The next morning Sweiza awakens to the sound of birds chirping. Something else gets her attention. Rustling in the distance. She is on her feet. She looks in the direction with a scowl. There is a small pale-blue skinned girl with her rucksack. There are flowers in a wreath on her head. Sweiza’s eyes narrow further. The girl continues to rummage through the rucksack, eying certain items. The ones that catch the girl’s interest are set down neatly next to her left; anything of no interest is chucked behind her. She hears footsteps rushing towards her. She looks up. A young woman is running up to her. The girl is suddenly on her feet. She turns around to run. However, the rucksack has her attention. She tries to reach down to grab it, but Sweiza tackles her to the ground.

The girl fidgets and attempts to squirm free. Sweiza is on her feet; she will have none of this girl’s bad manners. She grips the girl and hard as she forces her to turn around. She is bent over on Sweiza’s knee as she raises her hand.

“Don’t.”

Sweiza looks up, Demi is standing up.

“You didn’t like that same thing from your own village. Why repeat history?”

Demi’s words spike through Sweiza as she stands up and lets the girl drop to the ground. Sweiza stares down at her harshly.

“Don’t dig through my things again.”

The girl is half in tears as she nods her head.

“Go!” Sweiza points her hand towards the forest.

The girl quickly nods as she runs off in fear.

Sweiza’s hands go down to her hips. She looks over at Demi. “What was that about?”

Demi’s arms cross as he looks at the direction the girl ran. “Trouble. The bad kind. Keep your senses sharp.”

Sweiza doesn’t have time to contemplate what is going on as she can feel her reality distorting and changing.

—

Surt hears noises from the jungle behind him. He recognizes them. Basilisk. The murmurs and noises from their mouths are unmistakable. Their eyes glow from behind the dark canvas of trees. His eyes glow red. They approach. They see a large target that will sustain them for some time; he sees many smaller targets that will amplify his magic power.

Their gaze attempts to stun him. It has no effect as flames errupt from his mouth. One fireball is spit at them. They scatter. Another fireball erupts from his mouth. His tale swats at them, then the claws on his wing-arms do the same. He jumps and lets loose more fireballs at the scattering prey. He drops to the ground; his tail swipes at a wave of them and sends them flying. He bits at another. His eyes continue to glow red as he fires off another fireball. This will be his easiest catch of enchanted creatures in some time.

He only wishes his mate was still alive.

—

Sprite finds himself lost. It has been sometime since he abandoned the village. What he needs is a village of humans that will tolerate his presence. All he has to do is stay at the outskirts and take food on occasion. If he can help flush out rats and take care of insects, they will surely grant him protection.

Anything is better than clearing trees out of Southerly Village.

He finally sees his way out of the jungle. There is a distinct change in the trees from jungle to temperate rainforest. There is a definite clearing between them. His instincts warn him about the clearing, but he follows it anyway—there could be someone helpful along the way.

He continues to follow it, he finds a dense fog in front of him. It appears to be moving quite rapidly. He swears he sees a human form walking through it. He hears a male voice. He feels some kind of ominous magic presence and bolts in the other direction in fear.

—

A young Vali holds up a parch capturer. It took him some time to acquire it. He has is own wants for the device—namely capturing plantlife around Alfgard; but more importantly it is for his sister. She has worked for five long years to complete the Alven Centra Academy (ACA). He wants to help capturer her progress as well as record her research; she is his role model and he wishes to follow in her footsteps.

However, the captured image on the parchment is odd. It shows several shadows next to her. He recognizes them as the people that took her into the Cult of Loki. Wait, that can’t be right. That didn’t happen till later.

He looks up. He freezes when he sees the figures are next to her. The group slowly walks away from them. He sees something weird as their bodies start to decay. He hears a cracking sound as they harden into tree trunks. Branches and leaves start to sprout from their bodies. He cries out to his sister. She turns around and her face turns grey as it turns into a tree trunk. The same fate happens to her as she turns into a colorful tree with pink leaves.

The parch capturer drops out of his hands as he drops to his knees. Tears stream from his face. Why is he seeing this again? Hasn’t he suffered enough? Why must he relive bad events?

—

Sweiza pulls hard on her fishing pole. Fishing from the river is proving to be a poor endeavor. She pulls the rod out of the water in frustration and chucks it to the ground. She is about to pack up when she eyes her prize on the opposite side of the river bank. It is a small rabbit. That will do.

Her compact bow is out of her rucksack and in her hands. She takes little time to aim as she lets it loose. It hits its mark and the rabbit drops. She is about halfway wading through the river when she sees a small shadow at the opposite side of the bank’s tree clearing.

She freezes.

The figure approaches the opposite side of the river. It is familiar to her. A small girl? Didn’t she see her some years ago?

The girl wears a wreath of flowers on her head. Her flat dark hair is unmistakeable. That pale-blue skin… she (Sweiza) has seen it before. Wait, she has elven ears? Is she a gremlin? They are found mostly in Myrkvellir and western Niffleheim.

The girl says something, but Sweiza doesn’t catch it.

“Wait, I’ll be right there!” Sweiza continues wading over. The river is flowing faster than she thought before. It increases in speed as she makes it to the shore.

She eyes her prize, now hanging in the girl’s hand.

“Why are you killing the animals in my kingdom?” The girl asks with much regret.

“I need to eat.” Sweiza reaches out for it. The girl pulls it away.

“Please leave my island.” The girl asks it with a soft voice.

“I can’t, I need to finish something here; but I forget what.”

“Your group is causing problems on my island.”

“Wait, you know where they are?”

The girl starts backing away from Sweiza. Sweiza is about to approach her when she hears splashes behind her. She turns around.

There is a taller boy standing there with an axe; he isn’t unlike the girl in appearance. He is wearing a vest and pants; but they are dark and pale in color and look ripped. He eyes Sweiza once. He hoists the axe in his hands. Sweiza starts to back up. He charges her and swings the axe. Sweiza feels reality black out on her.

—

Surt gallops on all fours towards the sentinel charging him. He knows it as one of the iron race of Midgard. It and several others killed his group; but more importantly, it killed his mate. The battle between the two groups left only two of them alive—Surt and the sentinel. The bodies of damaged machines and and gored dragons litter the clear the grassed hills around them. Many trees are uprooted from the battle.

He would make it pay. Enough fireballs will melt its metal hide, but he has to be careful—that strange machination in front of him has weapons of its own and they can easily pierce dragonhide.

The battle between them is at a stalemate. Everytime the sentinel approaches, Surt sends a fireball at it or flies just out of distance. Something strange shoots out from the sentinel’s sight and towards Surt. He is not familiar with it, but it is some strange ray of red light. It is blinding. Surt attempts to move out of the way, but the sentinel’s head and then the light follow him. Surt is forced towards several trees blocking his path. He attempts to fly, but is prevented from doing so due to the height of the trees. He attempts to knock them over. The sound of something alien to him alerts him and he forces his body around. He stands up on his hind quarters as he eyes the sentinel. Something strange is in the sentinel’s hand; it appears to be some kind of spear. It raises its hand, ready to throw the spear. As it steps forward a voice stops it.

“Sentinel! Stand down!”

The sentinel stops. Surt’s eyes follow the sound of the noise. As the figure approaches, it is a Valkyrie. She is in blue armor with white cloth; she looks young. Her voice speaks again. “Sentinel, you will not battle in the Dawez Province by sanction of Odin.”

The sentinel turns around. “This is not your battle. Stand down.”

“Negative. You are in the Dawez Province, outside of Odin’s jurisdiction. I hold sole domain here as a vassal of Odin. You will stand down or I will have you destroyed.” The woman’s voice is sharp. Surt’s eyesight catches her blue eyes. Her hair is blonde.

There is a brief silence from the sentinel. He points his spear at the Valkyrie.

“Do you dare to trifle with treason? Look around you. Huginn and Muninn are about us.”

The sentinel’s angular, but square head looks up. He confirms the pair of raven are circling the battle. It eyes the Valkyrie. The spear in its hands disappears. It seemingly folds and bends its body into something akin to a bird and flies up towards the sky.

“That’s what I thought. Wretched blasphemy of alchemy.” The Valkyrie looks up as the sentinel disappears into the sky. The two ravens follow its direction of travel. By her estimate it is heading back in the direction of Midgard.

The Valkyrie appears in front of the dracokin. To her it looks like a firedrake, definitely Muspellian in origin. These things were responsible for the start of that stupid war. She could kill it, but she has reservations about such things around Maria, let alone in the Dawez Province.

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She points her sword at the dragon as a threat display, but quickly sheaths it.

The dragon eyes her once. She eyes it with intent. It has several fatal wounds which will be fatal if not treated.

“What do you want with this one?” The dragon asks her with a raspy, but suspicious voice.

“I suppose your name would be a good start. I am known as Lady Strife, I am a Valkyrie and vassal to the will of Odin.” Strife bows.

The dragon blinks at her. Can this feeble creature be so serious as to take him on?

“You cannot beat me in a fight. Leave.” The dragon rasps his words at her as he flicks his tongue out.

The woman stands firm.

“Perhaps we can come to an agreement; something mutually beneficial in the grand scheme of things.” Strife’s hand comes up to a lock of her hair as she preens it once.

“I highly doubt that.” The dragon attempts to turn and walk away.

Strife blocks his path of travel, “I’m sure there is something we can both benefit from if we work together.”

The dragon blinks at her as he flicks his tongue again. Is this human female serious? A deal between a dragon and human? Time will tell if this ‘deal’ she speaks of—will actually amount to anything. What he wants is gold, and the lead to the ship his group was chasing, turned out to be a setup by those blasphemous sentinels.

He looks down at her once, but suddenly looks up as he sees the world fading. The darkness closes in on him. The woman disappears. He claws at the darkness as it envelopes his being and he feels himself disappear from existence.

—

From atop a tree Sweiza hides behind the main truck; she uses a small mirror to show what is behind her. There is something odd about the people in this village. Several of them are frozen as tree trunks. They have what she can describe as pointed ears; she is not familiar with their race; gremlin or goblin perhaps—maybe dark elf? She can’t tell, the tree bark on their bodies blocks out any other discernible details. Some of them have remnants of aged and torn clothing. How much time has passed since they were petrified is unknown to her. What she does know is there are other people walking about in the village.

One of them pulls out an axe; another pulls out a hatchet. Sweiza peers at a disgusting sight as the living hack away at the branches of the petrified trees.

She tries to avoid giving herself away as she covers her mouth and gags. She drops the mirror.

One of the members of the Cult of Loki hears an odd noise and looks in Sweiza’s direction. Sweiza darts behind the tree. If she needs to run, she’ll need to drop from this branch. She chooses to do so. She drops to the ground and looks for a hiding space. She sees a large creeping bush up a tree. She pushes herself inside of it. It feels nasty to her skin. She sees a spider. She ignores it as several footsteps rush by her; their bodies are blurs as they run by. Just what did Lumia mean when she said the Cult of Loki has been performing experiments in Myrkvellir?

—

Sprite freezes in front of the young girl. She holds out a small fruit.

“I’m very friendly. I remember your kind.” Her voice rings out sweet. He doesn’t approach her.

“My name is Lumia. I’ll protect you. You can live in peace.”

Her voice does nothing to appease him. He darts off in another direction.

He freezes when he sees a familiar figure. It is a young man holding an arrow. He points it at him.

Sprite freezes and flies in the opposite direction. He flies right into the girl’s chest. She grabs him, but then lets loose her grip. She holds onto him just enough so he can’t fly away. She looks down at him and smiles.

She looks up at her brother and frowns.

“Lumina, I claim this one.”

The older brother scowls at her as he disappears in a black and purle flash of light.

Lumia looks down at the little spritekin again, “It has been awhile since I’ve seen your kind. I thought they all fled after the disaster.”

Sprite stops struggling. “What disaster?”

Lumia looks up at the sky and frowns. “It has been so long since then…”

—

Sweiza finds herself in an odd clearing. Jungle trees on one side, and then a forest of pine trees on the other. She follows it. Just why is there a straight path with no trees in it? Why is it between a jungle and temperate rainforest? Is it magic?

Demi appears before her.

“Follow this path and end this country’s suffering.”

Sweiza nods once at him; she remembers what Salmira mentioned to her.

—

Vali finds himself in the center of a village. He doesn’t know how, but he seems to be able to move his eyes. He looks down. To his horror his whole body is a tree. He can’t move.

He stops struggling and accepts his fate.

Vali suddenly remembers a thought. Cult of Loki members often experimented on themselves; something about a wooden armor that protected them from mortal wounds. He doesn’t think this is the same. He wonders if this is how his sister ended up.

He hears footsteps. It is Lumina. He is holding an axe.

Vali lets out a wimper as his being fills with fear. A creepy smile crosses Lumina’s face as he hoists the axe in his hands.

—

At the end of the treeless corridor, Sweiza finds Sprite in front of a dense wall of fog. The fog is an odd sight, it is moving quite quickly.

Sprite flies up to her.

“Bad stuff that way.” He flies behind Sweiza.

Sweiza turns once around at him. Her hand comes up to pet his head. “You’re not scared are you?”

The sprite nods and flies behind and underneath her arm. Sweiza knows that position; he’s telling the truth about something scary and dark behind the fog wall. She sees a strange light from behind it.

“Why do you keep bringing danger to my island?”

Sweiza looks over. She sees the young girl from before. Rather she looks older.

“We’re here to help.” Sweiza tries to be reassuring.

“You’re like those others. A bad creature that kills where it shouldn’t.” The woman says it forlorn.

“What’s you’re name?” Sweiza stops to face the woman again.

“Lumia.”

Sweiza tilts her head at the name. “As in light?”

The woman nods.

She seems worried, “It isn’t always light though. It seems to disappear sometimes. You really need to leave.”

Sweiza shakes her head, “We’ll leave shortly, I promise.”

The woman steps back, “You aren’t to be trusted. You’re like the others.”

Sweiza scowls at her. “I’m not dieing in this place.”

Sweiza pushes forward through the dense wall of fog. Her form disappears.

“Wait!” Lumia’s voice is lost on her.

She looks to the Sprite still behind. Sprite hovers bobbing up and down at her.

“If you are as kind as you say you are, then you’ll help us with what Sera needs.” The sprite starts flying towards the wall.

The woman steps back. Lumina will be quite upset at the people trespassing in their domain.

Sprite looks at her with discontent. He refuses to be in the land of his ancestors; it was said to be a dark world without light. He refuses to die here. He bolts towards the wall of fog; at least it is brighter compared to the darkness of the forest and jungle around them.

—

Surt finds himself in front of a strange sight. There is a village of trees in the shape of humans. By what manner of magic?

He hears an odd sound. It sounds like thunder. He looks up at the night sky. There is a strange light streaking across the sky. He decides to follow it.

—

Sweiza finds an odd sight before her. A circular field is open all around her; it marks a clearing. However, there is a wall of fog that circles the entire clearing. By her estimate it is about a mile wide. She can see some kind of monument in the distance. It is quite large. She looks down at the ground. Black, dark purple, grey and white pebbles little the ground. She sees people in the distance. They are not moving. She remains vigilant of some sort of trick. She approaches. They are trees in the shape of people.

“What the hell?” She looks over at Sprite. He shrugs.

Sweiza shakes her head. Probably another trick. She starts walking towards the monument; that is her goal, or so she remembers from Salmira’s wording. A few creepy trees aren’t going to stop her.

Some minutes later the obelisk like monument comes into view. There are more and more of those strange trees.

Near the base of the obelisk she gets a good view of how wide it is. It looks to be about sixty yards wide by her reckoning. It easily towers up into the sky and out of view. She looks up and sees a peculiar sight. Light is shining up from further up the tower; it points up in a straight line like a ray of light. Lightning hits it from further up in the sky. She can see the day and night cycle changing in the sky. The dense wall of fog continues to circle the area even in the sky.

Sweiza sees a bolt of lightning jump down to the tower and illuminate it. It reverberates an odd tone and then hums with a strange pitch.

“What in the Frigg?” Sweiza has no time to ponder it as a flash of lightning over head hits the tower again. There is a blinding light. She has to turn her head away when it blinds her. She covers her eyes and strains them in order to see.

Sweiza lets out a shriek. The tree-creatures are moving towards her.

She starts backing up towards the tower. She starts fumbling for a weapon, if only she had her bow. Wait… the crossbow.

She summons it from her being. She looks around towards Sprite. She has a hunch and looks up. He is hovering above her head.

“Sprite! Just this once, go all out!”

He looks down. He agreed to never use offensive magic unless it was an emergency. This easily fits the bill.

—

Vali flinches as the axe comes towards him. Wait, he flinched? He looks down again. His body seems to be flesh again.

The man with the axe looks him up and down once. “I’ll finish you later.”

The man disappears in a weird black and purple light.

Vali sees a strange light in the sky. He isn’t going to die here. He’s heard of a strange tower in the area. It emits a strange light. He follows his instinct and runs in the opposite direction. It might take a few days of hiding, but he’ll make it to the Gigas Dura and get out of here.

—

Below Surt sees a strange sight. A young girl letting loose arrows from a crossbow at moving trees. Wait, moving trees? Why is there a blue light hovering next to her? He eyes it with intent. His eyesight adjusts. It is a spritekin. A strange duo those two.

He flies in closer to the obelisk-like monument. Wait. He knows who that girl is. He has an agreement with her kin.

He drops from the sky to the crowd of tree-creatures in front of him and lets loose fireballs—as many as his gut can muster. The tree creatures are everywhere. Some catch fire, he smacks some with his tail and tears apart others with his hind quarters. He bits and eats several. They will help support his being with their enchantments. He and the woman named Strife have been hunting them for some time.

“You can’t stop it from happening.”

The dragon looks over at the male voice. The man is holding a spear. He points it at the dragon. The dragon’s eyes flash red. He is not going to be intimidated by a mere human.

—

Sprite darts in front of Sweiza, but suddenly freezes. Sweiza follows his gaze. He is looking up at a light streaking in the sky towards them. The light starts to get bigger. Sweiza freezes. Sprite looks in horror as the object becomes more discernible. It appears to be an boulder, the size a likes he has never seen before. It is coming right at them.

Sweiza lets out a scream. Surt looks over from the bloodlust of the battle. A stone from the sky? Wasn’t this the work of that moon dragon? Are they in the past?

Sweiza recognizes it as a space event called a comet. They are known to cause distruction. This one is no different. She is frozen in terror as it hits the obelisk. A white light shines out from it and consumes everyone in the battle.

—

The blinding light dies around the field.

Sweiza sees it is the middle of morning. The obelisk is toppled over. The fog surrounding the clearing is gone. The jungle on one side and the temperate rainforest on the other are gone. The only thing is open grassland. The black, dark purple, grey and white pebbles around her have grass growing on them.

She eyes the obelisk once. It has strange characters on it. She doesn’t know what they mean.

Salmira appears in front of her.

“Summon that gauntlet and one of the lightning stones.” Salmira’s voice is soft. Her arms cradle. This girl she’s chosen to do her work has performed better than expected, even if she is a bit young and inexperienced. She (Salmira) will work to change that before sending her to the present.

Sweiza looks at Salmira nervously, but otherwise summons the insulated gauntlet and a lightning stone. She pushes the lightning stone against the base of the obelisk. It hums an odd pitch as it radiates a dark purple light; it changes to a lighter shade of purple, then finally shines a bright magenta. The stone disappears inside the tower as the tower begins to glow.

Lumia appears before her, an expression of relief and joy on her face, “You are a kind soul for such a precious gift, thank you!”

A confused Sweiza looks at the teenage girl; Lumia fades from view. “Salmira, why is…” Sweiza is left speechless when she sees that Salmira is no longer there.

Sweiza’s arms cross in frustration and a frown crosses her face. She is spooked by Lumia’s voice echoing around her.

“Please look up and accept my gift of the Bifrost Bridge. I’ll send you towards your friends.”

Sweiza looks up at the clouds. They flash and illuminate many different bright colors. It looks almost like an aurora to her; that is if the clouds could reflect such a thing.

—

The colorful kaleidoscope of colors slowly fade. Sweiza finds herself back on the Gigas Dura.

“How did you get back?” The voice is that of Olaf. He seems confused.

Sweiza looks back and forth in confusion. Several other members of the Gigas Dura crew surround her.

“Perhaps you should tell us what happened.” Olaf seems concerned for the girl.

Sweiza finally remembers, “Wait, where is Sprite? Surt and Vali, are they here?”

Olaf’s arms cross, “You don’t keep track of our troops very well.”

Olaf motions for Sweiza to turn around. A confused Vali is there, he is breathing hard. Surt’s head is poking out of the water; his eyes are glowing and a tree trunk his hanging out of his mouth. Sprite is glowing blue and hovering in the air.

“We won?” Sprite lets out chirp of possible success.

Sweiza suddenly feels something in her hand. She holds it up. It is some kind of necklace. No wait. It is am amulet. It has a piece of the monument in it. Wait, how does she know this?

She hears Lumia’s voice echo in her mind, “Thank you for your help!”

Sweiza tilts her head in confusion.

She drops the amulet and rushes downstairs. The only thought on her mind right now is if Strife is alright or not.

Not to be outdone, Sprite darts for the shiny object and snatches it before Vali’s attempt to get to it succeeds. Sprite darts after his friend. He doesn’t much care for her mentor, but this adventure of theirs is because of her; it is also starting to get just a hair more interesting.