Macrendil-Ysmir

I added the Character Sheet update before this chapter, check it out if you're interested.

The Moot was uneventful, mostly just the tribal leaders of the Skaeling Confederacy bickering over borders and discussing rumours of rising or dwindling powers.

The younger generation of warriors, including Erik, took part in different contests to determine the future pecking order amongst them. Obviously, Erik effortlessly made it to the final rounds where only the most talented Skaelings posed at least some challenge to him. During this competition, Erik completely humiliated a pair of Kurgan princes and despite keeping their lives, the two made no secret of their hatred for Erik.

The final outcome of the Moot was two-fold. First, when Winter ends, all tribes were to gather as much food as possible in as short a time as possible. Raiding, trading or otherwise, a veritable mountain of food was necessary in order to fulfil the second decision.

The Skaelings had deep ties with their kin in Lustria, the grand city of Skellige once being founded by Skaeling adventurers. And it was these ties of kinship that the current Norscans of Skellige called upon to withstand the primal fury aimed towards them.

The inhabitants of the dense jungles had gathered enormous armies in order to wipe out the Northmen’s presence.

Honour bound and keen on the glory to be earned in such a conflict, all Chiefs, Jarls and petty Kings agreed to reinforce Skellige. With just a few words, many tens of thousands strong and capable warriors were rallied to face the jungle dwelling foe.

Erik too looked forward to properly testing his newly gained powers and forces upon a strong enemy.

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During the harsh, cold months of Winter, Erik had much to celebrate. One after the other, his lovers presented him with strong and beautiful daughters.

Tykira, who’s belly had swollen to frightening proportions, had given birth to triplets. Three adorable girls with slightly larger eyes, cute flappy cow ears and feint spots were visible through their skin. If their mother was still half Beastman, the triplets were three quarters human with only some clues to their non-human ancestry. Anna, Dora and Mina really were a handful from the get go. In the first place, Tykira only has two breasts for them to suckle on and they wouldn’t accept being nursed by anyone else!

Skadi too safely delivered her daughter to Erik’s arms. Perhaps she had strained herself during the Daemon-summoning rituals or inhaled too much of the Chaotic Winds, but her labour was a hard one with lots of screaming, blood and hysteria. In the end, the Daemoness presented Erik with a healthy girl sporting a small, sharp and chitinous horn sprouting from her temple. The cause of her mother’s suffering. She was called Nessyra, or Nessy for short.

But while there was much cause for happiness during this time, there was also grief. Both true and feigned. Ri & Ra, the twins who had made life miserable for Sigrun for a long time, had both passed away.

Ri died attempting to give birth to twins. The first girl was pushed out after strenuous effort, but the second child was… obstructed. And after hours of desperate struggle, Erik was called into the birthing room where men were forbidden.

Panting, covered in sweat and with a maddened, despairing gaze Ri begged Erik to save the second child after which her eyes glazed over, still tightly clutching Erik’s hand.

‘If I had known, could I have helped?’ – Erik wondered to himself. Skadi too had taken hours to complete the birth so Ri taking just a few hours longer hadn’t alarmed anyone waiting outside.

Resolutely, Erik took a sharp knife, cleansed it in fire and carefully cut open Ri’s stomach. Time was of the essence, since the shock of attempted birth and the mother’s consequent death could only have negative consequences for the baby still stuck inside the deceased body.

Lotte, the elder sister, was fine and healthy but the younger, Vera, had gained a mark. Erik had grabbed her by the head when freeing her and consequently caused a permanent ‘bruise’ covering part of her face.

Learning of her twin sister’s demise, Ra flew into hysteria while the shock sent her into labour too. It was a comparably easy birth, only made hard by Ra’s cursing, twisting and overall madness. Seeing the madness firmly entrenched in her eyes and listening to the woman’s curses and threats to everyone within the Hall, Erik made the decision that ‘regrettably, the sister could not overcome her grief and passed away in her weakened state, unwilling to be without her lifelong companion’.

Her daughter was later called Lisa. And while Tykira’s identical triplets later had an edge in tricking people with their looks, the daughters of the twins would form another trio of mischief.

Erik now had eight, EIGHT, young children and babies in his home and during the intense blizzards forcing everyone to stay inside, the Hall was deeply impregnated by the smell of milk and baby-pooh.

During this time as they waited for the storms to leave and spring to come, a new wave of pregnancies arrived too. Isabeau and Sigrun began to show their bulges while Yeying too was confirmed with child towards the end of the season.

The new mothers, after having gone without Erik’s intense affections for the last stages of their pregnancy, took what they could from him in between nursing. The stark contrast between the solemn, holy image of a mother feeding her baby compared to the bestial frenzy of horniness minutes before or after being a frightening thing to witness to Erik.

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“It is finally time!” – Jarl Ingolf loudly proclaimed to the tribe.

“We have built our ships, we are equipped with fine steel and after pillaging the Imperial coastline, we have gathered the necessary provisions! It is time to set sail for Skellige and bring the fury of our Gods upon those that seek to drive out our brethren from their homes!”

On the enormous square, the Frost Wolves had gathered for the announcement. In three days, the Marauders of the tribe would set sail to gather glory and riches in Lustria.

Erik sat at the edge of square near his Hall, calmly rocking two little girls in his arms. Lotte and Vera were a couple months old now and were interestedly looking at everything around them. Erik wasn’t focusing on the Jarl’s speech and was instead busy keeping the little darlings occupied.

Their platinum blond hair was incredibly oft to the touch and Erik happily petted them, letting them swat at and hold his fingers as her marvelled at their tini tiny hands.

The three, Lisa included, not having a mother was difficult and Erik had to jump in a lot more to take care of them compared to those daughters that did have their own mom to fuss over them.

“And now I’m going away for a long time and can’t watch any of you eight little rascals while I’m away…” – He mournfully complained to Vera.

Erik stretched out his hand and gently stroked the purple mark covering a large part of Vera’s cute face, causing her to giggle in amusement as she grabbed hold of the finger and put it in her mouth.

A tug on his hair had Erik turn around where he saw Lisa in the arms of a noticeably bumpy bedwarmer Thrall, red in the face and pouting as she stretched out her tiny arms. A clear demand to be held by daddy too.

Luckily, the speech was over and Erik’s household could return to their freshly aired out Hall to enjoy the last days of family time they had left before the Skellige expedition set sail.

Lying down on the soft carpet made from black Sabretusk fur, a gift from Wulfrik when he visited the Frost Wolves after the Moot, his lovers and servants put down their ‘burdens’ which all converged on their daddy’s prone figure.

Covered in small, warm and giggling bodies Erik felt increasingly unwilling to leave them behind.

‘But alas, I must go. My men need experience and I need to earn points, improve proficiencies and increase my reputation.’

In the time remaining till the departure, Erik made the most of it.

He spent most of the daytime cuddling and playing with the kids, hoping they wouldn’t have forgotten all about him when he returned.

And the night-time belonged to his wives and concubines, all of them eager and aggressive as they too had to say farewell for the months to come. Only Skadi was exempted from this since Erik could summon her to his side at any time, something the others regarded with deep envy.

Then, time was up and the fleet of Dragon- and Wolfships set sail. First south, all the way to Araby, then West across the deep, dark blue of the Ocean.