Andromeda
The first Valkyrie leaned down from the saddle and reached for Anna’s hand. She took it as if it were the most natural thing to do. The firm hand pulled Anna up onto the sturdy war horse. As she nestled in the saddle behind the Valkyrie, Anna became free from the constraints of the living world. She knew this, felt this, all without being told.
image source: collected from the internet
The two Valkyries nodded to each other once she was in place. Without a word, they guided their steeds to the grand doorway. Anna looked back at her body lying on the floor. The crying woman and the man with the eye patch both knelt beside it. Now she remembered exactly who they were. How could they have slipped from her mind?
“Liudi! Odin!” she cried, reaching for them even as the Valkyries galloped through the theatre lobby. Neither Odin nor Liudmila looked up.
The Valkyries and their mounts burst forth from the Royal Albert Hall. With a mighty jump, the horses became airborne. Anna held tight, hands clutching the Valkyrie's waist. They circled London. Anna looked down at the night lights. Then they headed North. Anna looked to her right and saw the other Valkyrie. Her horse galloped on air, or perhaps on wisps of clouds. The wind whipped in Anna’s face, but it didn’t bother her, nor did the thin, cold air of their high altitude.
They flew over the English countryside. Ever northward. Over England, then Scotland. Lights from the towns grew further apart as they left the trappings of civilization behind. Anna saw the moon reflecting off the North Atlantic. They flew over the Orkney Islands. Aida was down there someplace. One of those clumps of lights was the town of Stromness, her new home.
“I hope she’s happy,” Anna thought. The lights floated by below them and they were over open water again. They flew over the Shetlands, and continued over the vast North Atlantic. Anna clutched her Valkyrie for dear life, holding fast to the leather-clad woman. The Valkyrie stroked her clutching hands.
“I will not let you fall,” the Valkyrie yelled, shouting over the wind. “My name is Róta.”
“I am Anna.”
“Yes, I know who you are,” Róta said. “How would it look if I carried off the wrong fallen.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be taking souls who fell in battle?”
“You, dear worthy one, your heart died in battle years ago. Death has been festering inside. It was only a matter of time before your body followed.”
image source: collected from the internet
Róta landed her steed in a clearing surrounded by a circle of erect stones. The other Valkyrie circled above. They called to each other with a war shriek, and her companion galloped off to her next mission.
“Come.” Róta held out a hand for Anna as she dismounted.
Anna let the Valkyrie help her off the saddle.
“So, am I dead?”
Róta smiled at her and said, “I will show you around Asgard.”
Anna followed her Valkyrie guide along the winding path, realizing her question hadn’t been answered. Flaming torches, spaced along their way, kept the steps lit. The grass beyond the path was well manicured. Anna could also make out the shadows of shrubs, bushes, and flower beds beyond the lawns. Leaves that rustled in the breeze told her there were woods beyond in the darkness.
“We are coming up to one of our hot pools,” Róta said. “You will find many of them scattered around Asgard.”
As they approached, Anna saw a couple making love in the water — a brawny warrior with long blond hair and a well-endowed redheaded girl.
“Our denizens, especially the naughty slave girls, like to avail themselves of the effervescent waters. The bubbles heal whatever ails them. Sometimes the spankings they receive for their sassy behavior are most intense. The waters mend their sore red cheeks and so much more.”
“Oh, you have sex slaves here, too?”
“Of course we do. The Gods and Goddesses love sexually tormenting their slaves.”
“Is that what’s in store for me?”
“Silly mortal. Odin will explain everything in due time. Come, I have more to show you. Unless you’d like to get in and join them.”
Anna shook her head. She wondered if having group sex with strangers so soon after death was the appropriate thing to do.
Róta led Anna along the winding path, past another of the effervescing pools, this one unoccupied. They crested a hill from where Anna could see the ocean. On the eastern horizon, the sky was turning purple announcing the end of night.
She followed Róta down the other side of the hill where their genteel path forked into two. They took the right branch and passed under an arch made of two trees on either side.
“Note this gate well, dear mortal. You have just stepped through a hole in space. If, on our way back, should you go around these trees instead of through them, you will not return to where you started. Rather, you may find yourself hopelessly lost and confused. Asgard exists in many levels of time and space.”
“I think I can get lost here very easily without those holes in space. But what if I do get lost?”
image source: https//br.pinterest.com/pin/566890671824535669
“If by chance, you should wander off on your own without an escort and find yourself unable to return, seek the help of any God, Goddess, or mortal, be they fallen or living; they will assist you.”
“Oh, great.” Anna looked around as they continued down the path; the lay of the land looked just the same on this side of that hole in space as the other. “What do you mean by ‘fallen or living’?”
“Mortals still believing in the old ways are brought here after their time on Earth is over. But occasionally, the Gods and Goddesses bring up a living mortal, usually to amuse themselves, but once in a while as a reward for a deed well done.”
“Reward?”
“You know, the usual kind of thing: slaying a Frost Giant or a serpent-dragon.”
“Oh.”
“Occasionally, for reasons that are beyond me, the Gods allow mortals to use Asgard as a way of traveling up and down time. Time traders, these are.”
“What do they trade in?”
“Gadgets from the future for antiques or extinct animals from the past, one supposes. You’ll have to ask one yourself.”
“But, how —”
“There is more to time and space than you can imagine, dear mortal. Some portals will take you to places where time runs backwards. ”
“Time can run backwards?”
“And sideways, too.”
“Oh.”
“Traveling about Asgard using the portals is easy, once you get the feel for it. And there are advantages, too. For example, if you’re late for your audience with Odin, instead of running on the most direct path to his chambers, you can take a leisurely stroll through a maze of time-reversed dimensions and arrive respectfully on time.”
image source: hezgigi.com/2016/07/09/new-years-resolutions-are-not-just-for-having-more-orgies-yknow.png
“This is Odin’s own hall, Valhalla. This is where he entertains the Fallen Worthy. The night’s festivities are underway. You will dine here tonight as a guest. Another Valkyrie will escort you once you get inside. Eat, drink, and allow your soul to rejuvenate; the feast lasts all night.”
“But it’s almost morning. The sun is about to come up.”
“No, my dear mortal. The path we took brought us back several hours. It is just past midnight, and the feast is in its full splendor.”
As Róta opened the grand doorway, the sounds of the Fallen Worthy spilled out like thunder.
“Oh, my!” Anna gasped, as she was led into the vast hall with row upon row of tables of feasting Viking warriors. They brawled, sang, laughed, clanked their wooden flagons, drank, then smashed them down on their tables with hearty thuds. Occasionally, a mug flew across the room and splintered when it hit a wall. And then there were the cries, screams, giggles, and orgasmic moans of slave girls as they were being taken.
“Am I to be used like this again?” Anna asked as she looked upon a buxom slave girl spread out on a table, held down by three Vikings while a fourth mounted her. If she struggled at all, it was only to wrap her legs around her captor's torso. 
… to be continued …
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