Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

"Only one boat? All this makes no sense, they could have imagined that after their first attack, we would deploy defensive troops..." Reidar intervened, who along with Dag and the others reached Ellen, after passing the people gathered in that point of the village.

Dag stepped up to Ellen, less than a meter from the steep rocky cliff.

"Hey, Dag... why don't you move away from there? You're very close to the ravine, it could be dangerous" Gridd said, grabbing her brother by the back of his jacket and pulling him backward.

Without even answering, he continued to stare at that ship in the distance, squinting and trying to make the most of his highly developed sense of sight. 

When he managed to focus on it, he realized that, indeed, it was an enemy ship, with a strange symbol painted on the grayish sail, unknown to him.

But onboard, he could see only three men, two of them on either side of the boat, rowing and the other one on the back, with his hand still on the rudder. 

"Captain, do you see anything?" Reidar asked, having full confidence in Dag and his powers.

The people behind them began to look at him from head to toe, wondering who was the boy who had just been called 'captain' and not understanding how he could see the details of the ship from that distance.

"There's no one on the ship. There are only three men and they don't look giant at all. Two of them are rowing, while the other is driving" Dag said in a low voice, continuing to study that boat, trying to catch other relevant details.

"Three men? But that's the same boat that attacked us a few days ago!" 

"What happened to those giants? Perhaps the passengers of the ship managed to defeat them!" 

Some of the fishermen began to mumble about the identity of the men on the ship in the distance.

"These men you're talking about... look they like warriors or not?" Ellen said, trying to squint and not being able to see anything but a blurry dot in the distance.

"They're wearing armor, so... yes, I assume they're warriors. Unfortunately, I can't see anything else, they're still too far away" Dag continued, who was straining his eyes to the fullest.

In order not to stay with their arms crossed, they descended towards the lower part of the coast, approaching the point where the boat would be docked considering its trajectory.

While Ellen and Kjell remained on the front lines, looking out to sea, Dag continued to look around, failing to understand what tactics their new enemies were using.

"Captain, something's wrong. I don't see any more boats nearby... Runar's coast is quite long, that's true, but... what do they think to do with only three men? Even if they were all capable of turning into giants, I don't think they would be able to defeat us" Reidar said, referring to Dag's powers, in which he placed all his trust.

"Worst for them! Giants or not, they will taste the power of our steel!" Ellen roared, pulling out her long spiked rod, tied behind her shoulders.

About half an hour passed and the five warriors stood still on the beach, watching the boat that slowly continued to approach the Runar region.

The large symbol on the sail started to become visible to everyone: it represented a large rune, composed of a kind of inverted triangle and vertical lines that crossed it.

Ellen and Kjell stayed focused on that boat, studying that symbol they had never seen before.

"One boat, with a crew of four... what does that mean?" Dag kept on thinking, still staring at the men on the boat, which was now a few hundred yards from the coast.

The two of them who were rowing did nothing but move their arms back and forth, looking down and closing their eyes for muscle strain, since that boat was not designed to be moved only by two rowers.

Both of them were commanded by the soldier at the helm, of whom Dag could not read the lips, but nevertheless he understood that he was in command of his team and continued to give orders to his underlings, scanning the rhythm of the rowing.

While everyone remained focused looking in the same direction, Dag turned left, looking upwards, on top of the rocky walls from which they had descended on horseback.

"Is this ascent the only point of access to the villages?" he asked Ellen and Kjell, who knew the territory better than he and his team.

"Of course not, on the other side of that hill the coast continues, but there are no enemy boats coming from there, we would have noticed them earlier" Ellen said.

Dag remained silent, continuing to look at the boat and the villages, constantly turning his gaze, as if he had an intuition.

"What's going on, Dag? Why ask such a question? The enemies are in front of us and they are only three. We will kill them and send the boat back, so if it will ever reach its destination, it will serve as a warning to the rest of their Clan, a kind of message with which we will advise them not to be in our way" she continued, as Kjell began to look at him, trying to figure out what he had in mind.

"Reidar, Gridd, come with me, go up to the villages! I have a bad feeling!" suddenly Dag exclaimed, pulling Aslan's bridles and turning him toward the ascent.

"What? What are you talking about, brother? Do you want to get away now that our enemies are so close?" Gridd asked back, who had already wielded one of her swords, foreshadowing an effortless victory. 

He looked towards the boat, focusing his attention on the helmsman: he was a stocky and stout man, with medium-length, sticky hair and a short gray beard. 

After bending over to the rowers for the umpteenth time and telling them something, ho look toward the rocky coast and then crossed his gaze with Dag, who had not taken his eyes off him for a moment and who, as soon as he realized what was going on, suddenly got agitated.