The Sage of Einar

Sven had heard the story of how Einar had killed the white bear; he could only squeeze his son's shoulder.

"Einar, what you have achieved is something that neither your grandfather nor I could do without being able to guarantee our lives.

Even though you were lucky this time, we cannot guarantee that I will only find your bones if this happens again. "

Sven looked at Einar with a smile. "So as a father, I would like you to be accompanied by two warriors from now on until the end of the expedition."

Max, who could feel the concern in his father's words, just nodded.

Sven sighed as he thought Einar would refuse, so using his finger, he touched Einar's forehead.

"You can be sure that the scar that this wound will leave will make you look like a true warrior, but it would not have been better if you used fire to close it."

Max shook his head. "It is too dangerous to do that with very large wounds as it can end up burning only the skin.

This technique should only be used in emergency situations where not closing the wound can mean death. "

Sven's eyes then moved to one of his arms where he had a large scar, and he was immersed in his memories until he only gave Einar a pat and then pointed to the makeshift cage.

"By the way, Einar, why do you want the foxes? It wouldn't be better to just kill them and take their skins."

All the foxes felt a sense of danger, so they raised their heads, looking for where the threat was coming from.

Einar just laughed. "Dad, I plan to raise these foxes like farm animals; if they have enough food and a safe place, we can have litters of up to fourteen cubs.

Of course, in the process, we can select the calmest foxes to reproduce, and that way, maybe my grandchildren or great-grandchildren can play with foxes as they will be good pets. "

Sven scratched his beard, looked at the little foxes, and then saw the two cubs sleeping near a tree. "It is also possible to make those two little bears docile."

Max forced a smile and pointed at them with his wooden spoon. "It is possible to make them feel a bond with us humans, but there will always be the danger that they will kill us at any moment.

Unlike wolves or foxes, the bear is a lonely animal for most of its life, perhaps if we start an interrupted selective breeding program.

In about a thousand years, our descendants may have pet bears, it sounds a long time, but it can be a good learning process from generation to generation ... "

The noise of an angry bear accompanied by the battle cries of some warriors interrupted the conversation.

Sven and Max exchanged glances and rose from the log where they were sitting while holding their crossbows on their shoulders.

When they walked into the forest, they could see some warriors holding three little cubs, who were looking sadly at their mother's body.

Eskol, who had his knife in the neck of the bear, looked at Sven. "Jarl Sven, we have killed a bear, and we have captured three cubs.

It seems that she was attracted to the aroma of the meat Einar had been cooking. "

Max, who was already in front of the bear's corpse, was surprised to see how large it was. "If I had been alone, it might have killed me.

But even though she is already dead, I feel that this forest is more dangerous than we can imagine; perhaps we will have more encounters with bears in this place. "

"If that's the case, I think it would be better if we left the forest and made our camp somewhere else."

Max, who was scratching his chin, smiled. "I think we can make our camp in this place and make some traps so we can kill any white bear.

Maybe in the process, we can also catch a few more white foxes. "

Sven lowered his crossbow and drew his ax to put it over his shoulder. "Very good, Einar, no time to waste."

Max smiled and began to organize all the warriors so that he could make camp in the forest.

While this was happening, Ansgar was putting the pieces of bear meat in a sack.

"Ansgar, what do you want us to do with the bear bones."

Ansgar wiped the sweat from his forehead using his forearm. "Take only the skull and claws; the other bones leave them in the snow."

Elof nodded and, using his ax, broke the bear's spine and then took a small sack that had the bear's claws.

Derick, who was cleaning the excess meat and fat on the white bear's skin, could see that one of his companions was running down a slope.

"Ansgar, Elof, Jarl Sven's envoy is coming.

We have to pack to get there ... "

Derick fell silent when he could see that his partner appeared to be injured as he left a small trail of blood.

Ansgar and Elof, who had also seen their companion wounded, stopped what they were doing to take their crossbows from the snow.

When their companion was close, they could see two bears running from the hill.

"Prepare your crossbow and aim at the head of the white bears, shoot the first bear that approaches our companion.

I will not use my crossbow since we cannot charge at the same time. "

Kaj, who was holding his arm, was running with all his might, trying to escape from the two bears that had attacked him a few moments ago.

As he ran, the feeling of security increased as he could see his companions pointing their crossbows to where he was.

Ansgar, who was a little nervous, pointed his crossbow and gave the order to fire.

Kaj, who was running, could only feel the bolts passing near him, and after this, he could hear the cry of pain from one of the bears.

With a smile on his face, he continued running, Ansgar who had his hands sweaty, could see how the second white bear was close to his partner.

So I'm aiming, and I hope the bear was about to attack so I could shoot.

As the white bear was about to attack, Ansgar pulled his crossbow's trigger, and the bolt shot into the white bear's chest.

Because of this, the bear's attack was interrupted, so it ended up rolling in the snow.

Kaj, who could see the bear rolling in the snow near him, could only sigh and kept running because he was afraid that the white bears would chase him again.