Ch-8

[This is a weird one just a heads up.]

June, 4th 285AC

"If you would please keep Angela and Brutus by the carts Meera, you will not want to cause a panic." Rodrik dismounted his horse and moved to help Meera down from the one she borrowed for the journey as she had never ridden one before.

Rolling her eyes, "I know Rodrik you have said this at every village we have stopped at." They began walking leaving the group behind as they climbed a small hill.

"We are not at a village per say, rather a large camp and cattle herd will be moving West to split and trade with another group in the next day or two." As they crested the hill before them was a valley filled with a herd of over a thousand cattle and a small tent town that surrounded them.

Meera stared wide eyed at the herd of cattle. This amount of food was astronomical, then she thought for a moment the guards with Rodrik were wearing very nice boots which was normal for a nobles guards but at each village they saw even the small folk had nice hard leather boots.

Now it made sense and if she understood there were other herds just like this in the Barrow lands.

"Moose, go get Torsten." The large dog ran down the hill into the valley avoiding the bumps and divots in the dirt road and off in the distance they saw the dog jump excitedly in front of a man who mounts a massive bull and rides for the hill.

Rodrik sends for the rest of there party to approach and begins to walk down the hill towards the man who was being trailed by Moose.

They walked for a minute and Meera finally began to ask questions, "Rodrik what is all this, I've never heard of anything like this happening in the North and how many cows are down there."

"I'll be able to answer that my Lady." Sir Torsten, a large man with jet black hair who even before taking control of the cattle was weather worn, looked even more so now as his life on horse or rather bull back was hard but filled with joy.

"Torsten! come here my friend, it has been too long." Torsten slid off his bull and gave Rodrik a manly hug and laughed. "Torsten this is Lady Meera Reed. She and I are making our way towards Barrow town and saw your herd in the distance."

"It's a pleasure my Lady I'm Torsten Forde, the leader of the Herd of Forde, as for how many head of cattle our last count was 1,200. Beyond that you'll have to ask Lord Dustin here." He had a deep Scottish accent to Meera that reminded her of that movie how to train your dragon.

Rodrik laughed and moved to the bull, it had a shaggy rusted coat that looked extremely soft to the touch and scratched between his horns. "It's fine Torsten, as for how many herds from the last report and it looks like this one is about to split and make a new one, 5 herds so around 5,000 head give or take a few hundred being butchered and lost to the elements."

"Do you stay with the herd full time Mr.Forde or do you leave it for periods at a time? And how do you keep supplies for your village? There can't be enough wild edibles for you all?."

They moved to a small group of rocks to the side of the road and sat as Torsten and Rodrik Answered her questions. "Haha, no my Lady I and my village stay with the herd at all times rain, sleet or snow we watch over the herd no matter what. As for supplies I'll let Rodrik answer that he made the system."

"As you can tell the purpose of the herd is to supply meat and leather here in the Barrowlands, this herd here was the first founded and tested a lot of my ideas.

As for supplies Torsten as Herd leader has a sigil that allows him special privileges with traders and villages for certain supplies but normally they trade cattle for goods and vice versa with villages.

So the villages get meat and leather while the Herd gets goods they need to continue onwards, and all noble herds are all meat cattle while the ones who stay by or in villages are dairy."

Meera nodded along and made notes in her personal book, and asked more question for three hours and Meera even examined the pump crossbow that Torsten kept on him till it reached noon and Rodrik gave his goodbye. "Sadly Torsten we have to leave, this was just a surprise for us as well, we need to make it to Drammen by sundown they are having a ritual I'd like to witness."

Torsten gave a polite goodbye to the two nobles and a gift of some smoked meats for the trip and the nobles made their way to Drammen.

——

The village Drammen like most villagers in the North was old and built around a Weirwood tree, but over the past three years they all Improved in every way the fields where ever expanding with the new technologies they saw in the field the new steel plows that cut deep into the field or the threshers that cleaned the Rye which grew much better in this cold climate.

Every village also had a huge number of living children with the availability of food and meat with the new crops acting as feed for them; most smallfolk in the Barrowlands had access to red or white meat once a week.

But Drammen was special; it had remembered a variety of rituals around the old gods that even the most devot didn't know.

Which was a surprise for all involved as it wasn't known till a woman from the village went and took the Certification of Civil Service exam and corrected the religious exam part.

When she explained that her village had these rituals a team of researchers focusing on the forgotten parts of the Old Gods faith was sent and has been there for months detailing their rituals.

—-

The Caravan of nobles arrived at Drammen an hour before sunset and saw the village in a flurry preparing for their ritual, trees where in the process of being cut down and assembled into a massive wooden Deer carved in it are numerous scenes of nature and men farming.

At the base of the Deer are pens filled with Domestic and wild animals, cows, chickens, pigs one of each farm animal not small ones either full and healthy.

It took one of the older women and a Civil Servant in his official clothes to notice us as the commotions had distracted them.

The older woman with long white hair tied into a tight bun on the top of her and antlers tied into the bun greeted us first, "Greetings Lord Dustin and Lady Reed. It is my utmost pleasure for you to join us. I was starting to worry, Ah we're my manners. I am Brigid the elder and beside me is Bureaucrat Aine welcome to our humble village." She gave us a polite bow as did Aine, who quickly moved off making furious notes and with a small team of teenagers she had gathered.

The elder guides us to a meeting hall where we would be staying for the next two days, "My Lord and Lady this is our Hall. It is the second oldest thing in our village. Please have your men and animals stay here."

"Elder, what do you need from us for the Ritual? Are there any preparations that need to be done by us to witness or participate." Rodrick asked more like an excited child than an older lord.

The woman who has probably see here great-great-Grandchild be born looked over at her lord and his lady guest, she pulled an incense stick from her side pouch and lit it from the near by fireplace then wafted it at the lord and lady and watching the smoke from It flow and dance in the air till it disappeared above the rafters.

"You and the Lady Reed may participate but you shall be dressed in nothing but animal skins I'll provide some if you have none and you shall drink the potion provided I'll swear on the Old Gods and the Weirwood tree that you shall not be harmed besides a headache in the morning."

"Of course Elder I will do this and I'll leave lady Reed to her own choice but excuse me while I change." Rodrik walked off to the men unloading the luggage and began digging out some furs.

The Elder then turned her critical eyes to Lady Reed and raised a single eyebrow waiting for her response who met the old woman's gaze head on she had seen and killed much worse than some old woman.

"Will Lizard Lion pelts work Brigid." Not using her title and waiting for the woman to rise to the challenge.

"You've got fire in you girl, and yes the deadlier the beast the better. Now excuse me, My Lady, I have much to prepare." The old woman turned and left the hall yelling at some of the villagers to get to work.

———

[Listen too Anoana by Heilung for this part, the male lines are Rodrick's.]

As the sun was about to finish setting the entire village gathered around the deer all wearing animal skins, bones, antlers from heads to toe.

At the base of the Deer among the animals was three woman: The Elder in bone white animal skins, here eyes partially covered by a shall her antlers replaced with bone in the shape of antlers, a woman around middle aged in older furs that were old but well cared for with normal antlers, the last was a young girl that looked to be the daughter of the older women

The field goes silent as the elder raises her hand, "We gather here tonight to pray for protection and good harvest from Cernunnos the God of the hunt and harvest, he who takes the form of a great white Deer and blesses those who feed their people.

We offer blood, grain, and innocence to him of your own accord."

The older then motions to the center of the Deer, the Weirwood tree had been surrounded by the wooden deer and only a fraction of the faces on it exposed.

(As she motions to the tree men are passing around bowls of mushrooms and having every villager eat at least one,Excluding two researchers from the University )

The field then begins to be filled with drums as the men approach the woman and animals, each woman takes a mushroom.

The elder then takes an obsidian dagger from her side and passes it to her Great-Great-granddaughter. The drums raise in volume from their low hum as the girl shoves the knife into the heart of the deer.

As she does the drums go silent for a moment till they change in rhythm to that of a slow and steady heartbeat. The girl With motions that any master hunter would be jealous harvested the antlers and skin of the deer with it still bloody and dripping she places it upon her person.

She then in a trance-like state with the help of her mother and grandmother guides the weirdly docile animal around the heart tree who lay in its roots.

The chanting then began as the three women in a voice of one chanted in the old tongue as they did. Rodrik lost himself as another force guiding him moved into the field as the villagers began to dance and move in wild patterns acting as the animals whose skins they wore.

Rodrik then grabbed a torch as the woman joined the wild dance and tossed the torch at the roots of the Weirwood tree which burst into flames as Rodrik began to chant in the old tongue one he himself had never uttered a word of.

As the fire spread into the wooden Deer the smoke traveled along the ground obscuring the villager who seemed to shift in shape taking on the forms of animals.

Meera also lost herself among the villagers taking on the form of her Lizard Lions stalking in the smoke which traveled high in the air which was filled with images showing off the hunt of this village going back thousands of years to the times where man and gods walked the Earth.