Atypical (A Magnus Chase fan novel)

You Died. Game Over! Because This Was Totally a Game

     We walked to a set of double doors, standing randomly in a corridor. "Um..." I said uncertainty, but TJ swung open the doors, and my jaw dropped. The room was so big, I could not believe it.

     It was a field, so massive, I could barely see the end of it. Here and there was a clump of trees, maybe a river, or a small village, just for some variety. Viking teenagers poured in from doors all around the room, with a ceiling so high up, I couldn't see it, just know it was there. Walls surrounded the field, melting into nothingness of the sky. A pleasant breeze blew by, though from where, I'm not sure.

     Thousands of vikings streamed in from doors around the room, and the sheer number of kids overwhelmed me.

     "Come on, little one," Halfborn said to me.

     "Little one?" I asked indignantly. "I'm thirteen. How old are you guys?"

     "Well, physical age, or age in time?" Mallory asked. "Some of us, well most of us actually, have been here for hundreds or thousands of years. We're all teenagers, but even then, you're young for one."

     "Huh."

     We walked in, the sword and shield feeling heavy and unwieldy in my hand. My arms were already sore from holding them, and that was before I saw the vikings in armor. I looked down at my clothes, which served no protection from pointy objects.

     "Why aren't we wearing armor?" I asked.

     "Armor doesn't win. Weapons do," Alex said. I couldn't argue with that logic, but I also couldn't help feeling underdressed, even if Halfborn was wearing nothing but leggings. I decided not to look in his general direction.

     I waved the sword, trying to get a good grip on it, and almost decapitated Magnus. I cringed. "Sorry."

     He chuckled, albeit a little nervously, like decapitation was a sore subject. "Just try not to kill any of us, we're on your side. They," he waved around the field with his own sword, except without almost killing anyone, "are not."

     "Still not comfortable with this whole 'killing' thing," I said anxiously.

     Mallory shrugged and gestured to the riling masses. "They are."

     She had a point. Everyone was marching out to the field happily, and there was a buzz of excitement in the air like a huge concert or playoff game was going to start in a few minutes.

     And then from somewhere nearby, the huge horn rang again, and pandemonium broke out as vikings charged into battle gleefully, ready to kill on sight.

     "Just stay with us, okay?" Magnus said to me. He pulled my arm and we ran into a cluster of trees near a hill, and dove into the bushes. Well all of us except Halborn and Mallory. They had already got into a fight with some other kids. Halfborn was covered in red stuff from head to toe, which I refused to believe was anything other than paint, or maybe ketchup. It was horrifying. Mallory was a whirlwind, her silver knives flashing silver, and dripping scarlet in the sunlight.

     TJ noticed a hill, and his face brightened like he had an awesome idea. He nodded at Magnus and Alex, Alex who sighed, exasperated, and he charged out of the trees and up the hill. He yelled, "FOR TYR!" and promptly got gutted by a spear. I heard him snort with laughter as he looked down, like getting impaled was an inside joke that he had forgotten about, before falling face first into the mud.

     My sword slipped out of my hand.

     However pathetic it sounds, I backed up into a tree, and ducked behind a bush. My throat had closed up. These guys treated dying like a game. I know it was supposed to prepare you for dying at Ragnarok or something, but I didn't want to die. They walked around with pointy objects, their aim to kill, but I didn't want to be killed. I knew about the whole resurrection thing, but... this struck a little too close to home. Death.