Chapter 18

The Warriors' Return

A thousand years of vengeance wrought

Against the tales that time forgot

Yet for all that evil hands have burned

Peace restored by warriors' return

My eyes closed out of the instinctive fear not to see the point of my own death, but within the darkness I'd placed over myself the agony of the sword's blow never came. Instead, a savage, feral snarl sounded followed by Jezebel's cry of surprise, and something big passed over my head.

Still afraid my end was about to come even if by another cause, I slowly opened my eyes and took in the sight of a massive wolf, twice the size of a normal animal, pinning the sorceress to the ground. Above our heads, a swarm of low clouds had gathered out of nowhere as well, and great streaks of lightning played across the sky like a firework display, raking the air with explosions of thunder and great spears of light penetrating the forest behind me. Slowly, I sat up in shock, and my head turned to glance behind me. Nearby Hiccup had also gotten back up, and was scrambling to Toothless both for support and to protect the dragon, as the sight before us was something to behold.

A band of people stood at the ready by the edge of the clearing, all of them dressed in similar outfits of thick leathers and immaculately reflective metal adornments. One man who stood a little closer to us brandished a hammer covered in ornate designs and alive with electrical energy, and the older man and woman who stood slightly behind him drew swords that almost rippled with iridescent rainbows of color. Six others stood armed to the teeth behind the three. On top of that, there was the wolf that stood atop Jezebel, also bearing a similarly designed metallic collar and head armor.

I blinked as the pieces fell together, and it clicked as to who exactly it was that now stood before us.

The man with the hammer spun the weapon in his hand, aiming the blunt head toward Jezebel as the wolf stepped away. Lightning snaked down from the clouds above and encircled the weapon, before firing forward and striking the sorceress off guard and sending her flying into a tree. She hit, and crumpled to the ground, robes smoking. The band of warriors moved forward, passing Hiccup and I with barely a glance before surrounding Jezebel. As they did so, keeping themselves preoccupied, I stood shakily to my feet and stumbled over to Ember, helping her stand up and healing the sprained ankle she'd received in the attack.

"Still up to the same antics so many years later, Jezebel?" The words of the older man holding the iridescent sword drew our attention back to the newcomers. At this point I noticed the presence of an eyepatch across his left eye. He continued when there was no reply. "After how many battles we fought, after all this time you still manage to forget you always lose sooner or later. You've pushed yourself too far, next time may well be fatal."

Jezebel staggered to her feet, groggy from her introduction to the pine tree, and slurred back, "I…managed to… rule for nearly 900 years…without you in the way."

At this point it finally hit me, even though I'd known the fact for a while now: Jezebel had been around since the second century AD had begun in this world, so she was more than a sorceress, she was ancient. I glanced back at Ember, who simply nodded back toward the visitors.

The man with the eye patch reached forward with his left arm, grabbing Jezebel by the hem of her robe. "Then it is far past time this endeavor of yours ended," he said. Rivulets of light flowed across his skin, and then over Jezebel's neck, the sorceress's eyes widening for a moment and she started to protest and scream. Then her eyes rolled back and she fell limp, unconscious and at the mercy of all who were there.

"Now without you in the picture, your empire will crumble shortly, taken back by the rightful owners of that land while you suffer for your crimes in a distant wasteland," the eye-patch man professed, turning to face us. He began to speak, before the sound of frantic wings behind us interrupted him.

"Hawken! Hiccup! We saw lightning, and thought you…" Astrid's yelling died back as she and the other teens following behind her laded their dragons, taking in the sight of the group who now held Jezebel in their custody. "Oookay, who are these guys?" she asked instead, eyeing the warriors with little attempt to hide her suspicion. I turned back to them, hoping for a clear answer to my theory as well. Once more the man with the eye patch stepped forward slightly, bowing in both respect and introduction.

"Forgive us our brash intrusion, as this certainly is not the greatest instance for how-do-you-do's. But if you were fighting against Jezebel you may count us as friends."

Snotlout replied before anyone else could say anything. "Oh yeah? Prove it," he said. The man looked at him, somewhat perturbed by such a brash attitude, but nonetheless turned to look at the rest of his group, an unspoken question asked. The others nodded, and the man smiled, turning to face away from all of us and raising up his free hand, opening it wide.

I jerked backward involuntarily as the air itself seemed to shatter, shards of light erupting out of nowhere and swirling outward, bending perception and arranging loosely into a circular shape, the space within clouded with light. After a moment I realized it was similar to, if not quite the same as, the appearance of the portal that connected our two worlds together.

The man took Jezebel in both hands then and, none too gently, tossed her into the swirling light, the sorceress passing through and disappearing from sight. Then he waved his hand again and the portal collapsed inward, the air bending back to normal and the light vanishing. Just like that, our fight was over. Completely.

As he turned back to face us, I gestured weakly to the open air. "You…you can create portals," I stated, rather bluntly. The man's eyebrows rose in mild surprise. "You know about portals?" he asked. "I thought…I thought we were the only ones who…"

He trailed off as he looked me up and down, scrutinizing me. "Are you a gifted as well?" he queried. I glanced around me, silently asking the others if I should answer. They were as clueless about this situation as I was however. But, if my theory about who these people were was correct, my reply certainly wouldn't lead to anything worse than what had just transpired.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. "I-I guess, if you want to label it like that," I said, smiling slightly as my eyes took on the appearance of the Night Fury's nearby.

There was a silent, awkward moment before a smile broke across the faces of all the newcomers. "Well, then you are certainly among friends," the man assured. "My name is Odin Asgard, and this," he gestured to the rest of the newcomers, "is my family. We were once the protectors of all Europe, before Jezebel used the amulet on us." He turned to look at Hiccup, who had frozen still as a statue, no doubt because of the name this man had just used for himself. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"You…you said you were Odin," Hiccup stammered. "Yes," Odin said slowly. "Do you know of me?" Hiccup opened his mouth to reply, but his search for words came up fruitless. I smirked slightly and stepped in for him.

"You'll have to forgive my friends' shock here," I said, gesturing to the fact that Hiccup was not the only person to have frozen in surprise. "However, during Jezebel's time the Norse people of this region were led to believe you were gods. The tales of your heroics were stretched and embellished for centuries. Ironically it's similar to where I come from, so I know at least a handful of your names." Gesturing to the man who held the hammer, I continued. "They call you Thor, wielder of the weapon Mjollnir. And you," I nodded to the man next to him, who was dressed in dark robes and bore a head of slick black hair, "I will hazard a guess that you are Loki. According to the myths they paint you as a trickster and mischief maker."

Thor immediately burst out laughing as Loki frowned. "I guess your impression never changed, eh brother?" he joked, nudging the dark haired one in jest. "I am still a fighter and true to cause as the rest of you," Loki snapped back, fists clenching slightly.

Sensing a sibling brawl building already, Odin held up his hand. "Peace you two. Jezebel wished to destroy our reputation, throw us into imagination; it's nothing more than that." He looked back at me, then to Hiccup again, and his eyes lit up. I followed his gaze, finding that he had focused on Framherja, still in Hiccup's grip. "Ah, and I see that our bow finally found a proper owner," he laughed. "I don't know your names yet but I would say you have the makings already of a powerful team. We may not be needed much longer."

"Uh I-I think that might be getting ahead of ourselves here," Hiccup spluttered. "We're not perfect yet, and had our attempt not worked Jezebel would have taken us out. I'm quite sure you're still needed here, e-especially since we don't travel very far from home."

"Everyone makes mistakes," the woman next to Odin spoke up, smiling knowingly. "We fall short every now and then; after all, it was our fault Jezebel got ahold of the gem, as well as the fact that time has not advanced as far as it should have here."

"What, exactly, do you mean by that?" Ember queried, finally making herself heard as she slowly moved over to Orha. "We mean that it has not been only 1100 years since Messiah walked the earth," the woman said. "Before she entrapped us, Jezebel managed to wipe out several centuries of history from the records of this earth. It has been over two thousand years since the new era of time began."

Silence returned for a few more moments, then Astrid, who had gotten off Thorn and joined Hiccup, turned to me with a confused expression. "H-Hawken, didn't you say it was, I think, the year 2014 in your world?" she asked. I nodded, noting the realization that was dawning on her face at the same rate as me. "And…and the last traders said it was something like 1170 AD here, so that means…." She trailed off.

Then it hit all of us. "We're supposed to be in the same year?!" Hiccup exclaimed. I nodded slightly, still processing the same info. Talk about war bringing up old secrets; both our worlds should have been at the same pace this whole time! And yet, Hiccup's was still in the Middle Ages. That said a lot about the amount of power Jezebel had controlled, and at the same time it also explained exactly how she'd had access to the technology for making bombs.

I looked around. Though I felt still like I had a million volts coursing through me, I also felt winded, and this new revelation wasn't helping. And from the looks of my friends, they felt the same.

"Look, uh, this is a lot to process," I said. "And I feel like we're rambling a bit here, and you all have not had proper introductions yet. So, uh, how about we go find somewhere else to settle all this?" Nods of agreement and relief swept through the gang, and after a few moments of seemingly silent conversation, the warriors nodded in agreement as well. "After all this it would be wise to meet in a proper hall, with the leaders of this place," Odin agreed. "After all, there is much to discuss."

A/N-Alright, I know, I threw a monkey wrench into the mix. What do you think of the newcomers to the scene? As Odin said, there is quite a bit left to discuss, but I want to hear how you think this fits together. And what of Jezebel? Where do you think she was sent off to?

Let me know what you think, make sure to leave a review with your comments and predictions! And a quick note: there will be some slight changes to the layout from here on out. I'm a bit of a poet, so you'll be finding short poems and "quotes" from some of the characters at the beginning of some future chapters. Many chapter and book titles also will not be in English but another language later on, so a new guessing game: what does each title mean? Keep an eye out, and get ready: we're almost done with Book 4, and while updates may become a little more sparse (working on typing the next chapter as we speak), the next installment will hopefully be coming soon...