Lynesse

Lynesse
Lynesse
@lynesse#278
2016-04-11 18:00:00

To the Fjord - Part Five

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Running is one of my favorite things. 

There’s a thrill in it, my blood sings as my feet pound the dirt and I vault over fallen branches and tumbled rocks. I waited until things got quiet to go and I just ran. Well, that’s not entirely true, I paused for a moment to free a throwing axe where it had been left in a tree (honestly it’s big enough to be held with two hands, but great axes have always been my favorite weapon), and then I ran. 

It seemed like most of them had gone up to the longhouse, everything else was fairly deserted and the sun was going down. In retrospect I should’ve ditched my cloak, but I didn’t. Sentimentality was slowing me down. Horns started to sound about five minutes into my flight. Then howls. I tried to be optimistic and think that maybe they weren’t hunting for me. They were. 

The road twisted ahead. I could see it, the flat packed dirt would be more forgiving than the springy forest growth that threatened to trip me at every step. Skorn was behind me and the way home was in reach. I was so distracted and consumed by it that I missed the throwing axe coming out of nowhere and slamming into my side. The impact knocked me off my feet and I tumbled, bleeding, to the ground. 

Was I dead? No. Would I be? Soon. Could I fight? Yes. 

I pushed back up with a snarl, the pain setting in, and launched myself at the giant warrior who’d thrown it. He was a good fighter, but I was smaller and I had magic that he didn’t. I wanted to get home. I was determined to survive. I took more hits than I should have; Excess power vented behind me in the brilliant manifestation of wings and the borrowed axe glowed with divine fury. His hunting knife found a home in my gut – I think he expected it to kill me. expected it to kill me, but when he pulled it out my fail-safe blew and healed it all right as I buried the axe into his neck. I’d have to thank Talon when I got back; training with him is probably the only reason why I won.  

He fell to the ground dead. I fell to my knees bloodied and exhausted. That dump of healing magic was everything I’d had. I could see the road through my tunneled vision and I had to get to it. I had to keep going. There were shouts behind me and the heavy beat of wings. I remembered something I’d forgotten about the Vrykul: 

They had dragons. 

That was about the time I started realizing that, one, I wasn’t going to get home when I said I was, and two, I might actually die. 

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