Kassandra Tierdath's Story

Danegh soon found the origin of the human-like distress call. It had been a raptor, and it wasn't alone either. Three more raptors came running up from behind the first one to see what it had found. Danegh gripped his spear and gritted his teeth, bracing himself for an ambush. What were these beings who stood before him? Were they dwarves, or giants perhaps? Danegh had heard old stories about the dwarves and giants being able to shapeshift into animals and take on the personification of the forest. But those were ancient myths, and he wasn't expecting he'd ever run into a band of them on this new land.

Danegh glared at the Xamatorapter for a moment, gripping his spear with both hands as he pointed the spear point at the bipedal creature, so similar to one of Odin's ravens that it had to be a spirit. "Odin," Danegh said, forgetting all about the distress call for a moment. He stared at the raptor curiously, letting down his spear to accept his fate in the talons of the ravens, when suddenly a metal egg hit the ground and rolled between them, exploding in a flash of white light. Danegh would take a knee and divert his eyes with one arm, still holding his spear. He was blinded.

Back at the camp, Birger started to get an erie feeling about whether or not they should have camped on the slope, as he looked up at the Gladioxamos and took note of its creepy bird-like demeanor. As a male perched beside her, Birger grabbed his notebook again and made a sketch of the differences between the two, though it never occurred to him that one was male and one female. Just as the pterosaurs would be surprised to find that they had perched on elven silver, which their weight and claws could neither scratch nor bend, for it had been forged by enchantment to protect the Empyrean Norse starships in the vacuum of space.

Svegdir Staghelm and Jonah Marksberg finished building the fences around the hill and began working on the other fences around their boat house. Borstein walked back to camp, looking disgruntled as he walked up the hill. "Where's Danegh? He's supposed to be helping me find some food," Borstein said, upset that someone would leave such an important task and return to base. But Danegh wasn't there. "I don't know. We thought he was with you," Staghelm answered, still hammering down his final post. Borstein looked over to Birger and Jonah, before turning around and looking back towards the thick brush at the treeline. He raised his his hands and cupped his mouth to shout Danegh's name, but Svegdir quickly stopped what he was doing and placed his hand over Borstein's mouth to silence him before he could make a big sound.

Birger's ear twitched at the sound of the creeping treetops. He would take note of it, and the strange looking fruit as it hit the earth with a plop. Svegdir looked suspiciously at Borstein before gazing into the thicket. One of his team members was missing in action. His primary objective had changed. He lowered his hand from over Borstein's mouth, but motioned for him to be silent as he gazed over at the spikey fruit, before gazing into the woods again. Svegdir and Borstein then both walked down the open hill together, heading into the dangerous forest to look for Danegh.

Birger Bengtson was the most talented artist during the Golden Age of what seemed to be a rising Nordic Empire, and Bengtson was a real Renaissance man, similar in comparison with other great artists like Michelangelo in his own right. Only his style was different, and his sketch work was rudimentary, more similar to carpentry designs than to sculptures or paintings. But he wrote in a similar linear script from left to right, using runic characters that seemed more fitting for wood or stone carvings than for papyrus or canvas.

Danegh was down on one knee, diverting his eyes from the blinding white light as the small pack of Xamoraptors darted off into the thick brush, startled by the sudden flashbang which had exploded right in front of them. Danegh was dazed and disoriented for a moment, but kept his hand on his spear whilst touching the ground so as not to lose his bearings entirely.

As the light receded, Danegh looked up to see a shimmering figure walking towards him from out of the foliage. The sunlight glimmered off of the slender figure as she approached, wearing a suit of armor with a glossy black visored helmet. Danegh could see that the figure's shape was familiar and had a humanoid appearance. But it certainly wasn't anyone familiar to him, and the armored figure appeared quite alien, like a person from a totally different culture or civilization.

As he gazed up at the stranger in front of him, placing a tighter grip on his spear, Danegh's fight or flight instincts were starting to kick in. He had heard rumours back on Gaia about the dokkalfar, a powerful race of dark elves who were known to attack humans and other elves alike. Although he had never seen one in person, he was already accustomed to sea elves, and he knew how dangerous such races could be. He watched cautiously, preparing to pounce.

Suddenly, however, there was a loud hissing sound as the figure's visor opened to reveal a more humanoid face with blue eyes. After a few seconds, the visored helmet retracted into the suit's shoulder, and Danegh could immediately tell that it was a woman with raven black hair. She quickly flung her disruptor rifle over her shoulder and stepped closer, looking down at him.

"Are you okay?" the woman asked as her strange unfamiliar armor glimmered in the sunlight. Danegh loosened his grip on his spear and stood up slowly, looking at the woman with confusion. He was utterly speechless, and had no idea what was going on. Had this stranger been the source of the distress call? That certainly didn't seem to be the case just a minute ago. He glanced at the opening in the bushes where the large bird-like creatures had been just moments ago. But where did they go? Danegh began to wonder to himself whether he was alive or dead. What was that bright blinding flash of light? His mind was overwhelmed with several questions as his heart started beating quickly and irregularly.

But the armored figure wasn't the only person who seemed a bit foreign and out of place as Danegh stood up slowly to face her. He himself had long free flowing light brown wavy hair with a curly beard and short mustache, and hazel colored eyes and bronze or ruddy skin. He was wearing a bright blue long sleeved shirt tunic with an open laced collar and brown baggy legged trousers which flared loosely before being tucked into his high blue wool socks and skin boots. Underneath his tunic, Danegh appeared to be wearing light armor, or a silver chainmail vest of some kind as the metal collar shimmered in the sunlight beneath his curly beard. He had several necklaces made of gold and silver, including a Mjolnir hammer pendant which hung down loosely over his chest. On his left breast appeared to be a patch or tag of some kind, showing a runic symbol which denoted his rank and duty within the Empyrean Norse Empire, and in his hand he was carrying a silver spear with a single small hook on the end.

The woman would only have seconds to absorb the Norseman's appearance, however, before he suddenly ran away from her in the opposite direction, deciding to flee from the area rather than make conversation. He quickly turned and jumped into the bushes without saying anything, apparently being frightened away by everything he had just witnessed. He didn't even bother to scream in fear. He just bolted, having no idea exactly where he was or even where he was going. All the surprised man knew at that particular moment was that he had seen enough. Danegh didn't like this new fertile planet after all. He just wanted to go back home.

"Danegh was already spooked by the Xamatoraptor... no, that doesn't sound right... the Peloronychus," Birger Torvesson wrote in his journal, taking a second to hit his pipe before he shaded in the description of the characters that Danegh had described... "Xamayos seems a fitting name for this land, though I assert from what an abundance of reptiles I've seen near our camp that we should call the place of our settlement Dracos Valley, and ourselves, the Dracos Valley Vikings, the first Empyrean Norse explorers to sail across the Milky Way rivers of Audumla and post on one of the sky chariots, gazing back at our own world Gaia as if she was just a fleeting stjorn." Birger finished his entry before closing his notebook and placing it into his bag, securing it under his seat and settling into his adjustable chair within the backseat of the convertiboat as everyone else climbed on board.

Karvi-1 was preparing to leave the area suddenly. Svegdir Staghelm had ordered everyone in his small crew to abandon the unfinished settlement and return to the karve lifeboat, undoing the rooftop of their temporary lodging and sliding the long narrow vessel back down the slope of the hill into the shallow water. Jonah Marksberg peered out over Lake Dineasair looking for any danger in the water as Borstein climbed into the convertiboat, followed by Danegh who was still trying to explain the mysterious woman in strange clothing, the voice-mimicking raptor and the enormous sauropod dinosaur with its massively long neck and legs. Svegdir Staghelm rushed everyone to be quiet and get in as he fastened his seat harness and used his key crystal to start up the boat. Once everyone was seated, the armored convertible rooftop slid shut and encapsulated everyone inside the cab. Jonah checked the readings on his dash panel and gave Svegdir the thumbs up, signaling that all systems were good. Hitting a few colorful glowing neon runic buttons and symbols on his display screen, Svegdir initiated the levitation sequence. Soon the convertiboat began to lift up out of the lake and rotate slowly, hovering above the water. It gave off an invisible energy field which distorted the air around the floating craft, giving off a very low barely audible humming sound.

The search team had completed their mission. They had gathered more than enough information to proceed with the next phase. It was time to report back to base before the situation became too dangerous. Svegdir wasn't taking any chances. He grabbed the steering wheel and proceeded to pull back on the steering colum, causing the convertiboat to tilt upwards and face diagonally towards the northern sky horizon. Without wasting any more time, the small almond-shaped silver vessel suddenly bolted into the clouds above the Grigori River at nearly the speed of light, leaving only a brief glimpse of an image trail behind it as waves of water splashed around the lake's surface where the craft had just launched from in the blink of an eye. At least the Norse explorers had found a place to camp. Even if their crude settlement were to be destroyed, at least they had a good reference point where they could return later with more men. But the small crew aboard Karvi-1 were holding valuable knowledge and information which they knew needed to be reported back to Jarl Goffre Alvisson, who would then commission the Karvi-3 to ship it home to the Empyrean Sea Beach on Gaia, where King Halfdan would give them further orders. It was a delicate operation which required teamwork and survival tactics which Svegdir knew.

As the convertiboat ascended above the clouds, it sailed through the sky silently, hovering towards the Stjornhestr mothership which sat floating majestically within the planet's exosphere. Wolfgang Yorisson and Kelsey the Healer were just about to gather up their own crew for Karvi-2 and rendezvous with Staghelm's gang on the surface when all of a sudden, Svegdir Staghelm appeared with his crew, their silver vessel moving forward quickly towards the Stjornhestr before slithering and winding slowly upon its approach to form Svegdir's signature docking sequence, informing the captain Jarl Goffre Alvisson that Karvi-1 was still being piloted by the same crew which took off in it. The craft was permitted to land and once the docking bay vault doors were sealed shut behind it, the chamber was depressurized and the gaseous oxidation process began, hissing and releasing gases into the docking bay area so that the crew could breathe as they exited the convertiboat, its metal rooftop sliding back slowly to reveal the five frightened passengers within. All of them looked like they had been to Jotunheim and back.