by Logan Jacobs
The little dragon nodded fervently and stomped his little feet, and I
could tell he was happy I’d figured it out.
“How does he know that?” Kas whispered.
“Dragons inhabit all the realms,” Asta interjected. “It makes sense they
would be able to see into the portals where we cannot.”
“So, he’s known where we’ve been headed to this whole time?” Kas
asked, and she looked at me with wide, violet eyes.
“I think so,” I said with a nod. “That must be why he never tried to
stop us before, he knew we weren’t in any immediate danger if we went
there.”
“Could have used a heads up about that snake woman,” Kas muttered,
and she crossed her arms.
Blar glared at her, then, as if to say he didn’t know everything.
“You did good,” I told him, and I reached down and stroked his head.
Kas and I had known going to Helheim by accident was a risk, but I hadn’t
realized just how close we would have come if it hadn’t been for Blar. We
were ready to walk in there blind.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and I turned to Asta. “Helheim is too dangerous.”
“I agree,” the white-haired woman said with a nod, then she bent down
and addressed Blar. “Thank you for your knowledge, wise one.”
The dragon looked more smug than I’d ever seen him before, and I
rolled my eyes at him.
“There is another portal open still,” Kas reminded me. “We can check
that one out.”
“Lead the way,” I told her with a gesture of my hand.
Kas moved to walk ahead, but Blar was still feeling smug, so he
stepped in front of her and strutted toward the next portal with a bit of a
pompous wag of his ass.
Kas looked down at the little dragon, then turned to me, and we both
burst out laughing.
“This is your fault, you know,” the blonde told Asta.
“What do you mean?” the elf girl asked as she blinked her large yellow
eyes at the sorceress.
“You boosted his ego,” I chuckled.
“He deserved the compliment,” Asta said with a smile.
“Let’s maybe just avoid calling him wise one from now on,” Kas
laughed.
We followed Blar toward the next portal, though Kas kept her map out
to make sure we were still on the right track.
The day was beautiful as we walked, and I glanced over and saw Asta
looking around the area.
“Isn’t Asgard beautiful?” I asked. “It’s not quite as beautiful as your
home world, but I personally love it here.”
“It is lovely in its own way,” Asta agreed. “And it smells wonderful.”
I was happy the elf girl had found something to like about our world.
Her own realm was incredibly beautiful, but I also figured she’d seen it often
enough that it may have lost some of its initial appeal. It wasn’t until I
traveled to other worlds that I started to really appreciate the beauty around
me in Asgard.
“Can he fly?” Asta asked as we walked, and she gestured a long-
fingered hand at Blar.
“Not yet, I don’t think,” I said.
“He hasn’t tried?” she questioned, and she gave me a look of surprise.
“We’ve practiced jumping.” I shrugged. “I was hoping that would
prepare him some.”
“Those are good instincts,” Asta murmured, and she eyed me
strangely. “That is how mother dragons prepare their young.”
“How do you know?” Kas asked. “Have you seen them do it?”
“I have.” Asta nodded. “Small dragons cannot fly right away, but yours
is nearly big enough to try, I believe.”
“Hm,” I mused, and I looked around the countryside. There was
nobody around, so I stopped for a moment and called Blar over to me. Then I
reached down and touched his little wings softly. “Can you move these?”
The little dragon wiggled his wings, then looked up at me proudly.
“Good job,” I told him with a smile.
“Interesting,” Asta murmured behind me.
“Isn’t it?” Kas asked, and when I turned to look at her, her violet eyes
were lit up with excitement. “It’s so fun to watch.”
“Let’s see if we can get lift off,” I told Blar. “Move your wings.”
The little dragon flapped his blue leathery wings softly at first, then
harder and harder.
“Now jump!”
He hopped into the air and stayed there for a second, but when he hit
the ground again, he shook his head with determination, flapped his wings
harder, and hopped up again. Then he hovered in the air for a few seconds,
and Asta, Kas, and I cheered him on.
“Good job!” I praised him, but he lost his momentum, then, and fell
back down to the ground. He stood up and shook his little head as if he were
about to try again, but I reached down to give him some pets. “I think that’s
good enough for now, we can keep trying later.”
The little reptile smiled up at me, then turned back around and
continued to lead us toward the next portal.
I turned to see Asta gazing at me with bright yellow eyes, so I smiled at her. She had already made a couple of interesting suggestions today, and I
was curious to see what else she would bring to the table. It was always nice
to have a new perspective, especially since she’d seen dragons before and
knew more about them than Kas or I did.
“I see the portal,” Kas announced after a few moments, and she
pointed ahead.
Blar walked over to the swirling pool of air, sniffed it, and turned
around to nod at us.
“I think we have approval to go in,” I chuckled.
“Let’s go,” the blonde said, and she held out her hand to me.
“Blar, shoulder,” I commanded, and the little creature crawled up my
body quickly to take his place on my shoulders. He would soon be too big for
it, but without his lead, I wanted him attached to me some other way. After
Blar was secured, I reached out my hand to Asta, and she gripped it firmly.
I smiled to myself at the feel of the two soft, feminine hands in mine,
and then we all stepped forward together and into another world.
I didn’t know what I had expected, but this world wasn’t it.
Immediately, I was freezing, and when my vision cleared, there was snow
flurrying all around us. I looked out to a white expanse as we walked a few
feet to the left, and then I glanced up to the sky. It was gray colored, and the snow continued to come down and obstruct my vision, but still I could tell
from the peaks and valleys that we were on a mountain top, and I realized we
must have been in Jotunheim.
“Wow,” Asta breathed with wide, yellow eyes.
“It’s beautiful,” Kas added.
Blar snuggled closer into my neck, and I could tell he was obviously
not a fan of the cold.
“It is beautiful,” I agreed, then I turned to Kas and raised my voice
over the howling wind that surrounded us. “Any spells to heat us up?”
“Yes!” she said, and her eyes squinted shut against the snow. “Come
here.”
The sorceress held out her hands to Asta and me, and we took them in
ours, then huddled together quickly. Kas pulled out some things fro
m her
satchel to perform the spell, but suddenly I heard a low growl, and Blar
tensed up on my shoulders. The wind was loud, but I was sure I had just
heard an animal of some kind.
Asta and Kas must have heard it, too, because they both grew very still
and looked at me. I forgot all about the coldness that had overtaken me just a
moment ago, and my body flushed with adrenaline.
“Be quiet,” I mouthed, and I turned around to scan the area.
At first I saw nothing, but then movement caught my eye, and I
realized there was a giant snow leopard just twenty feet behind us. The
creature was massive, larger than any other animal I’d seen aside from a
dragon. It was larger than my house back in Asgard, and it stared at me with
white eyes surrounded by a thin ring of black. The beast was all white in
order to blend in with its surroundings, but once I caught sight of it, I
couldn’t see anything else.
Then it growled low again, and the snarl revealed two giant fangs on
either side of its mouth.
My heart rate accelerated immediately, and I searched for the portal we
had just come from. This beast was too large, and I knew if it came down to a
fight, we were definitely at a disadvantage. This creature lived in this climate,
it was used to the snow, and its fangs were as long as my legs.
I watched as the giant leopard took a step forward, and its back was
low as it stalked us and waited for us to make a move. I searched for the
portal again, but the snow made it hard to see. Finally, I spotted a bit of it, but
it was behind the beast.
The massive leopard stood between us and our way back home.
Blar tensed further on my shoulder as the leopard took another step
forward.
“Kas, Asta,” I whispered while I kept my eyes locked onto the beast.
“Do you see this?”
“Yes,” Asta breathed.
“What do we do?” Kas asked, and her voice was determined and hard,
though I could hear just the faintest hint of shakiness.
“I’m going to charge it,” I announced. “You two run for the portal
once it gets out of the way.”
“Rath,” Kas protested, “we can’t let you--”
“You don’t have a choice,” I cut her off, and if there was any time to
use my command over her, it was now. “Go when the leopard moves.”
“Okay,” Kas agreed, though I knew she didn’t like it.
“You got that fire ready?” I whispered to Blar, and I saw him nod out
of the side of my eye.
So, I slowly reached down toward my axe, and the leopard growled
again. I knew I’d have to act fast, since the creature was obviously intelligent.
“Ahhh!” I screamed as I snatched my axe off my belt and ran toward
the leopard.
The big cat yowled and jumped toward me, but Blar let out a blast of
fire that surprised the beast and caused it to jump back slightly. Then I ran to
the side of the creature so it would follow me and give the girls an
opportunity to escape.
The leopard regained its composure and turned toward me, and I raised
my axe up to fight and watched as Kas and Asta sprinted through the snow
behind the thing. The snow was deep, though, and Asta fell and cried out,
which drew the leopard’s attention.
“Fuck,” I breathed as the beast turned toward the women. “Over here!”
I tried to call it and make it look back at me, but it was too late. It had
set its sights on the women, and it was determined. The leopard began to
stalk toward them as Kas tried to lift up Asta with one hand while also
holding her enchanted hand up to try and protect them.
I quickly ran around the side of the beast as it let out a high-pitched
screech and lunged toward Asta on the ground. I slid in between the two at
the last second and swiped my axe at the leopard’s massive paw.
“Get her up!” I yelled to Kas as I felt my blade connect with the
massive beast.
Blood spilled out from the leopard’s wound, but I knew all I had
accomplished was to piss it off. I’d put a gash in it, but it definitely wasn’t
deadly, and it was barely enough to keep it from coming after us for more
than a second.
The thing looked down at its bloody paw, then hissed at me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the girls jump through the portal
just as the beast charged at me.
“Blar, fire!” I yelled, and the little dragon shot blue flames at the
leopard as I ran toward the portal.
The massive beast didn’t let the flames deter him this time. He
continued to charge and lunged at me just as I threw myself through the
portal and landed on the hard ground on the other side. The instant I hit the
dirt, though, I shoved myself back up and onto my feet, in case the leopard
followed us, but the portal remained empty. I wondered if the giant cat had
stopped itself because it was too afraid to travel through the magical entry, or
if somehow the portal itself stopped the beast. I didn’t have the answers,
though, so with one last glance at the portal, I turned back to check on my
companions.
“Blar, are you okay?” I asked as I grabbed the little dragon from
around my neck. It hadn’t been a soft landing, and I was worried I’d hurt him
even though I tried to take most of the impact myself.
The little blue reptile appeared slightly dazed, but he nodded at me
before he put his little paw up to his head.
“Sorry, buddy,” I said, and I held him against my chest for a second
before I sat up from the ground and looked around for the girls. They were a few feet away, but as soon as I spotted them, I knew something was wrong.
Asta was on the ground with her leg outstretched, and she leaned back and
winced in pain as Kas crouched down next to her.
I quickly ran over to the two of them, but before I could see what was
going on, Kas spotted me and stood up to pull me into her embrace.
“Thank the gods you’re okay,” she breathed into my ear.
“I’m fine,” I said, and I pushed her back slightly to look at her. “Are
you alright?”
“I’m okay,” the blonde said with a nod, but then she gestured down to
Asta’s leg. “I’m afraid she’ll need some attention, though.”
On the elf girl’s shin were a couple of large gashes, and it looked like
she must have hit her leg on a rock or something when she and Kas were
trying to escape.
“What happened?” I asked.
“When I fell, I hit my leg on something hard,” Asta hissed as her eyes
narrowed with pain.
“I think there was a rock hidden beneath the snow,” Kas added with a
frown.
“Are you alright?” I asked as I leaned down to look into Asta’s large,
yellow eyes.
“I’ll be okay,” she whispered, but she winced in pain again.
Blar sniffed at her wound and let out a low whine of sorts.
“I know, buddy,” I said with a frown, and I looked back up to Kas.
“Can you help her?”
“I’m on it,” the blonde assured me with a small smile, and she knelt
back down to continue what she’d been doing. Then I watched as she pulled
&nb
sp; out the same salve she’d used on me just a couple of days before from her
bag.
I sat down next to Asta then and grabbed her hand so she wouldn’t feel
alone in her pain.
“You saved me,” she whispered as she stared at me with yellow eyes
full of wonder.
“It was nothing,” I said with a shake of my head. “Kas was ready to
take on the leopard for you, too.”
“Thank you,” Asta said to Kas, and she sounded so genuine I couldn’t
help but smile.
“Of course,” Kas replied. “But Rath still saved both of us, he’s the one
who deserves the thanks.”
“I’m just glad everyone will be okay,” I said, but I frowned at Asta’s
leg as Kas covered it with salve. “I’m sorry you were injured, though.”
“Kas is right,” Asta murmured. “You saved both of us.”
“It’s my job to protect her,” I said with a nod at Kas. “And now it’s my
job to protect you, too. Besides, Blar helped some.”
“You are an honorable male,” Asta remarked, and her lips parted
slightly before she leaned up and kissed me softly on the mouth.
Chapter 13
For a second, her lips on mine was all I could feel. My eyes closed
instinctively, and I was enveloped by her sweet scent and the feel of her pink
lips gently pressed against my own. My heart rate accelerated, and my
stomach turned with excitement.
“Thank you,” Asta whispered as she pulled away, and I had to blink a
few times to regain my composure.
“Y-You’re welcome,” I murmured back.
As soon as I realized what had happened I turned to Kas, since I was
afraid she would be angry. The beautiful sorceress just looked up at me from
Asta’s leg, though, and she gave me a playful smirk before she shook her
head and went back to applying salve.
It seemed Kas wasn’t the jealous type, and for that I was grateful. We
were bonded, after all, so there was really no need for her to be possessive
over me. She knew she would have me forever already.
Or maybe it was more that I had her.
So, I continued to hold Asta’s hand while Kas bandaged her up. I knew
from experience the salve would heal the wounds quickly, but since they
were such large gashes, Kas had wrapped some cloth around them so they
didn’t get dirty.
“Thank you,” Asta told the blonde once she’d finished.
“You’re welcome,” Kas said with a smile. “This salve will heal you up