AN: Another day, another update. I don't have very much to say, except that you should look out for my deviantart page flaring up with pics of all the new Frost Giants and such. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter four
I struggled to wake up. I was quite cosy. Bonecrusher had wrapped himself tightly around me, huffing hot air into the small space that I occupied. It was so warm that I quickly checked to see if I had turned into a human, I hadn't thankfully.
Bonecrusher looked so peaceful that I almost didn't want to wake him up. He looked like a giant lap cat. I patted him on the nose. His big, red eyes opened. Well one of them did.
"Time to wake up, sleepy head," I told him. He huffed, the smell of carrion washing over my face. I almost gagged. Ice beast morning breath was not nice. "Move, if you please, your highness." I said sarcastically. "I need to see if the storm's stopped."
Bonecrusher shifted, but only enough so that I could climb over him. Grumbling, I grappled over his large back, using his wings as foot holds and spines as anchors to haul myself up and over.
When that small task had been done, I stood on the small out cropping of the cave. The stormed had stopped. We were high up, surprisingly so. I could see nothing but a sparkling blanket of white. There was still a bitter wind, but that was to be expected. We still had higher to go.
I turned around; Bonecrusher was still curled up on himself inside the cave. I kicked him lightly.
"Crush, time to go," I said. "Don't hit me off the edge when you get up," I warned. I was dangerously close to the edge. I wasn't sure how he did it, but he managed to turn around in the cave, stick his head out and ruffle his wings, all without even brushing me. He held his neck out, signalling me to get on.
"You're such a gentleman." I commented. "Wade would've probably just pushed me off to see my reaction. He has this teleporter thingy, so he would catch me. Drakki would have taken longer to get up, she certainly would still be asleep, and Hiss wouldn't have slept at all."
Bonecrusher huffed, notifying me that he had heard me, but his face was distant. He wanted this mission done and dusted as much as I did.
With a smile, I hauled myself onto Bonecrusher's back. Only when I was secure, feet firmly planted on each side of his back and gripping a spine for support, did he take off.
Well, he made to take off. What he really did was just fall off the edge.
I yelped in surprise, as I was expecting a sudden take off. But soon I felt myself enjoying the short fall. All drowsiness had gone and it was one sure fire way to wake up.
Before we'd even fallen that far, Bonecrusher opened his four massive wings, flipped once and sailed into the sky. He even did a little corkscrew just for the fun of it.
I savoured the moment. I knew that whatever happened next, I wasn't going to like it and would not want to remember it. We soared higher, past the mountains as I contemplated a plan. Really all I had was the basic steps. Get to the North Mountains, stop the Ice Beast, get home. Of course now I realised that there was a little more to stopping the Ice Beast.
"How would you stop the Amberjaw?" I pointed the question at Bonecrusher, but I would settle with an answer from anyone. Of course I was alone. I wasn't going crazy like Deadpool yet. At least, I hoped not.
I regretted not wanting to stay in the stables longer and asking the Giants about how you go about stopping an Ice Beast. Why was I in such a hurry to leave? Was it just so I could get back earlier? Stupid, stupid, stupid me. I would slap past me if I could for being so ignorant.
"I wish Wade was here." I said. "He would know what to do. He would know how to track down that Amberjaw despite never having done it before! Crap, he'd even kill it without a blink! What the hell do I do, Bonecrusher?" I asked him. I felt hopeless. This was a creature that had already killed trained soldiers! Oh I was going to fail. I was going to die.
Bonecrusher huffed and soared down closer to the mountainside. The snow storm had left deep snow. Even from here I could see the tracks of rabbit-like creatures that lived on the mountainside. Bonecrusher had told me where to start. Besides I had that idea before. Maybe not all hope had been lost.
I remembered the book I had slipped into my satchel. I hadn't even looked at it properly. If I know what kind of tracks to look for then I could go from there. I also hadn't seen any other Ice Beast in the North Mountains. The situation started to look better and better.
"Land where you can," I said to Bonecrusher. He circled for a short amount of time before choosing a roughly flat piece of land on the side of a mountain. I jumped off him and ran around to the saddle bags under his wings. I grabbed the book and hopped back on his back. I flipped past pages of Ice Beast statistics. I paused on a few pages, the pages that depicted the type of Ice Beasts the Frost Giants had. Hefmir had a Wraithrattler, Isar had a Frostbolt, Nirym had an Abysstrike and Rimir had a Flametender. It didn't help me at all; it was just interesting to see.
Finally I came to the page I wanted: Amberjaw. Size – medium, speed – medium, I read. I skimmed through the page until I saw something that caught my eye. Special ability: Can spit an amber-like substance that can trap prey and is nearly unbreakable. Only the fire of the hottest fire breathing Ice Beasts can break it.
Great. This Ice Beast had superpowers.
Cautiously I flipped to the Sky Chaser page. Fire – extremely hot. The Sky Chaser shoots sustained, blazing torus of fire that forms a spiral. That was reassuring, and slightly terrifying.
Back to the Amberjaw. I read and studied the picture of the Amberjaw, especially the shape of its feet and what kind of tracks it would leave. Although unfortunately the book did not specifically say how to successfully capture a raging Ice Beast of this species, not that I expected it would, I did manage to glean some information out of it. The Amberjaw was a typically an aggressive Ice Beast, it would attack even if not necessarily threatened, a master of hunting and tracking (mainly an ambush predator) and its distinctive wing shape and pattern made it easy to spot in the sky.
So not only was this a super powered, predator and model-class looking Ice Beast, it was also naturally aggressive. That coupled with the fact that it was a supposedly grief stricken Valkyrie in another form did not sound good.
It was at this point that the realisation that this Ice Beast could actually kill me, sunk in.
"This Ice Beast certainly give you the run for your money," I said to Bonecrusher. "Since, you know, you're the best ever."
He looked proud about that, lifting his head up so I could scratch his chin.
"At least now I know what I'm looking for." I sad and placed the book back into the saddle bag by leaning over as far as I could. "Come on, Crush, we've got a long day ahead of us."
The sun sank lower and lower into the horizon.
"No, no!" I shouted at it, almost pathetically pleading it to stay for longer. "Don't go!"
It's hopeless, that I know. The day was ending. We had spent all day, all day, searching for the Ice Beast Valkyrie. Nothing. I had seen absolutely nothing. Bonecrusher hadn't smelt anything, or seen anything either, except for the occasional rabbit-like creature that practically hopped into his mouth. He wasn't a tracker, so I didn't blame him. It was my fault, I should have thought this through beforehand.
There were numerous things I should've done as I watched the orange-gold sun sink lower and lower down the sky, streaking the sky scarlet and orange and pink. I shouldn't have been in such a hurry to leave. I should've asked Icder for more information. I should've asked if the Frost Giants could've helped me find this Amberjaw. Should've, should've, should've.
Of course there was nothing I could do about it now. I'd wasted a day, whether by tracking incorrectly or just being stupid from the start. Soon it would be too dark to see, let alone hunt. We circled a mountain once again. We were quite for into the North Mountains. I could definitely find my way to the ice castle, but it was an awfully long way back, and there was still so much more ground to cover.
"I can still do this," I said to myself, but Bonecrusher still huffed. "Yeah, we can do this. Let's just rest for now." I spotted a rocky outcropping at the side of a mountain. Not quite as sheltered as our last spot, but it would do. It wasn't snowing this time. It was a relatively calm evening.
We landed, and I slid off Bonecrusher. I pretty much flopped onto the ground. My legs were basically like jelly. Bonecrusher folded his wings. I could see him shifting his aching shoulders and practically moaning at the break. I smiled him and rubbed him on a spot on his back.
"You're gorgeous, you know that?" I said to him. He puffed out his frills that adorned his head. "Yeah," I said and cuddled him a bit more. I sat on the floor and started stretching my legs. I was incredibly tense after a whole day of flying. I considered starting yoga when I returned to Earth. The benefits certainly outweighed the cons, but I realised that I would be teased mercilessly by Wade. I wouldn't be joining yoga any time soon.
I grabbed some food out of the saddle bags. Bread and cheese again, but I had eaten basically rabbit throughout the day. The small hopping, white furred creatures did certainly look like rabbits, and tasted like it too. It was discerning to know they had a mouthful of razor sharp teeth that almost left a hole my arm and bird like talons for feet, complete with scaly skin chicken legs. I nicknamed then raptor rabbits in my head as I had nothing else to come up with.
After the bread and cheese I drank the last of my first skin of water. I'd bought two with me, but instead of diving into another, I gave it to Bonecrusher. He was happy to have a bit of a drink.
Before settling down I packed the skins full of snow and gathered some rocks. Bonecrusher blew a small torrent of fire onto the rocks, almost singing my eye brow off, heating the small space like a furnace. I laid down the skins of snow near to the hot rocks so they would melt over night and I could be replenished with water. Due its sub-zero temperatures Jotunheim didn't have that many sources of running water, so melting the abundant snow was the next best thing.
I settled down to sleep and Bonecrusher wrapped himself around.
"Goodnight, Crush," I said as exhaustion settled into my body. "We'll have to finish this off tomorrow..." I said as I yawned. I fell asleep soon after
I awoke to absence. Absence of light, absence of sound, absence of comfort.
I opened my eyes and looked around wildly for Bonecrusher. I spotted him almost immediately, a giant silhouette that blocked out the light of the stars.
I gasped. The stars.
The night sky wasn't just black, it was a range of blues, purples and greens, highlighted with pink absolutely littered with millions and millions of tiny bright lights. It was brighter and more beautiful than anything I had ever seen before. The stars and constellations were utterly foreign to me, I couldn't name a single thing. I couldn't see the North Star that shone so brightly on Earth, and would help guide the way back home. It didn't matter. I saw the edge of a galaxy, the edge of a swirl of stars. I wondered if that was the Milky Way, or if it was Andromeda, or something completely new. The lack of light pollution had a dramatic affect on its beauty. I could even see nebulas, a giant cluster of gas, the colour turquoise and pink. I always thought the night sky on Earth was beautiful, but it was nothing compared to this beauty, this masterpiece. I wanted to remember every detail of it and paint it at home, so I could always have this moment.
But despite its majesty, Bonecrusher wasn't looking at it.
He was staring off into the distance, red eyes narrowed. I walked up to him, and put a hand on his wing. Every muscle in his body was taught, like steel cables. Bonecrusher huffed rapidly, his chest heaving. He wasn't the best tracker but he could smell something wrong.
I gasped and grabbed the skins off the still warm stones. Water sloshed inside as I stuffed then into Bonecrusher's saddle bags. He barely moved even then. I scrambled onto his back and when he was ready, he launched into the sky.
The moment we were in the air a roar rang out. A war cry. A challenge.
Bonecrusher echoed it, a reply. Strong, loud, and the most threatening sound I had ever heard.