As far as I could tell, it did. Rose was now standing at the bank of the rushing icy river and breathing hard from all his dodging and dancing around the large hound like a piece of prey might do. The hound’s prey drive was too strong to ignore Rose’s dashing figure, and it too stepped onto the muddy banks.

Rose didn’t dare look behind him at the flowing ice chutes as he tempted the hound to lunge at him one last time, and like any animal obsessed with the kill, the hound fell for the bait. Rose dove to the side as the creature fell into the water which began to run red with blood.

Panting with exhaustion, Rose watched the river for a moment before nodding. “That thing isn’t coming back for a long time.”

All of us regrouped far away from the river, near where Hel’s throne of roots had been.

“Well,” said Seppo. “That was fun.”

“Are you being sarcastic or did you actually think that was fun?” Soren asked. “It’s really hard to tell with you.”

“A little of both,” Seppo replied, shrugging.

“Are you okay, Rose?” Diaval asked.

He nodded. “I … It’s weird. It’s like I have double vision. Sometimes it’s normal and sometimes I’m seeing two very different things all at once.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have come.”

“If you hadn’t come, we’d have been eaten by that thing,” Soren said. “I couldn’t care less about your lineage. It’s not like my father was a stellar person either. I’m glad you came.”

There was a stunning silence as everyone stared at Soren who began to blush a pretty lavender color. “I do have the emotional and mental maturity not to hold things people can’t control against them, you know,” Soren said. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

“Of being an emotionally constipated jackass?” Seppo asked.

Soren gave Seppo a withering look but didn’t press the issue.

“We need to keep moving,” Diaval said from where she was crouched on the ground, filling a small bag she had in her hand with the dirt and muck from near the river. “Hel will figure out we escaped Garm in no time. We need to get to wherever she’s keeping Lydian and then get out as fast as we can.”

“How do we know where she’s keeping him?” I asked. “I can’t even see anything but mud for miles.”

“There’s only one place a soul like his would go,” Soren said. “The shore of corpses.”

“You know,” Seppo said. “I wish we were going somewhere pleasant for once. It’s always draugr lair, lindworm nest, shore of corpses, can’t we go anywhere nice?”