AN: So here it is, the last chapter of Legend of the Ice Beast Valkyrie. It's been fun writing it, as I've been able to introduce new characters, reunite Ink with Bonecrusher and give Ink more emotional turmoil then I probably should.

Don't worry though, this isn't the last of me. I have yet still to write a short story tie in for Avengers: Age of Ultron, so that'll be up around summer time. It won't be as long as Blood and Ink as, but longer than my two short stories, so around about 10 chapters long. Keep a look out, it'll be called Cables Are Stronger Than Strings (hey, see what I did there?) I'll try my best to keep it as fun as possible and try NOT to just copy up the literal manuscript of Age of Ultron (I've been culprit to that before). In the mean time, here's the last chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter five

The Ice Beast, the Amberjaw. It was here. It had tracked us. How could it have tracked us? I hadn't even seen any trace of it, and we had been in the sky almost all of yesterday and yet... It was here.

I could be home by tomorrow killed – stopped it, I could go homes and be done with this stupid quest.

Bonecrusher's wings sliced through the air as we soared high in the sky. I wasn't sure if we were flying to or flying from the Amberjaw. II heard another roar from the opposing Ice Beast, but I couldn't track where it came from. Bonecrusher roared back at it. Another challenge.

Then, out of nowhere, I heard the snapping of leathery wings and a terrible, high pitched shrieking. I couldn't turn fast enough as I heard a black shadow tear past, slicing its claws down Bonecrusher's shoulders before dancing away into the night.

Blue blood dripped from Bonecrusher's wounds but he didn't seem fazed. He was just angry.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see her." I said to him. He huffed; he wasn't mad, she had snuck up on both of us. "Eyes open, we can do this." I spied a forest in a valley below us. "I have an idea, soar low." We dived down into the valley, steep faces of jagged rock zooming past us. Bonecrusher dodged past them all nimbly thanks to his four wings.

He hovered above the tree tops. I lent down, clinging onto his neck by my legs alone and reached for a branch. It was a stretch; I could barely hang on to Bonecrusher, although he hovered as still as he could, it was difficult to grab a branch that was big enough for a torch. "Lower!" I said, we dropped a couple of feet. My hand closed over a branch and I yanked it, breaking the thick limb.

I swung up and sat back on Bonecrusher's back. The Amberjaw hadn't appeared again yet. I leaned over again into the saddle bags and grabbed the small rag of cloth from the hastily packed and low rate first aid kit. It wouldn't last long, but I held the makeshift torch out for Bonecrusher to light. A small, swirling torrent of bright orange flames engulfed the tip of the torch, eliminating the darkness that smothered us.

I waved the torch around, searching for the Amberjaw. I caught movement from out of the side of my eye, a dark splotch that blotted out the stars. I swung my torch around, with a heavy thunk it hit against the Amberjaw. I felt the briefest touch of claws rake against the skin of my face before the Amberjaw flew away, shrieking in annoyance as it did so. I wasn't bleeding, thank the gods, but the Amberjaw wasn't harmed either, Ice Beasts were fairly fire-proof, so a small torch would not do anything to harm it.

"We need to turn the tables in our favour, Crush." I said to him. We were at a disadvantage. Bonecrusher had already been hurt. "We need to find her and stop her before anything else happens." Bonecrusher huffed, he agreed with me.

The only way I knew how to hunt in the air was on the back of a Night Fury and a Whispering Death at my side. A Sky Chaser on the other hand, was almost as good as both put together. We were at a disadvantage with tracking, we were at an advantage with everything else. Bonecrusher was the fastest and most manoeuvrable Ice Beast I knew, due to his four wings and he was also the strongest and most powerful. If we had to win this on brute strength alone then we could. I wasn't the best tactician in the world, but I was learning. Time to apply my small amount of knowledge of fighting to this sticky situation.

I swung my torch away, searching for a dark splotch against the sky full of stars. Bonecrusher swung around in a slow circle, giving the time to spot her. She streaked past the stars "There!" I shouted. "Up, Bonecrusher, up!" I rushed him upwards to follow her. I kept my eyes on the blotch. My makeshift torch spluttered, and I almost let go of it, it was more of a hindrance now anyway. Nevertheless I clung to it as we streaked through the sky with a stream of fire flickering behind us.

We chased the Amberjaw through the night sky. She was fast, with large wings that let her sail through the air. We were hot on her heels, though, not 10 meters behind. Now that Bonecrusher had spotted her, he knew how he could keep her in sight. He turned when she turned, he spun when she spun, and because of his four wings, we did it that much faster.

We were gaining on her , so close that Bonecrusher could snap at her tail, and he did, his teeth grazing at the tip of her fire like finned tail. She roared in annoyance, and flipped around in mid air to face us. Bonecrusher halted, the two Ice Beasts hovered in the air, sizing each other up. Bonecrusher was physically larger than the Amberjaw, but there was a malicious gleam in her eyes. Her red eyes flicked from Bonecrusher's to mine. I held eye contact with her with what seemed like ages. I was shocked to find what I saw, intelligence of centuries past, grief beyond a thousand ages and madness. Endless madness.

I started to believe the legend.

The Amberjaw broke eye contact to whip her head around, spitting fire in our direction. Bonecrusher, caught off guard, ducked before being slammed into by the Ice Beast. She sank her claws into his chest, the sheer force of her blow almost throwing me off Bonecrusher's back as he roared in pain and anger. We fell, locked together. I hit the Amberjaw's head with my flaming torch and Bonecrusher bit her and tore at her. She let go and wailed. She flew off, head and neck badly wounded.

We chased her, soaring through the North Mountains once again. We sliced trough quickly forming clouds, up and down and in endless loops at a time during our aerial dog fight. Bonecrusher blew torrents of fire at her, He missed more often than not, but these were warning shots.

As much of a threat as she posed, neither Bonecrusher nor I wanted to kill the Ice Beast.

Be we had to.

A bloody battle continued as blows were traded whenever the Ice Beasts got close to each other. I tried to help as much as I could, jabbing at the Amberjaw with my torch and throwing daggers of ice that I formed whenever I got in range. I sported cuts and bruises, so did Bonecrusher and the Amberjaw. I wasn't sure how long we had been fighting. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, but no matter what happened, it didn't seem to end.

The Amberjaw dived, we dived after her. She twisted in mid air, belly up and back down, know angled towards us. She opened her mouth to breath fire. Bonecrusher and I readied ourselves. Crush could glide up, protecting me from harm, but his tail would get caught in the fire. It was okay, he was fire-proof.

But the Amberjaw did not breathe fire. She spat amber at us. Bonecrusher enacted the manoeuvre anyway, too late to realise our mistake. The amber froze around his tail fins and he roared in surprise. He wouldn't be able to fly with out the use of his tail fins.

I could swear the Amberjaw smirked. I saw my vision go red with rage, although we still fell in the same position, Bonecrusher would not be able to come out of the dive in a safe way with me on his back. The Amberjaw knew this. She expected us to crash in to the mountainside.

The Amberjaw, satisfied with her hunt, made to turn around in mid air and break out of the dive, leaving gravity to do the rest of her job. But she struggled, being not as manoeuvrable as Bonecrusher.

I made a split second decision. "Fly, Bonecrusher!" I shouted and leaped off his back toward the Amberjaw below us. It was utter madness. I hadn't done anything like this. The Ice Beast could fly away before I got to her. I could fall to my death if I missed. Adrenalin buzzed through my veins like nothing I had ever felt before and I felt as if I saw everything in slow motion.

Bonecrusher roared at me as I fell through the air, my hair streaking behind me and a defiant and what I suspected was a look of utter fury pasted all over my face. The Amberjaw had her back to me, preparing to fly away. I formed a long, three meter ice spear in my one hand, torch flaming in the other. I slammed onto the Amberjaw's back and she cried out in alarm. Caught off guard by the sudden weight we dropped like stones to the mountainside below. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Bonecrusher clumsily fly away, dragging his tail behind him leaving to fight to me.

We were going to hit the ground, hard. I braced myself for impact, as did the Amberjaw.

We smacked into the ground, burying ourselves in a snow drift. I was thrown away from the Ice Beast and my torch was extinguished in a hiss.

I tumbled and fell, before finally coming to rest as the snow settled all around me.

I thought I blacked out for a second and one minute everything was black, the next thing I heard was a high pitched ringing in my ears. I opened my eyes to a fuzzy and disorientating world. I felt disconnected from my body, but my hand was still clamped around my spear.

I heard a scream, distant, terrifying. I saw the Ice Beast, little more than a blue and red blotch in my eye sight.

My brain snapped into gear and all at once my eyesight and hearing returned to normal. The Amberjaw lunged form me, mad with beyond anger, as she screeched and came closer, about to rip me to shred with he long claws and dagger-like teeth.

I was on my back, utterly defenceless except for one thing.

At the last minute I thrust me spear upwards as I felt talons on my chest and teeth at my face.

The spear punctured into the Ice Beasts stomach with a sickening slice.

Blood poured onto my hands, my arms, my face and stained to snow around me. But it wasn't Ice Beast blue.

The blood was red.

I stared into the blue, human eyes of the Valkyrie, my spear impaled into her stomach. Blond hiar fell around her face as blood dripped from her mouth on to my cheek.

I was utterly horrified with what I had just done, but I couldn't move.

The Valkyire's eyelids fluttered, and her arms reached for me, weak and numb, and she caressed my cheek as she muttered two words.

"Thank you," She barely whispered.

Then she died.

I clutched onto the Valkyire's body as we flew back to the ice castle. Small, weak, fragile. So small compared to my Frost Giant size. I cradled her against me chest, the warrior whose name I would never know.

I hadn't known what to do. I had to take her back with me. I couldn't just leave her. I had to give her a proper burial. I couldn't just leave her.

Tears mingled with the blue and red blood on my cheek. I don't know what to do. I just had to wait.

We returned to the castle when the sun set, Bonecrusher flying as fast and as high as he could to get me back.

Farbauti was waiting for me on the battlements as I slid off Bonecrusher with the Valkyrie's body in my arms.

I didn't want to let her go, but Farbauti ordered someone to tale care of it as I barely breathed to explain that the Valkyrie had been the Amberjaw.

Farbauti congratulated to me in succeeding where no one else had, but I hardly heard it. I barely registered anything.

After I had cleaned off all the blood on me, I attended the Valkyrie's funeral. A crowd had gathered at the small lake on the south side of the village. News had quickly spread about my return after my three day quest to kill the Amberjaw. There was confusion as to why we were having a funeral for a Valkyrie, but I didn't care. I stood on the shoreline, toes touching the water, as I watched the small boat sail on the clam waters on the lake. The archers, I counted Nirym amongst their numbers, shot their flaming arrows into the sky. They arched, trailing fire through the new sky and thudded into the deck of the boat. It caught fire, and engulfed the body of the Valkyrie.

Farbauti ordered the Mage to take me home shortly after the boat had sunk under the lakes waters. I don't remember saying goodbye to her, but I remembered Icder approaching me and promising that she and the others would take care of Bonecrusher in my absence. Then the cold blue light smothered my vision as I was teleported back to Earth.

I vowed to myself that I would never forget the Valkyrie, as I stood atop a rooftop of New York, on the eve of my birthday. Instead of it being dawn, it was evening. The sky was an orangey pink colour. All I wanted to do was crawl into my bed and sleep. The events of this long weekend would be seared into my brain forever.

What a way to spend my birthday weekend.