Valley of Dragons

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. In fact, I doubt a dragon had ever set foot, or claw, in Salt Lake Valley before today. Now, as I gazed out at the city below, I saw the outlines of winged creatures scaling buildings and harassing morning commuters. And it was all my fault.

“Nice going, Merrick,” Corvin said to me. “What in the realms was so important that you had to leave the Bifrost unattended?”

Heat rose in my face, but I didn’t have a decent answer. I stared at my feet, hoping he wouldn’t press me further.

“You’re lucky we closed the gate as quickly as we did,” Corvin said. “But thirty minutes was still enough time for gods know how many Off-Gards to come across.”

“Do we have a count on how many?” I looked up and caught his eye.

“No, I’m sure Heimdall knows and will send us a Valkyrie with the final numbers.” Corvin’s glare was so fierce his eyebrows seemed to be carved out of stone.“We’re going to run a full inquiry into this mess. You better pray to Thor we don’t find out the Jotnar were involved. If they were and this valley was a specific target, it’ll mean way more trouble for all of us. Especially you.”

I gulped. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Nothing more than you’ve already done. For now, just start working on harvesting as many Off-Gards as you can. I’m pretty sure Eva has already started, see if you can catch up with her. She headed that way. ”

My heart skipped a beat. “Will do,” I turned in the direction he pointed, but Corvin’s hand caught my chest before I could take more than a couple of steps. He looked at me expectantly.

“Will do, sir.” I corrected through gritted teeth

“Good,” Corvin dropped his hand. “Try not to get yourself killed. I already have to report directly to Heimdall about this mess and I don’t need it marred by an unnecessary death.”

I nodded and continued, teeth still gritted so I wouldn’t say anything I would regret. It was infuriating how Corvin acted as a captain. As the oldest in our class, he was the captain by default, but to him it was as if they had made him general in Odin’s army.

I ran in the direction Corvin pointed. Knowing Eva, she would probably have harvested half a dozen dragons by now and be searching for more. That was the great thing about Eva. She never waited for permission or orders. She charged in, sword swinging. I wished I could be more like that. She was all ready, go, set and I was more set, ready, go.

After a few minutes, I saw some ashes near a hiking path in the foothills. Ashes could either mean Bifrost travel or dragon sign, so either way, I made my way up the path. I wasn’t familiar with this part of the country, so I wasn’t sure which town we were in, but I knew that the city in the valley was Salt Lake City, and beyond the city was The Great Salt Lake.

The weight in my chest ruined what otherwise would have been a beautiful view. Dozens, if not hundreds of dragons, trolls, and other Off-Gard creatures, were now wandering the valley. And because traveling through the Bifrost was like jumping out of a moving plane, those creatures would be scattered across the entire valley. All because of me.

Distracted as I was, I didn’t notice the steady stream of smoke coming from a bush ahead of me until it was only feet from me. By then, it was too late. A thick, scaled blur rushed out of the bush and collided with my right thigh. Pain shot through my leg, and I knew I would have a solid bruise. The collision sent me tumbling down the hill until a thicket of sparse shrubbery caught me. I took a breath, got back on my feet, and hefted my axe; the runes inscribed on the blade shimmered in the sun.

A dragon youngling stood on the spot where it knocked me down. It was only about four-and-a-half feet long from snout to tail, and about as tall as my waist, with smoke spewing from its nostrils. I guessed it was four, maybe five months old. I couldn’t tell which breed it was, but at that age it was not yet mature enough to breathe fire, though still deadly with its needle-like teeth and spiked tail.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins as I made a mental plan of attack. I was vulnerable here so I would need to get back onto even ground. A youngling like this wouldn’t have developed its armor yet, so I my axe could take care of it from any angle. Before I could determine the best way to regain the high ground, another dragon the same size appeared right next to the first. Twins. For Hel’s sake, it had to be twins.

I turned to sprint down the hill, but tripped on a shrub and rolled down the rest of the way, landing hard on the dirt road below. My joints ached and I had scrapes on my arms, but I knew I’d have to get up or the twin dragons would be on me before I could do anything about it. A screech told me at least one twin had started down the hill after me. I reached for my axe, but found I had lost it at the base of the hill on my way down. Great.

I pulled my seax knife from my belt and readied for an attack. Both twins were hurtling down the hill towards me. All I could do was stand my ground and hope for the best. If I was lucky, maybe I would send one of them back to Jotunheim.

A yell echoed up from behind me. I wanted to turn, hoping it was backup, but it felt wrong to take my eyes off a pair of dragons now barreling towards me. My eyes locked on the closer of the two dragons. It was yards away. Feet. And…

I dove into a roll just as a set of needle-like fangs closed in the air above my head. A set of sharp claws came down on my shoulder and cut into my leather jerkin. I focused on the soft underbelly of the young dragon and plunged my seax hard into its chest. The young dragon let out a screeching cry before disappearing in a puff of smoke and shimmering ash. The runes on the blade of my seax flashed brightly, signaling the dragon had returned to Jotunheim.

“Not bad, Mer. Not bad at all,” a smooth female voice said.

Heat rose in my cheeks again, this time for a completely different reason. I turned to see Eva sheathing her sword, another pile of ash and dust at her feet. Behind her was a boy about our age that I didn’t recognize. He had a disheveled mop of brown hair that came down into his glasses, which seemed to magnify the terrified look in his eyes.

“Thanks, Eva,” I replied. I made to put my seax back in its scabbard, but dropped it instead. My face burned as I bent to pick it up.

“Minus points for the scratch in your armor, though,” Eva continued. “We’ll need to get you a new vest if you keep taking hits like that.”

“I’m just glad it was my shoulder instead of my face,” I replied. “Who’s your friend?”

Eva smiled and turned towards the boy. “This is Kevin-”

“Devin,” the boy’s voice was squeaky, but it could have just been nerves.

“Sorry, Devin. I found him being chased by a Night-tail youngling,” She spoke like she always spoke; cheerful and relaxed. “He’s just had his awakening, so I figured we could save the Guardians some time and bring him back to the Longhouse with us.”

Just had his awakening? Most Norsemen had their awakenings in their early teen years, but this boy looked almost twenty.

“You really think that’s a good idea?” I asked. “He could get hurt. We still haven’t received a report of how many Off-Gards made it through.”

“Actually, I just got a message from Corvin,” Eva held up her wrist where a rune glowed faintly on her metal bracelet. I looked down at my com-gauntlet and found it showed no message. “He said Heimdall estimates close to two hundred Off-Guards made it through the BiFrost before we could close the gate. Nearly all of them are from the Karian Dragon Sanctuary on Jotunheim, but that there is always the possibility of other intruders when the BiFrost is open for so long.”

My cheeks flushed, and I glanced back down at my feet, but Eva didn’t speak in an accusatory tone. She was cheerful as ever. As usual, a crisis brought out the best in her. I wished I could be more like her; decisive, kind, confident, graceful…

The bracelet on Eva’s wrist glowed a bright blue, indicating another message. “I should get this.” Eva said. “Introduce yourself to the Newman and maybe try to explain why there are now dragons flying around the Salt Lake Valley.”

It wasn’t a command, but I intended to follow it without question. I found myself staring as Eva walked away, long dark hair bouncing on the small of her back. Gods, she was beautiful. What had she asked me to do again?

I turned and saw that Devin was watching her too, so I cleared my throat loudly. He flinched a bit at the sound.

“Is she always like that?” He asked, voice shaking.

“What do you mean?”

“Just so… I don’t know. She’s like the princess that came down from the tower and showed the dragon who’s boss.”

A smile came to my face at the look on Eva’s face if she heard someone call her a princess. “I wouldn’t tell her that. She’d probably rethink bringing you along.”

“Bring me along where, exactly?”

“Uh, what has Eva told you?”

“Not much. She killed the dragon, told me her name was Eva Gonzalez, and said I should follow her to avoid any other dragons. It was one of those ‘come with me if you want to live’ moments.”

“Classic Eva,” I said. “Well, I’m Merrick. Welcome to the Norsemen.” I held out my hand in greeting.

Devin took it and shook. “The Norseman? What is that?”

“We’re descendants from beings across the Nine Realms,” I started. “Um.. how much do you know about Norse religion?”

Devin shrugged. “About as much as anyone, I guess. Thor, Odin, Loki, dwarves. I was more into Greek myths in school.”

Typical.

“Right,” From the beginning then. “Like I said, we are descendants of beings from other realms. These beings are like humans for the most part, so we refer to them as Sapiens, but they include dwarves, elves, giants and the Aesir and Vanir gods.”

Devin looked blankly at me for a minute, and I felt a knot form in the pit of my stomach. I’d never had to explain everything to a Newman before, we normally left this part of orientation to the Guardians. They were much better at this kind of stuff.

“You’re telling me I could be part god?” Devin replied.

Ugh, he was one of these.

“It’s possible, but highly unlikely,” I replied shortly. “Most of us are descendants of Elves or Dwarves. If I had to guess, I’d say you’re Elvish, but Eva would know better.”

“Are you Elvish?”

“Nope, I’m Dwarfish.”

Devin looked up at me blankly. “You’re joking, right? You’re what, like six feet tall?”

“Six-two, but size doesn’t matter. Most dwarves aren’t actually ‘dwarves’ like you’ve seen in movies. Unless you travel to Nidavellir, but that’s a whole different story.”

“And Eva? Is she an elf or a dwarf?”

“She’s a Norseman. Almost none of us are full-blooded elves or dwarves, we’re just Dwarf-ish or Elf-ish. Eva is probably the closest, though, half elf. Her father was a full elf.”

“And he’s the coolest elf on this side of Midgard,” Eva chimed in, returning to the conversation. “I see you’ve caught him up on a few things?”

I shrugged. “We were just going over ancestry. I think he’s part elf, but I told him you would know better.”

Eva gave Devin an appraising look. “He could be. It’s hard to tell with all this Off-Gard interference. It’ll be easier to tell when we get back to the Longhouse.”

“Is that what the message said? Our orders are to return to the Longhouse?” I asked. My insides began tying themselves into knots.

“Our instructions are to leave the fight in the valley to the others.”

My heart sank. It would disappoint Eva to miss out on the action, and I was sure it was because she was with me. But when I looked back at Eva, her eyes gleamed the way they always did when she was excited about something.

“Was that everything?”

“While everyone else takes care of the younglings scattered across the valley, we get to search for Gunnhildur. She crossed over somewhere in the tops of these mountains,” she spoke like she could hardly contain her excitement.

“Gunnhildur? She made the trip across the Bifrost?” Gunnhildur was a legendary dragon, one of the ancient protectors of the Karian sanctuary in Jotunheim. If she was here, things were a lot worse than I thought. Was Corvin hoping I’d get killed despite what he’d said? It made sense to send Eva. She was the top of our class. But why send me as well?

“She sure did! Apparently, the journey would be a lot more taxing on a fully grown dragon than for these younglings, especially for one of her age. Heimdall estimates we have around eighteen to twenty-four hours before she regains consciousness and starts wreaking some real havoc.”

Eva beamed like the sun on Alfheim. I tried to match her enthusiasm, but the best I could do was to suppress the urge to throw up. “And what are we going to do with Devin?” I asked.

“We’ll bring him along. I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Eva said. “Oh! He’s not the only Newman that’s awakened! Corvin said they have found others scattered around the valley.”

“Really? Do you know how many?”

“Close to a dozen right now, but I bet more turn up as we keep searching. If there’s one good thing that comes from all of this, it will be a handful of new recruits. And getting to harvest Gunnhildur, of course.”

That was something. The Guardians typically only brought back around two dozen new Norsemen a year.

“Sorry to cut in, but did you say recruits?” Devin asked.

“Yep, to the Norsemen,” Eva said, giving Devin a kind smile.

“And what exactly do the Norsemen do?” he asked. “You’re making it sound like some kind of army.”

“It’s not really an army, more like a… special forces group,” Eva said. “Our mission and purpose is to protect the boundaries between realms and prevent the coming of Ragnarok. Our clan is specifically tasked with protecting the North American region, Midgard realm.”

Devin gazed back down into the valley. “You’re doing a great job,” he chided.

“Today is a bit of an exception,” Eva said. “Normally, things aren’t this crazy. But as a Newman, you typically wouldn’t be allowed to fight until you’d been trained up and selected your path.”

“Newman?” Devin asked.

“New Norseman,” I answered.

Devin nodded, then hesitated. “What if I don’t want to be a Norseman? What if I just want to stay here?”

“If you stay here, any nearby Off-Gards will pick up your scent and likely kill you,” I said, maybe a little too bluntly. “Now that you’ve awakened, you’re like a beacon to anything off-realm. They’ll be searching for you, and not to become friends.”

“But, but,” Devin spluttered. “I can’t just leave! I have a job and school!”

“I thought that might come up,” Eva said with a smile. She traced a rune onto her com-gauntlet and bright letters glowed all around it. “I asked the Valkyries to run a report on you, just to gather a little background information.”

Devin glanced at me and then back at Eva. His feet shuffled as Eva held up her wrist to read what the Valkyries had sent over.

“Devin Madeline Lightfoot,” Eva read. I glanced over to Devin, whose face had gone bright pink. Eva and I exchanged amused looks before she continued reading. “Nineteen years old. Parents are divorced. Your mother still lives in the Salt Lake Area, but your father lives in Seattle. You’re currently working as a busboy at a local Mexican restaurant. Enrolled in two classes at Salt Lake Community College, Calculus and Film History. Oh, and your driver’s license says you are five-eleven, but you’re really five-nine.”

Devin’s face shone red like forging metal, and I could practically feel the heat emanating from it. He opened his mouth, probably to ask how she knew all of his personal information, but all that came out was a splutter.

“So about that job and school,” Eva said. “Do you really want to risk your life for a career as a busboy? Or classes you don’t even like?”

“It’s not just that. It’s…” His face went pinker still, and he looked around as if he would find the right words etched into the mountain or floating in the sky. “What if I’m not cut out to be a Norseman? What if I’m just a guy from Salt Lake that will never slay a dragon?”

“I started out very similar to you,” I said. “A lot of Norsemen just live normal lives before their awakening. But something in us is genetically wired to search for the realms beyond our own. We don’t feel fulfilled until we have our awakening, and we can finally identify with our purpose and our people.”

Devin looked at me inquisitively, but didn’t say a word. As usual, I didn’t know if what I’d said made him feel better or just confused him.

“I think what Merrick is trying to say is that most Norseman are used to not fitting in. Part of them is from a whole different realm, so why would they?”

Devin considered this, but still bit his lip nervously. Eva took a step towards him and put her hand on his shoulder. His lips parted briefly in surprise, then he let out a long, low breath and his face slackened. He looked visibly more relaxed.

“Whoa,” Devin said. “What’d you just do?”

“I calmed your spirit.”

“How?”

“It’s one of her Talents,” I said. “One perk of being a Norseman, we all have at a Talent given to us by our heritage.”

Devin’s eyes lit up in wonder. “So you’re saying I could have one of these Talents?”

“Absolutely,” Eva said. “We can explain more on the way, maybe even figure your Talent out as we go, but for now we need to get moving. Have you decided if you’re staying or going?”

Devin turned and stared at the valley below. Eva and I exchanged looks. We both knew he would likely be killed if he stayed here, but coming to the Longhouse had to be his choice. Even if he did choose to come with us, there was no guarantee we could protect him.

It was easy for me to imagine how he felt to an extent. Over five years had passed since I had my awakening, and a Guardian told me about my heritage. Even with everything that had happened between now and then, I could still recall the mingled sense of fear, confusion, and wonder I’d felt at fifteen years old. But then again, I hadn’t woken up to a dragon on my front lawn.

Eva stepped forward until she was even with Devin, looking over the valley.

“I know this is a lot to take in,” she said. “But life as a Norseman is incredible. It will be the best decision you ever made, right Mer?”

She and Devin both turned to look at me, and I hesitated for a second before speaking. “Absolutely. All of this was a bit much for me to take in when I had my awakening, too. It isn’t easy, but it’s so much better knowing not just who you are, but what you can be.”

The genuine feeling behind those words surprised me. Even with a catastrophic mess at my hands and Corvin potentially out to get me, along with my other problems, I found I could take some comfort because I at least knew who I was.

Devin turned back to the valley, eyes fixed on some unknown point on the horizon. “What if it’s not who I am, though? What if I try it and find out being a Norseman isn’t for me?”

“Tell you what,” Eva said. “Come with us and we’ll make sure you are safe until we clean up the valley. You can see the Longhouse, learn a little more about the Norsemen, and if you still don’t feel you fit in, we can bring you back.”

“What about the dragons? Didn’t you say they could seek me out?”

“We can get someone to take care of that at the Longhouse,” I said. “A small runic tattoo will shield you from any Off-Gards.”

Devin’s head whipped around, eyes bulging behind his glasses. The effect made him look a bit like a bug. “So my choices are to risk my life to make it to this Longhouse and get a tattoo to protect myself, or risk my life by staying here.” He took a few paces back and forth. “And today I thought my biggest problem was going to be on a calculus test.”

A moment of silence followed this, which was broken by Eva laughing heartily. Devin was surprised and shot me a confused look, which I returned.

“Sorry, that was funny.” She cleared her throat and returned to a more serious tone. “We know it isn’t ideal, but that’s the life of a Norseman. It isn’t always fair, but fate decided today was your day to awaken. If it decides it’s your time to die too, you can die hiding or die fighting. For me, I choose to fight.”

Devin didn’t look like those words were very comforting, but they struck a chord somewhere inside me. A rarely used corner of my mind seemed to open up, and I felt ready to embrace what followed.

“Alright,” he said eventually. “What happens next?”

“Well first, you’re going to need this,” Eva undid her belt and handed over her own seax blade, still in its sheath. “In case you need to defend yourself, you need something to do it with. This is a dwarf-made blade, the only thing that can actually do any actual damage to creatures from any of the realms.”

Devin unsheathed the blade and examined it. It was about as long as his forearm, and two inches wide. The handle was leather with a brass pommel, made to look like a miniature version of the long seax Eva used as a sword. Both blades were simply designed, expertly crafted, and perfectly balanced. The mark of a master craftsman, a dwarven craftsman. Devin’s fingers ran over the runes etched into the blade.

“Wow,” His eyes were wide behind his glasses, making him look like Yulefest had come early. “This is amazing. What are these symbols?”

“Runes,” I said. “They’re a script made by Heimdall. They make it so when we kill an Off-Gard, they return to their own realm rather than dying.”

“That’s why they all just turned to dust,” Devin said, giving the knife a few test swings. “So if you kill them, does that mean they just show up dead in their own realm, then?”

“No, it wouldn’t be right to slaughter every creature that comes across the Bifrost,” I said. “They are just sent back to their own realms and have a few days in a hibernation state before reviving.We just send them back so we don’t disrupt the balance between realms and cause the destruction of Midgard.”

“I think that’s probably enough for now,” Eva interrupted. She gestured at the dumbstruck look on Devin’s face, and I realized I’d maybe said too much. “We’re on a bit of a fixed clock here. Plus, a couple of Off-Gards just came over that ridge.” She pointed towards the peak of the mountain. At her words, I remembered I’d left my axe at the base of the hill from my fall and walked over to retrieve it.

“Where?” Devin said, a minor panic in his voice. “I don’t see anything.”

“Oh, they’re about a quarter mile away,” Eva said. “I can just sense them. It’s an Elfish thing, we can explain on the way. Gods! For someone with dwarven blood, you really have a hard time holding on to weaponry, don’t you?”

I didn’t have a reply, so I just shrugged as the heat returned to my face for what felt like the hundredth time today. And it wasn’t even noon. Devin sheathed the seax and belted the scabbard to his blue jeans.

“Let’s get started then,” Eva said. “We’ve got a dragon to hunt, and I want to be back before dinner.”