Chapter 3: The Udurfrykte
The sun was slowly rising over the cold and bitter island of Solstheim. Two days ago, Ulfgar had left the safe haven of fort Frostmoth in search of his brother, Ansgar, who had vanished during a mission a couple of weeks earlier. Ulfgar had received a map from the captain of the fort, Falx Carius, which would lead him to the meadhall of Thirsk. But with each step, Ulfgar started to lose faith in his brothers survival...
Ulfgar walked slowly through the deep snow, unaffected by the cold weather due to his Nord heritage. He constantly looked at the poorly drawn map, just to be sure that he didn't wander off in the wrong direction. His food supply was almost empty, but if the map was correct, he was soon to stumble upon the meadhall of Thirsk. He was almost sure that he was fighting for a lost cause, that his brother had fallen victim to some of the islands more hostile inhabitants, but there was some part of him that thought that he should continue his quest. Ulfgar forgot about these things, when a large building was sighted in the horizon. For some reason, his body was filled with new hope, and he started to run towards the building. But when he got close, he was struck with a feeling that something was wrong.
The thick wooden doors of the building were half open, and they were covered with claw marks. Ulfgar feared the worst, and readied his axe. He walked up the wooden stairs and slowly, he opened the doors. Behind the doors was a large room, almost like a throne room, and as Ulfgar entered, he was struck with fear. The floor was covered with broken furniture, and the walls were covered with blood, both red and black. Ulfgar swallowed his fear and entered further, only to be greeted by the bodies of five people, four males and one female. Their torsos were shredded, and there guts were missing. Their faces were pale, and the expressions they carried indicated that something really horrible had been here.
Ulfgar spotted a pool of black blood, right next to one of the victims, but as he was reaching down to investigate it, he heard a voice from behind him.
"Thank the gods, finally a living person!".
Ulfgar made a quick 180 turn, axe in hand, and saw a woman, standing about five feet away from him.
"What has happened here?" he asked.
"It was horrible, it broke through the gate and killed everybody except for me...".
Ulfgar repeated the question. The woman looked at him with fear in her eyes.
"We don't speak of it, as it is the most feared beast on the island" she said.
Ulfgar suddenly understood what beast she meant. It was the Udurfrykte, the beast of fear. Ulfgar had heard tales of it when he was a child, that it was a large beast with yellow eyes and a body that was covered with black fur.
He realised that this was the beast that he had seen in his dream. It had to be.
"Are you sure?" Ulfgar asked, "the tale of the Udurfrykte is a tale meant to frighten little children".
The woman laughed at him.
"If it doesn't exist, then what caused this massacre? Was it a gang of bandits that overmanned four powerful Nords, killed them and then shredded their chest and emptied them of their organs huh?".
Ulfgar remained silent, comtemplating the absurdity of her tale.
"We have known of it's existence for a long time, but it has never attacked humans. Usually, it goes out at night to hunt horkers or other wild animals".
Ulfgar started to see a connection with the Udurfrykte attack and the disappearance of his brother.
"Listen," he said to the woman," Have you seen any imperial soldiers around here lately?"
The woman was quiet, and then she spoke.
"There was this one fellow here, a couple of days ago, who came here and claimed that he would kill the beast that lurked in the cave of ice" she said.
She took a deep breath, and continued.
"He then left, and I haven't heard or seen him since."
Ulfgars faith was dropping by the second.
"Were is this cave of ice that this fellow spoke of?" he said.
The woman pointed out the door.
"Go straight ahead for about ten minutes, and you should reach it."
Ulfgar nodded, and rushed out the door.
It took exactly ten minutes to reach the cavern, and when he entered, he was struck by a foul stench. He ignored it and kept going. The cavern consisted of endless tunnels, most of them leading to dead ends. But at least Ulfgar got some exercise, because the long tunnels were crawling with goblins. As Ulfgar was about to leave, he spotted a tunnel that he had somehow missed on his way inside. He started to walk down this new tunnel, and it didn´t take long before he realized were he was. It was the tunnel from his dream, and if he could rely on this dream, the beast should be close. He continued further inside and soon he heard some strange noises, like some one chewing on something. He decided that he was going to rush the beast, and hopefully, his brother was going to be there as well. He tightened the grip of the axe handle, and started to run down the last segment of the tunnel.
When he rounded the corner, he was paralyzed with fear. There it sat, the Udurfrykte, the beast from his dream. He couldn't do anything, he was frozen on the spot. The Udurfrykte felt something in the air, and as it turned around, it let out a bone chilling howl. Ulfgar was ready to meet his maker, when he spotted something in the corner of the room. On top of the pile of bones, sat the head of his brother, Ansgar.
First he was shocked, then he realized that this ugly beast had slain his brother, the only family he had left. He could not think straight, as rage clouded his mind, and he let out a furious scream that made the Udurfrykte stop moving. He felt nothing, not fear nor pity, and all he could think about was killing this beast in the most brutal way possible. The Udurfrykte started moving backwards, as the enraged Nord ran straight toward it. Ulfgar swung his mighty axe, and in one clean sweep, he had separated the legs from the big hairy beast. The Udurfrykte fell backwards and was unable to defend itself as Ulfgar, now in a complete frenzy, mounted the creature and aimed blow after blow towards the upper torso.
Soon, the walls were covered in black blood, and all that was left of the beast was a bloody pile of fur on the floor. Ulfgar tucked away his axe, and started to dig around in the creatures chest. And when he retracted his hand, he had gripped the heart of the Udurfrykte, and pulled it out from its body. He left the cave with the heart in his hand, and when he reached the meadhall of Thirsk, he took a deep breath, and stepped inside. The hall was now populated again, and about ten pairs of eyes focused on him, as he went to the center of the room, held the heart up in the air, and spoke in a mighty tune.
"My name is Ulfgar the great, Slayer of the Udurfrykte!".
He let the words sink in as he continued.
"I have in my hand the mightiest trophy of them all, the heart of the Udurfrykte, and I shall claim this meadhall for my own. If anybody has a problem with that, they can step forward and challenge me."
Ulfgar looked around and saw to his surprise that the woman that had led him to the ice cave took one step forwards. She looked at him, and then she smiled.
"Hail Ulfgar the great, Slayer of the Udurfrykte!".
The other Nords stepped forward and chanted the same words: Hail Ulfgar, Slayer of the Udurfrykte...