Lightning magic empowered Freida's sword as she held it up in front of the Jotun. Freida grimaced. "Come on pal, if you're smart you'll back down." Instead, the angry Jotun ran forward and tried to use an axe to cleave Freida in two. But the girl took a nimble leap backward by first crouching on her muscular thighs, followed by rolling powerfully off her heels to the front of her foot, then using her tightly coiled muscles to launch herself backwards in one great big spring.

"Hey, hey! Don't do that!" Freida complained. She walked backwards five steps but kept herself facing her enemy, as was wise. Freida had some faint hope of reconciliation with the Jotun until Orveon appeared hovering over her shoulder like a divine demon.

"Hey, look, Freida!" Orveon pointed into the distance. "The whole village has come to challenge you!" Orveon said in delight.

"You have real issues, don't you?" Freida bit out with a frown. Within minutes, a whole dozen Jotun arrived on thundering feet. As one, they swung at Freida with one great, orchestrated chop of their enormous bronze axes. Freida had no choice but to swing her sword in a wide arc around her in one last desperate plea to live. The lightning magic in the sword crackled and left smoking ruin in the wake of Freida's swing.

"Wahooo!" Orveon sang out hovering over the pile of bodies. "That was an exciting battle! An extra bonus of ruin!"

"Like I said, you have real issues," said Frieda. Turning away from Orveon, she hefted her pirated (or rather Vikinged) bag of gold over her shoulder.

"Oh come on," Orveon pleaded for compassion. "If you were a grim reaper, too, you'd understand. After a time, the shift veil between life and death kind of gets dull and repetitive. Everyone bores me by dying exactly the same way."

"Is that so?" sniffed Freida. "Well, it's not like I care. So long as I don't die, I'm happy."

"Cowardice isn't going to keep you safe all the time either," observed Orveon. "It's a dangerous world. As a Viking, you should understand that sometimes the path to success is to be the most dangerous one out there."

"Hm. There is a certain validity in that argument," Freida said turning to give Orveon her full attention. "So what now?"

"Now that we have a bag of gold, we can buy a ship!" Orveon beamed. "And since you're such a bug about it, we'll buy you some sheep!"

"Only the best will do!" Freida shook a finger sternly at Orveon to emphasis her words.

"Only the best!" Orveon promised. "Now would you like a ride?"

"Nn-ha," Freida hesitated before she shrugged. "It's better than carrying this bag of gold by myself, I guess," she said before allowing Orveon to scoop her up from behind the knees to carry her. She had to lean back slightly and grasp Orevon's shoulder to do so.

Freida and Orveon flew all the way to a smoky, sea-salted village on the coastline to buy a boat. Orveon disguised himself in more subdued wool coat of green to barter for a boat with a retiring fisherman. It was no Viking longboat, but Orveon fixed that some by procuring a fierce boat ram-head off of a sunken vessel which lay collapsing in the shallows of the bay. When Orveon had fixed this functional weapon and adornment to their ship, and when they had shooed six fine, fluffy, mixed-color sheep onto the rear of the boat, they set out across the sloping waves.

"Where are we going Orveon?" Freida asked her companion as she drank from a flask of water which always hung from a leather strap at her hip. "I don't have more than week's supplies for myself! We'll have to land eventually!"

"Just over the straight," Orveon nodded at the horizon as he kept his hand on the steering paddle for the rudder. "My brothers are on an island there, or so the ravens say."

"Ah," Freida said before settling herself down in the bottom of the boat for a nap. She unwound her tightly braided hair and spread it to lay out all around her in a radiant halo of brown. Orveon blinked down at the girl a she napped with a warm smile. Their ship glided faithfully through the waves. Then Orveon heard the crunch of wood and the cries of sheep.

"My sheep!" Freida freaked out, yanking her long locks of hair in anguish as she stared at the ruffling waves all around them. One of the ewes was missing. The waves grew still, and then, with a woosh a cascade of water sprayed all of them as a sea serpent reared it head up above the water. Freida was dwarfed in its shadow as it lifted its head. But she was too angry to feel fear.

"Oh, no! You're not going to eat my sheep!" Freida wrathed. She pulled her sword out of its sheath and held up one hand, gathering magic within it.

"Stun!" Freida zapped the monster's nose as it moved its jaw to snap her. Then, hurdling its teeth into its jaw, Freida disappeared into its maw. There came a ripping sound as Freida cleaved through its head from the inside. The sea serpent collapsed into halves, dangling at the edge of the boat. Freida kicked her way from the inside through the gash she had made.

"Oh, fish!" Orveon chuckled as Fredia emerged and kicked the dead serpent a few more times for good measure. "Why thank you! This should be enough to both of us to eat!"

"You think?" Freida said pushing her now slimy hair out of her face.

"Yup!" Orveon said wrinkling up his nose. He scooped up a bucketful of seawater from the cold ocean and unceremoniously dumped it on Freida's head. Then he offered Frieda a block of soap from his pocket.

Frieda still had five of her sheep left in the wake of the sea serpent's attack. They also had an abundance of seafood to eat, so they kept a fire in a metal pot on the ship and smoked and ate fish until they could eat no more. Then on the horizon, a tiny island could be made out. Freida stood up and squinted at it.

"Is that where we are going?" the girl said.

"Yes," Orveon said, his tone dropping to more seriousness than usual. "We'll soon find out what happened to my kin."

The boat they rode slid up onto a gravel beach with a crunch. Orveon and Freida carried it up out of the reach of the tide, uncaring if the sheep they had brought with them ran wild. It was a small island. They could always round up later is they so chose.

The sheep ran away with a merry bound, but Freida and Orveon walked up to a series of stones at the crest of the hill on the island's center. At Orveon's approach, a circle of magic spread out from around his feet to flow into the soil. There was an angry crackle from single tombstone. It smoked as if on fire.

"Freida, please break the stone!" Orveon directed. "It is something I can not do!"

"Well, I'll do it as a favor," Freida agreed sullenly. "But don't forget you owe me for this!"

Freida smacked the stone with Orveon's sword. It only clanged against the stone and sent shockwaves of pain through Freida's arm. Ramming in more gently, with the pummel, Freida had no more success. So, after putting the sword away, Freida kicked the tombstone instead. She kicked it repeatedly, then forced her shoulder against it. Freida used a weathered post to dig a bit off soil away from the tombstones face, and with a further shove, it popped loose from the hole where it had been shallowly anchored. Freida struggled with all her might to drag the rock to the edge of the hill, then dropped it roll off the cliff by force of gravity. When she had done so, the light around Orveon's feet dissipated. Three spirits began to take shape on the hillside instead.

"Thank you brave and valiant war…." one of the three, armor-clad figures spoke. Then his praise stuttered to stop. "What, wait who are you?"

"She's the warrior who rescued you of course!" said Orveon standing in front of Freida before his brothers. He had pressed Freida slightly aside as she did so, and now Freida blinked up at him as Freida crossed his arms and glared at his brothers as though they had deeply offended him.

"I thought Vikings were supposed to be men. Not chicks," one of Orveon's brother sniffed. All three were stout, with bands of muscles girdling their chest like a lion's. They also a lion's mane of hair and enormous battleaxes, much unlike Orveon's lender but expertly crafted sword.

"She is a warrior!" Orveon argued.

"Oh, really, willow-snip?" one his brothers chuckled. "Last time I checked women were not warriors among Viking."

"Uninformed, biased opinion!" Orveon sniffed. "It happens! And Freida is the greatest woman-warrior alive!"

"And I thought Valkyries were the ones supposed to be chicks," Freida rolled her eyes.

"But how did all three of you get sealed under a rock?" asked Orveon. "Even drunk, you couldn't have done that to yourself."

"No, willow-snip," one of the three towering Valkyries sniffed, rubbing his gold beard. "No mead in of all Valhalla can do that. It was an enemy."

"An enemy here on this island?" Orveon questioned. He tipped his head to the side as he considered this.

"A former friend. You see, we all were having fun with some our mead, cards, our-dice-roller run by our talking chipmunk. But our former friend got drunk and let the chipmunk get away from its wheel. We had to take to throwing bones instead, and it turns out the ones we offered to use were enchanted so they always fell a certain way. One thing led to another and we had a brawl. Our former friend called an army of his fellow monsters and they sealed us under the stone."

"That's quite an interesting tale, brothers," said Orveon, his eyebrow twitching. "But now that you are freed, you can all return to Valhalla can't you?"

"Return to the spirit realm? No brother! Now we go to storm the monsters in their castle!" another one of Orveon's brothers complained. "The monsters stole all our armor and weapons as they threw our beaten forms into the grave. But we could not be slain with our deathless bodies! And so we were sealed by powerful magics instead."

"The monsters have shamans among them?" Orveon wondered.

"Not at all unlike humans," Orveon's third, towering brother said. "Nicer, actually."

"You're planning on storming a castle?" Orveon asked in order to clarify.

"Aye. It is a short sail from here."

"Ah, but your boat has been stolen or sunk, brothers!" Orveon said. "I do not see one on the island anywhere."

"Then lend us passage on your boat, Orveon!" one his tall, stout brothers demanded in a booming voice. "We will recapture our boat later, after our armor."

"Very well," said Orveon rolling his eyes. "We weigh anchor immediately." Frieda blinked.

"Ah! But my sheep! We will have no room for my sheep!" Freida fretted. If these others took up room on the boat, there would be no room for her sheep.

"Dear, Freida, I promise to buy you some others," Orveon pleaded for truce. Freida it her lip. She trudged miserably to the boat and wrapped her cloak around her to keep out the sea-salt spray.

It was every bit a short sail as Orveon's brothers had promised. A castle- tall, gray, and stout clung to cliff-face unsaleable except by birds. But beneath it lay a darkened cove. Orveon's eldest brother steered the ship straight into a port hidden in a tunnel of stone. Freida felt fearful of the darkness until she realized there were blinking lanterns of all colors everywhere. Before them lay a port populated by monsters. If it was not Freida's imagination, she heard music playing. She stared at the monster workmen as they rolled barrels on the docks.

"Let's park here," said Orveon as their boat slid to rest at the docks. Everyone leapt out of the boat. "Now which way is it?"

"I think it's this way!" said Freida pointing to a signpost which read, "castle".

"Oh, your woman is an expert monster tracker!" one of Orveon's brothers praised as the two looked moderately uncomfortable at his turn of phrase. Nonetheless, they pressed on. They trod through the monster town and up a long path until they broke out into the sunshine at the top of the cliff. The entrance to the castle lay just ahead.

"Aha-ha!" Orveon's brother guffawed as he stood by a "tours daily" sign. "This is the place!"

Orveon's brothers charged the door and rushed into the throne room of the castle. They ignored everyone and everything they ran by no matter how curious or complex. They arrived in the throne room which was draped entirely in white. Flowers and paintings of kittens lined the walls. But the floor was paved in human skulls. Perhaps they made good tile.

"Pik-poka!" a tiny king of the monsters said. He had gray, wrinkled skin, black, beady eyes, a tiny crown, and a toy-sized magical staff.

"Pik-kow!" the annoyed monster king squeaked while pointing the staff in the direction of the Valkyries. The king and Valkyries all "pik" and "pocked" at each other for several minutes.

"Ugh, this argument is going to go on for hours!" Orveon griped. "I have a better solution."

"What's that?" Freida asked. With a mischievous grin, Orveon grasped Freida's hand and drew her out of the shadows of a curtain.

"A Viking! Look, a Viking has broken in!" Orveon shouted. Hand still entwined with Orveon's, Freida gaped. Orveon shifted away and she drew her sword as tiny guards advanced all around her.

"Pik-kow!" the monster king said. Hundreds of monsters poured into the throne room at their monarch's call. Monsters opened their jaws wide to bare large fanged teeth. They lifted their hands to reveal knife-length claws.

"At them Freida!" Orveon said from beside her. "I will help you fight them this time!" Back to back, the two fought and slashed at the tide of small but vicious monsters. Orveon used magic spells, while Freida used her sword. This time, instead of glowing bright with lightening, the sword smoldered with flame. At long last, the tide of monsters stemmed and Freida panted to catch her breath.

"Wow, that's a lot of monsters!" observed Orveon. "Well, don't feel too badly about it, Freida. Let's get what we came here for."

"The armor?" Freida asked.

"Yes, and my brother's weapons, too!" Orveon said. They tromped forwards to find a little circular room filled with gold. Inside it was a treasure chest stuffed with the Valkyrie's' armor.

Orveon's brothers reclaimed what once was theirs. They made their way back to their boat to find a monster in a hat attaching a scrap of paper to the prow of their boat.

"What?" Orveon said snatching the paper from the boat to read it. "A parking ticket?!" One of Orveon's brothers snatched the monster up by the scruff of his robe. It quickly wrote something down on a sheet of paper and tore it off for Orveon to read.

"You wouldn't hit a monster with glasses?" Orveon read out loud. "Well, I guess not!" Everyone jumped in their boat and began to row away.

"So Freida," said Orveon when they had come to a newer, better island. "I know I promised you some sheep but my brothers are going to open a gate. I need to be getting back home, too. But I hate to leave you stranded here. Would you like to come and see Valhalla for a tiny bit?"

"Well, if a tiny bit means not dying and then going back home to the world of the living, okay," said Freida. "I'd be a treat!"

"Great!" said Orveon. Excited, the Valkyrie threw open a gate. Orveon swooped Freida up and flew through a ring of glowing golden light. "Come!" said Orveon grasping Freida's hand in his own and lifting it high. "You have proven yourself a capable warrior. Let us go and ask Odin for permission to marry."

"Wahhh?!" Freida paled. "You still want to go through with that?!"

"A vow is a vow is it not? Let us ask, dear Freida," said Orveon. Hand in hand with Freida, he led the way to Odin's Hall.

"Hello?" said Orveon as he cracked open a door. He knelt before a one-eyed man as large and tall as pillar. And owl perched on the edge of his wooden throne. "I have come to ask for your blessing," Orveon bowed. He explained all the glorious deeds Freida had done. Fight harpies. Slay Jotun. Defeat a legendary sea monster. Exterminate monsters. Save Valkyries from a cursed seal. But Orveon drew his head back in surprise as Odin's reply amazed him.

"No!" Odin said sternly. "You say this girl is a Viking warrior. But tell me, girl, was your father a Viking?"

"Ah, no," Freida flushed. "He was a Roman sailor."

"You see?" said Odin sorrowfully. "It is impossible for her to stay here. She belongs to a different deity. You must return this girl to the world of the living, Orveon, to live out the remainder of her mortal time."

"Ah," Orveon said sadly. "As you wish."

Orveon flew back through the portal to the living world. This time, he exited far above the island nation that had always been Freida's home and sailed amongst the low-lying clouds. Orveon clung to Freida and pressed her against his chest firmly.

"Freida," Orveon grumbled out. "There's something I want to tell you. I… I love you Freida. And if there is a way for us to be together, would you be okay with that?"

"I….I…. Well, I guess so!" Frieda mumbled out. Her face grew bright red with embarrassment.

"Okay! That's great!" said Orveon with a smile. Before Freida could open her mouth to protest, he flew them below the clouds and tossed Freida into a volcano. But Freida found herself being pulled out of the volcano by Orveon by one hand.

"You jerk!" Freida raved angrily. She no longer needed Orveon's help to fly. She floated. "You killed me!"

"Don't worry!" Orveon said with a saucy grin. "I am a Valkyrie after all! I get to choose which souls go to Valhalla after death!"

"Are you trying to say you're exploiting a loophole?" Freida griped.

"Yep!" Orveon grinned before dragging them both through a portal into Valhalla. They emerged by a banquet table stocked with food and overflowing flasks of mead.

"Hello everyone!" Orveon chirped. "I'm back!"

"Ooh, women Valkyrie do exist!" Freida gaped at small crowd of ravishing beautiful, tranquil, ethereal beings. She eyed their flawless complexion and long, frizz-less hair with envy.

"Who's this you've brought with you, Orveon?" one the women Valkyrie asked in a deeply resonating voice.

"A very special friend of mine!" Orveon smiled. They landed next to the table stocked with food and mead.

"Here, Frieda, have some bread! And there's venison roast! And all the other food you could ever want to eat!" smiled Orveon, passing Freida a bowl.

"Ohh!" said Freida. Unthinkingly, she crunched into the bread, then downed her fill on meat and sweets. Orveon poured her a drink from a flask of mead.

"See, isn't this place great?" Orveon asked.

"Yeah!" Freida grinned. She swung her hips and began to dance. "Ha-ha-ha!" Orveon joined her in her laughter.

Five celestial days later, Orveon and Freida were awakened from their groggy, hung-over-sleep by stern-looking, older women Valkyries. They marched Orveon and Freida all the way the throne room of Odin, god of the Vikings himself.

"Orveon, what have you done," Odin said sternly from his wooden throne. "You have stolen this woman's appointed time on earth. You must be punished for what you have done."

"I understand," said Orveon bowing his head.

"And you, child come here," said Odin speaking to Freida. "I can not bring back the body you have lost. But you must live out your appointed years. Your soul will replace that of a raven, and so shall you live, until you pass. But all of your memories of being human will remain."

"Very well," said Freida bowing to the god of the Vikings.

Freida awoke as tiny, glossy, black raven hatching from her egg. She struggled to kick aside the chalky, fragmenting shell she had born of. And and she struggled to her feet, the memories of her life swirled in her head. Anger filled her as well as love.

"Why did Orveon do this to me?!" Frieda raved. "Why must I live as this? Why does Odin punish me with my memories?"

Freida thought it better to have not remembered at all. She anguished over Odin's reasoning as she grew from a chick into a young bird. As soon as she could fledge, Freida flapped free and far away from her nest. She flew to her old master's hut on the top of his mountain to see if her memories of being human were true. The old man was laying on his sickbed. He turned to see Frieda as a raven standing in his doorway, regarding him curiously.

"So the ravens have come to eat me already, huh?" the old man said. "Oh, well. At least when I die, I will no longer be bothered by that hopeless apprentice of mine, Freida!" the old man spout. Freida ruffled her feathers with rage.

"Stupid old man! I should peck his eyes out!" she raged. But she flew away instead.

Freida built a nest on the roof of her old master's house after he had died. One day, as Freida landed on the post of a fence, she spotted another raven amid the glossy leaves on a beleaguered old pear tree. It dropped its mouth open in a caw. But in her mind, it spoke a name she had never thought to hear again.

"Freida?" the raven in the tree crooned to her from his perch. "It's me, Orveon."

"Orveon?" Freida wondered aloud in her raven's voice. A startled caw rattled in her own throat. "What are you doing here?" Orveon stared firmly at her from his perch.

"This is my punishment. I must live in the form of a raven until your soul passes from this world to the next."

"Oh," said Freida. "I am sorry. But then again you deserved it! You threw me into a volcano! Thanks to you, I'm turned into a bird!" Freida cawed fiercely at Orveon. But then she relaxed on her perch on the fencepost.

"Yes, I deserve it," said Orveon. "And I am sorry. But if you can forgive me, I have something selfish to ask of you. Live with me Freida, for as long as you live." Freida hesitated a long moment. So many heavy emotions fluttered about her human soul. Then she fluttered her wings and stretched herself upright on her post.

"Very well," Freida said. She dropped free of her post to fly freely into the air. Orveon took wing and followed after her.

The years past. Orveon and Freida lived as ravens. Together, they raised mny nestfuls of of chicks until their children had spread all over the vast island. Orveon never seemed to age a day. But Freida grew old. One day, she lay down on a patch of earth in a warm, sunny field and shut her eyes.

Freida found herself being called to then, in a soft, warm voice.

"Mother raven, mother raven," a Valkyrie called softly. She stroked Freida's back as she cradled her in her hands.

"Where am I?" said Freida opening her eye to the haloed light.

"You are in Valhalla," said the female Valkyrie with a gentle smile. "But it must hurt you, what has happened to you. You have left behind your mate in the other world, and a nestful of chicks unfledged. You must worry for them."

"Yes," said Freida stirring in the Valkyrie's softly glowing hands. "It is painful."

"Then you may go to them," said the Valkyrie with a gentle smile. "Wear this red string around your leg and fly as hard as you can. If you fly with all your might, it may be that you may reach the other world and reunite with your mate."

"Yes," said Freida thinking more as the bird than the human. She got up from the Valkyrie's hands, ruffled her feathers, and flew, diving down deep into a hole through which she could see the clouds. A brilliant, golden, celestial light surrounded her at first, but then as she dove, flapping with all her might, Freida thought that the sky turned a more familiar shade of blue. She spotted her old mountain home below her.

"I must reach it," Freida thought to herself. "I must return home." Freida flapped her wings with all her might, but as she did, it felt as if something was preventing her from moving forward. She fought against the celestial light that pushed her back as effectively as a gale of wind might.

As she fought, the red string behind her trailed wider and wider. Freida dipped her head lower and flew as hard as she couldn against some invisible force that was restraining her, and just like that the string on her foot unraveled to a banner streaming behind her, continuing on to eternity. Freida could see Orveon on the ground beside the old pear tree now, only he wasn't in his raven from now. He was Valkyrie again. He held his arms outstretched and waited for her. Freida flapped her wings fiercely to reach the ground and like a crystal breaking, she too, broke from a crow to woman again, but this time she was not a brunette but a woman with a Valkyrie's raiment of white and gold. Freida flew gently down into Orveon's outstretched arms. He snugged his arms around her.

"Orveon?" Freida wondered in awe. "What has happened?'

"You have proven yourself worthy of being a Valkyrie," said Orveon. Freida's eyes snapped to the roof overhead. She had not forgotten.

"But the children!" Freida gaped. But Orveon kicked off from the ground so that they both floated high beside the nest on the roof. Orveon snapped his fingers, and just like that, the half-grown chicks in their nest turned to gold began to fly on steady wings.

"These four will be your familiars from now on," said Orveon moving one of their golden, glittering chicks from his finger to Freida's. "And now, these four shall follow us to live in Valhalla."

"Valhalla?" Freida said. She nestled her head against Orveon's chest, wondering in the glory of it.

"Yes, we should return home. My bride," said Orveon with a smile that transfixed Freida. And so off they flew, to live in Valhalla, the world of the Valkyries. But many of their children, the mortal ravens, lived on in the lands filled with both snow and green.