DragonBone Valley

‘There weren't always dragons in the Valley. That was until recently,’ Valkyra thinks disheartenedly to herself. Her past childhood dreams of dragons coming back had come true only for them to be turned into monstrous nightmares. Before the dragons were “resurrected” she was too young to understand the events that led them there. Looking back now as an adult the chain of events that led up to that point felt avoidable. Regardless, she doesn’t have time to dwell on it now. Now she needs to make sure she and what's left of her family doesn’t die.

She and her siblings rush to stuff their belongings into their rucksacks. Valkyra finishes first, quickly rushing to help her younger brother, Sten. Seeing that his pack might slow him down she quickly pulls off her rucksack and puts some of his belongings in hers. Their older brother Hagen looks at her disapprovingly as he finishes packing his pack, slinging it over his shoulder and securing it before grabbing his quiver and bow. He quickly ties them to his back and side before picking up his sword and shield. Valkyra ignores him as she helps Sten secure his pack. Hearing the distant roars and screams Valkyra motions for her brothers to get moving while she gets her pack secured. Hagen nods and guides their hesitant brother down toward the door.

Valkyra, heart pounding, slings her pack over her shoulder before securing. She grabs what was now her sword before grabbing her shield. The sounds of roaring and wing beats were getting louder as she rushes down to Sten’s side who is positioned on one side of the door with their brother on the other. The smell of smoke fills their nostrils as they stand next to the open door waiting while Hagen peeks his head out to make sure it's safe.

“They’re moving fast, we need to get going now,” Hagen says in a harsh whisper, seeing two of the beasts flying in the sky, before looking in the other direction. “That way is still clear, let's get going,” he orders before exiting the building.

Grabbing Sten by the hand, Valkyra leads him outside to follow Hagen who had jogged to the end of the building before looking back to make sure they were following. She rolls her eyes but moves quickly to meet him, Sten in tow. The three of them quickly run through the fields, up the hillside, and toward the forestline. The trees gave them the chance of cover but also came with the risk of being roasted alive should the dragons decide to set the forest ablaze.

Once they have made it some distance in the forest Valkyra pulls on Hagen’s shoulder making him stop. “We need to slow down,” she demands. She can see him turning around to square up and argue with her when she interjects, “We’re not out in the open and we need to conserve our energy. Otherwise we won’t have any when we need it.” They both knew this wasn’t just about conserving energy but making sure that their little brother could keep up.

Valkyra could see the wheels in Hagen’s mind turning before he looked over at Sten, sighing deeply. “Fine,” he grumbles, turning around and walking briskly ahead of them.

Sten’s hand tightens his hand around Valkyra’s while leaning into her. She looks at him with a small smile before squeezing his hand reassuringly. “Come on we got to keep moving,” Valkyra whispers to Sten before pulling him along to follow Hagen.

The nightmarish sounds that came from the dragons seemed not to be getting louder, giving the siblings hope the beasts weren’t continuing their rampage toward them. Regardless the siblings pressed onward wanting to put as much distance between them and what would be a fiery death. Slowing down allowed them to hear the sounds of the forest. The rustling of leaves in the wind can be heard all around them drowning out what little noise came from the wildlife. Creating an ominous feeling keeping the siblings on edge.

When Valkyra feels Sten lagging behind after nearly two hours of walking she makes them all pause next to a fallen tree. “We need a water break,” she says pointedly to Hagen who looks irritated by them stopping.

Valkyra helps Sten sit down on the log and digs through his pack, pulling out his waterskin. While handing Sten his waterskin she sits down next to him. She pulls out her own while looking over at Hagen. As she takes a drink of water she uses her eyes to point to the stump signaling Hagen to sit. Hagen takes a swig of water while shifting back and forth on his feet. Valkyra swallows and sighs, “Come on tough guy you’re no use to us if you’re exhausted. You might as well get your rest where you can.”

Hagen grunted before reluctantly stomping over to the stump and plopping down. Sten shifts uncomfortably next to his sister. Instinctively she reaches out, rubbing his back trying to reassure him. Valkyra looks over and sees Hagen who’s looking away as if avoiding seeing her show of tenderness. A soft huff comes out of Valkyra as she bites back her words. Hagen’s brows furrow together at the sound of her huff but says nothing, letting the tension in their silence thicken.

For almost five minutes the three of them sit in that silence before Hagen stands up with a grunt. “Come on, we need to keep going,” Hagen says as he ties his waterskin to his belt before picking up his sword.

Valkyra nods in agreement handing Sten her waterskin for him to tie to her belt before taking his for her to tie to his. Valkyra sits patiently, watching encouragingly as Sten works on tying the knot for her waterskin. He fumbles at first but makes a perfectly sufficient knot by the end. Hagen lets out a sigh of frustration when he sees Sten fumble. Valkyra shoots him a disapproving glance but quickly turns her attention to tying Sten’s waterskin to his belt. Once everything is secured and in its proper place they set off again with no true destination in mind, just the need to put distance between them and danger.

As the three of them continue Hagen has them shift directions to walk near the mountainside. They continue their trek, not stopping again until the sky starts to turn light shades of twilight. By some small miracle they had come across a small cave. Being cautious they stay back before preparing themselves to see if the cave is occupied. Valkyra and Hagen take off their rucksacks leaving them with Sten to look after. Valkyra lights their torch with some flint and her dagger while Hagen removes the quiver from his belt before tying his shield to his back so that he can hold both his sword and torch. Hagen hands his sister the quiver and bow before taking the torch from her. Once ready Hagen moves closer to the cave with Valkyra close behind.

Hagen proceeds cautiously into the cave signaling to Valkyra to stay close to the entrance. She nods her head, nocking an arrow in the bow. Mere moments later a sickly growl echoes off the cave walls followed by a grunting shout from what had to have been Hagen. Hearing the ruckus Valkyra rushes into the cave to give Hagen aid. When she reaches him she’s greeted to the sight of her brother splattered in blood and the fresh corpse of an emaciated brown bear. Hagen wipes the blood off his sword on the animal’s fur before looking over at Valkyra. Seeing that there isn’t any danger Valkyra puts the arrow back in its quiver.

“I did us and it a favor,” Hagen blankly states while putting his sword away. “Now go get Sten and our stuff so you can help me pull this out of here.”

Valkyra nods putting the quiver and bow down before leaving the cave. She walks up to Sten who’s peeking out from behind a tree looking nervous. “It’s alright,” she says reassuringly as she approaches him. “There was a sickly bear but Hagen dealt with it.” Valkyra wraps one arm around him in a half hug giving him a tight squeeze. Sten sighs in relief, leaning into his sister’s embrace for a brief moment before pulling away suddenly. She lets him go, noting his odd behavior before leaning down to grab her rucksack. “Come on, we need to haul this stuff in so I can help Hagen remove the bear,” she says while slinging her pack over her shoulder. “How about you carry my sword and shield while I carry Hagen’s pack,” Valkyra suggests.

Sten’s eyes brighten at the idea. “Okay!” He agrees enthusiastically before putting his arm through the loops of the shield. He hoists it up on his arm before picking up his sister's sheathed sword. Sten’s arm trembles slightly under the weight of the shield which Valkyra notices while saying nothing.

With Sten having her gear in hand Valkyra lifts Hagen’s rucksack up into her arms so they can lug all of their belongings into the cave. When they make it inside they’re greeted to the sight of Hagen struggling to drag the bear corpse to the entrance. Valkyra quickly moves to the cave wall, setting down her older brother’s rucksack before removing her own, putting it down next to his. “You could have waited, you know,” she joshes Hagen before rushing to the other side of the bear to help him.

“I did but you two were taking too long,” Hagen retorts while looking over at Sten. A sneer curls on his lip when he sees Sten carrying their sister’s sword and shield noting that he was struggling carrying the latter.

“We did not take that long,” Valkyra counters sharply while helping drag the carcass to the entrance. With the two of them working together, they make quick work of dealing with the bear even while bickering.

While his siblings take care of the bear, Sten sets down his sister’s gear next to the rest of their stuff. He flexes his arm now free of its heavy burden before giving it a quick rub. Immediately after some self soothing he removes his rucksack, setting it down next to his siblings. Trying to be useful he sets about clearing out what would be their sleeping area. He kicks and picks up rocks tossing them to the side while collecting anything that could be used as kindling. By the time his siblings had dragged the corpse a little ways past the trees, Sten had cleared out a space big enough for them to sleep and have a small fire in the middle. When the two of them came back he had just started setting up some of the larger stones in a circle for a firepit.

“Amazing work little brother.” Valkyra praises Sten upon seeing his work. She pulls him up into a one arm side hug and ruffles his hair affectionately against his attempts to escape. “Don’t you agree Hagan?” She asks sharply while giving him an even sharper glare.

Hagen lets out a low sigh before responding, “Yeah you did good.” He pats Sten on the arm and gives him a half hearted smile.

Sten smiles weakly at his brother’s lukewarm praise. “Thank you,” he says simply before pulling away from his sister and going back to finishing placing stones for the firepit.

Valkyra glares at Hagen but says nothing as the words she had for her older brother were not for the younger one’s ears. Instead she goes and drags her pack into the sleeping area before sitting down to unpack. While pulling her possessions out she starts to express some ideas, “Before it gets too dark me and Hagen should go and look for water and food. While we’re out Sten should look for firewood while staying close to the cave. And if you can Sten, it'd be a big help if you got a small fire going for us.” She looks up from her unpacking to look for their responses, to which both nod. “Good,” she continues, “I’m gonna grab some hunting supplies and the bucket before heading out. You can take the bow and get going if you want Hagen.”

Hagen goes over and picks up the quiver and bow with a grunt. “Fine by me,” he retorts while leaving the cave.

As soon as Hagen has left her line of sight Valkyra takes a deep breath before slowly exhaling. After her soothing breath she looks over at Sten and smiles. “Here, why don’t you take my hatchet and get a start on that firewood,” she encourages Sten while handing over the hatchet she had recently unpacked. “Make sure you don’t hurt yourself and be safe ok.”

Sten takes the hatchet, almost snatching it out of his sister’s hand while a small scowl knits across his eyebrows. “I’ll be fine,'' he replies harshly. Hearing his tone his face softens slightly before shuffling off toward the trees avoiding his sister’s gaze.

Valkyra almost snaps at her little brother for his attitude but restrains herself, biting her tongue. As she gathers the snares and net she takes several calming breaths trying to exhale her anger away. Placing her gear in the bucket neatly to prevent as much tangling as possible she grabs her sword for protection before heading out in a westward direction from the cave. ‘Shoulda asked which direction Hagen was planning to go.’ Valkyra thinks to herself as she treks through the forest. ‘If I end up going the same way as him, splitting up will have been pointless. Freya help us.’ She lets out a sigh of frustration as she continues her foraging expedition.

The shades of twilight had deepened by the time Valkyra came across what looked like fresh burrows. She couldn’t definitively tell what type of burrow it is but she hopes that it’s a rabbit or hare burrow. Not wanting to waste anymore time she searches the immediate surrounding area to see if she can spot anything that would be enticing for a hopping herbivore. Her keen eyes quickly spot a patch of clover thanks to the little light left shining down through the treetops. While walking up she notices most of the clover surrounding the weak beam of light had been eaten. ‘Must be too out in the open for them to want to risk it even for something tasting. Smart hopefully not too smart,’ she thinks to herself as she collects the clover.

When she finally has a bushel of clover in hand she begins scouting out the best place to set the first snare. It doesn’t take her long to find a nice place under some underbrush. After she sets up her first trap, making sure it’s covered and baited with clover in the middle, she starts nicking trees with her sword so she can find her way back to her snares. Along her aimless path she finds a few more places to set up the rest of her snares making sure each is covered and baited before moving on to the next. She continues nicking trees along her path, hoping to find water, when she suddenly hears familiar grunts of frustration. Knowing who it likely was, Valkyra ventures in the direction of the noise marking trees as she goes.

The closer she gets to what she expects is her older brother throwing a tantrum the more she can make out what sounds like gently rushing water. After musceling her way through some bushes, having seen no other way around, she’s greeted to the sight of her brother on the other side of a somewhat large stream desperately trying to shoot fish with arrows. When he misses again he lets out a stifled yell of frustration. Valkyra rolls her eyes before calling out to him, “Hey brother, need a net?” She waves her arm over her head to draw his gaze.

Hagen is in the middle of grabbing another arrow when he hears his sister call out to him. He does a quick look around before seeing Valkyra waving at him on the other side of the stream. A short exasperated huff comes out of him before he waves back at her. “If you got it, hand it over,” he calls back to her.

“We’ll catch more if we work together,” she says, stooping down to find a good throwing rock. With one in hand she loosely ties it to a corner of the net. “Also saying please won’t kill you,” she teases while throwing the rock making sure to keep a tight grip on the opposite corner of the net.

“Yea yea let’s just hurry this up so we can get back to the cave before it’s completely dark. That way one of us can get a fire going,” Hagen says somewhat snidely while catching the rock wrapped in the net.

“Sten is perfectly capable of starting and tending a fire,” she says admonishingly watching her brother untangle his side of the net from the rock while keeping her side tangle free.

“Yea,” he scoffs, finally getting his side untangled. “And Loki isn’t the god of mischief,” he says sarcastically while placing his side of the net in the water which his sister mirrors. “I bet he can’t even get the kindling to smolder.”

Valkyra feels a flare of anger hating how little faith and patience he has for their little brother. “Oh yeah well I bet he’s tending a fire by the time we get back,” she blurts out angrily. Seeing a cluster of healthy sized trout swimming above their net quells her frustrations enough for her to give the signal. The two of them pull up on the net at the same time catching five of the seven fish that were in their nets range. The other two manage to wiggle out splashing back into the water, dashing away as quickly as possible.

Hagen sighs heavily in frustration at losing some of their catch which his sister seems to ignore as she uses some nearby rocks to hop across to his side of the stream. As they remove the gasping floundering fish from the net a wily grin stretches across his lips. “How about we make the bet real. Loser has to gut the fish,” he proposes thinking he’s just made the best sibling bet of his life.

Valkyra takes a moment pretending to weigh his proposal before agreeing. They shake hands while she uses every bit of her self control not to start laughing. Little did her brother know that she had been teaching Sten how to start and maintain a fire when Hagen was out of the house. “Okay let’s go one more time before we pack it in for the night,” she suggests before jumping back over to the other side. Once in place she lowers her side of the net into the water this time her brother mirroring her. “When we’re done here you can fill the bucket with water and take it and the fish back to camp,” she says while watching the fish in the stream waiting for the right opportunity. “And I can take the bow with me when I go back to collect the snares I set.”

Hagen also watches the water intently as he listens to his sister rattle off her plan. “You know there probably isn’t going to be anything in those snares right?” he says dismissively. He and Valkyra notice a couple of big trout swim over their net to which both signal to pull within seconds of each other. Their combined efforts reward them three more trout.

Valkyra lets out a soft cheer of victory as she practically skips over to the rocks she used before only to slip on the last one resulting in one of her boots getting wet. She groans loudly as she finishes crossing. "Great, now I have to deal with a wet boot on top of the rest of today's shit storm. Thanks Thor," she complains in an annoyed tone.

"It'll dry out," Hagen says dismissively as he removes the fish from the net, adding them to their existing pile. "That’s if you win the bet and Sten actually has a fire going," he laughs sarcastically.

"You're gonna have so much fun gutting fish when you get back to camp," she says with a knowing grin as she folds the net, weaving the fish in it for Hagen to carry. Once she was done she had bundled the net and fish in a way that was easy to carry and minimized the tangling of the net. Valkyra hands it to her brother along with the bucket before taking the bow and nearly empty quiver. ”Looks like you used a lot of arrows,” she states, causing Hagen to scowl and grumble. "Before you head back, fill the bucket with the cleanest sand free water as you can get," she instructs, ignoring her brother’s grumbling. She starts to turn to leave when she quickly turns back and looks her older brother straight in the eyes. "Be nice to him," she demands sternly.

“You baby him too much,” Hagen sneers. “He needs to learn how to start pulling his own weight and carrying his own weight for that matter. You shouldn’t have put his stuff in your pack. He can’t be allowed to expect that we will carry his belongings to ease his load.” Hagen squares up his shoulders and puffs out his chest slightly as he speaks, putting on what Valkyra saw as a weak show of dominance.

Valkyra doesn’t shrink away from him, instead she mirrors him in his stance. “It was chaotic and I made the best decision I could in the moment to make sure what little family I have left stayed safe,” she asserts angrily before releasing a verbal tirade of just a fraction of what she had been holding back. “I was the only one who made sure their bag was mostly packed. You on the other hand half assedly packed before delaying and putting it off. Sten unfortunately followed your example and kept putting it off too,” Hagen tries to interject but Valkyra doesn’t pause long enough for him to get a word in. “So when the inevitable finally happened you and him had to scramble to pack while I was the first one done. There wasn’t time to pack correctly so I did what I had to to make sure he could keep up with us,” she pauses just long enough to take a breath before continuing snidely. “And so you know you don’t have to worry about it because all three of us are going to repack in the morning and I’ll personally make sure he downsizes his belongings to what he can carry.” She finishes her rant by taking a deep breath while staring at her brother who looks like he is still trying to process everything she just said.

Before he can think of how to respond, Valkyra continues in a softer tone. “He looks up to you, you know. All he wants is to make you proud and have you genuinely praise him, not one I forced out of you. Sten’s too young to remember Da and with Erik gone…,” she pauses as she tries to not get choked up thinking about their eldest brother before pressing on with a little clearing of the throat. “With Erik gone you’re the only man he can look up to. No matter how much I’m there to support him…,” Valkyra pauses again and looks at the ground, her anger melting away to a pained expression. “I’m not who he needs me to be.”

Hagen stands there still unsure of what to do or how to respond. He had just finished processing their one sided argument about packing when his sister laid some emotional baggage at his feet. Not sure what to do, he puts down the bucket before patting Valkyra on the shoulder giving it a squeeze in what’s intended to be a comforting gesture. He coughs awkwardly before picking the bucket back up. “I should get that water so I can head back to the cave. Make sure Sten doesn’t need help with the fire.” Hagen shuffles off somewhat stiffly before turning back to Valkyra. “I’ll make sure to have a knife sharpened for you,” he jokes in a way that was meant to lighten the mood.

“You’re the one who’s gonna need it.” She gives a half hearted chuckle before using the stones to jump to the other side. Once on the other side she doesn’t look back at her brother, instead pushes through the bush she originally came from. Valkyra retraces her steps using the nicks on the trees as a guide while the darkness began to close in with quickening pace. The nicked trees lead her back to her snares all of which were empty just as her brother predicted. She sighs dejectedly when she finds the last one empty but takes heart in them at least having fish for the night.

With all her snares gathered Valkyra makes haste back to the cave with what little light she has. It was completely dark by the time she made it back to where she believed the cave to be, only for it not to be there. Panic builds in her chest as she looks around desperately unsure of what direction she needed to go in when she notices a faint flicker farther down the mountainside. The panic lessens slightly as she rushes toward the flicker nearly tripping in her haste. Relief floods her chest when she reaches the flickering light and sees her brothers inside gutting fish together. A smirk stretches across her face as she watches about to call out Hagen for not doing it himself per their bet when Sten notices her.

Sten puts his knife down and waves over at Valkyra. “Look! Hagen’s teaching me to gut fish!” He exclaims excitedly before picking his knife back up to continue gutting the fish he was working on while his sister comes over to join them.

Hagen gives him a brotherly nudge on the upper arm with his own. “He’s getting pretty good at it,” he says in a somewhat praising tone to which Sten beams happily.

Valkyra smiles at her older brother before going over to collect the camping pot their father would bring on long hunting trips. She sets it up over the fire before grabbing the bucket of water Hagen collected pouring in the pot to boil. With that now done she takes off her still wet boot and places it near the fire to dry before going over the kindling pile to look for any small branches that would make good skewers. She manages to find a few and begins to widdle the bark off them. By the time she was finishing with the third branch her brothers had come over with all the gutted fish. “We can get those cooked up as soon as the water is boiled,” she says while holding out a few of the branches she picked out. “Until then you can help me debark these before skewering the fish.”

Sten and Hagen both take sticks from their sister before sitting next to the fire for some warmth and light. With the three of them working they have sticks debarked long before the water has boiled. Seeing that it would likely take a while before they could cook the fish, Sten gets up and goes over to his pack. He pulls out a book to which Hagen is about to scold Sten for packing when he notices which book he packed. It was one of the many books their eldest sister, Thyra, had stolen for them when they were younger. It also happened to be Hagen’s favorite.

Sten goes over and sits next to Valkyra and hands her the book. “Read to me please?” he asks quietly.

Valkyra smiles, taking the book and flipping it open to the first page. “How about we restart from the beginning?” she suggests to which Sten nods in agreement before leaning into her. She reads the story out loud for a while, stopping to get up when she hears the water boiling. Before she can get to her feet Hagen is up taking care of it giving her a look silently asking her to continue. With a little nod she continues the story while her older brother takes care of the water before smothering the fire to embers to cook their fish. The fish finishes cooking just before Valkyra ends the chapter, giving it a chance to cool down before eating.

They finish their evening by eating some of their fish, leaving the rest for the morning, in relative silence. When they are done it’s decided that Hagen will take first watch with Valkyra taking second and Sten taking the last few hours in the early morning. The three siblings each pull out their bedrolls, which are barely more than thin blankets, before laying down close to the fire. Hagen rekindles it, maintaining a small flame throughout his watch.

Valkyra grabs her mostly dry boot, putting it on before closing her eyes to get some sleep. Exhausted from the day’s stress and exorbitant amount of hiking both Valkyra and Sten fall asleep swiftly. Sten’s dreams are peaceful dreaming of the story read to him. While Valkyra on the other hand slips into a dark horrifying nightmare that has been haunting her for years.