Chapter - 12

Spending the day with Asta was one of my few moments of pure peace and tranquility, it was one of the only things I had come to look forward to. Five days had passed since Asta and I spent the day in the forest. Those five days went by normally, just as they had done before I had killed the alpha dragon, my father and I would work the fishing nets during the day and Asta would help us where ever she could. Asta and I hadn't been able to see much of each other after being in the forest that day. The days were peaceful and quiet and I felt relieved that the stress of battle, the fear of it was now gone and everything was back to normal but every night as I laid in my bed, staring at the ceiling above me I couldn't help but feel that deep down I had a sort of longing... longing to feel the rush of battle once more.

My father and I began our walk towards the docks, no words were said and the air felt colder, it felt as if the world were holding its breath for some reason. We loaded the fresh fishing nets into the boat and pushed off heading towards the nets we had set out the day before. It was late spring now, and we were expecting a great yield today, the conditions were perfect and signs of the school of fish were everywhere, but as we were pulling in the nets all we got was small cod. "Somethings wrong." my father said breaking the long silence that had been around all morning. "there should be more. Its late spring we should be catching entire schools. I have a bad feeling..." as my father said this I felt the hairs on the back of my neck begin to stand. I felt myself become slightly anxious after that, "We still have two more nets father. There is still some hope." I said trying to reassure him. He started out into the open ocean, the water seemed to be calm, far to calm and the grey clouds above made the waters turn a dark shade of grey as well. I still felt as if the world were holding its breath, the thought darted around in my mind for a while, I was beginning to panic slightly but I didn't let it show through. We were halfway to the third net we had set out, I grabbed the edge of it and began to pull it in slowly, my father's gaze was watching with a cold expression on his face. The net felt light, far to light to be a good haul, the net was halfway on board when my father suddenly crouched down next to my ear and whispered: "Son, drop the net slowly..." I held the net in my hand and looked at my father, my face filled with confusion, "Is there something wrong fa-" he cut me off by placing his hand over my mouth. He leaned in closer to my ear and said "He is out there son. The beast has returned " my heart began to thump in my chest, I've never seen my father with such a cold expression before, it was a mix of fear and hatred, "Vuldrag." as soon as that name passed through my father's lips my heart stopped.

I dropped the net slowly and allowed it to slide back into the water, my mind was racing and I did not know what to think, my body moved on its own. As the last bit of the net slid into the water I turned to face my father, his eyes still fixated on where the net was once laid out, "How do you know father, where is it?" I asked in a faint whisper "He is staring right at us son, look behind you and focus your eyes far in the distance." I turned to face the direction my father had told me too, and I squinted my eyes slightly. That's when I saw it, two small almost invisible dots of green and red. The small dots glowed like a fire burning on the water, they did not move, but the sight of them sent fear through my body. With every second staring at those faint dots, I could feel myself being more and more consumed by fear. Questions raced through my mind, why did this thing have the same color eyes as I do? Why hadn't it come any closer? Why was it back? I had no answers to those questions, but I had only one thing to ask my father. "What should we do father?" He never looked away from those two dots, and as I turned to face him I could see his eyes had a small stream of tears falling from them, I saw pure hatred, longing, and most of all sadness. "Start rowing back to shore son. I must talk to the chief," he said, his voice was still cold and filled with pain and sorrow. I glanced back to those two bright lights just above the surface of the water before grabbing the oars and rowing back to shore.

As I rowed back to shore I began to think of what I had just seen, that thing took my mother from me, that thing has caused so much pain for my father... As I rowed back to shore that day I made a silent vow to Odin. I will have my revenge, I shall make you pay one day... my mother's death will be avenged.