The storm came quickly and raged for a little less than two weeks. The roof over the square got ripped apart in some places, giving the Marauders a good look at the violence of the blizzard from relative safety.

Fights inevitably broke out, but no serious injuries were sustained. Luckily there was no alcohol available to them or that would have been very different.

During this time everyone got well acquainted with their new unit and with the games and activities Erik introduced, they quickly built up trust as well.

Still, everyone was glad to be back outside in the sun, especially the Ice Wolves. By now Lupa had grown very fond of Erik while her pups had grown significantly.

From the little blind fuzzballs they had already grown to the size of a medium sized dog like a Basset hound. The two males were especially big already, approaching the size of a Siberian husky. After much thought, Erik decided to call the two male Ice Wolves Geri & Freki, after the wolves of the Germanic godking Odin or Woden.

Erik had enjoyed playing with them indoors during the storm but had also made sure to begin their training and domestication. After the first ‘incidents’ he quickly taught them not to go to the bathroom whenever wherever, but to only ‘go’ in specified areas. Luckily the pack hierarchy was very strong among the Ice Wolves, so even the young ones that weren’t registered in Erik’s CSFP quickly followed the King pups’ example.

Now that they could frolic around outside, new rules had to be established so the energetic Ice Wolves wouldn’t get in the way of the Marauders or get themselves into trouble. Erik and the rest of the Elite team spent the first few days teaching various things to the Ice Wolves to prevent this.

During these days the regular Marauders were busy refilling the depleted food reserves while the scouts were sent out in all directions to look for worthy trophy Hunts. And soon the scouts returned with news of a good target, a den of trolls.

Trolls are abominations. They are large monsters with an insatiable hunger that are also incredibly stupid. Their stupidity however was evenly matched with their toughness and strength. Easily strong enough to smash through trees or houses, they could also swiftly regenerate even the most horrifying wounds, including regrowing entire limbs or even their head, which sometimes saw the birth of two-headed trolls!

Another danger is the acid in their stomachs, one of the most acidic substances known in the world. The number of warriors that managed to disembowel one of the horrid creatures, only to be melted by the contents of the troll’s stomach were not few and the only reliable way to slay these monsters is by using fire.

The best tactic would be to somehow immobilise the monster and then start cutting and burning away at it to prevent the regeneration from undoing the damage. Eventually, the beast will run out of strength and succumb.

Trollhide made for an excellent material for armour due to its resilience and if you are lucky, the trollhide could even mend on its own when damaged, retaining some of the regenerative properties when it was alive. Sadly, due to the difficulty of slaying trolls it was very difficult to obtain such high quality, unblemished pieces of trollhide.

The den of trolls the scouts had found was not on the same level as the Ice Wolf King’s den. Trolls often roamed alone or in small packs and the den in question had three trolls in it.

Immediately Erik called a meeting of the Captains to discuss their plan of attack.

“Three trolls confirmed, lumbering outside their cave. Could possibly be more inside, but no more than one or two extra. How do you suppose we deal with them?” –Erik opened the discussion.

Everyone was excited, this would be the second they hunted trolls during the Hunt. The first time a small troop had gone up against a single troll and lost three men, causing their blood to boil at the chance of killing more of these monsters.

Of course, by now Erik had thoroughly weeded out the dumb muscle-heads that would simply charge straight at the trolls to get killed from among the Captains. All Captains that were now in charge of the troops were strong fighters in addition to having at least enough wit and cleverness to think before acting.

“We can’t fight them in or near their cave, it will make them too desperate and unpredictable, making it more dangerous for our men…” –One of the Captains gave his insight.

The others nodded and then another added onto that: “Getting them one at a time will be impossible, so we need to have sufficient space to fight all three of them at once, individually.”

Seeing the confusion, Erik gave his interpretation of this comment.

“So we lead all three of the trolls together to some kind of plain or large clearing where we then separate the trolls from each other. Then we can use the Elites to fight and kill one troll while the other teams keep the other two trolls occupied.

Once the first troll is down, the Elites move onto the next troll and so take them down one by one.”

“Ooooh, alright!” – Now everyone was one the same page. Still, there was some discontent with this plan.

“But then it means the Elites will hog all the glory! Again! Most of the Ice Wolves already went to the Elites as well as the glory of conquering the Ice Wolf den, how are the rest of us supposed to build up achievements?”

This comment received a lot of support from not only a good chunk of the Captains, but from the surrounding Marauders as well.

Of course, Erik had prepared a response to that.

“I have three things to say to that.

First, you all have gained honour, conquering the Ice Wolf den and fending off the Ice Wolf army are both glorious deeds worthy of song and drink! But we all know that only the greatest of warriors are deserving of an Ice Wolf pup and we unanimously agreed to the reorganisation!

Second, while it is true there is more glory in slaying trolls than to be part of slaying trolls, we will ALL just be a part of slaying those trolls! Even the Elites will not be able to claim singular glory for the deed!

And finally, in order to enjoy our glory and honour, we need to be ALIVE! In order to gain MORE honour and glory, in order to feast on good food and get drunk on ale while beautiful thralls tend to all our needs. To be able to enjoy all of that, we need to get through this together and stay alive!

Death in battle may grant us entry to Khorne’s Halls, but we would only be able to sit at the lowest seats. When I eventually enter there, I want to sit at the High Table, to be personally served by beautiful Valkyries and enjoy the greatest honours imaginable!

Are you saying you all would be fine with throwing your lives away to join our Lord of Blood & Honour as a barely qualifying wastrel?!”

Incited by Erik’s rhetoric, the Marauders loudly proclaimed their aversion to such a fate. They may not fear death in battle, but they also saw the futility of dying without having sufficient glory.

‘Good, seems like it’s getting easier for me to manipulate the public opinion of the Norscans.’ – Erik was quite pleased with his ever higher people management as he saw the morale (and loyalty) of his Marauders steadily increase.

“Then let us use the idea proposed by Dieter to lead the trolls to ground of our choosing. Now, let’s go into the details of how to bring the beasts down.

I propose…”

For the rest of the day, the camp made preparations for tomorrow’s troll-Hunt. Everyone was in high spirits and full of excitement.

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Back at the Frost Wolf settlement, life had also opened up again after the second blizzard of the season.

Sigrun had once again spent this time in Erik’s hall, overseeing the thralls and becoming fast friends with Skadi while also keeping an eye on Kitten, whose pregnancy was becoming more and more obvious.

There was another guest that stayed over during this time. Not willing to be separated from her daughter, Helles chose to join the others in Erik’s hall. There she could witness first-hand the rapid maturity emerging in Sigrun, making her feel both proud and a little sad that her daughter was now truly ready to leave her side.

During their confinement, Helles obviously came into contact with Skadi as well. Initially there seemed to be sparks flying between them which Sigrun assumed to be her mother trying to intimidate Erik’s concubine.

But something Sigrun could not wrap her head around was that the two, Helles and Skadi, would often talk behind closed doors.

What did they talk about? What was there for them to talk about so secretively?

Neither of them would give her a straight answer. All they said was that ‘it will be beneficial to all of them in the future’, which was as good as not telling her anything.

Frustrated, Sigrun could only pray for the next storms to come and go quickly so the Winter Hunt would end and she could see Erik just a bit sooner.