Saga was sternly ordered to sleep and was given a rather luxurious bed of soft furs and an actual pillow. Before they knew it, they were falling asleep, exhaustion setting in. The last thing they saw was Vetra giving Ordan the mother of all lectures.
Saga was drifting. They were within a sea of stars. The inky blackness of space seemed strangely material instead of the vast nothingness they knew it was supposed to be. Then, their view shifted and they realized they were not in the sky or space, but laying in shallow water, the stars mere reflections on its still surface. Staring up into the sky, it was the same alien sky they of their new world. Their new home.
Suddenly, the waters rippled as if disturbed by someone approaching. They looked to where the disturbance came from and saw a bird. A raven. It tilted its head and cawed. As it did, the one still waters became a frothing sea that pulled Sag under. They clawed and kicked, trying to struggle up to the surface but it was simply no use. Instead, everything turned dark and they felt themselves adrift. Then everything went blissfully silent.
Saga awoke to the sound of people moving around, picking things up and setting up for the next day of travel. Looking around, they saw Lenara, apparently having rejoined the caravan while saga was asleep. She was talking to Olaf and Saga decided to drag themselves up and out of the bed of furs and wobble over.
“Did you catch them,” Saga grunted, clutching their head? They still felt strange after yesterday.
“In a matter of speaking. Let us say he won't be spying on us anymore.” Lenara said with a soft sigh. “I did try to take him alive, but he was very adamant about not surviving.”
“That’s unfortunate,” Saga said, rubbing their temples.
“How are you doing Saga,” Olaf asked, handing them a flask of cold water that did a lot to alleviate the headache.
“Like I am hungover. Which isn't fair because I didn't drink any this time. What was that? It was as if the stone drank of my soul?”
“Nothing so dramatic.” Vetra's voice rang out as she approached, a chastised and sorry-looking Ordan in tow. “You body thought it was dumping magic into your spiritual affinities, the way you would subconsciously do to fuel a spell. Instead, it was the stone, that was nothing but a very simple conduit for the runes inscribed on it. You broke the rules, and your magic ran wild, draining you entirely and trying to supplement it with your vitality.”
“That sounds awfully dangerous.” Saga said.
“It can be if you do it for too long. What should have happened was that as soon as Ordan realized you had shattered one of your runes, he should have snatched it from you. But because he forgot what he was doing…”
“I am so very sorry,” Ordan said, the hurt and worry in his voice clear as day. In the short time, Saga had known the mage, this was the first time he showed actual regret for anything he did. Saga smiled
“You are forgiven Ordan. I am not even sure what you did wrong.” Saga said as they had no idea what. All they knew was that they had apparently broken one of the magic runestone things.
“I was an idiot,” Ordan said. It looked like he was going to elaborate, but Saga had enough.
“You were being yourself?” They said with a cheeky grin.
“Oh, ouch,” Ordan said, a faint smile creeping upon his face. Saga grinned and punched his shoulder as they walked over towards jasper and his bodyguard, ready to take their spot on top of the carriage. Before they could, however, Jasper peaked out of his Carriage.
“Not dead then?”
“Takes more than that.”
“Evidently.” He said as Saga hopped up onto the carriage before he could say anything else. Jasper frowned and muttered something under his breath before closing the door. Saga had no patience for the elf, as she looked to the half-giant instead.
“What’s your name,” They asked him. He looked to Saga.
“It will cost ya.”
“Oh yeah. How much. I only got a few silver to my name right now.”
“A silver.” The half-giant said without turning his head. Saga shrugged and flipped him a silver coin that he caught without as much as glancing.
“Hallvar Half-Moon,” He said, still not looking.
“Half-Moon. I realized I don't know my half-giant friend's last name.”
“Vetra Sunbourne is known by most of my kind around Alebridge”
“Sunborne huh. How come she is so well known.”
“Not many northern Half-Giants feel the call of the divine as a priest. Most of our spiritual folks are shamans that venerate the elemental powers of Ice, Water, Fire, and Earth.” Hallvar spoke as he spurred the oxen beast to move, the wagon train once more moving up the road.
“I heard you were here before the humans. When they settled, were there many disputes. Colonialism did quite a number on my old world.”
“Not particularly. Humans settled along the coast at the start and struck up a trade with the tribes and the Elves to the east. But they never pushed too far north, as it was rugged terrain ill-suited for them until they could settle. By the time they started using the rivers to travel north, a lot of half-giants were already part of human settlements and many humans moved and lived among our own.”
“I sense a but.”
”Aye. There is always one person who has to stir things up. The most prominent of the humans at the time, ahead priest of some kind, had a vision. He saw something in the deepest of our forests," Hallvar nodded. "It is a place taboo for our kind to go into, and that elves avoided out of fear. But he did not have this fear, he had no traditions that told him that forest was taboo. And so he feverously sought whatever was in that forest. Despite us and the elves telling them not to go, he and his faithful went. Tens of thousands strong, led by the Jarless Hildr and the Priest of War, Ainan, the human host went into the forest”
“None came back?”
“Not a soul. And the Jarless had taken most of the nobles that elected her leader into the forest.”
“Let me guess. The human north shattered into factions.” Saga surmised. They could already see a bunch of bickering men and women, scrambling to crown themselves and plunge perfectly ordinary people into meaningless slaughter.
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“It was a time of inner turmoil, to be certain. The Elven King saw the opportunity to absorb some smaller territories at his border, integrating them into his kingdom with the promise of stability and protection while the rest of the human North split up into a myriad of little jarldoms.” Hallvar said with a shrug. “This was well over six hundred years ago. Most of the smaller fiefdoms have been consolidated through war or political marriage. There are only really a few bigger ones left. The Jarldom we are in is one of the bigger ones.
“I see. Well, thank you for the forthright answer. I expected you to be the silent, brooding villain type.” Saga confessed, pleasantly surprised by just how chatty their mysterious colleague was.
“I don't know what that means exactly, but I this is a long trip, and talking passes the time,” Hallvar said with a shrug.
“I suppose you are right.” Saga said as they tilted their head, trying to get a feel for Hallvar. He had an as strange vibe to him. Like he hid something behind all the chit-chat.
The two talked for a little bit, Hallvar talking mostly about what he knew of the region's history and Saga mentioned a little about their old world. Hallvar was mostly curious about how Sagas society had moved away from monarchs and noted that at least in the North, a Jarl was chosen by a council, rather than giving the title as an inheritance. The council consisted of various figures of importance such as nobles with a lot of warriors under them, high priests of various gods, and others of influence such as rich merchants who made their home in the Jarls capital.
***
The next two days were relatively painless. The caravan moved a steady pace through the woods and from what they could tell, there were no more people in the shadows of the trees. At least nobody is close enough to be spotted. Saga spoke a little bit with Hallvar from time to time, but after the second day their conversations puttered out as Hallvar seemed to either lose interest or Saga got distracted.
Whenever the caravan made a stop, Saga and Sasha would train with each other, often under Olaf's watchful eye There would be no spatial awareness training with painful lighting balls threatening them but Olaf would have them fight him as a team, easily swatting their attacks away while pointing out where they left openings or where they made crucial mistakes in their approach. Olaf moved with brutal efficiency, being surprisingly agile for such a large man focused on Brawn. At some point, Olaf would toss Saga at Sasha with his shield, much in the same way Saga had done to Alf and Torbjörn once. It turns out being on the other end of it was an awful feeling, as you not only got tossed around like a ragdoll, but you also got to collide with your friend and be the reason you both lost the fight.
Each evening before bed Sasha and Saga would train with the runestone under the supervision of both Vetra and Ordan. Saga had continued issues with controlling and mastering their own flow of magic and kept cracking one of the runes. Whenever they did, the grass around them would either wither slowly or sprout through the Snow defiantly. But this was apparently not entirely uncommon with those who picked up magical training later in life than most. It helped to keep Saga from growing too frustrated to know it wasn’t just them. But she would grumble in frustration each time. Sasha on the other hand had little to no problem, to the point where she could have the entire rune stone covered in ice then shatter the ice with a pulse of force from her Might affinity.
As the third day on the road came to an end, Saga and Sasha were just putting away the stones when Sasha suddenly froze mid-motion. Saga blinked, trying to see what had caused the reaction only to see a massive snake come slithering through the undergrowth near them. Saga breathed in slowly, and let their hand gently place the stone in their pack, hand drifting to the sword at their waist.
“Don’t” Sasha said and Nodded towards the forest. Sagas's heart got stuck in their throat as they saw a massive slithering form. The snake within the forest was so large as to be half a tree's height while slithering.
“What is that.”
“Lindeorm,” Sasha said as she tried not to move when several smaller Serpents began to slither across the camp, some of them directly for the pair.
“What is it doing” Saga mumbled, trying not to focus on the snakes now slithering around the two, like a writhing sea of pale, reflective scales.
“It seems to be waiting. I have no idea why it is here. Lindeorm's travel long distances and are highly intelligent. They say they are distant relatives to Dragons.” Sasha said, her voice a terrified, shaky whisper.
“Can Olaf and the others kill one,” Saga asked, eyes never leaving the large shape among the trees?
“I am not sure,” Sasha said, twitching and flinching a little like one big snake wrapped around her arm. Her breathing was unsteady and panic rose inside her but she kept still. Saga saw one of the snakes head towards the berserker and fixed it with a stare. It stopped and rose up, as a cobra would. The two stared into each other's eyes and Saga saw the large snake's pupils suddenly dilate. Then, all the snakes began to retreat quickly from the campsite. The giant Lindorm stopped moving and looked out into the forest, as if spotting something, then it slithered away at speed, the rest of the snakes leaving with it.
"Holy fuck” Saga breathed out, eyes clothes, body covered in sweat. Glancing at Sasha, they saw she was still staring after it, shaking like a leaf. Gingerly, Saga reached out to grab her hand and squeeze it. Sasha started but looked to see Sagas smiling reassuringly at her. Without thinking, she squeezed Saga's hand and the two sat there, staring at the rapidly disappearing shape of the snake. Both then jumped in place as Hallvars voice came to them from behind.
“I’ve never seen one in person before.” The half-giant sat half crouched a little away behind them. Looking around Saga saw that Jasper had retreated into his carriage and was peering out the window, pale as a ghost. For once Saga could not fault the man.
“I don't care for it.” Saga said, looking back to the forest.
“Neither do I” Came Lenaras voice as she approached the three. “I am gonna stalk it from a safe distance for a while. The sentry's said nothing about gods damned Lindorm. That thing could easily destroy a village on its own.” She said unhappily as she was putting on her gear.
“Be careful.” Saga said.
“Always am,” Lenara said with a smile before running into the woods and doing her little tree running trick
“That is quite enough excitement for me,” Hallvar said as he rose to his feet and left. Sasha and Saga were left alone as Saga became aware of Sasha still gripping their hand as if Saga was gonna vanish any second.
“Not a fan of snakes, I take it.” They said softly, giving Sashas a reassuring smile.
“I hate them.” She admitted. “Ever since I was a child.”
“Is there a story behind it?” Saga asked as Sasha slowly began to ease the grip, but didn’t let go. Saga just let Sasha talk and unwind her tightly coiled anxiety as Saga remained a silent anchor. They knew how fear could crash you after the adrenaline left you.
“No. I just never liked them. They always scared me.” Sasha said, then leaned her head against Saga's shoulder. “Thank you.”. Saga's heart was thumping in their chest for entirely other reasons than fear. Although they were certainly nervous enough.
“For what?” Saga managed to croak out, staring intently into the darkness.
“For being you. If you had not come along, I might still be stuck back with Auntie. You are quite amazing, for someone who has only been around our world for a week and a half, you know that?”
“Me? I'm just a hothead. My one power is anger...” Saga mumbled nervously, face feeling hot and glowing red. They were not as one would say; A smooth operator. In fact, the operator was missing and the machinery was rusty and creaky.
“That will change. And I hope I can be there to see when it does.” Sasha said sleepily.
“I.” Saga froze as Sasha closed her eyes and seemed to slowly fall asleep against them. Saga smiled softly. “I hope so too.” They said quietly.
***
From the shadows of one of the Caravan wagons, Ordan snorted “It's like I am watching two teenagers.”
“I think it’s cute. They are both new to it. I think Saga was very closed off in their previous life. And well, Sasha has only ever known training and surviving.” Vetra mused over a cup of tea. The two had been on high alert when they felt the great serpent slither past their camp. It had been unfortunate that it had approached from the direction that it did with its children reaching Saga and Sasha first. They both had breathed out in relief as it left the camp alone.
“Obnoxiously cute.” Ordan scoffed while smiling.
“If something happens to either of them,” Vetra said between sips.
“We’ll skin the bastard who did it, alive.” Ordan agreed. The two watched their charges as they circled each other like two stars in the sky, slowly growing more aware of one another.