13 August 854
Garðarshólmi
"I swear! We didn't know you were here! We didn't know anyone was here! We're just looking for a little place we can carve out lives for ourselves! Things are getting so restless, you understand? All the drinking and raiding and carousing, well, it's not so much the drinking and carousing, I like a horn of mead as much as the—"
"Stop."
Five hooded figures stood in front of a few dozen people who were terrified and kneeling on the ground. The tallest figure pulled his hood back and sighed as he tucked his club back into his belt. He was brown-haired and bearded. His teeth gleamed gold, but his dark eyes looked weary, his days of battle and glory long behind him. "We believe you."
"You do? I mean of course you do? Why wouldn't you? We've done nothing but tell you the truth—" the Norse man babbled as morphed into an Eisbiber.
"Do you have supplies?" Another hood came down to reveal a young woman with large, ice-blue eyes and yellow hair. The dagger she was holding had nicks and scratches on it, but no bloodstains.
"Well," the kneeling man faltered. He was a pudgy, with mismatched pieces of armor and a large drinking horn tied to belt next to his unused sword. "We still have a little water and food. We have a barrel of wine we were saving for when we broke ground—"
"Really?" A third hood went down and a jolly-looking teenager grinned.
The large man held up a finger and the boy schooled his expression. "We will not ask for what little you have. You've come a long way. But this is our refuge." The large man explained. "We come here to train and to study."
"If you're going to send us off can we at least resupply?" A woman quaked in the mud where she knelt.
"W—well we'd be perfect to settle here, wouldn't we? You know you aren't going to have any trouble with us, and I doubt you want to waste time with farming and—"
"More people will follow these," the yellow-haired woman pointed out. "The world is changing, Róðulfr. It would be an ideal circumstance to choose our neighbors.
"We'll see," the large man said, clearly thinking it over.