Journey Chapter 35

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Journey Chapter 35

Meanwhile on Fjordur

As night fell over Fjordur. Fenrisulfr sat on the floor in one of the larger rooms of the castle, going over a map of Fjordur that one of his soldiers brought to him from Avalanche’s study. It looked different from what he remembered. He felt strange, being on Midgard after so long was a whole new feeling than what he felt in the prison cell he called home. For a moment, he wondered if it was worth it. To fulfill his prophecy. He could just take control and rule over Midgard. Live the life he should have. But he closed his eyes and sighed.

He couldn’t break free from his anger and hate for the others and Odin. For what they did to him. Odin would pay for what he did. And once Odin did, Fenrisulfr would fulfill his destiny and could forever rest, but before he could fulfill his destiny. He would need to conquer three of the realms beforehand to have enough strength to take on Odin and the other gods in Asgard. And to do that, he would need to find allies. And he already had quite a few in mind. Some that he would need to find in the realms.

“My liege. May I enter?” A fenrir said, “You may Commander Frightfrost” Fenrisulfr said as he stood up and looked a the doorway. Frightfrost entered and stood in front of him in attention. His face was stern and his body stiff as he stood in front of his leader.

“What is in need of my attention Frightfrost?” Fenrisulfr asked in a stern, cold breath. His eyes glowed a dull blue as they normally did.

“My liege, Quake has asked to speak to you for a plea. He says that he has important information and will do anything you want him to do for his freedom.” Frightfrost said, “So soon? I expected a couple more days before he cracked. I guess I misjudged his courage and loyalty to his Emperor and Kingdom. Was that really all he asked for? Just his freedom?” Fenrisulfr said smiling in a humorous manner, Frightfrost's face did not change in any type of manner,

“Yes, my liege.” Frightfrost said, Fenrisulfr chuckled.

“My, he surely can be cutthroat in his actions. Have our soldiers escorted him to me in two days for questioning. Do not answer him or acknowledge that you even told me his request. This goes for every soldier.” Fenrisulfr Commanded.

“Yes, my liege.” Frightfrost said. Fenrirs turned away from Frightfrost and sat on his haunches, looking back at the map. But Frightfrost stood his position waiting for Fenris to ask him something else.

“Is that all you wanted Commander?” Fenrisulfr asked. Frightfrost shook his head.

“No, I wanted to tell you that we did find the Velonosaur. She is in a high-security area of the prison. What do you want us to do with her?”

Fenrisulfr stood up for a second and paced in the study for a moment thinking. “Leave her, for the moment. Bring her to me at the same time you bring Quake. I’ll need her later, for some more… barbaric allies. She will be good for a high-ranking position or even general for these allies I have in mind.” Fenrisulfr commanded. “Is that all Commander?” Fenrisulfr asked.

“Yes, my liege.” Frightfrost said.

“Then that is all Commander. Do what I asked, and tell the other soldiers. You are dismissed.” Fenrisulfr said and Frightfrost left the room.

Fenrisulfr went back to look at the map, Quake’s usefulness would only be for a few conversations. But Ripper was special, and could exceed his expectations of her with her resourcefulness and patience. She would become a very valuable ally in his Army against Odin and his conquest.

~

The General sat in her prison cell alone, a few hours away from her execution later in the morning. She knew that few of her soldiers had surrendered, and were in some cells further down the hall from her. The fenrirs that commandeered her home patrolled every part of the castle, with the prison being patrolled every quarter hour. There was no point in escaping as they were outnumbered and were too uniform in their schedules. And even if they weren’t, the fenrirs were stronger and faster anyway. They would’ve caught her quickly if she had.

She blamed herself for this tragedy, she had sent too many of her men out. But even then would that have mattered? The fenrirs onslaught was so quick that she didn’t have time to call orders. She should’ve prepared for an invasion when they said something was at the front gate. But because she didn’t, she now waited for her last meal and the last moment of her life. The moment she would face in shame the people she served for. She looked around the cell she was in, it was one of the few cells with a large sun/moon window to peer up at the sky high above her. There she could see the beautiful night sky Aurora Borealis, sadly thought the torches from the hall caused light pollution.

They used this cell for less arboreal or those that had a challenge climbing. She thought about how she imprisoned others in this very cell, with the irony of it being that she was in the cell, planned to be executed, with no way to exit.

“Guards!!” A voice called out, the General groaned at this already. That was of course Quake, from what she heard. She couldn’t see him from her cell. He had led the surrender of the few who had survived the attack, as much as she was surprised by how cowardly he was. What he was doing now was even worse. He was trying to get a plea bargain for himself.

“Guards, I have important information that would be of the most value to you, and its cost would only be that of my freedom!!” Quake yelled out, all the creatures in the prison groaned

“Can somebody make this creature stop!! He’s making me wish for death with how much he’s yelling.” A creature from a cell yelled.

“How could you be so selfish Quake!! How will you live with yourself planning to leave your kin to die while you tell our enemy whatever he wants.” A terror bird yelled out,

“Oh, it's not that bad of a feeling my friend. The act of survival is that of maintaining ONE’s existence. And if that means doing what is in one’s personal interest over others then that is what you do. You should’ve done the same thing. And of course, you still can, but I would be saying it for a lot longer than you by now and most likely I would be chosen over you.” He said, more creatures yelled out at his consistent noise. Including the other terror birds. Bickering and arguing. Yelling for the guards, and guards coming to end the commotion.

The general stayed quiet as the fenrirs came into the other cells to end their yelling.

“Unhand me you ice wolves!! I want to speak to your leader! I have valuable information!!” Quake squawked as the fenrirs escorted him, the general heard the set of doors used for the high-security area open and then close as they took him into higher security. The other creatures cheered as they did, with fenrirs trying to quiet down the inmates.

The general shook her head as she heard the pleas of Quake fade into the background. This was so like him to do this. Trying to play a major event to his advantage. About the same time The Five escaped, she began to hear rumors from other terror birds that one of the prisoners was missing and some had concluded with no proof that it happened during Quake’s patrol. They had even started saying that he had released an inmate without approval or consent. If that wasn’t enough, she found out that this was true, he hadn’t escaped but the door had been open with a key from the outside. At the time, it was a convict named Midnight, an assassin. She knew he was up to no good. But with no proof that it was him, she couldn’t do or say anything. But she did confront him about it.

~

“Was it you? Did you free that inmate?” The general asked, pointing her wing at Quake who stood in front of her. He acted as though he knew nothing. Just standing there smiling with charisma.

“I don’t know what you're talking about darling?! What inmate escaped the prison?” Quake asked, the General looked at him suspiciously, tapping her two claws on her one wing together.

“You know who I am talking about Quake, did you release the inmate that everyone’s talking about?!” the general said.

“I didn’t even know about an escaped prisoner, liege? Let alone release an inmate. I have been out on patrol. You would known if it was me. Something of great importance would’ve happened if I had, my hen.” Quake said smiling, the general glared at him.

“Quit doing that, and quit lying to me Quake!! You know something about this whole ordeal and I intend to find out what you know!! So as your commander in charge, I request, no. Demand you tell me what you know.” The General said, Quake started laughing when she said this.

“You are beginning to agitate me greatly, General. I told you I did not release Midnight, why can you not take my word to heart. And even if someone let out this inmate. Nothing happened by doing so. So either he learned the error of his way and has turned over a new leaf, or we’ll recapture him soon enough. If that is all you want, my lady. I will be returning to my post.” Quake said, the General frowned as she watched him smile at her and leave seemingly without a care in the world. She shook her head as he got out of earshot of her.

‘If he wasn’t involved or even knew of the prisoner’s escape, how did he know his name?’ She thought, her suspicions that he had something involved with the whole event seemed to be true. But with no proof, she couldn’t do anything about it without making a fool of herself to her commanders.

~

The general thoughts were broken when she heard a strange sound and felt a gust of wind blow through her feathers. She looked around the room to see nothing, then looked out towards the prison hall. But from her view, she could only see the few cells in front of her with the creatures inside, but heard the voices of the fenrirs and prisoners having verbal matches and possibly physical ones too.

“Pardon us, but we need to ask you several questions.” A voice whispered, almost disembodied coming from somewhere around her. It was masculine in tone, but light and kind in its way of speech. Having an unusual accent to go with it. The general looked around her cell once again, but again she saw nothing.

“Who’s there? Reveal who you are?!” She said aloud, as she looked around the hall, several prisoners looked at her in confusion. She felt another gust of wind blow against her face from the cell walls. But once again, saw nothing that could’ve caused it.

“Shhhhh… speak quietly. We don’t want to attract unwanted attention to this conversation we are having, then we would all be in trouble.” The voice said quietly again, the general raised her eyebrow.

“Brother, how was she supposed to know that? We just said we needed to ask her some questions.” Another voice said, again disembodied like the first. But this one was different. Its tone was feminine, and while light in its way of speech. It had more of a serious tone as she spoke. Having the same accent as the first.

“Fair point Shikaka.” The first voice said to the second quietly, “Terror Bird, could you, come out of the light from the hall. Please. It hurts our eyes to look into such concentrated light. Then can we ask you a few questions?” It continued, the general gave a suspicious glance into the cell and shook her head.

“Why should I? What even are you? I demand you to tell me before I do anything else.” The general whispered, her tone strong and very demanding of these two embodied voices.

“Please, we are not here to harm you. We just need to ask a question.” The second voice said,

“Shikaka? We need more than one question out of her.” The first voice said, then the general heard a strange, squeak coming from in front of her.

“Alucard, she doesn’t yet know why we are here. We should only ask one until we know who she is. If she gives us the answer we want, we will continue our discussion. If not, we will leave.” The second voice said, the general raised an eyebrow.

“Are you trying to say you need to know who I am?” The general replied in whispering.

“Not quite, we need to know if you are General Mithril of the Terror Bird Kingdom?” The first voice said,

“I am, why does this matter?” Mithril answered.

“ああ、よかった!彼女をここから連れ出す必要があります、アルカード!” The second voice said,

“はい、はい。私はシカカを知っています。しかし、私たち全員が出発する前に、彼女にいくつかの質問をしなければなりません。” The first one responded, Mithril was confused now at this.

“What is going on you two?” She asked quietly

“General, please enter the shadows. We need you to be less suspicious to the guards and the other prisoners, as we don’t want to draw attention to us three.” The second one said.

“Plus the torch lights are really hurting our eyes.” The first responded

“Brother…”

“It’s true though Shikaka.” The first one said,

“No brother, look above. The sun is coming sooner than we thought!” The second voice said quietly,

“Then we have no more time, we need you to come with us General.” The first voice said.

“What are you talking about? I can’t leave, and my execution isn’t until late morning.” Mithril whispered.

“If you were given the chance to be free and not die, would you take it?”

“Is that really a question? Yes, I would.” Mithril said. Suddenly Mithril felt something grab her and saw her feet leave the ground as she levitated towards the ceiling. She held her breath, hoping she wasn’t going to get caught. None of the fenrirs even noticed she was leaving with the prisoners starting a verbal riot. She let out a gasp in surprise and relief as she left the cell and levitated into the twilight sky.

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