Chapter VII

That night, we stayed in another barn. Hey, I'm not complaining. We talked our options over. Surprise, surprise – they were few in number. Truth be told, we only had one. And that was to follow the Vikings into battle… against the Aztecs. So, we bided our time, slept that night, did whatever needed to be done in the real world (I spent my time researching Aztec and Viking military tactics on Wikipedia and such – no harm in being prepared, right?). The next morning, with the Viking longboats loaded up with supplies and people (ourselves included), the ships set sail out of the underground cavern and into the open sea. David had gone below decks to grab an oar and help row. So, as our captain, who happened to be Thorolf, taunted the crew of the ship across from us jokingly, I found a quiet place to sit and think on the upcoming battle.

I tried to scour my brain for whatever I could remember about the two civilizations for some tactical insight.

At first glimpse, it would seem like an easy win for the Vikings. The Vikings were more advanced. They had an advantage in the way of weapons: iron axes, swords, and spears. Not to mention their bows. Their armor, if my memory served me, seemed to be mostly leather, but quite a few of them seemed to have iron chain-mail. Definite advantage there.

The Aztecs, on the other hand, were hundreds of years behind them in terms of technology. I imagined they'd be limited to spears, wooden shields, and maybe a few primitive blades made of stone. No armor. Although – the major fear I had of their forces was the atlatl – the spear-thrower. I'd read up on the weapons in social studies class over the years. Still, I was optimistic about the chances of the Vikings in the upcoming battle.

Until that is, I remembered the Aztec trump card, their god – the one we were being sent to kill – Huitzilopochtli. I'd read up a bit on him, too. He was the god of the sun and of war. Patron god of their capital city, Tenochtitlan. Although, I'd heard from some of the Vikings that the Everworld version of the city was "New Tenochtitlan". Obviously, it was the "god of war" part that worried me. Of course, we had a few wild cards of our own. Mainly Mjolnir and the firearms.

I shared this information with Eli. He was pretty cool about it – almost nonchalant. I wondered if he was just keeping that attitude up to keep all of us calm. Well, he had reason to be calm. He had a gun. And ammo. So did I. That fact helped a bit, but not enough.

So, the voyage continued. The girls had to stay in the wives' quarters. That's right. Apparently the Vikings believed in bringing their wives and girlfriends with them on the voyages. Now, I'm not going into any detail, but let's just say that the three of them had apparently seen a few things that they'd rather forget, and even been stepped on during the night, as some of the men slipped back into the quarters to… "meet" with their spouses. Ugh. Libby and Kelsey looked sick whenever I saw them now. I didn't envy their position. I'd stick to my sleeping spot on the deck. Sure, I was royally screwed one night when it rained, but I enjoyed storms nonetheless.

One night broke the monotony of the journey as David was interrogated by Olaf. Apparently, he'd slipped and revealed something to a Viking teenager – Sven Swordeater. This kid's name was quite literal, as well – someone had shoved a sword through both of his cheeks years back, leaving him with two scars.

The interrogation was a learning experience for us, as in my personal friends and I, as well. Apparently, David's group had seen some creature called a "Hetwan" in Loki's throne room before they left and we had entered. By the way they described it to the Viking king, it looked like a cross between a human and an insect. The Hetwan served some foul god known as Ka Anor. Even Loki thought Ka Anor was a very, very, bad person. Understandable. Why? Because Ka Anor eats other gods.

I thought on that – I'd never heard of the Hetwan or Ka Anor before now, not in any section of the mythology of any civilization. I quickly found out why. The Hetwan were, in no uncertain terms, an alien race. They'd found Everworld somehow and invaded. Olaf Ironfoot was rather angry that Loki was dealing with the Hetwan.

We also decided to reveal that we were not minstrels, but were from the Old World. Olaf had already had his suspicions about that, so it didn't really come as a surprise to him. As a favor, he explained Everworld to us – the gesture was most welcomed.

From his description, it seems like all of the Father Gods (the supreme, ruling, god each civilization) joined to form Everworld thousands of years ago and brought human worshippers with them, because for whatever reason, the Old World didn't suit them anymore.

After Olaf was satisfied with information we'd given him, we allowed to leave. This was to be our last peaceful night – tomorrow, we would reach New Tenochtitlan and battle would be joined. That night, I got little sleep. When I finally did sleep, I didn't do much in the real world. It's hard to focus on school and such when you're about to mount up and (hopefully) go kick some Aztec ass. I'm a war buff, for sure. No doubt about it. Doesn't mean I'm interested in being a soldier.

Eli, on the other hand, was handling the situation better. He'd been planning on joining the military for years. The next morning, he'd joked with me, saying that the upcoming battle would be good practice for a future Delta Force operator. He cracked a few jokes about shooting Mexicans, as well. I don't know. I was only half-listening. I appreciated the effort Eli was making, and having him covering my back was a major boost to my morale. I found it odd that the voyage had only taken a few days – even with the more advanced ships used by Columbus and the like, the trip would've taken a month or two. Obviously, the geography of Everworld was quite different from that of the real world.

The Viking lookout spotted land. This was it. We were closing in. I went below decks with Jalil, Christopher, and Eli to the bench where David was rowing. He'd already attained a Viking sword.

"This is it," he said, almost excitedly. He was really enjoying this, wasn't he?

"David, I don't like your tone. We're the ones attacking those people, remember? We're trying to kill their god. Besides, you're not a Viking," Jalil replied.

David looked Jalil in the eye and said, "Question, Jalil. Those Aztecs – you think they're going to know that we're not Vikings? You think they'll hesitate to kill us?"

Jalil thought that over, then bit his lip. "Screw it. If I'm going down, I'm inflicting some pain first." With that, he grabbed a sword from a nearby table and passed one to Christopher, who looked rather dubious.

"Wait a second," I said. "Rules of engagement: Don't fire unless fired upon. Well… don't attack unless we're directly attacked first."

Eli nodded his head, "Yeah. We'll stick together, hang out at the back, behind the Vikings. Let's keep our allies between us and them. We don't make a move on them unless they come at us. If they do, you stay the hell away. Me and Jon will mop up any who get through the Viking lines with fire. Got it?"

David thought it over for a second and nodded hesitantly. Jalil saw the plan as perfectly logical, and Christopher was content to stay as far away as the fighting as possible. The girls wouldn't be fighting. The Vikings made sure of that – they had strict rules about it. Kelsey had stated, in no uncertain terms, what she thought of those rules, but we'd convinced her to stay. I knew she'd much rather be helping us, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that. On one hand, the more people I've got with me, the better. Another to watch my back. I would've trusted Kelsey, or any of my friends, with my life. On the other hand, the less people out there, the better. I didn't want to see any of my friends getting hurt. Who knew what would happen if we died in Everworld? Libby especially wanted to be out there with us, fighting at Jayson's side. He was happy for her to stay safe aboard the ships, though.

With that settled, I checked my weapons one last time. I said a prayer for the first time in a while as all warriors were called to the top deck. It was time. Moments later, I stood near the railing of the ship, getting ready for what was to come. Eli appeared beside me.

"How you holding up?" he asked.

"Heh. Not bad. I'd rather be deploying with a company of Marines at my back, but these guys'll do."

He chuckled. "Just stick to the plan."

I nodded as the ship pulled up within a few hundred feet of the Aztec defenses. The city of New Tenochtitlan was truly something to marvel at: the buildings were just like the kinds you saw in history books or on the Discovery channel. Pyramids and all. There was one that dwarfed every other structure in the city – the thing was colossal. I couldn't even hazard a guess at its size. I could, however, make a fair bet at who was waiting at the top.

A voice yelled out among the others, "Archers! Make ready!"

With that, the Vikings right at the railing of all the boats notched arrows and aimed their bows carefully.

"Release arrows!"