I am setting here with Helga next to left and Ursa on the otherside of her. I could look around and see many leaders from all over the Viking Kingdom were here to take part in this meeting. I also saw many of my gifted blades that I've made for Thorin were strapped to the Captains of their Guards. I looked at Helga and she said quietly for me to just hear, "seems like they like your iron work Jacob." I smiled a bit and I responded with, "I bet they don't know who made those too." Helga chuckled a bit making Ursa turn to hear us laughing a bit. "Mother silent, Queen Scree is going to speak."
She said getting us to pay attention to one of the three rulers of the Vikings. I already made friends with Thorin and will be family with him and King Canutis after I marry Helda. Queen Scree thought didn't know me yet. From what I could see from her is that she looked mean as hell but had a vibe much like Canutis. She looked at everyone then was going to start, but we all heard a man arguing with Helda. "Why did you approve to have that Englishmen sit in with the leaders and why is he dressed like Royalty?" He said almost yelling pointing at me and glaring at me. I could tell Helda was getting to the edge of hitting him but stopped when she looked at me.
I motioned for her to come over to me and she did without thinking. When she got to me I said, "Just ignore his mouth, that's all he is, you know my truth and he's just a brat." I then suggested she sit for the meeting to start. The Queen looked at me furious with me sitting at the table. "Why is he sitting in with us, he's not a Norsemen is he?" She said pointing at me like the young kid did to Helda. Thorin and Canutis Slammed their fist at the same time getting everyones attention. Then Thorin told Queen Scree who I was, "This man is Jacob Wellins and he's my persnoal black smith and Chieftain Helga's second Advisor for today."
"He's the person who's made the gifts I sent to all the Guard Captains in our Kingdom. He's a talented and respected member of Raven's Beak as their sole Smith." He said then Canutis brought up suprising news to Queen Scree. "Sister, he's the fiance as of yesterday, please show him a bit more respect at this table." He said as Scree's mouth dropped open looking at me. "you're marrying the Heavy Metal Princess?" She said making me laugh at Helda's new found nickname, "To me she's my Sweet Helda." I said out loud making Helda red in embaressment as she tried to hide her hands.
Her ring and neckless though caught the eye of many as they've not seen craftsmenship like that before. "Dear did he by that or make that for you?" Queen Scree asked her and she told her I hand made it for her in four days. We all started getting off track a bit with everyone asking how I am able to make things with great speed and perfection. I stopped everyone and asked out right, "Shouldn't we all get to the point of this meeting. We have people back home we need to get to before summer comes to the village." Everyone smirked and nodded to get back on track. So Queen Scree told everyone what was going on.
As she droned on about land disputes with the Nation trying to take over her lands to the south. I wasn't pay attention much since it was all boring to me. But then Queen Scree said something that caught my attention back to teh converstation. "We might go to war like ten years ago that took so mant of your people. These inhuman Beastmen and Oni are getting closer and closer to our waters with great big warship." I looked right at her and she seemed to want to hear from me, "Did you want to say something on this?" She asked me and I nodded as I stood up to speak even thought I didn't have to stand.
"I don't think going to war is the best choice right off the bat. Think about what that could cause in the future with possible stronger nations around the world?" I said as someone stood up and yelled, "You want us to what lay down and let them take out the people living near the shores?" The man looked right at me and I shook my head "no" and I suggested a solution. "Why don't we sit down with their leaders and set up a meeting with them to discuss things. We can't afford to lose people when all know damn well we can't spare soldiers after that last war." I looked right down at Helga and she was worried about a new war.
I was going to speak again but Thorin stood up for his turn to speak to everyone. "Everyone, I know our ways may of worked in the past but Jacob is right." He said looking at me and gave me a looked that scared me. "This man is not from our world, he's from one like this That had Norsemen like us. He's seen and learned what took his Viking and Norsemen out. There are times to fight but we should not fight people that we can make into trading partners or allies for the future." Everyone looked at me when he mentioned the other world stuff and I got scared again.
King Canutis gave me a dirty look but I stood up and spoke before anyone could make assumptions about me. "I love this world and most of the people in my new life. That man in the back is only half right, I'm not a Viking from birth. I was brought into your life by chance, Helga saved me from certain death from how violent this world can be." A man stood up and said as I was getting to the point. "You maybe part of their village but what makes you think tell us how to live?" I sighed as I got a bit annoyed getting interupted by that random.
"I have no place telling you guys what to do, I just wish to steer my adopted people into peace instead of hell Like what The Raven's Beak been through. I say find a common ground before war but If they still want war then go for it." That same man spoke up again but asked a dumb question. "What happened to them, The Raven's?" Helga gave the man a ugly face then Ursa spoke up yelling almost to the table. "That war that solved nothing ten years ago took all the men from our Village, not a single man survived or made it back. Jacob and his younger are the only adult men we have and they.."
I stopped her when the guy sat back in his seat, "I do love the viking people and I don't want to see them to lose everything like my village did years ago." I sat back down, and Queen Scree sat forward from her chair and asked me. "What should we do with this suggested meeting witht these beastmen then?" I sat forward and I asked her my own question that sparked a thought in everyone. "What do you think they want, you probably keep them locked away from a good ship route. They might want better trading or better ways to travel." I then looked over and saw that no one thought to think about why the other nation wanted that land.
Both Kings and Queen Scree looked at eachother and then asked. "where should we have the meetings with that other nations leaders then?" I looked at Helga and she sighed but she nodded at me in accpetence. "We'll have those meetings with them at Raven's Beak, I'll even make a greater hall to do it." I said as everyone groaned and gasphed in shock. Even the boat crew who were acting as our guards gave me a pissed look. But I then said, "I could get special security to keep everyone in check while the meetings are under way." I saw the look on Manti's face like she wanted to run but she didn't as I told her it would be fine.
"I will pay them in repairs and gifts for this one, I know they would do it then." I said to Manti behind me and she agreed that they would if that was the case. Queen Scree saw me talking with her and she asked, "Who's that strange woman behind you Jacob, she's not a inhuman is she?" Manti got even more worried then I snapped everyones focus to me again saying. "That's my familar, she's a Manticore which why I have magic. Her family are our neighbores and great friends to have, I trust them with my life as I trust Helda, King Thorin and King Canutis. I would have then act as guards to protect everyone."
Queen Scree seem to get up set but then Canutis spoke up for table this time. "With them being the guards I can see it being easier to make the otherside at ease with the conversations. I have only known this man for about eight days but I know we can trust him. For if my stubern daughter can trust him I bet we all can trust his judgement on this one." Canutis stopped but Scree still had reserve about this topic of letting a bunch of Manticores protecting them. She looked at Helga and asked her, her final question about me and I was to be trust.
"What can you tell us about how we can trust this man, he's a man not of Norse born?" She asked and Helga looked at her daughter, "I when we all met him and his brother, we saw them fall from the sky like from the old texts for the fifth King. I wondered if we should go and helped, but as I looked into their eyes from the crowd. I saw that one had fear in his eyes (Bradley) and the other one was Just confused (Jacob). I walked up to them and the eldest being this man her (pointing at me) tried his native tongue but then swtich to our tongue. I didn't trust him right away since it was weird that he knew both. But I took him in and took him home with us, I was going to make him a slave to fix up my village. But then he started to do things for me without being asked."
"He even saved the life of one of my crew members from being thrown off the boat. As we went across the great ocean we helped with everything from acting as our guard to carrying cargo. He listened well and only fought when he was given permission to. The man then when we all made it home found his skills as a craftsmen and made things that helped everyone. He never asked for anything in return or denied to help us out." She paused when I saw Helda wanted to tell a story about me from her point of view. Queen Scree let her because she was even more curious about me.
"I was following him around on our visit to Raven's Beak an order from King Thorin. He went around town dropping of orders from his iron work, cargo, supplies you name it he was just doing normal work with a smile on his face. Then at the end of the day, this little boy came up to him and wanted a knife set made for his mother. He even gave Jacob a drawing he did to show him what he wanted. Jacob accpeted the job without coin and got to work for four days straight. Of course he'd take a few breaks but he kept at his work till he was finished, I would visit his shop to see what he was doing from time to time."
"I would just see him working on the knives over his extremely hot fire pit. I did see a storage closet he had full of finished product, but he when I was there worked on the knives. When he completed them he gave them for free to the mother. What when he saw the mother melt in happiness with those new knives I saw him smile for real. He then told me that all he looks for in life it to help people who needed his help the most. If he is trying to help both sides on a middle ground its because he cares and doesn't want anyone to die if he can help it."
Everyone looked at me like I was a strange person, I smiled over my embaressed feelings. Queen Scree thought over my idea and nodded over her choice on letting the plan go on. "You Jacob will oversee the meeting making sure everyone is safe in six months. Prepare yourself for some work, Is this ok with everyone and if it goes south I need our guards ready to end it quick." She said to everyone, I shook my head "Yes" agreeing with her damands as everyone agreed with her. After the meeting concluded I went outside the castle to the courtyard next to the meeting hall.
There I lit a cigar I brought with me and I yelled infrustration. "Ah, God damn it why do I feel like this!" I then started to remember what happened to the real story I told Months ago. When I fought the eastern army to save a village from being whipped off the face of the earth. It was about early morning and we could see smoke rolling over head. I knew it wasn't good at all, I was the point man of the mission so I saw everything first. The whole town had just been destroyed by a tank or a mortar. people were either in half or bits of them were left all over the sandy roads. You could hear what sounded like people screaming in pain for someone to help them.
I ran to see if it was them but saw the people were right infront of the thing that was killing them. It was a old world war two tank being reused by the enemy, but it had snub nose cannon pointing at the civilians. The enemy yelled for them to kneel but no one did, I called in my location on my comms but for got to lower the volume on it. "Yes we'll be right there hold tight!" The Comms yelled loud enough for the tank to hear it. It pointed right at me and fired at my hiding place, I was gone though to another place and I had left my comms there. The enemy looked for me as the guy on the tank order everyone to do something.
I only had my rifle and a clip in my pistol, I had no gernades or explosives to deal with the tank. So I kept hiding till someone got close to me, I only remember Killing the first person with my pistol. Then I all I remember was a blur of fire and shots going over head as my squad found me. I looked down to see a kid was in my hands, he was dying from a shot to the chest. I didn't know if it was from me or if it was from the enemy. The medic pulled me up and check me out to see I had been burned on my back. "Lets get out of here, the jets coming to clear this place!" He yelled to me, I picked the kid up and brought him with me.
We ran and ran to the helicopter right before I saw the tank shot at us. I placed the kid next to the medic and grabbed the LMG attacked to the side of the ship and I pulled the trigger. I unloaded what I could and with a random straight stupid luck it hit the head of the tank round coming out to expoled in the chamber. Which blew up the whole tank killing more of the enemy near it saving us from the tank. My mind only remembered the next part where the Kid died in the operating room. I felt a tear roll down my face, I felt a hand grab my arm. I turned to see it was Helda and Manti wondering why I was in tears.
"Are you alright Jacob, why are you upset?" Helda asked me and I whipped my eye clear of my tears. "Nothing at all Dear, just an old memory from my military days." I said to her as I saw a shadowy figure appear behind Manti. The person quickly jabbed Manti with something and then ran away or tried to. The person was quickly stopped by Kel who came to visit the Kings. I had ran to Manti to see a blade had pierced her side. I started to feel my body get hot as I healed her a Manti all I could as Kel brought back the person who stabbed her. We all saw it was the Prince, The son of Scree who did it.
My mind seem to snap a bit as I grabbed him by the throat and took him out of Kel's hands. "Why would you stab her, she's done nothing to you!" I yelled as he tried to move but could since I was choking him. All three of the acting rulers were coming down to see where I was till they saw us. They Saw Manti on the ground with a pool of blood under her and Prince Scar in my hand being choked. "What the hell is going on and why are you choking my son Jacob?" Queen Scree asked me damanding I let him down, I refused as I started to cast fire into my open hand.
"He attemped to Kill Manti, I can not let him get away with attemptive murder!" I yelled getting angrier with each moment I looked at the kid. Queen Scree looked next to me and saw Kel was here, "He went to escape but he ran into me ma'am." Kel said to Queen Scree, she looked disappointed to hear it was true bit still asked me to let him go. I dropped him as the Prince passed out from lack of breathing. "Guards Throw my son in a cell for attempt of murder, but do nothing to Jacob, also have Manti taken to a healer." She ordered her Guards but I stopped them and took Manti myself to the doctors close by.
Back at the castle Thorin and Canutis were beyond angry with Prince Scar. "Why would he do something that stupid, she's a Manticore and a familar to our best Black smith in the land and any other?" He said out loud towards Scree who was ashamed her son did something like that. Canutis then expressed his anger, "Jacob will never trust you after this, he may seem mild mannered but I know he is hiding a angry worse than a dragons fury. You need to make this right sister, otherwise he'll never help you again." He got up but was asked by her, "How should I heal this, do I have to imprison my own son?"
She saw him shake his head "yes" then he left to come check on me. I was at the doctors using what I could to heal her with my own Magic powers. I then sat and waited till she woke up for a couple hours. Canutis came into the room and he was angry but not at me. "Jacob Prince Scar is going to be paying for his crime with imprisonment, he broke a law of attacking an offical within castle walls." He told me and I looked up suprised that they would do that. "Scree is more ashamed of that boy doing something that dumb, but she's also ordered you to stay away from him. She afraid you'd kill him without a second thought." He said and I laughed, "In my old life I would of done that when this happened but I've seen enough death for one lifetime."
He chuckled as Manti woke up, she checked her side and saw it was healed up well enough. "Better not tell my father about this one huh," She said joking with me. I hugged her and told her, "Be more aware of your surroundings next time, I may not be around next time to save you." Manti nodded her head and got up off the ground, King Canutis went to stop her but I let her stand. "She's a Manticore, if you can heal their wounds they recover really fast. She'll be one hundred in a little bit." I said to him and he let it be as I heard her stomach growlel in hunger.
I laughed and asked if she was hungry? She shook her head "yes," I smiled and took her to get food. King Canutis came with us but left his guards behind since we were going to be with him. We walked around for a bit but I didn't like the smells coming from the stalls. So I bought a few things from the produce vendors so I could make something instead. We then returned to the Castle to make the food, Canutis never left us and watched as I cooked a veggitable stew. I sliced and diced, then I cut up a huge thing of cabbage and dumped it into the pot over the fire. I seasoned the food and let it simmer for a while.
I could hear both King Canutis and Manti getting impatient with waiting for their food. I took a potatoe out to test it then saw it was soft enough and poured two bowls for them. I then took a small cup to try and watched them take a little spoon full. I watched as King Canutis's face light up with joy as he took his bite. Then he smiled at me fully, not a half smile like he did for Helda and the others. "Son, this is fantastic, who knew veggitables could taste so good, I don't miss meat at all with this." He said drinking the broth from the bowl, "Yeah, just a good dish to have when someones recovering from an injury."
I said to him, he looked at me and asked me if I made this alot? I shook my head "No" then I told him. "I only made this dish during the cold winter night or when my brother was sick." King Canutis bowed his head from my saddened tone of me missing home. "You'll be going home in the morning, but I have something that would help you." He said to me making me follow him out of the Castle to the docks. In the water was a freshly painted black ship with the Raven's Beak's creast on the sails and shields. He then turned to me and said, "This is the Raven, a ship we had lying around taking up space."
"I asked Thorin to give this to you and to use that old boat to make the crew cabins for you. It's way faster than your old one and you really only need six people to use it." He took me onto it so I could check it out, I saw that the whole crew and Helga were on the ship checking it out. Helga saw me staring at everything as she started to laugh a bit under her breath. "She's three times the size of our old boat. We barrowed a bit from the english but the ship is the same as our boat." She said to me as King Canutis left to let me really explore the boat on my own. Manti took of with the other girls to see where her own spot was going to be.
I saw the rutter was the same, I saw the sails were just as heavy as the old ones. Then I saw I had a real bed to sleep on in the crew cabin area with cargo spaces were spread out through the ship. It was an impressive ship to say the least but I was confused of why we were given this. Then Helga told me why we were given the Raven. "Queen Scree wanted to apoligize for her son, so you received this as a gift." She said pointing to the whole ship then to me. "I will hand her over to you Helga since they used your boat to make the insides with." I said to her and she tried to refuse ownership.
I gave her a funny look, she gave up and welcomed my regiftting of the ship to her. "I don't need a ship If I return here, in the distant future, but that won't happen for a long time I feel." I said making her feel sad about that future but happy I would not leave for a while. We took a inventory of everything we had and gathered what we all had in our rooms. Helda who was packing up what she could came by to see the new Ship for herself. She saw me leaning on the railing with a stange thing in my hand, I had a handmade clip bored with a couple pieces of paper on it. "Whats that in your hand Jacob?"
She asked me and I said, "It's called a Clip board, it helps me write on it and hold the paper tight so it doesn't blow away. I had these all over the place in my original world, they are very simple but use full when I need to write down what supplies we have." I checked off a few things on the list and saw she had her things with her and Kel behind her. "She want's to come with us so she can learn how to make iron like you do, You don't mind do you?" She asked me, I looked at Kel then called for Helga to ask for her permission. Helga came up from under the ship and looked at giant Kel looking down at her.
"This woman wants to come with us to learn how I work with iron in person. I don't mind as long as she pulls her own work during the journey back home." I said to Helga and she didn't mind either but was worried about the supplies. Kel tossed me a pouch of coins from her life savings, "I've closed my shop and will return once you two lover birds return." She told us and I laughed and showed her to the bunks under the ship. Helga stayed back and saw Helda was shock about how focused I was before sailing. "He's a quiet man, but he loves to work his ass of for us. You'll get use to it but make sure he rests often."
Helga said to Helda and she nodded as Helga went to check out how the rutter was. Helda came down to set her things down in a open bunk but I stopped her. "You can set your stuff by mine if you want, since we're getting married it would be a good thing to get use to sleeping in the same bed." I said to her and she looked at my area, it was small but room for aleast two people and some personal things. She set her stuff at the foot then she went up to see me standing by the rutter. I had nothing in my hands but a new cigar and my trusty lighter. She curled her nose a bit but then she came over to me, "You love those things a bit to much don't you?"
I laughed as I took a drag and blew the smoke away over the edge. She saw I was tired from all the chaos from the last twelve days, but I one of goals ahead of me. We went to bed on the ship so we could set sail first thing in the morning. As we slept I could feel her holding on to my arm tightly which just made me sleep even harder. In the morning we said goodbye to the Kings and Queen Scree who came to see us off with everyone who were leaving as well. King Canutis took me aside and gave me new family creast he had made for me. It was the same one I made for Helda's Neckless, I smiled and shook his hand.
"Come visit us before winter hits, so we can have dinner again, I'll make you a meat feast of which you've never had before sir." I said to him and he didn't know if would be able to but he said. "I'll try to make room for my long schedual." Helda smiled but told as we forgotten, "you both will see eachother in six months remember that meeting with that Beastmen's leaders?" I rubbed the back of my head laughing, "You're right, well then In six months I'll see you and others for a well made feast then." We got back on the ship and headed off home to Brad and everyone at the village.
We had a very easy time sailing with the new Ship, not a single port gave us trouble. I guess it's because we had both Kel and Helda with us. Then when we made it home in two weeks I could see the Village was the same as ever. Not a single things was different with the place, though we could see Manti's siblings flying to greet the strange ship. When they landed on the deck they saw me and then Manti who was on the rutter. Her brother came up to me first and shook my hand firmly. "Jacob, it's good to see you brought her bak safe and sound." He said to me and I smiled back at him.
"It's great to see you too Roni it's been almost two months since I've seen everyone. How has everyone been, hope there wasn't any trouble when we were gone?" I said to him and he told me that a few ships came by but did nothing. Then he smelled a couple new people, I saw his eyes light up. "Oh right I would like to introduce you to Helda my fiance and her smithing friend Kel." I said calling over both of them to me as they kept their distance to the monsters. Roni looked at Kel and smiled, "You must be half Giant with a nice body like that?" He said with a straight face, and she grabbed Roni and started joking with him.
"How did you know that, is it because I'm really tall or is it my smell?" She said laughing more as we got closer to the village. As we settled to the dock everyone in the village came to see who was here. Like when I first came to Raven's Beak the younger women crowded us to see the crew. This time though they all greeted me with relief and wondered who the tall woman was. I even saw Astrid coming to see if everyone was doing ok. Then everyone saw that Helda was with us, "What is she doing here Jacob?" Astrid asked me and I told her that I was engaged with Helda.
Her face got bright red and she hugged me and Helda together. "You two will be good for eachother, but make sure Jacob rests when he works Helda." She said backing off to compose herself a bit, then we all took the supplies and rested at the hall. I was sitting outside on the steps of the hall when I saw Roni come up to me. "My sister says you wanted to ask something from my family, she says it's something important?" He asked me and I sighed a bit, "Yeah, we can wait till dinner though, the journy wasn't long but I'm tired from the events from the meetings at the capital."
He understood and sat with me as we talked about random stuff that he learned about humans. We laughed and joked around till I saw the sun go down over the water. "Lets go inside to where everyone is." I said and we both got up and went inside to see everyone was resting a bit more. "Everyone wake up or look over here for me real quick!" I said loudly getting everyone to focus on me. I saw they all were looking right at me when I got to the chief's chair. I turned around and saw everyone who was in here were now standing to hear me speak.
"Helga if you don't mind I would like to inform everyone here whats going to happen in the next six months?" I asked Helga and she let me speak about the meetings from the capital. "Well it's not good, we are going to be hosting the Meetings for leaders of the Norse and Beastmen leaders. The Beastmen want to wage war on the Vikings to take land from Queen Scree for something she has. We all don't know what that is. So we are going talk with them to see if we can come to a peaceful resolution. I've been asked to ask for help of the Manticores once more to act as guards for this meetings."
"I know you guys have done a lot to keep everyone safe for when we were gone. I can talk with their leaders if I need to and I will repay them with help with their village if its requested. I'm the one who suggested these meeting to make sure another war doesn't break out." I looked around and Astrid asked me, "Why do we need the Manticore specifically, is there a reason for this?" I smiled a bit then I said back to her. "I feel that they would be more at ease to see that a village who are alliened with a inhuman Guard would be more favorable. Also to help contain anyone who might start a fight in our village."
"I don't want anyone to die or get hurt under my watch as I've been placed at the amadori to keep things civil. I wouldn't ask for help if I didn't need it, but I want to safe than sorry. Also we have two new residents, my future wife Helda and a friends Kel who's going to learn from me in smithing." I looked at everyone, I could see that was way to much information to take all in. "I know the crew is tired and that was a lot to put on everyone but the Kings and Queen Scree put this on us. I will also be building a new hall for this meeting somewhere, so if you have an idea of where I should build it let me know?"
Everyone stood there for a moment then Aldi said for everyone. "We can all help with this, you've been a second leader and helped us grow. I can speak for everyone here and say this is alot but we've dealt with difficult things before." Everyone nodded with her words and was suprised they were all ok with this. After I came down from the chair everyone went home, even the Manticores went home to their village to tell their parents about the situation. When I got home, I saw Brad was sitting by the fire reading a book. He heard me close the door he turned and greeted me, "welcome home Brother and it's good to see you Helda."