"So," says Isa playfully, "what is there between you and Haleth that I'm not seeing?"
Asmund's head perks up as he looks into Isa's questioning eyes. He then notices the other members of the group's attention draw their way.
Asmund attempts to find the words in Eldari to keep his answer secret from all but Isa, but is unable to. With a sigh, he says, "There was a time when I may have loved her as more than a friend... but that time is in the past. I wish not to lose her. It would serve neither her, nor I, nor Ulfjolt for that matter if I was to put my feelings into words."
Isa puffs thoughtully on her pipe before noting the others leaning in to listen to their exchange. "That reminds me," says Isa, looking from one face to the other, "how old are all of you?"
"I am... fully grown," says Gunnar in his usual self-assured tone.
"I am seventy and five," says Bairrfhionn, prompting a look of suprise from Isa and Asmund. This would mean Bairrfhionn is a mear fifteen by the standards of the elven people.
"I've seen eighty winters," answers Murdaeg.
Isa is suprised to hear this. To her eyes, Murdaeg's face is befitting a man in their mid-twenties. "How long do Dvergr live?" she asks.
"There is great variance," answers Murdaeg. "The eldest Dvergr have lived into their three-hundreds."
"I shall be twenty and one at the end of this summer," says Asmund in Eldari, concealing his answer to all but Isa.
Upon entering the village of
Hleyp, the villagers being to clap at the sight of them.
"Hail, the wyrm-slayers have returned!" calls a man.
At this reception, Gunnar lifts his spear aloft, prompting a cheer from the small crowd.
"Before you all take your nightly rest, I have something that has been troubling me as of late." The others silently give him their attention and Bairrfhionn continues, "Haleth's father that the being who cursed Ulfjolt is likely an undead being who perverts the wishes of elves. When I was a boy... I wished to go on an adventure, to leave my home and see what lay beyond. Five years ago... a horde of draugr unleashed by a necromancer destroyed my home. I alone survived. Genma found me, and took me in as her ward."
May 28th
"
"Have you ever been enslaved?" asks Bairrfhionn, sharply.
"I've not," replys Asmund.
"Well, I have," says Bairrfhionn.
This captures everyone's attention.
As midnight approches and his watch nears its end, Asmund hears a faint noise to the east. Focusing his vision, he sees a line of six men, walking hunched low towards the campsite, most with weapons in hand.
May 29th
Asmund whistles loudly to alert the party before drawing back an arrow in his short bow and letting it fly. It strikes the ground in the path of the advancing intruders and Asmund yells firmly, "Stop right there!"
The figure leading the interlopers stops as the arrow strikes where he was soon to plant his foot. Drawing his sword, he shouts, "They're onto us!"
As his companions ready their arms behind him, Asmund's party rouses from their slumber and grabs weapons of their own.
First to act is Gunnar, who before he even rises to his feet, grabs his spear and hurls it at the line of men, striking the side of the leader and nearly hitting the man following first behind him. The alle then picks up his shield, draws his seax, and positions himself between their attackers and the rest of the camp.
Murdaeg, still wearing his armor, sits up and shifts into a crouch, with one knee to the ground. He slams his mailed fists together, but instead of the sound of clanking metal, the noise more resembles the crash of two great bolders slamming into one another. A flash of golden light emitting from where his fists meet, the dvergr begins to grow, doubling in height and octupling in weight in a matter of seconds. His weapons and armor grow along with him and once his growth halts, he drawns his battleaxe and takes up a position behind Gunnar.
The band of intruders are visibly shaken at the sight of an opponent who stands so tall that the top of his head touches the leaves of the surrounding trees.
The door flap of Isa's laavu bursts open and the seiðr steps out, staff in hand, and Margu perched on her shoulder. The owl hisses and telepathicly says to her mistress, "Isa, these fools are dead!"
Seeing the intruders, Isa raises her green-glowing staff and says in a voice that echos and reverbertes, "
Gwedhi-hain," casting
Entangle in their midst.
A slight tremor wripples through the ground beneath the line of intruders and the first four soon find themselves unable to move as roots and grasping plants burst forth from the ground and begin wrapping themselves up their legs.
Of the intruders within the range of Isa's spell, only their leader has the speed and strength necessary to strike down at the plants with his sword and sever them before they are able to fully restrain him. Glancing back to see his companions not fairing as well as him, he barks, "You idiots, cut yourselves free!"
He then turns back to face his foes, only to be met with one of Bairrfhionn's arrows piercing his right shoulder.
The two rear members of the band of interlopers each rush in different directions. One holding an axe runs to the base of the tree Asmund shot from and loudly demands, "Come down from there!"
The other exclaimes, "Brother!" before rushing to the growing mass of stalks and roots and using seemingly his only weapon, a dagger, to attempt to aid one of his companions trapped by Isa's spell.
Asmund looks down at the man standing at the base of his tree as he pulls, knocks and draws back another arrow. Just as the man seems to be gathering breath to either shout something else or begin climbing up the tree, Asmund looses his arrow straight through his mouth and out the back of his neck, sending him spawling to the ground.
Acting on pure instinct, Asmund steps from the tree's branch and comes to a sharp landing, driving his knee into his target's chest. With a loud
snap and a gout of blood bursting from his mouth, Asmund immediately knows that the man who has broken his fall is dead.
Murdaeg, taking advantage of his size and momentum, scups Gunnar up with one arm and places the Astari behind him, as Gunnar is protected only by his shield. He then and surges forward to take his place
Bairrfhionn says it first, "Ignarfi."
"Ignarfi?" asks Isa incredulously, "What cause does he have to be cross with us?"
Gunnar and Murdaeg each supress a responce. Murdaeg then moves to get a better look at the still concious man pinned under Gunnar.
"I know this one," says the Dvergr, "he's a huskarl of Ignarfi's."
"I say we let them go," says Bairrfhionn, prompting a look of suprise from the others. "By the look of them, they could not follow us any further even if they wished to."
"I beg your pardon," responds Isa incredulously. "You really think we can just let them go? We know not what they had planned for us, nor what they are capable of. One likely wants revenge for the death of his brother. How can you honestly suggest we can simply let them go?"
The group falls silent for a moment, each weighing their options. Finally, Murdaeg speaks, "I say we let Gunnar be their judge. He alone amongst us is a servant of the lord of these lands and holds athority over these men. He should decide their fate."
All look to Gunnar, who now sits fully adorned in his mail armor. "Are you sure?" he asks.
"Aye," says Bairrfhionn.
"That makes sence," agrees Isa.
Asmund looks up and nods faintly before returning his gaze to the fire.
"As you wish," says Gunnar as he rises to his feet. He walks over to the prisoners and kneels before Drott, the only one of the two still consious and the apparent leader. With his seax in hand, Gunnar looks into the man's eyes and asks gravely, "Who sent you?"
The man offers only a scowl in responce.
"Did you not hear me? I, Gunnar, alle of the hird of Jarl Asger command you to tell me who sent you after us. Was is it your lord, Ignarfi?"
Drott
"Very well," says Gunnar, straightening his back. "You have raised arms against an alle of Jarl Asger Jorikson and therefore, against him. In his name, as well Thor, and the almighty Óðinn, I do sentence you to die."
With that, Gunnar stands and grabs Drott by the hair, forcing his neck to crane downwards with his left hand and raising his seax above his head with his right. In his mind, he recalles the decisiveness Inga had used in dispatching Gorm, and with a single stroke, Gunnar removes Drott's head from his neck lets it fall into his lap.
Gunnar supresses a shudder as he exhails,
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