Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

Chapter 639: DCXXXIX. The Investigation

After walking a few meters slowly away and approaching the farm, something caught the Xis' attention.

"Arf! Arf, arf!" 

The new little dog from Dag's adoptive family began to bark compulsively, stopping at the door and warning everyone present that an unwanted guest was approaching with a suspicious air.

"Arf! Arf!" the little dog continued, until, to the sound of his barking, it joined that of heavy steps on the wooden floor of the house.

*Screeck* The door was opened wide, and Eirik, still half-sleepy, looked outside the house with a confused air.

As the little watchdog continued to bark at the stranger, the mighty lumberjack's gaze fell on that strange figure, particularly on his black robe, which covered every part of his body, including his head.

"Hey! Did you get lost? Who are you? What are you doing in front of my farm in the middle of the night?" Eirik yelled while other footsteps were heard coming from his shoulders.

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Before the Xis could answer, Gridd and Asa looked out of the door, getting closer to the man of the house. In particular, Gridd, highly foresight, took her two swords with her, hiding them behind her back, sensing a bad feeling.

While barking compulsively, the small dog with white and brown spots began to tremble and, less than a minute after the stranger arrived, took refuge in the house.

Although the outside temperature was not particularly cold, being the coldest period of the year gone, Eirik also began to have chills along his back and arms, noting that his breath was visible in front of his mouth in the form of water vapour.

"Brrr! So?! Answer my question! Who are you?!" Eirik repeated, rubbing his arms and trying to warm up, while with hand gestures, he invited his mother and sister back inside.

The Xis took off his hood, revealing his purple eyes and long black hair, looking forward.

"Oh, no... no, no, no! Eirik, get back in the house! Go!" Gridd yelled, without giving further explanation, holding her swords behind her back and grabbing her brother's arm with the other hand, pulling him backwards.

"Sister... what are you doing? Do you know this man?!" 

"That's not a normal person, Eirik... he doesn't come from this world or even from Earth. Please, brother... go back inside the house with our mother and stay there until I tell you", the Shieldmaiden replied, making Asa guess that the figure in front of them was a creature of incredible strength and that he had not come in peace.

"Eirik, let your sister handle this. Let's do as she says. Come on, follow me. If Gridd needs our help, we will go out and help her," Asa confirmed, grabbing her second son's other arm and accompanying him inside the house.

"Help her? Gridd, do you want to get hurt? I can drive him away with ease, he seems quite unathletic and ..." 

"Eirik!" Gridd shouted suddenly, interrupting her brother's words and looking at him with her piercing blue eyes, making him understand the gravity of the circumstances and ordering him to keep quiet as if he was her subordinate.

"You are his adoptive sister, am I right?" the Overseer asked, speaking in his usual calm and relaxed voice, always keeping the same serious expression.

Gridd closed the door behind her. "Yes, it's me. Who am I talking to?" she said, clutching both of her two swords with one hand, knowing that the Xis was wise enough to have already realized that she was hiding something.

"I visited your companions just now. The old ice izard, the rabid wolf, the archer and the bride," the Overseer said, speaking through metaphors and comparisons, glimpsed in Gridd's attentive gaze a certain degree of intelligence.

"The bride... the archer... you're not talking about... Reidar and Freydis! This son of a bitch has been in Krypstorm!" Gridd thought, touching the wooden door with her back and noting that Eirik's eyes and his mother Asa, popped up from behind the window glass.

"I asked you who you are, not where you come from. You Xis would never set foot on our planet without a specific goal in mind," the Shieldmaiden exclaimed, showing self-confidence.

"Oh. Finally, someone who pronounces that word well, not crippling it with that foolish way of saying that you inherited from your Norse ancestors. You look a lot smarter than your Krypstorm buddies. Tell me then, what's the reason that pushed me here?" 

"You have talked about several people I know, but not about my brother. Yet you were referring to him when you asked me if I was 'his sister'. So I assume you didn't meet Dag," Gridd replied, beginning to think of all the possible reasons for that unexpected visit in the middle of the night. "Besides, no Xis has ever survived my brother. If he had met you, he would probably have torn you to pieces."

"Mhmhmh..." the Overseer chuckled, "you greatly overestimate your brother's strength. Aren't you worried about him? If I came all the way here to look for him, there must be a reason, don't you think?" 

"I didn't overestimate him at all. But I saw with my own eyes what happened the last two times he met Xis like you who wanted to hurt him. In all sincerity, I was sure he was in Krypstorm, but... no, I'm not worried about him. Dag can take care of himself and has always been a traveller", Gridd replied, who actually marvelled at that news, starting to worry about Dag, convinced that he was with Reidar and Freydis in the land of perennial ice, knowing nothing about his rise to Asgard and his encounter with the Alfather.

"813666 is no longer on Skjold. That's a fact. Our eyes have been monitoring him all these years constantly, ever since the first moment he set foot here, on this farm. Now we can't see him anymore, which means he's not here, or on any other planet," the Xis continued, taking a solemn tone, trying to figure out if Gridd knew anything she wasn't confessing.