Einar kept looking around, his mind and senses feeling restless. He looked at the wall of mist, the water and then back at the mist. Something he couldn’t name yet felt off in his bones. As he kept looking at the water beneath their ship, those glowing waves familiarly called to him. He reached into his world eater pouch and pulled out his drinking horn, almost falling off board when he bent over the ship's hull. After filling his horn with the glowing water, the young giant examined it for a moment before drinking it in one go.
“What are you doing?” Arvid tried and failed to stop him, having to watch as the young giant froze up in place.
A chilling cold spread through his body that felt like a thousand needles stung him, but it vanished as fast as it came, replaced by a soothing cool sensation that calmed his mind.
“I’m fine.” Einar claimed as he looked at his hand that held the horn.
He felt... changed. Felt more than he was, just like when he drank the divine nectar after his two trials. Einar reached into the water once again to fill his horn, drinking it empty a second time. This time however he felt nothing but slightly sweet water. He tried a third time before getting another horn’s worth which he held over to a worried Arvid.
“Drink!” He urged the warrior, but he just shook his head.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Have you ever drank divine nectar?”
“Divine... nectar,” the warrior muttered the words. “I heard that you can earn some through the trials of the gods but I never had the chance. Why?”
“I drank nectar twice and when I first drank from this water it felt... similar. But only for the first time. After that, it tastes like sweet water.”
“Fine,” Arvid accepted the horn with a still wary expression on his face. “But if this kills me, I’ll come back as a draugr to kick your arse.”
With that, he drank the water in one go, stopping as soon as he lowered the drinking horn from his mouth. Arvid froze up just like Einar did, the young warrior’s body letting out a slight wave of chilling air as his skin turned pale bluish for a moment. He then returned to normal, coughing and shaking.
“Damn you and your water,” Arvid cursed with a laugh. “I thought I was going to freeze to death from the inside out.”
“Do you feel any different?” Einar asked the important question as every God-marked stared at them with baited breaths.
“Damn right, I feel different,” the warrior laughed. “I feel stronger. What are you lot waiting for? Drink! This is a blessing from the gods.”
Emboldened yet cautious after hearing Arvid’s words, the rest of the God-marked made the choice to drink from the water, freezing up for a few moments before breaking out in cheers and shouts.
“I wonder how many of the folks on the other ships will be curious and dumb enough to drink from the water.” Arvid said as he looked back at the distant vessel behind them.
“Perhaps all of them,” Einar shrugged. “Or none.”
“Either way, you found us something good.” The warrior patted him on the back before sitting down.
Einar did the same, using what little time they had to enter his inner world. His short visit told him that his soul attribute had grown by two since the last time he checked, proving the value of the strange water. Not long after he returned from his inner world, the sailor from the ship’s bow yelled toward the captain.
“I can see the end of the tunnel,” the man said as he lowered his looking glass. “It looks just like the gate did.”
“Brace yourselves,” the captain yelled. “We don’t know what’s waiting for us on the other side of the gate.”
The sailors took their position beside the ropes or grabbed the hull while the God-marked scrambled to have a weapon in one hand while trying to hold on to the hull with the other. The glowing river pushed them toward the wall of mist ahead, its triangle-shaped gate looming over them just as it did before they entered the strange tunnel. As they passed through the mist, the calmness they felt in the tunnel was replaced by a raging storm. Dark clouds covered the sky, spitting thunders of many colours, the waves beneath them became fearsome as they rocked their vessel, carrying it forward.
“Pull up the sail!” The captain tried to roar over the sound of the storm, his men doing their best to follow his order.
The ship slowed somewhat, but the raging waves were still relentless. Soon one of the sailors called out to their leader.
“Captain! I can see the first ship!” The sailor yelled as he pointed to the left.
In the distance they could see the same ship that reached Gods’ Gate ahead of them, their sails pulled up just like the one Einar was on. As if the sea had a mind of its own. it pushed them toward the other ship even without their sail to catch the wind.
“It seems our lives are in the hands of the gods now.” Arvid remarked as they got closer and closer to the other ship.
“As long as they don’t sink the ship.” Another God-marked muttered beside them before vomiting his guts out due to the horrid movements the ship made beneath them.
When they were barely a dozen yards apart from the first ship, their vessel came to a halt as if it had been locked in place by some unknown force.
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“Took you long enough,” the captain of the other ship yelled over, trying not to sound desperate. “We’ve been stuck here for hours.”
“It seems the gods don’t want us to split up from the rest of the expedition.” Einar heard their captain reply.
“So it would seem,” the man from the first ship replied. “At this pace, we’ll likely have to wait for another day before everyone gets here.”
“Damn,” someone from the God-marked youths cursed. “I’m going to get sick.”
The sound of vomit hitting the water resounded from behind the young giant as he could do nothing besides sit down and get showered by the heavy rain. He tried to shut out the sounds of the storm and the rocking of the ship, somehow managing the fall asleep for several hours before Arvid shook him awake.
“Stop sleeping you damn bear,” the warrior laughed awkwardly. “The last ship had finally arrived.”
Einar got up to his feet, looking around still groggily. Even under the heavy rain and thunderclouds, one could still see the line of ships on both sides. He held out his hands which were soon filled with rainwater that he used to wash his face. The cold water helped him fully wake up just in time to hear one of the sailors yell.
“Captain, we’re moving again!”
“It seems the gods finally got tired of waiting,” the man laughed. “Set sail!”
Over a dozen ships started to move forward at the same time, cutting through the storm that seemed to be slowly letting up.
“Reefs!” Someone yelled as the darkness ahead of them lit up under several lightning bolts. revealing large stone shards reaching up from the sea like giant claws that raked the water.
“Turn starboard!” the captain yelled. “We must wait for the storm to let up or it will crush us to those reefs!”
The other captains seem to have the same idea as all of the ships changed course in a mad scramble to save the vessels from a crushing fate. As the large stone claws came up on their left side like a wall of spikes, a feeling wormed its way through Einar’s mind. ‘Swim!’ He heard it in his head, a voice that was both familiar and unknown. The young giant tried to ignore his increasing desire to jump into the sea, but his mind always returned to the thought of how he had ceaselessly trained swimming in the sea while in armour. A part of him knew that it was dangerous but another part also knew that he could make it. To be the first. To see and plunder whatever treasures awaited him there before the others could interfere. That was... irresistible.
“Einar what are you...”
“See you on the island.” The young giant said as he made a few forceful strides, stepping up onto the side of the ship’s hull before leaping into the air, flying for a good ten yards and falling into the waves.
“You mad bastard!” He could hear Arvid yell after him.
Einar began to swim, his eyes focused on the rocks around him as he rode the waves, making his way through the fence of reefs. The sky was still dark making it impossible to see what lay ahead of him but he kept on swimming nonetheless. He kept swimming for an hour and then another, his body slowly draining of strength while the storm calmed around him.
As the first rays of the sun finally broke through the weakening clouds, the young giant noticed something in the distance. The outlines of a shore appeared a good mile ahead of him, pushing Einar to keep swimming like a madman. A good fifteen minutes later he finally got washed ashore, spitting out water as he turned and lay on his back, feeling the waves wash his back.
A sensation of pride and strength filled him. If nothing else, the grand achievement of reaching the Torn Serpent first was now his to claim. He lay there for a few minutes before regaining enough strength to stand up and have a better look at where he was. Much to his surprise, Einar was standing on the edge of what he could only describe as a fishing village. Run-down buildings and rotten fishing boats dotted the shore ahead of him. He began to walk closer, wary of any danger that might lurk in the village.
The place was in ruins with most of the buildings half collapsed with age-old corpses strewn about here and there. Einar examined one of the bodies, finding it dried and hardened, overgrown by something familiar. The sight reminded him of the time he dived under the sea to scavenge the sunken trading ship. The corpse had been overgrown with the same kind of coral and sea sponge he could see on the reefs under the water. ‘How can it... damn!’ His musings were interrupted when the corpse suddenly twitched and began to sit up.
Einar quickly stomped on its back while drawing his sword, splitting the hard shell-covered skull in two. The thing stopped moving immediately but the sound of other movements caught his attention. A dozen similar creatures began to make their way out of the buildings, their eyes glowing with an eerie teal flame. ‘Draugr?’ The young giant thought as he watched the dead march toward him. Shaking off his surprise, Einar burst into action as he swung his blade at the nearest one, stomping another one in the guts to send it back flying.
One by one the draugr got destroyed without him receiving so much as a scratch. When the fight was over, he noticed a faint mist forming atop the corpses, pulling at his mind to take it. Following the instinct that guided him, Einar pulled out his drinking horn from his pouch and held it out in front of himself. The glowing mist floated up from the corpses and made its way toward the horn, forming a tiny cloud above it that rained a glowing liquid into the horn. After the cloud dissipated, the young giant looked at the glowing dew he gathered and drank it in one go.
A new strength washed over him, erasing the tiredness and hunger that plagued him. With his strength renewed, the young giant searched the corpses, finding a couple of age-old silver coins he pocketed before turning his attention to the crumbling buildings. There was little value in the fishing village as most of the items rotted or rusted beyond use. He did, however, find a palm-sized shell that shimmered with a rainbow colour under the faint sunlight and a grape-sized white pearl that seemed to be emanating some sort of power.
With nothing else to loot, Einar decided to gather some dry wood and start a small fire. By the time he caught and gutted a pair of fishes that would serve as his meal, he noticed ships moving on the horizon. ‘Looks like they made it through the reefs.’ He thought to himself as he sat down to cook the fish, leaving his sword leaning on the trunk of the wood he was sitting on. A good ten minutes later the first ship ran ashore, quickly followed by the rest. Both God-marked and ordinary warriors got off the vessels, slowly spreading out on the shore with wary steps.
“Who dares to get here before me?” Einar heard a familiar and irritating voice from the group as a youth strode toward him, followed by a dozen warriors.
“It’s you,” Prince Fastúlfr growled. “I was curious when would I get the chance to gut you, but now you even...”
The prince froze in place not far from him along with his followers, their eyes staring behind Einar. The young giant turned around, seeing three horrifying creatures floating toward them. They look like women-shaped draugr, their skin dark and cracked, mouldy fur pelts and cloth covering them. The creatures floated half a foot above the ground as they walked toward them with measured steps.
Einar reached for his sword when the horrors were a good ten yards from him, but something made him hesitate. He had hunted enough times with his father to recognize a beast he couldn't best. Whatever those three were, they were powerful beyond the group of God-marked that filled the beach. They might have held their power back, but it was there. More than that, something strange about them made him recall Spear’s parting words. The three draugr still moving toward them wore deer skulls to hide their faces, golden flames burning where their eyes were.