Chapter 5: Chapter 5.0 – Varangian Strife

Sitting in my small throne, I overlooked my nine guests.

“We’ll return at once,” ordered Flyn, the son of Halof. His small body hidden under thick layers of wolf fur. The young man pushed aside his silver goblet he bought in a small mining village a few dozen kilometres up the river, “I’m not accepting any compromise. I know you'll lose money; however, I’ll make sure to repay you once we get home.”

“Hahaha, you will repay us!” Gustave bellowed on the opposite side of the table. “With what money? Your father’s money? The one who led countless expeditions for the king, the one who was granted territory for his sacrifices in these very waters? The one who lost his hand in the North Sea.” As Gustave’s words winded down, the silence in the room grew more apparent. “Do you take us for fools? Do you take your father for a fool? Money isn’t simply paid out. It is made. If we do not bring home gold, then your father’s coffer will dry up as wel—”

“No! A single expedition will not plunge our estate into ruin. If you are so thirsty for blood, then take a ship and row till you reach middangeard.” As Flyn got ready to rebuke the next insult made by Gustave, he was surprised by the man’s lack of words. However, half a minute later the old man opened his mouth.

“Maybe you’re right. Perhaps I should take a boat and head for Constantinople.” The room fell silent, and all eyes turned on Ari. Only then did the raiders notice the bat on their leader’s shoulder.

Seeing that this would be a good moment to regain control of the room Ari let Frode step on his leather glove. “This is Frode. I don’t know if you remember yesterday but a bat was overlooking our conversation. Later that night, when everyone had gone home, and I was thinking things over.” Ari let Frode fly back on his left shoulder. “This bat approached me and made me realize that all animals, whether the size of a bee or as large as a bear always return home, however, before doing so they always gather pollen or eat their fill of berries and fish.”

Now that Ari had declared his intention, the room became even quieter until the breathing of Flyn grew larger than the room. “No! This won’t do. There are two camps here, one is to go home, the other one is to head to Constantinople. And to be completely honest I can respect the later choice, however, to continue to do as we’ve always done is too much for me to comprehend.” Flyn stood up and started to walk towards Ari.

Sensing aggression in the boy’s steps Gustave got up as well and headed towards Ari in case the boy got any funny ideas.

“I’m tired of these arguments. We’ve been stuck here for a month. It is time to move on,” said Flyn. His hand pulled out his axe. Ari saw what was coming; however, he couldn’t believe one of his own would act so brutally, especially the son of his dear friend Halof. Could he even kill his friend’s child? What would he think of him? Could he ever return home? Wouldn’t it be better to let himself die, after all then the others could follow Gustave down to Constantinople? Greed and a drive for glory were good after all, he had just grown old and complacent. He had lived a good life. At least he could die still being able to admire flowers.

That’s when the bat on his shoulder flapped its wings and flew into Flyn’s face. Still on the other side of the table from Flyn, Gustave stopped for a second, however, remembering that a bat couldn’t hold back a man he jumped on the table and raised his axe. However, just as he was about to split Flyn’s head in half the bat transformed into a human and sunk its teeth into the boy’s neck.

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Gustave’s POV

“What the fuck is that?” wondered Gustave as he stood on the table, axe raised, ready to kill a now-dead insolent boy.

The others were now quick to act and the eight remaining men, excluding Ari, encircled the being which sucked Flyn dry.

One of the men who had been sent by Halof to look over Flyn started to move and ran towards the beast, however, a yell resounded in the hall.

“No one attack!” yelled Ari with his characteristic composure. “Flyn attacked me, Frode protected me, whether he is a force to be dealt with is something we must determine now. Who knows if we can even touch the hair of such a being so let us not be hasty. "

The man stopped; however, his eyes did not waver.

What looked like a boy, with dark brown skin and small tangled up black hair continued to drink Flyn's blood without restraint. He gulped down the viscous liquid in synch with Flyn’s heartbeat. The sound of which filled the room alongside small splatters of blood. After what felt like half an hour, the boy’s head finally moved, and his teeth unclenched itself from Flyn’s neck. A long slimy pinkish-red thread connected the beings’ teeth, and Flyn’s blood drenched neck.

“What is your name?” asked Ari breaking the trans-everyone had entered.

The boy turned around, lips crimson red, a trickle of blood flowed down his lips, onto his chin, down his neck, and onto his naked torso.

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Ari’s POV

“What is your name?” I asked the boy.

The boy didn’t move for a little while; however, the look of confusion clearly painted his face. I decided to ask him the same question in the language of the people here. “What is your name?”

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The boy squinted, no doubt thinking hard, although for what reason I did not know. Did he not speak any language? Were we being toyed with by Loki? That’s when the boy pointed to himself and muttered a word which grated at my spirit and tickled my heart. I had never heard of such a tongue nor such sounds. If it wasn’t clear enough, this was more than enough to confirm the boy wasn’t of this world.

However, seeing that he pointed at himself I guessed he understood, so I nodded, pointed at him, and repeated the meaning of the word I believed he had just said, “Name.” After all, learning new languages and communicating with the incommunicable was just another part of life for those who rode waves.

“Aidar,” said the boy. Although the name was a bit bland and unexpected for a being such as himself, I guessed that he wouldn’t reveal his true name to people such as us. And if he did, I doubt we could pronounce it.

“Do you understand what I’m saying?” I asked to make sure.

The boy didn’t say anything but simply tapped his shoulder. That’s when his body disappeared, and a bat appeared on the floor. It flapped its wings and flew towards me. Gustave took a step in my direction; however, he couldn’t compete with the speed of a flying bat. The bat landed on my shoulder, and although a tingle spread on my neck, I knew it wasn’t going to do anything. Instead of losing focus to fright, I tapped my shoulder and said “shoulder,” in hopes he could eventually come to understand our tongue.

“Whether or not the gods are playing tricks on us or not, they have decided that I be the one to decide. Does anyone have any complaints?” I asked the men who stood, frozen in time and space.

The murmurs of birds and the songs of whistling trees entered our wooden hut and pushed me off my throne. “Then we depart in a week. We have wasted enough time bickering amongst ourselves. Tell the men to clean the decks, sharpen their axes, and count their coins. It’s time to row.”

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Aidar’s POV

A few days after the incident twelve fine-looking Viking vessels, three of which were considerably larger and carried most, if not all the cargo were a breach on the banks of the Itil River. Men carried gold, arms, and various trading materials stored in wooden crates onto their hulls. On the other shoulder, I stood and followed Ari as he ordered the men around and helped load the cargo.

This time he took a wooden crate filled with what looked like silver goblets and other miscellaneous silver ware. Instead of nailing the lid shut his hand dove into its content and pulled out a silver ring and he said, “ᚱᛁᚾᚷ.”

He did such things to teach me the language. And in all honesty, it wasn’t the hardest language to learn since it shared similarities to English which I had learned in my previous life.

When he had gone through a dozen items, he picked up the box and carried it away onto a ship where another man carefully stored them in a manner which wouldn’t affect the boats maneuvering too much.

Life continued as such for a week. During the day the sun shone brightly and at night, a hundred thousand stars proved that the sun was one of an infinity, and the moon showed that rocks could be as significant and all the more majestic than spheres of radiant energy.

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Ari’s POV

I threw the last crate filled with animal furs onto the second cargo vessel. Everything had been stored away. We could now leave whenever. As such I ordered Gustave to gather the men at the entrance of my hut and waited.

When all five hundred and thirty-three men had been accounted for, I looked into the crowd and spoke. “Good work boys. Our little break is over and it’s time to buy and pillage our way to Itil. But as I’m old and my arms ache, I think a final feast is in order, courtesy of the gods.”

The wooden door opened, and two large wooden boxes came out. If it weren’t for the small amount of cloth visible under the bottom box one would think they were floating. Aidar took a few more steps with considerable ease when you considered he carried two crates filled with booze, stacked higher than his height and placed them next Ari.

The men let out shouts and started to move out to capture wild boars and wolves to feast upon. However, I remained there next to the boy who now wore the pelt of a baby wolf, thick Slavic cloaks taken from our cargo, and a sword tied to his waist with a brown belt. However, he still felt out of place. He didn’t wear shoes even though the earth was freezing, and the worms were sleeping. He moved boxes twice his size all day and had started to learn how to swing a sword and axe from Gustave, yet he never took a nibble of meat. He looked no older than eight or nine, however, the swing of his sword matched that of a young warrior. And his eyes always wandered off into the sky, attracted by the sun's vexing stare or the moon's loving embrace.

Well, it shouldn’t be expected that gods and the like resembled men in their entirety. After all he still showed humanity in his struggles to speak and learn our tongue. A man he was not; however, human he was.

 

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