Arriving in the shadow of the rise the vitki and her companions leapt from their mounts and darted across the dewy grass, sprinting up the incline and scrambling to a halt next to the other expeditioners who were pressed flat to the ground.
“Down quickly!” hissed Alvis and they obeyed instantly, you didn’t argue when a linnorm was about.
Crawling forwards Erika couldn’t resist, she was a vitki after all known for learning and knowledge and magic and a linnorm had and was all three. Nobody in her hometown had ever seen one, probably never would, she just had to see.
Just ahead of them was a pit, a huge rough rocky depression wider than a village and deeper than a mountain. All along the sides of this rent in the realm itself were massive rocky tears and the yawning mouths of caves out of which flowed trails of water, cascading downwards like lines of silver then vanishing into even deeper pits, crystals gleamed down there the darkness but it was still all just a backdrop to the linnorm itself.
She’d seen illustrations before of course, linnorms were very well known and had been used as a symbol of power for a thousand separate petty dynasties. But none of their tiny illustrations had done the slightest justice to the true monster she saw.
Firstly, the size. The linnorm was longer than a street but size alone isn't actually very impressive mountains go up, Yggdrasil is big, but they are just there … background more than anything. The linnorm was different, it was fast. It moved like a lizard undulating body pulled by its only two limbs, a pair of huge clawed front legs. Faster than Erika could believe, it seemed to flit place to place like a bird, a damn bird! Barely seeming to touch the ground despite the weight of the massive armour plates that covered it, oblong scales made from some deep purple black material. Between the scales barbed blades protruded so that even brushing along a linnorm could disembowel a Jotunkin, its mouth was three parted, its bottom jaw splitting in half, its fangs were the size of a person and glittered like silver and clear glass both. Its throat was a light pink but covered in a sludgy blackness.
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For a moment it simply moved around its domain then it turned it gaze onto a nearby spire of rock shot through with crystals. Erika knew what was coming but she still gasped in faint horror as the beast unleashed a torrent of the black goo within itself, it ignited in the air as the acidic poison tore even itself apart, its fury so great that fire formed. The rock melted and ran until all that was left was a cluster of diamonds which the linnorm happily began to eat, chewing on red hot gems like finger food.
Up on the ridge the expeditionaries were frozen and still, it didn’t even seem like they were breathing. Something about its appearance stroked a deep and primal fear within everyone who beheld the creature, A linnorm was the pinnacle of power in Midgard after all. There were many races of lokispawn, creatures that feasted on the trickster’s corpse and became abominations, but above them were the Scions, the name for the children of the Bringers of Twilight, the three great calamities, Fenris, Hel and Jormungandr. Linnorms were the children of the world serpent, after his death the serpents blood filled the oceans and rivers with poison and from that poison crawled the Linnorm, malice made flesh or tainted snakes nobody knew and did it really matter? Each one was a city killer in its own right and this one looked hungry.
“Right… who here votes we go around?” Asked Sigrun with obviously forced joviality.
“I do,” Alvis replied without any mirth. “And I'm in charge so… we go around.”
As soon as Alvis spoke the other delvers began to move sliding backwards on their belly’s and clambering onto their waiting wagons and droogs, Erika hurried along with them scrabbling along by her fingertips, trying to move as fast and as quietly as possible.
Without a single word being said the expedition rallied, twisting in on itself like a coiling snake and then unfurling in a different direction, heading trunkwards rather than mistwards
“Move move move.” Hissed Alvis as the expedition got back under way, caravans creeks and droogs snorting in instinctive fear. Erika found herself in the rough middle of the pack and felt somewhat guilty about how grateful that made her.
Driving them along Alvis had the expedition turn fast but move slowly, guiding them in a long slow and most importantly wide circle. Occasionally they would hear the distance sound of the linnorm breathing again in the distant, each time they did the entire party froze (even the droogs) until the sound faded away.
Erika let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding and slumped forwards in her wagon, after all that stress and strain? She needed a nap.