As the sun was rising, Otso jumped off the bed to ready his father’s, now his, equipment for the journey. He cleaned the shield from dust that had settled during the night and took the same cloth to the spear tip. He used his breath to shine the newly sharpened tip and looked at his own reflection, his blue eyes reflecting back at him.

His mother gave him a bag of rations to take with him. The bag had dried meat and some hard bread that she had taken out of storage. A filled waterskin was hanging next to his spear, waiting to be picked up.

“Looks like you still ready to join them.” His father asserted, as he returned from his morning tasks. “Well.” He took a short pause to look at his wife. “All I can say is, good luck.”

He stretched his hand to Otso and as Otso took it he pulled him closer for a hug. He holds it for a few seconds before releasing and giving him a one good pat in the back.

“Thank you father.” Otso turns towards his mother and opens his arms, and immediately gets hugged by her. “I’ll come back. You don’t need to worry about that.”

Otso puts his gear neatly on top of his bedside chest and walks to the door. “I’ll go meet my friends now.”

***

At the outskirts of the village Otso meets with Armas and Kalev and they head towards the hill. That hill has always been their meeting place, their own little kingdom. It’s where they have always had their most serious of conversations, their fantasies, it’s been their playground since they were little. They are the only three of their age, everyone either younger or older significantly.

“You two ready?” Kalev asks with his considerably deeper voice. He has been their leader, the one who always has the plan for everything and the one who comes up with one when there is no plan.

“I am.” Armas, with his gravelly voice, responds while swinging a branch he had picked up.

“Yes.” Otso says lastly, his voice is softer than his two friends.

Kalev takes a look towards the longships, observing the warriors moving, gathering their supplies and readying their ships. He takes a deep breath and lets it out. He moves his gaze towards the village, scanning it taking in the memories. The houses with their small vegetable gardens enclosed with small fences to keep the village pigs from eating their bellies full, the freshly harvested fields bringing in fresh memories of intense labour. Lastly, he gets his sight back to his friends.

“So, what kind of an adventure you two think this is going to be?”

“I don’t know.” Otso answers. “But I hope it be fun.”

“I hope I can use my pa’s axe” Armas remarks with a slight smile on his face.

“I hope for lots of loot to take back here.” Kalev takes a good look at his friends. “I also hope we all survive it.”

“Don’t worry about it, just let me protect you with my axe, it be alright.”

“I hope so.”

A cold breeze from the sea climbs over them.

“Alright, let’s go enlist ourselves.”

The three start their descent from the hill of memories towards their new adventure. As they reach the foot of the hill, Otso has a glance at the top. Memories overwhelming his mind. He stops for a second but quickly resumes and catches up to his friends.

“So, did you paint the looped square Otso?”

“Yeah, last night before bed.”

“You two really painted them.”

“Of course, it was a good idea from you. For once.”

“Hey, don’t be mean.”

The three laugh as they keep walking towards the docks.

***

“So the three of you want to join?” Ottharr pondered while stroking his moustache. “Well, since no-one else has joined yet, sure. The three of you will join Harid’s squad. He's the man with a shield on his back.” He pointed towards a group of warriors gathering equipment near one of the ships. The ship had two fish painted black on a golden field on its sail. “Just go to him and tell you are part of the squad now. Also don’t worry he can speak your language, as can the rest of the squad.”

The three looked at each other before walking to their squad lead. They had already taken their equipment and rations, so they were ready to set sail with the group. They were a little nervous, but it could be seen only on Armas and Otso’s faces. Kalev had always been good at hiding his emotions from his face, even when he was as or even more nervous as the other two. As they got to Harid and Kalev was about to open his mouth, Harid was faster.

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“So the three of you are joining us.” He took a good look at their equipment, ignoring their nervous faces. “Looks like you got some good stuff.”

“Thank you.” Kalev managed to sneak into the conversation before Harid managed to take the lead again.

“I welcome you three to the squad. I’m Harid but I’m sure the captains had already told you that. These three here are your squad mates. ” Harid gestured towards the three warriors that were loading a ship. “The one holding a box there is Salrad.” Salrad lowers the box to wave back. “That dude is Ulfsvip.” Harid points to a man squatting near Salrad. “And lastly he’s Linntönn.” He gives a quick glance at them before going back to cleaning his sword. “You should try to get to know each other a bit before we set sail, as it's important to know about people you are working with.”

The six squad mates gather together to sit on boxes and the three friends, Otso, Kalev and Armas quickly introduce themselves to their three new squad mates.

“So…” Kalev starts the conversation. “What are the three of you good at?”

The three look at each other before Ulfsvip quickly answers “Well fighting of course.” The other two let out a quick laughter before Salrad continues.

“I take it you wanna know our battle strengths.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was going for”

“Well, Linntön is pretty good with a sword, Ufsvip a speedy motherfucker with his axe and I can handle a spear as well as I can handle my little spear. But if you wanna know how we go about on a battlefield, you just need to see for yourselves.”

“Yeah, none of us are really a teacher type. So, if you want to learn about battle, ask Harid. He’s the lead for a reason.” Linntönn comments while combing his beard. “Luckily for you three, we are going to have a long journey before the main raid, so you can try to learn as much as you can before that.”

Armas looks at Linntönn confused. “Wait, what do you mean main raid?”

“We need to get some more supplies so of course we need to at one point raid some village.”

“Ah, I see.” Kalev says.

“Did you three think we were just going to raid Altsetja?” Ulfsvip says, puzzled.

“Well, kinda.” Otso answers with a hint of embarrassment. “Also, this is the first time I have heard the name of our target.”

“Wait, didn’t the captain tell you that. Of course no, you three are not the first ones that get to know it after joining.” Salrad responds while combing his long red hair with the same comb that Linntönn used.

As they keep conversing, a slave brings them drinks and sausages. The slave is from the beastfolk races, a foxfolk more precisely. If not for the red tail, ears and hair of the same unhuman colour, she would be unrecognisable from any human.

She had captured Otso’s interest, as there were no beastfolk around the village and also for the features that resemble the blessed foxes. His father had told of beastfolk to him and he was told that the ones that resemble foxes get treated better than the others, but it seems that not all of them get the treatment.

“I can ask that they send a human slave to treat us next time if it bothers you?” Salrad, who had noticed how Otso was looking at the slave, mentions.

“No no, it’s okay. I just haven’t seen one before.”

“Well, none of us have.” Armas remarks.

“Well, you dudes are going to see many of them soon. I hear that Altsetja is full of them, and of all the variants.” Ulfsvip mentions excitedly.

As the slave leaves, Harid joins the group.

“Get ready, we are setting sail soon.”

Salrad gulps the last of his ale and stands up “Well, take your stuff and get to the ship. I need to show you three few things before we leave.”

They take their equipment and ration sacks and place them under benches at the ship. These benches are at the edge of the ship, they are the rowing spaces. Salrad quickly goes over how to row and what to do when they set sail towards the sea.

Once he has gone over the stuff, a signal to leave is given. Everyone takes their places and ready themselves for the coming journey. Most of the village comes to see the ships take off to the sea. Amongst the villagers are the parents of the three new recruits.

Soon they set sail and leave the village behind. The journey to Altsetja has begun, a journey that takes about twelve days to make from the village. Otso had learned from Ulfsvip that they had been already on the journey for a month as they came from the far west.

As they got to the open sea and got wind to their sails, they were allowed to rest. Their ship had another squad onboard. This one was larger than theirs and included a strange tattooed man. This man wore a short sleeved tunic and simple pants with no armour.

“Hey, Salrad. Who’s the tattooed man?” Armas asked.

“Oh, him. He’s one of the two sorcerers we have. We got really lucky to recruit them.”

The sorcerer had long blond unkempt hair and green eyes. He had an annoyed look on his face permanently and looked to be the shortest on the ship. His upper body was completely covered in tattoos. These were of runes and seals of some kind.

“His name is Furagand. I don’t recommend pissing him off.”

“What are those tattoos?” Otso asked curiously.

“They are his spells. As I understand it, you need a runic seal to cast a spell.”

“I also hear him mumbling something when he casts them.” Linntönn chimes in.

“Well, you shouldn't worry about him too much. Just don’t get in his way and all’s good.”

Otso nods before turning his head towards the starboard side to look at the sea. He takes a deep breath in, the salty sea air filling his lungs and triggering some memories. He remembers his first time going fishing to the sea, the excitement that it brought and the want for more. Now, long away from home, he has achieved that need. He takes a look at his friends, they also are taking the sea view in. Now their adventure has started and there’s no going back.