by Logan Jacobs
everybody in the warbands. That’s where it’s threatened you’ll go if you
dishonor yourself or Odin.”
“I guess that makes sense,” she replied. “Seems like a bit much,
though.”
“It’s just a scare tactic.” I shrugged.
“I don’t know,” Kas said. “They say once you enter Helheim, you can
never be happy again.”
“Never?” I asked, and now I was slightly concerned we’d just jumped
into a portal without knowing where it went. If we’d ended up in Helheim,
that would have been bad.
“That’s what my father said,” Kas explained. “But that was for those
who were already dead. Maybe it’s different for the living.”
As we walked, the putrid smell of the place grew stronger and stronger,
and I had the urge to plug my nose to get it away from me. The world also
seemed to get smokier the further we went, and my eyes started to burn.
“Blar,” I called out, “come here.”
I tapped my shoulder, and he ran up my body and snuggled into my
neck. Then I undid his leash and put it into my pocket, and he sat on my
shoulder and looked out at the world around him. As much as my own eyes
hurt, he didn’t seem fazed by the smoke, since his round blue eyes were still
fully open as he stared ahead.
Still, it was getting smokier, and I wanted to know where he was at
every second. We knew there were creatures that lived here, dangerous ones,
but that was all we really knew, and I wasn’t going to take any chances. Once
he was larger, I might let him walk in front of me, but if he could still fit on
my shoulder then that’s where I wanted him to be.
Kas coughed a couple of times, then, and I frowned as I considered our
options. We could continue on in this world and possibly find some eggs, but
it would be difficult under these conditions. I thought we’d push on for a bit
longer, and if it became too much we could turn back. This was the first
world, and as much as I’d like to find eggs right away, I was used to working
for things.
So, we continued on for a little bit, and I looked behind us to make
sure our green paths were still lit up. They were faint under all the smoke, but
I could still see them. After a few minutes, the smoke started to clear a little
bit, though, and the burn in my eyes faded slightly.
“Thank goodness,” Kas breathed. “That smoke was getting to me.”
“It was quite thick,” I agreed. “I wonder what caused it.”
“I--” Kas started, but a loud hissing sound made us stop in our tracks.
My whole body tensed, and so did Blar’s on my shoulder. There was
something nearby, I could feel it. So, I slowly reached for my axe at my hip
and pulled it free, and Kas looked over at me, with her violet eyes wide with
concern.
Neither of us dared to speak as I slowly turned my head around to scan
the area.
At first, I saw nothing but the orange glow and the smoke that steadily
rose from the ground, but then I heard another hiss off to our right, and I
whipped my head around just in time to see the tail end of what looked like a
giant serpent disappear into the trees.
I turned my body to face the beast, but I didn’t see it again for a
moment. Kas and I were utterly still and breathless as we waited for the thing
to attack.
“Do you think it’s gone?” Kas whispered after a moment of silence.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But let’s not stick around to find out.”
“Did you see it?” she asked.
“Only the tail end,” I replied. “It looked like a giant snake.”
Since I only saw the tail, there was no telling how large the creature
actually was, but I didn’t want to find out. If this was the world of giant fire monsters, then I could only imagine how large the snakes were.
“Rath,” Kas suddenly whispered, and she pointed into the trees.
There, a few meters back in a nest of burnt twigs and branches, were
three large eggs. They were bright red and looked like they had scales on the
outside.
“Eggs,” I breathed as my eyes widened. They were what we’d come
looking for. Had the tail I’d seen not been a snake’s at all, but a dragon’s?
“Let’s get them,” Kas said.
I wasn’t totally sure the creature I’d seen was gone, but still, I couldn’t
pass up this opportunity. I needed those eggs. So, I had Blar on my shoulder,
and my axe at the ready as I slowly moved toward the trees.
Everything was quiet, and I could hear Kas’ breath behind me was
shallow with adrenaline.
Just as we reached the tree line, a loud screech made us stumble
backward, and from the trees appeared a large woman.
She continued to scream, but when I looked down I realized it wasn’t a
woman at all. She had the head and torso of a female, with long red hair that
rose from her head in a massive mane, but her skin was burnt orange in color
and scaly in some parts, and her head was more triangularly shaped than any
normal person’s would be. Her eyes were yellow and slitted, and when she screamed her jaw unhinged to reveal fangs the size of my forearm. Her arms
seemed typical until I noticed the huge claws where her fingernails should
have been, and they were deep red in color and looked just as sharp as her
fangs.
The bottom half of her didn’t resemble a person at all, though. Instead,
it was the bottom half of a snake. The reptile scales were orange as well, with
some yellow thrown in, and the pattern on her back was diamond shaped to
indicate she was dangerous.
Then she stood up on the reptile half, with part of it coiled under her
like a snake ready to strike.
“Shit,” I breathed as I brought my axe up.
These weren’t dragon eggs at all, they were her eggs, and we’d just
royally pissed her off. Even if we tried to run, something told me she’d
follow after us. This creature was clearly territorial, and we’d stumbled right
into her nesting spot.
The snake woman sprang forward, and her body moved incredibly fast
and further than I would have expected. She nearly caught my arm with her
fangs, but I rolled out of the way as Blar clung to my neck.
I landed on my feet just in time to see the creature let out a yell and
lean its head back. As it did so, strange fan-like scales sprang up from its neck, and its jaw unhinged even more to reveal another set of teeth behind the
first. They were just as long and looked as deadly as the first set, and the hair
on the back of my neck stood up.
We’d definitely pissed this thing off.
Adrenaline coursed through me, and my heart rate sped up as I ran
forward with my axe in an attempt to slash the creature in half, but as I
approached, it whipped its tail around and landed a powerful blow to my side
that sent me flying back into the smoldering trees.
This monster was strong, and it wasn’t stupid, either. The blow had
nearly knocked me out, and I looked over to my shoulder to check on Blar.
He still clung to me tightly, but we made eye contact, and I was sure he was
alright.
Before I could recover myself, the creature went aft
er Kas, who stood
in a warrior stance ready to fight. She was a tough woman, but I wasn’t sure
she was a match for this beast.
Even I didn’t think I was a match.
The serpent used her human-like arms to grab Kas by the hair and lift
her up toward her head.
Then the creature screeched and stretched its jaw a little bit more.
“Fuck,” I hissed as I jumped to my feet
It was going to try and eat her.
Kas must have turned her hand into a dagger like she had in the field,
though, because she slashed at the creature, and I saw bright blue blood spill
out from its torso.
Still, the beast didn’t let her go, so I ran over to her just as the thing
reared back its head to bite. Kas fought against it, but the snake woman was
stronger than she was. The thing was nearly ten feet tall, and that was with
part of her serpent body coiled underneath her.
Then I sprang forward and grabbed onto Kas to rip her from the
serpent’s arms. We both fell to the ground in a heap of limbs, but I quickly
jumped up as the snake creature came toward us once more.
“Run!” I yelled to Kas as I stood my ground with my axe raised. I
could feel Blar on my neck still, and he clung to me with a steady grip.
Kas looked at me with wide violet eyes of hesitation, so I reached back
and shoved her.
“Go!” I screamed just as the snake woman struck again.
I managed to cram my axe into her mouth as she bit down, but she
grabbed onto my shoulders with her massive talon like fingernails. They dug
into my flesh, and my body tensed as I tried to hold the axe in place.
Suddenly, Blar let out a little roar, and I saw blue flames out from the corner of my eye. The flames went up the serpent woman’s arm and
distracted her long enough that I was able to twist my axe inside her mouth.
She released my weapon quickly and let out a strangled scream as bright blue
blood rushed down her mouth.
Kas was still stuck in place, so I grabbed her by the arm and took off in
the direction we’d come from. I followed the little green light on the ground
as we ran, but the whole time I could hear the snake woman screech, and I
could feel the vibrations of the ground as her body slithered after us.
We ran as fast as we could, but I turned my head back to see the beast
was steadily gaining on us. Her powerful body sent her forward in long
strides that our legs just couldn’t match. Her eyes seemed all yellow now, as
if the slits had disappeared completely, and bright blue blood ran down her
orange body and leaked out from her mouth in a terrifying and unsettling
way.
“We’re almost there!” Kas yelled, and she pointed ahead to where I
could barely see the portal through the smoke we’d stirred up.
I glanced back again and saw the serpent woman was only ten feet
behind us. She was gaining on us too fast, so I grabbed Kas’ hand and sprang
forward with as much power as I could muster.
We flew through the portal, but I glanced back just in time to see the creature’s jaw snap at our feet.
Chapter 8
Kas, Blar, and I landed in a tangled mess in the grass of the Asgardian
countryside. I didn’t even think to move, I just laid there entangled with Kas
as I caught my breath. Then I felt something squirm against my neck, and I
lifted my head so Blar could crawl out from underneath me.
He narrowed his little eyes at me then shook his whole body.
“Sorry, little guy,” I breathed.
I continued to lay on the ground with Kas’ warm body beside mine. I
closed my eyes and let my breath even out as I thought about what had just
happened. We’d nearly been killed by that creature, which wasn’t a great start
to our quest for more dragon eggs. And that was another thing, those eggs we
saw were probably the serpent woman’s eggs, not dragon eggs at all. If we
weren’t careful, we could wind up with eggs we didn’t want, and I definitely
didn’t want to accidentally hatch a bundle of tiny snake women who were
ready to attack. There was definitely no bond there.
We needed to figure out a way to recognize dragon eggs instead of
going for whatever eggs we happened to see, but I didn’t want to steal the
eggs away from any mothers.
I frowned as I thought about our predicament. It was a strange one to
be in, but I pushed it out of my head and focused on the fact we were still
alive. That snake creature had nearly torn us to pieces, and if we hadn’t escaped when we did, she would have. I thought about her massive jaw trying
to bite our feet on the way out, and a shiver ran down my spine. We needed
to be careful wherever we went next, we couldn’t afford another incident like
that one.
I was a trained and skilled warrior, but I’d never dealt with giant
reptilian women before, especially not ones stronger than five Hagar’s put
together and quicker than a field mouse.
I reminded myself we were alive, though, and I was ready for a nice
bath and some dinner. That battle had taken a lot out of me, and I had nothing
to show for it but my life and the knowledge the world of fire might be too
powerful for us at the moment. If that world was too powerful, though, then I
could only imagine what some of the other ones would be like.
I took a deep breath and finally untangled myself from Kas, and it was
at that moment I realized how sore my side and shoulders were. Then I
looked down to see my shoulders were still oozing red blood, and it had
gotten everywhere, including all over Kas’ green tunic.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I pulled myself to my feet, then offered her my
hand.
“Sorry for what?” she asked as I lifted her up. Her face was just inches
away from my own, and she stared at me with beautiful violet eyes. “You saved me.”
“Oh, it was nothing,” I said with a shake of my head.
“Thank you,” she insisted, and she grabbed my hands in her own.
“Y-you’re welcome,” I mumbled and looked down. I hadn’t saved her
for any sort of praise, though it was nice to hear. Still, her stare was so
intense, and her body was so close to mine I had to look away so I wouldn’t
continue to stare, or worse, pull her closer to me.
“You’re bleeding,” she realized with a frown as she looked at my
shoulders.
“Yeah.” I tried to shrug, but as soon as I moved my shoulders, I
winced in pain. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she assured me.
“Blar?” I asked, and the little dragon looked up from where he’d been
licking himself. “We have a lady present, can’t you do that later?”
I swear the tiny lizard rolled his eyes at me, but he sat upright
anyways.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Kas suggested.
“That’s probably a good idea,” I agreed.
“Come on,” she said. “I know a place nearby where we can camp.”
I looked up then and realized it was nearly sunset. We had to have
been in the world of fire for at least an hour or two, though time certainly
flew when you were being attacked by a monstrous snake lady.
“Let’s go, Blar,” I said, and we followe
d Kas into the trees at the edge
of the countryside.
She led us through some thick foliage where I had to push branches out
of my way, which only made my arms hurt more, but once we broke through
the tree line, I felt it was worth it. The place she’d led us to was beautiful. It
was at the top of a hill overlooking one of the western villages below. The
grass was bright green like the rest of the countryside, but there were little
white and purple flowers littered all over the hilltop, and when I looked down
to the village, I could see the dim orange glow of the lights from the houses.
There was a fire pit already on the ground, and Kas immediately walked over
to it and worked on getting a flame going.
“You come here often?” I asked as I sat down on one of the logs that
served as a bench around the fire pit.
“Sometimes,” she said, and she turned her head to smile at me.
“Did you build the fire pit?” I questioned.
“Yeah,” she admitted, and a flame sparked up under her hands, so she
blew on it, and it grew larger and larger until she was satisfied with its
intensity. Then she tossed a few small logs on top of it and came over to sit by me.
Blar walked right up to the fire, lifted the top half of his body, and held
his little arms out to warm them before he curled up on the ground next to the
pit. For a second, I worried he was too close to the flames, but then I
remembered the way he’d acted in the world of fire. It seemed dragons
preferred to be very warm.
“Now, let me see,” Kas said as she sat next to me and started to pull off
my tunic.
“Hey,” I protested.
“I need to see your wounds,” she countered with a smile. “Come on.”
I reluctantly pulled my tunic over my head to reveal my bare chest, but
as I did so, I winced at the soreness of my side and shoulders.
“Oh,” Kas whispered, and her fingers traced my side as I finished
taking the tunic off.
“What?” I asked, and I looked down to see the whole left side of my
body was bruised. It was a nasty purplish red color, and it went from just
under my arm down to my hip bone. No wonder I was so sore there, the
serpent woman had landed a nasty blow.
“Your shoulders are worse I’m afraid,” Kas said with a frown, and she
traced her fingers from my side up to my left shoulder.