Belmora - Katherine
I rose from a dark place. It was freezing and cold, and when I moved my hand from the floor it came back wet. I looked around, but I could barely see anything. I stepped closer to an area where the light was peeking through. I looked up to see where the light was coming from and saw a pearly white moon that had a mirror moon behind it that gleamed ice blue in the darkness. I gulped. I was definitely not on earth. But how the hell did I get here? I heard a soft groan behind me and looked back to where I had been laying moments before. Wherever I was, I wasn't alone.
"What the hell." An accented voice said. One that I remembered.
"Iriel? Is that you?" I asked hesitantly.
"Who else would it be?" he snarked as he rose up from where he had been awkwardly laying down.
"Where the hell are we?" I asked. I heard him grumble and then I saw him as he approached the light that I was currently in. He glanced up at the cave we seemed to be trapped in.
"We are where we need to be. We are in Belmora. Although I don't have the foggiest idea how we even got here." Iriel said, with a sigh.
"We were in New York. We'd been trying to figure out what we would need to get here. I think Dorian and Rina were going."
"To find Darius in New Mexico. I remember that." Iriel said glancing at me.
"Who are you again? Irina?" He asked.
I scowled at being called Irina. "My name is Katherine," I said.
"Well, Katie. I hope you know how to fight." Iriel said sighing as his focus became narrowed somewhere behind me. I turned around and suddenly saw that we were surrounded by fur-wearing spear-wielding warriors at every side.
"Holy shit," I said my eyes wide.
"Iriel. You shouldn't have come." A voice among the warriors said. Iriel chuckled nervously.
"You should get a phone, Isadora." Iriel said.
I looked at where he was talking and saw a tall muscular woman with long silver hair. She wore a single metal band around her head and did not look like she was a woman to be trifled with.
"Katherine meet Isadora. Isadora, we need to talk about your sister." Iriel said, making the woman he was talking to flinch visibly.
"Take them both. It's time we showed them what we do with outsiders." Isadora said before she left.
Iriel raised his hands allowing the warriors to grab and take him along. I nervously watched as the remaining warriors straightened their spears so that the sharp end stood straight up to the sky. The warriors put a fist at their chest and bowed slightly to me before they beckoned me to walk ahead.
I didn't need to be told twice, I walked swiftly catching up to Iriel. "Where are they taking us?" I whispered.
Iriel scowled. "I see they didn't get rough with you." He said snidely. "They are taking us to their camp. Where we will no doubt be told that under no circumstances will we be allowed to leave." He said.
"You don't sound very worried," I said my eyes narrowing at him.
"That's because I'm not worried. I've been through this already. We will be fine." Iriel said waving his hand before one of the guards whacked him at moving.
"This is not what fine looks like," I said. Looking around as we started leaving the cave.
Belmora looked to be a frozen wasteland of sorts. I could see ice everywhere and the chill was starting to settle in. Suddenly I felt something furry land on my shoulders. I pulled it around me turning slightly to look at the warrior a pale tall brown-haired man that reminded me an awful lot of Hunter.
I nodded my thanks to him before I glanced back at Iriel. "Is there any reason, the warriors are treating me with more respect than they are of you?" I asked.
Iriel smiled looking back at me. "The warriors all revere women. In the history of man. They always claim that women are the more downtrodden in society, but in Viking, law women were given higher stature than men. They were the leaders, the peacekeepers, and the educators. And in some cases like Isadora. They were also the warriors." Iriel said.
"The modern-day could learn a thing or two from the Vikings." He said.
I looked away from Iriel as we were led out of one cavern to a bridge of sorts as we walked the bridge that looked like it was made of glass an even more terrifying thing than the Viking horde that surrounded us at all sides, I looked out and saw the two moons once again, but I could also see the landscape of Belmora, a place that looked like it was carved of ice and glass. In the farthest area from where we stood on the bridge was a forest that was just white ash trees, long dead and devoid of any life.
Here and there were ice sculptures that rose further than the eye could see. I soaked it all in quickly as I walked across the bridge and into another cavern. This cavern unlike ours was surrounded by bright light. White and bright, but also delicate pink and violets surrounded us.
"This is the home of these warriors?" I asked surprised. I glanced again at Iriel who looked entranced at the area.
"Yeah. It's beautiful, isn't it?" he asked, looking back at me before he turned to look towards the front.
"Viking lore is made from men. They don't really emphasize the true strength and beauty that led the Vikings to conquer so many places on earth. It isn't really all that surprising that a wandering tribe would find their way to Belmora. And instead of destroying it, they made it even more beautiful and wondrous." Iriel said.
"I'm glad you think so." We looked up and realized we had made it into a great hall of sorts. At the very front of the hall stood a rectangular table that seemed to be carved from crystal. Yet another woman with long silver hair sat her hands steepled under her chin as she observed all of us.
"There are many men of earth that would see this as yet another place to be conquered, not many would see the beauty of the ice." The woman said peering at Iriel with some disdain.
"You seem to know much of the lore of the Vikings." The woman said gazing down at Iriel. She hadn't yet looked at me, a fact that made me glad. She was terrifying, with her ice-blue eyes that seemed to stare into your very soul. Iriel shrugged off the warriors that held him and went to his knees before what I can only assume was the queen of the warrior tribe.
"I was born in a time of Vikings. A time when we hunted to survive and not only Vikings roamed, but Dragons and demons claimed the earth as theirs. It was during this time I had the honor of joining a hunting group that hunted down dragons, took them down saving many, many people." Iriel said.
"And eating them, if I recall." The queen said shrewdly. "Don't spin your lies here. Speak frank and say what you have come here to say." She said.
"I left the group a long time ago, to carve my own destiny, one that didn't come at the expense of death. But now, I have been searched and asked by two people who I owe the very life I have to. I cannot let them down, and in order to help them, I need to find the very hunters I had forsaken, and more importantly the only girl I have ever loved. Her sister lives among them. I only wish for her to return once more to earth so that we may save her sister, Zenna from a horrible fate." Iriel said.
I narrowed my eyes as I listened to his words. What exactly did Dorian and Rina do for Iriel?
"Zenna?" Isadora said speaking out from behind us. "What fate do you speak of?" she asked.
"I myself would like to know what you speak of." The queen said with a single eyebrow raised.
"Death," Iriel said taking a deep breath.
"A long time ago, when we were still searching for two twin dragons that had yet to appear, we came across a witch of great, terrible power. She told Zenna that if she continued on this journey she would die at the hands of the lovers of the Dragons. She laughed off the prediction but I have always believed in the words of witches I have known many powerful witches throughout my life and I know they aren't to be trifled with." Iriel said glancing at me as he spoke.
"He's not wrong," I spoke up, gulping as both the Queen and her many warriors looked at me now.
"Witches, we keep the balance of nature. These dragons were made by one of us. And if it was foretold that a hunter would die at the hands of their lovers I would believe it to be true. I have met these lovers and they are quite formidable. But they are not heartless." I said looking at Isadora.
"If your sister can be turned to our side there may be hope for her survival. They won't hurt her if they don't have to. But they will protect their dragons to their very last breath. This I can promise you." I said looking at both Isadora and then the queen.
"It would be wise to listen to this one. I can sense the power she contains even if her uncle hadn't told us she would be, coming." The queen said shrewdly.
My eyebrows furrowed. "My uncle? Thaddeus was here?" I said with surprise.
"He is still here," Isadora said.
"With the queen's permission, I will take you to him." She said glancing at the queen for confirmation, who quickly nodded her acquiescence. I followed Isadora without a glance to Iriel, we crossed out of the great hall down the corridor into a room that was made of stone and bark and held a bright large fire at the center of the room. In front of the fire on a wooden throne-like chair sat my Uncle Thaddeus who smirked when he saw me.
"Hello, niece."