“Why would you want to sleep beside me?” she asked. “Aren’t you furious with me as well still?”
“Pissed off, yeah. Confused about your choices, definitely. But I still love you, Kemma, and maybe we can find a way for this to still work out for us if you still want that,” he said gently.
Kemma smiled at him and then curled up beside him. She rested her head on his lap, and he laid an arm around her.
“I think I do still want that,” she said. “But what of the baby inside me?”
“Eh,” Colby said in his trademark manner of seeming aloof when he actually had a lot of heart in his words. “Maybe we can teach it to be less like its father.” He let his hand rest against her stomach as he held her.
“Come on, kid,” Jerrik said to Tara as he handed her Button and tucked her in beside her brother. “Time to sleep.
“Button isn’t tired yet,” she complained as she yawned.
Jerrik nuzzled the stuffed bear up against her face, and within seconds, Tara had fallen asleep. He looked at her brother, who was still wide awake. “Get some rest,” he told him. “And maybe tomorrow, I will teach you how to use a sword.”
“Really?” the boy said.
“Sure, why not,” Jerrik smiled. He sat next to the kids and leaned his head back against the tree to rest.
Leif and Norna were the last ones to close their eyes.
“What will it require?” Leif asked her as she leaned against him in his lap with his arms wrapped around her stomach. “I feel like there are things you have not said which weigh heavily on you.”
“There are,” she admitted. “But they are not worth worrying anyone over because I think they are just my own fears.”
Leif tucked his head down against her cheek and whispered into her ear. “You know that you can always share your fears with me,” he said softly. “I will chase them away for you until you feel safe again.”
Norna smiled. She knew that Leif would do that for her, and she knew she could tell him anything. But it wasn’t that she had any fears in particular for him to scare away, it was just a feeling of general impending dread that haunted her. He kissed the side of her cheek.
“Get sleep, my beautiful love,” he said.
THE FINAL CHAPTER
Norna was the first awake in the morning. Actually, she had not slept at all, so she simply appeared to be the first one awake.
“Did you sleep well?” Leif asked as he walked up and gave her a hug from behind while she brewed tea for everyone.
“Yes,” she lied. She didn’t see the point in troubling him with her worries when they were most likely manifestations of empty anxiety.
As everyone woke, she handed out cups of tea and then some fruit for the children. They talked quietly amongst themselves as they readied for the day. Leif had gone to sit with the others, and Jerrik had walked over to join them. Norna looked over at Tara, who was taking a bite from the side of a plum while also trying to feed button a blackberry.
“Does he like berries?” Norna asked as she sat down next to the child.
“So-so,” Tara replied matter of fact.
Her brother got up to go outside and pee.
“Tara,” Norna asked slowly. “I need to ask you and Button to help me with something.”
“What is it?”
“You see, this thing that we have to do today, to help the mortal realm get back, I’m going to need Button’s help for it.”
“Why?” Tara clutched Button to her, and the blackberry accidentally smooshed into him, leaving a purplish stain on its thread-bare fur.
“Because Button has something very special inside of him that can help us.”
“You mean his big heart? He has a very big heart for a bear.”
“Yes,” Norna smiled. “That is exactly what I mean. I need to borrow his heart in order to help Cai do what he must do to save the humans who have died.”
“Just his heart?” Tara frowned at the idea.
“Yes. But I promise not to hurt him at all. It will just be like a little stitch, kind of like when you get a cut and it needs to be fixed up. Do you know what I mean?”
“I had a cut once. I fell outside on a sharp rock, and it cut open my knee. Gretel stitched it up for me, and then it was better.”
“Yes,” Norna said as she smiled at the little girl’s innocent understanding. “Just like that.”
“But it hurt, and I don’t want Button to do anything that will hurt.”
“I know. But sometimes we need to do small things that hurt in order to do big things that help the people we care about. Without Button’s help, Cai might get hurt when he tries to help us.”
“I don’t want Cai to get hurt. He’s my best friend, besides Button of course.”
“Then I’ll tell you what,” Norna said. “How about if you hold Button’s hand the whole time, and then, when it’s all done, you can choose the color thread we will use to stitch Button back up again. Does that sound okay?”
“Will he have a scar?” Tara asked. She cradled Button in her lap as though he were the most precious thing in the world, which of course, to her, he was.
“Only a very tiny one. Even smaller than this one,” Norna said as she pointed to the small and faded scar on Tara’s knee.
Tara held the bear up to her face and was quiet while she stared at it. After a few minutes, she looked back over at Norna. “Okay, he says he wants to do it. I tried to talk him out of it honestly, sorry, but I didn’t want him to do it. But he says he wants to be brave and help. So. I’ll be brave and help too.”
“Thank you, Tara,” Norna said as she smiled. “You and Button are both very, very brave. You have my word that he will be just fine.” She stood up and held out her hand for Tara to come with her to join the others.
“Well, hello there,” Cai said as Tara came to plop down in his lap.
“Button and I are part of the important work,” Tara said to him, looking very proud of herself.
Cai gave Norna a confused and curious glance.
“So, here is what will happen,” Norna began as all ears listened to what she would say. “The four of you…Brandt, Jerrik, Colby, and Erik have god-like powers that were bestowed upon you countless years ago. They were given to you for a specific reason, the prophecy, which you fulfilled with Brenna and which resulted in the birth of Kemma. But those powers also serve another purpose, and the four of you are bound together for more reasons than just that initial prophecy. The four powers you men possess can be combined into one.”
“Come again?” Erik said.
All four of the men were confused and surprised by this information. They all leaned forward a bit closer to really listen to what Norna said.
“Your powers represent and have control over emotion, pain, time, and memory. Together, these four powers can be used to recreate life. If your four powers are combined, it will restore all that was lost on Earth and even the entire mortal realm itself.”
“Recreate life?” Brandt was stunned. “That seems like way too big of a power than what would ever be bestowed on the four of us.”
“Agreed,” Jerrik said. “Aside from Brandt, the rest of us aren’t even full gods. Why in the world would Freya have chosen us to give such great power to?”