Dragons of Asgard

by Logan Jacobs

  back into place.

  “Tell me more about that brunette,” the other guy laughed.

  I turned to smile at Asta, and the elf girl looked prouder than I’d ever

  seen her before. Her newfound powers gave her extra confidence, and I could

  tell she felt like she was more a part of the team than she’d been before.

  We crossed the back garden area quickly, but I glanced around as we

  went. The place was beautiful, even in the moonlight. There were huge

  bushes with flowers and plenty of fruit trees around the edge of it. There was

  also a large garden area to one side that put my garden to shame, though I

  was sure they needed ten times the food to feed everyone who lived at the

  castle.

  We reached the white stone steps that led up to the main part of the

  castle, and I stopped for a second to look up and admire how truly huge the

  place was. I wasn’t sure how many stories it had to it, but on a nice day it

  nearly reached the clouds in height. It must have taken years to build, but it

  was beautiful. The outside was all white stone with some golden accents here

  and there, and I could see why Kas would think the inside was all gold as a

  little girl.

  I looked around as we made our way up the back steps, but I didn’t see

  any guards nearby. I guess they figured anybody who attempted to break in

  through the garden door would first have to go through the guards by the

  gate. Then again, Odin and Freya were loved in Asgard, so I doubted they felt

  they needed much protection. Not that Odin needed protection at all, since he

  was a fearsome fighter, but you couldn’t be a king without guards of some

  sort.

  We came to a set of large, wooden doors painted white with bright

  golden handles. I slowly opened the door, and it creaked slightly, but I peered through the small slit and saw no one, so I opened it wide enough for us all to

  sneak in and close it behind us.

  “Whoa,” Kas breathed as she looked around with violet eyes full of

  amazement.

  I would have reminded her to be quiet, but there was nobody nearby,

  and the sight before us was extremely breathtaking. I didn’t know how

  somebody could look at it and not say something.

  The back door had led us to a huge open area with fifty-foot-high

  ceilings. The floors were a beautiful dark wood, but the walls were still the

  same white stone as the outside. Small golden accents were everywhere, from

  door handles to pillars, and on every wall there was a beautiful painting that

  depicted Asgard’s history.

  The wall to my right had a painting of Odin standing over a frost giant.

  The giant’s head was cut off and at the king’s feet, and blood splattered all

  over Odin’s face. The colors were beautiful, and the painting itself was as tall

  as I was as it hung in a golden frame.

  I shook my head to refocus, and I reminded myself we only had a

  certain amount of time before the spell wore off. The girls and the dragons

  were utterly enthralled with the castle, too, though, so I carefully tapped them

  on the shoulders and gestured for them to follow me.

  Inger was now on Asta’s shoulder, and Uffe was on Kas, and they all

  nodded and followed Blar and me as we led them down the hallway.

  I knew the hall of elders would be to our right somewhere, so I took

  the first right I could find and led us down another hallway lined with an

  ornate red rug and several tables that held swords and shields of past heroes.

  We snuck past the doors in the hallway, but just as we got to the end of

  it and were about to step out into another open area, Freya whizzed by right

  in front of me. My heart rate spiked immediately, and I held my breath as I

  stayed perfectly still.

  “I don’t want to hear it, Odin,” the beautiful, blonde goddess queen

  said. She wore a white dress with a golden clasp on the shoulder, and her fair

  hair hung down to the back of her knees and swirled around as she walked.

  The air shimmered around her with the power of her magic, and her beauty

  almost made my heart stop beating.

  “Darling, please,” Odin’s voice sighed, then a second later he followed

  Freya right past us.

  The god was even more intimidating in person with his long, white

  hair that hung down his back, and the eyepatch that covered his right eye. I’d

  always seen him as a fearsome warrior, but in this moment, he seemed softer

  than I ever imagined he could be as he chased after his goddess wife.

  The queen was obviously upset, but their bickering faded quickly as

  they rounded a corner and disappeared out of sight.

  I turned to face the girls and saw both they and the dragons had huge

  eyes. That had been incredibly close, If I’d taken one more step, I would have

  run right into Freya, and though she wouldn’t have been able to see me, she

  could have felt me, which would have been even stranger.

  I didn’t even want to think about what would have happened if we’d

  been discovered just now. I didn’t believe Odin would have outright killed

  us, but I was just a lowly banner warrior, and being discovered by the king

  after we’d broken into his castle would no doubt end my existence.

  Once my heart stopped pounding, I led us further into the castle and

  toward the direction the council room was, until eventually we came across a

  door that was barred with a huge golden lock.

  “This must be it,” I whispered.

  “How are we going to open it?” Kas asked, and her violet eyes were

  panicked.

  I thought for a moment, then I walked over and tried the door. It didn’t

  budge, so I looked around quickly and found a table with more decor on it.

  This one had several feathers cast in gold, a dagger, and a few other things,

  but I was most interested in the feathers.

  I carefully picked up two of them in an attempt to make the least

  amount of noise possible, then I turned and headed toward the door.

  “What are you doing?” Kas whispered fervently.

  “Trust me,” I told her as I knelt down in front of the huge white doors.

  Growing up, I’d learned a thing or two, and one of those was how to

  pick locks. It wasn’t a skill I liked to use very often, but it was one that came

  naturally to me and that I’d had plenty of years to perfect. As an orphan, it

  was a great way to stay out of the cold at night. I could pick the lock on

  someone’s shop or barn and stay there, and that’s what I did until I found the

  place I now called home and fixed it up.

  Blar put his front paws on my knee and stared at my hands as I worked

  the gold feathers into the huge lock. I closed my eyes and tilted my head to

  listen, and after a few seconds I heard the distinct click I needed, so I

  carefully withdrew the feathers before I tried the door again.

  This time, it opened easily, and Kas and Asta stared at me with

  shocked faces while I smiled and gestured for them to head inside.

  I quickly returned the feathers to their rightful places, then followed

  behind the girls through the huge white and gold doors.

  Once inside, I felt around and managed to grab a candle from a table

  by the door, and I had Blar light it for us s
ince there didn’t appear to be any windows in the room. The space was incredibly dark, and at this point, I

  wasn’t sure we were even in the right area.

  With the candlelight flickering in my hand, I could tell the room we

  stepped into was at total odds from the rest of the castle. While the castle was

  pristine and completely clean and tidy, this room looked as though it hadn’t

  seen the light of day in years.

  The whole place seemed to be covered in a thick layer of dust, and

  even the fireplace on the far wall had cobwebs in it. Still, this was definitely

  the right room. One wall was lined with shelves that held dragon eggs of

  various shapes, sizes, and colors, and the rest of the space was filled with

  scrolls, books, and paintings of dragons that must have been torn down from

  around the castle and hidden here.

  “This place is so creepy,” Asta whispered, and she grabbed a nearby

  painting that faced the wall and turned it around so we could see.

  It depicted a huge black dragon with a male in the forefront.

  Immediately, I felt a disconnect with the image, and I knew that had to be

  Vinrar. The man had long, straight black hair, and a scar curved down his

  chin. His eyes were a dark blue, and he wore a navy tunic to match.

  The dragon in the background looked fierce, but something about the

  way it was posed struck me as wrong. It didn’t look relaxed or comfortable, it looked scared. Its tail was curled around it, and while its head was lifted

  slightly, its shoulders were hunched, and it kept its belly to the ground. I

  didn’t know a lot about dragon behavior yet, but something about this one

  didn’t feel right.

  Blar walked over to the painting and put his front two paws on the

  dragon before he turned to look at me with sad blue eyes.

  “I know, buddy,” I sighed, then I looked around the room. “Okay, we

  don’t have much time. Let’s spread out and see what we can find. Just

  remember to be quiet.”

  The girls nodded, and Kas headed to a nearby table while Asta walked

  over to the dragon eggs. I could see the one we’d brought to the council. It

  was on the bottom shelf and had the least amount of dust on it, so it stood out,

  but as I looked at the other eggs, I wondered where they all came from. Some

  were scaly like the twins had been, and others were smooth but vibrant in

  color. Then there was a small one in the corner that was speckled like Blar’s

  had been, and I looked down at the little dragon next to me and wondered

  where he’d come from.

  I headed to the closest table full of books then, and I thought if I found

  the right volume, I’d be able to figure out where Blar’s home world was. It

  would be nice to have more information on him as a species and his specific

  abilities as well.

  I looked through the books around me and found several about dragon

  lore and all the realms they were found in, but a lot of it appeared to be old

  myths instead of facts. As I perused the tables and books, though, I stumbled

  across a table over in the far corner that was cleaner than the others. It was

  clear this table had been used fairly recently, and I figured it must have been

  the council, since they’d obviously been in here to put the dragon egg away.

  Did the council have to steer clear of Odin when they came in this

  room, too? The room was locked up, and I hadn’t seen any other locks as

  we’d gone through the castle, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Odin tried to keep

  everyone out, council member or not.

  The desk in front of me was cleared of dust, but there was a candle on

  it, so I lit that with my own and looked at the book open on the table.

  Blar jumped up onto the desk and peered over my arm as I read the

  words on the page.

  The book described how dragons could be used as weapons for war,

  and how to train them to properly assist Aesir in the fights. I read about how

  dragons had assisted in several wars since they were domesticated in Asgard,

  but before that the Aesir and dragons seemed to coexist peacefully. There

  were even stories of untrained dragons running into Aesir and being nothing

  but friendly.

  It looked like one of the council members must have been doing

  research about how to use the dragons in the battle against the frost giants.

  There were a couple of scrolls next to the book that talked about how dragon

  eggs hatched, how they required warmth and the presence of their mother,

  and how they could sit dormant for years and still hatch later. I was shocked

  to know all the eggs on the shelves could still be potential dragons, and I

  wondered if they’d ever get hatched.

  How had I managed to hatch the eggs anyways? I’d provided heat, but

  the scroll said they required the presence of their mother to hatch.

  Apparently, dragons were quite finicky creatures, and if something happened

  to the mother, then some of them may never hatch, unless another mother

  took the egg in and kept it as her own.

  Had it been our bond? Was I like a mother, or rather father, dragon in

  some way? Is that why the eggs had hatched for me?

  The thought was strange, but I couldn’t think of anything else to

  explain how the eggs had hatched if the words on the scroll were accurate.

  So, I shook the thought out of my head for the time being and focused on the

  book in front of me.

  Blar laid down by my hand and looked at each page as I slowly flipped

  through the book. His little blue head moved just slightly as if he were reading the pages with me, and I absentmindedly reached over to scratch

  under his chin.

  The book showed depictions of dragons that used to live in Asgard,

  and they looked similar to the ones in Asta’s home world, but not quite the

  same. The Asgardian dragons appeared to be a bit longer in their bodies, with

  less of a large stomach and back area. They were more of a cross between

  Blar and the twins, and they came in all different colors, though I saw several

  illustrations of black ones with deep purple or blue eyes. One picture showed

  a black one with yellow eyes like Asta’s, and the contrast just made the

  creature that much more beautiful.

  I moved to turn the page of the book on the desk, but then I noticed an

  unfolded scroll underneath, so I set the book aside and picked up the scroll.

  To my surprise, it was more information about Vinrar. This scroll told

  of his rise to power among the dragons and how he’d captured one as an

  infant, and that was where it had all begun. The one he captured was the same

  black creature as the one in the painting Asta had turned around for us to see.

  It was huge, with piercing white eyes that stared into my soul, even through

  the picture on the scroll.

  Apparently, Vinrar had raised this creature, who he called Tombin,

  from the time he was a baby. The dragon grew to listen to him, and once it

  was fully grown, Vinrar had taught the creature to allow him to ride on his back.

  After his accomplishments with Tombin, he decided to train other

  dragons and sell them to people. He sold many to Aesir warriors, who kept

  them as pets and also used them in battle. The largest dragons he could find,


  though, he would train for Odin to be used in whatever battle the king saw fit.

  As I read, I realized this scroll must have been very outdated. The way

  it talked of Vinrar was as if he’d accomplished something instead of torturing

  dragons and creating a hostile situation they eventually had to escape from.

  The more I read, the more detail it told of how Vinrar was the only

  man capable of training the dragons because he had no fear of them. It

  described how he would use a whip to direct them and teach them as babies

  to listen to his commands.

  The dragons were kept in a shed on his land, and he would starve those

  that were the most spirited of food and water, which made them all the more

  dangerous.

  I closed my eyes at this point, and then I felt Blar nudge my hand

  before his two paws touched my chest.

  I opened my eyes to see the little blue dragon’s face just inches away

  from my own. He wanted me to know he was okay, I knew that, but it still

  hurt me to think about this horrible man who had mistreated so many

  dragons. It wasn’t just a few, it was hundreds from what I could tell, and it

  made me sick to my stomach to even think about it.

  I never wanted another dragon to have to go through the pain and

  torment these had gone through, especially Tombin. I felt the worst for him,

  since he’d been just an infant when captured and tortured, and not only had

  he been tormented into submission, but then he was forced to watch as the

  other dragons of the land were, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the one

  who began the dragon revolt.

  I stroked down Blar’s back and smiled at him.

  “I’m okay,” I whispered, and the little dragon rubbed his head against

  my chin. His skin was soft and cool, but his horns were sharp and hard, and

  he scratched them against my beard as he nuzzled me.

  I vowed right then I would never allow any of my dragons to fear me

  like that. I’d never treat them with anything but the respect they deserved as

  the noble and intelligent creatures they were.

  “Rath,” Kas whispered quickly as she ran over to me.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “We’re running out of time,” the sorceress told me, and she held up the

  same piece of paper as before. There was only half of it between her fingers,