.

Yngvilder chuckled.

"How did you know?" he said as he walked up the small cobble stoned walkway towards them.

Gunny just shook his head.

"Like I said...what is it you want now?" Gunny asked again.

Odien, dressed as an old man in street clothing using a cane, stood at the first step in front of their house. Sara, the woman they had used as a baby sitter for years came out with the to children, they kissed them on the cheek then she took them don the road.

"MY! They've grown!" Odien said.

"Yes they have, no thanks to you!" Yngvilder said.

Odien seemed embarrassed at that but spoke to Gunny.

"I have come to warn you, Gunny." He said sternly.

"OH?"

"Your Norse army is ready to march into Italy through the mountains with your allies poised to strike through Switzerland and France. We can not afford for Italy to fall."

"I won't even ask why," Gunny said, reaching for his coffee. "And I don't really care. What are you going to do...ATTACK us?"

"We have holdings there with the....", he stopped, looking at them both.

"Lokeans?" Yngvlder said.

Odien did not answer but seemed confounded.

"I'm telling you we NEED Italy!"

"Why?" Gunny asked and Odien did not respond.

"I have a question for you and if you can give me a straight answer I will .....negotiate." Gunny stood and stretched.

"Now that I know you are NOT the Gods of the ancestors.....WHO were the real Gods?" He looked at Odien. "Odin, Frigg, Frayer, all of them. WHO were they? And where did they go?"

Odien acted as if he did not want to answer, rubbing his chin in thought.

"They were real immortals, unlike us. They were here thousands of years ago and created this land." He looked down as if he did not want to continue.

"If I tell you this will you leave Italy alone?" Odien asked with pleading eyes.

"Well. I know you are not a people of violence and detest war and I also know you will NOT attack us. That leaves only one alternative." He paused. "Either I agree with you or you get squat!"

Odien looked at them both as if a beggar.

"I am pleading with you."

"Tell us the rest of it." Yngvalder demanded.

Odien sat on the steps, looking around to see if no one was close enough to hear, then he began.

"Thousands of years ago there was a race of people, explorers of peace such as us, but not exempt from war. They would fight if pushed but would never start a war." He paused gathering his thoughts.

"They were thousands of years old, may be older by what I have read and they searched the cosmos for inhabitable worlds. Planets they could build on, create what they thought was, not perfect, but a living, breathing entity to populate the galaxy." He went on. "Their worlds had been devastated by something we have no idea about, it was never written how their world died. But they spread out in the cosmos, searching for life. When some found this planet, they saw it was green, had atmosphere and some animals."

He paused looking left and right as if nervous.

"Being immortal, they had the power of life its self. They could create life but the ancient writings do not say how. We speculate they had scientist as we do, but we still do not have the capabilities they had as immortals and I think we shall never have such a thing as that power."

"Their names were written in the ancient text, Odin, Thor, etc. It also explains their compound, Asgard but it does not say where. It tells of the Bi-frost bridge which we suspect to be some sort of transport they used to move about the galaxy. You have to remember, these text are thousands of years old and sometime difficult to translate."

"So...you're telling me Odin was real?" Gunny said, sitting back down in his rocking chair. "And Baldr, Odins son? He died by the hands of Loki?"

"Yes, as the text say."

Odien shook his head in agreement. Gunny leaned back with a smile on his face.

"It's all true then." Gunny said.

"So, I am guessing, Valhalla is real also." Yngvilder said.

"As real as the text say it is. It is the place where the immortals go along with humans."

"But immortals can't die." gunny said.

"Well, yes they can. It all depends on what you define as death."

Ygnvalder cocked her head at that.

"What we define as death?" She said, leaning forward.

"Death is not what you think it is. Death is only the beginning. And if you believe in the after life, such as Valhalla or the Christian Heaven, they are the same place. It's where your 'being' goes after your body wears out."

"Every living thing has a spark of light. A small point of, what I will call, electricity. Once that leaves, that is you. You ARE that point of light and it...you...travel to a point in a different place, such as a different dimension, so to speak."

"So, tell me, " Gunny said. "Is this where the Havamal comes from? The ancient text?"

He nodded yes without speaking.

"The stories we have read about them, the Sagas, are they true?" Yngvilder asked.

"As true as they can be I suspect." Odien said. "They all came from the ancient text."

"Please! I have said enough, more than enough. Can we negotiate now as you said?" He pleaded.

Gunny looked at Yngvilder.

"What do you think?" He asked her.

"I think he told us the truth. Why shouldn't we negotiate." She said.

"OK!" Gunny stood up, grabbed Odien's hand and pulled him to a standing position.

"I never talk down to any one," Gunny said.

"Thank you," Odien said as he stood.

"Now, tell me why you need Italy." Gunny started.

Odien stammered.

"I can't really say why other than we absolutely NEED that area. Even with the Lokeans." He looked at the Gunny in his eyes. "I plead with you! I beg you! I can't say why other than we NEED it!"

"What about the Lokeans?" Yngvalder asked with a cocked head, curious.

"We can handle them, they are just like us and will never attack, not in the way you do at any rate."

"If we push the Greeks to the border, we will have to keep an armed force ON that border for a very long time to keep them bottled up." He paused. "They will grow ...again...and attack. These people are blood thirsty!"

"We can make it too difficult for them to leave. With our assets it will not be a problem."

"How?" Gunny asked with furrowed brow.

"We have ways with the weather." He said with a smile.

"So! You control the weather too?" Yngvilder asked and Odien nodded yes and the Gunny shook his head.

"Unbelievable!" Gunny said.

"BUT! We will still have to have a force there, no matter what." Gunny said as he leaned on the railing of his porch.

"Well....I'm afraid so." Odien said. "And by the looks of things on your end, the war is virtually over."

"Really!" Gunny said with a smile. "You know more then you are telling me. Odien!"

"I've actually told you too much!" He started to back up and Yngvilder took his arm.

"Wait a minuet!" She said. "Come up here and sit down. I know, from listening to the Gunny, you can't disappear if someone is holding you."

Odiens face seemed terrified.

"Don't worry," Yngvalder said with a broad smile. "All I want is for you to sit down and have coffee with us. That's all."

He looked relieved as he took a seat in a small, high backed chair next to them.

"Can you actually TASTE the coffee or not?" Gunny asked out of curiosity.

Odien chuckled.

"Oh yes! I can taste it...and feel and everything else but I can't die in this form."

"Good. Then just sit and relax with us for awhile and enjoy your self. I'm glad we had this talk, it was a long time coming." Gunny said as he put his feet on the railing of the porch and sipped his coffee.