“We do not know much about ourselves. More or less we only know what we are good at and about the Nordar in general. So we can’t tell you much about our origin. We Nordars live form fishing and raiding. Some Tribes focus more on fishing some more on raiding. We are good seafarers and we like the cold. Most of us are built to survive the harsh north. Our leaders are chieftains and shamans. The shaman is mostly just one person with access to magic. The chieftain is the leader.” Told Bilsor.
‘Magic? Does that mean that one of us six Nordars may have access to magic?’
Eagerly Jack asked, “Can you tell me more about these Shamans and the magic?”
This time Asa was the one answering, “Sure, shamans are our spiritual guides. They have access to water or ice magic. They can also commune with the spirits of the sea and ice. Mostly a shaman specialises on ice magic and ice spirits or on water magic and sea spirits.”
“ It does happen that shamans have access to both types, but those tend to be weaker, while more versatile.” Bilsor added.
They continue until it was the sun was finally setting. According to Bilsor the night would last for a few hours at most. And even then it will never be fully pitch-black. The six settled ate some dinner. Mainly fish soup, courtesy of Haf and Ragna. Those two went fishing with some bone spears found on the ship, while Jack was talking with Bilsor and Asa.
For Jack it tasted a little bland but the others were enjoying it immensely. ‘Looks like I have to come to terms with this new cuisine.’ After Dinner they all went into the huts to sleep. Jack had a hut for himself because Bilsor said he wants to sleep on the ship. While going Jack heard him mumbling how he felt only relaxed for sleep when in the sleeping in the crisp cold nordic air.
While trying to sleep Jack was surprised how warm the hut felt. In his first life on earth he was a man of comfort without any resistance to cold. Now he felt perfectly warm at temperatures of a little over zero degrees celsius, if he guessed correctly.
‘I really am not human anymore. By the way I need to take another look at the tome in the morning. Maybe I can get some more Nordars out of the pages.’ Dreaming about exploring this new world with a clan of three hundred Nordar, Jack fell asleep. He did have some nightmares about burning to death again as the night got closer to morning. So only half the night was spent sleeping soundly.
The next morning Jack was woken up by shouting from outside. By the sound of it Bilsor was instructing Haf and Eskil to load all the most important fishing equipment on the ship.
‘Should I be worried that they are acting independently or should I be glad that I don’t have to think of everything alone?’
Jack was unsure if this was a good sign that his “subjects” are acting like real people. Having woken up and still feeling tired, Jack went outside and cleaned his face and teeth with some boiled saltwater leftover from yesterday. Then he sat down and opened the tome that was still hanging around his neck. He half expected one of the pages to transform into a Nordar, but nothing happened. Assuming all the pages eventually become a Nordar and a member of his Tribe, Jack counted the pages of the Nordarian tome. There were a total of 127 double-pages. That means ideally Jack will have 132 Nordars under him before he needs to rely on natural reproduction for new tribe members. ‘Maybe there will be a possibility to get more pages for the tome? Maybe some magic items that alter the tome? Will there be one or two shamans among those 127 new tribe members?’
Nothing else caught Jack’s eye while examining the tome. After putting it back under his leather shirt, Jack stood up and went to the ship.
“Good morning Bilsor. Are you already preparing the ship for our first voyage out to sea?”
“Morning, Leader. Yes, I think its important to explore our surroundings, most importantly our surrounding waters. Plus the weather looks perfect to go out into the sea. I suggest you choose four of us that come with us on this voyage while either Asa or Eskil stay here to look for herbs or hunt some meat in the surrounding forests.” Came the advice for Bilsor.
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Agreeing with Bilsor, Jack chose to leave Asa behind. But not before reminding her that she should always wear one of the iron axes and not to risk her life against local beasts. They took some of the weapons with them onto the ship. After they were ready to set off, all five Nordars coming on the trip started pushing the longship from the shingle beach into the cold saltwater. Jack hated getting his feet wet, but he reckoned that he should get used to it as soon as possible, considering most of his time will be spent at sea or close to the sea. Compared to the weathered viking fantasy giants Jack felt like a real spoilt brat.
‘Even the over fifty years old Bilsor didn’t complain about anything. I mean that guy slept outside with temperatures below zero. That guy was a real Nordar. Maybe I am just underestimating his new nordarian body.’ Thought Jack to himself while wading through the hip deep freezing seawater. Once all of them climbed aboard the ship, two people on each side took an oar and Bilsor went to the steering rudder at the stern. They needed a few minutes to get some distance from the shore. Once they got that, Bilsor told Haf to lower theone Mainsail and adjust its direction to the wind.
“Leader come here! During the day I will explain what I’m doing so that you can learn about sailing and fishing.” Said Bilsor. Jack went over to the stern and started listening to his explanations. The ship itself was big enough for maybe twenty Nordars. Everything was made for the height of a Nordar. Since Jack had no reference and no idea how big his new body was, he couldn’t say with certainty how long the ship was. So he asked the seasoned Navigator next to him.
“Bilsor, how tall are we Nordars even? Are we comparable to humans?”
“Well humans come up to our chest I think. Maybe even less than that. We are pretty big compared to humans.”
‘So Nordars are about two and a half meters tall. Given that the ship is long enough for five of us to lie on deck in a row…
I would say the ship is about fifteen meters long? Give or take. Another thing I observed is that their language is very neutral. As in without character, if that makes sense. Is that their real language or does it just sound that way because it is translated for me?’ In an attempt to check if their speech is being translated Jack asked, “Bilsor, tell me an idiom that the Nordar use.”
“Let's see… The sea is always calm near the home.” Answered Bilsor. ‘That makes no sense, which speaks for a translation or I could just be reading into things.’ Jack was still unsure. He had no idea if the test with the idiom is even supposed to work. While thinking about the issue, Bilsor started explaining things about sailing again. Pretty soon Jack put the translation question to the back of his mind and started focusing on Bilsor’s explanation.
They sailed the whole morning along the coast. If the movement of the sun is the same in this world, then they were sailing in a northeastern direction. The whole morning the only thing they saw was ice and some birds high in the sky. When they traveled about fifty kilometres they saw the first sign of life in the ocean. And what a lifeforms that was.
Haf saw it first. He shouted “ Bilsor take a look at this. Do you see that in the northeast? That fish must be gigantic.”
It was one big fin breaking the surface of the ocean a few kilometres northeast of them. Given that they saw the fin even while being some kilometres away, could only mean one thing. That fish is huge. Bilsor came to the front of the ship. While observing the fin in the distance he remarked, “We should turn around. That thing is even bigger than the ship. If we are unlucky, it get curious or worse it mistakes us for prey. It’s better not to risk it. Put down the main sail and go to the oars until we turn around!” Jack and the three others started rowing again.
The ship slowly turned around. Bilsor ordered the sails to be put in the wind. Just to be sure he directed the ship closer to shore. All the while he observed the fin near the horizon. Jack did the same but little more panicked. Jack felt like the others seemed way to calm for seeing a fish bigger than their ship. And from the erratic movement of the fin it should belong to a predator that hunts. Few minutes later, Jack could finally calm down when the fin disappeared behind the horizon. They should be safe. ‘Looks like these waters are even more dangerous than the waters back on earth. I mean that thing should be almost as big as the extinct megalodon on earth. Into what kind of world was I transported?’
On the way back south they didn’t see any other colossal fin or shadow in the water, even though Jack spent most of the time looking over the ceiling on the lookout for more monsters emerging from the deep.
After two hours Bilsor gestured at the two birds circling in the sky above the water and said, “There should be fish under these birds. Circling birds at sea mostly mean there is fish near the surface. Haf get the net and prepare it in the water. We will drive through this area a couple times and hopefully catch some fish with these nets.”