Chapter ten.

So some time later the two happy lovers boarded the paper ship and turned the fish´s head towards Moosty´s home town of Riverton. When they emerged from the trolls´ cave they found out it was night
A beautiful magical night with a full moon to the north east and a magnificent Aurora Borealis - eh, either Northern or Southern Light to you and me - to the north west
Billy Bob had decided to stay with his family for the holidays. And A-oodaq would stay with them too since she had become rather firm friends with one of the human warriors helping the trolls in their fight against the conquerors
Moosty and Lula promised to come back later and help too. Although at least Moosty wasn´t sure how they could help. But Lula promised to contact her big family and their wide spread net of friends and business associates and see what they could do to learn the emperor a lesson or two
But for the moment Moosty and Lula was way more interested in kisses than in politics. So when they couldn´t see their waving friends on the ground any more they settled down on the furs at the bottom of the ship and started in on a bit of serious petting
After a while Lula suddenly stopped and said "What was that whistling sound - it sounded like an arrow ... Is somebody shooting at us" Moosty got up on all four and look down at the ground. And sure enough - aided by the Northern Light and the moon he could see five soldiers standing on the ground and trying in vain to shoot their arrows high enough to hit the little moving target way up in the air
Beside the normal soldiers stood a very tall broad man with a shock of shining red hair. In his hand he held a mighty war hammer and now he jumped on board a chariot drawn by - here Moosty had to look one more time - two goats !?!
"Oh-uh ..." Lula sighed beside him "Then the rumour is true ... The emperor has hired the old Norse thunder god Thor and his meat eating goats. People in his neighbourhood don´t believe in him anymore so he is hiring himself out as a mercenary, I am afraid. Very undignified for an old god in my opinion. But then again, I guess, people have to have something to do when they are immortal or they´ll go crazy. Maybe I better grab the fish and try to steer us out of harm´s way. ... yikes!! Or out of the way of the lightning bolts! How is he doing that?"
Moosty took another close look while his girl friend tried to turn the little ship fast enough to get away and then he told the frantic Lula "He hits the hammer against an anvil and the lightning bolts is the sparks from it ... Now h-he throws the hammer ... Left! Left, Lula! Hurry!!"
Lula just managed to swerve in the very last moment and yelled sobbing "I can´t keep this up much longer. This ship isn´t built to turn that fast ... What is he yelling?"
Moosty didn´t understand the god either. But it sounded like "Gi´ mig det skiv tilbage, Meeps! Det er Freys!! Ikke dit!!!" Moosty shook his head and said "It´s a foreign language, sweetie. I can´t say I understand. Could you hurry a bit, baby girlie? ... I once declared to my friends that I would rather tell them I slept with goats than tell them facts about my love life - but I wouldn´t want to kiss those goats. ... they have bigger canines than the emperor´s wolfhound - BRR!!"
"I am trying - I am trying ..." Lula yelled back. "But that danm .. Thor has done this many, many times before and - and I have no experience in ... Hi, what happened? Who turned off the Northern Lights ... Ups - I think the hammer hit the generator powering them. That must be that little building - now in ruins - on the small hill over there with the fat electricity cord going up in the air. Why didn´t the Lights fall down on his head !?! But I don´t suppose they weigh much so that might not have helped ..."
Suddenly Moosty interrupted her with a surprised yell "Hi! I have it. Turn out across that smallish mountain lake over there and go as low as you dare. Then I hope - lightning bolts are electricity, as far as I remember. And if you mix electricity and water you get - wow ... Firework ... Do you think that killed him, sweetie?"
Thor´s hammer had returned to his fist every time he threw it as it should. When hitting the water the lightning bolt also returned to its maker - but that it shouldn´t have done - and it make a spectacular sight out of god and goats looking much like a first class fireworks.
But Lula just sighed and say "No ... The problem is he was dead - eh, I mean immortal - in the first place. But let us at least get away before he get the goats and the chariot up out of the cold lake again. That dunking won´t improve his temper, I´m sure. And I want to be anywhere but here when he gets air born again"
And so they were. Flying as fast as the little ship could back to Riverton and Moosty´s family. Who was very happy to see them both alive and whole and even together as a couple. As Moosty´s older sister declared "Any girl smart enough to praise her boyfriend´s mother´s cooking sound like she is of the right stock to me"
So though Lula and Moosty had gotten themselves some enemies along the way they had also found each other plus had the added great pleasure that their friends and relations approved of that fact. And what greater Christmas-present can you get than LOVE

THE END

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LULA'S SONG
Silent night,
please turn up the light
Of two brown eyes smiling at me
At the other side of our bed
What more needs to be said