Chapter 2: Hoofbeats and Footsteps

I woke up to the face of the girl I had rescued looking down at me with consternation, her straight blonde hair like a golden curtain shading me from the sun above. My head was in her lap, my shirt was unbuttoned and her hand was on my bare chest, specifically near my heart.

This was incredibly awkward. The girl thought so too, she quickly withdrew her hand, her cheeks tinged pink.

I had felt the girl's mortification- how, I did not know. I smiled up at her, hoping that she would stop panicking inside her mind.

Her thigh muscles lost much of their tension and she smiled back shyly, though her eyes still refused to meet mine.

Wait. Didn't this girl have arrows sticking out of her? In my worry, I stood up far too quickly- that was a mistake. My world spun something fierce. Thankfully, I didn't embarrass myself by collapsing.

"The arrows." I pointed to her back, where there was a distinct lack of arrows. "You were hurt. What happened?" I wanted to know how the girl had lived while having holes in her back.

She shrugged and shook her head to what I assumed meant that she didn't know.

I stood up and walked behind her, her eyes surreptitiously following me from beneath her locks. Her gown had splotches of dried blood in places the arrows had hit, but aside from some torn cloth there were no entry wounds. Curious. I'm willing to bet that the glowing worm had something to do with it. Extremely likely, even.

I sighed. For now, all I could do was go with the flow and figure out where the fuck we were and then get to a shelter or the nearest civilization.

We were in a field of grass- tall grass, short grass, and some yellow grass here and there, a few bushes and rocks too. Steppes? Was that what this form of biome was called? Yes. Steppes, I think.

Far and wide, did this wild land spread out. No sign of water, human civilization or civilization of any kind, could be glimpsed. The sun was hot and my pants were crawling with ants, which I took off and dusted while my companion looked away.

All in all, I was not a happy man- not at all. The only bright side was that we were alive.

"So." I looked down at the girl. "Do you know where we are?"

The girl shook her head and looked down at the ground.

Okay. "Don't worry, we'll find our way, somehow." She looked up at me and nodded.

"My name's Damian, by the way. What's yours?" She twisted her fingers and shifted from one foot to the other. After a few awkward moments of opening and closing her mouth, she spoke, "Y- Ym- Ymir."

Either the girl was unused to speaking or had some form of speech impediment, because her voice cracked horribly.

I placed a reassuring hand on her bony shoulder. "That's a very nice name, Ymir."

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A shiver ran through Ymir's body, and try as she might, she could not help but smile at her saviour. His hands were warm and safe. He was handsome too, more than some men she had seen in her homeland, and well endowed, from what little she had peeked. Heat crept into her belly.

Caring, patient, and safe. A part of her wished he never took that hand away-

She shook herself of those desires. No. A slave like her should never have wishes of her own, it always ends badly. Damian- and what a unique name that was- could touch her as he wished. She was his after all, wasn't she? He had saved her from that nightmare. Brought her with him. Took her away from her cruel tormentors. Yes. She was his.

Her name being spoken by her new master, brought her out of her daydreams.

__________________

"Ymir?" She blinked and cocked her head. I sighed internally and repeated my inquiry. "I wanted to know why those men wished to kill you and who they were, for that matter."

"El- Eldians. Y-Ymir slave. Dis- disobey. R- run a- away." My eyes hardened. A slave. They were her masters. She ran away and they hunted her down, made a sport out of it. Bloody mongrels!

"It's okay, you're with me now. I won't let them take you," I reached out to wipe her tears away.

The moment I touched her cheek, I was assaulted by visions and images. Thoughts and feelings. Memories upon memories. I saw Ymir. I saw her earliest memories, her life as it was before the Eldian tribe came to enslave her and her village. I felt her fear, despair and her pain. I felt the bloody blade that took her tongue.

At the end of it all, I was left reeling from the impromptu acid trip.

What the fuck? I slowly withdrew my hand, closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

What the fuck did I just see? More than that, I wondered how? It was fantastical, but no less unnerving. How was it possible to see someone's life pass by and sense their emotions and thoughts?

I did not know how to even begin processing this magic, psychic bullshit, so I decided to shelf it for the time being.

My phone was no longer in my possession and without any signs or stars to guide, I chose a random direction and began walking. "This way, Ymir." Ymir followed.

It was an uneventful trek, really. Grass plains, shrubs, and rocks as far as the eye could see. Some rocks I stored in my pockets to use as a last resort in case it all went tits up.

For what could've been an hour, we walked east. Not a single stream or lake to be seen, not many animals either- bugs did not count.

I was not one for dropping down to my knees and wailing in despair, but even I had my limits. I didn't know how far we could push ourselves without water and food, I imagine not more than a few days at most.

Exhaustion was beginning to set in when we came across a two metre wide dirt trail.

A road! A primitive one, but a road regardless. That meant civilization was close by. I sighed in relief. All we needed to do was follow the trail.

For obvious reasons, I was cautious enough not to risk both of us being seen by whoever frequented this path. I told Ymir to hide in the waves of tall grass if someone passed through. At least one of us could run or stay hidden until the coast was clear and the danger had passed. It would suck if the people were assholes and both of us were captured... or worse.

Ymir squeezed my forearm, her tense expression conveyed her reluctance. The blonde strongly disagreed with me being the bait. In fact, she was downright terrified of losing me, the magical link between us shuddered in tandem with her emotions.

Her hair whipped as she shook her head when I tried to make her listen to reason. Ymir was adamant and dead set on staying by my side.

"Together," she said, looking fiercely into my eyes.

"Together," I forced myself to nod.

I walked ahead, and she trailed close behind. The dirt path winded and twisted and then went up a gentle slope only to level out once more.

It was after half an hour of walking, that we saw a cloud of dust rising ahead and heard the sound of multiple hoofbeats coming our way.

I cursed under my breath. Fuck. Just what we needed. A horde of riders. We did not have to wait long for the party to arrive, I could only hope that these people weren't as terrible as the last.

I was wrong, of course, on both counts. It wasn't a horde of riders but a scouting party of leather-vested, nasty looking men with long, thin moustaches and tinkling bells in their braids.

They had seen us and now I dearly wished they hadn't. The flash of the wicked, curved scimitars on their hips and the quiver on their horses' flanks made it clear who they were.

Plain grasslands, brown-skinned, nomadic-looking horse riders wielding curved scimitars, and long braids with bells in them?

A pit of dread opened up in my stomach.

We had landed ourselves in the festering, mold-encrusted shithole of A Song of Ice and Fire. And not only that! No sir! We arrived in the Dothraki Sea of all places! Home to the bad parody of the Mongols- the Dothraki. Rapists, murderers that killed each other at the drop of a hat, and bona-fide slave suppliers.

Was it rotten luck? Fuck if I knew.

Ymir whimpered and clenched the back of my shirt. If the situation wasn't as dire, I'd turn around and give this foolish girl a big, fat, scathing glare. This was exactly what I had feared, come to life in the worst of ways!

The riders tugged their reigns and stopped for a while, assessing us both. There were twelve of them, which to me felt like a high number for a scouting party and too low for a proper raiding party or a khalasar. Some of them were just kids, barely twelve with boyish faces.

I palmed the sharp rock that I had discreetly taken out of my pocket. One of the kids suddenly moved and my danger sense spiked red. I twisted my neck away to the left, the very next moment came the unmistakable whoosh of an arrow.

Did that kid just try to fucking kill me?! That little piece of shit! The adrenaline that was coursing through my veins now fueled my rage instead of anxiety.

The boy, shocked by my evasion, scowled and took out another arrow, aiming once more. This only fanned the flames of my fury.

Darker Red gathered at the edge of my vision, the air crackled and popped. The rock in my palm grew warmer and I felt an obscene strength enter my throwing arm. I could nearly feel the pores of the rock close as its surface heated up to bright, nearly molten red. I did not feel its burn.

Pushing Ymir slightly to the side, I pivoted to the right, one foot ahead, the other planted behind, my right arm spun and the rock flew. The sound barrier cracked for a moment and the horses neighed in terror.

The rock flew true and utterly pulped the boy's head. His hanging jaw was all that was left, his blood steamed and boiled for a few horrid moments, his bow clattered to the ground and his body soon followed.

In an interesting turn of events, the boy's horse had panicked and bucked when it felt the molten, leftover fragments of the rock splatter onto its neck. The unfortunate rider by the boy's side, who was only now coming to his senses, had his legs shattered by the kick- he screamed. His horse felt the sudden kick in its gut and bucked him off, the Dothraki fell head first, his neck twisted at a strange angle. The two horses galloped off in the same direction they came from- the camp most likely.

By now the rest of the party was finally coming to their senses, their shock turned into horror and their horror turned into anger. All of it directed at me, the cool Blue whispered.

I could feel Ymir's shock at the sudden deaths through the psychic bond, but where I would've expected reproach or fear, I felt nothing but relief, understanding and casual acceptance.

The barbarians took out their arakhs and screamed out in their foul, coarse tongue, nothing nice I knew. I did not know what they were saying and had no desire to, yet I did catch a few words, "Khalakka" being one of them.

Oh. Did I just kill the Khal's son or at least one of them?

Wonderful.

One of the horse riders turned his horse around and galloped back to the camp, no doubt to inform the Khal and the rest of the khalasar about the "maegi" that blew his son's head off.

If the nine other assholes weren't riding straight at me, I would've thrown the next rock at the messenger. As it was, I had no choice but to kill at least one of the nine before they were upon us.

A rock once more flew and an older Dothraki had a baseball-sized, boiling hole in his chest. Now their fear and doubt was clear as day, but these men were not one to give up. I could either throw another, which might not have the same impact as they were ten seconds away from swinging at me, or I could do something drastic and crazy.

I will not die easily.

I pulled on the Red magic of Fire, Chaos and Power. The threads of magic, sluggish as they were in this land, responded to my rage. Not enough to throw a large fireball, but certainly enough to spark a wild flame.

Burn.

I directed the threads to the tall grass on either side of the road. There was dull flash of red and the grass caught fire. The flame was relentless and spread quickly, plenty of dry grass to feed on.

Smoke aplenty took to the air, it would not affect the attackers immediately, it was a slow poison, I needed to hold on and avoid getting killed until the place was choked with smoke. The smoke would affect us too, so we had to hurry.

I looked Ymir in the eye and she nodded. She understood.

The first Dothraki swung in a wide arc, hoping to behead me, we ducked to the ground as one, scooping up the dirt as we crouched and then threw it up into the eyes of the closest raiders. The two men cursed in rage as their eyes watered and squeezed shut. They erratically swung their blades, nearly slashing open each other's throats.

We kept moving, backs against each other. Out of six, three dismounted and came at us with daggers in one hand and arakhs in the other, while the others trotted around us in tight circles like hyenas.

The first savage slashed at me, while the other tried his best to pierce my abdomen. Naturally, I did what I always had- dodge and retreat, only now it wasn't as easy or simple- one of the three on the horse was shooting arrows. One of those might've hit Ymir if it wasn't for the psychic bond that allowed her to synergize her instincts with mine.

The smoke was thick and black now, and it became harder to breath without coughing my lungs out. At least we weren't the only ones suffering. All of them had tears in their eyes and were coughing violently. Yes, suffer motherfuckers. Served you cunts right.

I dodged another strike and flicked a small rock through my opponent's eye straight into his brain, then deftly picked up the dead man's arakh. The Dothraki were incredibly pissed off by now and were coming at us from all sides, there was not much space left to run or dodge. Ymir was tiring faster than I was, her body unused to inhumanely vigorous movement.

I pushed my arm further, not caring if my muscles tore and hurled a rock at a Dothraki's head, while cutting another's throat wide open with the blade. Warm blood spilled onto my forearm, the boy wheezed and choked on his own blood.

Three down, six more to g-

The warning came, but I was in a tighter spot now- pain bloomed on my left bicep.

For a moment, I looked down at the arm in question, and scowled. Fuck, a deep slash, there was an alarming amount of blood.

The Dothraki smirked and tried to swing at me again, I glared at him and his hair caught fire. Scalp immolation- terrible way to go. The man screamed and screeched falling down to the floor and writhing like a worm.

I smelt barbecue.

The Dothraki were horrified and the acrid smell of ammonia and faeces hovered in the air- the dead man, most likely. Perhaps even the living.

Unfortunately, they only grew more desperate and their strikes became more erratic and wild. A primal fear ruled them now. They boxed us in from all sides, unwilling to give us- demons in their eyes- a moment of reprieve.

Thus, it was no surprise when Ymir took a nasty slash to the jaw, while I took a sword to the lung.

Sweet blood pooled into my mouth and it became extremely painful to breathe. There was a lot of pain. My pain bled into Ymir and her pain bled into mine.

I decided then that I hated being impaled. It fucking sucked and hurt like hell.

Was I going to die here?

No.

The Spark of Magic within me burned with a blinding light.

I refused to die!

My wounds steamed, as did Ymir's.

I saw it then, for a moment- two lifeforms of blue light attached to our spines, not physically, but somewhere beyond the realm of reality, superimposed over it, perhaps. They were two halves of one worm.

The worm offered the power to live, survive, and thrive. I- We- accepted.

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Two thick beams of blue light fell from the heavens and the world shook and burned. Massive clouds of white hot steam rose into the sky.

The five Dothraki turned to ash on the spot and the earth turned to glass, only to instantly shatter under the humongous feet of two titanic beings. The fires that were burning, now spread faster, the air sizzled and wobbled under the onslaught of extreme heat.

For several miles, the land trembled as if a terrible earthquake had come. Some Dothraki warriors that were riding to avenge their Khal's son, were thrown off their steeds, crushed under the hooves of those that still rode. It was a testament to the horselords' skill and command over their steeds, that they calmed them down and halted their charge- all 150 of them.

The steam cloud parted and the monsters within made their presence known.

Khal Jhogo looked up and felt a primal terror upon witnessing the appearance of the looming giants. His Ko and the rest of his men were in a similar state of mind-numbing horror and crippling despair. The wave of hot air that reached them did not help matters.

Bathed in hot steam, stood two giants, one muscular and male and the other faintly resembling a hunched female. The titans were taller than any being they had ever seen, taller than the walls of Sarnath. Blue and sharp yellow lightning crackled, highlighting their unholy, demonic forms, for what else could they be except demons come from beyond the Bones?

The male titan's body was a grey so dark it looked black, and it wore no garment or armour to cover its nakedness, though Jhogo did not see any manhood hanging between its legs. The sun shone and glinted off its skin as if it was steel, and Jhogo wondered if the skin was its armour. Upon its dark head grew jagged thorns like a crown and strange demonic blue fires blazed where its eyes should've been.

"Demon King," whispered one of his Ko. Jhogo said nothing, for he too was trapped in a maddening cycle of awe and fear.

Their fears were further amplified by the appearance of the female titan. Emaciated and thin, compared to the male, but no less terrifying. Her muscles were exposed and the ribcage... was wide and jutting out wrongly. The Dothraki shuddered collectively as they looked upon the skeletal face with an abyss for eyes.

Khal Jhogo sucked in a deep breath as the Demon King moved.

Author Note: Poor Jhogo, three guesses for what happens to him. Fun fact: Jhogo is similar in the Dothraki tongue to the word Jhogwin (also a Dothraki word) which means Stone Giants i.e, the Realm of the Jhogwin, where massive bones of stone giants rest in the Bone Mountains of Essos. Quite an ironic name, if you think about it.