Ines, Sveif, Drei

Chapter Two

"Yeah, the stone tablets. The ones with the curly writing? You didn't know about those?"

I shook my head. "No, I didn't even know that there were tablets still used."

Diamondspirit nodded. "Yeah. I put them in one of your drawers. I hope that was okay?"

I nodded, turning around to find which drawer he had put them in.

"Third drawer from the right."

I nodded again, and opened the drawer. Inside of the renovated canoe were three tablets. They seemed to be written in three different languages - and none of them were Norse.

"This is interesting," I said, picking up a tablet. "They're not in the same language."

"How can you tell? The tablets aren't in typical writing."

I nodded and hummed to myself. "Well it's not in the written Norse like we are familiar with, but I can tell that they're all different languages because number one, the first tablet is curly and wavy, the second tablet seems a little harsh and has dots over the circles, but the third one has ticks on some letters. It's really quite interesting."

"Yeah...I'll take your word for it."

I looked up briefly at Diamondspirit and I could tell that he was very unimpressed.

"Hey, do you want to go fishing with me?"

"You can't go fishing, Diamondspirit," I said, looking at the tablets. "You're wing, remember?"

"I can just take it off," he suggested huffily.

"Yeah, yeah," I said waving a paw.

"Echogreen -"

"This language is ... how do you even sound this out? Maybe Trianity will know. I have to go find her." I rushed off in a hurry, leaving Diamondspirit behind, sighing.

I darted through the sky and came to a stop on the roof of a red house with a kind of stable next to it. I jumped off the roof and onto the ground. I nudged open the door to the house and gently whacked my tail against the door.

"Trianity?"

There was a shuffling from one of the rear rooms and Trianity came forward. She was holding one of four-year-old twins and looked like she had just gotten back from fighting a fire.

"Yeah? Oh, hi, Echo!"

I smiled at my name before showing her one of the tablets I was holding. "Can you help me with these?"

Trianity hefted the four-year-old and looked at the stone. "That looks like...German? I think?"

"Can you translate it?" I asked excitedly.

"You'll need to take the twins out for an hour or so in order for me to do so."

I hesitated. The tablets were very important to me and I'd do anything to know what they say. On the other hand, Trianity's children weren't the best children there were.

"Okay. I'll be able to take the twins. For a couple of hours."

"Oh, thank you, Echo!" Trianity said, her eyes lighting up. She handed me the child in her hands. By the smell of it, the child was Achim. He was the calmest twin.

"Silvy is in the children's room. I think she's asleep. I'll go grab her." Trianity put the tablets on the table and ran quietly to the back room. Her moccasins didn't make a sound as she walked back. She was holding the sleeping four-year-old in her arms.

"Is it okay if I put her on your back?"

I nodded and bent down so that it would be easy to put the child on my back. Once Trianity put the child on my back, I slowly stood up. If the child rolled off, I could catch her with a wing. Probably.

Achim ran around me, clearly excited to be out of the house. "Can we go flying?" he asked, his bright blue eyes shining.

"I...uh..." I looked at Trianity who nodded and shrugged. "Sure. We can go on a quick fly."

Achim whooped in happiness and ran around me, purely excited to be able to feel the thrill of flying.

"Sh! Achim, you'll wake your sister!"

Achim quieted down immediately at his mother's words. He still hopped up and down excitedly, though.

I stifled a yawn as I walked outside. Achim ran ahead of me and in a circle. He stooped to pick up a rock and threw it at a squirrel.

"Achim!" I hissed in disbelief. "Don't throw rocks at squirrels. You might hit a person and then your mom would be really mad."

"But Daddy said I could."

"He didn't mean in the village. We can fly to the woods and hunt for squirrels there, if you want."

Achim lighted up in happiness. "Yes, please!"

I smiled at the little boy and walked with him as he scurried into the woods. I didn't have to walk very fast as I covered a lot of ground with one step. It's a dragon thing.

Silvy started rocking on my back and making noises. I took note of them and kept walking. She was waking up and maybe she'd fall off, so I'd better get to the woods quick.

Luckily, Trianity's house was close to the woods. "Achim, I think that's far enough. Let's stop here."

He turned around, pouting, but soon got over it as he saw a squirrel. He scouted around for a rock, and, finding one, flung it at the squirrel. It missed by several meters, but he didn't care.

"Maybe try getting a little closer?" I suggested as I lay down slowly. Silvy was just waking up.

Achim nodded, like it was his idea. He ran to a collection of rocks and picked up a small and smooth rock. Walking over to me, he sat down and threw his rock up in the air before catching it. He was very still after that - as was I.

Silvy rolled off my back and onto the ground. She didn't fall very far and wasn't hurt. I smiled at her and pulled her closer with my wing. She yawned and snuggled into my side.

"Look, Echo!" Achim pointed excitedly at a squirrel. It was walking quietly around the base of a tree.

There was a rustling and it bolted away. Something was wrong.

"Achim," I said quietly, "come here."

Achim scooted into me, fear evident on his face.

A split second later, a dangerous green liquid was shot at us.