The Alpha's Return

Utgard wasn't lying when he said that they hadn't used this portal in years. The room in which the portal resided was truly the dustiest room that Lucas had ever seen. It didn't just have cobwebs on the walls. They extended to fill the entire room!

"I thought that you guys went to Midgard frequently. That is why I even assumed that you had a portal room to connect to Earth." Fenrir said.

"Times have changed. It has been a few years since we have traveled to the other realms. Planning for this attack has taken too much of my time for me to even remotely care about what is going on in the other realms. I mean, I don't even have any kin there. Why would I even care?" Utgard said.

"How do we activate the portal? What is the energy source?" Lucas asked.

"Put a god stone in there somewhere. It will just suck it straight right in. It takes a lot of energy to reactivate this thing. Cost me a small fortune to build it though. I had to force that dwarf to do it, and the gods were not happy about that. They went all psycho because I took a few of his limbs." Utgard shook his head.

"Well then. If you would do the honors, we have to leave. I want to get to work as soon as possible. That way, I can leave some time for rest, and vacation." Fenrir said.

Utgard did not respond to that and approached the portal. He held his hand above the center, and a stream of golden light started appearing from the palm of his hand. The moment that the golden light touched the portal, it lit up. The portal seemed to be hungry, and the enormous light that was coming from Utgard Loki was sucked out immediately by the portal.

The array on the ground shone a bright blue.

"Get on the portal now! I cannot force it to stay open for long. I only temporarily opened it." Utgard shouted at Lucas.

Lucas nodded and he stepped at the center of the portal, right beside the stream of golden light.

"Best of luck to you two. I just hope that Janus or whoever will agree to what you wish to ask him." Utgard said. He took a step back, and the golden light disappeared. The portal shone brightly and covered Lucas completely. Then, the light disappeared, and Lucas was no longer within the room.

"I need to get some money aside and start bribing some important gods. Nike would be a wonderful addition. I need her blessings to help us out a little. Else, she will be very irritating on the other side." Utgard mumbled as he left the room. He waved his hand and the room became clean immediately.

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"Why the hell did they have to link their portal to this godforsaken place?" Lucas shouted with frustration. Yet, what he said could not be heard even to a person who was a meter away from him. But there was no one near him. Not a single soul in sight.

Lucas had fallen on earth, only to find himself in the middle of a cold tundra. There was nothing in sight except for white snow.

"They like the cold. What can we do about it?" Fenrir sighed.

"I just hope that there is a bit of signal here. I am not in the mood to walk to another country again. Especially when I have no idea where I am. Is this Russia or is it Antarctica?" Lucas wondered.

"It might be Russia. The giants always liked the way the men here toughened up, and acted. It should be somewhere near Siberia. Look for the slightest heat output, and we can head over there." Fenrir said.

Lucas was no longer listening to Fenrir. He had taken his phone out of his pocket and switched it on. Frost was already forming on the phone, and it was clearly damaging it. Lucas put it back in, and he looked ahead.

"Damn it. I can't even use my phone. This must be the worst situation that I could fall in. I thought that I could handle the transport part on Earth, but to think that I would be in such a pathetic state." Lucas shouted with frustration. His voice, however, was drowned in the whoosh of the strong winds around him.

He started walking in some random direction. In the sky, he could not even see the sun. This was the one place where he could not see the sun. He could only wait to see the stars, and hope to use the north star to guide himself.

For another two hours, he was walking, when his eyes, which were filled with snow on the eyelids, opened wide open.

"Finally! I can hear some people!" He exclaimed. He disappeared from where he stood, and after a few minutes, he reappeared a few miles away. He was standing in front of a wooden shack, and a slight sound could be heard from inside.

He knocked on the door violently.

"derzhis', ya idu" a thick Russian accent said.

"Right. The language barrier." Lucas cursed.

"I thought that over the years you spent your time doing something worthwhile. You don't even know Russian?" Fenrir quipped.

"What good will Russian do me? I only learn the useful things." Lucas shrugged.

The door opened, and an old woman was on the other side. She looked at Lucas curiously. Unable to speak in Russian, he could only gesture.

He pointed towards himself, and then towards the inside of the house.

"Voydite! Voydite!" the woman nodded as she turned to the side to let Lucas come in. Lucas bowed down and he entered the room. The woman closed the room and she smiled at Lucas.

Lucas opened his phone at the first moment. His hands were white from all the snow that fell upon it, but he shook it vigorously to remove all of it. He then opened the phone. Thankfully, it was still operational.

He saw one bar and he sighed. Opening the translate app, he pointed a few words towards the woman.

The woman nodded and she pointed toward a general direction. Then, she said a few more words that Lucas could not understand.

She shook her head and grabbed the phone from him. Typing it out, she showed the phone towards Lucas.

'There is a bus coming here next week.' it read.

"I am not in the mood to wait for a bus just to go to some city. I will walk there." Lucas shook his head and headed back out. He then opened the map on his phone and then the call app.

Dailing a number, he brought the cold phone to his ears.

"I am in Russia. Track my phone. I want a chopper near me in half an hour. Bring it from somewhere." Lucas barked.

There was an unintelligible voice on the other end. Lucas put the phone back down and he opened the door. The old woman could not care less about this random stranger, and Lucas went back into the cold.

Lucas felt his phone buzzing and he realized that he made a mistake.

"I can just stay here until the chopper arrives. Why the hell am I still going somewhere?" Lucas thought.

He knocked on the door once more.

"muzhchiny v nashi dni" the old woman said as she opened her door. She looked at Lucas with irritation. Lucas held his ears, as a sign of making a mistake. She shook her head as she let him back in.

"I am so sorry." Lucas said. Pity that she could not understand him. He then took a close look at this cozy shack that he entered. There was heat coming from a fire. A table with a glass and a bottle of what Lucas assumed was vodka, and a book that the woman was clearly reading.

"What do people here even do? It is a pity that they don't have cable around here. Or electricity." Lucas sighed.

He then looked at the woman. She was gesturing him to sit on the other chair that was to the side. Lucas nodded and he took the chair to sit on it. She offered a second glass filled with vodka, and pushed it onto Lucas' hands.

Lucas took a swig as he looked at the window. There was only blue visible through it, and nothing else. The light was already fading away, and Lucas already felt nostalgic for the sun.

"If only I had one of those sunny days now. That would be much better than whatever this shit is. Who the hell lives in goddamn Russia? I mean, at least live in the city. Why is there so much desert, and so less city?" Lucas cursed, even though he knew the answer.

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