Asgard Awakening 2, ch 23

I'm going to be putting up 7 chapters.  The last chapter of AA2 is ch. 29.

After you get done with the story, I'd love to get your feedback, but please feel free to leave feedback on chapters too!

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“Master, I don’t know how much of this I can take.  I need to rest, but the longer we’re here, the harder it is to get any real sleep,” Namaste said.

Trav nodded.  His group had been in the Veil-overlap for over three days now, and even with him and his valkyries doing most of the heavy lifting, everyone was dragging.  The group had been slaughtering and eating the horses they’d captured every night in order to conserve rations, and Trav had been able to use rune magic to draw water and to purify it, but the dead world was taking a toll.  The harpies were all slowly but surely losing their energy.  It was different than going to another Veil where they’d lose strength.  Instead, they just couldn’t quite recoup what they lost.

Other than minor injuries and the stress of combat, Trav felt fine.  Since his energy was recharging, he’d been using rune magic to revitalize the horses, but there was a limit to how many times he could do this.  It kept costing him more energy, too.  The animals were loyal and strong, but they’d begin faltering soon too.

“Yaakova is coming back, I can see her,” said Trav.  “Hopefully she found something.”  He squeezed Narnaste’s shoulder and moved back to the rear of the company where Bravoosa was checking someone’s gear.

So far, five harpies from the Pinions had died, including two of Trav’s favorite scouts.  Hailya had been killed yesterday, torn apart by magical fire.  The loss of five soldiers was sad, but his group had still actually been lucky so far.  Over one hundred and forty enemy harpies had attacked yesterday.  All the groups of harpies coming after Hravalin had banded up and hit them at once.  Trav had to hope that no more were coming, but he wasn’t going to bet on it.

With a gust of wind that kicked up the musty dust on the ground, Yaakova landed.  Her expression was hard to decipher, and she said, “New One, I think I found something.”

“Oh?  What is it?  Should the company head there?”

“No, I don’t think so.” Yaakova shook her head.  “I found a structure, but it’s on the side of a hill, and it’s a long distance from here going in a direction that is really hilly.  It’s probably dangerous, but maybe you could ride Narnaste there.”

Trav frowned.  “A structure?  We haven’t seen any structures other than random ruins in three days.  Are you sure?”

“Yes.  I got close, but per your instructions, I didn’t land.”

“I see.”  Trav scratched his chin and said, “Let me try something.”  He summoned Hex and lightly traced a simple rune equation on his forehead.  He didn’t cut the skin, and the process didn’t hurt since it was meant to be temporary.  Then he motioned Yaakova closer and she narrowed her eyes at him, but hesitantly approached.  “It won’t hurt,” Trav said.

After he’d put the faintly glowing lines of the rune equation on Yaakova’s forehead, he said, “Think of what you saw.  Hold the memory in your mind as clearly as you can, and then touch your forehead to mine.”  Yaakova gave him a look, but she slowly did as he’d said.

Trav didn’t see much, only a flash of an image and some feelings, likely because he and Yaakova had never tried sharing a memory before, but it was enough.  His eyes widened and he called Bravoosa over, then ordered, “Captain, go get Hravalin.  Also, get ready to lead the company to that hill over there,” he said, pointing, “and dig in.  I need to leave for a while.”

“Yes Commander.  How long will you be gone?  Should we find a valley to stay hidden instead of a hill?”

Trav thought about it and looked at Yaakova. “Will it take long to get there?”

“If you are on Narnaste...maybe a little over an hour.”

Trav decided to explain his reasoning to Bravoosa--this way she could inform Hravalin too.  “So far we have won against a force of over a hundred and only lost five, but we’re tired, and we’re running out of weapons.  Half the Belchers are out of power, we only have a few grenades left, and everyone is losing energy.  The reason we won the last big battle was because it was getting dark, we knew they were coming so far ahead of time, and dug in with such great defense.”

“That’s true, Commander,” said Brovoosa.  “Isn’t that more reason to hide, though?”

“No, because if you are attacked while you have the low ground, what enchanted advantages you’d have left would be less effective.  It won’t be night time for a while, too.  I want to make some distance after Narn and I get back before we actually strike camp.”

“Wait, New One, am I going with you?” asked Yaakova.

Trav shook his head.  “Me leaving is enough of a risk as it is.  I need  you to support the Pinions.”

“Then how will you find the structure?”

“I have my ways.”  Trav grinned.  “Just point me as closely as you can in the direction I need to go.”

***

“Master, are we lost?”  Narnaste didn’t sound worried, at least not yet,  but it was also hard to hear emotion in her voice sometimes when she was transformed.

“I don’t think so,” said Trav.  We just have a bit further to go.”

The two of them had been moving at Narnaste’s loping cruising pace for over an hour.  In her giant wolf form, Namaste could move very quickly.  Just how fast does Yaakova fly? Thought Trav.  The truth was he was using a trick to help navigate. 

When Yaakova had been scouting, Trav had been keeping track of her relative direction.  The entire time she’d been gone, Trav and the Pinions had been traveling in a straight line.  Now that Yaakova was staying with the Pinions, Trav had just reversed the direction in his head and accounted for where he’d been when he judged she’d found the structure.  Simple.  It helped that he still had a little bit of her impression from the runework he’d done earlier.

Constantly searching the massive amount of Odin’s memories that he had stuffed in his brain had made him good at memory-related things now, it seemed.  He could still recall the edges of Yaakova’s experience when she’d found the alien structure.

All around, the dead land was uninterrupted other than hills, dry grass, and the occasional weird chunk of metal, or half-eroded stone statue rising out of the ground.  It was enough to drive someone crazy if they thought about it too much.

“Let’s go to the top of that hill there so we can see around us better.”

“Good idea,” rumbled Narnaste.

Trav shook his head.  This dead place was even getting to Narnaste.  He hoped they could go back to Asgard soon or his companions might truly lose it.  Some of the harpies had already begun getting irrational and snappish when they weren’t practically falling down tired.

At the top of the hill, Trav saw what he’d been looking for.  About a half a mile away, the land suddenly dipped, and Trav could catch a glimpse of something different, something that glittered.  “Let’s go that way,” said Trav.  He grabbed Narnaste’s giant ear and gently moved it in the direction he saw the anomaly.

“Ah, I see it now, Master.”

It didn’t take long to reach what Trav had spotted.  Half the time was spent by Narnaste slowly picking her way down the eroded hill.  Even with her giant paws and graceful walk, she still weighed a lot in her wolf form and had to be cautious.

But then they reached their destination, and the ground leveled out, at least in a small area.  Trav leapt off Narnaste’s back, and as soon as he did, she changed back into her Kin form.  Namaste drew her rapier at the same time as Trav summoned Hex, and they both stood crouched, silently listening for several minutes.

Trav carefully scanned his surroundings, looking for any sign of movement or disturbances.  In the Veil-overlap, there were very few structures or anything of note, so now that he’d finally found something interesting, he wasn’t taking any chances.

Finally, after about ten minutes, Trav relaxed and said, “Let’s check it out.”

Namaste nodded and asked.  “What is this place?”

“I’m not sure, but I have a suspicion.”  He walked around the edge of the level area, peering down the hill and started thinking out loud.  “See, I think this was all buried before, and there was a landslide because all the vegetation died.  Maybe that’s what covered it up, and the same sort of thing uncovered it years and years later.  Then the wind blew around, uncovering it even more.  But either way, I think we’re standing on a parking lot, and the building is part of an old strip mall, or something like it.”

“What?”

Trav pointed to the metal squares rising up out of the flat surface.  “I am guessing that some of what you are seeing used to be frames.  It looks like the walls were made of concrete, or something similar.  It’s probably why this stuff is still standing.  Concrete is super durable.”

He moved slowly, heading into the bones of the ancient building.  The more he poked around, the more he grew convinced that whatever this world had been before dying, there had been some sort of vehicles, and some sort of commerce, enough that it reminded him of Earth.

Speaking slowly, Trav said, “This ruin kind of reminds me of where I came from.  I wonder what happened here.  An invasion?  Nuclear war?”  He looked at Narnaste and saw she wasn’t really understanding, and had already begun poking around.  That was probably a good idea.  “Narn, if you see anything interesting that is small enough to carry, let me know, okay?”

“Yes, Master.”  Namaste might not have understood Trav’s wandering thoughts, but she was definitely curious about the structure.

Trav began combing through the ruins, moving through the metal poking out of the stone or concrete, some of which must have functioned like rebar.  Whatever dead civilization had built this place had built it to last.  Trav couldn’t identify anything, though.  Nothing in Odin’s memories was helping, at least what he could access.

Finally, he found something.  Shifting around dust and sand with his foot, he caught a glimpse of metal and bent to pick it up.  “Bronze or something, definitely weird looking,” he muttered.

“Master, I think I found something!”

“Okay, I’ll be right there.”  Trav searched around with his foot and the butt of his spear, and found two more oddly shaped bronze...things with unfamiliar markings or writing on them.  Then he walked over to where Narnaste was in what might have been a different room in the distant past.

“What’s this thing?”  The lupine Kin woman held up what looked like a metal cylinder with markings and glittering ovals.  “Is it a wand?”

“I’m...not sure.”  Trav gingerly took the item from her, and frowned as he turned it.  Something tickled the back of his mind from Odin’s memories and he slowly nodded.  “I think it might be something interesting, though.”

After that, the two of them searched for another hour, but Trav didn’t find anything new, and neither did Narnaste.  They met up in the flat area again.  Everything they’d found had already been stowed.  Trav sighed and leaned in his spear.  “At least we found something,” he said.  “It might not mean anything, but at least we aren’t empty handed anymore.”

Namaste gave him a crooked smile.  “Yes, that’s great, but now that we’re both here, all alone, what should we do about it?”

Trav barely got out a confused, “Huh?” before he was hit by a growling Narnaste.  She clawed at him and passionately kissed him, nuzzling his neck between kisses.  Her tongue slipped into his mouth, and Trav pulled back, half out of breath and half laughing as he said, “I thought you were tired!”

“I am, but since we’ve been in this horrible place, we’ve just been on guard.  This world is making me insane.  I need…I don’t know.  The bond is strong, and I’ve been getting stronger like you have, but I’m not here for power, Travis Sterling, human from Earth, High Master.  I’m here because we saved each other in a cave right after I met you and we decided not to kill each other.”

Trav hugged her and softly said, “I remember.”  He chuckled.  “You know, I--”  His words trailed off as he felt something spasm through his bond with his other valkyries.

“Maser? What is it?”  Namaste put her hand on his bearded cheek.

Trav’s voice was grim as he said, “Narn, I’m really sorry, but we need to go right now.  Something is wrong.  We need to get back as fast as we can.”