Hello everyone, how are you? I hope you're doing well. Sorry for my absence these past few weeks. I was busy with college, too many things to deliver. But finally, a break: I'm on vacation now and will be a bit more free.
Well, that 'Steps Arc' is already written and posted on my Patreon, and to be honest, it wasn't as amazing as I imagined. But please be patient, it will get better, I promise.
Wishing you all an excellent read and an even better week.
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Year 108 A.C.
POV: Denovan
The sea breeze washed my face. The smell of the sea air was intoxicating. Wherever one goes, be it in this world or the other, the sea breeze has the power to calm the spirits, and I liked that.
But, as I looked at the endless sea on the prow of the drakkar, my thoughts were elsewhere.
(Flashback - Last night)
Our bodies were sweaty after an intense and hot exercise that drove away the cold of the North. Melika had her face resting on my chest, her breathing returning to normal, when she began to speak in an almost inaudible tone.
"You should find another woman... I'm not that young anymore. We've been doing this for almost two years... and so far I haven't gotten pregnant."
"Don't say things like that, Melika... things have their tim—"
"I must be infertile..." she interrupted me, her voice heavy with a sadness very rare in her. "Maybe the excess of blood runes, or what happened at the weirwood tree years ago... left me like this."
I let out a long sigh.
"That doesn't mat—"
"How does it not matter, Denovan? You must have descendants! You are already a king to all these people, you will be a hero. And, perhaps, your children will be the heroes who will put an end to the White Walkers," she insisted, raising her face to stare at me with urgency. She looked like a totally different person from her seductive and laid-back everyday self.
I stayed quiet, stroking her hair. Could this be R.O.B.'s fault? Was sending me here and not allowing me to have a lineage with the woman I liked what he called entertainment? There was nothing fun about it.
"This will be the last time..." she whispered.
I didn't answer her, I just hugged her tighter.
(End of Flashback)
I hadn't thought about it before, only now, with Melika's words, did I really use my head to justify the situation. I, genuinely, didn't want a child so soon. That was all. But, at least in the last few months, thanks to Melika's seductive advances, we had lain together several times and, in fact, it is really curious how she never got pregnant.
I don't believe the runes did this. What I really believe to be the culprit is my own body. I faithfully believe that my genetics can no longer be considered those of the same species as a normal human. I don't know how big the difference is, and I don't even know if it is biologically possible for me to have children.
And that was a very sad realization.
Now, if it is really just a matter of low fertility on my part, and not total genetic incompatibility, maybe, if I keep trying, it will end up working out. Maybe I will gi—
My thoughts were cut off when the coast of Skagos appeared in the distance.
"MEN! Land in sight, we are arriving!"
Our drakkar started to accelerate rapidly, leaving the others a bit behind. I urgently need decent boats. The only useful one is the one I'm aboard; the rest were pure garbage.
After a few minutes, the island was already very close. At that moment, my mind connected with Orochi's and I spoke to her.
"Friend... find a good place for the ships to dock."
She hissed in agreement in my ear.
My mind left Orochi, and a slight weakness took over me. I didn't feel this with any of my other creatures, maybe just a little with Fenrir, and very minimally with Heindall. That feeling of being in Orochi's body... even if just to talk, her strength, her formidable muscles, her magic... everything makes me feel invincible. It was a dangerous feeling, but incredibly intoxicating.
I shook my head lightly to drive away the numbness, went to the back of the boat, and yelled to the vessels coming right behind:
"STAY IN LINE! ONE BEHIND THE OTHER... AND SLOW DOWN!"
As soon as I finished speaking, I moved to the prow, guiding the route we should take so as not to destroy our boats on the sharp rocks of the coast.
As soon as the water got shallow, it was possible to see Orochi sliding out of the tide. The enormous serpent, almost entirely black, was beautiful. At least to me. To the others, she only inspired absolute terror.
We docked and, shortly after, the others did the same. The men were exhausted from the hours-long journey, so we started setting up a camp. I didn't have any flying or fast creatures to keep watch over the perimeter, so I and some Marks decided to take a look around. The night was cold and somewhat dark. Not for me, of course; I didn't feel cold or have difficulty seeing in the dark, but my men did. We did the patrol and didn't notice anything strange.
The Skagosi either didn't notice our arrival, or they saw the gigantic naga that emerged from the water with us and were now preparing for the worst.
I stayed on watch the entire night myself. I spent the early hours pulling off Orochi's loose, old scales and gathering a handful of her hard, sea-green scales.
The next day, very early, my men were preparing for a battle. We were going to march to the nearest clan, which I believed to be the Stanes. But, before I even noticed anything physically, I felt Orochi tense up. I entered her mind and, through her eyes — or rather, through her thermal heat sensors —, I "saw" dozens of warm bodies approaching us through the vegetation.
Skagosi.
"Let's see how fast my men get ready," I murmured, pulling the horn bugle from my belt and bringing it to my mouth.
As soon as I blew, a loud, deep sound echoed across the beach, putting my men on immediate alert. It had been a long time since I blew one of these myself.
Seeing my men grabbing their weapons and getting into defensive formation before even finishing putting on their armor made me satisfied. After all, at least they wouldn't die defenseless.
"The Skagosi are ahead, prepare yourselves!" I yelled.
I drew my axe. It was already somewhat worn, it was time to forge a new one. Maybe I'll try to put runes on the next one. My last experiments using runes on non-organic materials didn't work out very well, so I feel increasingly tempted to go to the Vale and get in touch with the Royces. Those runes that were so talked about in the stories from my old world... were they actually functional or just aesthetic? If they were the latter, I would be very disappointed.
But there was a material that I firmly believed would accept the runes: Valyrian Steel. Not because it was a supposedly magical blade, but because the legends said that to forge a greatsword like that, it was necessary to sacrifice people. If that were true, could the weapon be considered an "organic material"? And if I used my own blood to soak the damascus steel I forge, what would be the effect?
If none of this worked, the only way would be to use only weapons with organic handles: horns, dragon bones, direwolf bones, or even from the naga. I believe I can carve runes with powerful effects into them, but the spell would be restricted to the handle, and not the blade.
Sigh.
I snapped out of my trance of thoughts when a multitude of Skagosi warriors appeared on the top of a hill ahead of us. They were all armed, but it was possible to see the fear and discomfort exuding from them as they stared at the enormous horned serpent right behind me.
As much as they had their weapons drawn, I didn't see an immediate desire to start a massacre. So, I took a step forward and spoke in the Old Tongue — the one the books said they spoke:
"Warriors of Skagos! My men and I came to seek food for our families. Might you have something to share... or maybe we can talk closer and without weapons in hand?" I yelled, approaching the base of the hill.
I looked at them. They started looking at each other, muttering harshly. Soon, a very tall and somewhat fat man, with a full beard and long, unkempt hair, stepped out from the middle of the formation. In his hand, a worn and dull steel sword was unsheathed.
"Snake-man... what are you doing in the lands of the Stanes? We own this place, the Starks granted it to us!"
"Stanes, huh? You are Lord Stane of Driftwood Hall, I imagine. We are just passing through. We are from the other side of the Wall and I want food or animals that can be taken on our boats. Our families need to feed. If you have any food to spare..."
"We have nothing to spare, snake-man. If you don't want war, leave!" he growled, pointing his sword in my direction.
I sighed.
"Do you raid?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"We take everything that appears in this region, snake-man. But you can leave, we don't want anything of yours."
"I do," I said, taking another heavy step. My Marks advanced along with me. "If you don't have food, then what do you have? Boats?" I asked, loud enough for the entire Skagosi vanguard to hear.
"Don't take another step, or my men will fill your body with arrows!"
I looked around. Men were pulling the strings of their bows with full force, all aiming at my chest.
A shrill sound, mixing the wet hissing of a snake with the sharp roar of a dragon, echoed across the beach. Orochi slithered over to me and began to coil her massive body around mine protectively. She was intelligent enough to understand the threat. As much as I wasn't afraid of half a dozen arrows (I could easily parry them with my axe), still, I thought it was cute of Orochi to do that.
While I found the behavior adorable, the Skagosi didn't like it one bit. The dread on their faces was obvious.
"Let's make a deal. Half your ships and half your food reserves, and then we will leave."
"Bastard! Then just kill us, snake-man. If you take all that from us, we will starve to death before winter!"
"What can I do? Is there any clan on this island that has food to spare? If you help us take what is theirs, I won't raid anything from you," I proposed.
He was silent for a moment, his mind working.
"There is no food to spare on this island, but the Stanes have an enemy. They are the Magnars. There are many of them, they must have plenty of food. And they have the unicorns... their meat is tasty."
"Do they have a lot of those?" My attention was hooked instantly. My interest in "unicorns" was enormous, even though I suspected they wouldn't be the beautiful and pure animals of medieval legends, but rather a hairy and aggressive beast.
"They are the clan with the most animals on this island, but they stay in the mountains, they are hard to catch. The Magnars raise some. We also had some, but the Crowls stole them from us... Those bastard cannibals."
My interest was piqued again.
It seems I had already found my main target. Cannibals didn't deserve forgiveness. I just hope they have something other than human meat stocked up to eat.
"And these Crowls, do they have food?"
"A little. It's not truly winter yet, so they aren't hunting us, they must have something stored."
"Stane, take us to these Crowls and I won't take any of your food. What do you think?"
"You want to go see the cannibals?"
"I don't like cannibals. So I'm going to kill them and take their food, and you're going to give me some boats and I'll leave in peace. What do you say?"
"How many boats?" he asked, swallowing hard, his eyes glazed over the serpent staring at him.
"How many do you have?" I shot back quickly.
"A few more than you," he answered, pointing his sword at my few docked boats.
I was starting to like this guy.
"I want four," I said, gesturing with my fingers.
He looked at my hand, then at the ships, then at the giant serpent, and grimaced in displeasure.
"That's a lot."
"Tell me... what was your name again?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Viggo Stane. Take two... and we can get this over with, snake-man."
"I look at him and say: Do you know how to build ships, Viggo? Like that one?" I pointed to our only decent drakkar.
He nodded slowly.
"We know how, but it takes a lot of time and wood."
"We'll take two of your boats then. But you will have to teach us how to make good drakkars."
Viggo narrowed his eyes.
"You are very greedy, snake-man. You sound like those lords from the South."
"It's not greed, Viggo. We need them to survive. Without good boats and without food, my people will die."
"Hmm," he grunted, nodding, seeming to understand the difficulties of surviving in the cold.
I looked at him, who still kept his guard up, and turned to my men.
"Put on your armor. We march. The Stanes are going to help us."
The Marked ones beat their fists on their chests in unison and returned to the camp to finish arming themselves. I put my axe away on my back and started walking up the slope towards the Skagosi, stopping face to face with Viggo. I was a head taller than him. The man was big, no doubt, but I was an anomaly of nature. Maybe the Mountain was bigger than me, but well... he wasn't even born yet.
"Don't do anything strange, snake-man... your giant snake can't protect you if you try any cowardice against me and mine," he said, bravely taking a step towards me, going head-to-head.
"Rest assured, Viggo," I smiled. "I wouldn't break my word."
Guys, this chapter was a bit shorter, and I couldn't write another chapter, I'm very sorry about that. But as I had already mentioned, things are complicated for me, time is tight, this coming week I believe it will be calmer, so I'll be able to write a few chapters, hopefully I can write a few to leave as a reserve.
Thanks for reading.
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