by Logan Jacobs
chilly, it was nothing compared to what we’d experienced before. The world
seemed to be cast in a shadow of dark navy, the ground beneath us was a sort
of blue stone, and the sky above was a deep indigo with no sun or clouds in
sight. It was a strange place, and it was also hard to believe this was the same
world we’d been to just a couple of days before.
I looked out and saw Eira at the head of the troops, but she was already
locked in battle with a large opponent. It seemed we’d landed right in the
center of the fight, and as I looked around, I saw the two sides were clashing
already. The enemies we were facing were large, and they looked almost like
Aesir except they stood at least a head taller than Hagar, even at their
shortest, and their skin was a pale blue color with bright white eyes. They had
weapons made of ice, and they attacked ferociously.
Jotun. The frost giants, and the enemies of Odin and every Asgardian.
The men around us ran forward to join in the fray, but I scanned the
area to see where the egg could be. Then I saw a cave then to our right with a
couple of giants outside of it to stand guard.
“The egg is going to be over there,” I said, and I pointed to the cave.
“We’ll have to fight our way through,” Kas replied as she looked at the horde of men between us and the hold on the side of the mountain.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Stay behind me.”
“Not likely,” the blonde scoffed, and she raised her blade up, ready to
strike.
“Be careful,” I warned the both of them, and Blar and I exchanged a
small nod before I took off at a dead sprint. “Come on!”
I glanced back to see Kas take off in a run behind me. She looked
determined to catch up with me, but Asta was a bit more hesitant. The elf girl
kept one hand on the hilt of her small sword, and she weaved side to side as
she ran through members of our warband in an effort to keep up with me.
I made it to the front lines on the far-right side near the cave, and I
raised my axe as a large blue male charged toward me with a sword made of
ice.
Blar tightened his grip on my shoulder to stay in place as I continued to
run toward the giant. We ran head to head, but at the last second, I slid onto
my knees and swung my axe at his left leg.
The male went down with a loud screech, with his leg severed just
above the knee as bright blue blood spattered onto the ground. There was
another one already after me, though, so I quickly got back on my feet and
continued to run toward the enemy.
I glanced back then to check on the girls and caught a split-second shot
of the two of them taking on one of the frost giants. Asta was on the male’s
back with her blade stuck in between his shoulder blades, and Kas had her
sword locked with his. I had to trust they would be okay, so I turned back to
the enemy in front of me, except while I’d glanced back, another had
appeared. Now, there were two coming at me, one with an ice sword, the
other with an ice spear.
The one with the spear pulled it back, and I tucked and rolled just as he
released the haft and it hurled toward me. The spear hit the ground behind me
with a loud clanking sound, but before I could regain my footing, the two
giants were on top of me. The one with the sword swung down, and I raised
my axe and caught his blade. He was strong, though, and it took a lot of effort
to keep his blade from getting any closer to my head than it already was.
Just then, Blar jumped forward on my shoulder and shot a blue flame
at the male above me. The incendiary attack made contact with the giant’s
chest, and he cried out in a pain and fell backward as his sword was flung to
the side.
I quickly pushed myself upward, and as I did, I swung my axe around
in an arc and brought it up to slice between the giants’ legs. It cut nearly to
his belly button, and his face froze in place as he collapsed onto his back.
Blar let out a little bark, then, and I turned around just in time to raise my shield as the second male retrieved his spear and flung at me again. The
ice blade of it hit my shield with enough force that I slid backward on the
frozen rock under my knees, and when I looked down at my shield, I saw the
spearhead was still stuck in it.
Close.
I didn’t have time to rip the spear out since the male was charging
toward me, so I just held my shield up level with his chest and charged back.
He reached out to try and grab the end of his spear from my shield, but I
quickly thrust it upward, and the blunt end of the weapon hit his throat and
caused him to fall backward. As he was falling to the ground, I ran forward
and swung my axe in a low arc that caught him just above the shoulders. His
blue head went flying across the blue rocky ground, and I turned back with
my heart pumping and my breath ragged, ready to face another enemy.
I saw Asta and Kas run toward me, so I glanced around to see what
was happening. It looked like our warband was winning. The giants’ numbers
were dwindling, and the battle had moved further away from us, which I
figured was the giant’s plan considering the cave we were headed toward.
“Rath,” Kas breathed as she skidded to a halt in front of me and put her
hands on her knees to catch her breath.
“Are you two okay?” I asked, and I scanned their bodies for injuries
but found none.
“We’re fine,” Asta panted, and her cheeks were flushed from the
excitement and exertion. “We took out two of them!”
“Good job!” I exclaimed, and I was truly proud of their efforts. Then I
glanced over to the cave to see the two men still stood there on watch. “Now,
for the hard part. Are you ready?”
Kas looked at Asta, and they grinned at each other.
“Ready,” they said in unison.
“Do you two think you can handle one of them?” I chuckled, and I was
happy they were so excited to take part in the fight and that they had enough
skill to have taken out two of the giants already.
“We got this,” Kas assured me.
“Alright,” I said, and I glanced up at Blar on my shoulder. “Ready,
little guy?”
He stomped his blue feet on my shoulder, nodded his head, then let out
a little determined snort as his eyes turned to focused slits.
“I’ll take the one on the left,” I told the girls. “You got the one on the
right.”
“On it,” Kas said as she lifted her great sword.
I waved them forward, and we all took off running toward the cave.
The two ice giants saw us and immediately stood their ground. They each had
a large ice sword, and they raised them as we ran toward them. They had the
same weapon and the exact same stance, and both were bald with the same
blue skin as their comrades. Much like the rest of the ice giants, there was
nothing unique about them that would allow an outsider to tell them apart. I
figured they noticed subtle differences I couldn’t, but just seeing them as it
were, they appeared more like clones or twin brothers than anything else.
The girls had done well up to this point, but these men had a job to d
o.
They were to protect whatever was in this cave, hopefully our dragon egg,
and they wouldn’t give up easily. This also meant they wouldn’t run toward
us and away from the cave, so we’d have to meet them on their turf.
I ran toward the giant on the left as the women let out wild battle cries
and attacked the one on the right.
My opponent met me head on with a wide swipe at me that I jumped
back from. I raised my axe to attack, but he was fast, and he caught my blade
with his own. The resulting clash sounded like breaking glass, and I shoved
against the huge male in an attempt to push his sword into his face until he
made a powerful move of his arms and shoved me back. I stayed on my feet,
but slid a good distance.
I took the opportunity to check on the girls, and I saw the giant held
Asta by the arm while Kas attacked him with her blade.
“Blar,” I ordered, “go help them.”
The little dragon nodded quickly, then hopped off my shoulders and
ran toward the girls. I knew he’d be able to assist them, so I turned my
attention back to the large blue male in front of me. He hadn’t left his
position up against the wall, and that meant he had the advantage. So, I
calculated my options and decided to take a risk.
I pressed my hand to my hip to make sure my dagger was there, and
once I felt its cool steel, I ran forward with my axe raised.
The blue male smirked and grunted. He’d underestimated me, though,
and right when he raised his weapon, I hurled my axe, and it spun several
times in the air before it landed square in the middle of his chest. Blue blood
sprayed down as he fell back against the wall, and his arms dropped to his
side. His hand barely gripped his sword, and I smiled as he began to cough up
blood. Then the hilt of his weapon slipped from his hand and clanked against
the ground as he sunk further down.
“Whoa,” Kas said as she and Asta ran over to me, and Blar pounced
onto my shoulder. “Can you teach us how to do that?”
“You’ll have to be more specific,” I chuckled as I walked over and
yanked my axe from the chest of the ice giant.
“How to throw our weapons like that,” Asta said, and her eyes wide
were with delight.
“We’ll work on it,” I agreed, then I scanned the girls once more for
injuries. “Are you two alright? Asta, I saw he had you for a second?”
“Yeah,” she said, and her cheeks flushed from embarrassment. “I tried
to do the same move with this one that I did earlier, but he was a bit quicker.”
“I see,” I said with a half smile. It was a rookie mistake, but she’d
learn. “Never get into the habit of doing the same thing again and again. It
makes you predictable. You two did well, though.”
“Thanks to Blar,” Kas said, and she reached out and stroked the little
dragon on my shoulder.
“Good job,” I told him, and he smiled at me proudly.
“He did help quite a bit,” Asta agreed with a sigh.
“You don’t seem pleased about that,” I chuckled.
“I wished we could have managed on our own, that’s all,” the elf
warrior grumbled.
“You two did great,” I told them both. “You’ll only improve from
here. This was your first battle, don’t be too hard on yourselves. You
managed to take down several frost giants, that’s nothing to scoff at.”
“Thanks,” Asta said, and she flashed me a small smile.
“It looks like the battle is nearly over,” Kas murmured as she looked behind us.
“It is,” I agreed as I glanced back. “We need to get into the cave and
find the egg now. Once the men start to loot, it will be more difficult to keep
them from finding it first.”
“Let’s go,” Kas said, and she charged headfirst into the cave.
It was incredibly dark inside, and I couldn’t see a thing.
“Blar,” I said, “can you give us some light? Let’s see if we can find
something to light our way.”
The little dragon breathed out a slow, steady flame, and I looked
around and quickly found an unlit torch on the wall nearby. I held it in front
of Blar’s blue flame until it lit up, and we were able to see.
“This place is creepy,” Kas whispered.
She wasn’t wrong. There was nothing at the entrance except darkness,
and our only choice was to move forward further into the cave. I handed Asta
the torch just in case we ran into more giants and I needed to be ready to take
them out. I didn’t want to have to drop the torch and fiddle to get my weapon.
I looked around at the walls made of stone and ice as we walked
further into the cavern. I wasn’t cold, but I could see my breath, so I knew it
was significantly colder in there than it was outside. Our footsteps echoed
around us until it sounded like there were twelve of us walking instead of just three, but I kept my hand on my axe as we continued forward.
After a few minutes of walking, I thought I could see a light up ahead,
so I squinted and leaned forward slightly to get a better view.
“Do you see that?” Kas asked and reassured me that I wasn’t seeing
things.
“I do,” I whispered. “Be ready.”
I wiggled my axe to loosen my arm muscles and slowly led the women
toward the light. I was ready to find more giants, but when I rounded the
corner, all I saw was a room of sorts. It was lit by torches along the wall just
like the one I’d grabbed when we first got into the cave, and the space was
filled with all sorts of things, from blankets and clothes to more weapons and
documents. This was either their base camp or some sort of strange village. I
didn’t know much about Jotunheim people, but it wouldn’t surprise me to
learn they lived in caves.
“The egg has to be here,” I said as I continued to look around. It was
then I spotted a small tent at the back of the room, and I started to walk
toward it.
“You think it’s in there?” Kas asked as she and Asta followed me.
“I think so,” I murmured.
Something was drawing me to that tent, and I knew it had to be the
egg.
We were close, I could feel it.
Blar jumped down from my shoulders, then, and he scurried ahead and
into the tent.
A few moments later, I tossed back the fabric curtain and stepped
inside, and I found the space was just big enough for a table with some chairs
around it. I looked at the papers on the table and realized this was a war
room, where they planned out attacks against all the races the Jotunn hated,
which was all them. This had to be a temporary planning table, since there
was no way this was the main war room for the whole society.
The frost giants of Jotunheim had been at war with the Aesir for
millennia, but fights over the past few centuries were few and far between. I
wondered what was going on that we, the public, didn’t know about. This had
to have more to it than just the dragon egg.
Blar let out a little bark, and I glanced down to see he stood in the
corner of the tint and looked up at me. There was a small wooden box in front
of him, and I could immediately sense the egg was i
n there.
I crouched down and inspected the box. It was made of dark blue
stone, the same as most everything else in this realm it seemed, and there was
a lock on the top of it.
“It must be in there,” Kas breathed as she and Asta crouched down
next to me.
“It is,” I said, and I was sure we’d found what we were looking for.
“I’m going to have to try and break the lock, though.”
“Wait,” Kas said, and she leaned in closer to the box. “Let me try.”
“Can you use your magic on it?” Asta asked, and her yellow eyes were
bright in the dim light of the room.
“I think so,” Kas said, and she grabbed hold of the lock and closed her
eyes. Then she started to whisper to herself, and a moment later, I heard a
small clicking sound as the lock undid itself.
“Incredible,” Asta gasped.
“That was wonderful,” I told Kas, and I grabbed her cheeks and
planted a soft kiss on her mouth.
“Thanks,” the blonde said, and she blushed and looked down. “I
accessed your power. Did you feel?”
“Actually, no,” I said.
“That is because you are a lake.” She smiled at me. “And I needed just
a pinch. You will probably become more sensitive to it as our bond
strengthens.”
Blar wandered up to the box then, and he pushed the lid open with his head. The lid slowly fell backward with a loud creaking sound, and nestled
among some fine dark blue cloth was a large rainbow-colored dragon egg.
We all gasped as we leaned in and got a closer look at the object of our
quest. It was huge. I could already tell it would barely fit in both of my hands,
and the outside was covered in what looked like scales, but were not true
scales. It was a scale pattern, and depending on how I turned my head, the
egg lit up in a different color.
When I reached down and picked it up, the weight was somewhat
heavy in my arms, and I guessed it weighed around ten stones. The mass was
easy enough for me to carry with one arm, but the shape was large, so two
was better to ensure the egg’s safety.
I could feel the power of the creature inside, and my head started to
spin with excitement. This was definitely a different breed than Blar was, and
I stroked the egg gently with my hand before I held it down for him to sniff.
The little dragon smelled the egg at first, then rubbed his small head
