The Seeds of Evermore

by Andrew Haines

  She groaned, and looked up to see Scott above her, “Why did you let me drink so much last night?”

  “You had three tankards... I had no idea how strong that stuff was that Alissa made.” He responded, handing her the glass of water.

  She moaned, and accepted the water. “Only three, I used to be able to down like four or five and be fine?”

  Scott nodded, “Yeah only three.”

  She sighed and groaned, “Okay I need to take a shower.” standing up she slumped up against Scott, “Care to join me?” She teased him as she stood up straight.

  “Don’t tempt me with a good time.” He laughed, turning to exit out of the bathroom.

  He felt a hand on his shoulder, paired with a tug to turn back around. Facing her again, Scott stared at her. He forgot how nimble she truly was compared to him, her body shape was much different, not truly built as a warrior’s should be. She leaned back into his chest, placing her ear on his heart. His heart rate increased, and he knew she could notice it.

  Charlotte pulled back and smiled at him, burped, and covered her mouth. Her face turned a bright shade of red. Scott chuckled at the sight. She gave him a stern look. He leaned in and kissed her on her lips, “Go ahead and get ready. I need to go see Tuomas before I do anything else.”

  He swiftly left the bathroom before Charlotte could react to what he said. She unclothed herself, and stared at her body in the mirror. Her hair was longer now, another inch and a half, the green tips she had were faded out. She had made plans for getting her hair cut after they finished the two weeks regiment they were supposed to be in here for. Her skin had darkened slightly from the being outside for that last two weeks. Her body was much more muscular now. She wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. She liked the tone, but how she got it, is not what she imagined. She placed her hands on her chest, above her breasts, and let out another belch, this time with some acid reflux with it. She gagged a little: Never again am I drinking whatever Alissa made us, I feel awful. She turned to face the shower stall.

  Pulling back the shower curtain, she twisted the handle in the shower. Water spilled out of the nozzle into the tiled zone. She was glad that Tuomas kept his home more modern than the rest of the world. She didn’t know what she would’ve done if there was no running or clean water for them, she flinched at the thought of them back when they first got here, she didn’t mind getting dirty, but the thought of staying that dirty didn’t sit well with her.

  She ran her hand under the water, testing the temperature. It was just right. She stepped into the hot water feeling the warmth of it upon her skin, it was a wonderful feeling.

  ***

  Donovan was sitting in the armory messing with his left arm gauntlet plate, it was not sitting correctly on the rest of the armor. He grunted as he strapped it up again. Giving a defeated sigh, Donovan unclipped it again and dropped it to the ground. He stared at it for a moment before picking it back up. The only thing he could do was either not wear it or try to mend it at the forge, but that ran the risk of compromising the integrity of the metal. He didn’t have time to re-forge it, they were leaving in a few hours and would run out of time. Then he would have two faulty gauntlet plates.

  He weighed his two options. He nodded to himself. “May as well have it even if it breaks.” He said to himself, standing up to head to the forge.

  As he entered the forge, he saw Alissa there. “Hey what are you doing in here?” he asked, surprised to see her there.

  She looked up from what she was doing. “Hey, I was just looking at the size of the arrow heads.”

  Donovan looked puzzled by her response, “What for?”

  She held up a small vile filled with a liquid, “I made up a poison that we can dip arrows and bolts in to help in fights.”

  Donovan nodded at her as he closed the door to the forge. Alissa continued, “I hope that I can make something more potent later on, but this is just a test.”

  “That can be very useful, but it could also be an issue if either of them hits a friendly,” Donovan countered her words.

  “I don’t think we will have an issue with it, and besides, you think I wouldn’t have made an antidote for us just in case?”

  She held up a second bottle, she laughed, “I am no that off the wall.”

  Donovan smiled, “I know.”

  Donovan moved to the furnace to start the fire. Alissa stood there, she knew what he was about to do, he had been down here often the last few weeks working on weapons, armor and other things they could use.

  He stuck the piece over the heating forge, he didn’t need it molten just malleable enough to bend. After putting on his blacksmithing gloves, he picked up the gauntlet, and bent it outward slightly to fit his arm. He hovered the metal over his arm to eyeball the size. Judging that he did most of the work correct he shrugged: Good enough for this. He reached for the gas valve to cut gas to scuttle the fire. Then he placed the gauntlet into the barrel of water for a few moments to cool it down. Steam rose from the barrel when the metal touched the surface. When the water stopped bubbling, Donovan pulled the metal from the water and shook it.

  He looked over at the forge to make sure that the fire had gone out, which it had. “Come on, let’s get ready, we should meet up with everyone in the great hall,” Donovan said, looking back over at Alissa, who was still sifting through the bolts and arrows. She looked up again and put down the arrow that was in her hand. Alissa followed behind him as they made it up the lengthily stair case that lead back up to the main floor.

  Upon entering the great hall, the two of them saw Tuomas and Scott standing by each other chatting. Scott waved at them without stopping his conversation with Tuomas. Alissa and Donovan strolled over to them. The other two concluded their conversation before Alissa and Donovan were close enough to hear what they were talking about. “You guys ready?” Tuomas asked them.

  Donovan nodded, and Alissa spoke, “Yep all ready to go. I also have something for you,” She rummaged through her pocket pulling out the vile.

  Handing it to Tuomas, Alissa continued, “You can probably figure out what it is the vile.”

  Tuomas looked over it and nodded, “Poison...” He looked back at her, “For my arrows?”

  She nodded, “Yep, I also have an antidote if we need it.”

  Tuomas nodded back in response and slipped the vile into his satchel. “This will be handy.”

  Charlotte walked in with her pack on her back. “I am here and ready to roll.”

  She set her pack down next to the other two that were witting near them. Donovan and Alissa quickly excused themselves to go grab theirs. As they left, Nick showed up with his pack and set it down with the others.

  The four of them chatted with each other until Donovan and Alissa returned with their packs. Upon their return the six of them headed out to the horses and prepared them in the mid-morning light.

  14:

  The ride took a few hours on horseback up to into the mountains. The temperature dropped as they climbed in altitude. Tuomas began to explain where they were going and what they were going to be facing. He informed that they were going to be facing ice giants from Norse myth. Since now the world was registering as a game, they would have to complete boss fights, to defeat the core monumental beings in the world, to draw out the sorcerer that had put the chimera up against them.

  Tuomas started to state it would be more a LARP group. Alissa looked at him, “A what?”

  “Live action role play,” Tuomas told her, “Like the IVR stuff but it is not IVR.”

  “Yeah that makes sense...” She trailed off, feeling stupid about asking the question.

  They road up to a large cave in the side of the mountain. Tuomas pulled out a map that he had drawn up, with help from Charlotte, to see if they had made it. A cold wind blew in between them. The rise in elevation had drastically changed the weather. Most of them shivered when the air touched their skin. They had not prepared for such a cold environment. Tuomas claimed it
to be witchcraft of some sort that another mage cast over the area, the Nordic people in the mountains preferred the cold weather to the warm.

  Sliding off of his saddle, Tuomas began to lead his horse into the cave. He signaled the others to follow his lead. Moving as fast as their cold bodies would let them, they followed Tuomas into the cave. Light was nonexistent as they entered, only having the sunlight that glowed from the entrance. Donovan pulled out a few torches from his saddlebag and started to light them. Handing them off as he lit them, Charlotte and Nick held two of the three that Donovan had. Donovan holding the third, handed it off to Tuomas, “You are leading the way from here.”

  “Damn it, it’s freaking cold.” Nick said, shivering and rubbing his hands together.

  “It is getting warmer the further we venture into the cave.” Alissa countered.

  “We need to be careful in here. The ice giants don’t like visitors that aren’t kin. And that includes the Nordic people around here.” Tuomas said rubbing his arms as he attempted to warm himself up.

  “Well let’s get going, defeat these guys and go back to Crystle.” Donovan said, his voice had a shiver to it.

  The all stopped and set up a spot for them to leave the horses and the gear that they didn’t need for the fight. Nick left his bow and quiver with his gear and only took his two axes. Charlotte and Alissa left their secondary weapons as well. They believed that the weight would affect them with how cold it. Tuomas, Donovan and Scott kept their secondary weapons. They didn’t want the risk of having no weapon if they had to drop their primaries.

  Tuomas looked down the cave’s passageway, “Well if the other maps that I referenced are correct, we have about a fifty foot walk down this way before we reach one of the Nordic cities. From there we will have to be as sneaky as we can be to get around them to reach the mountainside temple.”

  Some of them groaned, “Mountainside? As in back in the cold weather?” Donovan asked him.

  “Yes, back outside.” Tuomas replied, “Don’t be mad at me, I didn’t decide to build it on the side of a mountain!”

  Tuomas started down the passageway, the others reluctantly followed him, they weren’t sure that they were going to want to fight the giants in the cold weather. As they crossed a short wooden bridge, lit torches were up on the cave walls. “This must not be a well-used entrance, if the torches end here.” Scott said.

  “It may be an emergency exit, or a way to keep unwanted travelers from scoping out the cave entrance,” Alissa suggested to him.

  Agreeing Scott added, “Fair, but I still think that we may want to leave ours here then for our walk out, I don’t want to get caught because of some torches we are carrying.”

  Everyone agreed with that. They left the torches in some empty slots on the cave walls. They all drew their weapons and kept their guard up just in case they came across any of the Nordic warriors. The cave split down into a large cavern and what they saw was amazing, it was a whole city of ice giants and Nordic people living in the mountain. “The shortest one I see is at least six feet tall!” Charlotte exclaimed, “How are we going to deal with them if they catch us?”

  Tuomas looked at her, “We won’t, we will surely be killed…” he paused, “If we are lucky.”

  No one wanted the detailed answer that Tuomas could have given them. “So what is the plan? There must be hundreds of them in that city.” Donovan asked.

  Tuomas pointed over off to the left of the city, “There those stairs lead to the temple, see how it is away from the city. The Norse peoples never had much of their religious areas within their cities, so we have that to our advantage.”

  The others nodded, and they moved on, “How are we going to sneak through this, we aren’t really wearing the right gear for sneaking in?” Scott asked.

  “Speak for yourself,” Nick commented, flexing in his leather armor.

  “There is aqueduct that should run at the edge of the city that is deep enough for us to use to stay out of sight. It will take us time to traverse it but we shouldn’t get caught going that way,” Tuomas answered Scott, ignoring the comment from Nick.

  “Okay you lead the way, you do have the map.”

  The party sheathed their weapons, as they slowly scaled the cave passageway to make sure that the way was clear. If they happened to get spotted, the plan was to run, not fight, they agreed that living and trying again later would be the best option. They were about six hundred feet from the city edge when Tuomas pointed to a large carved out moat. “There,” he said, “We have to crawl into that.”

  They moved another ten feet, and a stench greeted them, forty feet from the moat, “Holy crap, what is that smell?” Nick asked.

  “Just that,” Tuomas sarcastically countered.

  “Aqueduct my ass, this is a sewage line,” Donovan said pinching his nose, “This can’t be the spot you were refereeing to.”

  Tuomas looked at him, “Yes. It is… Looks like the translation on the maps was slightly inaccurate.”

  “That is an understatement,” Alissa said, gagging on the rancid smell.

  “Let’s get through this before I lose my lunch.” Nick spoke up.

  Sliding down into the sewage moat, they gagged and choked on the smell that was much worse in the moat. Tuomas continued to lead as he moved as quickly as he could through the sludge that was animal and human waste. “God, if I die from this, I am going to haunt you all,” Donovan said coughing hard.

  They trudged through the sludge as it stuck to their boots and slopped around as they kicked it up with every step. “How far do we need to go through this?” Alissa asked, through her arm, which she was using to cover her nose and mouth.

  “Just to the ladder over there,” Tuomas pointed.

  They moved as quickly as they could to make the side of the moat that looked like a maintenance access point, at least that is what they wanted to think that it was. A ladder was lying up against the wall, which they were thankful for, none of them wanted to use their hands to climb up the wall. Donovan was the first one to go up, he stopped before his head crested the top to see if there were any enemies that may be greeting them at there.

  To his relief, there was no one there and made it the rest of the way out of the trench of a sewage line, and waited for the others to make their way out. The rest followed out quickly behind Donovan and behind some conveniently placed stalactites. Once they were sure that no one saw them and had caught their breath, Tuomas pointed up at the stairs, “There that is the path.”

  They all drew out their weapons and began their climb, Donovan took point, with Alissa and Charlotte to his immediate left and right, with their shields up. Scott and Nick took up behind each of them, Nick behind Alissa, and Scott behind Charlotte. Tuomas took up the rear, his bow in his hand.

  “Are you ready?” Scott whispered into Charlotte’s ear.

  She nodded without answering him verbally. The found themselves at the foot of a massive stone door. There were lines of etched Nordic runes, “What do they say?” Alissa asked.

  “Hell if I know, I don’t read Norse, but probably something about a holy area and the two protectors that should be on the other side of these doors,” Tuomas responded, stretching out his hand to touch the stone.

  His touch caused a chain illumination of the doorway runes. They glowed in a red hue. The doorway started to open by itself, groaning as it did. The cold air rushed in the door and against their skins.

  “Let’s do this.” Scott said, shivering from the cold.

  Still in the formation that they used up the stairs, they made their way through the opening. Stepping out onto a snowy mountainside, they saw two large ice giants standing at what looked to be an altar. The two giants were on their knees, praying to some extent to a god that everyone else had no experience in knowing. Tuomas sneezed, ruining their element of surprise. The two giants looked back at the sound and grunted in rage. Rising from their knees, they towered each fifteen feet tall. “Oh crap.” Donovan swore.


  The ice giants roared in hatred, and picked up their weapons from their feet. Both holding large battle hammers, each one twice the size of Donovan’s single hammer.

  “Go!” Alissa yelled out pushing off her heel and charging the giants.

  Alissa headed in with her shield up and Donovan and Scott broke off to the sides leaving the pack, as Charlotte and Nick followed down the middle behind Alissa. They charged the one on the left, trying to get it to focus on them, while Scott distracted the other. The plan was for them to deal with one at a time, to be more effective.

  Scott went up and slashed at his target, the one they dubbed Ymir, as Alissa went in head on to the one they dubbed Aurgelmir. The two pulled the aggro off to them as an arrow whizzed through the air and hit Ymir in the ear. The giant cursed in his native language and swung his battle hammer down upon Scott’s position. The ground broke at his feet and Scott was sent tumbling back against the mountain.

  Aurgelmir swung his hammer at Donovan, as Alissa came up with Nick and Charlotte and attacked him from Aurgelmir’s flanks. They cut into him and blue blood oozed from the wounds. Nick began to climb up the giant digging his axes in to hefty beast who tried to get him off. Tuomas sent another arrow and hit Aurgelmir in the jaw. The giant lashed out and roared a battle cry and charged Tuomas with Nick still upon him. Tuomas moved just in time as the giant rammed himself into the side of the mountain. Nick was thrown up against the mountain side, for the force was too much for him to handle. He fell to the ground and couldn’t move, he was in pain all over, his axes left in the giant’s hide. “Damn it!” Tuomas yelled out moving to Nick’s side, “Hold on I need to move you.”

  “No, keep fighting, I’ll crawl over toward the door.”

  Tuomas knocked another arrow, “Fine then I will cover you while you do that.”