ANDROMEDA ━ 𝐕𝐈𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒

v.

Nap roulette was never worth it. Sometimes, you woke up and felt energised, other times, it felt like being runover by a bus, Regina George style. It was safe to say that Andy felt like the latter. She lazily sat up, yawning and scratching at the sand clinging to her forearm. It was also always impossible to know if you slept for twenty minutes or four hours. So it was definitely more than mildly stressful to wake up in a place entirely unlike the one she left.

The barely warm, rough sand being replaced by a pebbled beach, and a pine forest in place of the treeless grasslands and picnic tables that should have filled the space leading up to the road. Andy strained her ears, desperate to hear the rumble of a car engine in the distance, just to fill the frankly terrifying uneasy silence of the environment around her.

The wind howled blew and she shivered, pulling on her long paisley cotton flare pants over the storm blue bikini. It was twice as cold wherever the hell she was, wrapping her arms and towel tightly around herself after pulling her shirt back on. The raven haired woman blinked in confusion, still not believing whatever happening was real, after all, how could a location change? It was probably a weird lucid dream she'd have to put up with until her subconscious got bored or she woke up.

Andy ran her hands over her face,  glancing around the area. If this was a dream, roughly now would be the time Godzilla would have emerged to fight the cast of Modern Family. A recurring nightmare the young woman experienced once every three months or so. But, strangely enough, the Modern Family cast did not roll up with their version of Voltron, nor did Godzilla leave the water to breath some nuclear-fire, so it left her with the age old question what kind of drugs did she somehow unknowingly ingest?

"Huh?" The twenty year old blinked, staring up at the sun. It peaked out through the cloud cover in an entirely different space than where it should have been. "Am I dead, or something?"

The looming forest of pine and acres of green land seemed so untouched, so dignified, like a national park except not overloaded with tourists, health nuts and teenagers on camping trips smoking pot. Fuck, her stomach twisted with a desire to return to her awkward youth, with the five others she was friends with, smoking, discussing trivial things and full of hope for the future. Not stranded in a subliminal nightmare lost in the fucking woods.

A caw, a bird perched upon her shoulder. A large raven. Andy winced, it's massive claws digging into the skin through the plush towel and her shirt. It cawed in her ear, loud and daunting. The young woman leant her neck as far away as possible, terrified of the creature. Would it pluck her eyeballs out and eat them like gummy bears if she tried to shake it off of her shoulder?

Another crow, this one more like a gargle, and the sound of feathered wings beating the wind, Andy ducked in time to avoid being knocked out by another raven, just as large as the first one. She shrieked. It landed on a low branch, perched regally, black, beady eyes staring into her soul. The dark haired woman looked back at the one on her shoulder, who was also glaring into her soul. She offered an awkward grin. The bird looked away, almost indignantly. Good.

Against what probably all sense and lessons on animal safety taught her, Andy approached the other raven, the first bird shimmied its weight about on her shoulder every few seconds, as if to settle its weight as well as stress its own power and importance. Andy levelled a side eye to the evil parrot, "Can you not?"

The bird huffed an offered a low caw in reply.

The one on the branch then decided to dive and land on her other shoulder. Andy sighed, stopping. The bird that had just swooped her, then gently pecked her head, "Ow!"

Andy grimaced thinking of a new, fun note to self, it read: Note to self. Birds are evil, don't become a bird person, (they peck. carrying two large, heavy birds on your shoulders is not fun, never again)

She took a few more steps, careful to not trip or risk the birds' wrath more. What the fuck was she meant to do? How was she meant to get to work? Or at least call in sick. Call. Call! Her phone. Andy paused, reaching into her beach bag, digging past her book, hat and sunglasses, rattling past the jingle of her keys, portable charger, headphones and the ungodly number of half used plastic tubes of lip balm she forgot to take out of the bag. The ravens squawked indignantly, almost insulted.

The smooth brick finally made contact with her hand and she almost jumped in triumph. A manic grin painting her features as she clicked the screen. It lit up, still fully charged, but, strangely enough, the time display was glitching, not visible at all. There were no bars either. Andy frowned, shoulders slumping in defeat.

Andromeda Kahale was not the most sensible person, but usually even the most irresponsible people did not end up with ravens bigger than bald eagles acting like backpack straps. Her stomach gurgled with anxiety, and her legs felt tingly beneath all the goose bumps up her legs.

On the bright side, she no longer needed to clutch the towel-blanket to make sure it didn't fall. On the downside, every time she stumbled over a rock or a stick, one of the birds would take a likely sadistic pleasure of gently pecking her with their beaks, or in the occasion she could not follow the set path the ravens' decided, having their beaks grab onto her almost dry, yet still wet hair and drag her about like she was in fucking Ratatouille.

Her feet ached, and it had been hours until the birds eventually showed her to a small, wooden home by a river off the beach, near a cliffside and mountains of a bay. The birds walked her right to the door, and then, without warning, proceeded to screech. The caws piercing and loud and demanding of attention.

Andy's ears were ringing, hands covering the sensitive organs in an attempt to drown out the sound. She dropped to her knees, obsidian eyes welling up with tears. The birds did not stop, evidently intent on bursting her eardrums.

The door opened, and a thin blonde woman emerged. Both ravens stopped their caterwauling, settling nonchalantly on her shoulders once more. Despite this, Andy remained knealt in the dirt, crying  with her hands over her ringing ears. The woman blinked, staring at the birds and the strange young woman.

"Huginn? Muginn?" she asked, the birds puffed up and moved to jump onto her arms instead. Andy had felt the weight dissipate and despite that, her tears fell further, relieved of the weight of two evil birds but still hearing the phantom noise of their cries, as if they were still crowing.

Andy sniffed, wiping her nose on her towel, however disgusting it may be or come across as, looking up at the blonde woman. Who funnily enough also looked like she was from a ren fair "You know them?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

idk if andy gets a love interest or who it could be

this fic is now set in the early days and shes officially met helga - i figured odins birds might have some fun might get to be menaces yk.