Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

He walked to the large gate, still several feet away from him, which opened slowly.

The upper part of the large slab of wood and iron detached from the old walls and began to fall down, slightly revealing what was inside the fortress. 

When the heavy gate finally touched the ground, the warriors stood still behind Dag and the other Masters, lined up in neat rows.

The man in the black braid was standing behind it, still, his hands behind his back.

"Come closer, boy" he said, looking at Dag with serious air.

Dag obeyed and stepped forward, soon after him, Kjell and Egill followed him and immediately two archers popped up next to the man, quickly loading two arrows and aiming Dag's companions, who stopped suddenly.

Reidar, who had not lowered his guard for even a second, held out the Failnaught's rope, ready to fire an arrow at the man and activate the power of his divine bow, but he realized after a few moments that those men were not really going to fire.

"Only the boy. If I let you pass all at once, I'd be a fool. I don't know who you are and where you come from, I only know your version of events. As far as I know, you could be Lies Of Loki tricksters. I need some concrete proof of your origins, otherwise... you will go away from here and avoid the physical confrontation, which would only cause unnecessary victims to both of our troops, but much more to you, trust me" the man continued, who had thought in a few seconds of every detail, keeping his gaze fixed towards Dag.

"It's all right, guys. You can wait for me here, it will only take a few minutes" Dag said, walking on the surface of the door resting on the ground, heading inside the fortress.

"Dag, are you crazy?! What the hell are you doing?! Come back here!" Gridd shouted, trying to dissuade her brother, who was about to enter an unknown place full of unknown warriors.

"It's not a good idea, Dag! We can't intervene if you're in danger in there! They can do their checks even if you stay out here, along with your warriors!" Freydis exclaimed, hooking up to Gridd's speech and looking frightened at the unknown man and his archers, trying to figure out if their intentions were bad.

Reidar placed one hand on Freydis's shoulder and one on Gridd's, after putting the Failnaught behind his back, in its lining.

"This is a test of courage... I wouldn't have done that either, but I'm sure the Captain knows what he's doing... these Clans are weird and much warier than ours, in Okstorm. If they need proof to determine whether to believe us or not, I am sure that the Captain will not disappoint them and that we will be able to spend the night in this place" the archer said, explaining to the two girls his point of view and placing, once again, all the trust in Dag.

As he overcame the door, the man in front of him made another gesture with his hand, looking toward the two towers closest to the entrance.

Gradually, as his soldiers began to turn with force the circular gears placed on both of the towers, the chains that were connected to the door slid in the appropriate holes in the wall and, wrapping themselves, pulled up the huge thick and heavy slab, closing it, bringing it back to its vertical position.

Among the allied warriors there was an exchange of perplexing glances as all of them tried to figure out what was going on within the walls.

Dag stood still on his feet, and with his weapons attached to his belt.

Meanwhile, the man who appeared to be the leader of the group, without saying a word, began to walk around him, eyeing him from head to toe and analyzing all the details of his armor, the symbols on it, and even the weapons.

"So, boy... where exactly are you from?" the man asked, in a suspicious tone, not trusting the words of Dag, who had instead decided to tell the truth, so as to gain their trust in record time.

"I've already told you. We all come from Okstorm, even though we're from different Clans and cities. My name is Dag and I am one of the Masters of the Hammers Of Thor, the Clan that watches over the city of Jernhest, the capital. My mates belong to the Crows Of Odin and the Sons Of Freya. Together we formed a group called 'the Iron Alliance' and decided to embark on an exploratory mission in here, at Krypstorm" Dag began, introducing him and his group in a nutshell and breathing regularly and calmly, so as not to alarm the man, who seemed particularly cunning.

"Exploratory mission? I've never met any Okstorm's warrior in my life. I had a companion who visited your nation once but never returned. He was certainly killed by some piece of shit" the man replied, stopping in front of Dag and getting closer to his face, as if he wanted to read the fear in his gaze, but he remained still stable and serious.

"I feel very sorry for your friend, but... Okstorm is home to many Clans, not just ours... and some of them are known for their cruelty. I'm sure if something bad happened to your friend, it certainly wasn't because of our Clans, who are the ones who more than anyone else try to keep the peace between the regions. Now... I'm sorry, but... can you tell your men to lower their weapons? Talking with arrows pointed at me distracts me a lot" Dag continued, who while he was speaking, out of the corner of his eye, looked at the warriors around him, all with bows in their hands, no one excluded.

"Mmmh... I also saw that there's a big gray wolf with you... what does that mean?"