“Where is he!” A voice shouted angrily as it crashed through into a room. He started gagging immediately. In the centre of the room there was a pile of mush. So battered it was nearly unrecognizable. But the smell. The smell gave it away.
“I kilt him,” replied a deep, solemn voice from the shadows.
“Siste, show yourself, tell me why you have done this atrocity,” Ond Tilhenger hissed.
“He sent Modig on a veyage to his death,” Siste barked, “I’m just showing him karma.”
9 months prior in Jossund, Norway
The hulking figure of the 6’5” Modig Reise plunged through the door of his local pub.
“Trikes, my friend! It’s been too long!” Modig greeted enthusiastically.
“Hey, hey, how have you been big man,” Trikes chortled.
“Good, how are you! What have you been up to?” Modig said.
“Good to hear you are good as usual, I’m good, Just been doing some business as usual. I have an offer for you.”
“Oh? What would that be my friend?”
“I have a cruise that will be going up trough the Nordic Sea, over aroond Iceland, back doon along the English coast, up past denmark, and return here. The full trip is scheduled to take a month with ideal conditions.”
“Sounds fun, how much would a trip like that cost though?”
“We haf a room free and with all the work you’f helped me with I tought I might do this as an extra little thank you.”
“When does it leave?”
“A week.”
The Sunday of the cruise rolled around fast. The ship towered in the sky, rocking violently in the sky, releasing a howling screech like the rabbits he hunted. The sky was an amalgamation of swirling black fury and explosions of thunder. As Modig walked up the stairs to the ship Trikes waved him off, His insidious, wicked smirk, masked by the ruse of his friendly smile.
Modig’s Journal:
I’m three days into my journey now. It is amazing, they have a launch pad out of the hull for jet skis, a massive pool, they even have a cinema! I have had a strange feeling though. During the day everything is normal, but at night, I hear voices through the air duct. I can’t make out very well what they’re saying, but I’ve heard my name, and something about a fight, to stupid and something else to save myself, something about poison. Beyond that though, I also hear and feel a rumbling of sorts. More than what I’ve experienced in the past on the trade routes. Sometimes, when I look out my window at night, I can see a dark line twisting around under the ship, with a solid edge transitioning back to the lighter water around it.
Modig’s Journal:
I’m not feeling very good, my premonition that something was wrong came all to true. Jörmangandr attacked yesterday, 6 days into the trip. He rose from the depths like a living hurricane. Sending out tsunamis hundreds, if not thousands of feet tall. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but I managed to climb onto its head. Its eyes were as wide as three men are tall and radiated a violent red light. Its teeth were a story tall, and dripped with purple fluid so dark it was almost black, and a crimson-violet vapour seeped out between them. Scute the size of chest plates lined its body, each one a pentagon, ending in one sharp serrated point. At the base of its head on either side of its great body lay lines of gills, spanning a hundred feet down the length of its body and spacious enough to fit a bus. A forest of five foot tall cilia surrounded me, and the rest of its body from what I can see now. At that moment I knew I had to kill it. I crawled through its nose, and took my hatchet and cut, sliced, and brawled my way through the brain stem, its blood raining down on my arm, then I put a grenade in its brain and ran. I narrowly managed to jump into the ocean before the grenade went off, killing Jörmangandr. I managed to find a bit of wreckage from the cruise ship, by some miracle. I’m not sure how much longer I will be alive, the blood was corrosive, leaving my muscle and bone exposed. I can hardly breathe, the vapour wove its way into my lungs and is strangling me from the inside. The water is freezing, I can see my breath. I hope and pray my apprentice may continue on and lead my legacy. I de kaldeste stormene, og den varmeste solen. Måtte sjelen min fortsette. La meg se valhallas gyldne lys, og vite at jeg lyktes.*
“You see now Ond.” The cold voice of Siste.
“You’re a monster! You’re no better than him!” Bellowed Ond Tilhenger
“Why? Because I killed him? He sent his childhood best friend on a voyage of death. Awoke a being stronger than the gods that would’ve destroyed everything and everyone on this planet, and you have the audacity to say I’m as bad as him because I ended his reign of terror!” Siste yelled with ferocity enough to make the gods tremble,” I suggest you leave before you end up as your boss has.”
*Translation: In the coldest storms, and the hottest sun. May my soul continue on. Let me see the golden light of Valhalla, and know that I succeeded.
