Call of the Valkyrie
Chapter 2: Climbs, Bones and Dark Places
"Over here," said Fishlegs, beckoning Hiccup and Astrid through the cave. "I was following the air current, see it catching?" He lifted the torch to demonstrate the flames being inextricably pulled. "That's when I found… this."
He lifted his torch higher, the light flickering over an immense slab, the sheer impact of its fall from somewhere above them enough to have cleaved it in two. This wasn't what Fishlegs was referring to in awe though. As he moved the torch closer, engraved runic symbols were thrown into sharp relief.
"Just look at these," he gushed, his hand running over the surface of the runestone clearing away centuries of accumulated dust.
"Woah, Fishlegs, this… this is really something!" said Hiccup, genuinely impressed. "It looks like a form of Norse, but nothing I'm familiar with."
"I know, right? Even the Dragon Eye didn't date back this far. It's ancient, perhaps one of the earliest dialects."
"Can you read any of it?" Astrid asked, looking at it over Hiccup's shoulder.
"I don't know, maybe. I need time to study it."
"That's not really a luxury we have right now, Fishlegs," she said, sternly, pulling away.
"But, just look at it! The detail, the craftsmanship." Fishlegs turned to Hiccup for support. "Someone spent a long time on this!"
"I know, I know," Hiccup agreed, placing a consoling hand on Fishlegs' shoulder. "This is a huge find, but Astrid's right, it can't be a priority right now. We still need to focus on finding a way out."
Fishlegs eyes widened. "But the tremors. What if this damage was caused by them? Another might completely bury it."
"Or us," insisted Astrid, sharing a concerned glance with Hiccup.
Fishlegs heaved a long sigh, resigned.
"I'm sorry, Fishlegs," Hiccup said, firmly this time.
"No, you're right." Fishlegs straightened up again. "So, what now?"
"We keep following the air current," replied Astrid, looking up to where the slab had fallen from. The flames of her torch licked higher. "With fine stone carving comes man, and man needs a way in. Up there's our best bet."
On seeing Fishlegs' crest fallen expression, his eyes still rivetted to the fallen slab and the knowledge he would likely never have chance to glean, Astrid sighed, frustrated - with her own weakness as much as anything else.
"Fishlegs," she said, drawing his attention, "you have however long it takes me to get up there," she gestured sharply up the rock face. "So, make notes, take rubbings, whatever you need to do. Just do it now and do it fast."
"Okay," he nodded, unable to contain his excitement as he set to work, pulling out an assortment of loose paper and a heelball.
Hiccup gave her a grateful look, before moving to follow her. She put her hand to his chest and stopped him. "You might as well stay and help him. Get it done quicker," she said.
"Um, what about you though?"
Astrid raised her eyebrow. "I'm not going far, Hiccup."
"I know that, but…" he looked up at the gap she would be making for, his brows drawing together in concern.
"And besides," she said, getting a good hold on the rock face, "if you're following me up who's going to catch me if I fall?" she smiled.
"Good point. Though, you know, don't!" he urged.
"I'll try," she said, reaching up to place her torch on a small ridge and free up both her hands for a second. "After all, we wouldn't want you to buckle a leg or anything," she teased.
Hiccup smiled, playing along as he watched her go. "Yeah, that wouldn't be good given both my spares are safely tucked in my saddle bag, on a night fury, outside."
Astrid laughed, hauling herself up a bit further, then as she stretched back to retrieve the torch and reposition it, she caught his eye. "Who said I was talking about your peg leg?" she asked, playfully.
"Now that just hurts," he said, mock scowling.
She grinned with a shrug, concentrating back on her climb. "Well, I can't deny having seen thicker legs hanging out the bottom of nests," she said.
"Which nests are we talking about exactly?" Hiccup asked, before thinking better of it. "Wait, wait, yeah, I don't want to know the answer to that do I!"
Their eyes met again, Astrid was giggling at first ready to continue the banter, but the laughter melted away the longer she held Hiccup's gaze, softening her expression into one of genuine warmth. In the end, they simply smiled at one another.
"Now," she said, taking a steadying breath and moving back to the task at hand. She brushed her boot over the stone, deliberately showering him with lose debris, "as much as you're enjoying the view, stop distracting me and go help Fishlegs."
"Milady," he offered up in parting, bowing with feint formality
"Smooth," Fishlegs quipped with a grin as Hiccup knelt beside him, shaking the dust from his hair.
It took several minutes for Astrid to navigate the climb, pausing every now and then to shift the torch to a higher vantage point. Difficult as it was, she knew she'd need it on reaching the top. Finally, she lifted it on to the top ledge but the instant she let go it started to roll. Her fingers clawed after it but to no avail. It dropped over the far side of the ledge into whatever lay beyond.
Cursing venomously, she hauled herself onto the top ledge and stared out into nothing, willing her eyes to adjust and take in what meagre information they could from the faint light of her torch - still somehow glowing - somewhere now far below.
She could sense the space was cavernous, the weight of rock didn't bear down on her but instead lifted to an unseen height. She raked her eyes through the gloom, following the rock face to where it met the side of the ledge where she was perched. Her fingers traced over fine, darker shadow's marking the stone's surface.
"More runes," Astrid realised, muttering to herself, and with the realisation came clarity of vision. Now she knew what she was looking for she could see them, hundreds of enormous rune stones lining the walls and that was just in the limited area she could make out.
"Um, guys?" she called down to Hiccup and Fishlegs.
"Astrid? You okay?" they asked in unison.
"Something tells me you're going to need more paper," she replied.
"Stay close," Hiccup said, handing Astrid back her re-wrapped torch. The freshly fed flames licked at the air as she lifted it, seeking the catch of a draft again.
The space they found themselves in was indeed vast as she'd initially suspected. It was no cave marked randomly with runestones though, but a fully structured, circular interior, temple like in appearance and doming to a great height. Roughhewn pillars and round arches lined the walls between further runic carvings, depictions of ancient scenes and corridors leading to unseen ends.
"Oh my Thor, oh my Thor, oh my Thor…." Fishlegs continued to mutter to himself as he gazed at everything all at once. It was a personal mantra he'd been stuck repeating since safely making it down from the breach.
"I think Fishlegs is broken," Astrid remarked in an aside to Hiccup. They were stood eyeing the many corridors wondering which to try first.
"Take your pick," Hiccup said, with a sweeping gesture.
Astrid pointed to the nearest one and marched forward, holding the torch into the shadows, watching to see the flames response – nothing.
She looked back a Hiccup and shook her head.
He moved on to check the next.
Again – nothing.
The following six showed no sign of air movement. The seventh however, the flames finally caught and were dragged.
Atsrid and Hiccup looked at one another, faint relief evident in both their faces as they came to a silent agreement - this was the way they'd try.
"Guys, you've got to see this!" Fishlegs declared, suddenly.
"What is it?" Hiccup asked, instantly drawn over.
Astrid rolled her eyes as she watched him go, wondering how long he'd been holding back his own insatiable curiosity? With a fond, if strained smile, she decided to scout further ahead and leave them to it again for the time being.
"Look at these," said Fishlegs. "What does that look like to you?"
Hiccup looked over the scene Fishlegs had brought him to. It was a battle, a Viking-like people on one side and something distinctly familiar and yet not on the other. It bore no resemblance to any species they had encountered before.
"A dragon," Hiccup answered, his fingers grazing over the image of it thoughtfully.
"Exactly," muttered Fishlegs in awe.
The corridor stretched on and soon Hiccup's and Fishlegs' voices became distant and indiscernible. The torch continued to flicker fitfully till suddenly, a further tunnel opened branching off on Astrid's right. She held the torch toward it testing the air current unsurprised when the drag still pulled her ahead, this new corridor was a dead end, she could see as much from where she stood, but just as she made to carry on the light caught against… something.
"Looks like we were at war far longer than any of us truly realised," said Hiccup.
"These figures here almost look like Valkyries," Fishelgs noted, following the scene along. "Are they wearing the dragon skins as armour?"
"Strange depictions, but, yeah, you're right. Perhaps offerings of some sort? Back in a time where we were even more tasteless than normal. Still doesn't help explain what this place is though. Whoa, whoa," Hiccup grabbed Fishlegs arm and pulled him to a stop before he could move to stand unknowingly on a pile of bones.
Fishlegs drew back with mild horror when he realised what was at his feet. His torchlight highlighting a very human skull.
"These aren't animal bones, Hiccup," he said nervously.
"No, they aren't," Hiccup agreed, reaching down to gently sift through the dirt surrounding the remains and extract the small polished stone that had caught his eye. He turned it over in his fingers, before showing it to Fishlegs. It was a charm from a necklace long since perished, a distinctive protection rune carved delicately into the surface.
"For all the good it did," said Fishlegs, sombrely. They both looked back down at the pile of bones.
A few seconds passed and Hiccup glanced up, "Where's Astrid?"
Astrid approached cautiously, reaching out to brush her fingers over the strange angular protrusions jutting from the wall that had caught her attention. Slowly she uncovered the unmistakable blik of a helm. It was shaped like the skull of a dragon, though not. It wasn't bone she was uncovering but dark scales, skin, closed eyes. Her actions became bolder as her curiosity was piqued further, this wasn't representative of any dragon she recognised.
She gasped backing away as a great lump of dirt fell to reveal the smooth grey mouth and chin of the helm's wearer. Having been entombed in the wall for an eternity the body appeared well preserved.
Astrid turned to call out to Hiccup and Fishlegs and in the same instant her peripheral was filled with sudden movement. She wasn't fast enough to react as a section of the wall exploded outward and a long sinuous tail coiled tightly round her neck silencing any call she'd been about to make.
Her fingers grasped and raked against it, desperate for air, feet kicking wildly as she was lifted off the floor. Slowly she was pulled closer to the half-buried body, desperately reaching for the dagger she kept in her boot. The dragon head she had thought a helm shifted, tilting at an odd angle as if contemplating.
"Hicc -!"
The dragon's eyes snapped open in a flash of blue and Astrid felt a sharp bite of pain in the side of neck, then nothing.
She was left alone, stood, wondering where she was and why she was there. She'd been about to call for Hiccup hadn't she, why was that? In the end it didn't matter, she heard him calling her.
"I'm here!" she responded, reaching down to retrieve her torch, not remembering having put it down or dropping it – or why her neck was feeling slightly sore as she did so.
She emerged into the corridor ahead of them, looking around in an attempt to get her bearings again.
"Hey?" Hiccup asked, placing a hand on her shoulder, it made her jump. "What happened to 'stay close'?" There was a note of fear lingering behind the evident frustration he felt at her seemingly having ignored his request - again.
"I don't know," she answered honestly.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I… yeah, I'm fine. Just want to get out of here." She'd wanted to say, 'I don't know' again, but still couldn't understand why she was feeling so disoriented suddenly.
"This place has officially reached 'pretty creepy' on Snotlout's official scale of 'places that creep me out'," agreed Fishlegs.
"And you wanted time to study runes," Astrid jeered, smacking his arm with the back of her hand.
"That was before I nearly stepped on a pile of bones."
"Bones?" she asked.
"Human bones to be exact!"
"Something bad happened here but whether by design or accident is a mystery best left for another day," said Hiccup.
"At least some of that mystery might be uncovered back at the safety of the Edge," said Fishlegs, lightly tapping his bag and it's bulging contents.
"Speaking of which, any idea which way we should go?" Hiccup asked, turning to Astrid.
"I…" again she struggled to answer, her eyes darting from one tunnel to the other. She shrugged, "I'm not sure."
Hiccup gave her another concerned look before testing the air current himself. "Looks like we go right," he said, the flames of his own torch pulling harder that way.
"The tremors seem to have damaged this area too. This looks freshly fallen," noted Fishlegs as they came upon a large pile of rubble. It looked to have near filled the corridor from floor to ceiling at one point recently.
"Thank Thor someone wasn't stood under it all when it fell," Hiccup shot Astrid another irritated glance.
"Yeah," she muttered in agreement, not meeting his eyes.
None of the riders noticed a small greyed hand protruding lifeless from the freshly fallen debris as they walked by.
After a time, Astrid began to feel the weight of being watched. She couldn't help but glance back into the shadows that fell in their wake. For an instant, she thought she saw something. A mass of black, or a shocking hint of blue hovering close to the roof of the corridor.
On blinking it was gone.
