Unlike two days ago Jack did not wake up on the ground. He woke up in one of the huts. Confused he checked that the tome was still around his neck and then took a look around. By the entrance, lit by sunshine, was Asa. Glad to see her uninjured, he asked, “What happened? How long was I asleep and what happened to the troll?”

Asa hesitated at first but then started explaining, “I don’t know when exactly you lost consciousness but after the troll was hit in the ribs by Bilsor’s harpoon, it went berserk. It went wild. Ragna didn’t expect this to happen and was too close. The troll got hold of her right arm and then started throwing her around…”

“Eskil came to help her but was thrown to the ground after getting hit by Ragna’s thrown body. Bilsor threw second weapon and hit the troll in the back. The troll was heavily injured at that point. It started fleeing. We could safe one of the harpoons and luckily it let go of Ragna’s arm. We couldn’t stop it from fleeing… and then…”

Jack looked at her and asked, “ And then what? Tell me what happened?”

Asa eyes started to get teary and then she said, “The troll stepped on Eskil while fleeing. His whole chest was squashed and died in seconds. Even Ragna’s arm couldn’t be saved. We had to amputate it at the elbow. If worse comes to worst we will have to amputate the whole arm… I’m sorry leader. We couldn’t even kill one lone troll in this cursed world.”

While Asa was fighting with tears, Jack was worried by something she said. ‘Lone troll? What if that troll is part of a beast camp under another humans control instead of a local beast? What if that troll comes back with five other trolls? How can we win against that? Especially now that we lost Eskil.’

Standing up Jack said, “Asa I need you to calm down. We need to hurry. Start packing everything important on the ship. We need to go as soon as possible. That troll might come back with others.”

Walking into the light, Jack started shouting, “Everyone start packing and get the ship ready for sea. We need to leave as soon as possible with as much equipment as the ship can carry. Haf go help Asa transport Ragna to the ship first. Bilsor come help me get some fur and all the weapons and tools to the ship.”

‘I do feel bad for the injured Ragna and the dead Eskil, but I need to get it together. I have to focus and make sure no more Nordars die under my command. Until we have some more people, every Nordar lost might be our doom in the long run.’

As soon as possible they started pushing the ship into the sea. It took quite a while, because the ship was full with everything they could take with them and they had only four people pushing, thanks to Ragna still lying unconsciously on deck.

Once they set sail, Jack finally had some time to think. He felt guilty about Eskils death. ‘I’m so weak that I lost consciousness while all the others could fight. I fell like everything I do is a mistake, but I can't even say what should be done differently. Either I’m just plain stupid or I am very unlucky. It would feel so easy to just blame it on luck and go in. No, I need to stop underestimating this world. I have to try to expect the unexpected.’

While Bilsor led them along the coast in a southwestern direction, Jack was watching the Coast and thinking. During the rest of the day Jack saw two groups of birds in the sky and one group of giant polar bears on the shore. All of them were five or six in number. ‘Are they all groups belonging to a human like him?’ It was the first time that Jack noticed, just how many humans with new bodies joined him in this world. No wonder he encountered a troll within two days of being here. ‘But if this continues it will only take a few years for the world to get some sort of equilibrium. For some sort of balance in nature. I do expect it to be even more extreme with humanoids, with their societies. It was mentioned that Diplomacy was important with humanoids, so alliances are possible and therefore I expect it to take longer until a new balance is reached.’

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They sailed along the shore with Haf having been ordered to keep an eye on the shore. They wanted to find a new spot to live or at the very least a spot rest for the night.

The longship had no anchor, they would at least tie the ship to the shore for the night. It took them almost all afternoon to find an isolated beach on the shore surrounded by icy cliffs. While closing in on their resting place Jack took another look at his tome around his neck. As soon as he opened it one of the pages started shaking, then floating away from the book. Surprised Jack watched the page float away. Away from him and finally away from the boat. Then with a familiar flash, a Nordar came into being and dropped into the water. ‘Yeah, I’m just unlucky.’ Thought Jack to himself while starting to shout, “Man overboard! Lower the sail! Bilsor get some rope for him to hold on to!” The ship was almost too fast in the wind for the rope to reach the Nordar, that had fallen in the water. But they got him. While he was dragged onboard Jack took a first look at him.

He was small for a Nordar, with white hair like Asa and intelligent eyes. For a second Jack thought they got their first shaman capable of magic. At least until he had to sneeze and started shivering because of the cold. ‘So not a shaman capable of controlling ice or water with his mind. I would expect them to handle the cold a little better than that guy. Next question is: Was he created because Eskil died this morning or because every two days I get a new tribe member?’

Jack was the first to speak up, “ Hello, Im the leader of your new tribe. Welcome to a new world. Can you introduce yourself?”

The shivering Nordar replied, “G-good Day Leader. I am called Karl. I can fish, I can cook, I can preserve fish for winter and many more useful things. I’m a little averse to the cold but that will get better I promise.”

“So no replacement for the hotheaded Eskil.” Mumbled Jack before telling Karl, “Welcome aboard, we are just turning in for the evening. Ask that navigator over there for instructions, his name is Bilsor by the way.” Waving him off Jack got back to taking another look at the Nordar tome around his neck. Sadly no new pages were released.

They came ashore and set up camp. Haf and Karl both were sent out to make sure the shingle beach was really isolated, so there should be no need for guards during the night. ‘We also thought we were safe back at the village.’ Thought Jack to himself. But he did not voice his concern as to not lower morale even further. Ragna woke up during the afternoon, but hasn’t said much. If she was grieving after Eskil or her dominant lower arm, Jack did not know. Maybe a mix of both.

The only thing raising the spirits a little, was Haf insisting it wasn’t the yellow wave diver than made everyone sick the day before. He even swore to prove it. He roasted a yellow wave diver in front of everyone and then ate it by himself. Afterwards everyone went to bed, except Karl. Because he did not fight today, he offered to stay by the fire for a little.

Jack was pleasantly surprised when come morning Haf still did not run away from the camp to violently relieve himself. ‘Maybe it really wasn’t the yellow wave diver? Or our gut biome just had to adapt to this world. But just one night would be too short for that. And nobody got sick after the first meal we had two days ago. Maybe its one of the other fish? But then how are we not sick tonight?’ Jack spent the rest of the evening trying to come up with possible answers to some of his questions. In the end he fell asleep and for the first time in the new world, he slept without a nightmare.