The Valentin Series, Book 1: The Valkyrie (Captain America fanfiction)

Chapter 9: The Nest

Everything was going fine with the hike; there were no other sounds aside from the rushing river, the rustle of leaves, and the sound of birds in the trees. The only eventful thing was a mountain lion that growled at them from across the river when they stopped to refill their water containers. It was getting dark, and James was trailing behind Natasha and Steve, both were in a deep conversation of possible dates Steve could have. James smirked; becoming a super-soldier didn’t seem to change Steve’s luck with the ladies.

“Did you ask that nurse out, already?” Nat asked Steve.

Steve rolled his eyes, “Nat, she wasn’t a real nurse, how many times do I have to tell you that?” he said, exasperatedly, and James chuckled.

Steve turned back to his friend, “What?”

“Nothing,” James answered, “It’s just nice to see you still need someone to pick your dates for you, stud.” He shrugged, and Natasha laughed, “I mean, you’re Captain America, might as well use that to your advantage.”

“Whatever,” Steve shook his head, “Maybe you guys can’t wrap your heads around the fact that I’m really just waiting for ‘The One’.”

“Oh, please,” this time, James rolled his eyes, “You’re a 90-year old vir…” James was cut off because Steve had tackled him to the forest floor. James laughed as Steve playfully punched him, “Get off me, punk; just because you’re big enough to tackle me doesn’t mean you can best me.” Natasha sighed and massaged the space between her brows in frustration.

“Really?” Steve asked, still grappling with James, “Doesn’t seem like it.”

James rolled his eyes and used his metal arm to hold on to the back of Steve’s shirt and fling him 3 feet away. “You forgot about my awesome robot arm, squirt.” James smiled as he got up and dusted himself off.

Steve opened his mouth, a witty retort on his tongue, when Natasha said, “Stop playing around, you big babies, listen.” She was looking forward on the path they were taking; her backpack lay on the ground beside her, her whole body tensed and on alert.

Then Steve and James heard it: deep, guttural, monstrous growls. Not mountain lion growls, either, it sounded like a small avalanche was headed their way. The two super soldiers flanked Natasha, also discarding their backpacks so they had more room to move. All three of them tensed, not knowing what to expect, then two large dogs crouched out of the shadows, both ready to pounce. One was the size of a small horse; fangs bared, eyes dilated and feral, long, brown and black fur standing on end, it paced around the trio, herding them into a tight circle. The other was dappled gray and white with shorter fur, and was only slightly smaller than the black one, the hair on its back was also standing on end; it was crouched ready to pounce, as if daring them to move. The black one seemed to be getting more and more agitated, coming closer and closer, every time it would turn around to pace the other way, it would pounce, their growls were getting lower.

Natasha recognized the gray dog, but she wasn’t so sure, Diana would recognize her, right? Then she remembered that one time Val was pissed at her when they were 16 years old and she told Diana to chase Nat. The bruises and stitches she had after were not a good memory. Natasha took a deep breath, nope, even if she was recognized, this dog would listen to Val only. So she decided to try and calm the dog down. The black one, she suspected, was Cristoff’s but she wasn’t able to take a good look. She felt the two men behind her stand at the ready for an animal attack, but she was sure even if all three of them would attack the dogs, one of them would end up dead, and the others badly wounded. Natasha slowly crouched to the ground, and whispered, “Diana,” the dog’s ears perked up, the feral gleam was gone from her eyes. Then the dog moved slowly closer. The black dog was still pacing, but he had calmed down as soon as the gray one had stopped growling.