Chapter 5

As the people split up and returned to their lodges, Erik went in search of Wren. As he was passing by his lodge, he heard a voice inside.

"This would be so much easier with a suitcase," it said. Erik was almost certain that Wren had said it. Making a decision, he entered the lodge and found Wren inside, packing clothing into a hide bag.

"How are you going?" Erik asked, wondering how she would answer. He didn't expect to hear anything like what she had said here and was wondering where she had heard it.

"Well enough. Tort had many furs and hides and it will take some time to pack them all. The other possessions of his will also take a bit of time to move," Wren said, continuing to pack. Erik decided to test the theory he had thought up.

"Pity there are no bellhops to help you," Erik said casually.

"A good bellhop would be a mira-" Wren said, stopping mid word. She turned and looked at Erik carefully. "How did you know?"

"I don't think anyone here has ever heard of a suitcase, and the bellhop was a test to confirm my suspicions. What is your real name and how long have you been here?" Erik asked.

"My real name is Wren; last names have no meaning here so I forgot it long ago. I have been here for five years and with this group for over four of them," Wren explained.

"And what were you before?" Erik asked.

"The daughter of a carpenter, specifically a shipbuilder," Wren said. "He made wooden boats. The last time I saw him, he had just started work on trying to build a Viking longship." This caught Erik's full attention.

"A longship?" Erik asked. Wren nodded. "I think I just figured out our purpose here. When I woke up, I found some chests with clothes, tools and weapons in them. The tools were all designed for woodworking while the weapons were all of a Viking design, which you probably recognised." Wren nodded again. "Well you were put here five years ago and understand much of these people's way of life; you were even the leader's mate." Wren's head dropped slightly at this but she remained focused. "What if, you were put here to prepare for my arrival and to help me lead these people?"

"Lead to what?" Wren asked.

"I don't know yet. Safety, security, peace; I can't be sure but I doubt it can be anything lasting if we are continually being attacked by the Marauders," Erik observed.

"I agree. Moving is the best course of action but we have to be careful that where we are moving is not going to be worse then where we are now," Wren said.

"It won't be. As far as I can tell, where we are moving should be easily defensible with only a few additions. Once that is done, we can set about improving things," Erik explained.

"It sounds promising," Wren said as she finished packing the bag. "I should start on a meal."

"Alright, I'm going to look over the bodies and see if I can figure anything out about them," Erik said and exited the lodge. He walked through the camp to where the bodies of the Marauders had been dumped. They should have been moved further from the camp to stop scavengers from entering the camp but Erik figured they would have plenty to eat without having to threaten anyone in the camp.

As he looked through the bodies, he noticed that the bodies all had the same black skin but that it looked grainy. Erik ran his hand along the arm of one of the bodies and it came away black while the skin was lighter. Erik had an epiphany and quickly returned to the camp and gathered a water skin and a rag. Working studiously, Erik washed the body and discovered that the man was white skinned, not black.

Erik, confused by this, washed all the bodies and discovered that only half the bodies had naturally black skin, the rest had white skin. This puzzled Erik and the only reason he could come up with to explain it was that black skin looked fiercer. But that didn't explain how two different groups of humans were able to work together in this period of time when they looked so obviously different. Then there were the swords.