FROST- Jotun Chronicles #1

Gifts from the Ice Queen

We both ended up getting food. I got a sub sandwich the size of an actual submarine, and he got a bowl of tomato soup. I tried to chew as fast as I could, hoping that Erik wasn’t watching me make a total pig of myself. After I had settled my gurgling stomach, I wrapped up the other half of the sandwich for later and looked at him. He was spooning up the last of his soup, and looked up just on time to catch me staring. I blushed to the roots of my hair it felt like.

            “Um, how is it?”

            “Great, how was your sandwich?” He smiled, and I nodded that it was good, then worked up the courage to say, “I think something weird is happening to me.”

            He quirked a brow at me, and I took a deep breath and continued, “My hair is getting lighter. It’s white now…” I pulled my knit cap off, letting my bright hair fall down around my shoulders, surprised when Erik’s grin grew wider. “What?”

            “Beautiful,” he said, and I blushed bright red again. He laughed. “Most of the other girls have pale blonde hair, but yours…well, you almost look like a pure-blood.”

            I bit my lip, brows furrowing. Was he implying that I was some kind of mutt? He seemed to pick up on the thought, because his smile slid a little. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. I just mean that most of the other half human girls have very light blonde hair. Your hair has lost all pigment.” He gestured to his own head. “Like mine. That’s normal for us.”

            “My eyes have gone lighter too.” I hesitated. “Is that…normal? Am I turning full Frost giant or something weird like that?”

            Erik rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It could be that your father’s genes were simply more dominant than the other men that were sent out.”

            That gave me pause. “Tell me about that.”

            “About the experiment?”

            “Yeah, Loki only told me a little. I’d like to hear you explain it.” I folded my arms over my chest, wondering if his explanation would sound a little less “evil scientist” then the original version.

            Erik rubbed the back of his neck. “Queen Eira is very forward thinking. While some of us violently oppose relations with humans, she knows that we have to be realistic. We’re a dying breed, and if we don’t mingle with humans, we’ll be gone in another thousand years or so.”

            “That still sounds like a long time.”

            “Not when you live a few hundred years,” Erik said.

I choked on my water. “What?”

            “Sorry.” Erik looked sheepish. “I shouldn’t have sprung that on you. I just take it for granted.”

            “No kidding,” I sputtered, wiping the corner of my mouth. “You’re serious though? How long will I live then? How long do…I dunno, hybrids live?”

            “Probably around two hundred years, or at least, that’s been my experience.” Erik was trying to hide a smile at my look of utter disbelief. “It’s true. I swear.”

            My head was reeling. I would live to be two hundred? That meant I would outlive regular humans. Suddenly I was seeing the sandwich shop through new eyes. All these humans would be dead, dust and bones, and I would still be alive. I would even outlast the ten year old kid that was messily devouring a grilled cheese sandwich over in the corner – and the curly-headed little girl that danced around her mother’s legs demanding a rice crispy square from the basket of treats on the deli counter.