Bruno squeezed her close. “Each day away from you was like a thousand years. I’m so happy to see you.” He pulled away again. “Have they been watching?”
Thrúd nodded and then turned to yell at everyone, “All of Asgard has been watching. They do hear you! You are on the right path!”
They all cheered as Bruno and Thrúd hugged again.
“How are our children?” Bruno asked.
“They’re lazy! They sit on the couch watching movies and playing video games all the time!” Thrúd laughed.
“Typical teenagers!” Bruno smiled and kissed her again. “I can’t tell you how much I missed you. I’m so glad you’re here! Thrúd…you probably already know, but the coin…”
“Yea, I know, Husband. You’re mortal.” She smiled. “Certainly you know better than that. Do you really think Asgard would let your soul be lost in the abyss? You’ll never really be mortal, silly!”
“I guess you’re right. I never thought of it that way. And you?”
“I’m not here as a Valkyrie, no divine powers. Consider me…” She looked around in thought. “As Alice, but better.” She grinned.
“Immortal?”
She nodded, biting her lip with a squint of shame.
“Cool, I can deal with that!”
They hugged and kissed again. Bruno then realized they had a huge audience. They had been caught up in their own world for a moment, and forgot about the massive army standing around them.
“Sorry, everyone,” Bruno said. “This is my wife, Thrúd. Daughter of Thor.”
Bōddy stepped up to greet her first. “Thrúd, wife of Bruno, daughter of Thor. So, your father-in-law is the god of thunder eh?” He glanced over at Bruno and shook Thrúd’s hand.
Bruno chuckled. “Yea, it’s true. But, it’s more than that. All of this has taken out the element of ‘faith of existence’. Now you all know without a doubt the gods do exist, and are listening to your prayers. This is a very big deal.”
Grognor and Teelena stepped up. Grognor spoke to the crowd, “This confirms our cause, everyone. This is what we are supposed to be doing. We will be victorious, the gods want it so!”
The army cheered again, even louder and with more spirit than ever.
“Thrúd?” Teelena said, “I have an old story scroll somewhere that tells of a betrothal with a dwarf. I’m Teelena, Empress of Deepforge.”
Thrúd bowed with respect. “Your highness, it is very nice to meet you. The business with the dwarf is true. Thankfully my father got me out of that. Otherwise, I would have never gotten together with him.” She motioned to Bruno.
“And I, you. This is Grognor, Emperor of Deepforge,” Bruno said, motioning to him.
Thrúd bowed again, “Sire, it is the highest honor to meet the both of you.”
“The honor is ours. Sometime you must tell us more of your story. Bruno told us of your adventures on Earth,” Teelena said.
“Oh, my gosh. There’s a lot of those stories!” Thrúd chuckled.
“Several volumes, at least!” Bruno said, shaking his head from seeming disbelief.
Deccon and Vella approached her. Deccon motioned to Vella. “Lady Thrúd of Asgard, I present my wife Vella. I am Deccon. It is an honor to meet you, indeed. Bruno has told us a lot about you.”
Thrúd bowed. “The metallic dragons. Sir, Lady, believe me, the honor is truly all mine.”
They spent the rest of the evening catching up, and then Thrúd finally dragged Bruno off to a very secluded spot… you can fill in the rest with your imagination. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Yea, it’s exactly like that.
Morning came with the red sun breaching the horizon as always, but this time the rogue sun could clearly be seen setting on the opposite horizon, having dominated the night sky. As the days passed, the tiny spec of red in the sky grew gradually bigger and brighter. Before the yellow sun could corrupt the red colored landscape, the army was mounted and ready to move out. Just as they assembled, another group of people could be seen approaching from the west. It was the Stone Village army, come to join the fight. Bruno and Thrúd were practically attached at the hip as they stood with the Stone Children division awaiting orders from Grognor. The metallic dragons, all but Deccon and Vella, circled above.
“Look at us!” Grognor began, standing on his horse’s back. “We are a force to be reckoned with!”
The army cheered.
“We are united for a righteous cause, citizens of Deepforge Empire. Whatever else happens in the weeks to come, we should all be very proud of what we have accomplished; peace in River Valley! For the first time ever, all races and all kingdoms are one. We are Deepforge!”
The army cheered even louder.
“Your divisions will remain as you have assembled, Stone Children will be led by Bruno, elves will be led by Bōddy, and so forth as we have done from the beginning. We will be in standard formation, ready for battle. Eugene and the Naw-nee will continue to be in charge of meat for the journey. We will travel along the foothills until the terrain flattens out more into the highlands of the Savanna. We should be able to follow the tributaries so we have plenty of water.
“We don’t know when or where we will encounter the enemy, but I think it’s a fair bet it will be a lot more than we fought here. We’ve got a good army, over thirty thousand warriors. Each of you are good fighters, or you would already be dead. So, we are greater than our numbers. Together we are a mighty army. With the gods on our side, we will crush the Black Queen and her army of evil on the field of battle! We will crush them!”
They army roared, chanting, “Crush! Crush! Crush!” over and over again as Grognor smiled. He felt an overwhelming power like he had never felt before. He looked over to his bride Teelena, who had a wide grin on her face, also chanting along with the army with her hammer in her hand pounding the air. Pride filled their hearts.
Deccon and Vella smiled at each other and motioned for the other metallics to begin their air travel.
Grognor took a deep breath and screamed, “Move out!”
Chapter 20
Thirty five thousand warriors moved across the landscape, heading roughly southwest toward the Great Savanna. The Great Savanna was vast and hilly at its edges. These hills of unending green grass went on as far as the eye could see. It took them a full week’s travel just to get beyond the hills, where it was all generally flat, getting gradually higher in altitude the further south they went. Patches of massive shrub forests and vast plains of tall grass dominated the scenery, with the northern mountains becoming gradually smaller behind the army. Small rivers spider-webbed across going generally north, toward River Valley. The army had already been subject to several rain storms as they traveled. Herds of animals and the natural vegetation provided the army with food. It was the perfect route for them to take- easy terrain and plenty of food.
The animals on the savanna were incredibly diverse. Large predator cats similar to lions from Earth held court on the vast empire of beasts. They only had a passing curiosity with the massive army marching through their lands. Their most urgent concern was the large predator dogs who vied to be the reigning masters of the beasts. It was an uneasy truce they held, all centered on the shared food.
The shared food was the herd animals. Similar to the species on Earth and other worlds’ great savannas, the multitude of species spread out across the savanna in massive blankets of life. Everything from a Wildebeest- like creature, to wild horses, to two headed Giraffes, to dinosaurs, and many others. They indicated who truly ruled the savanna, the herds themselves. Some of the most breathtaking creatures were the large ones, similar to the Wooly Mammoth, the Brachiosaur, and other plant eating creatures. They made the ground tremble as they walked.
“Look at them, how beautiful!” Thrúd said as she pointed to the millions of herd animals grazing on the tall, lush green grasses and extremely tall trees.
“I’ve never seen the Great Savanna. This is truly amazing!” Grognor said.
“I saw a T-Rex out here once,” Deccon said.
Thrúd scoffed, “Oh, come on!”
“I’m serious! I’m pretty sure it was the last one. Several dozen lions teamed up and took it down. It was pretty amazing.”
“What about dragons?” Grognor asked.
“Yea, there are dragons here too. Mostly in the south, and… not too many of them. At least, that’s the way it was.” Deccon shook his head. “With Obsidian here, I’m sure that’s all going to change.”
“I’m surprised we haven’t seen any of her forces yet,” Bōddy said.
“It’s a very long distance. If they started out when we did, we could meet them about half way,” Bruno said.
“How far until then?” Teelena asked.
Bruno looked around. “We should be there before the cool season.”
“Good grief!” Teelena said, incredulous.
“The Great Savanna is several times bigger than River Valley. The tracks we’ve seen suggest the Black Queen’s army came from southwest of here. I would guess near the great lake beyond the mountains. That’s about four months away at this pace. So, figure another month and a half to two months just to cross the savanna.”
Grognor looked at his map and nodded. “Yea, that looks about right.”
“I guess I didn’t fully realize how long it would be. Seems like the entire spring has been spent traveling and fighting,” Teelena said.
“It has been the entire spring, my love. Today is the first day of summer,” Grognor said.
Weeks passed as the army traveled further and further south, deeper into the Great Savanna. The Naw-nee did their job well, providing ample amounts of fresh meat for the army. The army followed the obvious trail left by the Drakmid army only months prior, and stayed on course. As a month and a half passed, they finally reached the southern edge of the savanna where it met rolling hills just before the southern ocean. As they passed over the last hill, the great southern ocean lay before them. It was like nothing any of them had ever seen.
“Look. The ocean is so beautiful,” Teelena said.
“Be sure and keep our distance. Many explorers have attempted to cross the great waters,” Deccon started, “the only way to traverse them is to go over. Even riding close to them is dangerous.”
“Markog the explorer lost his life…well, so the story used to go… trying to cut across the gulf to the western continent. I wonder how far he actually got before the great beasts finally took down his ship and they had to abandon it, founding Nordland…apparently.” Grognor said.
Eric smiled.
“You know,” Bruno started, “there’s only been two other worlds I’ve seen that had oceans so treacherous, seafaring never developed. It’s a very rare thing. In fact, on Earth cultural diversity depended on it. Great tribes explored the world almost nonstop once the humans were able to properly walk upright. Of course, many wars were fought at sea, and many vast civilizations were wiped out because of seafaring. Mixed bag, I guess.”
“If it hadn’t been for the land bridge, our people would have never found this continent,” Bōddy said. “Well, maybe not ‘never’. Certainly not until we invented flight. You know, it was right around here somewhere the last mission was sent to Armadia. It’s hard to tell. Everything has changed so much since the cataclysm.” He looked around at the beach, seemingly seeing something that wasn’t there, something from the distant past. “I wonder if this generation will ever have airships and space flight again.”
“Airships?” Teelena said.
“Yea,” Bōddy started, “it was a different technology, based mostly on steam. We had the best of both worlds. Electricity and steam power. We had automobiles powered with steam, flying craft both fast and slow. By far the most luxurious way to travel long distances was by airship. Damn, I miss it. I really do.”
Bruno smiled and looked over at Deccon. “Remember steam power?”
“Yea.” Deccon chuckled. “That was a long, long time ago.”
“You know, the humans on Earth went through the steam phase no less than four times in their original history. Usually after a major war or some disaster that wiped out their former technology.”
“Sounds kind of familiar,” Grognor said.
“Shhh. I hear something,” Bōddy said.
Grognor put up his hand to stop, and the entire army came to a halt. A distant low rumbling could be heard coming from the west.
“They’re here,” Grognor said. He turned around and yelled, “Battle positions!”
“Finally!” Eric said, frustrated. “Any more of that talk of other worlds and I would have had to slice my own throat!”
All the Nords laughed.
Chapter 21
The wide beach filled with the Deepforge army as they quickly prepared for battle. All the metallics, including Deccon and Vella, took to the air. The war machines were secured with anchors, the cannons set up and ready, the thousands of dedicated archers took their places. All across the beach in front of the army, pikes were set up pointed outward toward the oncoming enemy. The horses and other beasts of burden, with exception of the Deepforge horses, were in the very capable care of Tambar. He led them several miles back along the beach, well out of danger.
“Prepare to attack as soon as they’re in range. Everyone ready for shield wall, arms easy!” Grognor ordered.
The ground began to rumble, and the western sky began to grow dark. Grognor nodded to Deccon. The dragons flew ahead, rising high in the air to meet the oncoming storm of chromatics. Soon enough, the sky was filled with dragons of all metallic and chromatic types fighting claw and teeth, and breath weapons. The roars echoed across the beach and out to sea. The wave of Drakmids roared across the low grassy hills until they could be seen clearly, dressed in their dull forged mithril weapons and armor. The combined Deepforge army had armed themselves with the armor taken from the previous battle. With that and the fact that the Deepforge army now included the Nords, The Stone Children, and all the races and their specialties, meant the odds were even.
“Looks like they have around twenty thousand. We’ll roll through them like they did us at our first battle,” Grognor said. His steed reared with the overwhelming anticipation of war. “Easy boy, you’ll get your chance for vengeance.” He patted his steed’s armored neck.
All the Deepforge dwarves were having a bit of a hard time controlling their horses. They stomped and whinnied, sounding more like demon calls.
Teelena lay her reigns over her horse’s neck and whispered in her ear, “Easy, girl. You’re going to tear those bastards apart, just control yourself.” The horse whinnied and nodded her head, understanding but anxious.
Leaders of all the divisions stood up front, with the divisions themselves just behind. The Deepforge cavalry was right in front, ready for the first attack.
As soon as the front of Drakmids came in range, Grognor yelled, “Fire all missiles at will!”
Loud ‘booms’ could be heard one right after another as the cannons launched explosive projectiles across the sky. Trebuchets launched their flaming payloads, all of them making a strange sound as they flew through the air. Ballistae launched massive arrows that screamed through the air. The sky became dark with a constant barrage of arrows arching overhead toward the Drakminds from everyone who had a bow.
The first attack was spectacular. The rain of death came down on the Drakmids in such a mass; they had no time to react. Tens of thousands of high speed arrows either shattered on their armor, or found a target in between plates, killing several hundred at once. The massive arrows from the Ballistae skewered many Drakminds at once, their armor providing no protection. Then the explosive missiles hit. The ground heaved with the succession of massive explosions, blowing Drakmids to pieces. This slowed them down and caused chaos in their ranks.
High above, dragons tore each other apart. Flames and acid, chlorine and frigid air, talon and tooth all clashed as they tried their best to make shreds of each other.
> After a few moments, acid rain began to fall on the battlefield. Everyone was affected by this.
“Use your shields for protection from the sky!” Bergnor screamed.” This did not need to be said, as everyone did so as soon as the rain of black caustic globules fell. Thankfully this was an intermittent danger as the dragons battled above.
“Continue fire! Don’t let up!” Grognor yelled.
The barrage of death continued until the Drakmids were too close. They rushed forward, clumsily trying to avoid the pikes as best they could, several being killed by the shear concentration of warriors pushing through.
Twenty yards behind the pikes stood the Deepforge cavalry. As soon as the Drakmids broke through the pike fence, Grognor ordered, “Cease missiles, hand to hand! Attack!”
The Deepforge army roared and rushed forward with the cavalry in front. The horses let out something that sounded very much like roars and ran forward at full speed. The dwarves on their backs simply let their reigns drape over their necks, with weapons in each hand. In a short moment, the enemy lines clashed in a great sound of metal on metal, both sides sounding an unearthly roar.
Grognor was first. His warhorse trampled Drakmids, kicking and biting, yanking their helmets off and delivering death to the victims. The horses remembered their initial fear of the creatures. Now, they wanted to rectify their mistake by attacking with all they had. They were not peaceful grass-eating beasts of burden. They were instruments of death. Living war machines bent on the fall of these Drakmid creatures, mere humans in fancy armor. All the horses felt this way, and attacked with more fervor than ever before.
Grognor yelled with delight at the sight of this. He had never been prouder. The Drakmid weapons only did minor damage this time; having to deal with their own armor now modified to protect all of Deepforge, including the mighty warhorses. He grinned at the irony of it all. The Drakmids didn’t know what to do about it. They continued to fight, doing nowhere near the damage they had done at their first battle.
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