Thank you for reading my story, I hope that you enjoy it. Love Mica xx, Yorkshire England.
All comments good or bad welcomed. I will try and reply to each and every one but please note that all email comments from an invalid email address will be deleted immediately and will not be read.
Another in the Dales setting, you can enjoy the previous stories for settings but this one will stand alone.
It was to be a quiet few days at the cottage. I had just finished a major rework of the client's plans and schedules and agreed it with their senior projects manager. I left them to it and would check on progress next week. My own schedule was therefore easy and a few days quiet and relaxation would be just the ticket. I parked in Lidl carpark and picked up a few things to top up the cupboards at the cottage and also got myself a nice fresh white sourdough loaf.
As I packed the food in the boot of the car my stomach growled. Well, a Wetherspoons Pub was just over the road and they do a rather nice Ramen Noodles and well, it would be rude not too, so I locked the car and headed towards the pub. I stepped out on to the road.
DARK. BLACK.
I shook my head, I felt odd. My eyes didn't seem to be working properly everything was in black and white, there was no colour. I walked across the road and began stumbling, I couldn't feel my feet and so didn't know when my foot had settled on the road, there was no feedback, how very odd. I realised that I could not feel my handbag either. I prodded my face, nothing. I could not feel anything anywhere, my sense of touch appeared to have deserted me. My sense of sight was also awry, no colour, just shades of grey. The road seemed very quiet, hardly any noise, was it me I wondered. I said my name out loud, I could hear that, so my sense of hearing was working. I wandered towards the pub but the door was locked, how very odd, perhaps they were not opening today. People were walking around, not interacting at all, just walking.
This all required extra investigation I decided. It did occur to me that I may have had a small stroke, which is why some of my senses didn't seem to be functioning properly. I knew that there was a walk in medical centre in the precinct, so I headed there to see if they could help, I didn't know what else to do. As I entered the precinct I saw a man walking in strange clothes, almost as if he were wearing animal skins, very odd in this day and age, people had stopped wearing real skins decades ago. What was particularly strange though, was that he was in colour. Everyone else, everything else was in black and white, not him though, he was in full radiant colour. I headed to him.
As I approached him I realised that he was a good six foot tall and had a large frame. He had a beard and long hair some of which was braided.
"Excuse me sir," I said, I was keen to know why he was in colour whilst the rest of the world wasn't. He ignored me, so I tapped his arm, "Excuse me sir," I said again.
He stopped walking and turned to me.
"You can see me?" He said.
"Well of course I can," I said, "how silly, why shouldn't I see you?"
"Well, you're dead of course and the dead can't see the Gods."
Dead? Oh, well that was unexpected. I didn't want to be dead, I had a quiet few days at the cottage to look forward to.
"Gods, what Gods?"
"Oh there are a few of us, but mortals can't see us."
"Well I can, so obviously I am not a mortal or you are not a God. Which God are you anyway?"
"I am Byggvir, God of Happiness and Merriment."
"Bugger? Odd name for a God," I replied trying to keep the laugh out of my voice.
"No, not Bugger, Byggvir, it is different. And you are Mica, but you should not be able to see me."
"Well I can see you, and I don't want to be dead, you're a God, so you say, so as you're a God, you can make me undead. Thank you."
"It doesn't work like that."
"Of course it can, you're a God, it can be anyway you want it to be."
"Oh no, that would displease Woden, and that is not something anyone would want to do."
"Why, what would he do, you're a God, so what could he do to you?"
"Do? Anything he want's, he is the King of God's, his power is supreme. He could cast me away to here, the Underworld."
The Underworld, that is where we were, it kind of looked like Bingley in Yorkshire to me, although a bit greyer than usual.
"If this is the Underworld, and who am I to argue, then why are you here? And why would being cast here be such an awful thing?"
"Because if you were cast here, then you couldn't leave. I am not cast, so I can come and go."
"And why are you here?"
"Oh, I come looking for sport and beautiful people to entertain me."
"In what way entertain you dare I ask?" Knowing full well that I would not like the answer.
"Entertain in the ways of the bed of course. Live mortals are so fragile, the dead less so."
"And what do those that entertain you get out of it?"