Chapter 11: Fallen Stars and Falling Gods
"Get movin' ya fucking lump!" A high-pitched voice shouted in the sparsely wooded regions of the valley, "Or have you left your balls and cock back with your mother, along with your courage? We're looking for a bloody rock, not a lizard falling from the sky ya blind idiot! The magnar said so!"
"Shut the fuck up Milly! I know what I saw, and it was a lizard that flew. I ain't fuck'n blind!" The boy among the pair grumbled. "You'll see! You and the Magnar!"
Milly rolled her eyes, as she kept climbing up the valley where the clansmen had seen the mountain break after the cold gods on the other side tried to set the very skies on fire the previous night. She had seen the fires herself and heard the thunder on the other side as well.
The Magnar seemed to think that the old gods have granted him a new rock to forge a new weapon. Some sign of a blessing to fight the other chiefs that fashioned themselves kings, especially some cunt named Mance down south.
Milly didn't really care to be honest; she followed her Magnar because he kept them fed, without having to raid too far down south for the game.
She broke out of her musing, when the smoke trail that they had been following grew nearer and nearer, and she could hear the crackle of a burning fire just a few hundred feet in the distance.
"Well, it's not very far now, Sigorn." She said as she flashed him a teasing grin. "If it is a flying lizard, I suppose you'll ride it and become the Magnar of all the free folk, eh?"
Sigorn grumbled, as his cheeks dusted a light pink. The idea did appeal to him. Varamyr-six-skins was said to ride a giant Shadowcat. If a Shadowcat can be tamed, a lizard should not be all that difficult.
Milly chuckled and shook her head at the fool. He sure had pretty big dreams, and just like every other time, it would fall to her to make them come true. Sometimes she cursed the gods at the fact that she loved the blind fool.
She led him through the sparse woods, as the smell of burning ash became thicker in the air. It was time for them to get a little more serious from here. Being an idiot only got you killed.
"Your axe." She said, "Watch out for …... flying lizards." She sighed.
"So, you do believe me!" The fool accused while managing to look smug.
She groaned and explained "No. But we don't want to take any chances. The Magnar wants us back before midday. Ryk's village has emptied and moved to join the King." She spat, "Mance by the antler. He's lost to his lot twice already; he doesn't want a third time."
Sigorn gulped and nodded. He knew his father wanted to head south with the clan, but he did not know why.
His father had asked the giants to aid him, but Mag the Mighty had been oddly distant lately and had rejected him outright. Not their problem, they had said.
He readied his short bronze axe in his right hand, as the older girl nodded at him and drew her bronze sword, and stepped toward the origin of the smoke.
The woods around the area had broken, despite the wide distance between the trees. They were bent and cracked at odd angles as if three mammoths had fallen out of the sky.
He closely followed behind Milly, keeping a sharp eye around him for anything that would attack them, either from around them or from above.
A little ahead in the distance, they could see an unnatural clearing of the woods. The trees had been felled, similarly to the other broken trees they had come across. And in the middle of the clearing, was a giant blueish-black rock.
It was gigantic, almost the size of the Magnar's longhouse. The smoke seemed to rise from behind the rock.
Sigorn looked over to Milly, as she silently told him to follow behind her.
They crept up to the rock, and as they neared it Sigorn could see ripple marks on the rock, like the scales of a snake all over its outer layer. The scales were sharp from the look of them, sharper than any weapon some of the folk in their village had to carry.
As they rounded the corner, Milly gave a frightened yelp that set Sigorn on edge, as he watched her tumble and fall on her back.
"Milly!" He shouted as he rushed to grab her when he saw what it was that had frightened her.
Behind the 'rock' attached to it by more scales and torn muscles, was the terrifying head of a beast. A lizard, just like he had seen. It was laid on its side as one giant wing was trapped beneath its body, torn and bloody throughout, while the other wing was detached as if it had been cut by a sharp blade and made into a temporary tarp that was being used as a blanket for someone just behind the body of the beast.
"We need to make sure whoever that is, does not attack us," Milly said, her voice strained as she gained her wits and composure back, still staring wide-eyed at the flying lizard.
"Do we kill them?" Sigorn asked fear tinged in his voice. Whoever could kill such a beast would be mighty indeed.
"It's better that way." She replied as she started creeping towards the unconscious person, her bronze sword gripped tightly in her hand, staying wide away from the dead monster.
Its open maw and sharp dagger-like teeth were enough of a warning of the danger it could be, dead or not.
Nearing the unconscious figure, she realized something strange, the woman wrapped underneath the wing had been tended to by someone. The smoke that they had followed was of a fire that was still burning, keeping her warm. Yet no one else was in the clearing with them.
Alarmed she turned to face Sigorn when cold metal was placed on the back of her neck, and a deep chill traveled up her spine.
"Who are you?" A deep, thundering voice asked of her.
She could hear Sigorn struggle behind her, something was preventing him from speaking. And inwardly she breathed a sigh of relief, at least he was alive.
Taking a deep breath, she answered trying to keep the fear out of her voice, but she knew she failed miserably. "Milly, I am Milly of the Thenns."
"Thenns." The voice hummed the steel not leaving her neck. "You are young. You have a settlement nearby." He stated askance.
She nodded minutely "Down the valley. Magnar Thenn's village." She said, hoping that the name of the Magnar and the implied threat of the people that follow him would scare the man.
The man merely hummed in thought, and then the steel left her neck. Just as she turned around to face the man, Sigorn stumbled out of the man's grasp and fell into her arms, nearly pushing her over and onto her back once again.
"Ger'off me!" She pushed him away, and she finally got a look at the man that had ambushed them. He was huge. Angry red markings snaked all over his body and wrapped around his bald face. His thick beard, with light dustings of gray hair, indicated that at the very least, he was a seasoned fighter. The blade that had been pressed to her neck was a beautiful axe, with gold markings all over it.
'Likely stolen from a raid down beyond the wall' She thought
And if he was responsible for killing the dragon, then he was mighty as well. She stood no chance of fighting him head-on.
Apparently, Sigorn did not reach that conclusion, his pride got the better of him, the honorable fool, as he pulled out his dagger from his belt and charged at the man. His axe had been thrown at least a few feet away behind the man, likely when he'd been disarmed.
She tried to reach out and grab him to prevent him from angering the man, but he was already out of her reach and she watched with fear in her heart, as he surely charged to his death.
The man surprised them, as he caught the oncoming strike, twisted Sigorn's arm, turning him around and disarming him in the process, and kicked him back at her.
"Do not attack me again." The man rumbled. "I will not let you go again."
It was then she noticed the oddest sight she had ever seen, and she'd seen wargs in the village pull fish out of the river to feed the village, as on the belt of the man was a head, and it spoke.
"Oh, come off it, Kratos. They are just children." It said, and she couldn't help but gape at it in wonder. Beside her, Sigorn was also looking at the head with a little fear and no less awe than she was.
The head chuckled when it saw their reactions, "Ah, that reaction is never going to get old. Mimir, the smartest man in all the realms at yer service." He said "We are looking for aid and hospitality with the Magnar of Thenn. Our companion over there needs a roof over her head, and warm food, if he would grant it to us."
The man was watching them sharply, she noticed. She could not just grant food and home to any folk she encountered in the wilds. Least of all, she had never expected to encounter anybody this side of the valley, so close to the frost fangs. To do so, they would have to go through their village, and these strange folk definitely had not traveled through their village. Which meant they came from the other side of the mountain. They could be scouts for cannibal tribes, but those had never dared to attack the Thenns. And neither would a man the size of this one be a scout, so they were definitely honest in their need of aid.
But the implications of them coming from the other side of the mountains, felling a beast as great as this, while the cold gods rained fire to the very skies. If nothing else, they were very dangerous.
Despite her mind shouting at her to acknowledge the other impossibility, she refused to do so. The old gods be good, she needed to pray at the Weirwood, for she refused to accept what her mind was trying to get her to do.
Apparently, she had taken too long to reply, and Sigorn nodded reluctantly instead, "I will lead you to the village."
It was then she pushed all thoughts of impossibilities aside and brought her wits back up "But, we can't promise you food and home. Only the Magnar may do so."
The head replied first as it sighed "Well, it was to be expected I suppose. Inconvenient as it may be."
The man nodded as well, as he walked past them toward the body of the woman.
"You came here for the dragon did you not?" The man, Kratos, said as he turned to look at them once again.
She nodded hesitantly again, that had been their goal here. Well, to find the rock that fell from the sky, but the Magnar wouldn't say no to the dragon. The scales would make for good weapons for those that don't have iron blades.
"Then I will use the trees fallen here to make. I will drag it with us if that is what the Magnar intended." He finally said as he unsheathed the axe again from his back and proceeded to chop the toppled-over barks around them into useable pieces.
"That's a good idea, brother." The head, Mimir, said "It would make for a good peace offering as well. To ease any hostilities that may have mistakenly been assumed by us."
That at least was sensible. She mused, as she nodded to Sigorn and started to help the man with his work. Though she wondered how well it would work. The Magnar was a good man, honorable, just like Sigorn. But he could be stern and ruthless as well.
He would not rest easy till he knew everything there is to know about these strangers. She wondered if he would reach the same conclusion as she did.
Using the wood, and a makeshift rope they helped the man with making a large makeshift sled, large enough to carry the weight of the dragon and pull it using the rope.
She watched as Kratos, then proceeded to walk up behind the dead creature, and with ungodly strength toppled the behemoth over onto its back, right on top of the sled which creaked slightly under the weight.
He then walked over to the unconscious form of the woman, put out the fire that kept her warm, and carried her back to the sled, and placed her as comfortably as he could, still wrapped in the winged blanket, on the belly of the beast.
Only the rhythmic movement of her chest indicated that she yet lived. Her two magnificently made, golden blades were wrapped and placed beside her.
Finally, the man picked up the rope attached at the front of the sled, and with ungodly strength, he pulled the sled along with him, the strong wood sliding roughly over the lightly snowed ground. He only paused momentarily, turning to look at them again as he said "Lead me to your village."
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A/N: Well, now they are out of the Lands of Always Winter, finally. Time to unite the free folk under one banner.
People will slowly realize who they are talking to, and religious beliefs will be challenged.
I would appreciate constructive criticism.
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