Bothvar Beorcolsson
Morning arrives, and I feel like someone is beating my skull with a hammer. I don’t remember drinking all that much after the first mug of mead, other than eating those mushrooms. Speaking of which, I have to… I rush out into the woods and take care of business. Too much business.
The shrooms I ate are nothing like the glowing ones in the cave. Not at all. The glowing ones don’t make you feel as if your stomach is brewing some witch concoction in the morning. The glow shrooms make me feel much better and more alive. Heightened in a way. The ones I ate last night made me feel as if I was wandering through Niflheim half dead. I don’t think I’ll eat those ever again.
I head back to camp after finishing my business to find my father up around a fire. I take a seat next to him. “Father, good morning.”
“You as well, my son. You want to talk about last night?” he asks.
“What about last night do I need to talk about?” I ask.
“Well, I heard about a fight with another crew… One particular crew.”
“Grom? He had it coming,” I say.
“Perhaps he did. I sure got an earful. He and Thrain want you to be punished for it,” father says.
“Punished for bringing justice? He stole someone else’s property and abused it. Not just anyone’s property, but Scyra, the Queen’s daughter’s slave. I caught him raping the girl,” I say. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time. The memory of Arngunn’s face still haunts me.
“This I didn’t know. That certainly changes things. If that is true, I’ll have to talk to Eawyn and apologize to Scyra, and then I will have a nice chat with Gorm…” He strokes his beard and I can tell he’s angry as he tugs it.
“Father, may I ask a favor?” I ask as my mother joins us. I nod at her. “Good morning, mother.”
“Good morning, my son,” she says with a smile as she snuggles up next to father. “I hear you had quite the night last night.”
I shrug as my father looks up at me and shrugs, too. “What is your favor?”
“Scyra has been in contact with a particular yeti I befriended. She invited me to meet with the yeti woman I knew as Blue-Eyes, whose actual name is apparently Shuli,” I made the hand gesture as I said her name.
“And what exactly is your favor?” he asks.
“I’d like the whole family to meet her. She’d love to meet you all,” I say.
“I think that sounds like a lovely idea,” mother says. Father doesn’t seem too convinced, but if mother says yes, then that is that.
“I suppose. How long will this take?” father asks.
“Shouldn’t take too long. Their conclave is right by those mountains directly to the east of here. Wouldn’t even take the morning to go there and back.”
My father nods. “Very well. We will go.”
I nod and smile. “Thank you. Make sure to tell everyone to bring gifts.”
He nods. “Now go get your siblings up and we’ll start breaking camp.”
Without another word, I grab a metal pot and a big ladle before heading over to Bodvar and Thormar’s tent, bursting in to find the two snoring. Bodvar on Thormar’s bed and Thormar on the floor. I start beating on the pot. “Time to wake up.”
“Urhh… No, it’s not,” Bodvar says, grabbing his pillow a covering his ears to block out the sound.
Thormar shoots up from the floor. “What’s going on?”
“It’s time for you to get up, little brother. And get Bodvar up without getting into a fight.”
I leave their tent and head over to the women’s tent, before banging on the pot outside. I’m not stupid enough to go inside. Aunt Sigvor pushes her head out of the tent flap and snarls at me. “Will you stop that!”
“Just doing what father asks. He wants everyone awake,” I say.
“Well, we are awake. You’ve done your task, now go away,” she says, shooing me off.
I sigh and head back to my tent to pack things up, stumbling on the horn. I take it out and put the strap I attached to it around my shoulder. Once I get what little I brought packed and everyone else finally gets up and ready, I head out to meet up with Scyra. I find her in the hall and she smiles as I walk in. Her teeth are so white. As white as her hair, which is the same color as the snow. She stands up as I walk toward her. “Hey. So mother is planning on gathering everyone together when the sun reaches its highest point, so that gives us plenty of time to head out to meet the yeti and get back.”
I nod. “My family has all decided to come.”
“Good. I look forward to seeing your reunion. We should leave now.”
A thought just occurred to me. “Let me get one more person that I know would like to see Shuli. I’ll have my family gather at the edge of the forest near the road out of here and I’ll meet you there”
She shrugs as I take off. I head over to my family’s campsite and find my father giving orders to the slaves to pack up the tents and carry everything to the ships. “Father, we are all set to go. If you can gather the family up and meet us over by the edge of the forest where the path out of Avala leads, Scyra and I will meet you there.”
He nods, and I take off running as I hear him shout after me. “Where are you going?”
“I have to fetch someone,” I yell back as I run out of camp.
I dash over to where I find who I’m looking for at the Valkyrie campsite. The Valkyrie warriors stand in alarm before they recognize me. One I recognize who fought the Bone Eaters steps up. “Bothvar Beorcolsson. What brings you here?”
“I need to talk to Amalasontha. I have a request I would like to make of her,” I say.
The woman nods, and she has me follow her to where Amalasontha is talking to Amalgunda. They both look up as we approach. “Bothvar. It is good to see you. What do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
I bow to her and Amalgunda. “Lady Scyra has informed me that she has been in contact with the yeti cub we brought to a new home. She is taking me and my family to visit her and I thought I’d extend the invitation to you, since you are the one who helped unite her with her people. You have as much right as any to see her once again.”
Amalasontha nods, her face going soft. “That would be very pleasant. I would like to see the Blue-Eyes again. Tonna was very fond of her.”
I nod. “That is why I thought of you.”
“You are very kind, and you have much honor,” she says, bowing her head.
“I would very much like to see this yeti as well,” Amalgunda says.
“You are welcome to join us,” I say and she nods in thanks. I turn back to Amalasontha. “By the way, Scyra has informed me that her actual name is Shuli, not Blue-Eyes. I guess she does like the name Blue-Eyes, though.”
Amalasontha laughs. “I figured as much. It didn’t sound like a typical yeti name.”
I smile, and the two women, along with some of her guards, join us. We arrive at the edge of the forest where my family waits. My father steps up and bows to the two chieftesses. “Ahh, I did not expect to see you both here, but it is much welcomed.”
“I helped Bothvar bring the cub to her kind and I would like to see how she is doing,” Amalasontha explains before she looks around. “Where is Lady Scyra?”
I look around myself and don’t see her among us.
“What are we doing here?” Thora asks as she walks up to me with her arms crossed.
“Yeah, seriously. I could be still sleeping,” Bodvar says, earning a good whack from father.
“You sleep far too much, boy. It is good for you to get up early. You might as well get used to it,” he says, chiding him. Bodvar shrugs and yawns.
“We are going to see a close friend of mine. She would very much like to meet you all,” I say.
Then I spot two women walking from the forest and recognize the snow-white hair with those piercing, icy, cold blue eyes that seem to glow and shimmer with power. “There she is. I don’t recognize the woman she is with, though.”
As they arrive, I walk up to greet them. “Bothvar, I’d like you to meet the special friend of mine I mentioned earlier. This is Thyia. She was with me when we met the yeti.”
The girl is about the same age as Scyra with dark, raven black hair in a braid. She stands like a warrior with a hardened face that is beautiful like a polished diamond and just as hard as one. Her eyes are a dark brown and her skin is a warm ivory. She wears black leather chaps with a dark black tunic with crimson trim and her hood down. A quiver full of arrows hangs at her back with a long bow along with them. A rather nice sword hangs on her hip with a black grip. Knives line the straps around her chest and at her boots as well as down the side of her legs. This is a woman who knows how to kill.
I hold out my hand, and she grips it firmly. “It is nice to meet you. I’ve heard good things.”
She nods. “I’ve heard a great deal of many things about you as well. Some seem to be a bit outlandish, but from my first sight of you, part of me wants to believe them.”
“As I have told Scyra, they are all overly exaggerated,” I say, and that earns a smile from her.
“Now I’m more likely to believe them. Any person who tries to downplay the rumors makes them more likely to be true,” she says.
I only shrug. Scyra steps up, her hand on Thyia’s shoulder. “Shall we head off? We’ll want to make haste if we desire to be back here by the time the sun reaches its height.”
We all nod and follow Scyra out of the village and into the woods. The mountains that contain the yeti conclave are not far, and the peaks are already within sight. It doesn’t take us long to get through the blooming forest full of pine, birch, maple, alder, and aspen. The leaf trees sprout green. Flowers bloom, giving off the aromatic scent of their nectar and pollen. It seems to blend with the pine scent that is all but overwhelming. Of course, I can still smell deer droppings and old carcasses of fallen prey. That and the smell of something familiar. The farther we walk, the stronger it gets.
We arrive at the base of the mountains by a huge rocky pass between two cliffs. We stop where the forest clears and makes way to the rocky mountain land in which trees cannot find the dirt to grow in. Scyra turns to us. “Wait here, I’ll go get her.”
We all nod as Scyra takes off into the mountains with Thyia. My father comes up to me. “I hear you’ve been getting close with Lady Scyra. She would make a fine wife and, as her mother stated, she is free to choose her husband. Maybe if you play your cards right, my son, you could find yourself with some white-haired sons with icy blue eyes.”
“We’ve talked about this, father. I am not going to remarry. We have too many mouths to feed as it is. Winter is far too harsh for me to bring more mouths to feed.”
He growls at me. “That is foolish, boy! You need to remarry so you can have a son to carry on your legacy. Hopefully more than one. Maybe even a daughter or two. You can never have enough children. You’ll learn that soon enough. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, if you do not have someone to pass the sword to, all you do here will be for nothing.”
“I do have someone to pass on the sword to. I have Thora and my little siblings,” I say.
“They are not yours, Bothvar. You will be Earl when I take the last voyage. You need a woman at your side and children to take over when you too take the last voyage. Do not be the reason our line ends,” he says, his hand on my shoulder.
But I don’t waiver. My mother approaches. “Maybe this isn’t the time to talk about this.”
I hear several loud footsteps approaching from the mountains. I pull away from my father and approach as Scyra and her woman return. A short bumbling furball of a yeti comes stumbling in and plants down in front of me. A scent of musty caves and the wild blows off her. She looks up at me with bright blue eyes. I tilt my head in confusion. I thought she’d be taller. In fact, she looks like she has gotten shorter. And she looks a little different. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something that seems very different about her.
“Oh my god, she is adorable!” Svala says as she and Thora rush up to her.
“I want one!” Thora says.
“Shuli?” I ask, skeptical.
Scyra bursts into a laugh. “That is not Shuli. That is Sheko.”
“I knew it wasn’t her. I thought she was rather short, but she has those blue eyes.”
“Yep, just like her mother,” Scyra says with a smile. I look up at her wide-eyed.
“Her mother?” I ask.
“Yep,” she says as she looks over her shoulder at the pass. “Are you coming, Shuli?”
Suddenly a giant yeti almost as tall as a tree walks out with a huge leather pack hanging at her side. The pack itself is big enough to hold almost two people inside. My entire family and Amalgunda take a step back, but I step forward as I meet those big blue eyes that I know very well. There is no mistaking them. With my hands, I say her name as Scyra taught me. “Shuli.”
Suddenly, I’m wrapped in white furry arms, practically being strangled. I’m nearly smothered before she finally sets me down. Her big hand then messes up my hair like I’ve done to her so many times. She smells just like she did back in the Northern mountains. Full of that musty cave scent, but I can still smell the scent of death on her along with the shadow.
My family had their weapons out, but thankfully, Amalasontha and Scyra stopped them from doing anything stupid. With my hands, I tell her it is so good to see her, and she does the same. I then step back to introduce my family to her. First, I start with a familiar face, bringing Amalasontha forward. She recognizes her immediately and pulls her into a big bear hug. I still can’t believe how big she’s gotten. Taller than even Kveldulf of the Giant Clan.
She finally puts the woman down and messes up her hair as she did to me. Amalasontha introduces her to Amalgunda, calling the woman her mate, which makes my eyes go wide. Then Shuli messes up her hair as she did with us. Scyra steps up beside me. “You know, thanks to you, she thinks that’s a form of greeting.”
That makes me boom out laughing. “If we ever meet another race of people who speak another language, remind me to be wary of what I do.”
She giggles. “I’ll try to.”
Amalasontha tells Shuli she is pleased to see her again. She missed her and is happy to see her doing well. That’s when I notice another short yeti lingering in the back by the pass. It’s a bit taller than the cub that Svala and Thora are playing with. I can’t help but smile as the cub messes up their hair.
Amalasontha pulls the spear from her back and presents it to Shuli. Shuli takes it with enthusiasm. Then digs into her pack and pulls out a necklace of polished smoothed stones. She tells her that the stones are found in the depths of the underground caves in pools of light water, which I assume are the same pools with the glow ore in them as we found in the Northern Mountains. She bows her head and thanks her before she steps back and I introduce my brothers to Shuli. Telling her that they are to me what Ulluc is to her. She nods with a smile.
My brothers pull out their gifts. Bodvar, a two-handed ax, and Thormar, an hourglass. “Can you tell her? It helps keep track of time.”
I nod and use my hands to explain what it does. She seems rather excited as she turns it upside down. She nods her thanks, putting them both in her pack before she pulls out a stone hammer and a stone ax of her own, handing them both to my brothers.
Thankfully, they bow their heads respectfully and accept them. Next, I introduce Svala and Thora. I tell her Svala is to me what you are to your brother, Ulluc. I don’t know the signal for siblings in her language. She nods, smiling. Thora is a little harder to explain. I look at Scyra. “How do you say she is my niece?”
Scyra nods and uses her hands to explain it. From what I understand, she tells Shuli that Thora is the cub of my brother. Shuli nods in understanding as she kneels down and messes up their hair. Thora leaps into her and hugs her. “You have such soft hair.”
Shuli smiles and laughs. My sister then gives her a golden necklace and Thora gives her a comb. Shuli takes them with enthusiasm and bows her head with gratitude. Then she pulls out two little carvings from her pack. Carvings I remember vividly as I was the one who carved them. I gave her and Ulluc over a dozen wooden carvings. She looks at me with a smile as she hands one to Thora and the other to Svala. Then she explains with her hands that I carved them and gave them to her when she was only a cub and they have provided her with much joy and comfort. She has given most of the others to her own cubs, but she felt that my kin should have some as well. They look at me, confused. I explain it to them. “I carved them for her when she was a cub, and now she feels you two should have them to provide you with the same joy and comfort she received from them.”
“Awww, that’s so sweet,” Svala says as she takes one of the carvings before she hugs Shuli.
Thora takes the other and looks at it closely. It is a warrior that looks like my brother. Or at least as close as I could make it. Of course, his shield was close to Thorkel’s. Thora looks at me with tears in her eyes. “Is this my father? That’s his symbol on the shield.”
I nod. She hugs the carving to her chest. Then she wipes away her tears and hugs Shuli once more. “Thank you so much! You do not know how much it means to me. I will forever cherish it.”
The two girls step back, and then I introduce my father. Telling her he is to me as Ukam is to her. She nods. She then tells me that she is surprised to hear me use their real names. She says I never used them back in the Northern Mountains. She says her father never liked being called Longhorn, at least not at first. Her brother hated being called Short Snubs, but he liked you so much that he didn’t say anything.
I smile at her and tell her Scyra told me what their real names were. I tell her I’m sorry for not taking the time to ask. She pats my head and tells me she liked me calling her Blue-Eyes.
My father steps up and takes out a large two-handed hammer. Shuli takes it and it looks like a blacksmith hammer in her hands. She nods her head and fetches out an enormous chunk of gold. She tells me she knows how many humans value this metal. My father bows his head with a big smile on his face. I’m sure he’s pleased with that. An Earl can never have enough gold. Expenses are always pilling up.
Next, my mother approaches, and I explain to Shuli our relationship. She signals a response. “Shuli says she is honored to meet the woman who birthed me.”
My mother bows her head. “I am honored to meet the one who gave my son a home when he was away from home.”
I relay her words to Shuli. My mother pulls out a medallion with a large sapphire in it. “Tell her that this medallion is enchanted to protect the wearer from magic. If the Southerners have magic castors, they will not be able to hurt the bearer directly.”
Shuli takes the medallion with awe. I tell her what my mother told her and she bows her head to my mother. Then she pulls out a giant uncut red ruby. She says she found this in the depths of the mountain. My mother takes it and she’s very pleased. Finally, my Aunt Sigvor steps up. I try to explain the relationship, telling her she is to me as I am to Thora. Shuli seems to understand.
My aunt pulls out several bags. “Tell her, inside these bags are tonics and herbs. This bag is for fevers. This bag is to help heal cuts, and this one is for bruises and broken bones. And this bag is to help ease the pain to make it hurt less, but outside of that it doesn’t do much else. These herbs can be found here. I left samples of each plant so she can identify it and find it in the woods and mountains.”
I nod but look to Scyra. “Can you explain all that?”
She laughs and nods. Shuli’s eyes go wide when she signs to her. She bows and messes up my aunt’s hair before signaling her thanks.
“She says she will give it to her shaman and it will help many of her people. She is most thankful for this,” Scyra says. She then reaches in and pulls out something I’ve never seen before. It’s a glowing red cap mushroom. She explains that this mushroom, unlike the green ones, helps us connect with the spirits. She puts it in a bag with others and hands it to my aunt. My aunt bows in gratitude and gives her thanks.
Finally, I step up and take the horn out. Shuli steps back as she recognizes it. I then tell her that it was her father’s. “I found it broken off from him, and I kept it to remember him. I hope that doesn’t displease you. I felt compelled to make it into a horn to blow to make noise so that, in a way, Ukam could always be heard even though he no longer walks this land. That way his voice could be used to give warning to protect others.”
Tears flow down Shuli’s eyes and, before I know it, I’m swept up in one big hug, squeezing the breath right out of me. After she puts me down, she accepts the horn and makes it roar. Giving it a blast that makes the trees shake. Birds from all around take flight. It makes my ears ring.
She pulls out a pair of antlers. I’d recognize those antlers from anywhere. Shadow Stalker Antlers. She hands them to me. Then she reaches over her back and pulls out a large hammer of the glow rock. I recognize it. It’s the very same hammer I made for Ukam. She tells me when she was old enough to hunt several winters ago, she led a great hunt against the shadow beasts in the Northern Mountains and killed many of the wretched beasts. She reclaimed her father’s hammer that I gifted him and used it to deal death to them. She now trains her people to fight together. They gather many and will rid the mountains of the shadow beasts. All of them.
This time, I’m the one hugging her. I’m so proud of her. She came here as a lost cub and now I have found a warrior who leads her people. After we break apart, I tell her this. “From now on, among our people, you will forever be known as Shuli, Blue-Eyes, The Bane of the Shadows.”
Her chest swells with pride and she holds the hammer high, bringing the horn back to her lips to give it another loud boom. This time I have enough sense to cover my ears, as do the rest of my party.
I then tell Shuli that it makes me so proud and happy to see her so strong and brave. She tells me she could never have done it without me. She then goes to the pass and drags the other yeti out. She tells me this is her son, Aruhn. He is like his father, Bollelos. Sadly, he died at the hands of the humans who live beyond the mountains. The ones we call the Southerners. That is why he is weary of us. She says he will learn that we are different from them.
I nod and walk up to him. I then pull out my ax I made long ago in the mountains. He flinches, but Shuli puts her hand on his shoulder. I then present it to him. Hesitantly, he takes it and it takes him two hands to hold it.
Shuli then apologizes for him not bringing any gifts. It is a great dishonor to not give in return. She hopes he will one day mature. I tell her not to worry. Their presence is enough of a gift. She gives me one last hug before we say our farewells and head our separate ways. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
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