Skate of the Valkyries

A group of Valkyries go to Earth to run their own skating rink and roller derby team. Why? Because they were bored!

Towards the end of the Dark Ages the majority of Anglo-Saxons had converted to Christianity, the Germanics were next and then the Norseman.  There were very few pagans left, no more heroes ascending to Valhalla.  Even the small amount that kept the faith were either accused of Witchcraft during the burning times or weren't fighters, therefore no freshly slain souls to enter Valhalla.

 

Centuries passed and the old faith returned, the old Gods came out of dormancy except for Valkyries...still not enough slain in battle to retrieve.  Quiet as it was, Woden's Valkyries were enjoying their long period of 'retirement' except a small group that were growing bored and restless as centuries go by.  These Valkyries were after something different.

 

Woden took the seven to the edge of Asgard at the Bifrost bridge, showing them Midgard below.

 

"Go forth into the world of mortals...find something different to do, get a hobby, find a job or career path, do something to benefit human kind and have fun while you’re at it!"

 

The Valkyries got excited, they huddled together, cheered and jumped up and down all excited.  Their chainmail shirts gave a metallic, jingling sound, the swords and daggers in their leather sheaf’s tapped their thighs.  Before they stepped onto the bridge Frigg, Woden’s wife bellowed as she rushed to bid farewell.

 

"Wait...!  You'll need spending money."

 

Dwarves showed up with a wheel burrow containing leather satchels of gold nuggets.  Frigg, Woden’s wife helped the Dwarves carry the satchels to the Valkyries and she gave some motherly advice to them.

 

"This gold should be worth more than you need...with inflation and all.  But be wise with your money and once you've deposited it you can use these satchels to carry things!"

 

Woden nod in agreement.  The Valkyries took a satchel each, hugged Woden and Frigg, said their thanks and one by one they slide down the rainbow bridge like a slippery slide which was awkward because their spears and shields got in the way.

 

Where they arrived was a strange place.  It was night time and they were in a valley on the outskirts of a city.  Behind them pine forests, rolling hills and a highway.  To their front a large parking lot with of an indoor sports stadium.  They were startled by the rolling noise and roar of a crowd coming from inside the hall.

 

“That is not the sounds of a mead hall.”

 

Ava was the first to speak up as the others put down their spears, shields and took off their bullet shaped Viking helmets.  Ava brushed her hair quarter length, strawberry blonde hair with her right hand as she always did when taking off her helmet.  The rest took off their armour and hid their weapons, gear, satchels behind a fallen pine tree but kept some of the gold on them.  Four stayed behind at the nature reserve to guard their stuff, the rest went to the hall to investigate.  Expecting to pay a gold coin they found no one at the ticket desk, doors to stadium were wide open and a game of roller derby was being played to a climatic finish.

 

"These Midgard women have peculiar armour, only on their knees and elbows!  Their helmets are strange and look!  They have tiny wheels on their shoes!  That does look like fun.

 

Exclaimed Ava as she stood in the doorway with the others pointing at the game.  The crowd were too enwrapped but a few spectators did give the Valkyries odd looks.  The Nordic spirits realised how they looked and returned to the others.

 

For days they used survival skills to live in the nature reserve.  They had more than enough money to buy mundane clothes and eventually a house.  They found something new they've been looking for, roller derby.  Now they had to work in society to get by.  Although Frigg and Woden gave them more than enough riches, the whole point to their adventure on Earth was to be challenged and they were up for it, neither one wanted to make things too easy for them.  But the gold was much appreciated.

 

After each one roamed the city to find out about roller derby, it was Ava that found a poster in a city square advertising recruitment for one of the local leagues.  She got back home as fast as she could and when she got to the house she ran inside, slammed the door.  The others were already there, in the living room gathered around drinking ‘this hot beverage with brown grit in it humans call coffee.’  Ava showed the poster and the others got excited.  They jumped into recruitment for their local roller Derby team and learned to skate.

 

Skating was difficult to learn and after two years only a few made it onto the team, the rest were still enthusiastic about skating though.  Friday night they were all huddled together in the living room planning ahead.

 

"What do we do?  Although we have enough money we need occupations to avoid suspicion...also because I’m bored and there's nothing on TV."

 

Said Inga as she fiddled with her curly, golden blonde hair.  Ava pipped up.

 

"Roller Derby's great but it's just a game and doesn’t pay."

 

Anya had an idea.

 

"I got it!  We've all become expert skaters in such short time…"

 

Inga cut in.

 

"Well we've had a lot of time on our hands"

 

"True...my point is we could easily run a roller skating rink, teach skating."

 

They all thought this was a great idea.

 

The next day they were all walking around the industrial suburb to see if they could find empty warehouses they could convert into a roller skating rink.  The girls walked around the block where they fund an empty warehouse.  There was a ‘For Sale’ sign, they contacted the realtor and all in a day they brought the place.

 

 

They gave it a simple name, Skate Land and its logo was a simple black and white sketch of a vintage roller skate with wings at its ankles and a cliché Viking helmet at the top.  Skate Land became a successful skating rink for years.  Such a mundane thing but combined with Norse mythology, it was quite the novelty with the local population.  Other roller derby teams would practice there, they ran skate lessons, skate parties were held, families would go there for roller disco's, skate lessons were held and kids would skate there Sunday morning.

 

Following the theme of the skating rink, the Valkyries who made it into roller derby were so popular that they formed their own team, 'Valkyrie’.  Their nature would show up in their skating.  At roller disco's if anyone would fall over man, women or child the Valkyries would skate down and help them up.  This made them unique, got media coverage and grew in popularity for a while.

 

Four years later they were still famous but things started to quieted down.  The Nordic ladies were gain gathered in the living room of their new but basic, suburban, two story house.  Sitting around the coffee table late on Friday night drinking ale.  They were all reminiscing and talking about how far they’ve each come.  But they all noticed the Valkyrie team had a full crew but only two Valkyries in it, one person running the rink and the rest were wanting to move on.

 

Things got worse, the crowds at their games were going down, players were moving on to other teams and leaving the country.  Eventually the rink closed, their team disbanded and the group of Valkyries went their separate ways.  They pursued careers such as Fire Fighter, An Army medic, policewoman and ambulance medic the group split up and wouldn’t meet again until Ragnarok...or whenever there’s a roller derby game on.