the Trygvesson

Suddenly there was a great rumbling from further up the maze of frozen and molten corridors; a great explosion shook the cold room and from farther up a blast of heat burst therein. Fred was thrown into the ice- encapsulated warrior while the very stone walls were thrown into utter confusion. Rocks split open, icicles crashed to the floor, subthermal stalagtites careened through the ground and the walls seemed to waiver in mid-air. The whole structure seemed to be coming undone and Lord Fred of the Great Kingdom was unable to do anything.

A great opening was made where once there was ice-covered cobblestones and he fell, fell, fell; the very rocks and minerals about him seemed to melt and fuse in manners most unbefitting a stone room. Finally the knight stopped with a massive THUD! onto what appeared to be a field of breengrass.

~~Ohhhhhhh, my aching head!~~ thought Fred as he tried to stand and take in his surroundings. All he could manage was to prop up his body, but the sight that greeted his eyes amazed him: the field of breengrass was the far edge of a hill country and beyond that - maybe some two days distant, figured Fred - was the most awe-inspring castle he had ever seen. He remembered the runes he found in the upper caves, he knew they belonged to the Norma'ruchil, the dead language of the Trygvesson who were simply called the Ice People in the myths and legends told in the Great Kingdom.

Even as he looked upon the castle that seemed to be sculpted from the surrounding hills and ice, he realized he had a few problems. First, it was colder than hell, his cloak wasn't going to help him much down here, second he didn't know how in hell he got here except that he was positive he 'fell,' and three there were atleast four people looking at him from the base of the closest hills. To make things worse, they were headed his way.

Fred finally got on his own two wobbly feet but before he hobbled three meters the strangers were upon him. They didn't speak Fred's language but Fred tried to reason with them anyway. When he spoke his own mother tongue, three of the strangers didn't respond in any way, but the fourth backed off and stared. After some discussion the group stepped away from Fred and the fourth person, an aged man spoke - and he spoke in Fred's language!!!

"How come you here?" he began in halting tones. His mastery of Fred's language was not the best, but it was better than nothing. "We see you fly from Grey Heavens. You messenger?"

Fred din't know what they were talking about but atleast it seemed they didn't wish to kill him.

.

.

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side note: Far above, in what some called the Southern Mountains, some the Northern Mountains, and others simply called the Grey Heavens, there was a broken control panel in a rarely visited "volcano room," and on the floor of that room a pile of cow manure and a suicide note explaining how life as a pink and green cow was much worse than being a flower pot or a falling whale. At the bottom of the note was scrawled p.s. it said strangely enough: 'thanks for all the fish.'

1. He is helped along by the strangers and brought to a small village nestled in the hills.

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