Fractured Realms

Dale rarely used to dream. Lately however, they were becoming more and more frequent – each night he was finding it harder and harder to tell the dream world from reality.

Tonight's dream was no different; it always started the same.

He could see Yggdrasil the world tree at the top of the world. This giant ash tree wasn’t nearly as big as the old fables made it out to be. It was huge, there was no doubt about that, standing more than twice the height of its neighbour. It’s real power however came from it appearing in all of the nine realms, keeping them in harmony and keeping the life it gave flowing to all.

Suddenly, the skies darkened and Dale finds himself fighting for his life, against an endless army of frost giants and dark elves. All around him, five hundred and forty doors open out of the empty sky. Through each of them, ranks of fallen warriors marched, shields locked as they moved to engage the enemy. As he fought, Dale sensed a presence to his right. Glancing over, he noticed two mighty warriors, which he instantly knew to be Odin and Thor. They were fighting at his side.

Odin thrust his spear, skewering three giants. Thor smashed aside two giants, each swing of his warhammer Mjolnir sounding like a thunderclap, laughing and goading the enemy the whole time. Overhead thousands of Valkyries flew, throwing spears, shooting arrows, or swooping low over the heads of the enemy to attack with axes and swords, each attack being fatal.

Over the noise of battle, a wolf howled in the distance. It was a sound Dale could never get used to; it made his blood run cold and the sound seemed to come from all around him. The ranks of the enemy split down the middle, leaving the three of them with no one left to fight, much to Thor’s obvious disappointment. Odin however was as still as a rock, staring straight down the empty space between the fighting armies. A monstrous wolf was charging towards them.

Fenrir the beast of Ragnarök had come.

With a roar, Odin ran towards Fenrir and launched himself spear first at the god beast. The spear struck home, biting deep causing Fenrir to yelp in pain, before the wolf clamped his jaws around the Alfather and threw him aside. Odin flew through the air, hit the ground like a rag doll, before coming to rest unmoving.

‘Father!’ Thor shouted. He instantly charged towards the wolf, all merriment and bravado now gone, replaced with wrath and anger. Thor struck Fenrir with Mjolnir over and over. Each time, lightning forked out across the wolf’s body, leaving smoking and burnt hair behind. Taking a step back, Thor raised his hammer to the sky, calling down a massive bolt of lightning, which struck the hammer. Dwarfish runes glowed brightly as Thor spun around and struck the wolf in the head. There was an almighty boom as Mjolnir exploded, a shock wave and pieces of the great hammer shot out in all directions. The largest piece flew straight into the world tree Yggdrasil, cracking it straight down the middle.

Looking up, Dale watched as cracks appeared in the sky, as reality began to break down. The sky colour shifted from black to red to green to blue and the ground started to shake. Through the cracks in the sky, Dale could look into the eight other realms as the breaks in reality started to widen. Suddenly as quickly as it started, all noise stops, like something has drawn it in. With his heart hammering in his ears, Dale turned and started to run. He knows what is about to come. He has seen it a thousand times.

Slowly at first, but gaining momentum, piece by piece, the sky begins to fall, bringing with it pieces of the other eight realms.

They strike the ground like meteors plunging from the heavens, raining down all around him, faster and faster. In the distance, a massive serpent gets struck by a falling tower, its death throws causing the ground to break under it, before lying still forever. The ground starts to shake so badly from the impacts that Dale is knocked off his feet and sprawls on the ground. He curls up in a ball, wrapping his arms around his face and head, waiting for it to stop, while the ground keeps shaking.

It stops. Just like that, it was over.

The overwhelming scent of spring fills his nostrils, while a soft breeze causes the long grass to tickle his face. Sitting up, Dale looked around. He was still in the same location, but he knew a lot of time had passed. , He lay in an island of a small patch of fertile ground. All around him, the ground was barren. Giant cracks had opened up in the earth and only the gods themselves knew how deep they were. Broken and discarded weapons lay everywhere, with the occasional skeleton of a fallen warrior peeking through the soil. In the distance, he spied Yggdrasil, clinging lifelessly to the mountain where once it grew. Lava flowed freely from between its withered roots. Turning, Dale walked towards a citadel he could see in the distance. It had two prominent features: a golden tower and a colossal serpent skull with bonfires burning in its eyes. It was the City of the Gods, named by the followers of Fenrir and Loki (the leaders of the dark pantheon, who had triggered Ragnarök.

Dale decided to move towards the city, the only feature in the now barren wasteland. As he stepped forward, the grass where he had been lying turned to ash and the smell of spring vanished from the air, to be replaced with the pungent odour of smoke, dust and rot.

As Dale approached, the Gates at the front of the city creaked open, and through the breach roared heavily modified vehicles. Each one was unique, sporting a variety of spikes, blades and automatic weapons. All were overflowing with men and women, each wearing unique armor of spikes and blades, and carrying axes and hand guns. All the weapons had glowing dwarfish runes along the blades and barrels.

A similar sized force, in more practical armour and vehicles, and clearly more disciplined, charged in from behind Dale clashing with them head on. A vicious combination of long range and melee combat broke out. In the carnage, few got away, leaving the burning hulks of cars and trucks behind.

The scene faded.

He was jumping from views of different landmarks and people, with the odd scene of violence scattered throughout. After a while, Dale noticed something that he hadn’t seen before. He first noticed a familiar windmill, one he had seen many times in his travels, had come into view. A pair of wolves, one black and one white, were staring at him from the tree line. The windmill faded and was replaced with a freeway, again one he had seen many times. The wolves were still there, but now they were stalking cautiously towards him. He got a quick flash of a battle, two sides fighting with runic axes and handguns, before his vision came back into focus. This time, he was in a forest on the bank of a stream. A woman’s voice called to him. It sounded like it was coming from everywhere and yet no where all at the same time.

‘Dale... Dale, they have found you.’ she said.

The wolves were still there, closer now and moving forward with more confidence, quickly picking up speed. The scenes began to change faster and faster, and each time the wolves were closer. An old mining town, a car yard and an open plain all came and went in quick succession.

‘Yggdrasil is flowering again; the time is now.’ The womans voice said again

The world tree appeared again. The lava had stopped flowing and the branches had small buds. The vision lingered on it slightly longer than the last, before a realm gate flashed into view. Standing in front of the realm gate was a woman, a soothsayer, and a scarred warrior. An aura radiated off the two. They were definetly human, but they were old, very old and powerful. Dale’s eyes were drawn to two items on their person. One was an axe that the warrior carried and it crackled with energy. The other was a heart shaped locket around the woman's neck. It didn’t give off any power, but there was something enthralling about it, that Dale couldn’t quite put his finger on.

‘Dale, they have found you.’ the woman said again. This time the words were clearly coming from her, though still sounding distant. ‘We are coming, but you need to leave now, your life is in danger.’ Her voice increased in urgency. ‘Run, run now and stay alive. Wake up and RUN!’

The two wolves suddenly launched towards him...

… and he woke up in bed, covered in sweat, breathing heavily.

Jumping out of bed, Dale started to pack. He had a sudden sense of urgency to leave the town. In moments, his pack was ready to go. Rushing down the stairs of the inn, he purchased some bread and cheese from the inn keeper and hurried out the door. The sun was just beginning to show above the skyline so there wasn’t any reason to use his torch – batteries were in short supply out here after all.

Leaving the town, he slowed down to a walk and took a deep breath. Why had that dream rattled him so much? Apart from the wolves and the two people at the end, it was exactly the same as last time he had it. Surely, he was just being stupid. Stopping, he turned to head back to the town. He had only been here a few days after all, he hadn’t been here before and really liked the place.

Suddenly he froze in place, a long wolf howl pierced the morning air, followed closely by a second slightly further away. Without thinking, he turned and started to run away from the town of Roanoke. Dream or not, his fight or flight instincts had kicked in and it was telling him to flee.

The satyr took off up the road, easily able to out run any human. Wolves however were a whole different story. He decided it was time to find that realm gate and the woman with the heart shaped locket.