"Well... I am guessing we are not in Kansas anymore." Nobody answered Amadeus.
Mostly because none of them were particularly certain where they were.
The forest surrounding them was unlike anything one would find on Earth.
Trees rose hundreds of meters above them, into the sky. Their enormous trunks twisting together like ancient pillars supporting a green cathedral. Their leaves shimmered with colors that ranged from emerald to deep violet, while tiny motes of light drifted between the branches like fireflies.
And flowers bloomed everywhere.
Some were larger than men. Others were small enough to fit within a palm. Some glowed softly from within, while others seemed to move despite the complete absence of wind.
A river of luminous green water wound between the trees, flowing uphill rather than down. Its countless branches spreading through the forest like the roots of some enormous tree and it was all just so...
Beautiful.
And somewhere in the distance, something enormous roared.
"Does anyone know what this place is?" I asked, mostly cause I had no idea. A part of me thought that it might be Avalon, the realm of magic that Gaea created but nothing around us felt quite natural enough for me to think that this was the realm of Mother Earth.
"I got no idea, and I'm actually not lying this time." Loki said with a shrug of her shoulders as she looked around. "Never seen a realm quite like this, it's kinda like a mix of Alfheim and Vanaheim but with a bit of Picasso feeling thrown into it."
"I do not recognize it either." Doom said with his arms crossed over his chest. "But the magic around us is... immense. Whoever is the ruler of this realm, they must be formidable."
"To hear you of all people admit such a thing, I don't like this." Hercules said as he gripped his mace. "What do you think Thor? ...Thor?"
The god of Thunder was unresponsive. Simply staring into the horizon with Mjolnir in hand and a look on his face that was almost peaceful.
"My friend?" Hercules gripped Thor's shoulder with worry, only for the Asgardian to jolt and look at him with shock.
"My... my apologies, friend Hercules. I lost myself gazing at the scenery." He shook his head. "I don't know why, the air around us simply felt so... welcoming."
"I feel no such thing." I said with a frown and the rest of our gathering also affirmed that they felt no such thing either. The most obvious answer to this would be that someone was trying to subvert Thor, except trying to subvert only him didn't seem very smart. If one had the means to ensnare the mind of a god like Thor, then they should be trying that on all of us.
Before I could think more about it, the roar from before echoed through the forest once more. Only far closer this time.
"I don't think we are alone anymore." Hercules said and threw Amadeus on his shoulder.
The forest had gone strangely quiet.
The insects had stopped buzzing. The birds that had been singing moments ago were nowhere to be heard. Even the gentle sound of the river seemed to have faded into the background.
Then the trees began to shake. Branches bent aside as something passed between them, their leaves trembling as though the forest itself was making way for whatever approached.
And then the ground beneath them started to shake. With a rhythmic pattern, the ground shook for every breath and each quake was stronger than the one before.
I felt the Old Power quiver beneath my skin and could see Thor and Hercules and Skaar gripping their weapons while my father pulled out an Old Power taser gun and magic circles appeared over Doom's palms.
The shaking continued.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Each footstep brought the sound closer.
And then the trees ahead of us began to move, not due to whatever was coming going through them but literally parting ways and slowly making way for the owner of the footsteps to reveal itself.
Massive trunks bent away from one another as something passed between them, branches scraping against a body large enough to make even the trees look small.
First came a pair of enormous tusks, followed by a head. One that rather resembled a...
"Is that a... mammoth?" Amadeus asked with wide eyes as we stared at what truly appeared to be a creature reminiscent of a woolly mammoth.
Except this thing was a mammoth as much as Black Goliath had been a man. Basically same in appearance, except farlarger.
I had to actually crane my neck upwards to take a proper look, it was like rather than an animal we were face to face with a walking mountain!
It's body was covered in thick, shaggy fur; though unlike the woolly mammoths I had seen in documentaries, this creature's coat shimmered with faint green and violet highlights whenever the motes of light drifting through the forest passed through it. And it's tusks... I would bet my last dollar that those curved monstrosities were sharper than Skaar's sword.
And yet, despite its absurd size, the creature didn't seem particularly interested in us. Instead it simply stood there, uncaring of our shocked gazes as it looked down at us.
"So... what now?" It took a moment before I realized that I was the one who asked the question. "It doesn't seem aggressive."
"I... think we can just walk around it." Thor said with a frown as he lowered his hammer and walked aside.
Only to stop as the giant mammoth followed after him with it's gaze.
Thor moved left, the mammoth looked left.
He moved right, the mammoth looked right.
This pattern continued for a while.
"It seems to like you." My father said, his tone only mildly amused.
"Very funny." Thor huffed before moving once more, only this time; he moved towards the mammoth. And as he got closer, the mammoth lowered it's head and allowed Thor to get on top of it.
Then it turned around and started leaving.
"...after them?"
"After them."
------------
The journey following the mammoth was an uneventful one. The only part that could be counted as interesting was seeing the local wildlife.
I now knew what a hybrid between a bull and tiger eating a watermelon sized mango looked like.
It didn't took us long before we reached the mammoth and got on top of it as well. It felt like the beast contemplated trying to throw us off for a moment but it simply continued on after Thor slightly patted it's head.
"This guy really seems to like you for some reason." I said as I slowly ruffled the fur of our ride. "You sure you've never met him before?"
"I have never been to this realm before." Thor said with a sigh.
"Didn't you say that the air felt familiar?" Amadeus asked from the back, fiddling with some sort of taser father gave to him.
"Not familiar. More like... welcoming." God of Thunder said, looking rather unsure of himself.
Before we could talk any further, the mammoth stopped and almost like a mirage; a castle appeared before us.
The design was somewhere between Greek and Egyptian, with huge columns made out of pure white stone circling the perimeter with a dome-like roof on top of it.
And the doors, tall enough to let in a giant, were open.
"Guess we are invited." Thor said as the mammoth lowered itself and allowed us to get off.
"Indeed." A feminine voice echoed through the air, making most of us glare at Loki only to stop as she shook her head to indicate that it wasn't her this time.
We walked through the doors and found ourselves facing the owner of the castle.
She was beautiful.
Not the sort of beauty that could be captured in a painting or described with a handful of words. It was the sort of beauty that made you instinctively stop and stare.
Her skin was dark, almost the color of chocolate. At nearly ten feet tall, she towered over us but it did little to obscure her beauty.
Her hair was greater than any art I had ever seen. It cascaded from her head all the way to the floor behind her, impossibly long and impossibly smooth. Yet it wasn't one color. The strands constantly shifted between every color of the rainbow, sometimes blending together like sunlight passing through a prism and sometimes separating into distinct bands of color.
Her eyes were similar. They seemed to contain an entire spectrum within them, colors swirling together in patterns that never remained still for more than a heartbeat. Looking into them felt almost like staring into a kaleidoscope.
Her dress was perhaps the strangest thing of all.
Branches and vines intertwined to form parts of the garment, while broad leaves served as layers of fabric. Soft white clouds curled around her waist and shoulders like silk, occasionally shifting despite there being no wind. Small flowers bloomed between the branches, opening and closing as though breathing, while tiny pieces of moss, bark and even what looked like thin strands of sunlight were woven throughout the dress.
She smiled.
"Welcome, Thor Odinson." she said. "Welcome, son of my sister Gaea. Welcome, within my Verdant Veil."
"Isuus of elder gods welcome you."
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