Return to Glome's Valley

By Peggy Chambers

Fourteen years ago, Ethan met Glome, the Viking ghost, and the fairies at the cottage where his father was studying the Heavener Runestone. Now Ethan was back and news traveled fast in the forest. Currently working on his PhD in Archeology, Ethan soon found the forest much as he left it when he was young. Only he had changed.

While making s’mores with Glome and the energetic fairies, Ethan learned that the Vinland Maps lay hidden in a nearby cave. They were drawn by Vikings who traveled to North America long before Columbus. Every self-respecting archeologist had read about the maps in college. And he wanted them.

Warned by Trondelag, the dragon, not to go up against Loki and the draugrs for a piece of paper to make him famous, Ethan decided to go anyway. And then there was Mac – his doppelganger from when he was young. Would he be able to protect her? With his magic sword and friends to back him up, how could he lose?

Once again Ethan revisits the runestone only to face challenges and find adventure, danger, surprises, and an epic battle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peggy Chambers
• Release date: Sep 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370996957

Peggy Chambers

Peggy Chambers calls Enid, Oklahoma home. She has been writing for several years and is a multi-genre published author, always working on another. She has two children, five grandchildren and lives with her husband and dog. She attended Phillips University, the University of Central Oklahoma and is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. She is a member of the Enid Writers’ Club and Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. There is always another story weaving itself around in her brain trying to come out. There aren’t enough hours in the day! You can find her at http://peggylchambers.com/ where she writes a weekly blog, like her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BraWars, connect with her on Twitter at #ChambersPeggy, or Instagram at champeggy.

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RETURN TO GLOME’S VALLEY

©2017 by Peggy Chambers

All rights reserved.

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without written permission of the copyright owner and/or publisher of this book, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters places and incident are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Cover Design: Diana Haslet

Interior Format & Design: Peggy Chambers

Dedication

Words cannot express my gratitude to the Enid Writers Club for their critique and editing of this book. Especially helpful: Jim Arnold, Paula Benge, Martha Draper, Bobbie Mardis, Pat Piety, and Lucie Smoker. They believed in me even when I didn’t. And they believed in Glome’s Valley.

RETURN TO GLOME’S VALLEY

Fourteen years ago, Ethan met Glome, the Viking ghost, and the fairies at the cottage where his father was studying the Heavener Runestone. Now Ethan was back and news traveled fast in the forest. Currently working on his PhD in archeology, Ethan soon found the forest much as he left it when he was young. Only he had changed.

While making s’mores with Glome and the energetic fairies, Ethan learned that the Vinland Maps lay hidden in a nearby cave. They were drawn by Vikings who traveled to North America long before Columbus. Every self-respecting archeologist had read about the maps in college. And he wanted them.

Warned by Trondelag, the dragon, not to go up against Loki and the draugrs for a piece of paper to make him famous, Ethan decided to go anyway. And then there was Mac – his doppelganger from when he was young. Would he be able to protect her? With his magic sword and friends to back him up, how could he lose?

Once again Ethan revisits the runestone only to face challenges and find adventure, danger, surprises, and an epic battle.

RETURN TO GLOME’S VALLEY

Peggy Chambers

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 1

The ancient gray tongue skillfully snatched the dragonfly from the air as it floated above the pond, then sank back into the murky endless waters. Dragonflies were a delicacy it indulged in as often as possible. Then as quickly as it appeared, the dragon smiled a toothy grin and swam back to its lair inside the hill.

* * *

Ethan backed up and turned around on the dirt road. Finding the gravel driveway – hidden by brush – took forever. Then he guided the orange Jeep Wrangler down the path. Some of the old asphalt still existed, riddled with potholes. No one had been down this road in a long time. No one alive, anyway.

The windows open in the summer heat, Ethan heard locust droning on and on in the shadowy valley where the breezes never reached. They always sang the same tune, a buzz that grew louder and then softer, then louder still, over and over again. Hardly a breath of air stirred as the mosquito, looking for the mother lode, landed on Ethan’s hand. He swatted it away.

He stopped once to move a large branch that blocked the way, turned the corner - and there it was. Finally. He pulled the Jeep into the driveway next to the pond where cattails grew. Slimy green water filled the stone pond, with dragonflies floating over the top like tiny helicopters on a mission.

Walking down the hill that stretched up behind the pond, he found the small spiral-shaped, copper-roofed, cottage with a roof that came all the way to the ground. The walls were made from volcanic rock and chunks of blue-green glass shards that caught the light and threw it back into the forest to mix with the shadows. From the second story of the cottage, a small deck jutted out into the surrounding valleys. Ethan walked slowly up to the edge of the roof and stopped. Down a couple of steps, he saw the arched doorway at the base of the entrance. The front door of the house had a center post allowing it to revolve in the middle and open on both sides. He found it locked. But Ethan had the key.

His friend, Sven, purchased this house fourteen years ago, when he helped Ethan’s dad decipher the runestone. He used it as a vacation home for many years. When the packet arrived from the attorney’s office, Ethan learned that Sven left it to him in his will. The spiral-shaped cabin where he played with Glome and the fairies when he was a boy belonged to him now. The story of Glome had come full circle.

The strange little key fit into the odd-looking lock and clicked when he turned it. Good, because no self-respecting locksmith would deal with it. Even if he could get one to come out to the cabin. The door automatically swiveled open.

Sunlight filtered through the filthy windows up top and the musty smell of dirt and stale air, filled Ethan’s nose. He stepped in. Dust motes floated in the room that no one had entered for years. He knew Sven had been ill and the cabin sat unused for some time.

He’d been away at college when Ethan’s dad called to say that Sven had died. Sven had been like a second father to him. Ethan often thought it was Sven, not Ethan’s father, who had changed his mind from studying geology to archeology. As a kid, Ethan thought history boring. But Sven brought it to life.

Ethan looked up when movement caught his eye. A round platform, with a single bed in the middle, hung from the ceiling of the cottage by a cable. It swung from side to side, but no breeze blew through the door. He walked to the spiral stairs in the center of the house and began to climb. The dangling platform swung faster.

Glome? he called out from the stairs.

No answer. A door slammed at the top of the stairs as Ethan climbed higher around the spiral. At the top, the outside door stood closed. A closet next to the back door was ajar and Ethan could see arrows and animal skins inside. Opening the back door, he stepped onto the deck and viewed the rope bridge across the dry creek bed. It was a bridge he had played on as a child many times. Now it hung at an angle on rotted ropes. It would need to be repaired. Suddenly the bridge swayed as if the wind were blowing. But no wind blew in the valley that day.

Glome? I know you’re here. He looked around for his old friend.

You know I’m where? asked a voice behind him and Ethan spun around.

There he stood. Ethan’s childhood friend, garbed in animal skins, still wearing a helmet on his head with horns sticking out both sides. On his belt hung a wooden toy sword; on his face, an impish grin. No, mischievous, not impish. Ethan learned the difference when he played here as a child.

Ethan stood head and shoulders above the short, squatty Viking ghost who taught him to use a sword when he was a child. But that was long ago. Suddenly Glome’s grin turned sour.

Where have you been? I looked all over for you. I thought you’d come back and play. Glome adjusted the sword on his belt.

I told you I had to go back to school. Ethan remembered the last conversation they had when school was starting and Dad finished his research. Fourteen years, but he never forgot his friend nor their adventures in Glome’s valley. How’s Hilda? The fairies? Any trouble with the trolls lately?

They’re all fine. Sven quit coming too. Glome stubbed his toe in