Two females sat across form each other in the Everfree wood, the fire between them. One, a well muscled wingless dragon, her small size masking the great age held in her eyes tended the fire. She wore scale armor and a banded Iron skirt that covered her legs. She carried a well used flail at her side, the three massive, flanged heads upon the end testifying to her great strength.
Looking up to her companion, she broke the silence, "Are ye sure this be what ye want? You might still find a home in Asgard, even upon Ragnarok's ending. Ye have never had any arguments with the old or new among the Aesir. Do ye really wish to exile yerself with me? I can still take ye back to yer family."
Her companion, a slender blonde maned Changling of white chitin, wings of palest iridescence fluttering upon her back, three horns spiraling to converge upon a singular point, eyes glowing blue she wore a simple set of leather armor, a leather skirt hung to her knees, she bore no weapon.
She snarled her answer. "My family," She spat into the fire, "tied my husband, your lover to a rock using my older son's entrails, causing the suicide of my younger by using him as the murder weapon. You loved my husband as much as I did. You have suffered as much as me. You rejoiced just as I did when my family, the Aesir fell." her voice softened a bit as she looked upon the dragon.
"You are my family, you are my sister. Bound not by blood, but by love. If your children did escape to here, as Slepnier said, your and my home is with them."
The Dragon moved to the side of the Changling, placing her arm around her she spoke. "Oh, Sigyn, I feel the same. I wish ye could have seen mine children in younger days. Fenrir was just this ball of fluff, Hel's laugh could bring the birds from the tree, and Jormungdr, my eldest, would laying with a book, watch his siblings play." The Dragon chuckled, "At least till they would ambush him, him always pretending that they surprised him."
"Oh Angroboda, I did." The dragon tilted her head as Sigyn laughed, "Who do you think our husband tasked with babysitting when neither you or he could be around. I would bring Narvi and Vale and let them all play. Damn Odin, that he should spy them. Children, all children need to play, not be punished on mere, suspicion. Deprived of all joy."
Both women held each other as the fire burned. Two mothers that had lost more then any mother should have to lose.
After a while Angroboda again broke the silence. "I think may hap that it be that Loki our husband let him see." Sigyn began to turn towards her friend, "Shh and listen, as ye said, children need to be free to go out into the world. It would have been soon that Odin would have discovered them anyway, then they would have been a massive threat. So I think our poor fated, foolish, love must have left off the wards that day, so that Odin would see me and him playing with our children. I think that he decided he would rather try to have them be accepted as they could, as with Slepneir. So he let them be discovered. May hap it would have worked, but Odin came roaring in with all the other Aesir and caused Hel and Fenrir to cry and shake. So, ever the big brother, Jormungdr bit Odin on his heel, in defense of his kin, not knowing he did so to his uncle. Ye know what happened next." Both women hung their head as they cried.
Sigyn laughed among the tears. "It does seem something our husband would do, doesn't it, dear sister? That was him in a nutshell, impulsive to a fault, while being one of the most brilliant planners of all time. His thoughts weren't twisted, so much that everyone else had a strange fascination with thinking in a straight line. Everyone else went forward, he went sideways. He was simultaneously the foulest villain and the brightest hero, so sharp he was liable to cut himself, so brilliant he was blind the most to his own faults. He loved all his children equally and us the most of all. He could be gentle and kind, then ruthless and cold. Our husband was the best and worst of men."
Angroboda nodded. "That he was dearest sister, Loki was the biggest idiot I ever met, and the craftiest warrior of all time." Angroboda paused. "Our Husband? He and I where never married, ye know that. We could not have been, we would have been found out sooner. I was an enemy, though until they locked away my darlings I never bore the Aesir any ill will."
"You share in my pain and shared in my husbands bed. Your children are beloved of me and were sister and brother to mine. He loved you as he loved me, so I say, our Husband. For your marriage to him was no less loving then mine, for lacking a ceremony. And I say this, Your children may have lost a father but they have gained a mother. I swear I will love them as much as you. For they are all that is left of our beloved besotted husband."
The fire continued to crackle. The two woman slid down to the ground. Angroboda held Sigyn against her chest. The quiet noise of the forest, lulled them to sleep, snuggled against one another. Just outside of their campfire, unknown and unseen a green eyed changling, of black chittin and ragged, blue mane smiled in the dark.
"I can use these two." She thought. "After all, grief and anger makes one do terrible things."
Chuckling to herself, she withdrew, back into the darkness from whence she slithered.