Chapter 2 — Chapter 2

I slowly emerged from the depths of consciousness, fighting nausea. It smelled like smoke. With difficulty, I opened my eyes and saw the wrinkled face of an elderly woman above me. She was shaking a bundle of smoldering herbs over me and singing something. Then a beautiful young woman appeared in her place, looked me over, and said something.

"I don't understand you," I croaked in a voice that wasn't mine.

The stranger disappeared, and the old woman reappeared. She put some kind of headband on me.

"Do you understand now?" she asked, scrutinizing me closely.

"Yes." My dry throat ached terribly.

"Good. We found you on the seashore; you were dying," she explained.

"I still want to!" I closed my eyes and quietly started crying.

"You have a chance to take revenge and become strong. You're now with the most powerful women in these worlds, with the Valkyries!"

"I don't want to. I want to go home; there are boys there who need looking after." Tears flowed steadily.

"Your children? But you can't return to your old body!" she exclaimed.

"No, they're street kids; I was looking after them."

"And what about the child you gave birth to? Don't you want him back?"

"Is it possible? I don't know who the father is, what he looks like, or where he is!" I protested against this endless interrogation.

"You'll be able to do anything. You're not like the rest of us."

"Why do you need this?" I wiped away my tears and looked at her.

"We're isolated from everyone, but you could open up a path for us to other worlds. We're ready to leave this place and start a new life. Your arrival was foreseen!"

I closed my eyes and groaned weakly, promising to try to want to live. The baby I had given birth to was the only meaning in my life.

For two weeks, the shamaness gave me tinctures, whispered incantations, and fumigated me with herbs. On the fifteenth day, I stood up and managed to take a few steps. A week later, I confidently walked through the village of Valkyries, who scrutinized me as much as I did them.

They settled me in an empty house with windows facing the ocean. The tiny one-room dwelling suited me just fine. I would go outside and watch the sunset, counting the days and holding my stomach. I thought of my child and vowed to find him and explain why I hadn't been there. A month later, when I had fully recovered, the queen of the Valkyries gave permission to start training.

In the morning, they taught me hand-to-hand combat and fighting with makeshift weapons, promising to start training with real weapons as soon as they deemed me physically ready. The weapons of the Valkyries turned out to be very heavy, and specific training was required to handle them.

A year later

"When are you going to let me choose a weapon?" I started with my complaints right away.

"I think it's time. Let's go, no point in delaying. You lift weights easily, so you'll definitely be able to handle an axe!" the queen responded to my question and led me to the cave where the main treasure vault of the Valkyries was located. She dripped her blood from a finger pricked by a dagger onto the lock and pushed the iron door open.

"Remember, choose with your heart and it will serve you for ages!" she said, guiding me by the shoulders towards the axe racks. I froze, examining them, but none caught my eye, so I stepped further. Almost at the end of the hall, I noticed the gleam of steel under a piece of rag. It was as if I was drawn to it. Tugging away the dirty cloth, I saw a rusty axe with chunks of metal chipped off in places. It was quite simple, not like the ones my sisters had, but I knew it was mine.

"And I told you you're special! This is my mother's axe, unseen by anyone for over a thousand years. Get ready for the initiation!"

We left the treasure vault and, amidst the welcoming shouts of the Valkyries, proceeded to the shaman's hut. She spent the whole evening rubbing special solutions into me and whispering incantations. I had been told about this initiation before. I would ascend to the highest peak of the mountain and spend the night there, where the Valkyrie ancestors would bestow upon me knowledge and strength, peering into my future and deciding what would be most useful to me.

My weapon, in turn, was supposed to bond with me, fully accepting me as its master.

As I left the hut at sunset, I walked through a corridor of Valkyries wishing me luck. The queen led me to two pillars at the mountain and pushed me towards them. A passage opened forward, and I stepped onto a small platform. Moving to its center, I sat in a circle and placed the axe in front of me, resting my hands on my knees and beginning to meditate. Gradually, I fell into a trance, entering a strange place where I saw light and heard voices. They pitied me and said something, but I brushed off their sympathy, raising my shields and hiding behind them. Slavery, death, and the loss of a child had turned me into a monster. I no longer cried; my body barely felt pain, and the only thing keeping me alive was my thirst for revenge.

Awakening with the first rays of the sun and stretching my stiff limbs, I raised my axe to the sky and shouted my victory cry:

"Revenge!"

Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed in the sky, and struck my weapon, spreading in waves over me and piercing me with electric discharges. Gritting my teeth, I stood and accepted the power. In an instant, it was over.

The axe had transformed into a magnificent combat weapon, personalized, and now no one else could wield it. I could also hide it in a subspace. Knowledge, along with a magical gift, came suddenly with the lightning, forcing me to shake off the magic from my hands.

I left the initiation site with the thought that I would soon begin my search for the child.

The entire tribe awaited my return, curiously eyeing the transformed axe and myself. Had I changed too? The queen, taking me by the arm, led me to her house and silently pushed me towards a mirror. I stared in shock at my new appearance, but that wasn't the main thing!

My withered, never fully recovered wings, which I had to cut and leave as stumps, were now fully restored on my back. Black, huge, powerful, and beautiful... My hair, which had been a dull dark gray, had turned into lush ash-blond curls with a silver sheen, reaching down to my waist. My chest was fuller, my slender waist smoothly transitioned into wide hips, and I was taller. I was adorned with magnificent armor that fit my figure beautifully. A headband and a luxurious axe, covered in jewels and inscriptions, now complemented me, becoming an inseparable part of me. From an average-height, not particularly beautiful woman, I had transformed into a stunning warrior woman. A Valkyrie. But the heaviest scars remained with me. The queen, embracing my shoulders, said:

"It's just a matter of learning to use the gifts of our ancestors, and everything will work out. What gifts do you have? I see lightning, some healing, foresight. Hmm... And luck? The matriarch herself gave you her gift; luck always accompanied her. She was the founder of our race. And now we're dying out. There are no men to bear children from... I had a revelation today! We can't leave this island; we'll die outside it, but we can live on and have children who can leave it— that's within our power. Our race must live on!"

"How long does it take to master these gifts?" I asked her.

"You're a capable student. Maybe a year or two..."

It took me four. After all, I'm not a born Valkyrie; I had to learn the basics of controlling and using my new power. But in the end, I was the equal of the tribe's strongest women.

My time had come.

The queen handed me a spatial bag into which we packed everything necessary, including a couple of bottles of the strong drink I had grown to love, as well as a pouch of coins and stones. Embracing the entire tribe, who looked at me with hope, I took flight over the island and broke through a portal in the closed space, emerging above the sea, but in another world. As I crossed the portal, knowledge of how to open and close them came to me.

Catching a favorable wind, I flew, simply following magical currents for now.

Ahead, several ships came into view, clearly engaged in battle. Shielding myself, I watched the fight. Red flags with a skull as an emblem and one with a colored flag. If my memory served me right, the skull meant pirates. This meant there was a chance to enter this world via their ship and learn about where I had landed along the way. A dragon rose from the ship under attack, and I stared in shock at this enormous creature. Making a decision, I dove towards the nearest pirate ship, which was turning its cannons. A being with dark magic stood at its bow, preparing a death spell.

Flapping my wings, I landed on the ship's bridge behind the mage and instantly cleaved him in two. Turning around, I rushed onto the deck to those aiming the cannons at the dragon. Unfortunately, I was too late; the first had already fired. I began chopping through bodies. Behind me, the dragon landed on the deck, transformed into a warrior, and started slaughtering pirates. Finishing my side and flapping my wings, I flew to the other ship. The pirates were panicking on the deck, already realizing they were without their mage. They started throwing down their weapons and hiding in the hold. The third ship, raising its sails, began turning to flee. Immediately flying to it, I started cutting through the rigging and masts in mid-air, cutting off their escape route. I swooped onto the deck, crushing bodies and advancing through the ship. Realizing they couldn't escape, the pirates hid in the hold like rats.

I stood leaning on my axe, watching as two men from the rescued ship approached me. They bowed to me and began to speak. I bowed back and said:

"I don't understand you, gentlemen."

"Perhaps I can help. I'm familiar with your language; you're from another world, aren't you?" a voice sounded behind me.

"Well, let's say I am," I turned to the dragon, lifting my axe and quickly shaking off the last traces of blood. He followed my movements with a hungry look. I growled, baring my fangs.

"Forgive my curiosity; it's just that the last information about Valkyries is three hundred years old..."

"So, dragon, if you look at me like that again, I'll cut off your gear and send it to hell. So you won't have a reason to look that way again. Understood?"

"Understood," the man replied, looking at me in shock. "So, what they're saying is, they're inviting you aboard our ship. We're about to sink these, to make sure no one survives. And we need to see what they have. Why let good stuff go to waste?" he explained.

"All the men on the ship are mine; I'm not interested in the goods..." I looked him over.

"Hmm, may I ask why you need them? Maybe I can help somehow?"

"Yes, of course. Will you go as a slave to the Valkyries? I think with your enthusiasm, that would be a wonderful gift for the queen!" I bared my teeth in a smile.

"Oh no, the pirates are at your disposal!" he immediately disclaimed.

Approaching the middle of the deck and striking it with lightning, creating a hole in the floor, I shouted into the hold:

"Everyone who comes out voluntarily will live!"

"Forgive me, but they probably don't understand you. So, you lot, if you want to live— come out, or we'll kill you after taking your loot!" he translated to those inside.

Unarmed pirates started coming out onto the deck. I inspected each one. A few had to be killed immediately; they wouldn't survive life with the Valkyries. Grouping them on one of the pirate ships, I counted thirty-six suitable ones. That was good; the first haul for several hundred women. Opening a portal, I stepped through and called out to the Valkyries to prepare for guests. The main square was instantly filled.

"These are pirates; put them in slave collars immediately, or there will be a lot of trouble," I explained to the women.

The queen nodded, and I returned to the ship to lead the men through. Closing the portal after the last one, I turned to the rest and in an instant, severed their heads. Flapping my wings, I flew to the dragon's ship and, welcomed with a bow, was escorted to the captain's cabin.