Lava Dome Five

(This is the story behind my main character. At first it won't have much furry involvement, but once Aleihr's adventure truely begins, so does the heavy furry and macro involvement. I will post what episodes I have written currently, as I've been doing this series on anouther forum, and like on it, I will add anouther episode every two weeks.

Oh, and feedback is appreciated.)

 Episode Zero:

Drowmere has just reached his country home, and leaped down from his horse. As he took it out back to the stables, a slight smile could be seen on his face. It was a pretty good and productive day at the machine-shop he worked at. The lathe was around on the world of Xenoturis for centuries but now its been upgraded for better productivity, and Drowmere liked every bit of it

The lathe was a machine that was pretty much mechanize rotating cylinder in which the user could control the speed depending on the job. For an example it could be used in many tasks such as: cutting metal into a circular shape, drilling through metal, and threading. Threading in machining are those fine ribs you may see on parts like nuts, bolts or screws.

After taking it to the stables, he was met by little Broderick, his son. While helping his father settle the horse in and feed it, he asked, “Dad, mommy’s really worried about baby brother. He has weird eyes and everyone is talking bad about it…”, with the horse set Drowmere stormed out with Broderick following close, “What in the hell is wrong?!”, he was very worried. His newborn infant seemed to have just opened its eyes today and something is up with them?!

Bursting into his home, Drowmere noticed his wife mothering her son, rocking him in his crib. Sefa looked at him in surprise, “Drow, his eyes opened!…”, storming over to the baby, he quietly demanded not wishing to upset his infant, “Broderick says something is wrong with his eyes, what’s going on?!”

Sefa moved aside for the concerned father to take a look, his eyes widened when he saw the baby’s eyes then turn turned to his wife confronting her, “Have you been fucking one of Helga’s Draconian churchmen? Did you screw a fucking dragon and cheat on me?”

The eyes were halfway human looking. He irises were goldenrod, and the pupils were vertical like a reptilian eyes. Sefa frowned at him, “How dare you, Drowmere! I’d never do that. Think about how many dragon folk are in world? We might have a trace of it, and if finally showed.”

Drowmere sighed, “You’re right, its just…well I’ve heard some things about them. Thought you’ve went for a bigger-”, A blonde haired woman came running from the kitchen, it was Drowmere’s sister-in-law, “What’s going on out here?! If you ask me it’s a blessing that he inherited the eyes of the Draconi, but Sefa has been so fretful about it, as you seem to be…”, Drowmere seemed suspicious, “What are you getting at, Helga?”

Helga responded, “This weekend at church, I’m going to hold a prayer asking for him to be changed so he can one day be whole.”, Drowmere’s face burned with anger, “You listen here, church bitch! My son doesn’t need changed, he‘s perfectly human! His eyes might say differently, but he’s still my son and no less of a human being in mine! I’m going to play the cards Destiny has dealt!”

It was later on that night that Drowmere and his wife finally agreed on a name for the baby infant. And that name was Aleihr, meaning Legacy in Norse tongue.

 Episode One

It was a bright and sunny spring day, the birds sung openly in the trees and in the sky as they flew by. The sunny rays made the grass and leaves of the trees glisten green to their utmost beauty. But that was only the weather, the day wasn’t so sunny in nature, in fact it was a grim day for a certain Norseman.

The sound of steel clanging rang together like rugged chiming and feet scuffling on the ground as the fighters performed the gruesome dance known simply as battle. Bodies laid lifelessly on the ground in blood and gore from hard and grueling combat, weapons and shields laying near them, as well as limbs. Three of these bodies seemed to be humanoid, weather elf or man was hard to be told due to the carnage. They were most likely humans from the northern lands from the looks of their garb and armor.. Four of the others seemed to be heavily bulked in muscle, and their skin green- these were corpses of orcs.

A small built Norse soldier sprawled to the ground, a small trail of bronze rings from his chain mail hauberk laid on the ground. He laid on the ground as the orc he was facing closed in on him, falchion in his grasp. The orc saw no serious injuries on the warrior he’s been scraping with for the last two minutes, just some bruising and scrapes. The Norse warrior that he knocked to the ground with a brutal strike was a great nuisance, and could seal his fate if left alone. Not hesitating any longer the orc charged to the fierce warrior and lifted up his blade to take his head off, both as the fatal strike as well to have a grim trophy.

Something happened the orc wasn’t counting on though. The Norse soldier hastily reached for a hand axe laying near him, and hurled it for the green barbaric monster with no particular aimed target- he just wanted the axe to sink into the monster- period. In which it did- the head of the iron axe head buried itself well into the monstrous humanoid’s lower abdomen. The second it did, the soldier rolled over gripping his scramasaex, then lunged forward to the orc. Swiping the short blade for the weakened and stunned orc,

Not having lunged in a stable manner, he slammed into the orc, knocking him over. The orc wasn’t able to react, as the blade bit deep into his face when it swipped against it. Though the orc was nearly dead, the Norseman like his kin wasn’t one to pussyfoot around, he quickly jammed the sharp single edged blade into the orc’s shoulder, then raised the blade out and back in again violently. This time he kept the blade in, squirming and prying it about deeper in, mangling the tough flesh.

Surely the orc was dead now, so the Norseman retrieved his blade and made a flicking motion of the blade to knock the blood and meat off of it. Huffing and puffing, the warrior was trenched in sweat, and blood was blotted all over him. Sheathing the blade, he stood up just breathing hard and collecting himself, confused at first.

His heart still pounding, and still pumped with adrenaline, the Norseman wasn’t quite in his world again just yet. He would need to relax some and take some deep breaths before he could think clearly. Looking upon his fallen companions, the rage of battle dissipated and was replaced by sorrow. Then looked over a short distance to a trading cart, which had several arrows and thrown axes embedded in it, in front of it horses laid dead.

“Damn you, Loki! Aleihr, we need to get going and fast!”, the voice bearing a northern accent cried to him. Aleihr did recall a fourth trade crew member, the one driving the cart. Looking around he saw an older Norseman weakly extracting a vile containing a strange red liquid from a leather pouch on his belt. Aleihr rushed over to him, “Need any help, Eric?”, his answer was given with a harsh bark from Eric, “I’m fine, its just a flesh wound! Now ya best be gathering some things to survive on and fast as Thor’s lightning!”

Quickly Aleihr ran over to the orc and yanked his handaxe from the orcs body, then scrapped the head across the ground to clean it some, then holstered it in a leather frog on his belt. Then went over to the cart and found a large leather satchel which he began stuffing supplies into it. The warrior took off his leather studded helm to wipe off the sweat. More of his long auburn hair was revealed more a few seconds, but then he placed the helm back upon his head again.

After filling his bag with an assortment of things to survive, such as food, spare clothing, and cooking wear, Aleihr went through some of the weaponry in the trading cart. He found a weapon to his liking, which was a battle axe, so he took it, “What’s going on Eric?! What does the god of trickery bestow upon us?!”

Eric pulled off the cork on the flask, then yanked the arrow from his stomach, and quickly poured the liquid on the wound. Absorbing into the wound and closing it up, it was apparent that the liquid was some sort of healing potion. Grunting as he pulled himself up, the matured Norseman fingered at his punctured lamellar leather armor. Moving walking towards the cart as well he grunted a bit having to endure a little pain.

Reaching for a satchel he began to fill it up with survival necessities, “An orc fled in the bushes, and they are as proud fighters as we Norsemen are. Does that tell ya something, Little Wyrm? Intelligence! The pansy offed to go cry to his superiors about us! Lets get going and fast! I don’t want to go to Valhalla just yet god dammit! And I‘m sure Drowmere will gut himself he found out his son died!”

The two slipped an arm through each leather band of their satchels, and Eric pulled a spear from the weapons cache. Aleihr asked as he stepped away and cleaved at the air with his axe to get a feel for the formidable weapon. It was slower than a sword or spear, but it wasn’t has hefty and cumbersome as most axes one would picture a Viking boasting.

He smiled a little, it seemed to be of his liking. Eric scratched his bearded chin, “That’s right, Little Wyrm. We’re not too far from our destination point are we now…Ya, we can sail away at the docks…Wait no-no. They might skin us alive for not protecting the caravan well enough. They put a lot of trust in us…”

then he heard the faint sound of hooves thundering away, “-Lets not go that way anyway. The orcs might be on the lookout down towards there!”

Quickly the two began to run down the way they came from, “This way off the road, Aleihr! They might patrol the highways for us in seek of revenge!”, so they pulled off the road running in the opposite direction the orc went. They ran for a short while then slowed their pace so they didn’t exhaust themselves. Where they were now in thick forestry and hacking down tall weeds and briar that got in their way with there scramasaexs.

As they traveled through the thick forestry, their thick leather boots crunching vegetation and twigs, Aleihr looked to Eric and asked, “You were calling me, ‘Little Wyrm.’ earlier?”, Eric chucked, “You deserve such a title. You may be of little stature compared to the rest of our kind, but its as though a dragon embodies you. And its not just those wicked eyes, but you put up quite a fight back there!”

Aleihr simply replied, “Thanks. But I was just doing what I had to survive.”, a silence then grew. Then something hit Eric and it was broken, “I just thought of something, Al. That scout may have heard our names, we might want to change names for a while. I’ll call myself…Dammit to hell, I can’t think of a name right now… How about you, Aleihr?”

After snickered, “I got one for ya. Dimmwitted-Numbnutts!”, Eric’s face turned beat red, “How bout, we call you Impaled-By-Spear! I was talking about a name for yourself, I’ll think of a name for me.”

Aleihr gulped and answered, “You know, ya. I’ve got a name I mind. I’ve always liked the mainlander name, ’Alexander’.”, Eric chuckled, “Alexander…Yeah sounds nice, and seems to fit you well.”, then busted after a moment, “Miguel!”

Alexander mused, “So me Alex and you Girl?”, Miguel corrected him, “Nah, Miguel.”, the reptilian eyed Norseman continued to speak as though he was talking to a caveman, “Yes. You Girl, me Alexander.”

Shaking his head, “You heard me, fuckface!”, then added in a mocking tone, “And no I’m not a ‘girl’ you god damn smartass!”, Miguel smacked Alexander in the back of the head so hard it offset his leather helm a little.

The two traveled for miles, and the sun hung low in the west side of the sky, and the sky was darkening- nightfall was close around the corner. Alexander looked behind him thinking about the orcs, “Think we lost them?”, Eric answered, “Hmmm, possibly. But we should keep our guard up, for all we know they might be on our trail. And then again, orcs are lazy…but that would be unwise thinking to underestimate them like that…”

Alexander evaluated, “So in a threat level from Green-to-Red, we’d be at an orange-borderline-yellow?”, Eric grunted in thought. After a thinking for a moment, “Ya, I’d say that’s about right.”

Episode Two:

Still in the forest, they felt uneasy about the thought of needing to sleep the night in it, but their inner adventurers made them brave it. After all, their lives did perhaps depend on this sleep. Alexander volunteered, “If you don’t mind, I’ll take first shift. You’ll need the rest more since how older you are and all.”

Miguel wrinkled his nose at Alexander, “That’s a good idea, but damn lad, could you have used better wording than that? Rather than making me feel ancient? I’ve listened to you talking during the caravan trip, Alex. You don’t realize it sometimes, but you can be too forward, to the point of arrogance even at times. So forward it often leaks into your jokes, and they don’t sound like jokes at all. And some things you say can sound pretty harmful as light hearted you may intend them to be.”

Looking down in shame Alexander sighed, “…I have been trying to work at it. Its just so hard…”, feeling down for his companion he responded, “I feel for you. Well, I’m sure with more time you’ll improve. But either way, I’ll stick beside ya.”

Smiling feeling better, Alex mused, “Hey if you’re a fuoflogi, that’s ok with me, that’s your preferance and none of my business…but I’ve got to decline.”, flustered and shaken by the joke Miguel responded, “Damn it, Drowmere warned me about your mouth when I was talking to him about hiring you! You are a cock-fucking smartass!”

(If you haven't figured it already. In Old Norse, "fuoflogi" means "He who flees from the female organs.")

The two shared a hearty laugh together and Miguel added, “You’re alright, Alex, that was one of your better jokes.”

Still deep in thought and not ready to lay down just yet, Miguel stayed sat up. Alexander too was in thought as well, occasionally rubbing his stubble on his chin with the side of his finger, “I feel terrible. Like I could have done more or something.”

Miguel grunted, “Bah! We done what we could, both of us. Those damnable orcs surprised us and kicked the living shit out of us. Sure your job was to prevent attacks on the caravan and keep it from being robbed, but you did all that you could. We were just out-muscled. But I’m on your wavelength though, I too feel like we could have somehow picked up on the ambush before hand.”

Alexander attempted to lighten the mood with yet another joke, “Well…they were green…”, Miguel picked up on the joke and chuckled, “There’s a good one.”, after a moment’s more of thought Alexander stated, “Those orcs were bold. Why is it that they would want to mess with northmen with our people’s history.”

Nodding Miguel answered, “Good question. Its because of our history as a matter of fact. Everyone knows of the Viking Age and how our ancestors would raid and pillage the mainland. Hell, some still tend to today. Many seeks vengeance for their lost love ones, or for a good challenge knowing of our natural knack for combat. That’s why the Draconians of the mainland are such the supreme race, and have such strong governments, so that they could protect each other well. Because its not rare for someone to want a piece of them to prove their worth.”

The older man stated, “But that’s beside the bold greed for riches and things of value of course.”, as the two talked and pondered things, Alexander slipped his scramasaex from its sheath to examine it. As he twisted about looking at the blade in the moonlight. On the blade was a blood groove towards the flat edge, and also on the blade was a series of runes.

Miguel noticed the knife which was big enough to be classified as a short sword, “Drowmere gave ya that, didn’t he. I remember he used to carry that around, I also remember him telling me of giving it to you a few years back.”, Alex nodded, “Aye, it’s a family heirloom, ancient. The runes are proof enough, they are still yet to be translated, think you can?”, and presented the saex to him.

The older man took the saex to examine it, “What do you think I’m a sage or something?”, Alexander replied with a sarcastic done, “Ya.”, Miguel retorted, “I don’t know whether to be flattered or to jam your own blade into your head!”

Alexander’s eyes widened, “Wow you have to be pretty damn pissed to jam a knife…in their head.”, Miguel laughed, “Joke after joke-after joke…You’re nothing but a joke now are you?”, defeated Alexander mused in a whiney tone, “You’re mean!”

After chuckling Miguel finished examining the saex and handed it back to Alexander, “Sorry there lad, but I’ve had about as much luck as the others. Which is quite strange, I can’t even pick up a hint of what it says.”

A while after, Miguel finally bid Alexander good night and fell asleep. In the morning, the two having changed position, the amateur mercenary awoke to the older one shaking him, “Aleihr, get the fuck up! Crimany you sleep deep! We have company!”, startled the young mercenary jerked himself up, he began reaching for his axe.

There were five men standing before them clad in light armors such as leather and padded cloth, and they all wore wolf and bear hide vests. They carried weapons at their sides, mostly consisting of scramasaexs and hand axes. But one of them had a sword at his side, a sign of high social status, this was most likely the leader. It was coming clear to Aleihr, that this was a berserker gang before he and Eric.

The leader stepped forward and frowned when Aleihr reached for his axe, but didn’t reach for his sword seeing as the young man was merely startled and was out in the woods were danger could be lurking at any corner, “No false move, boy. Whether we’re your enemies or not is your decision.”

Aleihr understood that this was a warning and was sure to watch himself, “Who are you? Do you need any help from us.” The frown seemed to fade some as he saw the young man removing his hand from the axe’s haft and show no sign of hostility, but hostility did brew within him himself as he heard the whelp’s question.

The leader answered in the same stern tone, “You were helping us, until you fucked up. Couldn’t have you have at least kept the horses safe, or better yet, not have fled? Thank god we arrived soon enough to stop from all of the merchandise from being taken by those damn orcs-”, Eric cut in, “Leave the lad alone! We did all that we could, Aleihr sure as hell did, especially him! We had no choice! We could have not came to warn you-”

Cutting in the leader said, “Ok I heard enough old man. I was thinking about at least busting some teeth out of the both of you, but let you go. But I won’t do even that, perhaps I was thinking to harshly. But you two will still have to pay your dues, and I think I know just how.”, Aleihr asked, “Fine, but who are you?”

There was no answer even though the guy was fully alert and Aleihr’s tone was clear. Plus there wasn‘t any other conversations taking place. Aleihr thought perhaps the guy was too full of himself that he didn’t want to associate with him, that he was but a little pawn to him. As a matter of fact, the guy didn‘t even ask him his name yet, “Great, a stuck up elitist…”

Eric noticed the snobbery as well, shaking his head some. He wished to stand up for Aleihr and say something, but elitists have a bad habit of being spiteful and often do what they can to utterly destroy you. A lot of times it doesn’t even need to be physical, they prefer to use words to make themselves look smart. Elitists even take pleasure in being foolishly challenged by who they see as whelps, so that they feel they have reason to commit social homicide by making these worms look foolish. But this man seemed to be a knight of sorts, and could easily kill the both of them without regret if he felt insulted.

Unfortunately, Aleihr tended to be bold, “Excuse me, sir. I asked you a question and I don’t take being ignored likely.”, the leader looked at him and it looked like he nerve, “If it’s so important to you, my name is Kali. I haven’t a care for who you are, but its now Dumbass as far as I’m concerned! Insolent fool.”

As Kali pointed to Aleihr he turned to Eric, “Keep your big mouthed, dumb ass monkey under control.”, Aleihr’s eyes narrowed, “Dumb ass? Big mouthed?…Sounds like a reflection of you, god damn hypocritical elitist.”

Eric said, “Sorry about that, Aleihr is usually sharper witted and kind, he’s so damn straight forward.”, Kali just replied, “Straight forward is right, and its bound to get a blade straight forward into his heart. But I can’t imagine him having any wits or manners about him. Look at him, I can see it that he wants to say more. Perhaps you are right, and has a little wit about him.”

Still standing by his friend, Eric responded, “You don’t know him, but I do. If you get to know him, you will see.”, but Kali remained strong headed, “I don’t wish to know this…this pathetic excuse for a man. Now lets get moving and get back to base. If things go well, we set sail later today to get revenge. The orc tribe troubling us mainly resides down south on a mainland coast, from what I’ve heard.”

Kali and the band of berserker’s allowed them to pack up their things, and then they headed back towards the trail to follow it to the harbor.

Episode Three

When they packed up their knapsacks, they soon set out with the berserker gang to return back to the harbor. It was but a few hours later that they soon stood before a formidable looking base encased by a timber palisades. Several guard towers dotted the sturdy wooden walling, faintly seen were archers armed with ash longbows ready to pluck well aimed arrows into the bodies of whoever dares to have the balls to try to pick a fight with their employers.

Aleihr was being careful, and kept his opinionated mouth sealed. For he was in the presence of a clan of not just Norsemen, but actual Vikings, elite raiders of the sea. To challenge one without the proper fighting experience, why you might as well have been born in the grave so to speak. And it usually didn’t take much at all for many Vikings to feel challenged by a stranger. They often didn’t even need a good reason, and would kill to please their gods to show their iron nerves.

Kali led Aleihr and Eric to the mead hall, “Since you are going to be fighting with Viking berserks, you might as well dine with them. Drink and feed to your leisure and sit where you will.”, Kali walked over to the cook who was standing near a cauldron of chunky soup, and also next to him was a table which had some bread, bowls, platters, utensils, and stein cups.

As Kali began small talk with the cook Aleihr hardly paid much attention to them, only keeping enough mind to know if he was talked about or its just his turn. He was mainly concerned about. He was thinking ahead and was already scanning the mead hall for somewhere good to sit down and eat. His key target was with a small group of average acting people. Aleihr didn’t wish to sit with loud-mouthed savages, but he didn’t wish to be around people who weren’t afraid to talk some.

There were tables scattered throughout the mead hall, and indeed there was a variety of folks there. Aleihr spotted a group that seemed to be right for his taste, and in good timing too, because Kali finished getting ready. As he walked over towards a table that berserks were sitting at Aleihr picked up a platter and began placing some bread on it as the cook reached for a bowl as he stirred the stew.

The cook took a better glance at Aleihr and did a double-take, “Holy hell, boy! What on Xenoturis happened to you?!”, he obviously noticed Aleihr’s chain hauberk which still contained the large gapping slash hole as well as many chipped rings. The cook also noticed Aleihr’s dirtied and scuffled clothing. As well as his skin which bore many scrapes and patches of dirt.

Aleihr answered, “The caravan I was guarding got attacked by orcs, it was too much for us to handle. I’d rather not like to talk about it… I just hope our comrades are living it up in Valhalla.”, the saddened Norseman picked up a wooden spoon and placed it on the platter as the cook poured two large scoop fulls into the bowl, “Ah Kali was just telling me about that, but he said that only Eric…A strange one he is…There’s something not right about him… Anyways you enjoy your meal now.”

The cooks kindness lifted Aleihr’s spirit and a smile was able to crack on his face, “Thank you kind sir.”, and picked it up. He headed over to the table that took interest to him, it wasn’t too full, in fact there were plenty of seats. And the people there seemed like a mix of every day working class as well as guardsmen, and soldiers. It looked like they were the kind and sociable types as well.

As he sat down, a man wearing average looking wool clothing greeted him, “Hi.”, Aleihr smiled as he sat down and chirped with a rather cheerful tone, “Heya.”, the others both noticed that the man sitting down to eat was both friendly and just got out of a bad scuffle. So they thought it would only be right to welcome him with small friendly waves.

Aleihr heard from different people sitting at the table, verbaly greeting him warmly, the most common being, "Hail friend!", Looking around feeling a bit better knowing he was in good company, he let out a breath of relief. The scuffled warrior felt good and relieved that he could sit down and eat with good folks around him. These folk were your every day civilized Norse folk, and not the savage Vikings that gave their race a bad reputation.

Episode Five

Vanessa smiled at him as if silently laughing, “What, so that you can talk about girls with them? How do you plea”, Aleihr answered laughingly, “Guilty as charged.”

Chuckling, the dragoness ranger declared, “Then hear by charge you with a lifetime sentence of friendship. Case dismissed.”, Aleihr laughed, “You have a good sense of humor. I think I will enjoy our friendship.”, Vanessa nodded, “Why thank you, I think the same. But we should finish our meals before we continue on.”

Before the two continued to eat their meals, Aleihr noted, “Good point.”, so the two continued to eat without pause no matter how much they wished to talk. It was but a few minutes before the two finished their meals, and Kali stood up from his seat with this berserkers. Soon Kali stopped by Aleihr as he reached him, “Aleihr, be ready to leave. The ships should be ready by now, I’m going to go check. Ah miss Vanessa, so this is why you never fall for me. You prefer trash over treasure.”

Before the two continued to eat their meals, Aleihr noted, “Good point.”, so the two continued to eat without pause no matter how much they wished to talk. It was but a few minutes before the two finished their meals, and Kali stood up from his seat with this berserkers. Soon Kali stopped by Aleihr as he reached him, “Aleihr, be ready to leave. The ships should be ready by now, I’m going to go check. Ah miss Vanessa, so this is why you never fall for me. You prefer trash over treasure.”

Vanessa narrowed her eyes, “Cute, real cute. So if you don’t mind me asking, what do you need of Aleihr.”, Kali answered, “The weakling failed in protecting the caravan that was to arrive last night. Orcs ambushed them, and the gods seemed to have pity on him and the caravan driver. Look at him, so damn skinny, the gods probably don’t want him in Valhalla! The orcs took a good bit of the cargo and he’s coming with us for retribution.”

The ranger immediately wanted to go, she’s seemed to become attached to this dragon-eyed man beside of her, “Hmmm, no doubt the sleaze will abandon him there or something.”, Vanessa proposed, “Mind if I go along? Who knows, I like a strong warrior and seeing you in action might spark something.”

Kali found this odd that it could be trickery, but yearned for a chance to win her love. The leader nodded, “Well you are renown around here for combat expertise…Go gear up, you can come along.”

Episode 7

Even his bronze hauberk was a little heavy, and it took Aleihr months of exercising and working out wearing the protective garnment to get well conditioned to the weight. So for right now, the warrior would need to pass on the iron hauberk. Bearing his conditioning training in mind, he was confident that his body would be able to support the wieght of the armor, but the question in Aleihr’s mind was for how long?

So he looked to the iron lamellar vests, sure the rectangular scales were still made of iron but surely enough they would be lighter considering that it didn’t have any leg or arm extentions like the chain hauberks. It was only a vest after all, and only covered the torso. It was just what he needed, Aleihr needed something tough to cover the heavy battle damage done to his hauberk. Considering that most of the damage was to the chest area that is.

He walked over to a bench after having taking the lamellar vest and set it down. Examining it close, the vest was made up of many oval shaped scales rather than rectangles. They appeared to be retangular but that is because of the thin rows leather which incased the tops and bottoms of each lam. The vest its self was also outlined with leather, most likely for comfort and stability.

Commenting within his thoughts, “Seems like pretty solid protection. Weight isn’t bad, and I’m feeling comfterble about its durability, very well sewn and put together. But what‘s this…”, he found something that was all the more comforting to him. The armorer was really thinking when he made this piece, and made it to be more like a brigandier vest.

Usually all the leather there was reinforcing the garmment was what was prievously stated. Aleihr found that this particular piece had a light sheet of leather on the interior of the vest. The soldier for hire was well educated from years of study on arms and weapons to know that this would surely offer additional comfort as well as protection against damage from weapons. As well as cushioning for the force applied behind them.

Aleihr was nervous and scared before about the upcoming battle, still is really, but now he’s being given comfort. He would need some hand protection as well, he was lucky that his hands didn’t take any damage during the battle with the orcs. When he was young and practice with wooden swords. He and his friends would often accidently strike each other’s hands, the thumbs being the victim most often.

So he walked over to the selection of gauntlets and found some sets of mail hand protection. He found that some were mittens with no separate fingers, but others were more like gloves. The kind he chose were fingered gloves bearing a leather underside for the sake of being capable of griping weaponry with comfert.

Aleihr took them and placed it over with the lamellar vest. Next thing on Aleihr’s mind was a sword and a shield. He walked over the selection of swords first, picked it up and slipped it out of the sheath. The sword overall was thirty-seven inches long and an inch and a half wide. The sword had quite a bit of weight to it. Well grasped within the mercenary’s hand, he tested the weight by giving it several shaking movements. Then tried some strikes, carefull not to hit anything in the room with it.

Nodding impressed by the blade, it felt well balanced, but was worried that it might tire his sword arm after a short while. Yet still, he decided to have it as his new primary weapon. Suddenly he heard the door open and some light foot steps. Before he could turn around he heard a very familiar and welcoming female vioce, “Oh that is so you!”

Turning around to see Vanessa, he saw that she was ready for war. The female draconian was now clad in leather armors on her abdomen , shoulders, and forearms now. And on her back was a longbow. On her left hip was the dagger he saw before, and on her right was a quiver of many arrows. Giggling Vanessa spoke for him, “I take it you wish to say, ‘Likewise’?”
Aleihr gave a slow nod, “Uh huh. Yeah you have ‘professional’ written all over you, so to speak.”, then slipped the sword into its sheath and added it to his gear. Vanessa chuckled at Aleihr, “Thank you. Hey nice sofar. Be sure to get a shield, I’m sure you’re going to need it.”

Walking over to the shields he answered, “Great minds think alike.”, his eyes were on a round shield that was covered with leather. The shield also bore bronze rims and a boss. As he lifted the shield off of the hanger Vanessa asked, “Are experienced any with a sword?”

After slipping a hand through the leather arm band and gripping the handle in the center, “To an extent. I used to make wooden swords through my teenage years and would practice with them.” He liked the weight of the shield. It was slightly heavy, which told Aleihr that it was stable and could take some serious impact. But it wasn’t too heavy either and felt very maneuverable.

Vanessa smiled, “That’s good. Though I don’t want to see anything happen to such a good guy as you. I’m curious of what you can do.”, Aleihr took the shield over to the stock pile and began to suit up, “You and me both. That was only my first battle yesterday.”

Aleihr made haste and began to gear up. Starting by setting down the satchel strapped to his back and putting on the lamellar vest. Then looped the sword’s bodrick securely on his right shoulder, the sword hanging the left side of his waste. His axe he just set down to leave behind.

Vanessa smiled as she enjoyed Aleihr’s new look, “Now that’s more like it! Are you ready?”, Aleihr strapped the shield to his back, “Yes, lets get this over with.”


With that Vanessa led Aleihr out of the armory, the two giving the man at the desk an idle wave. They gave curt nods to the guards as they left and started walking through the complex, Vanessa was leading him to the docks. As they made their way trough the settlement, they were met by Kali and his band of berserks, “I see you two are ready. Good, the ships are ready. If you’ll follow me.”

Aleihr and Vanessa did as they were asked and followed the berserker gang to the docks. Kali seemed to have become a bit more polite towards him. Perhaps he gained some respect for Aleihr for co-operating so well? He shook the thoughts out of his mind and started thinking about battle tactics. After all, didn’t want to jinx himself and end up somehow on Kali’s bad side again.

Vanessa glanced over in wonder at the pondering Aleihr and examined his eyes and facial expressions, “Though talkative he also tends to be very quiet at times as well…He seems pretty collected.”

Before they knew it, the glistening ocean blue was in sight, but that was behind an even greater sight. Aleihr gazed in aw as he looked upon several large docked long ships. Most of them filled with Viking raiders prepared to set sail and deliever the orcs their final breaths.

Kali lead them to his ship, “You may sail with us, you deserve it.”, Aleihr’s eyes widened followed him and his berserks what seemed to be a stupor. Kali asked, “What on Xenoturis is wrong with you, Aleihr?”

Aleihr answered, “I’m just a little confused…Are you showing me courtesy?”, Kali sighed, “Yes, I’m sorry I was being such a prick earlier. There was just so much weighing on me. Any man to survive that attack deserves honor. Also Eric saw your last kill and seemed rather impressed. He said it was as though you were Odin and Loki combined that moment.”

Vanessa just listened in, just as amazed as Aleihr. The two took a seat along with the berserks. Not to say it was just just them and Kali’s band of twelve, there were many more Vikings there as a matter of fact. Aleihr noticed down in the spaceing between the planks were longbows and quivers of arrows. Kali took note to Aleihr’s examination and answered, “Just in case you’re wondering about the bows. Those are incase we come in contact with enemy ships and are in range to hit them with a pre-emptive. We also use them to shave enemy numbers, should they be waiting at the shore lines to get in our way.”

Aleihr picked up the bow near his feet, “Very clever!”, Kali nodded, “Aye, you can say that again.”, which was only asking for, “Very clever.” Vanessa yanked the bow out of his hand and swatted him on the head with it, “Shut up, lug head…Stupid ass joke…”

The Viking novice joked in a whiney tone, “Ow! Now that wasn’t right!”, Kali shook his head in laughter. Looking around, Kali noticed everyone seemed ready but boomingly asked first, “IS EVERYONE READY?!”, and was answered by the cheers and cries for battle from the countless Vikings. Kali lifted up a horn to his mouth and gave it a mighty blow. The invigorating sound of the horn signaled to all the warriors.

With another series of cheers, bestial howling, and the pounting of weapons against shields. The Vikings cut the ropes and half of the personel on each ship manned oars and pushed off to begin their seaward journey to the mainland of the Draconi Empire. Aleihr, Vanessa, and Kali weren’t of the ones manning the oars right now.

Aleihr looked around at the sights to behold, he always wanted to be on a Viking long ship. It was aw aspiring to gaze upon the glistening ocean, and the waves of water swishing from the long ships. The ships themselves were well built of oak planked ingeniously for great speed and agility across water. Along with the body design, what also made the great ships so fast were a combination of the sqaure shaped sails in the center, as well as the many rowers.

For a while, Aleihr was quiet enjoying the journey, but then he began to conversate with the others. The topics were many, but the main ones were of battle. Vanessa and Kali openly gave the young Aleihr many tips for him. After a while the rowers switched off with the ones who were relaxing. Even into night fall, though Aleihr obtained little sleep as he was not as used to the crashing waves as the older Vikings.

The dark sky was now beginning to glow in the horizon and also faintly seen was land, “Kali, you see what I see?”, the Viking war leader nodded as he lifted the horn from his belt and blew on it to awaken any slumbering warriors. After all, it would be but thirty minutes before they reached the shore.

Episode Eight:

 Within the great ships, all personel were now awakened and preparing themselves for a gruling battle.

Even Aleihr was being awakened, but in another way. As the battlefield began to draw closer and closer, Aleihr began to think, “What have I gotten myself into?”, like a guardian angel, Vanessa watched over him. She was watching for signs of emotions, to counsel him, were she to something that seemed alarming to her.

Looking around at the berserks, Aleihr remembered hearing about how ferociously they fight. He knew that he would need to stand clear of them in battle if he wanted to live. From what he heard, when a berserk gets into their state of extreme rage, they don’t distinguish between friend or foe well.

Suddenly he heard a panging from in front of the mast. It was a Viking striking a fire-steel against a flint stone, he was acting fast to light a torch. Looking ahead the from behind the other Vikings the best he could, he noticed the orcs were based in a well fortified coastal settlement much like the Veurdr Clan.

The Viking trying to start a fire was very quickly accompanied by others in different places on the ship. Aleihr then noticed on the other ships, torches were lit as well. And now the ship he was on joined with them as the torches were successfully lit. Then noticed some of the Vikings were standing up and picking up bows and quivers of arrows. Vanessa stood up drawing her bow, and picked up a quiver of arrows, “Come on, Aleihr. It looks like we’re going to rain the fortification with fire-arrows.”

Aleihr stood up, picking up his bow and set his up the quiver leaning against the walling for easy reach. Kali ordered, “Everyone get ready to fire!” Most of the Vikings including Aleihr and Vanessa prepared their bows. The arrows extracted from the quivers had torch cloth wrapped on the head. Of caurse, the tip of the arrow heads protruded in order for the arrow to keep most of its piercing ability.

Bows ready, they all began stepping over to the torch-bearers to light their arrows. And when having the arrows lit, the Vikings all took positions on the ship and aimed high. But they didn’t take positions that would endanger the ship’s sails. They all now drew back the strings and launched a volley of the fire arrows. A wall of flaming arrows pelted at the wooden fort walls and many even made it over, others just landed short and stuck in the ground before the wallings.

The other ships too fired volleys of arrows upon the fort. Combined with the dragon heads sculpted on the stern, the arrow volleys looked like fire-breath to the orcs.

Well, I know it'll be weird to have a comment in the middle of the thread, but in case you think that no one's reading or enjoying, lemme be the first to say otherwise.  :)

I don't mind at all that comments are left. I'd rather have it so that I can see if I'm doing good or not. And thank you, it was rather refreshing.

(This is the most I could muster this time around.)

 Episode Nine:

Continuing to coast in towards the wooden fort of the orcs, the Vikings continued to fire volley-after-volley. The orcs were now feeling something that they seldom do- terror.

Problem for the Vikings were, the bows they used were powerful, but perhaps too powerful for the ones who didn’t have as much strength and experience as the others. Though the berserkers kept a pretty steady rate of fire on the fort walls and towers, the lesser units like Aleihr needed to pace themselves, as the bows had ninty pound pulls to them. The large amount of strength to pull the strings back would surely put a lot of wear on their arms if they tried firing time-after-time. And in a close-up battle like what was about to occur, one needs all the energy they can muster.

 The orcs desperately scurried to try to make a resistance effort against the invaders who were setting their settlement ablaze. Arrows began to be hurled for the incoming Vikings from over the walls and in the watch towers. But they were highly indirect and hit in random places rather than being aimed and concentrated. This is because the orcs were not in a good position to aim well. For the ones over the walls…well they were behind walls and weren’t able to see their targets. And the archers in the towers couldn’t aim well either, for they often would duck in fear of getting shot by the Vikings. So they were only able to fire off snap-shots with little aiming.

As the wallings began to catch fire, and the arrows continued to rain around the ships from the orcs. The Viking bowman began to aim more for beyond the walls but even more for the towers to at least keep the archers suppressed. As the ships drew closer and closer, the accuracy and destructive power behind each shot increased for the Vikings.

Unfortunately for the sea raiders, the orcish archers behind the walls were getting smarter about their shots by trying to trace the enemies arrows and launching their own accordingly. Though still indirect, the orcish arrows began to draw closer towards the Viking ships and even landed once and a while. One even startled Aleihr as it landed on the walling next to him, “Ho shit, that was too close!”

As they drifted closer and closer, the Vikings kept their rate up. They managed to shoot all of the gaurds in the towers, and set the towers ablaze. Hidden gates in the wallings were found as the doors fell to the ground as the hinges were busted by arrows after being continuously pelted, and the wood around them burned off. After the large gate doors fell to the ground with a thud. Orcs gathered in the opening to try to get a better shot, but most of them only got shot themselves by the Vikings.

The Vikings finaly came to shore and the fighters immediately put their bows down in exange of their own weapons and sheild. The designated archers however kept hold of their bows to give the warriors fire support. They all began leaping down off of the ships and charged for the gap in the wall they created. As they charged giving animalistic howls and battlecries as they ran, almost ignoring the small fires dotting the area, and the fires on the walls. All that was on their minds was, "KILL!" 

Episode Ten:  Aleihr charged with them with his shield raised but not elevated too high as to obstruct his vision. Vanessa waited for the others to pass through but kept a sharp eye on Aleihr to provide covering-fire for him. Adrenaline pumped through the veins of the Vikings as they poured through the gaping hole in the orcish defensive structure. The numbers of the orcish soldiers were many and collided with the Viking raiders. The sounds of battle Aleihr heard two nights before seemed like mice squeaking in comparison.   Stopping to make his first attack, he gave a quick thrust of his sword but quickly transitioned it into a slash to the throat. His first kill of the battle gave way for momentum as he charged the next orc. Blocking a forceful mace blow from the orc, Aleihr felt some shock from the blow as his arm was knocked back towards him a little. Before Aleihr could go in for another swing at the orc, an arrow impacted into the menacing green skinned warrior’s throat. The battle waging at full swing, the gods’ favor was looking towards the brave Vikings as they cut down the monstrous orcish soldiers down. Not to say there weren’t any casualties on the Norse side, there were many. But the amount of fallen orcs weighed heavy- heavy like the iron plate armors that some of them wore. Aleihr was astounded as he watched the Berserks fight ferociously. Not to say he wasn’t focused, as the battling was all around and he was always looking out for allies who needed his aid.                It was as though the animal-hide clad warriors became animals themselves as they swing their axes, swords, spears, and knives with shield busting might. These souls who have had their hearts lit afire within wore little armor aside from the hides, and it was apparent as to why to Aleihr- they didn’t need any heavy protection. These men weren’t human, they were beasts in the form of men who knew the meaning of ‘The best defense is a great offence.’  But lets not focus too much on the berserkers though. After all it wasn’t just the berserks who were fighting ferociously. Though no quite to the immense level as the berserkers, many Viking soldiers fought with all their might. Aleihr was one of soldiers, despite the fatigue he was beginning to feel. An orc engaged him and landed a sword strike to Aleihr’s side. Sparks flew a little bit as the steel blade scraped across the rectangular iron plates of his lamellar vest.    Fortunately it was only the armor that was damaged. Ignoring the landed blow, the Nordic soldier returned with a shield bash. Before the orc could recover, Aleihr tried to return the strike. The orc parried the slash but the Norseman’s previous attack was light enough to recover quickly. He quickly followed up with a quick slash to the orc’s throat, the green-skinned humanoid dropped his weapons and reached for his throat as he fell to his knees to die. Meanwhile the whole time Aleihr was battling up close, Vanessa was watching the best she could from the line of archers who were firing upon the orcs in volleys. It was getting harder and harder for the dragoness ranger to keep an eye on the swordsman throughout the great battle. After having fought in the battle for a while and earning a few kills, the momentum only increased. As the battle continued to wage, the Vikings began to spread the battle more through the base and began to raid buildings as well as setting them ablaze. But Aleihr was beginning to feel great fatigue and started to pace himself more as he fought against the orcs.  Huffing and puffing, Aleihr stood with the sword and shield lowered some in great fatigue. He watched as the others made their raids and noticed that many of them huddled back together to storm a large building that looked to be a military headquarters. The novice soldier knew they might need backup and just as he made a step to head over to it he was halted by Vanessa’s voice, “You’re looking at suicide.”  Aleihr turned to face her when Kali passed them on his way to join him, “She’s right, you did enough. Let us handle this, little brother. Vanessa, you might want to stay behind as well and make sure he stays safe.” The dragoness ranger gave the Viking leader a small salute.

Very nice, Aleihr!

Episode Eleven:   Among the chaos, the horses from the stables must have been freed, as Aleihr noticed some running amok. He watched one of them that was wondering nearby and sheathed his sword, then looped his shield onto his back. Vanessa’s face would have went pale if it were humanoid, “No, don’t you do it!” but her words were in vein as the Viking novice had no intentions of backing away.Getting close enough to the horse, it seemed to be docile enough to allow him to be near but was backing away and avoiding the weary Viking. The dragoness ranger kept watching him though afraid the horse might react violently, she was rather intrigued by his determination, “Crazy son of a bitch…”                                      Aleihr managed to grab a hold of the reigns and then heave himself up onto the mighty beast. But right when he was nearly comfortable in the saddle, he felt the horse’s tension as it began to run about. Before it could start bucking or go too far, the Viking remembered his father’s teachings about horsemanship and yanked at one of the reigns with both hands. The horse’s head was jerked clear to the side and stopped immediately. As the horse stood regaining it’s footing, it seemed to have not intentions of fighting the Viking upon it. As Aleihr found this when he made himself more comfortable in the saddle, it came to realization to both him and Vanessa that he successfully gained control over it. Or did he?   Aleihr decided that before he did anything too hasty, that he would first see by testing it. This would also warm his riding skills up as well. He lightly shook the reigns to tell it walk, and with success. As the horse walked about, regrouping Vikings –mostly archers- who were disoriented and weary watched as Aleihr guided the horse about, steering it about by pulling the right or lift side of the reigns. One of the soldiers approached Vanessa and asked, “What in Valhalla is he doing? Is thinking what I think he is?” the dragoness ranger smirked, “Yeah, I think the insane bastard is getting ready to turn hauskarl on us and go in for a charge.” The Viking soldiers just stood silently watching in aw, it was an amazing sight to them because their kind rarely used horses. It was mainly just the nobility and traders that rode, let alone used them. Aleihr started to step it up into more of a gallop.     As he did, Vanessa checked her arrow supply and found it was low, having only 5 arrows left. She walked over to what seemed to be the body of an orcish archer whom she noticed had what seemed to be a full quiver of arrows on his back and slipped her own bow over her right wing which was folded.. As she bent down and slipped the arrows out and fit them into her own quiver, she eyed the bow. When she was done replenishing her quiver, she picked up the interesting bow. The orcish bow was a recurved bow, which bore a distinct look as the bow arched to give it the power of a longbow without needing to pull it as far back. Vanessa’s eyes widened as she took her bow from her right wing and replaced it onto her left.   As wished to keep the bow, for she heard that recurved bows often weakened in the rain. For unlike the simple longbow, recurved bows were made of multiple slabs of wood that are glued together. The glue tended to weaken when wet, sometimes even destroying the bow.Many of the archers took note to Vanessa and began scavenging for ammunition as well. Suddenly thunderous booms as well as screams of dying men echoed out from the headquarters building. Not standing to hear it, Aleihr reached for his sword and drew it as he looked upon his weary allies. He nodded to them as to say, ‘I’m going in!’ then turned the horse around lift as he lifted his blade, and finally yanked on the reign, “CHARGE!” Aleihr felt a wondrous rush as he both felt a adrenaline flow as he glared in the direction of the destruction, as well as the feeling and sounds of the thundering hooves as his steed charged forward at full speed and power.   As the gallant Viking rushed to aid his allies, Vanessa turned to the others and waved for the orcish keep with bow in hand, “Let’s go!” It looked as though Aleihr was orchestrating symphony of thunder as he waved the sword in a circular motion in the air as the horse rushed him forward. He rushed into the lobby, which he didn’t look around much at, it just looked Spartan looking, and was filled with many bodies of Vikings and orcs alike. He followed the trail of bodies down a hallway and down the large corridors of the castle, the echoing sounds of heavy battle becoming closer and louder.The horse spooked and came to a dead stop, rearing up when it came upon the entrance of the room. Why it was so afraid was because a powerful volley of magical energy orbs wiped out an entire wave of Viking berserks. In the back of what seemed to be the throne room was what seemed to be the leader of the orcs, whom was obviously a shaman bearing tremendous magical power.                   Aleihr quickly kicked the beast’s side with his heel which made the horse charge forward again, as he saw the orcish shaman had his eyes set on him. As the orc charged magic, the remaining Viking berserks already saw this as a possible opportunity to strike, and readied their axes and spears. A small frosty cloud covered the shaman’s hand as he finished channeling energy and from the could shot a sharp spear of ice as the fearsome Viking came closer and closer. The ice javelin landed, piercing his abdomen with so much force that it hurled him off of the horse.                    The horse continued to run though, so fast that the shaman couldn’t get off another spell before being kicked in the head by one of the horse’s hooves, and then trampled by another. As the beast stopped short before it ran into the wall, spears and axes were hurled into the orc’s body cleaving it into pieces. The orc didn’t seem to have much life in him, but they had to make sure. Gathering around Aleihr’s body where the remaining Viking berserks. One of them was Kali, who nursed his side that was burned by a small fireball spell. As he eased himself down to Aleihr’s body, and examined him. He eased a hand onto the spike of ice not wishing to tear the tissue worsening the bleeding wound, “Someone heat up some steal.” A berserker walked over to a lit torch on the wall and began to heat the tip of a scramasaex. Kali began to gently pull at the ice, “It doesn’t feel very deep.” He immediately but with care, pulled the ice out when the heated blade bearer crouched next to him.                    Vanessa and her platoon came in just in time to see all the Vikings huddled together in a circle, and noticed the horse was alone, “Oh no…” Suddenly, she heard Aleihr screaming with agony as he was awoke into consciousness by the blade cauterizing the wound. Kali snarled, “Relax! It can’t be helped!”                    The dragoness ranger plowed herself through the Vikings and crouched down next to him. As she reached for his hand and sandwiched it between hers, Aleihr turned his head weakly towards her and cracked a smile, “Vanessa…” while being comforted by her company and care, the heated blade was inserted again to finish the job. As the wounded Viking grunted as he felt more burning the dragoness rubbed at the back of his hand more, “I’m here for you, Aleihr, we all are. Take the pain, it’s for the best.”                 Before Aleihr knew it, it was over and the Vikings gave him room as Kali and Vanessa tried to ease him. The hero howled, “Gagh!” but still helped out by trying to get his footing some. Soon he was weakly to his feet thanks to their help, but Kali grunted at his own wound as he limped away, “Damn, I’m sorry but…” Vanessa held Aleihr up with an arm under one of his and holding his other shoulder.

She asked him, “Aleihr, can you walk?”

                Continuing to endure the pain, Aleihr was hesitant as he afraid his wound would open, “I’m lucky to stand up…” He trailed off as he attempted a small step with his left foot, as he planted the foot on the ground it was a success minus the pain. Then he tried for the other foot with success, “Good that’s it, one at a time, Aleihr. I’m right here for you. Lets see if you can keep…good!” Aleihr, step by little step, foot by foot, continued to keep going.

                 Hunched over from the pain his cauterized wound Aleihr kept going and it was becoming certain that he could walk, as handicapped as it was. As the Vikings began to gather their dead, Vanessa began to ponder. Aleihr noticed the focused look, “Something on your mind?” Vanessa nodded, “We’re not returning. Something is odd about you, and I think we need set out to find out what it.  Kali who was about checking on things was near enough to have heard it, “I heard that. I don’t think you should go right now at least. We might be here for longer than we wish. Let him rest and you help us carry the dead onto the ships.  He may be able to walk good enough on his own, by the time we are finished.”             

 

   The dragoness ranger nodded in agreement, “Ok, that sounds good.” Wanting to make sure he was ok she carefully and gradually released Aleihr. Though showing much strain as he was hunched over in pain, Aleihr seemed to stand up. My armor, we should have gotten off of me a lot sooner. I could probably breath much better.  Vanessa slapped herself upside the head for not thinking of it before when she should have. Then quickly unbuckled his belt, pulled the heavy vest off, through it down and started on the hauberk not paying any care to what happened to the vest. She managed to pull the bronze chain link coat off of his body and let it fall out of her hands. Though the pain from the wound was still greatly there, much of it was reduced compared to what it was before.  “I think I’m fine, Vanessa…Go help gather the dead. They deserve a proper funeral. And the quicker the better, I would like to see mainland and hopefully meet some anthros.”            

 

    Vanessa nodded, “Alright then, rest well.” Then walked over to help one of the Vikings pick up one of the corpses of their fallen comrades. Aleihr limped to the nearest wall and eased himself down to the ground and sat against the wall. He turned his head away from the corpses being carried off, though he couldn’t shed a tear, it was a heavily saddening sight to see, “Hopefully their deaths weren’t in vein, and the orcs will think twice before fucking with us. Enjoy your eternal feasts and glorious battles in Valhalla.” He thought to himself as he relaxed to the best of his ability.