Life's Just A Game

Chapter 25

[Normal P.O.V]

San Diego Bay, Valhalla
20:37 P.M.
Night Fury's Mission Status: ????

Night Fury can be an emotionless, cold killing machine, but when he's on a giant Spectacled Owl flying a hundred meters in the air, all alarms in his head would go off. He likes doing daredevil tricks, and life-threatening actions. But somehow, flying in the air gives him the shivers. He still couldn't figure out on how the mysterious Rogue Rider sat on the owl's head, calm and unfazed.

Once they landed, Night Fury jumped off and immediately ran to the nearest bathroom. The Rogue Rider stifled a laugh as Night Fury came out of the bathroom, with his hand clutching his stomach.

"I'll never look at an owl, ever in my life." Night Fury groaned.

The giant owl chirped and tilted his head on to his side, watching him. Night Fury shot a glare at him, but the owl continued to stare at him with its big yellow eyes.

The Rogue Rider finally let out a laugh, as she watched the two interact. "Come inside, Night Fury. Let's talk about your predicament."

Night Fury has been here a couple of times already but he still couldn't stop gaping at it. It's a majestic ice-roofed caldera made out entirely out of solid ice, that almost looks an explosion happened then just froze. Held up by iconic ice pillars, it safely floats above the bay, an underwater volcano underneath it to prevent it from sinking. Frozen icicles popped out of the structure, as droplets of water trickled down the points, and falling into the water. At the very front, is two iron gates, the knobs shaped into the heads of lions. To everyone in San Diego, all they see is a  frozen popsicle in the middle of the bay, and pay no attention to it, unaware of the organization called Valhalla living inside.

The Rogue Rider, politely bowed then led Night Fury inside.

To be honest, the first time Night Fury went here, he'd been expecting a gloomy interior like the hold of a ship, but it was more like a cathedral and a barn-house combined. The first thing he noticed, is that it wasn't freezing cold. It had just the right temperature for fireplaces to be erected, and cold enough for the ice to be kept standing. The ceiling rose all the way to the keel. The oar-hole windows crosshatched the air with bars of light. A small waterfall fell from the ceiling and into a river vein that flowed in the middle of the space. The entire space was open, no separate rooms or partitions – only training fields, mini-houses, clusters of sofas, couches, and hammocks, most of which were occupied by some snoring residents of Valhalla.

But that's not the most shocking part. Nearly hundreds of hybrid animals roamed the open space while some of the people tend to them. And they weren't scurrying around like rodents. No, they were trampling across the floor, each the size of a Kodiak bear or bigger. He just saw a ten-foot long eagle, with its lower half resembling a lion. It sore through the air with its huge feathery wings, playing with some of the hanging icicles on the ceiling. An enormous bblack wolf trudged past him, with not one, but three heads. Each of its head bears a pair of blood-red eyes.

Night Fury then spotted a bright orange fox with nine, long tails sprouting on its behind, bearing a white spot on the ends, pattering around the pearl-white floor.

But not only hybrid animals inhabited the place. Valhalla is also considered a military organization, just like Drakos. Hundreds of Valhalla's warriors were everywhere, wearing full-plated white armor, and carrying the most bizarre kinds of weapons. Like, a staff with three iron spiked balls hanging on the end by chains. Most of them looked like they were in college or highschool, though some looked slightly older. Guys and girls sat together in small groups, lounging in front of fireplaces, chatting, eating snacks or playing games like chess and Scrabble and drinking contests.