Jormungandr defended himself against the two Angels from Asgard! With a huge tail he batted Wotan to the ground and with a huge wing he swatted Thor across the sky! Wotan found himself surrounded by axe-wielding Ogres who attacked him! He spun around with his flaming sword like a Kung Fu master, cutting the heads off six! He rolled to the ground and cut through the legs of three others! He leaped onto his feet and quickly killed those from who he had cut the legs by stabbing them through the heart with his sword. The blade of his sword glowed white-hot, for it was not a weapon forged by men, but by the Forge Masters in Asgard. It was the weapon of a Warrior Angel! Wotan, patch over one eye, leaped into the sky and joined with Thor, who was very much still in the fight! Thor hit Jormungandr in the head with his hammer, sending the Dragon reeling to the ground in shock.
Then he heard the voice of Loki say, “It is over for now, old friend. Our human and creature allies have failed. Return home, brother.”
Jormungandr flew into the sky and he roared and laughed, saying, “You have the field today, Wotan and Thor! But I shall return and our Ragnarok will seal your doom in Gotterdammerung!”
He quickly vanished and the storm let loose a torrent of rain for two solid hours, which greatly helped to suppress the flames still burning in the city, lest it burn entirely to the ground, and thus Thorstadt was saved. The people who had witnessed this affair were in awe of the Spiritual powers that day.
Thor and Wotan appeared in the chamber of the Great Queen. She was in awe of the Angels! But the She-Elves were not the least bit awed by them and Zakarah, whose hair was now back to brown, asked sarcastically, “What took you so long, Ukkonen? After all, this city is named after you. Were you delayed by the golden-haired one, Lady Sifjar?”
Thor had a head of red hair and a red beard and he replied fiercely, “I am Thor, Wielder of Mjolnir, the mountain-crushing hammer! I wear the belt of Megingjord and the gloves of Jarngreipr! I carry the staff of Grioarvoir! I slay the enemies of peace and send the honoured dead to Wotan in Valhalla! Did you not see how I vanquished Jormungandr just now? And you, Lady Zakarah of Fennoskandja, fair beauty and mother of the Elves of Suomi and Queen of the Crystal Star Palace, dare say I was delayed by her!” Thor smiled, muttering, “Norns; spare me from the Norns!”
Wotan said, “He always gets himself worked up when you speak of Sifjar.” He turned and said, “Eowythane, be of good cheer. The baby will live. I will allow no more Jotnarim like Molech to come against you to try and possess the baby. Loki has crossed the line this time.” She thanked him for his kindness.
It was then that Galorfilinde said to Thor, “But the sacred items you bear do not explain why you were late.”
Thor had a sense of humour and they all knew it. The Angel looked at the Queen and said, “Have no fear, Eowythane. From the moment that you set your mind to pray to the Creator Shaddai, Wotan and I were sent forth. This is why I gave you the sword in Assyria. The war you fight here is part of the wars of Asgard and we have been opposed by Loki and his servants. The serpent which appeared today was Jormungandr! We have defeated him, but were delayed. Thou, Lady, know that Loki has sought from the start to destroy you and the child; yea, even the entire family, for fear of what this birth means. Birth is great labour, Queen, and even as you on earth labour in this birth, a new era is being born in Asgard and in Midgard!”
“What sign is there, Lord Thor, that I will know all this to be true?” asked Queen Gwynnalyn.
Thor replied, “A new star will be born in the heavens as from your womb comes the first-born son of the King. Thou shalt call his name Ronan, for he is the Goth Lord!” The Angels vanished in a flash of light.
Just then, Gauron entered and said, “My Queen, Sigmund escaped us and attempted to join the battle in the street. Eileza as well, and they are both wounded.” Her eyes grew wide with fearful concern and she said, “Get him into the Apothecary now. Take me to him! Get Mother and Greta! Take me to Siggy and get Byrnhilda and Skadi!”
Gerda frowned and scowled with both anger and worry, saying, “I just knew that the boy would pull a stunt like this!” She bolted out of the door to get to her child.
Thor reappeared in the apothecary. He looked at Sigmund and said, “You have fought hard today, but you must learn to be smarter about picking your battles if you are going to live to guard Ronan, oh Mammoth Rider. Wotan smiles upon you for this task. Fight smarter, not harder, Mammoth Rider. You need a Norn, it would seem, and I have the perfect one in mind for you.”
Sigmund was so taken by surprise at the sight of Thor, that he was at a loss for words. Not that he could have spoken them very well in his condition.
About that time everyone else came in and Byrnhilda got the bleeding fully stopped with pressure. She put Siggy to sleep with some sort of liquid which she poured into a rag. Once he was out, she began the task of stitching and cauterisation. Skadi was working on Eileza’s head as well. Rutia stood over her with a look of stone on her face. Momma Gerda was with her boy, holding his hand the whole time that the Priestess was working on him.
Thor smiled and said to the Elves, “I am never late, oh ye Norns; I arrive at the moment I desire to arrive! No sooner and no later.
Zakarah rolled her eyes and said in a comical but doubtful tone of voice, “Ummm! Yes. OK.”
With that, Thor was gone in a flash of light. Eileza got up and walked to Siggy’s bedside, and spoke to him even though he slept soundly. “Wow, Siggy, you have a big job now. I’m with you all the way”. Then she leaned down and whispered softly in his ear, where no one could hear her saying” I love you Siggy Wiggy.”
Lila said, “Me too, I’m with you Big Brother, so you just sleep now. My Queen, Momma Gerda and I will take care of Siggy.”
The Queen took her adopted baby sister in a hug and replied, “You certainly shall, brave heart.”
Sigmund slept soundly and was soon moved to recover in his own chambers.
At that moment they heard running through the halls and a clamouring among the guards. Captain Gauron entered the Apothecary and said, “I have good news, My Queen. The rains have quenched all of the fires. The King has returned and the Dark Wizard’s Army has been defeated. Byock somehow incinerated the Ogres with blue flame, My Lady.”
She replied, “And what of Gorkan-Mar and his brother? Did they escape or are they dead?”
“Unknown as of yet, My Queen,” replied her Chief Thane.
Lila let go of her and the Queen replied, “I will make of them eunuchs for what they did to my city! Find them, Gauron! I want Gorkan-Mar and his swine-headed brother found! Leave no stone unturned!”
Then Rutia asked, “Any news of my son?”
“No, Your Worship, there is none as of yet. The Dwarf Army is not here with the King.”
Eileza and Rutia looked at each other at the same time and the look on their faces showed grave concern. “And what if anything remains of the Dwarf Quarter?”
He replied, “A lot of it has been destroyed, Your Worship, but many homes are still intact.”
Rutia replied coldly, “Well then, this may inspire King Togrobeg to finally get us out of here and on the road to Ariemel.”
The King saw that victory was theirs this day and he sent word for all the Tervingian forces to gather outside the walls in front of the burned western gate. A great force was gathering as he rode with Lord Volsung and the Ealdormen as fast as he could for the Mead Hall. Once at the front of the building, King Sigurd leaped from his horse and ran past the guards, who bowed, saying, “Greetings, sire.”
Upon entering into the main audience chamber, he encountered Captain Gauron, who kneeled and said, “Welcome home, My King. The Queen awaits you in the apothecary. Sigmund and Eileza were wounded in the battle.”
King Sigurd was rushing to the door when his beloved Queen appeared. She was trying to run to him but couldn’t, so he ran to her and swept his beloved soul-mate into his arms! He was cognoscente of her swelling tummy, and remarked in his mind how fast t
heir child was growing. She was shedding tears of joy, as was he. Their lips met in a kiss! “Wotan has guarded you well, my hunter,” said Gwynnalyn, as she became choked with emotion and began to weep on his shoulder. Her hair was loose and flowing down to her waist and Sigurd’s hands weaved it in and out of his fingers. “How long it seemed you were gone, my hunter, and I never want to let you out of my sight again, my handsome King” declared Gwynnalyn in a soft voice, in between their kisses. “But Siggy tried to go out and fight and was nearly killed! If it were not for Princess Eileza he would be dead.”
Sigurd replied, “I thank Asgard that Siggy and Eileza both are safe.” Then he looked deep into her eyes and said, “I saw you in the reflection of the waters of the rivers we crossed! I saw your face in the glowing of the campfires on the plains and felt your kisses in the breeze, oh beloved of my soul.”
He gently pulled away from her, and then, taking her left hand into his right hand, he slowly spun her round as if they were dancing. When her back was to him, he gave her the kind of hug from him that she most loved: a hug from behind; and the two of them went in to be with Sigmund. Lord Volsung entered with them and sat beside his beloved Gerda, praying for his son.
Once the Army was assembled, Lord Randver spoke, saying, “Lord Gedron is well ahead now in pursuit of the Ogres. He has many of them pinned down five miles west of here. We here who are gathered below these ramparts will join the pursuit! If possible, I want Gorkan-Mar and Argan-Mar captured alive for interrogation! These are the King’s Orders, brothers! We know we shall win the final victory! So say we all! So say we all!”
The warriors on the field as well as the ones remaining behind to defend the city began to reply in unison, “So say we all! So say we all! So say we all! So say we all! So say we all!”
The order to march was then given. As the troops moved out, there were men digging mass graves south of the city in the forest in order to bury the enemy dead. There would also be many funeral pyres that night for the Tervingians whom Wotan had welcomed into Valhalla during the last three horrific days. Much equipment and arms had been captured that day. The imperial army had been forced to abandon all of its siege equipment and earlier had lost the majority of its baggage train to Lord Gedron’s Cavalry. The Goblin prisoner, Commandant Vlach, was taken to the dungeon.
“We must hold this position, little brother, until we gather up what is left of our forces!” declared Gorkan-Mar.
“We shall try, brother,” replied Argan-Mar, “but we have received reports that the rebels are marching against us with a huge force and cousin Gigan-Mar never made it out of the city alive! We have lost all of our supplies and siege engines. Let’s fight a rearguard action and retreat at once before they burn us off the land, Gorkan.”
“Very well, Argan, but it is urgent that we send word to Korgan-Tal about this debacle and we must form a united front to explain it to King Idanthrsus. For the life of me I cannot understand why our entire force was not committed to this campaign! There is no threat south of Dakkia! The King is paranoid!”
A few miles of marching brought the main force of Lord Randver to bear on the Army of Gorkan-Mar. The infantry assaulted the Ogres with the Gepid Pole Axemen in the lead. This allowed Lord Gedron to ride around their flanks and engage the Sarmatian Cavalry with his Horse Archers. The fighting was fierce that evening and, as the sun set, the Imperial forces retreated headlong to the west, their mount-boars oinking along the way. All in all, these pigs would have much preferred a nice mud wallow more so than having to carry Ogres on their backs into a battle.
While all of this was going on, King Togrobeg held the line against a resurgent Scythian force, with which Korgan-Tal had regrouped to launch a counter-attack. The battle stalemated and, once word had come to Korgan-Tal that Gorkan-Mar had been defeated, and that there would be no help from the Goblins, he withdrew north. Seven days later he encountered Gorkan-Mar and they reassembled some semblance of an Army Group.
“Will Sigurd and Gwynnalyn march on Gelonus, Lord Korgan-Tal?’ asked Gorkan Mar.
“No, I do not think so because autumn is to close. They will wait until spring, as will we.”
“And what of King Idanthrsus, Korgan-Tal? We best form a united front to explain this debacle or our heads will be drinking goblets!” declared Argan-Mar.
The Tervingians felt free now from any major attack for the rest of the year. King Sigurd wondered why the Scythians had not come at him with a much greater force. He deduced that Idanthrsus must have been forced to divert forces elsewhere because of another threat. But they maintained constant patrols just in case. But now it was time to celebrate and rebuild before the onset of autumn, which would lead on into the cruel winter. Hunting parties went forth to bring down mastodons and mammoths so that there would be meat for the winter. The barley harvest was started on time and all tribes of the Gomerian League, now the United Tervingian Kingdom, pledged loyalty to King Sigurd and Queen Gwynnalyn. The city that was once the city of King Osrik the Bald, who now walked with the honoured dead in the halls of Valhalla, was now the city of King Sigurd the Good and his mighty Queen, the Shield Maid, Gwynnalyn, daughter of Volsung.
The bodies of the slain kings were brought back to the city for a funeral pyre. There on the hill west of the city, King Sigurd, with the Priestess Byrnhilda singing the funeral rite of kings, lit the fire himself, saying, “My Kings, go now to Valhalla, Hall of the Honoured Dead!”
As the flames rose into a huge bonfire, sparks and embers arose from the snapping and crackling, into the clear night sky, as everyone watched. The Queen stood silent.
It was at this time that a small band of Gutthiuda refugees arrived in the city, led by a warrior by the name of Fridigern. This band of people numbered about four hundred or so. There were around one hundred men, one hundred women and two hundred children of all ages and genders. They had managed to escape, with the help of Sergeant Baldr and forty warriors, who had evaded capture and hidden in the mountains from the slave masters at Kul-Oba and, over the summer, had worked their way east to Thorstadt. This Lord Fridigern was thirty-one years old, and represented the last remaining Ealdorman of the once great Gutthiuda tribe, the western most of the Tervingian bands, whose home had been at the City of Helmgard.
Meanwhile, at Kul-Oba, Adawulf Hister was smarting from his defeat. He was in his Alchemy Lab hard at work on one his secret projects. It was then that Heike entered the room.
“Master,” she asked, “why is it so important that we defeat the tribes of the plains? They are just herdsmen and barley farmers with no great riches.”
Hister looked up from a scroll of Alchemy which he had been reading and replied, “Dear Frau, if these kin of yours are not defeated, they will pose a dire threat to us. Especially the child whom the witch queen carries, and I have foreseen it, Heike. When they have been defeated, we must conquer the Elves. Fennoskandja’s ice barrier is beginning to melt as Midgard warms from the passing Ice Age. Then we must march south into Hellas, and thence to Egypt and Babylon. What I do here in the Alchemy Lab will assure final victory and once we hold every piece of the All Seeing Eye, it will be assembled in place upon the temple atop the Black Ziggurat. I will succeed where my ancestor King Nimrod failed, Heike. This will ensure that we can effectively control what we conquer and once Midgard is subdued before us, then will come Ragnarok and the twilight of the gods.”
Power or domination was this evil Alchemist’s main concern and he escorted her away. She calmly went, but in her heart she despised this wicked tyrant. She herself was a Gomerian.
The Skald’s have now to sing of the Mighty Shield Maid, Queen Gwynnalyn. Though filling with child and vexed by a demon, she would not show fear in the face of the Ogre horde! For her Elf Guardian and Norn, Galorfilinde, was there by her side as she long ago promised always to be. Gorkan-Mar came that day to Thorstadt saying there is only this childish girl leading these people! But alas there came the White Wizard Byock, a Son of Light who as the Queen
held the glowing, Gwynnian Scythe high over her head, cast his spell of boiling flame into the Ogre Ranks! Seeing their beloved Queen, the Tervingians rallied, shouting, “Long live the Queen!” Lord Randver advanced, driving the Ogres and their Gargoyle allies back from the city! They drove them back into the clutches of King Sigurd, who had returned home for his beloved Gwynnalyn, Queen of his heart; and the youthful Sigmund and Eileza faced battle for the first time in their lives and did slay an Ogre! It was a fine victory that day and the great wealth and Glory did the Queen obtain by this ill misadventure of Ogre and Sarmatian, and banquets were prepared for her and the King throughout the united Tervingian Kingdom.
Chapter XVII
The Crown of the People
From the Skald’s Tale:
Oh how grand it feels to be free! Free at last, free at last! We had thrown off the yoke of the tyrant and all our scattered tribes had become a United Kingdom. So grand a celebration it was. The new crowns were to be crafted to represent all the tribes, and would now sit upon the heads of Sigurd Rothgarson and Gwynnalyn Volsungsdottir
T he task to rebuild now began in earnest. The people did not wait for their leaders to do it for them or to provide resources. These were a strong and independent lot and the city was filled with the activities of reconstruction and clean-up, especially in the devastated Dwarf Quarter, Dwarfsville, where Eileza helped as much as she could, working down in the mud and ashes with her people, despite the objections of her rather snoody mother. There were also those who had the sickening task of cleaning up all the charred bodies of the Ogres and placing them in a mass grave well west of the city. The stench was horrendous and people went about with rag masks over their faces in hopes of quelling the scent from their offended nostrils. The next day, after Osrik’s funeral pyre, there was a meeting of the Witena Gemot of the Tervingian tribes and the Dwarf Lords were present as well. Byock and Min Tze attended, as did Zakarah and Galorfilinde. The monarchs sat proud upon their thrones and there was much talk of routine matters regarding the clean-up and reconstruction. King Togrobeg sat on his throne beside King Sigurd as an equal in the grand alliance of the steppes of Midgard.
Visigothic_The Barbarians Of Midgard Page 22