Rough Start

Again with the descriptions. You need a life amigo.

The shadow hovered over Shay for a split second, just long enough for her to know exactly who it was. She should have been frightened, perhaps, but today she just wasn't in the mood. The figure was now perched atop a street lamp with its arms folded back and its head dipped down. To a commoner this creature looked like any other bird, but of course to those trained to see the truth behind the facade, it was much, much more than that.

''Here Polly, I've got some Wheat Thins for you..." Shay muttered, knowing this would definitely aggravate the beast. Its head whipped around in her direction and its golden eyes gleamed with rage. Despite this, it remained perfectly still, like a gargoyle protecting its stone cathedral.

Taking slow, measured steps toward the creature, she slid her small wooden raven-shaped whistle out of her jacket sleeve and brought it up to her mouth, keeping her eyes glued on her target all the while. As she breathed in, she wondered whether she should call her team or go it alone. The latter seemed more satisfying.

Now, the monster finally extended its wings to their full span and cocked its head to the side, as if coaxing her to make her move. She gladly complied.

The sound of the whistle was too high of a pitch to be audible to the human ear. Luckily for Shay, Valkyries, like herself, weren't human.

Many mortals had no idea what a Valkyrie even was. Long story short, they were a Nordic band of Godly females (Amazon-looking mostly, minus the brutality). They were originally created by Odin, the Norse All-Father, or God of all Gods, and were later handed off to Freya (Norse Goddess of beauty, love, lust, knowledge, and all that jazz). In the past the Valkyries purpose of existence was to take fallen war-heroes to Valhalla, the final resting place for Vikings. There, they would eat, drink beer, fight each other, eat some more, get drunk, and sleep again until the next morning when they would repeat the process. Times, of course, had changed, and the Valkyries would have to adjust their life to compensate.

Shay wouldn't have even needed to use the whistle in the first place if this Odin's gift gone wrong hadn't wreaked havoc on the human race for the past three weeks. With enough mortal blood it could do virtually anything, and was a pain in the neck to eliminate. Therefore she had to call upon her most trusted friend and ally, her gryphon Hex. He was one of the faster gryphons out of the 'Escorts', which is what the Valkyries called their flying companions, and because of his unusual markings he was also one of the most admired.

Within seconds an ear-splitting screech emanated from the cloud-strewn sky and soon the 18-hand-tall Hex was standing before Shay with his head raised high above hers. He was proud, that much was obvious upon first meeting him, but most gryphons were. He was also beautiful, with a jet black eagle head, piercing blue eyes, long pointed squirrel-like ears, a toned yet lean lion body and massive charcoal colored raven wings.

He clawed at the ground and his thin feathered lion tail flicked anxiously back and forth against his left and right hips.

''Okay baby, I need you to go over there," Shay gestured toward the soon-to-be-Kibbles-N'-Bits still perched on top of the pole, " and take care of him. Make sure you keep him in the shadows though, I can't handle getting yelled at by Freya again for exposing humans to... well... that."

Hex nodded once and then spun around before pouncing on his victim. The two hit the pavement with a loud thud, the beast hissing maliciously. At first the battle went on in the street, but soon enough the gryphon had the upper hand and pinned his opponent to the ground with his hind legs, using his front paws to tear into its chest. More hissing erupted from the creature as it writhed in agony, and Shay looked around nervously, hoping they were truly alone on the streets. They were.

As usual, Hex dragged the remains of the screaming pile of feathers into a nearby ally and finished him off, devouring him soon after as his reward for a job well done. There was no need to bring proof to Freya that the mission had been completed, the goddess always knew.

Hex trotted back to his master and stretched his muscles like any regular house cat, his body radiating with blue light. Whenever he went into battle-mode, long blue jagged lines emerged from his eyes and ran down his cheeks and along the contours of his body, making him glow. Then, when the deed was done, they faded away as if they had never been there. This was where he got his name, because ninety percent of the time his victims were hypnotized by these lines, making it child’s play for him to finish them off.

Shay ran her slender fingers through his feathered mane and scratched behind his ear before swinging around and landing on his back. It made her nervous every time she rode him, not only because he was fast but also because he loved to fly as high as he possibly could, and she hated heights. Her team often made fun of her for the irony of that, since all Valkyries were born to fly, but that's what made her unique.

''Alright Hex, take me home." She whispered into his ear and he lurched forward, running a little ways down the road and then using a mailbox to boost himself up into the air. He spread his wings and gave a powerful thrust, scattering dirt and loose grass around them. They gained altitude with relative ease, and once they were at an acceptable altitude, Hex put himself on cruise-control.

The air felt crisp and cool thanks to the rain that had fallen several hours before. It was Shay's favorite time of night, and she tilted her head back to look at the stars. They twinkled happily, unaware of all the horrible things going on below them.

The Valkyries knew, though. Since modern day vikings didn't exist, there hadn't been any new souls for them to take to Valhalla. Luckily for them, they weren't completely useless. Because of the recent lack of new arrivals, the souls in Valhalla had grown restless. The current residents of the Norse Heaven had already fought each other thousands upon thousands of times, and had no new blood to spill, which for viking souls was a very, very bad thing. So, without anyone exciting to stab with a pike, the souls had decided to revolt against Odin and escape Valhalla, coming to earth in search of new blood.

Odin, in response to this, had gone on a rampage and annihilated most of these escaped souls. The ones he had missed, the more tricky and elusive souls, he had handed over to Freya's Valkyries to hunt down. No one knew exactly how many were still left on earth, and it was the job of Freya's little blood hounds to find out.

There were two main classes of Valkyrie nowadays. The first were the Deliverers who took the least aggressive souls back to Valhalla to be dealt with by Odin as he saw fit, and the second were the Scouts. Shay was one of these. Their job was to go to earth and seek out the most dangerous of the souls and destroy them. Scouts were the only Valkyries who rode gryphons, because they were more adept in battle than the winged steeds that the Deliverers had as their Escorts. The bond between Valkyrie and Escort was that of blood, and if the Escort were to die, the Valkyrie was then rendered useless and cast down to be a mortal.

The safe-haven for the Valkyries was an abandoned airport in the middle of a hick town somewhere in Alaska, because the location was not visible from land, and even in the sky it was protected by tall pine trees and spruces, making it virtually invisible. Also, the airport was a great place for the newest Valkyries to train with their Escorts on the runways, and the main building had enough rooms for each inhabitant.

Hex landed on the asphalt and skidded a little on the ice, almost losing his balance. He kneeled so that Shay could dismount, and then followed her inside. They were greeted by only one other Valkyrie, her close friend Celeste, who was also a Scout.

Celeste smiled nervously and ran her fingers through her long blond hair, glancing in the direction of the command center. ''Freya wants to see you... she's pissed."

Shay drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, wondering what she'd done wrong this time. When Freya was in these kinds of moods, she was impossible to deal with, and everyone, even the people who weren't in trouble, steered clear of her at all cost.

''Watch Hex while I'm in there, he tends to try to defend me every time she yells at me and that just makes things worse." She smiled at the gryphon who stood obliviously at her side.

''Sure. Oh and good luck, you're gonna need it." Celeste grabbed Hex by the little silver bell hanging from his neck and pulled him over to her side.

Shay shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her hobo-quality jeans and sauntered over to Freya's door, knocking tentatively. She didn't answer at first, but by the 20^th knock she yelled, ''In." She saw Celeste shudder from the corner of her eye and half wished she was standing here in her place.

Author's Note

Remember, play nice.

Reviews

[boyinblue]

Really good writing. It captures the reader. Even better than many published and praised books. I enjoyed the story but I have to admit, the idea of mythical creatures and magic and what not is really getting to the state where almost everyone is writing about it.
Now don't get me wrong, I WILL read your book simply because it's so easy to pick up, but I have to ask--what are you gonna do to shake up the generic storyline?

No offense at alllllllllllllllllllLLLLLLLL: lol, i envy your writing, but I really want to see some of you in there with it and not some 'Harry Potter/ Wizards of Might and Magic' impression.

But even if you do choose to stay solely on the 'pure fantasy' route, I have a feeling it will be a good read regardless.
Thx.

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i've read a lot about the valkyries and such. thoughs vikings sure had some crazy ideas. its a nice stoy you have :)

[Melody-Rose;]

You're a really great writer. Keep it up :) I would love to read more.