27 What Lies Beyond

After the battle was over, the looting could start. The most crowded places were going to be the church and the kings tower. Jon decided he would not loot much, as he was paid a wage as a squire now. Jon did not like rifling through the clothes of corpses too much and only took what he thought looked nice, regardless of the actual value. Jon smiled as he took the ruby and gold ring off of the hand of the king and pocketed it, with the Jarls' blessings. Jon wanted the gilded armor from the city guard captain, but the armor was blackened with a large hole through the front and back of the armor, as the lightning spell was so powerful, it blew the door apart and ravaged the man in the armor, who was now charred like coal and smoldering.

Jarl Svygard approached Jon and asked him while staring into his eyes if he truly was the man who brought down that tower. Jon nodded and told Jarl Svygard it was him, and to ask any of the mages there. Raska Berskaggr looked at his son, completely shocked that he heard his son say this. The Jarl nodded and said nothing else as he left. Jon and Raska followed behind him quickly as the 4 Jarls and their guard fell into place behind them. Jarl Svygard flew out onto the balcony to address his horde of men, which still numbered more than 1,000.

"Great and fierce men of the North, today we killed the king and now we sack his city and move to the west, towards another occupied city, the march will be long, you will have adequate time to heal and celebrate. Keep your valuables close to you, we do not steal from our people. Any thief caught stealing another man's loot, loses his hand. Any man caught lying about his valuables being stolen, hangs. Now, GET OUT THERE AND MAKE YOURSELVES RICH!!!"

A cheer erupted so loudly Jon swore it made his eyes rattle in his head. Jarl Svygard had a way with swaying the hearts and minds of his men, a real silver tongue.

After the city was stripped of all of its gold and silver, the Northmen left marching West. They marched all day and found a nice area to make camp, the area was completely open, so no one could ambush the 1,000 man army while they slept. Jon made his camp in front of the Jarl Svygard's tent with his father, Raska.

When they finished making camp and lighting a fire, Raska turned to Jon and asked him if he really was the one who brought down the tower, Jon nodded and said yes in a plain voice, slightly irritated. "Well, for a Champion of the Old Gods, I'd imagine you should be able to do more than that soon." Raska said in a smooth tone and grabbed a drinking horn, pouring some ale into it. As the night went on, Jon was finding it very hard to keep his eyes open, so he went to sleep early.

Jon awoke in the halls of Woden again, this time knowing where he was, he walked calmly to the door to his room and opened it. Jon explored the halls and eventually came to a throne room with a large throne on a raised platform. Sitting on the throne, was Woden, looking regal and emanating power. He looked like he was a God who deserved the throne, his golden aura shimmering around him.

As he spoke, his voice was soft, like a father's voice comforting his child. "Jon, my Champion, you surprise me with this visit. Why have you come here?"

Jon told him he did not know and that he had laid down to sleep and just woke up here. Woden laughed, his deep voice rumbling through Jon like rolling thunder.

"Jon, out of all the champions I've had none have just found themselves here. You are developing well. My judgement was right, you are the first human worthy of being my champion for a millennia, Jon Berskaggr. Know this and keep on your path, glory awaits us." Woden got up from his throne and pointed a finger at Jon. He immediately felt like he was being pulled backwards.

Jon woke in his bed, it was still early morning, maybe an hour before dawn. Jon grabbed his sword and began practicing the master strokes before his practice with Jarl Svygard.

Practice went well and Jon learned a way to better his footwork. Having camp packed for him, Jon had nothing to do before they began marching, so he climbed onto his horse and rode around the outside of camp at full speed to further acquiant himself with his horse, which he named Spot, because the only color on his body aside from snow white, was a good sized spot on his shoulder and up onto his jaw. He was a beautiful animal and Jon began to enjoy riding on him as he felt like he was flying, because Spot moved so fast!

As soon as the horn sounded, Jon stopped hoarsing around and joined the rest of the men for the march. The Northmen were soon on the march West to another city and did not know exactly the number there and Winter was upon them as the cold was getting colder daily.

The march lasted 3 days and on the second day into the march, snow began to fall from the heavens, and blanketed the ground. Eventually as they reached the top of a large hill, they saw a sprawling city below them, twice the size of the town they just looted. The sprawling city was busy, as many covered wagons were going in and out of the city gates freely and the noise of the town could just barely be heard. The men stopped and made camp on the back side of the hill off of the road about a mile, they had to make camp in the woods, as snow began to fall again, making a relatively thick carpet of snow over everything. It was simply gorgeous as the setting sun reflected off of the snow and the sky turned into a canvas of beautiful colors.