Keen ears marked the thunder of approaching boots, louder than the purposeful strides of Tyr and the hesitant stumbling of whichever fool boy had deemed that day to be his crowning glory. The morn upon which he would prove himself a lion over a lamb and stare the beast that inspired terror in even the mightiest of gods in the eyes. It was truly a rare occasion wherein the lad survived the tumult of nerves and fear so assaulting his system and made to stand before the wolf as the Lawbringer did without turning tail and fleeing to the relative safety of his mother’s skirts.
Fenrir would almost have pitied the children, had they and the rest of their miserable kind not wronged him so deeply.
A call of his name was heard, an arc of lightning throughout the air as false bravery attempted to mask fear’s tremor within hissed words. Such sheep the gods were, gathering about him in a small group as though their shared expression of falsified sternness and simple proximity to one another would thread some commonality of steeled nerve between them, see a rich vein of courage be brought to bear at their feet and grant them valour-wrought pickaxes to drive their mining into the very fibre of their spirit. Disinterest coursed throughout lupine vein, the harbinger’s ever-wandering mind venturing far afield as nervous hands rested upon aged sword pommels, divine fingers curling themselves about beaten metal as a babe’s would it’s blanket — perhaps this would be the sight to greet him upon Vígríðr, a line of tremoring deities clinging to hope and blade alike as fear’s talons entrapped their limbs and saw them delivered unto death as had been prophesied.
The rattle of chains drew Fenrir from his reverie, mercurial attentions seized and arrested by chilled iron resting in the feeble paws of the lambs before him. A proclamation was heard, though no flicker of acknowledgement crossed wolven countenance, of its strength, an attestation of it being the finest chain in all of Ásgarðr; surely, if howled promises of his own strength were true, Fenrir would have little trouble in shattering such a bind? Thought was given to this, the wolf’s shade-riddled mind mulling over such a supposition as though it were fine wine to wash across his tongue, a battle stratagem to deliberate upon before the first move was struck.
A pity, then, that Fenrir never had been one for planning and forethought.
Grumbles issued past sharp enamel, a slew of growled acquiescence of his tongue as inordinate bulk shifted, ever-growing paws bringing the younger Lokason whose presence corrupted Ásgarðr yet still to his feet and seeing him advance upon the set-jawed gods. A quake was marked to run amongst them, shifting shoulders and wide eyes the sole markers of trepidation upon grim faces asÁsgarðr’s greatest fetter was wrapped about him, weaving betwixt fur and muscle and limb and paw in an elaborate dance with a design upon no escape before the Æsir did step back, pleased with their work and seized with the expectation of success. It was a success the wolf would not grant them, however; limbs shifted in their constraints, great shoulders rolling once before a snarl of exertion found purchase upon drawn back lips, great strength turning itself to rippling sinew and seeing the chain shatter about him.
To loose out of Laeding became something of a saying upon Ásgarðr and Miðgarðr both, much to Fenrir’s satisfaction, a string of words for desperate mothers to cling to as their sons achieved some gargantuan task, and yet naught fed his pride as the sight of the retreating Æsir did, dejection weighing heavily about their shoulders as they returned to their gleaming home in disgrace. He would have offered some small token of comfort, soft words delivered upon a harsh voice as recompense for their slights and wounded pride, had he truly cared for them. Such was their own doing, he thought, the lacerations upon their soul their own creation as they tried to restrain chaos and save their skins.
Fenrir had to laugh at such a notion — as if they would ever succeed in binding him.