Under the Sign of Jhebbal Sag
II
The first sensation she was aware of was a sharp pain, and an insistent tugging on her left arm. "Begone!" She muttered, and drew her arm back. But something held on. Sigyn opened her eyes. Above was a clear blue sky. The sound of waves came to her, but this was a gentle caressing sound, not the thunderous cacophony that assailed her ears on the boat. The Boat! She remembered now! She must have been washed overboard, but where…..
Again the pain and tugging. What was it? She rolled over to discern what it was that tugged at her. She found her arm gripped in the pincers of a huge blue crab, big around as the wheel from an oxcart! "YMIR!" she screamed, and pummeled the thing with her right fist between it's twitching eyestalks. Expecting an easier feast, the crab released her and scuttled away, pausing after it reached a safe distance to perform a crabbish dance and rattle it's pincers at her. Sigyn rose to her feet cursing. Her arm was not severely wounded, but the crab had inflicted several painful cuts. The girl inspected herself. The tatters that had served as her clothing had completely been washed away by the sea, leaving her clad only copper earrings and the clay amulet. Fortunately the air was quite warm. Indeed, it was warmer than she'd ever known. As for wounds, she found only a few bruises and abrasions. Next she took in her surroundings.
She was standing on a golden beach that stretched off to either side of her, gently curving away until it vanished. Behind her, a few yards away, was the edge of a forest. Not a forest of pine and yew as she had known in Asgard, but a riot of strange trees and ferns the like of which never thrust up from chill Asgardian soil. She turned back and looked across the sea. Like a crystal blue jewel it was, with white foamy waves playfully dancing atop it. So different from the angry gray monster that had pummeled the Swiftsure. Where was she? How would she ever get back home? The first tiny inklings of panic began to birth in Sigyn's mind. She wished herself back in Nordhiem, stalking the lion and the cave bear with Radulf and Embla, and then swigging stolen ale about a fire in the cave they used for their secret enclave. Radulf! She was to marry him in the spring! But now…would she ever see another spring in Asgard?
Sigyn crushed these doubts! She was Aesir! Raised among the Ice Fox People of Mosfell! Shaking her tawny mane, she tried to spit in defiance, but found her mouth too dry. She must find water! She was no doubt parched from her long soak in the salt ocean. Casting her gaze about, her eye was caught by a flurry of movement down the beach to her left. Sea birds and the big crabs were massed about something that lay on the beach. With little else to do, she went to investigate.
Sigyn grimaced at the sight that greeted her after she reached the site and chased away the birds and crabs. It was Captain Amulias, only recognizable because of his splendid blue tunic, adorned with the Golden Lion of Aquilonia. Sea creatures had found his flesh tastier than his clothing. But Sigyn fairly squealed with delight when she discovered the corpse still wore a fine dagger, broad bladed and as long as a big man's forearm, in a shagreen scabbard attached to a broad leathern girdle. Thank Ymir this was not carried away by the sea! Sigyn removed the belt, dagger and tunic from the Captain's ravaged remains and slung the waterlogged items over her shoulder. She regarded the corpse for a moment, considering burying it. Captain Amulias had enslaved her and her tribesmen, but he had also made some attempt to protect her from the ravages of his crew. But the birds and crabs had already denuded most of his bones of flesh, and as a man of the sea, perhaps he would prefer to have his remains given over to the waves and the sea life. With a shrug, Sigyn set off in search of fresh water.
Deciding that water would seek its own level, she wandered along the beach in hope that she would find a river, or at least a stream, trickling out of the forest into the ocean. After less than an hour's walk she was rewarded with the sight of a broad, shallow creek spilling out of the wood. Tasting the water and finding it brackish, she followed the creek upstream and into the forest. Sigyn gazed in wonder at the bizarre assortment of plants. Long stalks of grey topped with broad leaves and bulbous green fruits. Squat, bloated ferns with shocks of greenery bursting from the tops. Here was another tree laden with strange, long yellow berries, which were feasted upon by odd, ring-tailed, large eyed rodent creatures. Sigyn shooed these away and seized one of the berries. Biting into it she found the yellow hide tough and unpalatable, but the pulpy white middle delightfully sweet. Munching on the fruits while she walked, she came at last to a point where the creek broadened into a pond. Ringing the pond were a score of tiny horse-like creatures half as long as her arm and barely as high as her knee, with brown and black speckled coats. "Not much meat on those!" she thought, "Perhaps there are bigger beasts about, but first, water!" Sigyn hung the Captain's tunic and belt from a tree branch and knelt by the pond. Finding the water sweet, she slaked her thirst, then waded out into the pond to rinse herself of the coating of salt she'd acquired in the sea. She loitered by the pond for some time, regaining her strength. Then, resolving to follow the creek upstream until nightfall, she donned the Aquilonian's tunic and belt and marched on. "Atali's Tits!" she lamented, as her bare foot came down on a jagged pebble. "If only that captains legs had not been eaten away! I could use some boots had he still worn them!"
The creek emerged from the forest onto a gently sloping plain of fine grass. Sigyn continued along the creeks route for a space, until she spied a bizarre beast casually grazing. It was as big as a bull ox, and bulky, with a domed shell and scaly tail like a turtle, but a furry head and limbs that reminded her of a beaver. "What an odd fellow you are!" she muttered. The beast regarded her for a heartbeat, broke wind, and resumed it's grazing. Sigyn watched the strange creature, mesmerized by its oddity. Suddenly her reverie was broken by a bestial roar and the babble of human voices coming from behind one of the larger slopes. Drawing her dagger, Sigyn raced to the summit of the hillock to behold another wildly amazing tableau.
A great beast, both bear-like and lion-like, with great downward facing tusks and a golden pelt peppered with ebony spots, menaced two men. One was prone, wailing and gripping a wounded, bleeding leg. His companion stood astride him gripping a spear to hold the beast at bay. They were tall, well-muscled men, with straight black hair and swarthy complexions. Their bodies were painted in blue paint with esoteric designs, and ornaments of bronze and shell adorned them. Something about them seemed familiar, but Sigyn could not place where she had seen or heard of such men. The girl did not spend long in contemplation. There were men on the island, and they might aid her in leaving it. She would not stand by and see them devoured.
Thus it was that bravely, and aye, stupidly, Sigyn charged and leapt upon the back of the ravening beast!