Chapter 1: Dakota
I woke in a mushy field, the ground soft under my body and the rain fell along my body. It took a few moments for me to come back to myself, to realize that I was still human to open my eyes and figure out what is around me. The last thing I remember I was in New Orleans, having fun in Mardi Gras, and the place that I'm in right now... Yeah, this isn't New Orleans.
I can remember being at a street party and being led to a parlor of the "lady of the night" for a seance. I have no idea whom we might be contacting or whom we might pull back from "the beyond" but I never thought that it would end with me being here. I don't even know what was under me, but it squished when I moved, making my skin crawl.
"Just go babe, it'll be fun!" Jennifer shrieked.
"Talk to your brother, you know you want to!" Bambi whined
"You know you want to know if there's more to life than just this, do this!" Stefani cried out
And after that moment, here I was, flat on my back in a hellscape that only the worst of the world could imagine, a lake of literal hellfire next to me and bodies of all kinds around me. I had no weapons, not even a stick to my name, and the battle was still raging around me. I had no idea how I got here, and I had no idea what to do. Who is that?
I saw a figure running at me.
She landed on top of me with the weight of an entire freight train, no possible moving, not even a thought about it. Her wings flared out, and she stared down at me. Her eyes widened as I looked out at her wings, all feathers and golden outlines. She screamed down at me, in a language I didn't understand, and gave me all of her rages, screaming with drool dripping from her lips, screaming that I should know that I couldn't understand, but then she changed languages and I could understand her.
"How are you here?" "Why are you here?" "How can you be in this place?"
"I don't know!!" I screamed, "I have no idea where I am or how I got here!"
A sword across my neck made me shiver. There was nothing I could do but stay still.
"Explain yourself or die, mortal! Your blood will feed the machine that keeps us moving forward! How did you get here and why are you in this realm? Why are you in this place to deal with this situation?" she screamed in my face
"Get the fuck off of me, you psychotic battle angel! I don't know what's going on or where I am and you threatening to kill me unless you get answers that I don't have isn't helping anything! The last thing I knew I was in New Orleans, attending some fake seance in a fake psychic's parlor... and then I woke up here and you jumped on top of me!"
She pulled the sword from my neck and sat back on her knees, looking at me. She just looked at me and furrowed her brow, she took a moment and then stabbed her sword into the ground next to us. Her wings folded back and she crossed her arms over her chest, scanning the surrounding area before looking back down at me, looking very confused and wary. At that point, I realized while looking at her that the rain wasn't just rain as I watched it run down her pale face, it was blood. It was raining blood!
I sat up to my elbows and looked around at the scene that greeted me. There was a lake of fire that roiled and flared to my left, a set of mountains off to my right that looked like jagged shark's teeth, and behind, no, all around this woman sitting on my hips, I could see a massive battle going on. It looked like a medieval battle with everyone fighting hand to hand. I looked back at her, bewildered and very nervous all of a sudden. I had no way to navigate this place or get through the battle, I knew for a fact that I would die.
"Ok, I think there's been a big mistake here. I have no combat experience, the most I've ever done was to get a basic lesson from the blacksmith guy at the Ren Fair on using a sword for a blowjob after hours. If I even try I'll be dead before I get to swing!"
I was panicking and I knew it. Her face was streaked with blood and sweat and her hair was hanging limply as if she had been in the most devastating fight of her life, she was sitting on top of me and had a sword to my throat a moment ago, but she looked calm and cool as she looked around. When I looked into her cold grey eyes, I knew that I was safe. She could have killed me, but she didn't, at least not yet.
"What's your name, mortal? Be quick with it! I don't have time for you and you sure as the hell we're in right now you shouldn't be here, so come out with it and do it now!" she snarled at me
"I'm Kota, Dakota. I'm just a girl from New Orleans that works at a Renaissance fair and I have no idea what's going on or where I am. I shouldn't be here, I'm not supposed to be here, hell I don't even know where here is!"
"You don't know, do you, you don't have a clue where you are?"
I held my hands in front of my face, in her view. "I don't even have fingernails to scratch you, I have no weapons of any kind, and have no idea how to hurt anyone stronger than a glass of wine!" I screamed at her
"I'm trusting you, stay with me."
With that she vaulted off of me and snagged her sword, she didn't wait, just grabbed my wrist and hauled me to my feet. I stumbled behind her and was slammed into a rocky cliff wall when she stopped and looked into my eyes. "Do not move", she snarled at me and stalked away to take down almost a dozen attackers with a grace that made a ballerina cower in shame. When she returned I was awestruck and unable to speak.
"It's rare, but it's not unheard of that humans are sent to this realm. Normally, they are ready for it but sometimes they are being punished in ways they can't even understand; we need to figure you out and quickly. If we don't, you're dead and you're going to take me with you, and I can't have that."
She sheathed her sword and started walking away, glancing over her shoulder at me but never stopping. I followed along quickly and kept pace as she headed for the lake of fire.
"This is Chaumala, a hellscape realm of eternal battle. Normally it's reserved for those who have committed atrocities in battle or champions who crave battle more than the rest of life. You're clearly no warrior with how you reacted to me taking down those fighters back there so I need to know what you did to get sent here as a punishment. And before you say 'nothing' just know that I've been here for a very long time and know exactly how this realm works. People don't just get here by accident."
"And which one are you? Did you commit atrocities or are you a champion? And what makes you think I did something that I'm being punished for? And what in the hell universe has a hellscape that's one eternal battleground?!" my voice rose with each question
"Settle down little Princess, that's a lot of questions when we're literally in the middle of a battle to the death here. See that lake over there, it's not full of cotton candy, it's hellfire and it doesn't just burn, it's hot enough to melt steel. Grab that sword over there, don't worry he's dead he doesn't need it anymore. Now, we'll get you another one in a minute but I want you to hold that sword in the lake." she said dryly
I took the sword and walked to the edge of the lake, the heat already enough to feel as though it would burn me, and plunged the blade in. Almost immediately I saw the steel start to glow and the metal was soft and melty in moments. I dropped it when the handle started to burn my hand and it vanished into the fire. I spun around and faced her and my jaw dropped as I looked at my hand, still feeling the heat of the handle.
"Wait, that's real fucking fire and it really can melt steel?!"
"Hellfire, and yes, it can. So you need to be careful where you walk and keep your eyes open, it's not just the people with weapons that want to kill you out here in the Killing Fields. Now, tell me you can at least use a sword or this is going to get messy fast."
My arms shot straight down to my sides as I raised my chin and glared at her defiantly.
"I can use a damn sword, ok?! I learned the basics from a Knight at the Fair!" I seethed clenching my fists.
"Good, you might not die in your first fight then. Now, pick up that guy's sword next to you, and let's get moving. We have a long way to go if we want to get out of the Fields and it's not going to be an easy trip. If you see anything you want or need on these dead fuckers, grab it but be quick, getting caught with your ass in the air out here is a bad idea."
She turned on her heel and stalked off away from me without another word. I ran to the nearest body and grabbed his sword, a medium length close to what I had been taught and all of the gear that I could manage. After all, when I got here I was in yoga pants and a crop top and that wasn't going to do anything in a fight, let alone against a sword... or worse.
When I looked up I got my first real look at her, and it was a huge shock. She was tall and stacked with muscle, she looked like a Goddess. She had voluptuous curves that just begged for my eyes to follow them. Her hair was blonde and braided down her back, when she turned around her chocolate eyes sparkled and drew me in. She wore black leather armor, almost like a corset on her chest, and leather pants that looked to be padded on her upper thighs even though I couldn't figure out why. And her ass as her hips swayed while she walked away, was divine, she could probably break rocks just by dropping down onto them! Her torso armor was studded with metal plates in what I guessed were strategic places to keep her safe from swords and gleamed in the light.
Holy shit, this woman is a warrior and a damn Goddess, she's ripped with muscle and moves like she was born with a sword in her hand, how can I ever hope to stay alive let alone keep up with her?! She moves like she's dancing, I can barely swing a sword and stay on my feet... how do I get through this and not get both of us killed?!
"Wait up, I'm coming right behind you! Don't leave me here, I don't know where I am or where to go!" I screamed
I ran behind her and she barely looked over her shoulder at me when I joined her and simply kept on walking towards the mountains. My gear slapped against my body as I moved and looked at the horizon. I still felt like I was way too exposed in this place, but it was a good start.
"Keep up little Princess, we have a long way to go and there's going to be a lot more fighting before we get there. If you want to get through this and get to Turora, we're going to have to get a move on."
My hands clenched into fists at my sides but I just kept walking beside her, trying to watch everything but spellbound by the sheer amazing sights I was seeing. The lake of fire, the mountains and forest in the distance, the burning light of a city far beyond us that called like a torch in the darkness. It was all so much to take in and I was dumbfounded until Fridana screamed at me to get down! She threw me to the ground and I stumbled in the dirt.
Three, well... beings barreled down on us as I looked back up behind me. The first was a hulking brute in every sense of the word, over 7 feet tall, and had muscles on top of muscles. He wore only a fur loincloth that barely covered him, his monstrous cock was already hard and drew my eyes away from the rest of his body. He carried a huge two-bladed axe that he wielded like it weighed nothing, swinging it around and not caring if he hit his companions or not. He wasn't exactly fast, but when he swung at Fridana and missed, connecting with one of his friends he nearly cut him in half with the force of his swing. The other, which was still alive, carried a whip spiked with barbs and what looked like sharp blades, he wielded it like it was an extension of his arm.
He stepped back and started cracking the whip over all our heads, his leather tunic flexing in the light. When the whip came down at me, I screamed and rolled as it struck the dirt where I had just been. The very end of the whip caught me and I barely felt it as the barb buried itself into my hip. I was stuck, pinned by his whip and I didn't even have a clue what to do!
"Help me! What do I do? Do I...." the question died in my throat when Fridana screamed at me
"Cut it and pull it out, it's your only chance! It's poisoned, you'll die! Push the barb through and rip it out of you!"
I blinked and swung my sword at the whip that was embedded in my hip, cutting it cleanly and sending a shock down through my arm that sent it to nearly being useless. I cried out and kept rolling away, grasping my hip and pushing the burning hook through my skin. It burned like fire tearing through my flesh, but I drove it out of me and grabbed my hip trying to staunch the blood flow.
*You're mine!" I say, and a voice that is not my own comes out of my throat. The scream came from my throat but had a power that I didn't know existed. It sizzled around me and my whole body seemed to shimmer, I moved and it was a moment of total white. I just stopped and froze as Fridana looked at me. I looked down and realized that my sword was buried to the hilt in the man's chest, his eyes were wide and his mouth hung open.
She recognized that I had stabbed the man before me. She balked, froze, and didn't move as she looked at me. She took a step back and surveyed the scene, her eyes were glassy and lit up with hellfire. The momentary gaze she dropped on me liquified my insides, it was as if her face was death itself and I was merely in her presence, she turned and the whole world seemed to freeze upon her. Wings came out of her back and the entire world glowed a brilliant, shimmering gold.
"You have been chosen, warrior, come with me. I will lead you to the mead halls of Valhalla," she said to the man in front of me.
The world went white, I don't know what happened. But I know that the world stopped and it froze for a moment. Nothing existed for a moment and I blinked out. The next moment I looked up, the man's guts were lying on the ground and he was falling to his knees, it was as if someone pushed them out from behind him. The sword slipped out as he fell backward with a squelching sound.
"First lesson, Princess, cut them in the soft places, it does more damage. Now keep up or I'll leave you for them to finish off!!" she screamed as she ran off.
I caught up to her and breathlessly asked the question on my lips.
"What the holy fuck was that? What did you do to him and how are we alive?" I screamed
"Oh my dear little Princess, you didn't realize by now that I'm a Valkyrie? That I send the souls of those who die valiantly in battle to Valhalla, to sit at Odin's table in the mead hall and live out their days in peace as they retell the glory of their battles? As you put it so well earlier, a "psychotic battle angel?"
"Wait, no... those are just fiction... right?" I croaked out
"No, Princess, I am very much real and so are my sisters."
"So you sent him to Valhalla, even though he tried to kill you?"
"I could have, but no. I sent him to Hel, the real one. I don't know what Gods you pray to, but always pray that you never see that place. It makes this look like a playground."
And then he walked through the smoke... massive was an understatement. This "man" was almost 7 feet tall and wrapped in muscle like a cloak. The light that came off of him was pitch black, it smelled of sulfur and it poured into my body. When he moved, my body moved. Tentacles ripped from his body and made holes in his enemies. Even though he was surrounded, I could tell that he was easily capable of handling the entire crowd around him and then some. Swords glanced off him and arrows were buried into his body but he seemed completely unfazed.