So, I'm aware that I haven't been active on this story much, as I keep forgetting that it even exists. However, this chapter is pretty eventful, and is easily the longest yet. I'm trying to write longer ones overall. Anyways, I'll do my best to make this story as great as possible, and any input from my readers would be greatly appreciated. Just leave a review if you have a suggestion. I already have the major plot details worked out, but smaller details have yet to be decided.

Chapter 8

"You know, I kinda feel bad about leaving Hector alone in there with Gretchen," said Trent as he parried one of Drew's slashes.

Drew ceased his attack and leaned on his sword. "I know, but it had to happen, they needed to speak to each other, even if nothing good was said," replied Drew.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Trent as he got back into a defensive stance and motioned for Drew to continue. This continued for a few minutes until both were covered in a sheen of sweat and were forced to abandon their shirts, displaying the numerous scars each had. Trent was on the defensive for most of the fighting due to Drew's unorthodox gladiatorial style he learned in Scoria. He finally bested Trent with a feint that lead to a leg sweep. Trent looked up at the blunt sparring sword pointed up at him with disdain.

"You need to attack more, otherwise I'll just keep wearing down your defenses," stated Drew as he offered his hand to pull Trent up. As he rose, they both heard clapping. They turned to see Thor approaching. "Oh, hey Thor, couldn't sleep?" asked Trent.

Thor shook his head. "Nope, the sound of clashing metal kept me up so I figured I'd better come join in the fun. Except, I don't have a sword on me so I guess I gotta take you both down with my hands," he said with a grin.

"Pretty cocky for a fifteen year old kid, huh Trent?" asked Drew.

"Hey, I'm sixteen, my birthday was last week," said Thor with a laugh.

"Oh, well in that case, I guess we'd better oblige him, huh Drew?" said Trent. The Wolflord nodded. Thor took his shirt off and they began to circle each other. Even though Thor was only sixteen, he stood a massive six foot four, was still growing, and was as strong as one would expect a Bearlord to be. Needless to say, alone, the brothers would have been intimidated, but together they stood a much better chance.

Then, they both rushed Thor, hoping to catch him off guard from either side, but Thor was expecting that. He ran at Trent, who was to his left, and tackled him to the ground, pinning his arms beneath him. Then Drew jumped on his back and wrapped his arms under Thor's armpits, dragging him off of Trent. Thor pried Drew's arms apart, and used them to throw him at Trent. The both of them toppled to the ground in a tangle of limbs. They untangled themselves quickly, though, and turned to face Thor, who was breathing heavily from exertion. Giving him no time to rest, the brothers ran at him again, using a different strategy this time. Drew went first, sliding to take out Thor's legs, causing him to fall forward to the ground. That was when Trent pounced and pinned Thor's right arm behind his back, chicken winging him. However, Thor was too strong, and he rolled, right, freeing his left arm, which he used to put Trent in a reverse headlock before picking Drew up and doing the same.

"Say it," he said.

"Never!" they replied together, struggling in vain to free themselves.

"Say it!" Thor said again.

"UNCLE," the brothers yelled together, and Thor released them.

They both fell to the ground, gasping for air.

When they had finally caught their breath, they began to laugh. "Since when did you get so strong?" asked Drew inbetween laughing spurts.

Thor looked at him and said with a smile, "Um, hello? Bearlord."

Trent shrugged his shoulders and chuckled, as that did explain it. The three of them joked all the way back to their rooms before bidding each other good night.


Thor awoke to the rays of sunlight peeking through the gap in his curtain. He took that as his queue to rise, and got dressed. He seemed to be the first awake, and breakfast didn't seem to be ready yet, so he decided to take a walk through the hedge gardens that Hedgemoor was famous for. He felt so peaceful and at one with nature as he walked through the gardens that he was sorry to leave. When he walked back in the feast hall, his mouth watered at the scent of bacon. Others were awake now, his Uncle Bergan, Drew, and Maddox all were seated at the table, enjoying their meals and idle chatting. He fixed himself a plate and sat with them.

"I suppose you're right, we definitely need a few more swords if we're going to purge Icegarden completely," said Bergan.

"Well, fortunately, I made a few arrangements for that, and they should be meeting us on the road today. I'm not gonna say who, though, it's a surprise I think you'll enjoy," replied Drew."

"I'm intrigued," said Bergan, somewhat amused.

At that, they noticed Gretchen entering the hall. She sat at her usual place at the head of the table. "So you're all really leaving today?" she asked.

"Sadly, yes. We would stay longer, but we're somewhat pressed for time," said Drew.

"I wish I could go with you guys, but…." Gretchen began. "I know," said Drew.


"Trent, would you stop kissing her already? We need to go!" yelled Bergan. Trent didn't even stop, he just waved one hand at them, a universal 'screw you' as he didn't want to break it off. Drew took one long look at Trent, his eyes watering, and turned away, wiping his tears away before anyone but Thor noticed.

"I'll be waiting for you," said Gretchen. "I'll come back to you," replied Trent, as he saddled up. And with that, they were off again.


"So who is it we're supposed to be meeting?" asked Mikotaj.

"You'll see," was all Drew would say.

They had ridden for the better part of the morning before they stopped at a small stream to water the horses. Thor noticed Drew off by himself, he had seemed distant ever since earlier when he'd seen Trent with Gretchen. As Thor approached, Drew looked up from filling his water skin. "Hey Thor, what;s up?" he said.

"I'm not sure, you tell me," replied Thor.

"What do you mean?" asked Drew, confused.

"Ever since you saw Trent with Gretchen this morning, you've barely said a word, you rode at the back by yourself, and now you're over here alone, away from everyone, so what's wrong?" demanded Thor.

Drew sighed. "I guess there's no getting around it, I'm depressed because of how happy they were together," said Drew solemnly.

"What do you mean? You have feelings for Gretchen or something?" quizzed Thor.

"What? No, she's just a really close friend. No, I'm sad because that's what I wanted with Whitley, but now I know that I can never have it…," Drew trailed off.

Thor felt a pang of guilt for bringing out Drew's emotions like that. "I'm not going to pretend to know what it's like to lose someone you love that much, but I have lost people. We've all lost people, Drew. You've just gotta take the hits and keep moving forward, for their sake," said Thor.

Drew just nodded. Thor placed a hand on his shoulder, leaving it there for a second before turning to walk away.

"Thor," he heard. "Thank you, I needed that," said Drew.

Thor nodded and walked back to the others, and was happy to see Drew resume his usual place at the head of the party when they resumed their journey. They traveled until the sun was low on the horizon.

"Maybe we should stop for the night, Drew," advised Bergan. Drew glanced to his left and said "Follow me then."

He lead them into a clearing that, Thor was surprised to see, already had a small campsite in it, with two men huddled around a fire, cooking some rabbit. When they spotted Drew leading the party out of the trees towards them, they rose to greet him.

"It's about time, we were afraid you'd gotten lost," laughed one of them as they both removed their hoods, revealing Duke Manfred and Lord Reinhardt, the Stags of Stormdale.

"Wait, wait, wait, so you saved this guy's life and now he follows you around babbling about a life debt and that he'll never leave? Sounds like Reinhardt when he was just a young buck," laughed Manfred.

"I remember those days, he was always attached to your hooves by an invisible leash," chuckled Bergan.

"Alright guys, is all that embarrassing stuff really necessary?" asked Reinhardt.

Manfred pretended to think for a second. "Nope, but is sure as hell was funny," he said as everyone burst out laughing.

"Fuck you, Dad," said Reinhardt begrudgingly.

"Hey, watch your language, I may be old, but I can still kick your ass in an antler lock," threatened Manfred as everyone else continued to laugh.


"There it is...Icegarden," announced Bergan, as the city was just visibly over the snow-capped peaks.

Thor felt intense pain at that moment, fearing what he would find within its walls, yet feeling oddly calm due to the fact that he was home, no matter how much of a sorry state it was in. As they neared the immense, impregnable, icy walls of Strakenberg, the group grew quieter and quieter until there was nothing but silent vigil. They had left the horses earlier, preferring to go in armed and ready rather than be taken off guard while still on horseback. They approached the door to the Great Hall, and the nine of them stacked up on either side. Drew nodded at Bergan, and the old bear slowly pushed open the massive door, keeping his great battleaxe in front of him, ready for anything. They waited for a few seconds, but when nothing came out, Bergan shrugged, and Drew led the way in, brandishing Moonbrand and the White Fist of Icegarden. It was carnage. The Hall was exactly as Drew and Trent had left it, corpses and dead zombies strewn about, but no live ones anywhere to be seen.

"Where are they? Surely they didn't just disappear?" asked Trent.

"They didn't, I can feel them," said Hector, doing his best to mask the feelings in his face.

"Well that's reassuring," said Thor. All he wanted was to purge this place of evil and begin the restoration of his ancestral home, but he wasn't sure he was ready to rule his own people on his own. He'd always had Bergan or his father to lean on, but at some point , he was going to have to accept his responsibilities and step to the task. One thing at a time, though. First step, purge.

Thor heard a light whistle. He looked up, and Drew was motioning to two separate staircases, indicating that they should split up.

"Stay here, don't let him out of your sight," Drew said to Reinhardt, referring to Hector. Reinhardt nodded, and the Ferran brothers went to the left staircase with Mikotaj, while Thor and Maddox went right with Bergan and Manfred.

As they ascended the dark staircase, Thor became increasingly uneasy. From what Drew and Trent had told him, this place should be overrun by the undead, but they hadn't seen a single one yet. His glances at the others revealed that they too, were uneasy about the situation. When they reached the top of the staircase, it opened up into a massive, ornately decorated library...that was crawling with the undead.

"Back, back," whispered Bergan urgently. "The good news is, we found the library. The bad news is, we're in trouble," he said.

"We need to clear this place so Hector can find that axe," said Manfred.

This doesn't seem safe at all, Thor thought to himself.

"Just leave them to me...bzzt," said Maddox as he began his transformation into the Werebee. He grew two extra arms, sprouted a large thorax with a deadly stinger on the end, and coarse yellow and black hair all over his body, as well as a set of large, red insect eyes that seemed to bore into your soul. Not to mention the white, membrane-like wings he sprouted from his back. When his transformation was complete, he drew his dual katanas and flew into the library.

The others watched as Maddox seemed to dance through the air, every graceful movement seeming to take the head off of one of the undead. Immobilized by awe and envy, they almost didn't notice the group of zombies shuffling towards them. With roars and grunts, the two Bearlords and the Staglord let their beasts emerge and they charged in to assist Maddox. While Bergan and Thor cleaved them in two left and right with their massive battleaxes, Manfred would charge into a group with his antlers lowered and skewer half a dozen at a time before beheading them with his longsword. The library was so open and large, that by pushing in towards the center of the room, they had inadvertently gotten themselves surrounded by the seemingly never-ending masses of the undead. They were now fighting back to back with Maddox soaring overhead, each trusting the other to watch his back. Being forced on the defensive was hard when you couldn't give ground. Thor was fighting tooth and nail, axe and paw, to merely keep from being swept into the masses of the dead. Amidst all the chaos, they became aware of the sounds of fighting at the opposite end of the room. It's about time they showed up, thought Thor. Drew, Trent, and Mikotaj had joined the fray from the opposite passageway. Almost naturally, the two groups gravitated together to form a six-man circle, and together they faced down the hordes of evil. Just when Thor was fixing to collapse from exhaustion, he became aware of the dwindling numbers of their enemy. They all fought with the last bits of their strength and Drew beheaded the last one with Moonbrand.

"You know," Drew said while panting, "maybe we should have brought a few more people."

"I tried to tell you, but you have the stubbornness of your father in you," replied Bergan.

"Well, I, for one, am exhausted," said Thor.


The end of the battle gave everyone a chance to take in the sights of the library. Enormous columns carved in the shape of bears were holding up the cave ceiling, their ice-white, stone-carved armor shining in the light of their torches. Thor remembered the lessons he'd had in this very room by the tutor his father, Duke Henrik, had assigned to Thor to prepare him to be his successor. Thor had never imagined he'd be thrust into the role at just sixteen. The Sturmish White Bears had always been one of the proudest therian families, and for them to be reduced so low was appalling, as they had always seemed invincible in their ice-capped mountain ranges and their adaptability to the cold, not to mention their stubbornness and indomitable wills.

As Thor wandered the deserted halls of the castle, all of his childhood memories came back to him one by one. When he entered his old chambers, he remembered the first time he had undergone the White Bear transformation. He'd woken up in the middle of the night covered in thick, white fur, paws, and massive teeth. He'd cried out in surprise and his father had burst in. Henrik simply smiled and changed into the Bear to show his son the normality of it. Passing his parents' chambers, he saw images of each of their faces, most of all, his father's face, smiling down at him. I'll do my best to lead like you did, thought Thor. Finally, he descended back into the throne room and approached the white throne of the Bearlords. Thor sank to his knees in front of it and burst into tears. I'm not ready, Father. I wish you were still here, I still need you, Thor yelled into his mind. Suddenly, he was filled with yet another memory of his father, this one from the day Henrik fought Onyx in single combat. In the large command tent, Bergan was putting Henrik's armor on him as he was speaking to Thor. "If anything should happen to me today, my son, remember that you are a White Bear of Icegarden. There is nothing on this earth that can defeat an angry White Bear," his father had said to him. Thor lifted his face and wiped the tears from his eyes. Silently, he placed one fist over his heart before turning and ascending the staircase once more.


"Ah, here it is," exclaimed Hector, who was poring over some ancient, centuries old tome. "It says Those seeking Stormedge must first enter the vault through the heart of an inanimate guardian before facing three trials that only those Brenn deem worthy will pass," he read.

"Well that's just great, we got all the way here and almost died fighting the undead just to get a riddle?" asked Trent.

"It seems that way...bzzt," replied Maddox.

"Well, let's analyze this first. The riddle is broken up into pieces. So Stormedge is in a vault, great. Next, the entrance to the vault lies in the heart of an inanimate guardian," Hector stated.

"Well what the hell does that mean then?" asked Mikotaj. Hector simply shrugged, obviously just as stumped as everyone else. They all sat like that for sometime, each posing some theories, but most didn't pan out to anything.

"Wait a minute. If the axe is in Icegarden itself, then we need to focus on that. What around here would be described as an inanimate guardian?" asked Thor. The others began to think on that for a minute.

"I wonder…," muttered Bergan, as he rose from his chair and strode over to one of the enormous, armored, white bear statues. He looked back at the group with one eyebrow raised. "Does this look like an inanimate guardian to you?"

"You may be on to something," replied Drew. Now, there were four statues in all, each carved into one of the columns that supported the ceiling. They split up, and began to scour every inch of their respective statues. Each statue was carved into the stone as if it was sitting in a chair. They had battleaxes laid across their legs, and their hands on the arms of the 'chair'. They wore ornately carved studded breastplates, but instead of the studs sticking out as they should, they were caved in on each statue. Thor noticed this, so he climbed into the lap of his statue and began inspecting the holes. When he came to one that would be directly over the bear's heart, he saw something in the hole. Without even thinking, he reached his hand in there and felt a cold, stone lever, which he pulled. They all heard a loud rumble, and the bear statue began to recede into the column, revealing a doorway in its chest.

"Huh, not bad," said Trent incredulously.

"Well I guess that's our way into the vault," said Reinhardt. Bergan nodded in agreement as Thor poked his head into the doorway.

He pulled back out and said "There's a staircase in here."


"Man, I'm getting tired of dark, creepy, winding staircases," said Drew, voicing everyone's exact thoughts. Just when Thor figured that it would never end, the staircase abruptly ended in a small room, with nothing but an empty stone pedestal. Hector walked over to it and placed the old book on it.

"The first trial: The trial of the mind," he read. "This trial will test the limits of one's mental strength and will. Only the most indomitable of wills will pass."

"Well, who wants the axe?" asked Trent.

Drew looked down at Moonbrand, then at the White Fist of Icegarden on his left hand. "I think I'm good," he chuckled. "What about you Trent?" he asked.

"I'm human, I don't think I'm meant for it, Mikotaj?" he asked.

"Axes aren't my thing," he yawned.

"Stags wouldn't look right with axes, count us out," stated Manfred while motioning to Reinhardt and himself.

"I guess that leaves me and you, Uncle Bergan. You take it," said Thor.

Bergan smiled and shook his head. "No, my boy, you take it, you're far younger than I am. And besides, with the White Fist permanently attached to Drew, the White Bears need a new family weapon, don't you think?" replied Bergan.

Thor grinned and put his hand behind his head. "Yeah, i guess you're right. So how do I begin these trials?" Thor asked Hector.

Hector motioned to a circle in the center of the room. "The book says you just sit inside this circle and close your eyes," said Hector. "You should know, though. The book says you may never wake up. Only your own mind can bring you back," he said.

"Well that's comforting," sighed Thor. He took a deep breath to steel himself for what was to come. Then, his mind made up, he stepped into the circle, sat down, and closed his eyes.