Ithemba kept me up half the night. My little Hope was a bit of a handful. She weed on me twice and nipped me three times. I was pretty sure I was going to smell revolting in the morning. When it was Eris’s turn to take watch she took silently took the puppy away from me and pointed at my sleeping bag.

In the morning Gorn took one sniff at me and cast a spell. I didn’t feel completely clean. My clothes were still grimy and I definitely needed a good bath. But the smell disappeared. After I thanked him I asked him why he couldn’t cast the spell he used after he first met us. Travel would be much faster if we felt less tired.

“The Blessing of the Traveller is powerful, my girl. But it only works while I’m chanting. Even a voice as experienced as mine will get tired after three days of requesting aid. And I find it’s bad to rely on blessings when they’re not needed. The gods give us our gifts for certain reasons. Helping lost travellers is important to ol’ Vael. But you’re not lost. And your tiredness is your own bloody fault.”

“You have a point. We should probably learn to speak your language.” I replied.

“It’s not my language. And if you want to learn to speak it maybe you should travel with Eris for the day. Even without a bow she could help you with your tracking skills.”

“Of course. Thank you.”

I moved to the head of the group where Eris was starting to range further away from the pack. She seemed to understand my intentions when I followed her closely. She pointed out plants, animals, rocks and more and repeated them when I inevitably forgot them. We spent most of the day travelling in an Autumn climate with beautiful golden leaves adorning the trees. By midday I could recognise the words stop, go, and wait, and the names for wolf, lupe, and bird, ornith.

Looking back Sara seemed to be attempting to shadow Moira. But she wasn’t having much luck. Though her language skills seemed to be improving faster than mine. Though they mostly seemed to be insults and curse words.

Just after our lunch break we can across tracks of something that caused Eris to immediately stop return to Gorn for a chat. I couldn’t follow along closely. I heard the word troll and maybe the word three as well. Immediately Gorn quietly chanted spell that caused the sound around us to completely disappear. At first I assumed he made a mistake and caused us to become deaf. But when Eris led us in a semi circle around whatever she spotted I assumed it must have been something pretty dangerous. When the spell wore off I asked Gorn what was up.

“Trolls. Maybe thirty to fifty of them. They’d be a handful even for us.”

The only fight of the day was a giant boar that almost gored Meacham. I was looking forward to the bacon when Eris and Moira started butchering it up. But Rachel seemed conflicted. From what she said her family had already broken a dozen rules that Jews are supposed to follow. But pork was a line she didn’t want to cross.

When the sun started setting we didn’t make camp. Instead Ghen cast a spell which made a glowing ball of light appear above us. Maybe two hours later we spotted a log wall maybe three meters high. An arrow hit the ground near my foot. I was so surprised I stumped backwards and tripped off my feet. Eris called something out; louder than she'd been all day. After a reply came she dragged me off the ground and we entered Lindisfarne’s Holdfast.

The gate was an imposing edifice of solid wood flanked by two people in dark green hoods. I noticed, with some interest, that they had quivers at their belts and longbows on their backs. We moved past several animal pens in the shadows towards a large barnlike structure in the centre. The gate closed behind us. I could hear music coming from the structure. One of the guards escorted us to the door and shouted something into the building. At which point the door open and we were exposed to a brightly lit room.

It had a tall ceiling; and at the far end of the room there was an opening above a massive firepit. The floors were covered in straw and four long tables reached across the room. In the centre were two lines of people doing some sort of folk dance. The men were facing the women and they were dancing in step with every other member of their line. Both genders were wearing off white tunics that reached the knee. But the men wore brown leather vests over top of it while the women were draped in blue and red scarves. They all had thick grey fur; with small goatlike horns poking out of their heads and most were bare hooved on the dance floor. The men wore shaggy beards and the women had slightly longer fur on their heads.

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Very quickly the music stopped and the entire hall was looking our way. “Ave!” Gorn shouted before walking forward to speak to a frail looking satyr women who had a cane next to her seat. It was maybe two minutes before he called us over to introduce ourselves.

“This is mama Lindisfarne. She’s willing to here you out. But these isolated mountain settlements are fond of their rituals. She wants a formal oath from you sworn in Vaeldric’s name.” The dwarf looked nervous. “If you break the oath while a guest Vael won’t take too kindly on it. The gods don’t interfere much with mortals anymore. But I’d be bound as priest to support our hosts if a conflict does arise. Be sure you mean what you say.”

Rachel bent over to whisper to him. I couldn’t hear what she said; but she grimaced when she heard the answer. I wasn’t too fond of the idea of swearing on the name of a magical god myself. My family went to church twice a week and I knew it would break a few of the commandments. But Meacham then asked if it would be Ok if he swore in the name of the group. When Mama Lindisfarne agreed Gorn looked very relieved.

Gorn stroked his beard by the door and translated the oath spoken by Mama Lindisfarne.

“Do you swear in Vaeldric’s name that you are weary travellers looking for succour in the night.”

“Yes.”

Gorn coughed and whispered. “You need to repeat the whole thing.”

“I swear we are tired and looking for a safe place to rest.”

Gorn coughed again. “Close enough. Just add on ‘in Vaeldric’s name.’”

“In Vaeldric’s name.”

Gorn continued, “do you swear to bring no harm to this hearth. That you will lift weapons in defence of their children. That you trade no slaves and barter no lives.”

Meacham completed the oath. “In Vaeldric’s name I swear we will do no harm to this hearth. That while we are guests we will defend it as if it is our own. And that we have never and will never trade in human lives… or the life of any other intelligent being.”

“Let it be witnessed.” He then spoke something in the Trade Tongue and the hall burst back into song.

I let myself be dragged onto the dance floor by a gaggle of young satyr girls and made a fool of myself trying to match the fast paced tap dancing of their hooves. Without a half hour I was exhausted and dragged myself to one of the benches to stuff myself with food. It was a lot better than I was expecting. The bread was light and fluffy and dripping with butter. The sausages were tender and tasty. The cheese a bit gooier in texture than I was used to; but still quite good.

I’m embarrassed to say I passed out on the bench; but it had been a long day. I awoke to the sound of hooves tapping across the floor next to me. A Satyr was carrying an extra bow and quiver; which he handed to me. In the distance I could hear shouting.

“Wha…what’s going….,” I tried to ask.

He interrupted me with a simple “trolls.”

Immediately wide awake I looked around the hall. The rest of our party were being shaken awake. At least I didn’t have to get carried to a bed room. I thought. I got to my feet; vainly ordered Ithemba to stay inside and started jogging out of the hall; hoping they’d let me keep my new equipment when it came time to leave. The person who had woken me up led me to the wall. It wasn’t wide enough to stand on; but there were towers strategically placed around the inside perimeter. I climbed the one I was told to and looked over the edge. Maybe a dozen trolls had cut down a huge tree and were using it as a ram on the front gates. After a hearing a boom I could see splinters fly out from the gate.

Another two dozen of the monsters were staying well back so I concentrated on the ones closest to me. The other archers were dipping arrow heads in an oil barrel before lighting them on fire in a brazier next to it. I hoped my lack of experience with an old longbow wouldn’t be too embarrassing, as I aimed at one of them. The angle was finicky and my first two arrows went wide. Another boom and more splinters. My third arrow took hit a troll in the neck. It didn’t go down but it was surprised enough to let go of the improvised ram. At that point the towers were filled with archers and footsatyrs with spears, and the rest of our party, were lined up in front of the gate waiting for it to break. We killed around six of the trolls before it happened. The other six charged in. I was about to aim into the melee when a tap on my shoulder brought my attention to a satyr who was pointing at the two dozen troll reinforcements charging in.

They were all bunched up and directly in front of us. I missed twice as often as the local satyrs. But I still managed four or five solid shots. Below us Gorn was chanting something; Sian was singing “We will rock you.” I was surprised I could hear it over the sounds of the battle. She wasn’t carrying a microphone.

By the time the main horde reached the walls I had run out of arrows. I was considering grabbing a spear and helping the melee when I noticed a couple of the satyrs were struggling to drag an oil barrel to the edge of the wall. As they pushed through the shattered gate we spilled the oil and set maybe a third of them alight. At that point I grabbed a spear and rushed down to help. There was a half-moon shield wall surrounding the gates that was getting pushed back as more trolls came pouring through. I was halfway down the ladder when I saw Mama Lindisfarne scream something in language that was not the Trade Tongue. It was loud enough to startle a flock of crows waiting at the treeline. One of the larger trolls in the horde responded with a laugh. At that point she joined the shield wall and the two sides stood still; waiting for their opponent to make the first move.