Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

Ultimus Chapter Twenty-One: The She-Beast

Freya walked through the overgrown city streets alone carrying the prod in hand. She needed a mount, she was the only one who didn’t have and it was getting tiresome to walk from place to place, though she had done a lot of this before arriving in the strange place they had came from they called the Arks. She traveled many nights and days through the cold fjords she once called. But this was now, not then. The world was a much more dangerous place. Dragons and drakes roamed almost every corner of these lands, monsters, and even the gods had been pulled from Asgard and now tread the land that she walked. Both on these ‘Arks’ and Jörð. She wondered what happened to cause this destruction, was it Ragnarok? Erica tried to explain the many convoluting things and the events that happened in her time but she didn’t understand it. She also wondered if what happened wasn’t just how they explained away the events of Ragnarok. But she wasn’t confident in it. Erica was quite smart, smarter than she could ever be. She would’ve figured it out if that was the case. But she also didn’t seem to believe in anything. Paul believed in a different belief than she did, and Sylas and Jonathan were the same as Erica. It was all strange to her. She heard unfamiliar sounds and pulled her axe out, readying for battle. Only to look up and see a majestic flying dragon overhead of her. She was in awe. She had never seen one of these before. Never one that flew. And its head was as beautiful as a sunset. It glowed lightly as the sun’s rays went through it. Almost giving it a heavenly glow. She smiled at the sight but couldn’t stop and admire it. She had to continue her way.

As she tracked her target. She was brought back to the statement she said to Andrew. And her past. To those people who believed she was an angel or valkyrie. Some even said a guardian. She wasn‘t, she was the daughter of Hel. She didn’t know why she was praised for her sins and her brutal nature. She was treated so well by everyone she met but she didn’t understand why. She felt she was a monster, a beast whose only instinct was to kill. And she was afraid that she couldn’t control it. Even when she met Andrew and aimed his bow at her, she could’ve ended his life before he knew what was happening. But his distress made her hesitate and lower her weapon. She had regretted even thinking about it. But she was a monster of death. Nothing more than that. Nothing more.

~

The wind and snow blew heavily through the land, the winter night was cold, and the moon was blocked out by the snowstorm that hit. The campsite was quiet. A man sat by a fire, his thoughts on their prize. Gold, jewels, and silver. He was a chief and had taken twenty of his best men on this quest and succeeded in so. The pillaged are no longer standing or living. Surprising since one of them was the most renowned Vikings for brutality. But his hair was grey, and his strength was gone from him. His pathetic son was no challenge either. Being weak in wanting peace and assuming that reputation would keep rivals away was not an answer. His plea for his death and their treasure in trade for his people to live was as pathetic as he was. Leaving nothing behind, no man, woman, or child behind. His men filled with victorious pride were celebrating their bounty with liquor and song while his second in command went to sleep as the rest partied. Though they went quiet for some time. Leaving him alone at the fire. He sat there, thinking about their spoils. Most people would die for this type of treasure.

He got up and turned round to see a figure in the shadow of the night. The figure of that of a human.

“Var det verdt det?” The figure said, their voice young but in pain.

“Hva?” He said with a scoff.

"Var det verdt disse menneskenes død når høvdingen ville ha gitt sitt eget liv og deres skatt for deres liv?" The person said, he started laughing.

"Det gjorde han, men vi ville ha mer etter at vi drepte ham og fikk gullet. så vi tok kvinnenes juveler og sølv. Så drepte vi dem alle og barna deres." He said still laughing. The person said nothing for a moment before she sighed with a tremble in it.

«Da for det vil jeg vise deg den samme barmhjertighet som du viste dem. Og du skal dø for mine hender.» The one said, the man’s smile disappeared quickly as he unsheathed his sword. And the figure came out of the shadows, revealing a young girl, barely an adult holding an axe in her one visible hand and her other in the shadows. The man laughed even harder as he sheathed his sword.

«Vet du ikke hvem jeg er? Jeg er skurken Snæúlfr. Jeg er fryktet av mange av de farligste mennene, og jeg vil ikke bli drept av en liten jente som er halvparten av min alder.» He said, the girl didn’t say a thing. Her eyes filled with hatred and pain. She tossed something out of her hand that wasn’t visible to his view. Hitting him in the chest and landing on the ground in front of him. Snæúlfr felt his chest and felt something wet and warm, but no broken skin or armor. He lowered himself down the thing that landed and picked up before his eyes went wide and face pale as he dropped it. It was the head of his second in command. He looked at her in fear.

"Og jeg er den hevngjerrige, selve døden." She said, he went to unsheathe his sword only to feel something plunge into his chest and fell to the ground. He looked at his chest and saw an axe sticking out of his chest. His breathing became faint and shallow as he stared at the axe. Then he saw her, she walked over, grabbed his sword out of his sheathe, and held it in her hand. He tried backing away from her but he was too weak.

"Hvem, hvem er du?" He said, gasping for air at this point. She looked at him with hatred and fury.

"Mitt navn er Freya, datter av Jorgan den Fredelige, høvding for Fjordsson-stammen, som var sønn av Arnsteinn den Brutale. og dette er de etternavnene du noen gang vil høre." She said in a tone of rage, his eyes widened to this in fear as she set her foot on the axe and began to press it through his chest. He could hear his bones cracking and feel his organs tear apart as the axe went deeper and deeper into his chest. Then she pulled the axe out of his chest, he could feel blood and fluids overflowing out his chest and felt his lungs filling with fluids. And with one of his last breaths and his eyes failing him. He stared at her with her eyes of fury as she picked him up and threw him into the fire. And then he darkness.

For a few moments, the girl stood there in front of the fire. Watching the man’s body burn in front of her. She had sought out for what she wanted. But she still felt empty and in pain. She took off her fur cloak. This being the cloak of her father, his blood covered it entirely. A lump built up in her throat and she fell to her knees. Tears began to roll down her cheeks. She should’ve been there, she could’ve stopped all of this. But she had volunteered to go off with tradesmen to a neighboring tribe. She wept into the fur cloak and wailed in pain and self-hate.

Several days after this event, scavengers and nomads found the camp desolate. The place was covered in blood and gored bodies. One in particular charred to ashes. What they were surprised to find was a treasure beyond their wildest dreams. Gold, Jewels, and silver filled the tents. This was peculiar as the bodies were killed by man and not beast. The nomads and scavengers only ever found one set of tracks entering and exiting the camp. News spread through the coast of the archipelago. Rumors spread that these Vikings had pillaged a tribe that was closest to the gods and Thor came and slew them. Others said it was one of the first signs of Ragnarok.

But stories spread of a warrior who was the daughter of a man who was trained by the gods in warfare, one who was raised within the village and took the lives of these men for her loved ones were taken from her. And she was named the She-Beast.

~

Freya sighed as she escaped her memories. This continued going through her head as she tracked the drake she wanted. She looked at the ground and lowered herself to the ground, touching a track print that was left behind by the drake. She had been following them for over an hour and they were getting fresh. The dirt was more tender each time she checked. She was catching up to the animal, but she still couldn’t see it. She looked at the prod in her other hand as she got up. She hoped that Erica modified the prod enough that she could take down the animal quickly. If not she would be in a whole lot of trouble. She followed the tracks and noticed the tracks were getting further apart. It looked like it started sprinting. She looked ahead to still see nothing. She started trotting as she followed the trail not wanting to fall behind. She ran for a moment before spotting what she was following. A large dragon with short and stout arms eating a smaller drake with a strange horn on the back of the head. A true tyrant beast. Jonathan and the others had told her what they called them but she didn’t care. To her, they were dragons and monsters. She lowered herself to the ground, making sure that she was not visible from the tall foliage. She watched as the drake grabbed a huge chunk of flesh and began to devour it. She could hear the beast’s mouth crunch as it ate bones and all. Freya started breathing deeply and slowly. She lifted her axe from her left side loop and held the prod in her other hand. She began to slowly approach the dragon from behind. Staying low to the ground still and downwind of it. She continued breathing slowly and deeply as she was only a few strides away from the beast’s honchos. She let out a fearsome yell and threw the axe into the back of the dragon’s leg, sticking deep into its leg. The dragon let out a growl of pain and turned its head behind to stare down Freya. She yelled out with her battle cry and charged the animal at incredible speed, jumping up and grabbing onto the axe and lifting herself onto the beast’s back. Taking her axe out of the dragon as she did.

The beast bellowed as it tried to buck and shake off Freya. But she held on strong to the dragon’s back, she crawled her way to the neck of the dragon before sticking her axe into the lower neck of the beast. It let out a thunderous roar as it began to bolt.

Freya held onto the axe handle with her one hand, bracing herself for what she was about to do. She stuck the prod close to the back of the skull of the beast and flipped the switch. Sparks and light and lightning came from the prod as though it was magic. She only had to hold it for a few moments before the beast would fall, but it wouldn’t do so without a fight. The beast let out a screeching roar and began to run into the side of one of the huge things that the men of this time had made. Clear, sharp teeth began to appear from nowhere and stone started raining from the strange thing. The clear teeth began to pierce into her fur armor but didn’t penetrate her. The beast broke away from the structure and started shaking profusely. She only had to hold on for a few more moments. The beast slowly began slowing down in its shaking. And the beast began moving more subdued. The dragon made a few more final attempts to get rid of her from his back by reaching for her with its jaws. But Freya was out of reach. In its last moment, the beast let out a moan of defeat, Freya took her chance to get off as it reared up and fell onto its side unconscious. Freya got up off the ground with a groan and cautiously stared at the dragon. It was huge. Its head was bigger than her and there was room to spare.

Freya looked down at the prod and smiled. She was impressed, that Erica had improved these things. She remembered that all the others complained about how they only had one small hit in them. Erica for the longest time said she would make them work better and she did. Freya would never use one of these again. But she was glad to test it. She turned it on and it sparked sporadically and a cloud of smoke came out from the weapon. She winced at the sight. She dropped the weapon and walked away from it. She’d just tell Erica that it was lost during the last part of knocking out the dragon.

She took a look back at the beast, it slept there on its side. It’s wounds that it sustained from her axe and its attempt to rid her from its neck. She felt pity for the beast, she felt like she should’ve done something else. But she made a vow to herself when she awoke and found out she could tame these dragons and beasts from the Arks. She had to tame her tame by hand, not with a bow, or any other ranged weapon. It had to be by her hands. She had to see if it was worthy to be hers. And this one was. But she had such remorse for what pain she put it through. She didn’t think that this environment was going to be more of a hazardous place than the forests before. She walked up to the beast. Hearing it’s deep, slumberous breath. She touched its snout and began to stroke it. Her eyes getting watery.

“Tilgi meg beist. Tilgi meg for det jeg har gjort mot deg.” she said as she stepped back and went on the hunt for taming meat fit for this king.