Forcefully calming down, Erik presented his ultimatum to the Captains.
“First Migr and Tilog.
Migr and Tilog knowingly and willingly disregarded my orders and needlessly increased our casualties. Their sentence is death, no discussion. The only thing I want to hear from you, the other Captains, is whether they get to die in combat or not.”
The true meaning of these words was that it was up to the Captains to decide whether Migr and Tilog were deserving of dying with honour, in a duel they could not hope to win, or if they should be executed like dogs. Which choice was the right one, they didn’t know. All they knew was that Erik, their powerful Chief, was truly, incredibly furious right now.
“Second, Munn and Bhalon futilely tried to cover up their peers’ mistakes. Punishment is 20 lashes and they will no longer be Captains.”
A heavy verdict, but still quite merciful. At least they got to keep their lives.
In the end the Captains could not come to a decision and by popular vote, including all Marauders gathered at the meeting, the final decision was for Migr and Tilog to die honourably, while dishonoured.
They were promptly stripped naked and each received a heavy branch to use as weapons. They were still formidable fighters in their own right so killing them would still take a skilled opponent.
And to hit two birds with one stone, Erik declared that whoever defeated the dishonoured Captains, would take their place as a Hunt leader.
As for the empty Captain posts left by Munn and Bhalon, Erik did not care. All he said on the matter was that the new Captains could not come from their own group to prevent special treatment for the erstwhile Captains, one way or the other.
Briskly walking back to his private hut, Lupa and Ice Wolf pups in tow, Erik let the punishments and executions commence.
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Far to the south, back in the Frost Wolf settlement, other developments had occurred.
One day, when Skadi was casually busying herself with something or another, she received a notification that new additions had been made to the CSFP.
Excited, she opened her own screen and saw the Ice Wolf Queen and five Ice Wolf (King) puppies added to the list.
Excited at this development, Skadi immediately went to find Sigrun to share the news. Having an Ice Wolf as a pet was an event worth celebrating.
Why was the Frost Wolf Tribe called as such? Because Ice Wolves held enormous importance to them! Only the greatest warriors in the tribe would have an Ice Wolf, simply due to the dangers associated with obtaining the pups, the difficulty of finding a den and the struggles of keeping the young Ice Wolves alive after capture.
Erik having obtained not only 5 pups but also their mother was a great accomplishment.
But this wasn’t the only event worth celebrating in Erik’s home. Kitten, who still hadn’t regained her sanity, was with child!
One day, when she sat at the table with Sigrun and Skadi, she had suddenly thrown up and after one of the tribe’s healers checked up on her, it was revealed she was around 4-5 weeks pregnant.
At this revelation, Sigrun felt conflicted. She was assured that her man was fertile (a not uncommon problem this close to the Chaos Wastes) and as the future madam and first wife she was glad the first seeds of the next generation were sown, but as a woman she felt a bit ill at ease that she wasn’t the one to bear the first child.
Remembering her mother’s words, she recalled that a man’s first son would give the mother a great advantage over the other women. Luckily however, Kitten wasn’t quite right in the head and so would never pose a threat to her position. It would be even better if the child Kitten carried was a girl so the position of first son could still fall to Sigrun’s child in the future.
Sighing at the memory, Sigrun couldn’t help but recall the scolding she had received from her mother.
After the unplanned three-week stayover, Sigrun had undergone severe questioning and was thoroughly chewed out.
In hindsight, it was probably just a mother worrying about her daughter but at the time it felt quite intrusive and belittling.
She was a full adult now, okay? She wasn’t a child that needed her bum wiped or scraped a knee!
Helles had repeatedly mentioned the importance of Sigrun’s own standing and not backing down too much for her man, like serving together with others at once, so Sigrun had stubbornly refused to tell her everything that had happened while the blizzard raged outside.
If she had told her about the increasingly more depraved sexual acts of the last week, it couldn’t be ruled out Helles would actually lock her up for a good while.
In the end there was nothing to be done about something that had already happened, so the matter was dropped.
Apart from Kitten’s pregnancy, nothing else of note really happened. Sigrun had effectively started ruling Erik’s hall and took charge of the estate. At Helles’s suggestion she had started work on embroidering her bridal clothes, a task that requires a long time to finish.
When she wasn’t busy with those, Sigrun was actually quite idle.
‘What did I do with my time before following Erik around all day?’
Bored, she started conversing with Skadi about various matters. The half humanised-Daemoness had been around for a long time and while most of that time was spent in the Chaos Wastes, the amount of time she had been in the Mortal world was not small either.
Contracts with powerful mages and wizards, a couple Chaos invasions that shook the land before being destroyed or simply by walking through a portal and ending up somewhere in the world. All of these she had done multiple times before.
For Daemons are immortal beings. They require the power of souls or other suitable sacrifices to sustain their physical form, but their own ‘soul’, if one can call it that, would always exist. If they were ‘killed’ the soul would return to Chaos and slowly grow a new body over time, sustained by the limitless power of Chaos.
So the experienced Skadi could entertain Sigrun with tales of distant lands or ancient pasts from a first-hand perspective.
Of course the Daemoness wouldn’t do so for free. As payment, she required some time in Sigrun’s evenings to… quench her urges and develop their relationship.
Before leaving, Erik had had enough foresight to see something like this coming, the lustful nature of Skadi’s origin being undeniable, but his pride and possessiveness could not allow him to share his women. The only exception he allowed was for his women to deepen their bonds among themselves when he was away.
Such an arrangement was necessary because in the future Erik would be away for extended periods of time whenever a raid was organised or a Great Meeting was called.
Due to this arrangement, Sigrun and Skadi had built up an amicable relationship. It prevented boredom and lessened the yearning for their man.
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The Sarl camp had had some extreme changes. A proper wall now encircled the crude huts, complete with a spiked moat and gatehouse. Hunters were continuously bringing in fresh kills to be processed and stored as food rations while careful scouts kept a watchful eye on everything that moved in their surroundings.
The enemy that had decimated 700 of their Marauders had vanished into thin air. The scouts could find no signs of them and didn’t dare get too close to the site of the battle. They were effectively blind and all they could do was prepare. Prepare for the impending blizzard and prepare for a siege afterwards.
For while there had been no signs for weeks, one morning a scout suddenly reported large hoofmarks in the freshly fallen snow amidst the trees to the east of the camp. The enemy knew where they were and the Sarl Hunters could only resolve themselves to the coming struggle.
