Version 2006 - Ch 18

BACK ON NILFEHEIM ________________________________________

Again I set foot on Nifleheim. I did not feel afraid and I was wearing female clothing and the more I thought about it the more it felt right. I had said good bye to Brenda and took the next bus back. Instead of a Taxi I rented a skimmer and flew over the green ocean. Hefty waves crowned with white froth, whipped by a strong northern wind pounded the greenish black stark rocks of Olafson Isle. Olafson isle was actually the peak of a huge underwater mountain. On top was the Burg, the castle fortress of my family. Made of duro-crete and granite rocks. It looked forbidding, wet and dark. The gloomy color of the stormy sky enhanced it even more. Waves pounded the harsh, rugged rocks and Duro-crete walls with elemental fury. The old access code still worked and the heavy roof panels of the hangar slowly moved aside. I landed the skimmer next to fathers old Volvo. I wasn't even completely out of the skimmer when an old white haired man came up the stairs. He was old even when I was a kid. His gray clothing made him almost disappear into the background. The hair was white and the skin pale. His cheeks sunken in and deep shadows below his watery eyes, Harkun, my father's man servant and our major domus. He stopped in his tracks as he saw me. "I was not informed we have women guests tonight. What manner of business brings you to this house?" "Aside Harkun! I have business with my father and I shall not be denied!" His eyes widened and his chin dropped to the chest as it dawned to him who I was! "Oh Master Eric! Leave now! Flee! Do not besmirch this house with your presence. There will be murder and death if you remain!" He stepped into my way and blocked the way to the stairs leading down to the banquet hall. "No servant will deny me access to my home! It is not you who decides what is good for this house! Move or you shall be the first victim of death!" I was angry at the old fool but of course I was not about to kill him. But the old house did something to me; I spoke the way a Neo Viking was supposed to talk. Despite my female appearance I felt the strength and righteous anger in me to claim what was mine! I could leave this planet. I could talk like all the others out there, I could even be a woman, but here I was a Neo Viking first and all that what made me a Viking was never too far from the surface. Something I realized about myself just now. He shivered but stood his ground." Master Eric I must insist. This is Isegrim's home and soon be Lothar's you are not welcome here! They just returned from the hunt and will be in the hall at any moment." I had enough and pushed him aside with more force than I intended and the old man stumbled and fell. I growled:" I am the first born and this is my home when Isegrim passes and it will be my home tonight. You stand in my way again and I will use you for Tyranno bait!" Unhindered I went down the long flight of stairs from the landing hangar into the corridor that connected the stair house with the banquet hall. The house was big and had many rooms, most of them empty unfurnished and cold. It was here in the banquet hall where everything happened, meals, entertainment, quarrels and fights! For a moment I stood looking around the place I grew up and had seen since that night Hogun rushed me to the clinic almost 4 years ago. The room was dominated by a large storm oak table polished to a shine with six high backed chairs on each of the long sides and one each end. The hard wood paneling covered walls where decorated with shields, axes, swords, harpoons and other anachronistic weapons all Vikings where so fond of and knew how to use. The families crest featuring the Wolfs Geri and Freki above the huge fire place flanked by a Tyranno Slayer to the left and a double bladed axe on the right. Several sponge stones soaked with Tyranno Oil where piled in the fire place and burned with the characteristic yellow flame. It also filled the house with the pungent odor of burned oil. A scent that meant home to me. One door led to the kitchen, another to the rest of the house and the door next to the fire place on the other site of the hall opened to the stairs leading down to the Sub pen. I could already hear my father's thundering voice, his heavy boots pounding the granite steps worn out by the feet of generations of Olafsons. Sounds I dreaded as a child because all too often the sound of my approaching father were prelude to violence and pain. I was surprised at myself that this time I was not afraid! I fought screaming jungle beasts on Idyllic and heard my own heart beat in the silence of space. Then he appeared. He was almost as big as Uncle Hogun, wearing black Tyranno leather pants, heavy boots and his long woolen cape, shimmering damp, lined with Sea hound fur making him appear even more massive than he was. His long black beard now had traces of silver and so did his long hair topped by a Sea hound fur cap. From his right hand hung his trademark whip, he carried coiled up and ready to strike at the slightest sign of resistance to his will. The whip he had fashioned out of quarter inch steel cable about 7 foot long with leather straps wound tightly around one end as a handle. Father could uncoil it in a heartbeat and swing it against anyone and anything and he did so quite often! Cut fingers, break ribs and bones, slash ears and bust noses with it as he did to almost everyone he ever met. Lothar and Tyr my younger brothers and two deck hands appeared right behind him. Father had stopped in his tracks and stared at me, unlike Harkun he recognized me immediately, but it took him a moment to believe his eyes to actually see me dressed in a black dress with long blonde hair and female forms underneath the dress. I also wore boots, gloves and a black fur coat, Brenda selected for me. The whip uncoiled and he stomped towards me." Loki be cursed! You sick abomination dares to set foot into my home! I shall rectify my mistake I made years ago! This time I will kill you!" When father swung his whip everyone scrambled for cover, so it came as a surprise to him that I came towards him with steady steps." I am thy first born and I am here to claim what is rightfully mine. What form of dress or appearance I choose is not of your concern?" "You are no longer of my blood and all that is rightfully yours is painful death!" His weathered face became red; a blood vessel appeared on his forehead as he lashed out with all his strength. At one time this would have taken my head clear off, but no longer. I had trained with Master Alema and other experts in unarmed hand to hand combat, compared to Alema; Father was as slow as a Suligeran slug. I easily side stepped the whip, grabbed the steel cable as it reached its full extension and was about to return and I pulled with force. No one had ever grabbed the whip, so my move came totally unexpected to him and he stumbled forward. I used his momentum and applied an Aikido technique, sending him crashing into the table and chairs, then I pressed a nerve cluster in his elbow making his arm go limb. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Lothar taking a slayer harpoon from the wall. The gun fired a long barbed steel rod with an explosive attached to it, used to kill Tyranno Fins. So I grabbed a chair and flung it at Lothar, he instinctively raised the weapon. I immediately followed the chair closing the distance and hammered my foot against his temple in a fast spin kick. As I came around he stumbled back in a daze, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it until he let go of the trigger handle. His wrist snapped with an ugly crunching sound, he screamed in pain but I wasn't done. All my anger and frustration came to the surface as I pounded his solar plexus with my elbow and he went down like a sack of wet fur and stopped moving. Meanwhile father had untangled himself from the chairs and came up. His right hand hanging limb from his side, but his left hand held a wicked skinner knife and he approached me with it. Gone was his confidence and arrogance. I saw confusion in his eyes. "Tyr, Linfas, Lohir don't just stand there! Kill this bastard. " I smiled at him." Where is your warrior honor? Do you need the help of three men to defeat a sick abomination? Where is your fabled strength and braveness? I laugh and spit on you father. I defeat you all." Linfas came from the right in a running tackle attack. Very effective in a drunken bar brawl. Utterly useless against a trained fighter, it took nothing to avoid him, add to his momentum and make him crash into the wall. Tyr was the youngest and still a boy. When I spun around to face him, tears welled up in his eyes. He was no threat. I took the slayer from the floor and pointed it at Lohir:" You are not Olafson. You are a hired hand. You have no rights in this house. Raise a hand against me and I will kill you!" Lohir said nothing but moved back. Father saw the slayer but attacked anyway. I turned the slayer around using it like a club and beat it against his knife hand. The knife and a spray of blood flew through the air. Father yelped in pain. I was not done and smashed the slayer over his head, toppling him like a tree. Then took his whip. "This is for killing mother!" I screamed as I lashed at him with white hot fury." The cable cutting his clothing to shreds "This is for you trying to kill me!" Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lohir moving, so I lashed at him, coiling the cable around his neck, pulled him close, kicked him with all my might between the legs and smacking the butt of the Slayer across his temple. He fell to the side and did not move. I raised the cable to hit my father again. His face was bloody and he held up his wounded hands. I saw fear in his eyes and when I saw the fear, all the terror he presented to me left in an instant. I spat at him." Look at the great Isegrim, Son of Gerhard Olafson, and keeper of the wolf seal. Look at the tyrant father! The man who holds Viking traditions above all as long as it suits him. Tomorrow all of Nilfeheim will know who defeated you; your shame will be greater than mine ever was. It is my house rightfully by our laws! I defeated you in combat and all is mine. You will have no home and no honor. The Valkyries will spit on you and not guide you to Valhalla! No Father, the deepest pits of Hel won't be fit enough for you." Each of my words wounded him deeper than the whip could have. Seeing him there sunken, beaten and bleeding I almost felt sorry for him. Lothar came to his feet still wobbly." You cannot do this he is your father!" "I despise you even more, brother! Every chance to hurt me you took, hiding behind him because you weren't man enough to face me alone! You claimed what is rightfully mine; you are born second to a second wife. Now you shall be the one that begs for scraps of my table! If I let you life!" Father spat blood and wiped his mouth." It is all yours you have won! The Gods have forsaken me. Kill me now!" "No I will not kill you. I want you to pay me my rightful share and I shall leave and not return to this house! You, Lothar or whoever you choose may have this house and what is left of it; I will go back into space. However if you decide not to give my share I will return and drag you through the streets of Freikstat and proclaim your dishonor to everyone!" Without further words I turned and left. For the first time in my life I felt free and whole. A long swim is what I wanted before I left Nifleheim, perhaps forever. ________________________________________