Chapter 8

The road would be inclined since it would pass through several hills, in addition, the northern lands not only stood out because it had many rivers and large islands, but also because of its large mountains, so seeing many hills was the most normal thing.

"Now you don't speak?" Erika said as she finished climbing a hill without taking her eyes off me.

"From what I understand this should be the last hill. How does it look?"

Erika stared in horror, her eyes beginning to water.

"Ahhhh" there was a very slight muffled cry, her eyes were tearing and her meekness covered her mouth, all of her was trembling, her lips were trembling.

"Erika" Ion hugged her and returned to see the view of the village.

All the houses were burned, and the flames were very light, it must have been a day since the town burned down, in some parts you could see the blood of the people who lived in the town.

Erika couldn't contain herself anymore and collapsed crying, Ion was scared because she fell into her arms.

"Everything is gone" Erika said through tears as she looked at Ion

"My home, my legacy, I lost everything" Erika began to remember everything she had lived there, all the difficulties she had to live through as a woman, despite the fact that there are women warriors but it was not well seen for a woman to be a leader.

Erika since she was a child learned about strategy from her father, she fought whenever she could against him, he was also always a loving father who took care of his people.

"Did you know that my father was such a good strategist that he was never invaded or had complications in the winters, who would say that I would take all his work to the wheel" said Erika with a whole contempt for herself

"Erika"

"I think I should never have been a leader"

"Enough is enough, do not consume yourself in misfortune, I also lost everything I had but I cling to you, you are the only thing that I have left and I do not want to see you broken, and we talked about this before and I know that I had hope to arrive and see what everyone was fine but it's not like that" a short silence from Ion then he continued speaking

"As a strategist you should have been prepared for this outcome, so as your father's daughter a great strategist stop complaining and think about your next move" Ion said with a serious expression

Erika kept silent and didn't comment, she bit her lower lip but her tears were still falling down her cheek.

"I'll leave you alone, I'll be close enough if you need my help." Ion started to head towards the burned town so that he could find hopefully maybe a spear.

I went to the armory before everything, something that seemed strange to me was not finding any body even though there were quite a few pools of blood.

'It would be nice to give them a decent burial' Ion thought as he walked through the armory.

Among the remains a spear survived and others were shattered by the fire, the spear was not the best but it would be enough to defend himself.

"Now where are the bodies?" he said not very loud but enough for them to hear him.

"They're all burned inside the longhouse" said Erika arriving with a depressing expression her eyes were red from crying but she held strong for Ion.

"Oh... That will be a problem."

Erika shook her head.

"Although it is not very common to burn the bodies, it is normal for them to arrive in Valhalla, respect to take the trouble to collect the bodies and burn them the way they were burned" Erika said as she approached Ion.

"Then I think we have nothing to do here"

"Within an hour or 2 to the south along the shore I have a hidden boat, it is not the best drakkar but it is enough to get out of here"

Ion found his comment strange since he did not expect him to want to leave his land, but where would they go?

"Where do you plan to go?" asked Ion

"Listening to you talk about your lands leaves me wanting to go to other places, since before I have wanted to go elsewhere, besides, I will go with you wherever you go, I will go" said Erika with a smile

"So you want to have an adventure" said Ion since he was thinking that before since he wants to see this world.

"Yes! I would like to see your land and other places" said Erika with a melancholy, since that was her dream as a child before wanting to become a strategist queen like her father.

Even if Erika said that Ion really didn't believe that or well he wouldn't be satisfied, he more than anyone knows that right now Erika wants revenge to release all the anger she had, since he had that same anger and even if he wanted to release it he couldn't since it was directed towards beings that the Gods do not know.

"I would like to leave but as long as you carry that weight I think leaving would only do you more harm than good" Ion said being honest with Erika

"So tell me, who do you think would do this?" I seriously ask Erika

The depressing face stopped being a smile and spoke

"The tiger tribe is the only one that I think would do this besides the only tribe that really felt disappointed that I became the leader, the other tribes don't care but this one felt even offended" said erika with an expression of sadness really wanted to go to fulfill his childhood dream but Ion is right I would never forget what happened here.

"Maybe it's not much but we can shoot arrows with fire maybe I don't know many deaths but I think it would be enough"

"It would be to burn their ships and their warehouse if their main houses are available, we would have to do it at night being only two" Erika said instinctively as a strategist.

Ion smiled as Erika agreed to the idea of ​​attacking the tiger clan.

"We'll have to go uphill for a couple of hours, this is in the direction of the drakkar that I mentioned to you, only we will change the direction to go upriver instead of going directly to the sea" Erika said as they walked towards where they had to go.

'just wait a bit Erika I will free you from this pain you have' thought Ion as he followed erika