United States or Antigua and Barbuda ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Apparently, the little man had been climbing up or down the precipice Odin had just negotiated and had slipped and fallen. His legs shattered, and infection setting in, the Neebling had crawled against the wall to die. Odin could imagine him doing that last task silently. They were akin to the animals that they loved, the Neeblings. They did not complain.
Higher up, where the water had not reached, the machines had been stored along with other treasures. But Opal's best had been water-logged. And the trip that Odin had made with Wolden into the tunnel. That was the most heart-breaking of all. The Brons and the Neeblings had saved the treasures from the warring civilizations of the world above. The statues could be preserved.
The man was Gunnar, successor to Jul, and Chief of the Neeblings! Going to the pool, Gunnar began to wash his bleeding arms. "Yes, Old Gunnar knew you would be here, Jack Odin, for it was writ in runes of silver long ago that a man will go to the gates of death and brave Old Nidhug the dragon there to find his maid." "And how is she, Gunnar? Where is she?"
We of the Neeblings do not care for cities, but our farms and pastures were so arranged that there were several houses close together. And what fun the boys had hunting and fishing. Then I would straggle home for supper and my mother, who wasn't old then, would be at the back door with a laugh and a joke to see that her Gunnar had come home whole, and to make him wash his hands properly.
They could fly their ship, but they knew nothing of the science and the magic that had gone into it. We of the Neeblings learned that. And we Neeblings were their historians for a thousand years. Also, it was we who pieced together what little is known of their trip through space. And this is why: "We of Opal have always kept up with the world above us.
Most of the young men of the Neeblings died there against the walls. That is how we keep our promises, Nors-King. "But Old Gunnar had a trick or two left. Remember the tale that I read to you in the throne-room of Baldar. The first of the Brons to enter the world of Opal were soldiers sent from some blasted planet in outer space to find a new home.
But the wanderlust is heavy upon me. Freida understands. And I swore that I would go after Grim Hagen and after Maya. But this way, I die up there among the stars some day, and no one unless it be you and Maya will think of Gunnar." Odin slapped his arm across Gunnar's shoulders. "You are chief among the Neeblings. Stay here with your family.
The Brons and the Neeblings had been the true antiquarians of the world. And they had taken centuries to gather their collection. A dinosaur skeleton stared at them. The salvaged carved prow of a galleon leaned against a gaping whale's jaw. A model of the first atomic pile supported a score of leaning spears, but the feathers and artwork on those spears were now stains and shreds.
Three drops into the veins and the sleeper would awake. That is how they made the trip. Only a pilot, a co-pilot, a navigator, and a chief engineer were ever awake at one time. Their log-books were brief. But we of the Neeblings have them. I might as well have run him through, but he was our best and last hope. Wolden gave him a tiny cube, no larger than a ring-case.
And I thought sometimes that I would not make it. But I held on, for I knew you would come. Oh, it has been a long wait and it took all my strength." "As fast as I could," Odin answered in a choking voice. "As fast as I could, O Chief of the Neeblings. For Ragnarok is past, and the tree of life still reaches into the stars. The twilight is past and new suns and new earths are quickened.
Word Of The Day