Skrallings

Lars spotted the ship from the opening of the river. He had an idea that it was heading towards the Vanir colony. Therefore he could easily paddle the canoe in front without being detected. He paddled for several days until he reached the place where they had encountered the Skrallings. They were no where to be seen. If only I could get them to shoot at the boat, he thought. Then they could fight each other instead of fighting the Vanirs. He thought a lot about that while he was searching for them.

Lars was experienced in picking up tracks of both animals and people. Soon he spotted tracks that lead into the woods. He dragged his canoe to the shore, hid it, and followed the tracks. There was a clearing a few kilometers into the forest. He found their camp exactly as he had anticipated. There were forty tents in the camp. The people were doing there daily tasks and did not bother much about their surrounding. Obviously, they were not used to external threats. Outside the camp there were three totems. He had never seen totems like that. It looked like they had cut some large trees and made decorative animal figures out of them. He thought it must be of some religious importance, since they looked like the totems the Vanirs sometimes made.

He went back to the river and looked for the ship. It was so slow that it showed up a few days later. He stood at a cliff and watched the ship approach. This is it; he thought to himself and started running towards the camp. He went directly to the unguarded totems and looked for the natives. First they did not take much notice of him. They only hushed him away and occasionally threw a rock at him. Then he pulled down his trousers and pied on the totem to get attention. The reaction was more aggressive than he anticipated. A horde of forty warriors came running, furiously shouting.

Lars ran even faster than with the crusaders at his heals. He did not even stop at the tip of the cliff. He just ran and jumped out to the river. The river was rather narrow but it was also deep, so he managed to hit the water without getting hurt. Even though he hit the water rather close to the ship, he had no intention to enter it. He swam as far as he could under water to the other side of the river. At the other side, he did not even bother to stop and watch, but ran as far as he could into the forest and into safety. Finally, he turned to see what happened.

The natives discovered the ship and probably thought it was the intruder’s companions. The ship was in good position for shooting and they gave it all they had. The arrows rained at the boats and hit all the passengers several of times. The natives did not even stop when the ship started to drift backward out of the river. Lars had a mixed feeling about it all. He certainly had been successful with his plan, but it also meant some of his own people died. He did not know that they were doomed anyway, and that he had saved everyone else.

Lars did not want to take part of this anymore. He went looking for his own canoe once the ship had rounded the corner and the natives gone to their camp. It was safe and intact. Now it was time to seek his people, the Vanirs.