"A cold night once again" she murmured to herself as she was shivering underneath a few fur bed sheets. "Aosoth, do you want some extra bed sheets? I can share some of mine with you." Her mother's voice called out next to her as her mother gently placed her hand on her back and lifted her into an embrace.
"But what about you mom? Won't you be cold?" She asked in return as she turned her head sideways to look up at her mother.
"Don't be silly, Aosoth, the cold hardly bothers me anyway. Your mother is quite strong you know? And with that strength comes some benefits." Her mother replied as she started to grab some of her bed sheets and wrapped them around her daughter.
"Where's dad? Ain't he supposed to be down here as well?" She asked as she took a look around the cabin filled with her fellow female tribe members, hoping to find some trace of her fathers familiar figure.
"Your father is helping the… sailors on deck. We're currently sailing across the northern sea and will soon approach the frozen lands. As your dad is strong, they wanted him on deck to fight off any sea monsters in the case of an attack. Along with some of the 4th step men of our tribe." Her mother answered as she looked up to the ceiling of the cabin.
"Then why don't you join as well? You're even stronger than dad right?" She continued her questioning as she snuggled closer to her mother for warmth.
"The sailors that were willing to ferry us across the northern sea are a group of people with a certain belief that women should not be on deck during voyages." Her mother answered with a tone of resentment. "It is best not to question it Aosoth" she followed up as she noticed her daughter's questioning gaze.
"Soon Aosoth, we will soon arrive at our destiny" her mother continued as her smile started to blossom on her face. "A land filled with gentle winds, fertile land and boundless potential. Just 4 more days."
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"Erik, wake up" were the words his foggy mind heard alongside a few gentle pushes in order to wake him up. "Hmmm, not now mom" was all he replied as he tightened his hold onto his sheets. "You've got some training to do, Estrid has already woken up and made her way there" a follow up statement by the voice he could now attribute to Ase as his mind started to clear. "And you know what happens when you're late to Gunhilf's training session" Ase teased with a smile on her face, eager to see the reaction she knew would come.
"No!" Erik instantly woke up, stood right up and quickly put on his clothes as he started to sprint out of the tent he was sleeping in, and as Ase watched his running figure disappear, a smile blossomed on her face.
As he started to run through the camp to his destination, a few soldiers started to laugh at his face full of fear; "Late again for your training session Erik?" a female soldier questioned as she watched Erik race by her tent, her voice full of delight at seeing him run past her like he was running away from the greatest of dangers. An almost daily occurrence that always brought a smile to her face.
"Make sure you kick Thyra's ass Erik! She recently put us through hell" a male soldier shouted as he was washing his body in a river as Erik made his exit out of the camp. "Oh will you shut up Björn. If she hears this she will make it even worse the next time" another male bathing next to Björn interrupted with an annoyed voice.
"Einarr, you cannot tell me you are not bearing a grudge to Thyra. What she did to us was straight up hell." The first guy, seemingly named Björn, rebuked in a gruff voice as Erik continued to run, not wanting to show up even later.
As the two guys noticed Erik kept on running, they wanted to at least shout one final word of advice; "Erik! Be very careful today. Gunhilf is there as well." the same gruff voice shouted before Erik finally ran out of their vocal range.
"Gunhilf…" Erik grimly whispered to himself as previous training sessions with her came back to him. While they were infrequent and quite sporadic, they were the worst training sessions, with the sole exception of those from Ase.
"I hope Adina is there as well… please be there Adina" he whispered to himself as despair and fear started to slowly settle into his mood. Over the years during his tutelage in language and other basic principles like mathematics and a tiny bit of geography, he was also trained physically by his family. Primarily by Thyra and Adina, but occasionally by Gunhilf and Hui-Ying. And today was another such day, where he would be trained like hell.
As he was making his way to the training field of the army, he saw rows of soldiers sparring with each other, while he had been told that normally they fight with their enhanced self from mana or use elemental spells, during the sparring session they were not allowed to use any of that. "It is so that they focus on their technique rather than raw force. They do train with mana or elemental spells, but not on the general sparring ground. They go to specialized rooms in the capital and cities or they have to use special tools that we have to block off a section of the sparring ground" was the answer Thyra gave him as she watched over the soldiers sparring.
"Hey Erik!" a voice called out past the rows of soldiers as he heard running footsteps come closer and closer before he was hugged by an all too familiar person to him, his sister Estrid.
"Hello Estrid! I heard you already went to the training field for the training session With Thyra and Gunhilf?" Erik hugged back and asked as he recalled his mother Ase's words before he ran off.
"Yes, I had something to ask of them, so I went early." She said as she broke off the hug and grabbed Erik by his hands, dragging him across the field to where Gunhilf and Thyra were likely waiting.
As he was thinking about what Estrid had to ask of Thyra and Gunhilf, they seemed to have arrived at their destination for he could hear something he never hoped to hear..
"You're late Erik…" an authoritative voice he knew all too well called out to him.
"Hello.. Gunhilf" Erik meekly answered as he saw the always strict woman wearing her all too familiar clothing. Her chest, shoulders, and upper arms were covered by gray plate armor worn on top of a tabard that displayed his family's herald. Her hands were covered by steel gauntlets adorned with the heraldry of the Gunnulf family surrounded by an anchor, a sword, a shield, a heart, an arrow and a river. The tell-tale mark of the ace of a family, its strongest member besides potentially the lord.
Covering the upper parts of her legs was a blue skirt that was fastened by a leather belt, while the lower parts were covered by steel armor from her kneecaps to the middle of her lower legs. Covering the rest of her feet and lower legs were steel sabatons.
"Don't be too harsh on him, Gunny. He was just 4 minutes late." Thyra said in her sleepy voice as she placed her arms crossed on top of Erik's shoulders and flashed Gunhilf a taunting smile.
"..4 minutes can decide the difference between life and death of your family, of your army and between failure or success of your objective. Besides Thyra… when was the last time you actually trained yourself?" Gunhilf spoke after taking a few seconds to consider her words, and then she focused her attention on Thyra as she started to circulate her mana across her body. After a second, Erik saw the symbols of the ace on her gauntlets light up, forming a massive projection twice as tall as she is behind her in clear display of the family's heraldry surrounded by all members of the family, and out of it came a massive greatsword.
"Absolutely astounding…." a whisper Erik heard to his right that he connected with a person he met yesterday. Standing next to Estrid were Asger, who Erik connected the voice with, and his family. Behind them were Signe and her family and to Asger's family's right were Inghardsson the third and his family.
"Astounding it is indeed..no matter how often I see it." Ase's voice from out of nowhere caused Erik to jerk his head to his left where he saw both Ase and Adina approaching their group.. and judging by Adina being here, he could tell he was in for a rough training session.
"Ase.. What are you doing here? I thought you would be planning the last 4 days of our travels to the northern woods" Gunhilf asked as she threw a questioning gaze towards Ase.
"I was, but then I got curious as to what you were planning to do. I knew you were having a training session with Erik and Estrid, but it seemed you also invited Thyra, The Ing family, The Trygg family and the Odhinkar family." she answered as a knowing smile started to form on her face.
"At Estrid's request, I was going to also train Asger, Signe and Inghardsson the third in maneuverability and stamina training'' she answered in her strict voice once again. "And it seemed their family just came along with their children.."
Upon Gunhilf's answer, Ase took a moment to take a look around the families and her own, before a teasing smile started to blossom on her face as her eyes started to lock onto Erik and the other children around him.
"We're dead…" Erik whispered to himself as goosebumps raked across his body, his mind going back to few of the training sessions Ase ever did with him. "Hell has arrived.."
"Hell has arrived indeed Erik" Ase whispered as she got behind him faster than he could utter the next letter, her agile body moving fast to deliver a roundhouse kick to Erik's torso, one he narrowly dodged by jumping forward, tumulting into the earth face first by pure instinct.
"How about this everyone!" Ase shouted, grabbing the attention of all the surrounding soldiers, the three families and their children, alongside the ones of her own. "Every single one of you is now tasked to defend Erik, Estrid, Signe, Asger and Inghardsson the third, the children close to me, with your life from me and Gunhilf. No weapons are allowed, your body is all that you will have! The battle ends if me and Gunhilf are able to contact all of the children!" she continued as a predatory gaze started to settle on the children in front of her and they knew… they were in for hell.