Gotrek slammed the beer down on the table and grumbled under his breath. Felix turned in his drunken state and through hooded eyes watched the slayer get down off his stool and stump over to the window and look outside. Felix knew Gotrek was in one of his legendary moods and nothing was going to change that it seemed.
Felix looked around, the tavern was utterly deserted save him and Gotrek and the bearded barkeep that stood cleaning mugs with one eye kept on Gotrek at all times. Felix knew why this was. In his time with the slayer he had smashed up and broken many bars, not always their fault. And with the state Gotrek was in he could blow at any moment. Felix thought about just going to his room and putting his drunken head down on the filthy pillow, but he felt his loyalty to the slayer come through and he stood, abandoning his drink and walked over to where Gotrek stood looking out of the window.
"It doesn't matter Gotrek, we can track them tomorrow" he immediately knew he had said the wrong thing.
Gotrek turned and glared at him with his one eye "Manling, those raiders made off with not only the guards, but all the cargo and animals as well. We failed to protect the caravan and have walked for over half a day to get to this Grimnir forsaken place"
Felix winced under the dwarves glare and his mind worked overtime to try and salvage himself from Gotrek's mood. "Well we can always talk to the villagers; see if they know where they would camp out?"
Gotrek mulled this over and his eye widened. "Good idea manling, right we're going out there now".
"But it's the middle of the night!" Felix said his body still without thinking trying to shake off the drunken hold in preparation for walking out of the door and into the night.
"Perfect time to go and hunt those tribesmen down then" he said and walked over to his table and picked up the massive rune axe leaning against it.
Felix sighed and put his head in his hands, but resigned himself to his self made fate. He pulled the red cloak tighter around him and looked out of the window into the snowy night. Damn, he thought.
It was a few hours later and him and Gotrek were knee deep in a snowdrift walking between two towering ridges of ice and stone, following deep tracks in the powder. They had gleaned much from the villagers, especially a rather large and broad-chested fellow who had said that the raiders had taken some of his livestock and he would be grateful of their return. Felix doubted that the animals would still be there when they arrived at the raider's camp, but he had promised him all the same for a tidy sum.
Gotrek was in a completely different mood now and it was tiring him out. Gotrek, knowing that the raiders would be close was steaming ahead, and Felix was feeling like a bear with a sore head. The cold had snapped him out of the drunken state, but it had been replaced with a pounding headache.
"Gotrek, how far away do you think the raiders are?"
Gotrek didn't stop to talk but carried on, shouting back to Felix "Only a few hours away manling, and they should be sleeping now. Wont prove much of a fight, but we need to free those traders"
To be fair on Gotrek he was being a lot more valorous than Felix was feeling. Felix would gladly have let the traders they had been with reside in their fate, he didn't like Nordland and he liked the people even less. They had only joined the Nordlanders in an effort to get further North to the boarder regions, and they had been less than caring hosts. He had been warned about these people of the North Lands, they were much less hospitable than their Kislevite opposites. A pang of pain shot through him as he thought of Ulrika, but he had made sure he had got over that a long time ago and he buried it deeply again, snapping himself out of his thoughts my looking at Gotrek ahead of him.
The dwarf was still as muscular as ever, oddly so even for a dwarf. His thick crest of hair was frozen with ice and his beard had little icicles hanging from the ends as he trudged through the cold. Felix's bones were shaking with the cold, and he started to envy Gotrek's constitution.
Suddenly as they pushed through a particularly thick bank of snow they heard a noise above them. Gotrek stopped and stared up, his axe bared. Felix hurried too him, keeping his eyes looking up as well and yanking his sword from its scabbard.
"What is it Gotrek?" he said, his teeth chattering with the cold, at least he hoped it was that and not terror.
"Humans" Gotrek said quietly. "About four of them, travelling quickly, can tell by the sound their boots are making on the snow".
Felix was again envious, this time of Gotrek's dwarven senses, honed by years of tracking and underground activity.
"What should we do?" Felix said, clasping his sword in both hands and keeping his guard up.
"Well follow them of course, and stick these weapons through their spines" Gotrek stomped after the sound of footsteps and threw caution to the wind, it seemed like they were going to be fighting sooner than he thought. At least he would warm up now.
A few minutes later they were right behind them, not more than a few metres at the least. Gotrek was spoiling to run at them and smash their skulls in, but Felix had persuaded him to follow a little longer, arguing that if they did so then these four would lead them to the entire camp of raiders and even more glory. He was beginning to hate his reasoning now.
The four men were huge, almost a head taller than Felix and garbed in thick furs and leather armour. One of them had a shirt of chainmail on, showing under his garments. All of them were armed and very, very dangerous. The one with the chainmail had a monstrous axe rested on his shoulder, the other three were armed with swords and axes, all adorned with grisly trophies. One of the leading men also dragged something along behind him, a big burlap sack tied with thick cords.
It was at that moment as Felix was looking to the sack the men stopped and the lead one turned around. Felix couldn't see through the thick black beard and mane of wild hair, but he was certainly looking straight at him and Gotrek. The other three turned too and the chainmail wearing Nordlander bellowed a war cry of sorts and charged back to them, his fellows dropping the sack and joining him.
"Excellent" Gotrek shouted, readying himself.
Felix only groaned.
The Nordmen were on them in moments. They were experts in this climate and their hulking forms made short work of the distance between them and their trackers. The leader of their band made straight for Gotrek, the axe swinging in a wide arch to make it difficult for Gotrek to block. While the attack wasn't poor, Felix had seen him take far worse. As if on cue Gotrek blocked the blow and slid a few feet in the snow, but he was quick on the response, swinging a meaty fist towards the Nordman's midriff. The punch connected and winded the monstrous man and Gotrek with a laugh like a maniac swung his axe towards his chest.
Felix didn't have time to see the blows effect as the other Nordmen were on him. They seemed to be under the impression that their leader could take the slayer, and they would get the upstart following him. Felix groaned at his misfortune but took the fight to the oncoming Nordmen. He remembered his training from his youth and stepped into the first ones guard, unbalancing the attack and punched low, sinking his fist into the leg of his foe. With a quick step he was behind the lumbering attacker and out of the range of his axe, with a double handed chop of his sword he hacked into the Nordman's shoulder and smashed the bone, the first fell to the floor in a heap moaning in pain.
He didn't have time to revel in his victory as a howling sounded from behind him and the second of his foes lunged for him with both weapons held high. It took all of Felix's strength to take the blow that came down on him. His sword clashed with his attackers and he felt his elbows screaming with pain as the muscles of the nordman pushed the weapons closer to his own face. They stopped mere inches from his nose and Felix staggered back, trying to keep his footing, he risked a glance to his right.
Gotrek swung a booted leg into the jaw of the Nordic leader he had been fighting. His axe was covered in blood and Felix could see that the barbarian's chest was a ruin of bone and flesh. The wild man had been no match for Gotrek it seemed.
"Gotrek!" Felix yelled "A little help!"
The dwarf looked up as Felix was struggling to push the goliath off him, while the other Nordic warrior was running back to the sack on the floor some few metres away. Gotrek growled and rushed towards Felix's foe, hacking down with a brutal blow which took the fierce opponent by surprise. The axe smashed through the bone and the leg came off in a clean strike, blood gushing out over the white snow. Felix took the opportunity and ducked away letting the attacker fall to the snow and as he landed in the powder slammed his sword down into his neck, halting both the howling of pain and the struggling movements.
Gotrek sniffed and walked over to the one that still breathed, looking to the last of the Nordmen picking up the sack and running off into the snow.
"Hardly worth the sweat that one" he grumbled, kicking over the injured barbarian and putting his axe blade to his neck. "Where is your camp ruffian?"
The barbarian spat back blood and talked in some language that neither of them could understand.
"Fair enough" Gotrek said, wiping the blood off his face and dropping the axe on the mans neck, severing the bearded head and silencing his wild ranting.
"The other one, he got away." Felix said, rolling his shoulder and nursing his jarred elbows "He will tell all the rest of them of what's happened here no doubt and then we will have a whole host of worry on us."
Gotrek smiled a toothless grin "Good, maybe they will raise one of their demon gods for me to fight" he said, laughing at Felix's expression and trudging off into the snow, following the footprints and eventually the drag marks of the sack.
Felix followed reluctantly, damn this place, he thought.
It wasn't hard to follow the tracks in the snow, the routing warrior had not been careful and had crashed through every bush and tree it seemed possible. They had left behind the rocky outcrops and ravines and were now moving through a long dead and overgrown grove of trees.
"Where in Sigmar's name was this barbarian going" Felix said as he caught himself on yet another root and had to fight to keep his balance.
"He would most likely be making for his camp manling, he wouldn't camp out into the open like we were, but somewhere in shelter, like this forest we're in now"
Felix had to commend Gotrek for his simple reasoning that was most likely true, and thinking about the joys of finally finding the Nordic camp, repressed the urge to run and hide.
It didn't take them long before they found their first clue. Ahead of them lodged in a thick bush was the burlap sack the fleeing attacker had been so desperate to take. The cord was untied and it looked as if it was empty now it seemed.
Gotrek stumped off to the right and followed the tracks, but Felix bent down and pulled open the sack. He didn't know what he was hoping for but inside was a collection of odds and ends seemingly pilfered from a raid. There were goblets, plates, forks, knives, a few pieces of silverware, and interestingly an opened box. The clasp was broken crudely and there was a slot where something spherical had once been. He was going to tell Gotrek but the dwarf had already stomped off a fair way and he ran to go and catch up.
They found it eventually and surprisingly without another fight. Gotrek and Felix now lay down in the cold snow looking down into a clearing. At its centre was a raging fire, and it surprised them they had not seen its billowing clouds of grey earlier. Around it was a series of logs lain out as seats, all of which had Nordic men of varying sizes and shapes sitting and drinking from crude cups. There was a large tent closest to the fire, its awning open and two heavy set men watching all who walked past. Off to the side however, near the treeline was a row of cages, made from rusted iron and completely open to the elements it seemed. Inside were huddled figures, some standing and holding the bars, looking out. Felix recognised one or two from their caravan of traders and made note of which ones they were, in case they ever survived the onslaught of Nordic warriors.
Gotrek shoved Felix's shoulder and pointed to what appeared to be the entrance to the camp, a rough gate set between two tree trunks. Felix felt the colour drain from his face. Two of the warriors carried heavy chains, and attached to the other end was a monstrous troll. It was shaggy and at least ten foot tall, a large distended jaw full of razor sharp teeth. It seemed docile and lumbered along looking around at the men about it.
"Now that looks like a challenge" Gotrek said, tightening the grip on his axe and going to stand.
"Are you mad Gotrek?" Felix said, grabbing his friends shoulder and pulling him down again "There's dozens of them down there, you wouldn't even get close to the troll. You'd get your wish, but it would be a foolish death"
Gotrek thought about it for a second before growling and lying back in the snow. "We need a distraction" he said, looking about for anything to give him a chance at the troll.
"A whole army would be helpful" Felix said, rolling his eyes and praying to Sigmar that one would magically appear.
"No time for that" Gotrek said, missing the sarcasm in his friends voice "If we leave back for reinforcements then those traders will be dead, and that troll will most likely not be there, let alone the Norsemen themselves." He scratched his chin and looked down at the ledge they were on, scanning all along its ridge.
"An idea?" Felix said, looking wherever Gotrek did but not seeing anything of much importance to their predicament.
A few minutes later Gotrek stood and lifted his axe above his head. Felix stood as far back as possible and held onto the nearest tree. This was the stupidest idea he had ever heard of. Gotrek slammed the axe down into the rock and a loud clash sounded around them. He lifted the haft of his axe high again and slammed it down, another booming sound rocking the ledge. It didn't seem like much was happening, and they could now hear the shouts of Nordlanders below them.
"Gotrek it's not working" Felix said, pulling his sword from his side and risking a glance over the edge.
"Get back!" Gotrek shouted and shoved Felix toward the trees, going with him as he did.
With a great rumble behind him the snow began to fall away, followed by rocks, trees, bushes, and if they had stayed there, them as well. Gotrek's plan had worked, and Felix realised he should have put more stock in Gotrek's knowledge of stone. The entire outcrop they had been on had fallen away and was now being matched by the roars and bellows of angry barbarians below. Felix and Gotrek walked to the edge of the ridge and looked down.
The mini avalanche had caused no end of destruction. It had not only taken the top part but everything below it down on the camp, a great rush of snow, rock and other debris which had washed over at least half of the camp. The great fire was all but out, a massive tree trunk stuck into it, and half the tents were flattened. To the side, the troll was in uproar and lashing about with its chains like flails, fighting off half a dozen tribesmen trying to subdue it once more. The people in the cages were hiding as far away from the carnage as possible, and outside the large tent the barbarian leader strode out, bellowing orders and covered in his full battle dress.
"Now the sides are more even" Gotrek said, running his thumb along the axe blades edge and drawing a bead of blood.
This was in fact true. Half the Nordic tribesmen were dead or buried under the snow and rocks. Felix thought about their chances and still thought them slim, but with the raging troll about maybe that monstrous beast would slay a good few more. Without another thought they bounded down the mass of rubble and into the camp.
The confusion of the tribesmen worked to their advantage almost instantly. Gotrek charged into the back of a mass of warriors and hacked three of them to pieces in as many seconds. His axe passing through the backs of their legs and making them collapse in pain. Felix didn't take as many down, but still managed to run through one before the rest noticed the mad pair.
The Tribal leader roared and turned his shaggy head towards them, half of his men still trying to keep the troll at bay, but he and his two cronies stomped over towards Gotrek and Felix. They were having a little more trouble now that the Nordic warriors knew they were there. Well, Felix corrected himself, he was having more trouble, Gotrek was in his element and felling the warriors left, right, and centre.
Felix was fending off two brutes who were trying to tear his face off. He had stuck his sword point into one of their legs and wounded him, but the other was clawing at him with cracked yellow nails and bad breath. Felix kicked him in the groin and smashed the pommel of his sword directly onto the mans skull. It cracked sickeningly and Felix slashed to his right killing the other he had previous wounded. He took a second to breath and looked up, the Chieftain and his cronies weren't far away but he had time to make his way to Gotrek.
Gotrek was happily beheading a struggling Nordic warrior as Felix sprinted over and pointed to the Chieftain.
"More…trouble" he panted.
Gotrek smiled his toothless grin as the Chieftain lumbered towards them with a giant flail in his hands.
"Might even prove a challenge!" he roared, and charged towards the oncoming barbarians.
Felix followed quickly behind him, looking over to where the troll was now picking up and eating one of the marauding Northmen, and swinging the giant chains towards a mass of them all armed with spears and throwing axes, trying to bring the thing down. Felix hoped for their sake the troll kept fighting. He didn't have much time to dwell as him and Gotrek soon clashed with the three gigantic and shaggy warriors.
Gotrek ducked low under one of the lieutenant's swings, slicing upwards with a bloody swipe of his axe. The blow connected, cutting through flesh and bone and felling the first in a devastating strike. Felix took a more mannered approach to his strike and skidded to a stop, blocking one, two, three blows from a giant serrated sword before lowering the attackers guard and pulling a dagger from his belt. With his sword keeping the barbarians low he stabbed into his neck with the cruelly curved blade and kicked the gurgling ball of fur and muscle backwards away from him. His spectacular kill however had left him open and no sooner had he turned to face the Chieftain than he felt a dull crack around his head.
Felix staggered backwards, reaching up and holding his head, a pounding sensation thumping through his skull. His eyes focused long enough to see the Chieftain laughing and swinging the flail faster in one hand, while Gotrek were nowhere to be seen. Felix looked down at his hand; great gouts of blood were on his gloves. He counted himself lucky, if he could really think that, that the Chieftains flail hadn't fully connected and splashed his brains all over the snowy floor.
"Little Earth shakers!" the Chieftain said in broken Reikspiel. "Time to die and appease the skull god!" The Chieftain roared and a fire seemed to burn in his eyes.
Felix's groggy vision caught sight of massive tattoos beneath the fur and chainmail burning with an orange flame. He cursed his luck and tried to bring his sword up in a guard position, but it was no use, he was totally disorientated and movement was becoming less and less coherent to him. He wondered where the hell Gotrek was; he couldn't have been killed could he? No, he thought, the dwarf had faced much worse than this in their travels.
As if in an answer to some prayer or other he looked up and saw Gotrek pushing his way out of the ruins of a collapsed tent. He had a wound on his chest the shape of a small cannon ball, no doubt caused by the Chieftain's flail and was shaking his head angrily, his knuckles going white at the shame of being knocked over so easily. He charged, seemingly regardless of his wound towards the Chieftain and bellowed in his dwarven tongue a challenge.
The marauder, seemingly unpleased with Felix's staggering stance turned and roared louder as Gotrek ran towards him. It was only then that Felix noticed something strange about the marauders left arm. The flesh seemed to be rippling and contorting, the metal gauntlet he wore buckled and split into pieces to reveal the flesh beneath, which was growing I size, large claws coming from the ends of each digit.
"Look out!" he shouted, with a semblance of coherent speech, most of the words slurred and broken. "The arm Gotrek!"
Gotrek flashed his one eye to the warrior's left hand and stopped dead, skidding to a halt. The Chieftain snarled and his left hand manifested its true strength, a huge claw, red and smoking, thick black claws at its end.
"The Blood God loves his children!" The Chieftain roared, "And you will be his newest skull slayer!"
Gotrek laughed and held his axe in front of him "Will take more than your pathetic God gifts to stop me!" and with that charged towards the marauder Chieftain.
The first strike was a deadly one, the Chieftain swung the rotating flail down onto Gotrek's head, but the dwarf was quicker and keener and with a deft strike made the Chieftain wrap his flail right around the haft of Gotrek's axe. Gotrek ducked the swing of the mutated arm and yanked the flail free, stepping back an unravelling it from his axe, tossing it behind him.
The Chieftain seethed with anger and pulled a small hatchet from his belt instead, a paltry weapon against the Slayers own axe. He dived forwards like an animal, the oversized hand clawing to where Gotrek's face would be. But Gotrek again was the expert, and side stepped the blow, the huge form of the Barbarian crunching into the cold ground. Before he could roll over Gotrek had stamped a booted foot onto his mutated wrist and hacked through the deadly arm, gouts of purple and black blood coming from the wound.
"Blood God my beard" Gotrek said, before cutting down with his axe and severing the hairy head from the Chieftains neck. He walked over too Felix who was now leaning against a burnt pole resting on his sword. "A nasty wound there manling"
Felix grimaced and closed his left eye to dull the pain. "Will be fine, the troll Gotrek, I'll go and get the traders out"
Gotrek looked over to where the Troll was making its way out of the gate, a pair of Nordic warriors still trying to bring it down with spears but to no avail. He grunted and ran after the troll.
Felix stood as best he could and hobbled over to the traders, still locked in their cages. They stood, frightened behind the bars, a few women and children were counted amongst their number. The men tried to put on a brave front, but they were withered and haggard by their treatment here and shivered in the cold, something uncommon to see in a Northman. The finding of keys was unlikely so Felix took his sword and cut down on the padlock hoping to break it in two.
He was rewarded with the split of metal and the door swinging open. His sword had never failed him, even in something like this.
"Thank Sigmar for your coming!" one of the men said, holding onto Felix's jerkin and nodding feverishly.
Felix didn't really feel in the mood to be congratulated, his head was still pounding. He patted the man on the back and moved to the next cage, freeing them in the same manner. He heard a roar and a bellow and turned to see Gotrek had made his way to the troll intact.
The Slayer ducked under swinging chains, one near enough to take his head off, but merely just swiped over his orange crest. Gotrek stepped inside the flurry of blows and hacked at the creature's leg. The axe bit deep, crunching through the thick skin of the troll and sending a spray of blood into the air. Gotrek stepped back and laughed, rolling under the trolls legs and getting behind the towering beast. It turned quickly, and Felix watched in horror as the wound on its leg began to knit itself together.
"The wound!" Felix shouted, his head immediately pounding with pain "Its regenerating Gotrek!" he smashed the last lock and ran over as best he could to Gotrek's melee.
"Stay back manling" Gotrek grumbled, "get me some fire, we need fire!" Gotrek grabbed one of the chains that bound the troll's wrists and yanked on it, pulling the troll closer and swinging his axe towards its face.
Felix looked around for something, anything to light. The main bonfire was still smoking, but it would be worthless now. All thoughts of his pounding head left him and he ran towards the largest tent. He ripped through its awnings and found himself in the warmth. His moments comfort left him as he noticed he wasn't alone. A woman was chained up at the back too two upright pillars of wound, lash marks on her naked body. Felix walked over slowly, keeping his hand on his sword hilt. He put a finger under her chin and raised it up; her eyes were blank and vacant, long dead. He crossed himself with the sign of Sigmar and tried to busy himself with finding the fire Gotrek needed.
He found it, a flask of oil and a tinder box. He yanked an axe from an array of weapons and turning it around wrapped a ripped piece of fabric around the end. He struggled to light the tinder box at first but eventually he got a spark, and with the hastily made brand now soaked in the oil he lit it. He ran outside to see Gotrek still fiercely battling the troll. The slayer now bore a bloody gash on his forehead and his eye patch had come loose. He was looking weary, but Felix knew that Gotrek didn't stop for even the most mortal of wounds.
"Gotrek, I have it!" he yelled.
"Throw it at its back, the flask first then the brand!" Gotrek boomed, hacking away at the trolls fingers as they reached for him.
Felix obliged and threw the flask as best he could towards the trolls back. It smashed on its shoulder, the thick oil dripping down over one whole side of its body.
"Now!" Gotrek roared.
Felix didn't need another second's instruction. He lobbed the brand towards the troll and charged forwards after it.
The flaming brand hit the back of the troll and lit quickly, the fire catching the oil. It flashed over its body and soon the whole right hand side of the beast was engulfed in licking flames. Gotrek laughed as the troll howled and tried to bat the fire out with its other hand. It only made it worse and the fire spread to its left hand, the troll careered about, smashing into tents and roaring in pain. Felix only just ducked under one of its flaming arms as he made his way next to Gotrek.
He panted to a stop "Aren't you going to finish it?" he said, putting his hands on his knees and breathing heavily.
"Too little a fight" Gotrek said, watching the troll collapse as the fire took hold and burnt through its thick skin. "Many more fight better than this I warrant" he turned and looked to the empty cages. "The traders?"
Felix looked back; there was no sign of them anywhere. "Run off I bet, ungrateful bastards, didn't even stop to help us back, I need a good nights sleep and a beer".
Gotrek pulled the ruined eye patch from his head and threw it away, rubbing his eye and looking out of the crude gate. "Who said anything about going back?" he smiled his toothless grin.
Felix looked at him and sighed. "What now?"
"I reckon the further north we go, the more nastiness we will find" Gotrek grinned "They got this troll from somewhere, and I bet I know where it is"
"But Stavern is only a few hours away, we could go afterw…" but he knew Gotrek's mind was made up. "Very well" Felix said and stood uneasily.
***
Half an hour later him and Gotrek were trudging though snowdrifts. Felix pulled the cloak around him and looked off to the cliffs they walked on. A dark and tormenting sea writhed and frothed beneath them. Gotrek had taken him to the edge of the world it seemed, there was no more North to go too. Still, he had taken some solace in the fact that Gotrek had not been able to find anymore trolls and had instead decided to head for shelter. After a good while they had spied the lights of a town, one that Felix remembered from the old maps he had studied, the unmistakable port of Neues EmSkrank.
The promise of a bed and a beer was warming to his soul, but Felix knew it would be fleeting. He would have to keep moving, ever further from home. Altdorf seemed a long way away now, Max and Ulrika, and even Storri a distant memory. He wondered if Gotrek thought of them, of his old companion, but it seemed Gotrek was set in his way. Felix looked up at the blackening sky; any further north and they would be walking into the wastes themselves.