United Chapter 15

      After dinner, Chase and Brian gave Brenna a tour of the school, showing her where the classrooms were, more dorms like the one she'd been brought to after her meeting with Miss Munro, the gymnasium with it's rows of bleachers, basketball hoops and large trampoline which Chase had given her a lift to. They'd had a hard time getting her back down afterwards, so much fun was she having on it.
                            They showed her the indoor pool next, she had called it an indoor pond which Chase thought was cute; he didn't bother to correct her. They brought her to the recreation room with its ping pong, foosball and air hockey tables, chess and checker sets. There were stuffed couches and easy chairs all around the room. Stacks of board games sat on a high shelf built into one wall spaced between high arched windows made to let maximum light into the room during the day. Brenna pointed to one game, "Scrabble, what is that?"
                    "Oh its a game where you use tiles to make words and your opponent builds a word off of a letter in your word...we'll play it later."
                     She stared in awe at the immense plasma TV on another wall. When Brian turned it on, she jumped back, nearly tripping over Chase who walked her up to the screen and had her touch it.
                   "See, it's only a picture. Images are recorded somewhere else and projected here into the receiver and then you have no idea what I'm talking about..." He watched her trace her finger around the screen, taking it all in.
                   "Amazing, I have never seen such wonders." She breathed.
                  "Man," Brian shook his head, "You living in the dark ages girl. You gots to get out more."
                  They brought her to the Great room, a dark paneled room with  bright couches before a large fireplace, bookshelves, reading lamps, a few round tables scattered about. "This is where students usually receive visitors, you know, their family when they come to visit."
               Brenna looked about the room, trying to imagine her parents standing before the fireplace, arms open wide and found it was an impossible scene to conjure in her head.
                "Do your families ever come to visit you?"
                Brian nodded, "All the damn time, they a bit embarrassing. My brothers, they eight years old and they twins. Nothing is safe. We had to search the whole school one time because they ducked and ran from my momma. Took us two hours to find them."
                She looked at Chase, "And yours?"
                He stared at the floor for a second, "Ah my dad's really busy. He doesn't have time to see me. Half the time I stay here on the holidays because he's always working, performing some miraculous surgery, or meeting with senators or something."
             "I am sorry, Chase." She put her hand on his arm, "Holidays are like our festivals, our blots, correct?"
              Chase shoved his hands in his pockets, "Festivals, yeah I guess so."
               "Well that is a time for family and loved ones to be together, it is not meet that you should be alone at such important times. I will be your family here. You can teach me all about your festivals and we can celebrate them."
               "Is she for real?" Brian laughed, stopping short as he saw Chase's face, "Aw here we go."
             
             They showed her the laundry where students did their clothes and Chase laughed as she looked to the ceiling and said, "But where do they hang their things to dry?"
              They showed her the auditorium where they explained to her about the plays and skits the school Drama club would perform during the year.
             "Ah, my brother and I would perform little plays for my mother. Sometimes Helgi our housekeeper would join us." She paused, "I already miss my mother."
            Chase draped his arm around her shoulder, "It's not easy being alone in a new place but we'll watch out for you here. That's what it's all about at this school. We stick together."
               They guided her through the lecture halls, amphitheaters with descending rows of desks surrounding the lectern at the ground floor, and then they moved outside to the grounds.
              "This is the school garden." Chase waved his hand at a vast plot of land situated behind the school, facing a small lake. It was in full bloom. She could see corn stalks, pea vines, tomato plants, carrot tops just starting to poke out of the ground. A group of teens, boys as well as girls, were in the garden working. A couple of girls saw them and put their heads together to talk as they picked tomatoes.
               "Will I be allowed to work in the garden as well?"
               Chase looked to Brian and shrugged, "I guess so, we all have to take a turn. It's required by the school. The garden and the animals," He pointed to a large red barn a distance away, closer to the lake, "Are part of our food supply. Miss Munro says it teaches us to be self sustainable so if something drastic happens, at least we wouldn't starve."
               Brenna bent down to finger the leaf on a corn stalk, "Of course, how else would you get your food?"
               Brian turned to her, "Now hold up, hold everything. You ain't gonna tell me you ain't got no grocery stores where you come from. Where you get your bread and milk and things like that?"
               Brenna stared at him. "We make those things ourselves. We back and cook and harvest. On occasion we have excess which we bring to market.."
                 "Aha," Brian cried, "So you do got markets."
                 "Of course we do. My mother and Helgi sew but we are not weavers, we buy our cloth from Ren. We get our harnesses and farm tools from the town blacksmith."
                 Brian slapped Chase on the back, "Dude we have got to take her to Wal-Mart."


          Logan scratched his beard. "So your only problem with this kid is whether or not her daddy is gonna come and tear apart the school to get her?"
                  Kurt sat on Ororo's desk, his tail twitching impatiently. "She is a runaway."
            Logan sat down opposite Kurt in one of the easy chairs, "Well maybe she had a good reason to run away, didja ever think of that?"
            Ororo was writing but she stopped. "We have, all of us, been on the run at one time or another, that doesn't make it right despite the reason." She put her head down on her arms, her voice muffled, "Nevertheless, it's not like we can march her right back to where she came from."
             Logan tapped Ororo on the back of the head, "Have you guys considered that she might be lying in the first place?"
              Ororo turned her head to the side so that she was staring up at him sideways. "About what? Being a mutant?"
               "About all of it, claiming she comes from another world, having a psychopath for a father. The mutant theory we can test. The rest is up for conjecture unless you have a direct line with the next universe over."
                "Ve can check der database for der U.S. Missing Children bureau. Ve can at least find out if she is listed as missing."
                 Ororo nodded, "I'm going to get right on it before I go any further with this. I've talked to Nala and told her to get ready for an extra student tomorrow in student orientation. If we don't find her in the database, we can at least give her something to occupy herself while we do a bit more research."
              "Where is she now?" Logan hopped up from the chair, "I'd like to meet her."


           
            Eidra looked about the quarters they'd been given for the evening. Everything was so alien to her, the baby had been restless since their arrival, and then when Thor arrived at the door to take Loki with him somewhere, she felt like crying. A few minutes later, however, there was a knock on the door and when she asked who it was, she was relieved to hear it was the agent who had been in the conference room.
              "Come in please." She replied, hoping she didn't sound as panicked as she was.
              The door slid open and Lily stepped inside, "I see the boys left you all alone."
                "Yes," she groaned, "And I am so very lost here in this realm. This is all foreign to me."
               Eidra was sitting on a short couch and Lily sat down beside her, "Well what would you like to know? Ask me anything."
               "Anything? I might as well ask you everything as I know so little."
               Lily smiled, "Follow me, I'll show you how everything works."
               They spent the next half hour touring around the little apartment on sub level three. Eidra was delighted with the faucets in the sink, explaining that she had to pump water into a stone basin in Asgard. "Mind you I am not complaining, it is all I know,"
              As Lily showed her around, Eidra began to feel comfortable enough to talk to her and when Lily asked when the baby was due, Eidra put her hand over her belly, "Two more moons at the most, I can feel the baby running out of room."
              "Moons? Months right?"
               "If that means one full moon to the next, yes."
               Lily nodded, watched Eidra smile down at her belly. "Oh she is an acrobat."
               Eidra looked up at Lily, "Would you like to feel her?"
               Lily hesitated, one of the first rules as an agent was to remain at a professional distance but babies were a particular weakness with her. She and her boyfriend, Jack, had been trying for a baby for a year now. She gently placed her hand on Eidra's stomach and was thrilled to feel what she thought could have been a foot rub against her palm. Eidra took notice of her beaming smile. "Do you have any children of your own?"
              Lily took her hand away, "No, I've been trying for a baby but no luck so far. Do you know what you're having? You called the baby, her."
             Eidra rubbed her belly slowly, "I just know. I am not sure how."
             They walked into the bedroom where a large full sized bed dominated the room.
             "Do you have other children at home?"
             Eidra nodded, "I have a son, Fenris. He is seven seasons. I would have had two sons but my son Silas was born too early and did not live long."
             "I'm sorry,"
              Eidra put a hand on Lily's arm, "It was a blessing, the poor dear suffered while he lived. He was a moon too early."
             "Only a month? There was nothing they could do for him there?"
             "No, why?"
              "Here on...Earth I guess, what do you call us?"
              "Midgard,"
              "Midgard, then, a baby born three...moons early has a chance to survive. A month early is definitely doable."
                Eidra's eyes widened, "Truly? How?"
              "Hospitals, you have doctors don't you?"
                "Clotho is the palace physician, I doubt even he could have saved his life. This is some kind of magic is it not?"
                Lily shook her head, "Some might think it is but it's just critical care, medicine, support."
               Eidra seemed to be thinking to herself. "Thank you for that information. I should talk to Loki about it."
               It was Lily's turn to pry though she knew she shouldn't but the woman was proving to be an enchanting guest. She so often had to deal with unpleasant people when she was assigned in these situations.
               "How did you meet Loki?"
                Eidra sat down on the bed, "I served him. I was a tribute to Thor and he gambled me in a contest with Loki. Loki won."
               "You were a gambling chip?"
                 "No I was a servant, they gambled my servitude."
                 Lily sat down beside her, "But you're not a servant now right?"
                She looked down at her belly, "Am I not? I cook and clean, take care of my children, help on the farm...I just do it for me and my family not someone else. Does that make sense?"
                 Lily laughed, "Then I guess we're all servants aren't we."
               Eidra smiled, "Now you are following me."
                "How long have you been married?"
                "Six seasons," She smoothed her dress and leaned back on her hands. "My back hurts so."
                "You should try that bathtub in there, take a soak. I know it won't help what's going on right now but maybe it'll help your back."
               Eidra peered into the bathroom, "I might consider it later, though with any luck we will not be here long if you will forgive me. I wish to find  my daughter and return home."
               Lily held up her hands, "No, no, don't blame you. I'm from Maine and I'd love to be there right now."
              "Maine..."
              "It's a state in New England....um....let me think...another kingdom, does that make better sense?"
              Eidra smiled again, "It does, you seem to ken me."
              "I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction books, you learn to speak the language in a way."
               Lily laughed at Eidra's blank expression, "So what do you hope the baby will be?"
           Eidra traced the curve of her stomach, "I had hoped for another boy first but it is a girl, I know it. We will just have to try again."
           Lily put her hand to her forehead, "How many children are you planning to have?"
           "I do not know, I would love another boy just to make it even."
           "Wow, I'm only one of two and I thought that was plenty."
       
        They were still sitting on the bed talking when they heard the door in the living area slide open and Loki's voice, "Eidra?"
        They stood up and walked out of the bedroom to find Loki and Thor standing there in the middle of the room. When Loki caught sight of Lily, he glared at her.
         "Eidra, they are looking for Brenna. I do not wholly ken their technology as they call it, but they said it would take time and that we should try to get some sleep. I suggested their child go missing and see how much rest they would get."
           Eidra frowned, "Loki, why must you view every suggestion as a personal challenge? Could you simply not say thank you and leave it at that?"
            "And that is also what I told him." Thor added.
             Loki folded his arms and sat down on the couch as Eidra mimicked him, "And now you will fall to sulking." Loki dropped his gaze to the floor but said nothing and Lily took the silence as her opportunity.
               "I'll let you two alone, Eidra, remember the intercom I showed you in the panel beside the door? Don't hesitate to use it if you need anything."
                Eidra looked at Loki again, "I will, thank you so much for your help and your company, both were greatly appreciated."
               Lily motioned to Thor to follow her and he nodded, "Brother, I will fetch you as soon as we hear anything about Brenna."
             When the door had finally closed behind them, Eidra took Loki's hand and pulled him up from the couch. "The hour is growing late, come lay down for a bit if only to re-center yourself."
          He allowed himself to be led into the bedroom and was soon lying on his side, Eidra curled up behind him, rubbing his back and humming softly.
           She thought he had dozed off, so quiet had he become when he spoke, "What if they do not find her?"
           "Then we travel to another realm, and another until we do but they will find her. I think you are right."
            He was quiet again, then, "What if we never...." He stopped, unable to say anything more.
            She felt his breathing change, become more uneven, his distress throwing him into a panic and she pulled him closer, as close as she could. "We will find her and that is that. Put all other thoughts out of your head, my love."
            "Perhaps I should have let her stay at the palace for a few moons. She would have turned from it soon enough on her own."
             She fought her own grief down as she held him, "Stop, this was no one's fault and we will soon remedy it. Rest."
             Eventually she felt the tension drain from his body and knew he was asleep. She lay there staring at his back for a long time until she joined him.