by Logan Jacobs
is Rath, and we have no business here. We don’t wish for any trouble, we’re
just exploring this world.”
There wasn’t an answer, so I put my hand on the handle of my sword
and took another step into the clearing. This time, I made it fully inside, and I
was blown away by what I saw.
The black rock that surrounded us was so smooth and shiny, and it
nearly reached up to the clouds. Some fog was still on the ground, but the
clearing seemed to be empty aside from a large brick well that sat directly in
the middle of the place.
“Hello?” I called out, and suddenly I saw movement out of the corner
of my eye.
So, I spun to the right with my sword drawn and came face to face with
a huge black dragon.
The creature’s head was longer than I was tall, and it had several long
whisker-like hairs that came out just under its nose. Its face was thin like
Blar’s, and its black scales were so bright that a white gleam seemed to shine
anywhere the measliest amount of light hit. His eyes were a bright white, and
he stared at me with a calm expression.
You have no need for your weapon here, the voice said, and I knew it
was from the dragon in front of me.
I instinctively lowered my sword, but maintained eye contact with the
massive creature.
“Who are you?” I asked, but somehow I felt I knew him already. I felt
we were connected in some way I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It wasn’t
like the connection I had with the girls or with my three little dragons, but
there was something between us, and I wanted to know what.
I am Nidhug, the voice answered as the dragon’s white eyes bored into
me.
“I’m Volrath,” I repeated.
I know who you are, Nidhug chuckled, and the dragon slid past me to
coil around toward the well. His massive body moved by the girls and me,
and we glanced at each other with wide eyes before Nidhug laid himself
down on the other side of the well and looked at us.
We’d seen dragons in Asta’s home world, but none that looked like
him. His body was more similar to Blar’s than any other dragon I’d ever
seen, but the depth of black in his scales was almost unsettling. He blended in
well with the obsidian rock that surrounded us, and I knew if someone were
to stumble upon this place by chance they probably wouldn’t even see him if he didn’t want them to.
As I looked around I wondered what exactly this place was. The well
that sat in the middle of the clearing obviously had some sort of meaning, but
I had no idea what. Could it have something to do with the well Odin had
given his eye to drink from? I knew this wasn’t the same well, but I could
feel some sort of magic coming from it and I wondered if it held knowledge
or something else entirely.
“What’s he saying?” Kas asked, and I remembered then they were
unable to hear him.
“Uh, his name is Nidhug,” I said, still confused about what exactly was
happening. “He says he knows me.”
“What?” Asta gasped, and her yellow eyes were as wide as the moon.
“How is that possible.”
I know many things, the voice in my head said, and I swore Nidhug
was almost smirking at me.
“But how?” I asked. “How do you know about me?”
You are important to the dragons, the huge, black reptile answered as
he stared at me with serious white eyes. You will fulfill the prophecy.
“Prophecy?” I echoed as my heart skipped a beat. “What prophecy?”
“Yeah, what prophecy?” Kas asked, and I glanced over to see her and
Asta staring at me.
You are early, Nidhug said. It is no matter, though. You have found the
well, early as you might be. Now, it is time for your quest.
“What quest?” I questioned.
“What’s going on?” Asta pushed.
“He says he has a quest for me,” I said, but I didn’t take my eyes off
the huge dragon.
It is not I who has the quest for you, the great beast corrected. It is the
world, the universe, and all of dragon kind.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” I said with a shake of my head.
It is your destiny to fulfill the prophecy, Nidhug said, and when he
cocked his head slightly to the side, I thought he was trying to see how I
would react.
I wanted to ask him what the prophecy was again, and what the quest
was, but he had yet to give me a straight answer, so I decided to try his own
tactic.
“What is required of me?” I asked. “Where must I go?”
The huge black dragon seemed to smile then, and I felt as though I’d
passed whatever test he’d just put me through.
You must travel to Helheim, he intoned. You must find the man who
was there when Odin banished the dragons. He will tell you how to fulfill the
prophecy.
“Helheim?” I repeated, and my eyes widened with shock.
How was I supposed to travel to Helheim? A person could lose their
joy forever if they weren’t careful there. And who was it I was supposed to
find? I had more questions than I did answers.
“What about Helheim?” Kas asked, but Nidhug began to laugh in my
head, and the sound distracted me.
The giant dragon turned his head toward his tail, and I followed his
eyes to where Blar and the twins were crawling on his huge, black body.
While I was speaking to him, and the girls were waiting for my responses, the
little dragons must have snuck toward Nidhug.
They were crawling up his tail and rolling over on him in an attempt to
get him to play. All three of them let out little squeaks as they tried their
hardest to gain his attention. Inger chewed on the end of his tail, while Blar
rolled over onto his back and rubbed their scales together. Uffe pounced
around as if he were trying to bring up some of the dirt around them so they
could play with it.
The huge dragon lifted his tail up, and the three little dragons hung on
for dear life. Uffe almost fell off at first, but he scurried back up. Then Nidhug moved his tail slowly and carefully and brought it up to his face to
look at the little dragons.
Normally, I would have been terrified to see such a huge beast I didn’t
know with my babies in front of him, but I knew Nidhug wouldn’t hurt them.
He smiled as he looked at the baby dragons, and they cooed to him and tried
to reach out to him again, but he just slowly brought his tail over to me, and I
held out my arms so he could set the small dragons down in them.
It was incredible to think this massive creature in front of me had been
the size of them once. We all started out small, but to see what my dragons
would become was both shocking and amazing all at once. I wondered if Blar
would gain the whiskers that Nidhug had, and if his blue scales would
become as deep in color as Nidhug’s black ones.
You must care for them and protect them, he said, and I nodded my
agreement. You are their last hope.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
You will see, the dragon chuckled.
“I still don’t understand,” I sighed, and I held the dragons a
bit closer
to my chest. “How do I find this man in Helheim? Who is it?”
You are well aware of who he is, whether you realize it or not, Nidhug
said.
I thought for a second, and then it hit me.
He was talking about Vinrar. He was the man who was there when
Odin banished the dragons. But why would I need to find him? I never
wanted to see that sonofabitch, and if I did, I’d kill him all over again.
The man you seek is in the deepest, darkest dungeon of Helheim,
Nidhug told me. Find him, and you will know your future.
“But, I--” I started to say, but the great dragon quickly wound himself
around the well and disappeared inside of it.
Goodbye, Rath, the dragon said, and his voice grew more distant. May
you save us all.
I was left with a million more questions, but he was gone. I knew he
wouldn’t answer anything else for me anyway, so I stood dumbfounded in the
clearing with my dragons in my arms.
I could feel my breath was heavy, and as I stood there Inger crawled up
my chest and onto my shoulder to nuzzle my neck while Blar and Uffe began
to squabble playfully in my arms. The little dragons were obviously
unconcerned with what Nidhug had just said, though I wasn’t sure they could
hear him in the first place, but the great dragon’s presence had put them in a
strangely playful mood, and I remembered what Nidhug told me about what I
meant to the dragons, but what did he mean to them? Why were the babies so comfortable being around him, and why did I feel some strange connection to
him?
I’d only found out I could tame dragons a few weeks ago, and now I
had three to care for and teach how to fight, and then all of the sudden I had a
prophecy, too? My life had become so strange I wasn’t sure what to question
first.
“Rath,” Kas said as she and Asta ran over to me. “What the hell just
happened?”
I tried to think of the best way to explain it. A giant dragon just told me
I was meant to fulfill a prophecy to save the dragons, and that I needed to
find the man who was responsible for them being banished from Asgard to
begin with. My head was still reeling from what had happened, and all I
could do was turn to the girls and shrug.
“I have no fucking idea,” I laughed.
End of Book 1
End Notes
Thanks for reading Dragons of Asgard! I’ll start working on book 2
when this hits 100 reviews, so please leave me a nice review here. Thank
you!
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events
and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a
fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or
actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by Logan Jacobs