Fimbulvetr

by Alkarasu

23: Gjallarbrú

The warm rainbow-colored winds carried Vsevolod up and around the great tree of his dreams. Never before could he reach this high. Looking up, he could even glimpse on the top of the tree, see the bright light shining from something that crowned the great trunk. He still had ways to go to see what it was, so he pumped his wings, trying to pick up the speed. The rainbow around him shifted, supporting his effort.

"Look how far you've come, little bird," said a bit raspy voice from somewhere nearby. "From a small, scared and hungry cub to a proud and strong hunter who took his own life from the maws of the wolves, and not only his own, but of his family. Who would've thought that you'll be able to do so much with so little... yet, your final choice is yet unmade. Soon, soon you'll have to decide. Each side will take sacrifice. One will take you to the sky. The other will... look for yourself."

Glancing around, Vsevolod saw nobody. As he prepared to dismiss the strange voice, a mighty invisible force has grabbed him and started to squeeze. He felt like his body is changing, molding into something he knew very well, yet almost forgot how it felt. Just as sudden as the force came, it vanished, leaving a human in place of a griffon. And at that moment he remembered that humans don't have wings. The rainbow parted and he plunged down, to the burning forests below.

The fall had not scared him - after all, he knew it was a dream, and given how high up he was, it was a long way to the bottom anyway. So long that in the real world he should've had troubles breathing being this high. The trees in the forest below were small only compared to the giant he used as a perch, reaching hundreds, maybe even thousands of meters into the skies. Now that he was falling towards the forest, he could see that some of the trees were bare of leaves, covered in snow, while others wore green of the summer or gold of the autumn. His fall was towards one of the snowy patches, one that had the flames in the shape of the antlers coming from it. The flames shifted as if they saw his descent, roaring high and attempting to impale him. The moment the flames reached him, though, he was yet again soaring high above them, looking at the fire devouring a small humanoid figure.

"Almost there, little bird. Almost ready. Choose wisely."

Vsevolod felt his gaze being drawn to the shiny object on top of the tree. A wide bridge with a golden thatched roof was unrolling before him, leading towards the trunk and spiraling into a ramp around it.

That was the moment he woke up.

Opening his eyes to the rainbow glow of the crystal cave, he found that everyone else was still asleep. Everyone except the certain batpony. And that batpony was not looking happy at all.

In fact, the look on his face was best described by a word of the wild griffon language that, roughly translated, meant a blood rage consuming everything it touches. Vsevolod only knew it because, as it turned out, that it was the name of the state he went into when he attacked the larger griffon earlier that day. And even more apparent was that the state itself wasn't exclusive to the griffons.

Noticing that the small griffon woke up, Oleg turned to him and made a visible attempt to calm down a little - just enough to regain the ability to speak. It took him several minutes, and, judging from his face, a titanic amount of effort, but eventually he was able to convey his grievances:

"This... place. It's magic. It's... argh! It's broken! And it... it... IT! It wants me to... FIX IT!" growled the batpony, gritting his teeth. "I knew it! I just ... knew it would end like this. It always ends like this. You thought it won't, right? Well, too bad, it is! I just... ARGH!"

"It wants you to do what?" asked Vsevolod, trying to move further from Oleg and closer to still snoring Helga.

"Look there," the bat pointed his hoof into the rainbow curls. There, near the far wall of the cave, a recent cave-in crushed a patch of the crystals. The area around it was darker than the rest of the chamber, and the colors around it looked greenish and sickly. "That stuff is bad stuff. It's not healthy for those shiny rocks. They fear they might catch it and it would be sad. So they want it fixed, and fast."

"Do you know how to fix such stuff?" asked Vsevolod, squinting at the damaged patch.

"Of course I know! Let me show my damned degree in thaumic repairs! Oh, wait! Are you stupid or what? Of course, I have no idea how to fix it!"

"Then why it asked you to?" Vsevolod raised an eyebrow at Oleg.

"Because it somehow knows that I will fix it if I'm asked," growled the batpony, pressing his forehead to the cold concrete of the wall.

"But you don't know how, right?"

"Of course I don't! It's magic, I don't know shit about magic! Three days ago I would've told you it doesn't exist!"

"Then how would you fix it then?"

"Argh, and I wanted it to stay in the past... all right, time for a brief history lesson of one ex-human. You see, back in the day when everything was either stupid or boring, there was one kind of magic that is not really magic. A curse that needs nothing supernatural to work. I called it a curse of implied competence. Most of the people called it 'you're a programmer'. I'm pretty sure you were on the other side of this problem more than once," Oleg squinted at Vsevolod suspiciously and continued. "Somehow, if you worked with computers, you were considered a benevolent omnipotent being, ready to share your skills and wisdom on demand. If you have a problem - call a programmer. Any, absolutely any problem. Blue Screen of Death, keyboard not responding, the power out in the entire city, a clothing iron short-circuited, a goat is giving birth... yes, I'm not kidding, and that wasn't a particularly friendly goat.

"If you don't want to think, call the smart guy, he would know. He knows everything, after all. Don't forget to mention how you envy his job where he's doing nothing and getting a nice paycheck for it while you at it. Who knows, he might've forgotten since the last time you said it. Be prepared to be angry at him if he's somehow busy with something else, though, since you of all people know that your task is of highest possible priority, and no unreachable deadline from the boss should keep him from spending several hours assisting you with an IT-unrelated task you have."

Oleg took a moment to make several deep calming breaths and continued: "It was infuriating. I hoped beyond hope that I could leave it all behind, you know. Be a simple silly winged horse, solve simple winged horse problems for once. Not something several magnitudes beyond my level of competence. But it seems that everyone around me could smell it. Like there's a huge shining sign painted over me, saying 'This guy here can solve your unsolvables, get in line!'''

The batpony sighed, looked around and glimpsed a soft glow, coming from the symbol on his thighs. He froze for a minute and then his eyes widened with realization. Screaming something unintelligible, he lunged at the symbol, but the movement caused his rear end to jolt out of his reach. That didn't stop the furious pony, and so, Helga and Kurgash woke up to the unforgettable sight of him swirling in place and snapping his teeth, trying to bite his own butt.

"So, Dreamwalker is crazy," sighed the pegasus, dodging the frantic swirl. "What made him angry at his tail?"

"He's having a hard time accepting his destiny," shrugged Vsevolod. "I'm not sure I can explain it to you, you know, Return stuff and all, but trust me, his reasoning is solid. Let him blow off some steam."

It took a while, but eventually, the bat has tired himself enough to stop trying to bite himself and fell on the cavern floor, panting, but still growling softly. He looked around and spotted the rest, sitting near the wall and engaged in betting on his success on reaching his mark. It looked like Helga had won, so she grabbed a shiny stone chip and hid it somewhere in her feathers.

"So, how's your existential crisis?" asked Vsevolod, turning towards Oleg and tilting his head. "Feel better?"

"Not really, but I guess it won't help much if I continue. This place needs to be fixed, our base of operations needs to be built, and since all of you seem to be as claustrophobic as I don't know what, the only option for that will be the entrance chamber. Also, I need to think of a way to have my revenge. None got my help in something I don't like and got away unscathed."

"Fair enough," admitted the small catbird, standing up and stretching. "Let's go see what we can do about our new home."

After a detailed inspection, the entrance chamber turned out to be almost perfect for their purposes. Since it was made to admit and unload cargo trucks, it was large, with various adjacent rooms they hadn't noticed the first time they went through it. One of them could be turned into a comfortable bedroom, compared to every dwelling of the griffon settlement. The only issue was the lack of workforce. Vsevolod was never a craftsman even when he had proper hands, and his young age meant he had not much stamina. Oleg was big and strong enough for most of the tasks required and had some experience, but he lacked coordination, barely being able to walk straight. Helga had no concept of manual labor whatsoever, so in most cases, it was easier to wait for Oleg to tumble into a solution than to explain to her what needs to be done. That only left Kurgash as someone who has both the knowledge, skill and ability to do something useful, but she wasn't very strong and most of her time was taken by teaching the batpony the basics of everything.

Thankfully, the area right before the gate was some kind of grassland, so that solved the food problem for the ponies. With Helga making hunting trips in the forest, it kept them all fed. That also left Vsevolod with enough free time to work under a strict, if not always calm and collected, guidance of Oleg. Truth to be told, it contained a lot of ultrasound screaming in rage. It looked like the griffons had an inborn knack to be bad at construction work, and visits from the curious cubs from the main settlement helped nothing. Like overgrown magpies, they tried to steal anything that wasn't guarded or a part of the bedrock, eat any food that was left unchecked for more than a minute and started an uncountable number of fights right in the middle of half-assembled wall or door.

But even with all those hardships, in about a week, the first room of their new home was completed and "furnished". By human standards, the room they've chosen was small, but with their new size, they've managed to make room for five separate sleeping spots - one for each of them and one for sleeping in a pile. One corner of the room was taken by a big pile of rocks Oleg proudly called a caveman's best stove: a crude fireplace with smoke vented outside by the remnants of the old ventilation system of the facility. Despite its horrible looks, it provided enough heat to draw all of the cub population from their "homes" and into theirs. After a lot of screeching, they've managed to keep the winged menace in the hallway that also got much warmer after they've barricaded the most of the entrance with rocks and twigs. The older griffons also checked what the younglings were up to, but none of the four living in the village chose to sleep inside. They moved their sleeping spots to the trees around the clearing, though.

The only task that saw no progress in that time was the rainbow cave. All of them visited it almost every day, somehow the magic of the crystals calmed the mind and energized the body, but none had any idea on how to fix the damage. Vsevolod carefully removed the crushed crystals, but part of the greenish glow remained, and the affected area grew a bit since then. Oleg said that at this rate they may have plenty of time to think of something, so the search for the solution was put on hold, though they've checked the affected patch daily.

All in all, their life was starting to turn out to the better, with a clear goal and the means to reach it well within their capabilities. This far north, the spring was yet to be felt, so it seemed like they have several weeks before they could try any farming, but it wasn't a reason not to prepare what could be prepared. So, each morning Vsevolod flew into the woods both to practice his flying and look for promising meadows. He had found several and was checking one of them when a glance towards the bushes revealed the sight he hoped he won't have to see ever again.

Half-hidden by the branches, there stood a big elk whose head was covered with a finely embroidered woolen hat. An empty string hanging from the beast neck told Vsevolod everything he didn't want to know about the origins of the elk.

Both froze, locking their gazes and waiting for the other to move. After a moment, Vsevolod sprang into the air with a powerful flap of his wings, screeching "Elk-danger-hide!" on the top of his lungs, while below he heard familiar "Kaluchata! Sa kaluchata! Isika ma bik!"

Only back in safety of his home, Vsevolod thought that flying there directly might've been not the best idea.

Author's Note:

Well, here we are, back in the saddle, so to speak. It might be late, it might be small, but the end is in sight and I really hope to wrap it up sometime this year.
Grab your Mjolnirs, people, Ragnarök is coming.

Comments

[Seeking Dusk]

The end is nigh! The end is nigh!

Oleg's freakout was adorable though. And understandable. Some have responsibility thrust on them, Oleg. Time to make yourself great.

[Alkarasu]

9391977
He would prefer to avoid that if it's possible. And his revenge will be terrifying if he lives long enough to implement it.

[Vistamage]

Can't wait to see the continue

[Alkarasu]

9395456
It took me less than a year last time!
EVERYTHING IS PERFECTLY UNDER CONTROL, NO NEED TO PANIC!

[Dances With Unicorns]

Oleg's freak-out reminds me of what happened to a friend of mine who has studied computer programming most of his adult life, and when he retired from his first career, he then choose to become a software technician for his second career. He once commented to me that his family and friends often come to him to solve their problems, because “You people think I’m a god.” Now, you have created excellent writing when a fictional event in a fictional story, mirrors something that I saw happen with my own eyes by real people in the real world.

[Alkarasu]

9416306
Well, Oleg might be a fictional character, but who said he can't be mentioning real events?

[Azathothfhtagn]

Does have anything to do with Norse Myth in other the names of the chapters?

[Alkarasu]

9615968
Every chapter name is carefully chosen from the Norse Myth to fit the chapter contents.
Expect Gjallarhorn chapter sometime in the future.

[Celefin]

"So, Dreamwalker is crazy," sighed the pegasus, dodging the frantic swirl. "What made him angry at his tail?"

It's these kinds of moment that make this story so brilliant. Kurgash is still best pony, one of my all time favourite characters.

Since I'm not one to talk about writing delays, do take your time.
Onward to the apocalypse.

[harts fire]

well Alk it only took me a bit over 4 years but here i am reading your story.
i can say i am enjoying this a hole bunch and it fits the PAP story line super good.

but now how long will we the readers be holding on for the next chapter?

[Alkarasu]

9981469
Glad that you like it.
Well, I have parts of the next chapter already, but you know how life can keep you from doing such stuff. Hope I'll be able to get it out before next year.

[harts fire]

9982228
yes friend i remember how life tends to beat you up.
all we can ask is to try.

[Numinos]

Well, that was fun.

You know what that reminds me? Michael Moorcock's Runestaff series. You both have your stories set in an interesting post-apocalyptic world, where some things can still be recognized, but cultures, customs and even people themselves are a novelty. Interesting time period in the PaP'Verse : )

So far so good, I really hope to see it continued someday.

PS cudos from the other side of The Greate Steppes : )

[harts fire]

it is way past time this story gets a bit of love.

[Alkarasu]

10940981
I'M NOT DEAD!

[harts fire]

removing story from my list no updates.

[Rawislon03]

Read this a while ago, one of the main things I remember is a horse Scythian/Tartar being drowned