ISMUND

  Balder took one last bite from his birthday cake before immediately looking at the gifts sitting on the kitchen counter.

  “Can I open them now?”

  “Couldn’t you wait for us to finish our cake too.” Mum said admonishingly.

  My brother’s shiny eyes stared at her cake as she ate it, “Okay, but only if you do it quickly.”

  You should be excited I’ve got just the thing for you, goofball.

  Leif elbowed mom in the ribs playfully, “Well, since you did such a great job this year, shouldn’t be too hard to eat it all.” He turned his attention back to Balder, “Well, do you want a hint while you wait?”

  Balder balled up his fists excitedly, “Yes!”

  I grinned, knowingly.

  I don’t think you’ll be as excited when you open it. At least not a few weeks later.

  “Well,” Dad began, “You probably won’t remember, but it’s the same thing you’re older brother got for his twelfth birthday. You would’ve been…” he counted off on his fingers, “Four!”

  Balder leaned back in shock grabbing a fist full of his black hair, “No way I can remember that! You have to give me something.

  Ismund,” he turned towards me with wide eyes, “You must be ancient if what dad said is true. Do you even remember what you got?”

  I just shrugged with a broad smile painting my face.

  “Please?” he said clasping his hands together.

  Mum waved her fork at him, “Well, Balder, if you asked nicely he might tell you. Also, keep in mind, there’s people even older than Ismund here. If he’s ancient,” she raised an eyebrow, “what am I?”

  He seemed lost for words, “Well… uh, you’re done your cake. Get the presents!” He raised his arm and pointed at all three of them like a commander leading his army.

  “Okay, okay. Hold on sweetie.”

  Pushing her long braid out of the way, Hestia walked over to the presents and carefully gathered all three in her arms but as she walked back she lost her footing.

  Vvvvvvmmmmm…

  The table I was holding, the wood chair I was sitting on and the dishes vibrated making worrying clanking noises.

  Hopefully they don’t break. They were expensive.

  “Mom!”

  Balder rushed over to help her… and the presents on the ground.

  I looked at dad sharply.

  “What is it?”

  I don’t think a storm would mess with the house. Maybe… well, no. There aren’t any trees in the area.

  He spoke in a low voice, clearly trying to hide our conversation from Balder, “I’m not sure.”

  He stood up as well and grabbed his things: heavy armor made from monster leather layered on thick padding, a metal helmet, a few other odds and ends like gloves, a spare knife strapped to his thigh, and his favorite, giant hammer.

  I don’t think it warrants his hammer. We’re just checking outside, it’s not like you can fight an earthquake.

  The System interrupted my thoughts.

  [This is not an earthquake.]

  What is it then?

  I was met with silence. Despite my ignorance, I didn’t spare another moment and headed right for the door. I was met with a blast of cold air and thick snow obscured my vision. I looked down at the large footprints ahead of me.

  Straight.

  The snow was almost unbearably deep, but I was just able to march through it. After a while, I could tell that I was pretty far behind. I was already going fast, but I picked up my pace.

  I’m probably losing ground on him. He’s able to walk through the snow like it’s not even there. Maybe he knows what it is?

  After a few minutes of walking with the tremors rocking the ground making me stumble, I finally found his still silhouette looking up into the blizzard.

  I don’t see anything.

  Another vibration racked the ground, the sound rolling through the air in deep resonant waves. I could feel it through my chest down to my bone marrow.

  BOOoOoom.

  A cloud of snow exploded in front of us. As it parted, I saw a giant leathery foot with plenty of thick fur wrapping around its ankle emerging. I could only see up to its knee due to its extreme size and the density of the snow all around. There was a gap of nothing but snow, but at the top, If I looked way up, I could see some massive glowing eyes staring down at us with a soulless gaze.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Dad didn’t take a single step back, but he did look at me with his piercing blue eyes, and black hair whipping around his head.

  “Go to the southern town. Leave with your mother and Balder. ”

  I grunted and pinched my brows together with a grimace. He probably couldn’t hear me over the wind, but leaving was answer enough.

  He’ll beat it and we’ll meet after. Or maybe he’ll scare it off. That’s more realistic. There’s some other Hunters in the town that could help him with it, a lot actually.

  I took one last look behind me as I left. He had jumped up and was slamming his massive metal hammer into the back of the creature’s knee.

  I resumed my pace and tore across the ground toward the house. As I neared ours, I could see people scrambling about shouts piercing what would’ve been a peaceful night. Some were heading straight for the monster, like Dad, and others were collecting their things to leave. The snow was picking up, already covering my old tracks. It was piling up by the second and it wasn’t getting any easier to get through. Now that they were fighting, the monster was making all sorts of debris fly and it was getting worse by the moment. When the house was back in sight pieces of ice and stone were flying all around. I ran up to the door. The snow was up to the handle and I couldn’t open it.

  I’ll try the window.

  Climbed over to one nearby, unlatched it and tumbled into the house. I hit my knee on the hard counter sending shocks of pain up my leg.

  “We have to leave, now! We’re going to the southern town. Hop in the dog sled.”

  The town will probably be wrecked. I don’t know that we’ll come back.

  I just hoped they heard, they were probably in the basement. It was pretty safe down there. I climbed back out the window I came from.

  Ah, right.

  I spun around.

  “Use the windows!”

  After that, I headed straight over to the dog house where there was lots of loud barking and whining. There was a large stone lodged in its now caved-in wall. As soon as I got inside I saw Gibson, one of the dogs, was dead already. His head was crushed under the boulder. His body was still spasaming despite that. I fought back some tears for him as my face screwed up. Still, I made sure the rest of the dogs were out along with the dog sled. We needed to leave.

  Bear and Coco were ready to lead the team already and everything was secured correctly. We were all just waiting on Mum and Balder. Time slowly, oh so slowly, ticked on as I waited for them. I was impatiently looking around and double-checking the dogs were strapped in.

  Where are they? Should I go i—

  Finally, I saw Balder run over with his thick coat wrapped tightly around him, he was holding a backpack.

  “I’ll take that. You get in.”, I told him.

  I waited impatiently for a while longer but mum was still missing.

  Crash!

  A giant boulder smashed into the side of our house caving it in. Splinters of wood flung everywhere and our chimney collapsed

  I looked pointedly at Balder.

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know!” he looked at the house nervously, “She was trying to open the floorboards or something last I saw. She should be out any time!”

  Balder was right, she was out soon. She was bruised and came hurtling through the snow with a handsome box tucked tightly under the crook of her arm. We could leave soon.

  Just a few more seconds. Then we can leave before something else happens.

  I glanced at the crushed dog house and then back in her direction. Her foot caught on her skirt and she tripped. She didn’t move her hands to catch herself, opting to hold onto the box. She got up again wincing and kept jogging forward.

  Just a little faster! Please.

  Mum smiled at us and waved with her one free hand. Another massive boulder flew through the sky and slammed into her shoulder.

  Splat

  It only lost its momentum once it filled her broken ribcage instead of her organs.

  I rushed over to her, abandoning the sled, and Balder’s shaking hand clutching my sleeve. Once we were beside her I gave her a carefull look over. The light was gone from her eyes, her torso was completely destroyed, the snow around her was rapidly turning crimson: she was dead.

  Tears streamed down my face as I looked over to sweet Balder show was trying to reassure her broken body.

  “Mom! Are you okay?” He was holding her rapidly cooling hand tightly as he kneeled down, “We’ll make you all better. Just, just… we’ll get you in the sled and once you’re in the town you’ll be all fixed!”

  His eyes were glazed over as he said all of this looking around frantically. His eyes landed on the boulder.

  “I’ll get this off of you first.”, Balder said between choking sobs, not fully comprehending the situation.

  He stood up on shaky legs and started to try to roll the boulder off of her. It was… I didn’t have words for it.

  I grabbed his shoulder.

  “Stop, please, stop.” I took a deep breath, “She’s gone, Balder.” I looked down at the box in front of her and grabbed it. I didn’t know what it was, but she obviously cared about it. My hands were shaking so badly it was hard to hold it. I placed my free hand on his shoulder and tried to look him in his watery eyes. He wouldn’t meet mine.

  Balder looked back at me stricken and looked like he didn’t fully understand.

  “She can see a doctor and it’ll all be bett-”

  I cut him off and shook him lightly.

  “We have to go now! We can say bye to her later… when we come back.”

  I can’t stay here and let him get killed too.

  Balder wasn’t moving and another chunk of ice slammed right next to the sled making the dogs jump and bark even louder. A few growled at the ice.

  Seeing no other options, I dragged Balder over to the sled and shoved him inside. He didn’t have any cold resistance yet, he needed to be in the passenger seat with the blanket. It would also be good for him to not stare at mum's... corpse. It was still sinking in for me too.

  “Mush!”

  The dogs sprinted ahead into the encroaching night and icy snowflakes.

  Balder was crying now, burying his head in his arms. I didn’t know how to comfort him. I was having a hard enough time myself. Silent tears painted my face as I thought about her. She was so lovely, kind, considerate, and had a good head on her shoulders too. Hours went by and eventually, I couldn’t see my hands in front of me. I didn’t see any time when I’d see her again in the future either. Not while I’m alive at least.

  * * *

  Balder yelled something over to me, but it was lost to the harsh wind.

  “What?” I croaked over the wind.

  “I said, how much longer do you think the team can go? They’ve been running for so long. Do they know where we’re going? There isn’t anything you can really see or smell to know where you are.”

  We’re probably lost… he’s right. They also probably need a break.

  “Woah!”, I commanded the dogs to stop. It took a few tries with them being so jittery but eventually the sled came to a halt.

  “… maybe the storm will pass over,” I mumbled to myself.

  I waited for a few hours and made sure I had the box Mum had securely in our leather backpack, but the storm didn’t get any better, the dogs were still high strung and Balder was shivering.

  We need to keep going.

  “Mush!”

  We jerked forward again and we were going a bit faster than they were before they took a break. We kept covering the ground for another hour or so. Suddenly I heard Coco and Bear barking and whining as the sled slowed down. It didn’t stop completely thought.

  What’s happening?

  We continued sliding forward and more and more of the dogs started yapping their hearts out. Finally, I felt the sled tilt forward and found out what the ruckus was all about. We were on the edge of a cliff.

  I noticed too late. I reached forward to try to pull Balder out but we still fell. I heard the dogs smack against the stone. I was flung forward and Balder was sent back towards the cliff face with a sickening thud.

  I was hurtling through the air with all the snow stinging against my face painfully until a loud crack of ice filled the air and I was underneath a frozen river’s surface.

  Everything went black.