by Logan Jacobs
moved to jump into the air to attack, Blar quickly dodged it and pulled out his
claws to scrape along the side of the creature.
The beast cried out in pain, but the damage was minimal, definitely not
a death blow, and my heart rate spiked even more.
The cat spun around and swiped at Blar with its massive paw, but the
little dragon was ready for its attack. He backed up quickly, then let out a
spray of fire right at the cat’s face.
The creature cried out again and turned its face away from Blar, but
that blast hadn’t been enough to kill it, only injure it, and I realized I’d been
holding in a breath since the fight began.
So, I slowly released the air in my lungs and pulled in more as I
watched my little dragon continue to go head-to-head with this massive beast.
The cat jumped around and tried to swipe at Blar in the air. It was
obviously growing angrier, but Blar continued to dodge its attacks as it
snarled and snapped at him whenever he got close.
Blar was a little blue blur in the sky as he swirled around the cat, but
then the feline snapped its massive head out and chomped down. Part of me
was sure it’d gotten a piece of Blar, but the little blue dragon appeared a
second later, still in once piece.
Still, the cat had grown frustrated, and it spotted the girls and I as we
stood nearby and watched the scene unfold. It was not happy, and it decided
to change paths, so instead of focusing on Blar, the feline made a beeline for
us.
I pulled my sword out, ready to spar, but Blar saw what was happening
and was able to get right behind the cat. Then the little dragon let out a
monstrous spray of blue fire that overtook the entire feline.
The cat screamed as if it were a person, and the sound was both
terrifying and satisfying as I watched it crumple down to the ground in a huge, smoking mess.
The fire was so hot it had nearly melted the skin off the animal, and as
I ran toward Blar, the smell of burnt flesh and fur made me cough.
“Whoo!” I shouted, and I ignored the disgusting stench that went along
with the little dragon’s victory. “You did it!”
Blar looked the happiest I’d ever seen him, and he flew around in
excited little circles as he let out huffs that sounded like laughter.
“Good job!” Kas congratulated as Inger joined the little blue dragon in
his aerial celebration.
“That cat was not happy he couldn’t catch you,” Asta chuckled.
“Definitely not,” I agreed. “It was going to come after us instead.”
“You saved us,” Kas told Blar with a grin, and the little dragon
somehow managed to look even more smug.
As much as I wanted him to be humble, I figured I’d let him celebrate
for a moment. He’d done a great job, and I was proud of his
accomplishments. Not only had he defeated the creature, but he’d used his
wits against it. He’d waited to use his fire, which could have just scared it off
if he’d used it too soon. Instead, he waited until the cat was definitely
invested and angry, and the angrier the cat got, the less it would try and plan
out its attack, which gave Blar the complete advantage in the situation.
“I’m very proud of you,” I told the little blue dragon, and he landed on
my shoulder and nuzzled my cheek for a second.
“Aww,” the girls cooed in unison.
Before I could respond, an incredibly loud sound overtook my ears,
and I nearly had to bring my hands up to cover them.
The sound stopped a second later, and the girls and I looked at each
other with round eyes of panic.
“What the hell was that?” Asta whispered.
“I don’t--” Kas started to say, but another loud trumpet-like sound
interrupted her.
“Whatever it is, let’s not stick around to find out,” I said after the
sound quit.
“Uh, I don’t think we’ll have to,” Kas said, and her purple eyes grew
as wide as they could go as she stared above my head.
Suddenly, I was aware there was something behind me, so I grabbed
my sword and swung around as I pulled it out of its sheath.
What I came face to face with, though, was not at all something I was
prepared for.
A few hundred feet from us was a massive swarm of something brown
and huge. It took me a second to distinguish one individual creature from the crowd, but when I did, I realized a giant, hairy, dog-like thing was headed
right toward us. It had a long nose that extended far out from its body, and
huge fangs came out from its mouth. It was a deep brown color and looked
nearly as large as some of the dragons we’d seen.
“Mother nature,” Asta breathed out, and the way she said it made me
think it was a curse word of some sort in her home world.
I stared at the horde of animals headed toward us and saw not only was
there an incredible amount of adults, but there were some smaller ones that
had to be babies. They were actually quite cute, but one of the adults made
that loud sound again, and it pushed its head close to the ground as it ran
toward us, so I knew we needed to get out of there as fast as possible.
“Run,” I said as I continued to stare at the scene in front of me. Where
everything had been white just moments before, now it was all brown and
headed straight for us.
“Rath?” Kas asked, and her voice was panicked.
“Run!” I yelled as I spun around and slid my sword back into its
sheath. “It’s a stampede!”
Chapter 29
The girls didn’t wait for more instructions. They started toward the
portal as quickly as their feet would carry them, and I was right behind them,
ready to turn around and fend off one of those beasts if necessary.
Inger and Blar were at the forefront of the group, and they led us
through the snow as they followed the green sparkles that led the way back to
the portal.
Another loud trumpet sound came from behind us, and it was definitely
closer than last time. I turned my head around to check it out and realized
most of the group had hung back, but a few of the massive creatures
continued on straight for us. They had to be the alphas of the pack and were
defending their herd, something I couldn’t blame them for at all, but I didn’t
want to get flattened under their feet, either. We weren’t there to harm them,
but they had no way of knowing that.
“Jump!” Kas yelled, and I turned my head back around just in time to
see the portal and hop through behind everyone else.
We landed in a huge pile of limbs and scales in the countryside in
Asgard, and I took deep breaths as I rolled over onto my back to get off the
girls.
“Is everyone okay?” I panted.
“I’m alright,” Kas said, and she sat up and rubbed at her head a bit.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“It was just a hard landing,” she said with a small smirk.
“I’m okay, too,” Asta breathed, and the elf girl laid on her back and
stared up at the sun.
“Uffe?” I asked, and the little boy twin sneezed and shook his whole
body before he looked at me and nodded.
“Whe
re’s Inger and Blar?” Kas asked as she looked around.
I quickly scanned the area then and saw they were a few feet away
from us, but they were sitting up and didn’t appear injured at all, just a bit
shook up.
“I think it’s time to head home for the day,” I said as I stood up and
rubbed at my side where I’d landed on top of everyone. I could already tell
I’d have a bruise there in a few minutes if it hadn’t already started to appear.
“What were those things?” Asta wondered as I held out my hand to
help her up.
“They were bigger than the animal we saw last time we were there,”
Kas said with a shake of her head. “That’s for sure.”
The dog-like creature we’d seen before had been large, but nowhere
near the size of the beasts we’d just encountered, since they were closer to
dragon size than anything else I’d ever seen. Both creatures were covered in brown fur, but that seemed to be where the similarities stopped, and I was
just happy we hadn’t had to fight against them. They were obviously herd
animals, and herd animals typically weren’t dangerous, but they’d probably
never seen anything like us, so of course we would be deemed a threat.
“The babies were cute,” I said with a smile.
“I saw that, too,” Asta chuckled. “But then you told us to run.”
“Yeah, the adults didn’t seem too keen on us being there,” I said as we
started to walk home.
“Well, they’d probably just seen Blar take out a huge cat with a blast
of blue fire.” Kas shrugged. “I can’t imagine that’s normal for them.”
“I wouldn’t think so,” I laughed, then I turned to Blar. “I’m very proud
of you. How about you get to pick out dinner tonight?”
The little dragon nodded up at me fervently and walked a little faster.
I’d figured that would put him in a good mood, especially since our
congratulations had been cut short by a horde of angry dragon-sized creatures
ready to run us over.
We’d spent quite a bit of time in Midgard since it was such a large
place, and it was already late afternoon by the time we got back to the house,
so I poured the girls and I a pint of mead and walked with Blar over to the
garden so he could pick out what he wanted for dinner.
I hadn’t given him any in quite a while, but I should have known
exactly what he’d want, since the little dragon walked right over to the
pumpkins and sat down.
“Alright,” I chuckled. “We can make a pumpkin, what else do you
want?”
Blar just blinked at me and didn’t move.
“You can’t only have pumpkin,” I scoffed, and the little dragon laid
down next to the large orange gourd.
“No, no.” I shook my head. “Either you pick more veggies and fruit to
go with dinner, or I will.”
Blar glared at me, huffed, then walked along the garden to look for
something else to add to our dinner.
He was a stubborn little thing, and while I was proud of him, I couldn’t
let him only have pumpkin for dinner.
It took a few minutes, but he finally picked out some zucchini, sweet
peppers, onions, and potatoes.
“That’s more like it,” I told him as I picked the crops, but he just rolled
his eyes at me and headed back to the fire.
The little beast didn’t know it yet, but I was going to make him
something incredibly special for dessert. Larena had shown me a long time ago how to use pumpkin to make a sweet and creamy pie I knew Blar would
love. Not only was it pumpkin, but it was honeyed and delicious, and if I let
him, he’d probably devour the whole thing.
I started the vegetables and made some rice to go with them, then I
worked on the pumpkin as the girls chatted and the little dragons laid down
by the fire. I opened the gourd, pulled out the pumpkin seeds from it first, and
put them in a pan so they could cook on the fire. Blar loved them, and they’d
make a nice before dinner snack.
While I worked, I thought about everything that had changed recently.
I used to sit on my bench alone and cook for myself. Sometimes I’d have
women over, but usually they didn’t stay for dinner. Even if I did cook, we
never really made it to the actual eating part of the evening.
Now, though, I was happy to have Asta and Kas here with me as I
made us food. I liked providing for my women and knowing they were well
taken care of.
Sometimes it seemed strange to me that I’d met and bonded with these
women so quickly, but there was something about them. I could feel the pull
of us together somehow, and I knew they were meant to be in my life, that we
were all meant to be together.
They each fulfilled a part of me I hadn’t realized needed fulfilling. Kas was so knowledgeable and cautious, she was always a voice of reason I could
count on, and she was never afraid to speak her mind when it came to such
matters. She was a skilled fighter, but tended to run into battle headfirst,
which only made me a stronger fighter by having to teach her my own
strategies.
Asta, on the other hand, was more adventurous in her personality, but
more reserved as a fighter. The elf girl was nothing to mess with when it
came to a fight, and she kept me on my toes even as we playfully battled. Her
sweet and enthusiastic attitude brought me such joy, and I loved to be around
her and feel her energy.
I finally got the pumpkin all carved and the pie on its way, so I covered
the pan it was in and set it on the stove as a surprise for later. When I checked
on the rice, I found it to be tender and perfectly done, so I pulled it off the fire
and began to make everyone bowls of rice and vegetables.
Blar sat at my feet with wide eyes, and his head moved back and forth
while he followed my hand’s movements.
Once everyone had a bowl in front of them, I held up my glass, but
then I looked down to see Blar and Inger already had their heads in their
bowls.
“Ahem,” I cleared my throat, and Blar looked up at me, licked some
food off his cheeks, and sat down. “A toast.”
“A toast,” Kas repeated, and she held her pint of mead up high.
“Toast?” Asta asked, and her yellow eyes were confused as she
followed our lead and held up her pint glass.
“It’s a means of celebration,” I explained. “To Blar and his triumph
over the king of cats.”
“To Blar!” Kas exclaimed, and she clinked her glass against mine then
looked over to Asta.
“Oh, right,” the elf girl said when she realized it was her turn. “To
Blar!”
“Skol!” I grinned.
We all bumped glasses and took a long swig of our mead, and I looked
at Blar to see the little blue dragon had a wide grin on his face.
“Good job today, buddy,” I told him with a smile, then I nodded at him
so he knew he could go back to eating his food.
We all dug into our dinner as the sun began its descent behind the hills,
and the world grew darker and darker with each passing minute. The sky
came alive with stars as we ate, and I looked up and found my favorite
constellation. It was a warrior
with his sword up at the ready, with his shield
in front of him, and though his face lacked definition, something about the whole thing always felt so determined and fearsome. I’d been looking at the
same constellation year after year since I was a child, and I had asked many
people about it, only to get a different answer each time. Finally, I realized
there was no true story behind the constellation. He was a warrior, and that
was all. The onlookers were able to create any backstory they’d like about the
man, and that was one of the things I’d loved about him so much.
Throughout my life, he’d been a young father defending his child, a
warrior intent on protecting his land, a king who laid his own life on the line
for his people, and now when I looked at him, I saw a man ready to protect
his women at all costs.
When I was younger, I’d wanted nothing more than to be like the
warrior in the constellation, but now I knew I’d turned into a warrior of my
own. I hadn’t realized it as much until I had something to fight for, but now
that Blar, the twins, and the girls were with me, I realized just how wonderful
my life had become and how I’d do anything to protect it. Since I was little,
my only purpose was to live for myself, but now I had so much more drive. I
had my women and my dragons, and that was enough to keep me motivated.
For some reason, the fates chose me to bring dragons back to Asgard,
and I was ready to do whatever it took to end this centuries old war between
the Aesir and the frost giants.
After everyone finished eating, I went and refilled our pint glasses with mead, and then I returned to the fire and sat down next to its warmth.
“What is that?” Kas asked as she pointed to the covered pan on the
fire.
“It’s a surprise,” I said, and the blonde raised an eyebrow at me.
“A surprise?” Asta asked as a sweet smile spread across her face.
“Surprise food? Is this an Aesir thing?”
“It must be,” I chuckled.
“You seemed confused about the toast, too,” Kas laughed. “And I
figured every culture had that.”
“We have something similar I realized,” Asta commented. “But we
don’t lift our glasses as you all do.”
“What do you do instead?” Kas inquired.
“We usually join together in a song about the person who is being
praised,” the elf girl explained.