The Eternal Valkyrie

Chapter 4

'Well this is just great.' The maiden thought as she stood there in the dark hall with a passed out person. She tried the door next to her and found out that the door wasn't properly shut. 'Lucky me' She thought to herself as she grabbed the unfortunate passed out person on the floor and dragged him inside. "Thor, he's heavy."

She found a nice open space and placed him there. She then sat down next to him and waited.

Hiccup groaned and scrunched his eyebrows together as he felt someone tug at his clothes. He opened his eyes and gazed up at the walking skeleton which had frightened him. In fact his head was resting on its lap while it was curiously inspecting the fabric of his green sweater.

Hiccup let out a deep breath and the mummy's attention immediately snapped back from his sweater to him. Hiccup bolted upright and fearfully scooted to the farthest bookcase on the verge of hyperventilating.

"W....WHAT ARE YOU!!!" he managed to stutter out. "WHO ARE YOU?!"

The mummy was watching Hiccup curiously as he tried to get his breathing under control. Hiccup glanced at the door of the library he had somehow found himself back in, and cursed. He'd have to jump over the somehow 'living' mummy to get to it.

"Who are you?" Hiccup asked again a little calmer now that that thing had not made any threatening moves.

"I can't understand you." The shield maiden spoke in her native tongue and Hiccup's eyes widened. He once again thanked the fact that he knew a lot of dead languages.

"Can you understand now?" He asked in old Norse.

"Yes" The mummy replied. "You speak much clearer than the other."

"What other?" Hiccup now asked raising a brow. 'Maybe this won't be so bad.' He thought.

"He had weird hair and his pronunciation was difficult to understand." She explained.

Hiccup nodded trying to think of anyone with 'weird hair' but then he asked. "How are you.... Well.... Alive?"

The mummy cocked her head at Hiccup. "Some people did a ritual downstairs. I'm not really sure what they did. Can I ask you a question now?"

Hiccup's eyes widened. 'So something is going on in the basement.' He nodded to this mummy and wondered what question he would be asked.

"What is your name?"

Hiccup's mouth hung open. He certainly hadn't been expecting that and then he realized mummy or not neither had been properly introduced.

"Oh Thor, where are my manners. Hiccup Haddock" he said sheepishly, not feeling so nervous anymore. "What is your name?"

"Astrid Hofferson. It is a pleasure to meet you Hiccup."

"You're a girl?" He asked as he looked at Astrid.

"Of course I am. Can't you tell?" Astrid now asked.

"Not really. You're mostly bones." Hiccup mumbled.

"Oh" Astrid said and then started laughing. It sounded a bit weird as her voice had not been used in quite a while and thus sounded a bit deeper.

Hiccup saw Astrid look curiously at his hand and when he looked down he saw that he was still instinctively clutching that golden ring in his palm. He opened his palm and gazed at Astrid. "Are you interested in this?"

Astrid nodded. "I sensed it from downstairs. It is called the Dragon ring, one of the items bestowed onto me by Odin. How did you get it?"

"......Okay?" Hiccup said not entirely sure how he should interpret that. "An old man gave it to me."