by Logan Jacobs
portal, and the morning fog had yet to clear, so the gateway appeared even
more ethereal than normal.
“Alright,” I said as we looked at the swirling pool of air. This time, I
decided to see if the twins would be able to answer first, since I was curious
if the seeing through the portal skill only applied to Blar or not. “Inger, Uffe,
do you know where this leads?”
Inger shook her little head, and Uffe cocked his to the side and closed
his eyes for a second before he sighed and shook his head at me, too.
“I think only Blar can tell,” Asta said.
“Looks that way,” I agreed. “So, Blar, does this lead to Jotunheim?”
The little blue dragon shook his head.
“How about my home world?” the elf girl inquired, but she once again
was met with a shake of Blar’s head.
“The world of dwarves?” Kas asked, but Blar shook his head again. I
could tell he was growing impatient with us, he wanted to go and fight
already, and I couldn’t blame him for being excited.
“Helheim?” I asked, but he shook his head even more fervently.
“The world of fire?” Kas asked, and her eyebrows pulled together in
thought.
Blar jumped up and down then and nodded quickly before he started to
walk toward the portal.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said, and I put my arm out to stop him. “I don’t
know about that.”
“We know there are monsters there,” Kas reminded me, as if I’d
forgotten about the huge snake lady who’d chased us out of there the first
time.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I said, and I pursed my lips. “I think that
world may still be too much. It was quite a bit even for you and me.”
“I remember,” the blonde sorceress said, and a shudder ran through
her. “I wouldn’t mind never seeing that world again.”
“I’m guessing you all didn’t have the greatest experience there,” Asta
said as she eyed the two of us.
“Not exactly,” I agreed.
“That’s putting it mildly,” Kas scoffed. “We were attacked by some
crazy snake lady who wanted to eat us.”
“You two survived Echidna?” Asta asked with huge yellow eyes full of
shock.
“What in the hell is an Echidna?” the sorceress asked. “Have you seen
one of those creatures before?”
“She’s not one of any sort of creature,” the elf girl said with a shake of
her head. “Echidna is the mother of all monsters. She’s one of the most
powerful beings in all the realms. My people don’t go to the world of fire
because of her.”
“Well, damn,” Kas said, and she turned to look at me with a raised
eyebrow. “We should have done more research before we just hopped
through that portal the first day.”
“We made it out,” I said with a shrug.
“Barely,” Kas laughed.
“You two are lucky to be alive,” Asta said, and she stared at us with
concern. “Echidna would have eaten you, or worse, fed you to her babies.”
Blar put his paws on my leg then and let out a mighty little huff.
“Okay,” I told him as I reached down to stroke his face. “We’ll keep
moving, but this world is too much for any of us still. This Echidna snake
lady is not somebody we want to run into again.”
“Somehow I feel as though you’re not taking this as seriously as it is,”
Asta chuckled.
“Eh,” I said with another shrug. “We made it out, there’s no going
back and changing what happened.”
“Lucky, lucky,” Asta mumbled to herself as Kas led us to the next
portal.
Asta’s reactions were quite cute and entertaining, so I’d let her think I
didn’t care about Echidna, but I definitely was surprised to hear she was the
mother of all monsters. I was glad Blar was able to tell us where the portals
led now because that beast was fearsome, and even with my new blade, I
knew she’d be a challenge.
Kas and I had unknowingly gone up against one of the most powerful
creatures in all the realms and escaped, though, and that thought brought a
smile to my face. I considered it especially impressive considering that was
the first day we’d spent together as well. I only hoped the next portal led
somewhere a bit more on level for Blar instead of someplace like Helheim or,
Odin forbid, Vanaheim.
At this point, Helheim and the land of fog and mist were the only
worlds we hadn’t traveled to yet, but I thought I’d take Helheim over
Vanaheim any day. At least in Helheim you’d be able to remember what
happened to you, but our trip to the world of the Vanir gods was still fuzzy.
We arrived at the next portal, and Blar ran right up to it and turned
around to look at me.
“Land of fire?” I teased, since I knew the likelihood of two portals
leading to the same place was incredibly low.
Blar glared at me and turned to Kas without even acknowledging my
question.
“What about Vanaheim?” Kas asked, and the little dragon shook his
head before he turned to our resident elf girl.
“Hm,” Asta hummed, and she thought for a second. “What about
Midgard?”
Blar nodded fervently then and turned to look at me with wide,
pleading eyes.
“Midgard,” I repeated to remind myself where that was. “Home of the
humans, right?”
“Right,” Kas agreed.
I recalled our previous visit there and our encounter with that huge dog
like creature. Midgard had seemed a bit easy of a world, but we hadn’t stayed long, and I’d promised Blar he could fight the most fearsome creature we
found, so I figured this time we could spend a bit more time looking around.
Part of me had hoped for a more difficult world, but the more I thought
about it, the more I didn’t know exactly what I was hoping for. I couldn’t
control the situation to that degree, and we only had so much time before the
battle the council was putting on. This was our only option at the moment, so
we needed to make the most of it.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Let’s go to Midgard.”
Blar let out an excited little squeal, then he turned toward the portal
and waited for us.
Kas quickly did the spell so we’d be able to follow our way back to the
portal, then I had us all link hands as I always did, and we hopped through to
the world of humans.
Immediately, I was hit by an incredibly cold sensation, and I opened
my eyes to see the world was filled with snow.
I looked down at Blar with wide eyes.
“Are you sure this is Midgard?” I questioned, and he nodded again.
“This could be a different part of the world than we were at last time,”
Kas hollered over the wind that raged around us, and I noticed her teeth were
already chattering. “Each of these worlds would take years to travel the circumference on foot.”
“Can you give us a spell for warmth?” I asked as I grabbed both of the
girls and pulled our heads together so it’d be easier to hear as well as shield
us from the wind.
Inger, Uffe, and Blar sat at our feet in the middle of our makeshift
cold blooded, so they couldn’t survive the freezing place we’d landed, but my
pets were warm blooded it seemed, so they’d be fine as long as they stayed
near us.
“Let me get my book,” Kas said through clenched teeth, and she pulled
out the spell book quickly.
I had my hands over the girls’ shoulders, and I could already feel they
were growing stiff from the cold weather, especially since they had no
protection on them, but it was worth it to keep the girls a little bit warmer if I
could.
“Here,” Asta said, and she closed her eyes and lifted her hand above
us.
Sunlight seemed to come out of nowhere, and it wasn’t much,
especially with the incredibly cold temperature around us and the wind that
continued to howl loudly, but it was enough to cast a bit of warmth over us, and for that I was grateful.
The sunlight warmed my hands slightly, but I was still shaking from
the cold since all I had on was my tunic and armor, the metal of which did
nothing to help with the cold.
“F-f-f-found one,” Kas stuttered, and her teeth were chattering harder
now.
“I’ll help,” Asta offered, and the two of them grabbed hands as Blar,
Inger, and Uffe clung tighter to each other below us.
The two women began to whisper the words on the page as fast as their
mouths would go, and after a few seconds, a swirl of red and silver sparkles
began to spiral around us.
I automatically felt my body grow warmer, and for the first time since
we’d stepped through the portal, I was able to take a full, deep breath. The air
was still cold, of course, but it didn’t bother me as much, and my body grew
warm as if it were a nice, pleasant day in Asgard.
Then the swirl of colorful sparkles exploded with its usual pop, and I
felt completely comfortable.
“How is everyone?” Kas asked as she glanced around the group, and I
could already see a bit of color returning to her pale cheeks.
“Much better,” Asta sighed.
“Blar, Inger, Uffe?” I asked as I looked down at the little dragons.
Inger shook herself quickly, but all three of them looked up at me and
smiled. It seemed the spell had been a success, and we were all able to face
the cold now without feeling so incredibly uncomfortable.
I lowered my arms from around the girls, and we all looked out to the
vast expanse of white around us. This was definitely not the Midgard we’d
landed in before. I couldn’t see anything but snow for miles, the sky was a
deep gray color with wispy white clouds all across it, and it looked like we
were among various mountains or hills, but I couldn’t tell which, since
everything just appeared white.
“Do you think any animals even live in this weather?” Kas asked, and
her blonde eyebrows pulled together as she looked around doubtfully.
“They have to,” I said. “If creatures can survive huge pits of fire in
other worlds, then I’m sure snow is no different to the beasts that reside
here.”
“Should we look around some?” Asta questioned.
“We’re already here,” I said with a shrug. “We might as well give it a
chance. If we don’t find anything, then we can go back through the portal.”
Blar looked up at me, and his eyes were hopeful and determined, so I
reached down to stroke his head and give him some comfort.
“Don’t worry,” I told him, “we’ll find something.”
The little dragon was ready to fight, and with this being a place made
almost entirely of ice and snow, I thought it would be a good place for him to
get some combat practice in. Whatever creature resided here would be used
to the cold, so fire could be a great asset for Blar when the time came to fight.
It was with creatures immune to fire that I grew worried about, though I
wasn’t exactly sure any beings were immune to dragon fire, but I couldn’t be
sure they weren’t, either. I’d recently found out how incredibly huge all the
realms were, and I learned something new about them each and every day.
We started to trudge through the snow, and even though my boots were
soaked and my feet were a foot deep into the white powdery stuff, I felt
completely fine. That spell Kas and Asta had done really was powerful, and I
couldn’t believe I’d gone so much of my life without knowing the full extent
of what magic could do. It really was a handy tool, especially for anyone who
traveled like we did.
“Do you think humans live around here?” Kas asked as we walked.
“Hm,” I mused as I thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. I would think
it would be much too cold for their frail bodies.”
“Humans are quite delicate,” Asta agreed. “I don’t think they could
survive the cold like this. They’re incapable of casting spells like we can.”
“Maybe this really is just another part of the realm,” Kas said. “Last
time it was so sunny, and there were trees and grass and everything, but this
is just… cold.”
“Midgard must be a lot bigger than I originally thought,” I murmured
as I looked around. Because everything was so white, it was hard to tell how
far I could see, but it seemed like miles of nothing but frozen tundra, and if
this snowy area was this large, then the world had to be massive.
We walked along through the snow. Blar was light enough that he was
able to walk on top of it, but Uffe fell through the white powder a few times
so I picked him up and put him on my shoulder. Inger glided along next to
Asta, who I had come to believe was her favorite of the group. Something
about the two of them seemed to click. I knew I was her master, and that she
loved me, but something about Asta’s sharp exotic beauty and excitable
demeanor drew the little dragon to her. The elf girl had been the one to give
the little dragon her bow, after all.
As we walked, I thought I could sense something around us, a presence
that didn’t belong. I began to nonchalantly look back every so often to see if I
could spot anyone or anything that might be stalking us, but I had yet to see
anything so far.
I thought maybe the feeling was wrong, but something in my gut told
me we were being followed, so I stopped in my tracks and surveyed the area
as closely as I could.
“Rath?” Kas asked from behind me. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re being followed,” I told her.
“We are?” she asked, and I could hear the panic in her voice.
“I have had a strange feeling as well,” Asta agreed. “But I haven’t seen
anything.”
“Neither have I,” I murmured as I focused on the landscape around us.
Suddenly, I saw it. There, just above a small hill, were two bright
green eyes that stared at us from just two or three hundred feet away.
I had no idea what it was exactly, but I’d made eye contact with it
when I saw it, and now it definitely knew we were aware of its presence.
“There,” I whispered, and I kept my eyes on the green orbs. “Do you
see it?”
“Where?”
Kas asked, but a second later she gasped and grabbed my
arm. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, but as we watched the creature stood up slowly
and began to make a wide arc toward us.
It was a giant feline of some sort that was tan and white with black
spots. Its body was almost as big as a horse’s, and it let out a low snarl as it stalked us. Two huge fangs protruded from either side of its mouth, and it
lifted its lips to reveal all of its teeth as it started to slowly close the space
between us.
The creature was huge, and I instinctively reached for my sword, but
Blar flew up in front of me to obstruct my view and shook his little blue head.
His eyes were determined, and he gave me a slight little nod.
I took a deep breath then nodded back and moved my hand away from
my hilt. I had to give him an opportunity to try and fight. I had no doubt the
council could find creatures like this, and though it was huge, I needed to
have faith Blar could use his wits and skills to take it on.
My heart pounded as the little blue dragon I’d hatched only weeks
before flew toward the massive feline that had teeth as long as my forearm.
Part of me wanted to look away, but I knew I couldn’t. I needed to be ready
to jump in at a second’s notice.
“Uffe,” I said as I turned slightly to the little red dragon on my
shoulder. “Go to Kas.”
The twin nodded and hopped over to Kas’ shoulder so I was free and
clear to attack if necessary, and though I’d given Blar the go ahead, I made
sure my hand was on my sword’s hilt just in case.
“Do you think he’s ready?” Kas breathed beside me, and her hand
clutched tightly to my bicep.
“He’s got to be,” I told her. “But if he’s not, I’m right here.”
“Me, too,” the Valkyrie agreed, and I could hear the determination in
her voice.
She wasn’t going to let anything hurt our little dragon.
“Come on, Blar,” Asta whispered, almost to herself. “You got this.”
The cat stopped in its tracks and watched as Blar flew toward it. Then
the best lowered itself into a striking pose and showed its teeth in a snarl
again.
There were still a good fifty feet between us and the cat, but Blar was
only ten feet away or so, and he hovered in the air in front of the feline.
The cat let out a loud yowl as its haunches reared up, but when it
