1 Frost and fire

It was an icy, bone-chilling late Winter morning and Jon Berskaggr was on the hunt. His families' food supply was dwindling and his father, Raska Berskaggr, had been out on raids with their Jarl, Svygard Bjornsson. While his father was out, as the firstborn son it was his duty to provide for his family in his father's stead.

It was a long, brutal Winter and even the animals nestled in to avoid the blood freezing winds. Almost no hunts he had been on this season were successful. Jon knew he needed to bring home meat or his family would starve.

Jon Berskaggr slowly crept through the evergreen forest, praying to the God of the Hunt to bless him with a kill. He had been out here for 3 hours with no trace of an animal. As he slowly crept along he was watching the snow for tracks and the brush for fur. His vigilance paid off as he spotted a tree with its bark viciously scraped from its trunk, with deep scrape marks cut into it.

As his father took him hunting as a child and taught him, he knew this meant a large, and powerful animal had done this. His heartbeat quickened as he knew this could feed his family for the rest of Winter. "Praise Tor, he has given me an opportunity and I need to make the most of it" Jon said aloud.

Jon slowed his breath the way he was taught, he focused his energy into the center of his body and felt a warmth spreading through him. He was calm and steady now. He followed the tracks in the snow for a few miles, before coming to a nice, open clearing. The sun had melted the snow in a ring around the trees and nice green, tender grass was growing there.

As he crouched there, just in the cover of the trees he noticed a great and magnificent beast on the other side of the clearing. Jon knew he needed to move around the trees to get a better shot on the beast. He moved very tentatively, as he skirted the ring of trees. As soon as he made it to the spot he had his eyes on, he nocked his arrow.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, feeling the warmth spreading through him it was like time had stopped. He pulled the bowstring back to his cheek and exhaled.

Years of shooting longbow had given him confidence, but he used his families skill regardless as this was probably the most important kill he has ever made.

Thunk!

The arrow hit the deer in his neck, blood immediately started to flow as the animal reared on his hind legs and made a loud, guttural grunt. It sped off in the other direction as fast as the beast could run.

Jon Berskaggr felt his face grow hot, like he looked into a pot of boiling water and many emotions washed over him, so many at once he felt overwhelmed. He knew it was just a matter of time before the magnificent buck bled out.

He emerged from the foliage and ran to where the beast stood only moments ago and howled like a wolf in his excitement. "I got him! I really got him, and I hit him right where I was aiming!", Jon thought. The chase was on. Jon followed the trail of blood through the woods and snow for almost a mile. "This was one tough bast**d", thought Jon. Regardless of his complaints, he kept going and quickly came to a hill. The buck tried to climb the hill, but had died doing so. This was the happiest moment Jon Berskaggr had felt in years.

He quickly began to clean the animal and soon he had the skin rolled up and put in his pack, he could use that later. As soon as he had the animal cleaned he packed the meat in the snow and began collecting wood to make a fire.