Waking up was so hard. It didn't matter that the ground she was sleeping on felt cold and hard or that somehow there was grass tickling her face, she just groaned and muttered. "Oh how I hate mornings." However the sun shining into her eyes told her that she had to move. She sat up with a groan, stretching like a big lazy cat. "Ugh, my neck is hurting from sleeping on my face." Looking around she took in the beautiful forest surrounding her and the clearing she woke up on, as well as a body of water just a few meters off to the side. There were a few other people with her on the clearing who she didn't recognize. There were two more girls and two guys. The girls looked like an orc and a half-dragon, the guys seemed to be a human and an elf. They all wore the same ragged and rough looking clothes. Inspecting herself, she noted that she was wearing the same as well, a brown linen tunic with linen pants, and a cord to keep them on herself. Her eyebrows furrowed when she discovered that she had talons for hands like the half dragon girl did. The scales on her hand seemed to have a similar hue to the other girl's. She walked over to the water to check on her reflection which showed that she was a half dragon as well as a girl just like the other half dragon. She looked like an elf girl with long red hair, she also had scales covering her cheeks, neck and arms, with lots of spikes coming off of the side of her face. She looked to be about 1.8 or 1.9 meters tall. They also had wings on their backs, which explained why she was sleeping on her front instead of her back. The main difference between her and the sleeping half dragon were the spikes she had as well as the size of their horns, she had two smaller curved ones that come out from the top of her head and ended a bit after her ears, while the other girl had two large curved horns that went back around and came before her face. She also started patting herself down, with a shocked expression but after a few minutes of fruitless search she forced herself to calm down. After finishing her inspection of herself, she stood up and went around to wake everyone up.
"Hi! Wake up. Are you all right?" She went to the other half dragon first, and started gently shaking her.
"What? Where am I? Who are you?" Came the groggy answer.
"Well I was hoping you could answer the same questions, however let's wake everyone up and then we can think about these together." Proposed the half dragon who woke up first, while the other one was looking up at her, still lying on her side, confused. Slowly she nodded, and that prompted the first one to go wake up everyone else. There were a few scared shouts from the people waking up, but after the initial shock, everyone gathered and sat down in the middle of the clearing beside the second half dragon, who was still looking around dazed.
"So… Anyone got any idea where we are and how we got here?" Asked the first half dragoness as none seemed willing to talk.
"I don't remember anything prior to waking up in this clearing." muttered the human. He had a prominent scar running across his face starting from above his left eye going over his nose, and ending on the right side of his mouth. He had longish disheveled black hair, with a loose leather strap tying up some behind his head to keep the hair out of his eyes. "I don't even know my own damned name! Do you remember yours?" He asked looking around, with a bit of hope, only to see everyone else shaking their heads.
"Well we could give names each other until then? I mean since she woke up first, we could call her Dawn, and as I look like her I could be Dusk!" The second half dragoness perked up, and started pointing at everyone. "You could be Scarred, and you could be Pointy!" She gestured towards the human and the elf respectively who seemed too tired or uncaring to argue. Then she looked at the orc and faltered, "And you could be Tusk?"
"I'd prefer to be called Just, if you don't mind. Tusk feels too animalistic to my liking." She shuddered and threw a cross over herself. Then looked at her hands weirdly and she muttered. "Why did I do that just now?"
"Just it is then!" Dawn clapped on Dusk's shoulder before she could start complaining about how Tusk is a better name for an orc then Just. "We might need to find some place to spend the night at get to some kind of civilization, we have to know what happened to us. There must be some kind of explanation for it."
As she said that they could hear someone clapping slow and mocking from the forest. As soon as they heard the first clap each and every one of them froze still unable to move a muscle. "Well done! Really, very well perceived Dawn, but I can't let you wander far away to find answers, so I will provide you some. You were humans, from the planet Earth and I Lucifer brought you here to Midgard. It is a universe with different laws of physics and chemistry. So what your old world considered magic exists here. Their science, if you can call it that, is based off of this magic. Which is the essence of Yggdrasil that people can tap into. Everyone can touch it in some shape or form however, learning magic is usually left for the women here. Why is that? I don't know and don't care." He shrugged at that. "That shouldn't keep any of you back, if you wanna learn do it. I just thought that I should warn you for the off chance of you ever meeting others living in this plane of existence. You and the other humans from Earth are here to help end Ragnarök. A possibly world ending cataclysmic war between the forces of Asgard and the followers of Loki, where even the gods might die. Well I do hope you will survive, but if not so be it. I will send more humans weekly. See to it that you or someone else can care for them if you guys aren't here. Also tell them what I told you. Now see ya!" He clapped again letting up on the strange hold on them as well as disappearing into a puff of smoke. Leaving the rest in the clearing with more questions than they had before.
"So. We come from Earth, and we aren't there. I guess?" Ventured Pointy. "It feels so weird, because I feel like I know so much about the different countries there. Like most of the world's population lives in China and India, two countries that are neighbors, yet there are more than a 100 countries. I know the names of the continents , and other such facts that I guess aren't relevant anymore, yet I don't have the slightest clue about Midgard."
"The ancient Norse people called the material plane or what we now call Earth Midgard." Dawn said lost in her thoughts, wondering how she remembered this, but not her name. " Midgard, also means middle world, abode of man or middle garden. This was the world that has been made from the bones and flesh of the first created being, the giant Aurgelmir." She shook her head in disbelief. "This was a weird experience. I don't know my own damn name but I know about Norse people. Was I living among them before? No I also seem to know Greek mythology, and other religions like Christian, Muslim or Jewish. I could have been a priestess before or a historian? I can't recall if there were male or female priests or priestesses, however since there are two words for it, they should have existed…"
"Sorry to break your concentration, but we should focus on the here and now, before the sun goes down, don't you think? Dawn? I think you are Dawn. You two look so similar, you could be twins! But probably only because all half dragons look alike." Broke her train of thoughts Scarred. "We have to find some place to spend the night, the forest will probably have wolves, bears and the like. I'd like to find a safe spot to camp, where we can stay warm as well, albeit the air for now feels nice enough. We should try to find a cavern, to keep ourselves away from the elements, and we should also get some dry wood to light a campfire."
"We will also need something to eat however that won't be easy, as we know nothing about the ecosystem." Just pointed out. "We need a way to find something edible that either doesn't fight back, or is easily killed like a bunny, as we don't know what kinds of plants we could eat."
"Or I could just try everything, it isn't like a person matters in the long run." Scarred shrugged. "I don't really care either way. I mean the way you lot propose to live isn't living anyways."
Just furrowed her brows at Scarred's nonchalant attitude towards death. "You got some priorities messed up there mate. You should value your life a lot more as all life is sacred."
"Says the girl who wanted to kill bunnies to survive."
As Just was gaping at Scarred not knowing how to react to that, Dusk intervened. "All right no need to fight. There must be a way for us to feed, we could try to fish from the lake, and set traps, if we could find places where animals pass through. We could also look out for what the animals are eating around these parts as those things might also be edible for us. I will look for animal trails to set up traps and such, Dawn and Pointy you two are pretty scrawny, so you should try to get some firewood, Just and Scarred maybe you should try to see if you can find some way to make a wall or something of the sort going on around the clearing."
"Why do we have to work together?" Exclaimed Just and Scarred pointing at one another. "Also you aren't the boss of me, so sh…" Scarred grumbled.
"What if I swap with you Scarred? I think I can pull my weight and then you can work with Pointy or Dusk." Dawn interrupted Scarred, who was glaring murder at Just. Then she pulled over Dusk and whispered to her. "Look Dusk, I know that you want to optimize who goes with who, according to our visible strengths. But it is quite clear to me that Just and Scarred won't be able to get along. At least not yet. So it would be detrimental for morale and group cohesion to do that."
Dusk turned to the group and looked down. "Sorry Scarred, Just I wasn't taking into account your feelings on the matter. I know that I have taken the lead without you asking me to and I am sorry. I just felt that we have to take initiative somehow, we have been thrust into a role and place that I am pretty sure we didn't want. We have no way to leave and we are at a time and place where gods are warring with each other. We have become their pawns. But are we?" Her wings burst out uncontrollably, spreading to their full width, a wingspan of about 5 meters, in seconds. She looked at Scarred's hate filled eyes, however the anger inside wasn't turned towards them but an unseen enemy, then she turned to Just's grim ones, Pointy looked scared but determined, and Dawn looked nonchalant but alert, her wings jerking as the muscles contracted then relaxed at a fast pace. "We aren't their playthings! We may be mortals, but we are at an era where they are dying too! We need to stick together and build up our strength, so we can challenge the gods themselves. Other humans will arrive, and we will need them too. We will need an army to carve ourselves a future where we can exist. We need to build a city, nay an impregnable fortress."
"We are in a valley, that is how this pool came to be, so we could build on one of the surrounding mountains, we could have meat and clear drinking water, this is quite a good location to fortify." Pointy butted into the inspiring speech Dawn was making while drawing on the ground. "If you or Dawn could fly over, we might be able to find a better location to build at, we will need to be close to here, to be able to help the people appearing here, or we might even want to speak with our mysterious… Helper? Summoner? Not sure what the guy in the suit was."
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"I can do that as well while putting up traps." Dusk nodded and then just stood her wings drooped. "Erm… I don't know how to move them."
"Haha… You sure know how to talk big don't you Dusk! After all that speech about toppling gods and carving a piece out of the world for ourselves, you don't even know how to use your own body?" Scarred started to laugh and make fun of Dusk.
"Stop it Scarred! I don't know how to use my wings either, it is weird, as if I haven't had wings before, so I don't know what to move." Dawn interrupted Scarred, shutting him up.
"Fine. Whatever." He huffed and sent a glare to Dusk. "Well… I am off to gather firewood! Don't wait on them Pointy, let's finish our task so we can laze around after." And so Scarred and Pointy left.
"Well I could try to help you use your wings…" Just ventured. "Maybe you just have to try and learn to use it like a baby? I mean if we were humans before like Scarred, then you two probably didn't have wings, now did you? So you aren't accustomed to using it even if your body is ready."
"But how?" Dusk looked at Just like she grew another head.
"Not sure, but because you have moved your wings, you should know about them, you just have to get a feel for it, like when babies learn how they walk.
"Hmm not a bad idea. And that sounds still better than what I was about to suggest."
"What were you gonna suggest Dusk?" Asked Dawn.
"That we tear or cut my wings, it should probably heal, and the wound might shock my body to realize it is there. I probably won't be able to fly then right now, but it is still preferable to my body not knowing there is a part of it that we should be able to use!"
"We should use Just's method first, and then if it doesn't work we can try yours. However, we shouldn't hurt the wing because the scar tissue might ruin your ability to fly in and of itself. We could try to make the muscle recognized by poking that." Dawn slowly, disrobed Dusk and felt around the base of her wings. There was some reflexive reaction to it but nothing substantial. "Your muscles can work, so it is probably as Just said. Try to move your wings for now, and make your muscles accustomed to the feel of moving it. Just think of how it felt when you raised your wings while you were giving the speech."
Dusk concentrated and tried to move her body, but she couldn't manage a lot of movement yet. "We should do our tasks, I can try to move my wings while I am working on it. Maybe the more I move the easier it will be to notice how to move them and fly." Dusk sighed, then perked up. "Well, I am off to find something edible."
Just and Dawn looked at each other and laughed as Dusk ran off into the forest, her spirit unbroken, and her wings flapping behind her. She looked more like a happy puppy than a half dragon.
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Dawn remained on the clearing and started digging up dirt using her claws. She let out a surprised yelp when she realized that she just cut through a large rock as if it was nothing more than loose soil. The sticks and stones buried underground, no matter how sharp they were, couldn't even break her scaled skin. While she was doing that Just was bringing back trees as large as Dusk's waist, fresh trees broken in half or upturned. Her hands were dirty and bloodied, but she didn't utter a word of complaint, just doing her best of bringing as many trees as possible before the sun set. Scarred and Pointy came back bringing with them some firewood, wondering what was happening as the two inhuman monsters tore up the clearing and the surrounding forest to build a camp for them. The camp consisted of a small wooden palisade that sectioned off a part of the clearing, and a moat surrounding it. They have seen it being built in stages, but their mouths still fell open.
"I'll be fucking damned. You did this? In under what? Five? Six hours at most?" Scarred looked around the enclosed space. "Wait what happened to your hand?"
"Nothing much. I hurt it while trying to get the trees." Just shrugged and continued to break off branches. "I could use some rope or something like that to build the watchtower, however. We don't have anything of the sort. I can make the base with Dawn, as she can dig quite well with her talons, but I can't make the upper part without some way to secure the different parts together."
"Have you heard of screwless wooden joints?" Pointy asked Just who only shook her head. "You could take the wood, and carve a… I guess a puzzle like pattern into it." He drew something into the ground. "Like that I guess. I think that would work. I myself have never worked with wood, but this should be all rightish." At that Scarred snorted, but kept to himself. And Dawn climbed out of the hole she dug to see the drawing.
"Hmmm I might be able to cut something like that into the tree, however I am sure I can't make the logs into planks. Honestly, making those might even be too precise for me. I need something to train on, but it is turning dark."
"And I have gotten back with dinner!" Shouted someone happily from somewhere above. Then like a meteor Dusk crashed into the ground with a groan. "Well… landing isn't my forte. Nor takeoff. But I can hover all right."
Scarred was just blinking at her, and he nodded silently with a grudging respect, only noticed by Dawn.
"What did you bring us Dusk? I am quite famished!" Just stood up and put the last pole, that would serve as the base for the tower in the hole Dawn just made.
"I have found berries! And they are not poisonous." She showed the suspiciously bright purple berries.
"You do know that usually the brighter the color of a fruit, the more poisonous it is?" Asked Dawn.
"Well I am alive still aren't I?"
"I guess it can't hurt too much."
After eating the berries Dawn, Just and Pointy went back to work to make a usable watch tower, it looked like a huge wooden platform. As well as a ladder. It was well into the night that they finished and went to sleep. Dawn decided to take first watch as she didn't feel too tired yet. She could see that Dusk was still flying around. As she was standing on the tower looking over the clearing, she heard howling far off in the distance. Hoping that the wolves or whatever else it might be wouldn't come closer she just lied down on the smaller logs, they made the floor of the tower from, looking up at the moon and the unknown sky. None of the constellations seemed even remotely similar. "We really are in another world. Aren't we?" She muttered to herself.
"Watch out Wolves!" Shouted Dusk. And at the same time a bloodcurdling scream could be heard.
Dawn sat up and looked down to see that a huge wolf jumped somehow into the encampment and bit down on Just's arm. It tried to bite into her throat, but Dusk noticed it and shoved the wolf away from Dusk in time. Burrowing her claws deep into the flanks of the wolf, as she fell into it. Just tore out her hand from the mouth of the wolf, and gave it a nasty upper cut. While this was happening on the northern side of the camp Scarred and Pointy woke up. Scarred got up and ran up to the wolf as well, with a large bellow he struck the wolf on his temple making the animal loose consciousness. Pointy screamed as well but, he clambered up the ladder hunkering down to make himself as small a target as possible while looking around and noticing three more wolves. "Watch out 3 more are coming from the small hill to the north, and they are ready to get over our fence!"
However, Dawn was quite ready for these wolves, and she leapt down from the tower at the same time as one of the wolves tried to get in. She collided with one of the animals and shoved it off course. As the beast fell, its neck broke on the palisade. She then managed to land on the back of one of the other two wolves who already landed safely inside. The unlucky animal fell flat on his stomach from the unexpected weight and hacked up some blood. Meanwhile, Dawn agilely rolled off of him.
"Sorry. I haven't noticed them sneaking up on us."
Dusk instead of answering swiped her claw at the downed wolf, piercing its skull with her sharp talons and killing the beast. Just round house kicked the remaining wolf in its head, knocking it out instantly.
Everyone was huffing.
"Well. At least we survived." Just gasped, while cradling her mangled arm. "I might not live for long however since we have no medicine and this will get infected in the forest for sure."
Dawn's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh no. I am so sorry. I, we have to clean it, we have to boil some water, clean the wound and put some gauze on your arms. Or any kind of cloth will do." Just shushed Dawn.
"Do you hear that?" She asked everyone.
"Hear what?" Dawn asked back.
"The wolf, that bit me. She is still alive." Just kneeled before the wolf, who was slowly waking up. "Calm down little one, we won't hurt you."
"What are you talking about? She nearly tore your throat out?" Exclaimed Dusk. "If it wasn't for me you would be dead!"
"I don't care. You can't hurt her. She isn't able to hurt us anymore. She is dying too. Just like I am! I have to do something, to help her. Even if I can't help myself. I might survive, my wound is only on my arm, but your claws pierced through her stomach and intestines." Just stood in front of the wounded animal, as if she was defending her own cub. Then she turned back to the wolf and placed her hand on the beast's flank. "Don't worry everything will be fine."
Suddenly a dark red glow lit under her hand, and the wounds of the wolf closed up at a rapid rate. Then the beast and Just were surrounded by a white light that turned into darkness and then pitch black stream coming down from the heavens. Everyone was standing around it was gobsmacked. "Do we dare to touch it?" Dawn asked, not knowing what this might be, or might mean. But when they heard a scream, she rushed inside the strange waterlike substance falling from heaven. When she entered it, it was like she entered a red colored world, All other colors were muted except white, black and the red of blood. And there was so much of it. The bones of the dead wolves were leaving their bodies behind, and somehow fusing with Just. "No, leave her alone! Dawn rushed and tried to tear the bones away from Just as they started integrating."
"Stop that foolish child. What you are seeing is a great honor to that girl." Snapped an ancient and powerful voice at Dawn. "How dare you interrupt her ascension to my Valkyrie. She would be the first orc Valkyrie since Greta the Undying Melör! Most orcs don't know a thing about redemption, or forgiveness. She has accepted my power, and so she has to become mine!"
"She isn't yours! She is her own person. Just can forgive people and animals because she is free. If you take that away from her what will stop her from becoming just like any other orc. You shouldn't destroy a flower because you like it!" Dawn shouted towards the blackened sky. Suddenly a raven perched on her shoulder and tilted its head. "You are an interesting child. You show quite the magical aptitude, and you have an orc friend who can forgive! I will let you be, however I will give your orc friend my blessing. She will be able to talk to me, she will have to stay a mortal until the end of her life. Then she will have to become one of my Valkyrie." The ancient voice came from the mouth of the raven, the image was quite disconcerting. "Be glad mortal you amused me. I will send a teacher your way, you will become my follower anyways. If you want to follow what your heart desires we will cross paths again, young wizard."
With that the raven, the stream disappeared, but the bones continued to integrate into Just. They were all looking at her, unable to help her at all. While Just was screaming Dawn told them what she gathered. Everyone looked hopeless, even Scarred looked helpless, as he was standing there his fist clenched. "We need to get stronger and show them! We can't let the gods have the last laugh!" He raged. "They will walk all over us if we let them." Everyone nodded grimly, listening to their friend wail in pain. Then it was suddenly cut off and Just fell to the ground groaning.
"Fucking finally are you okay?" Scarred ran over, but didn't dare to touch her. She was bloody all over, but she had an exoskeleton made from the bones of the wolves, two of the skulls were pauldrons, one was a helmet. The ribcages have been fused to form the chest plate, and the different leg bones became armor over her arms and legs. The paws with the huge claws have been used for the greaves and gauntlets. She slowly stood up, looking like some kind of death knight. Definitely not looking like a knight of justice.
"That sucked balls." her voice was hoarse.
"You looked badass tho." Scarred joked while helping her. "I wasn't actually worried for you. But I am glad you are safe, but you should do that magic touch you did with the wolf. Wait where is it?"
"Well I heard Odin speak to me. He told me he healed me, and the wolf, who will become my divine beast. He also said that he will remodel her, to become an ally of justice. Something about her being able to cross the rainbow bridge when it will become necessary. Or something." Just shrugged. "But hey we are fine! We survived, and I got healed by a god. Wait… my life was saved by a god!" Just started to hyperventilate. "A god came personally to save me…"
"About that…"