Chapter 1: An Encounter

One more swing was all he needed. Just one more, and maybe he would've won. But alas, that one elusive swing evaded him. He was just a little too slow. Her slightly rounded cheeks moved to reveal a dimple as a triumphant smile appeared on the face of his competitor. She smiled smugly at him, her bright green eyes shining with pride as she looked at him, and he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at himself, even though he knew he wouldn't win. She was just too good at this.

Why did he even try to beat Kari Iona Tordis at a cooking competition?

Kari still kept looking at Jerrick with that annoying gloating look on her face. Her soft green eyes spoke of her pride, but he knew that she was mocking him silently behind those eyes. The wide smile on her face dropped a little when she saw him drop his gaze and look longingly at the table.

"I won again, Jerrick," Kari said.

"Yeah, you did," Jerrick replied half-heartedly.

"Like I said I would."

"Like you said you would."

With one hand, Kari pushed the long brown hair covering her eyes out of the way as she walked over to him. "Why did you even suggest this competition? You know I make yak stew the fastest," Kari asked with a smirk on her face.

"Speed over quality, I see," Jerrick replied, casting an equally teasing smirk back at her.

Kari giggled. "It tastes good, I'm sure of it!" She dug her knuckles into Jerrick's ribs, and he moved backwards laughing.

"Let's ask Corey to taste it," Jerrick suggested while pushing her hands back.

"Alright, Corey, you're up." Kari said. Corey Ingerson moved from his seat towards the table where both yak stews were placed. Corey was slightly overweight, but he made up for it by being the tallest amongst their group. Although he was fourteen, the same age as Jerrick and Kari, when he stood up straight, he stood a whole head above Jerrick, who was already the second tallest. Jerrick was just hoping that his growth spurt will come soon and he would be able to grow taller than him. Corey smelt Jerrick's stew first. An approving look appeared on his boyish face. He moved his unruly black fringe out of his brown eyes before continuing to smell the stew. When he had smelt what seemed like the entire bowl of stew into his lungs, he finally picked up a spoon and took a taste of it. A hum of excitement resonated from his throat. His chubby cheek seemed to work doubly hard every time he took a bite. The light freckles on his face darted around his cheek every time he chewed. He took a few more bites before setting the spoon down.

"Jerrick, yours is pretty good, but the flavour needs to be more evenly distributed," he concluded.

"I told you I needed one more swing of the spoon!" Jerrick exclaimed to Kari.

"Time was up, cheater," Kari retorted. "Besides, who calls it a swing of the spoon? You stir the stew."

"My father called it that," Jerrick said. "Don't ask me where he got it from."

"Maybe he got that from the army," Kari said. A dark look washed over Jerrick's face. His smile dropped and his black eyes hardened. He pursed his lips briefly before taking a soft breath. Kari noticed this immediately. "I'm sorry, Jerrick, I didn't mean it, I just-I just-"

"No, don't worry about it," Jerrick said sarcastically. "Way to remind me about the one thing I was trying not to remember this day. It was exactly two years ago today that I came here, and I've been spending the whole day trying not to remember this, but here you go."

"I'm sorry," Kari said, her eyes searching the ground for a hole to swallow her up.

"Jerrick, it's okay, she didn't mean any harm," Corey offered. He placed a hand on Jerrick's shoulder. Jerrick stood silent for a moment before sighing loudly. He turned back to face Kari, who still had her eyes trained on the ground.

"I'm sorry Kari," he said at last. "I shouldn't have snapped at you so quickly. It's just-"

"It's okay Jerrick," she interrupted. "You have every right to be angry at me. I wasn't thinking." She walked over to him and held his hand. He looked up into her green eyes. "I'm sorry I said that."

"It's okay," Jerrick said, but this time he meant it. Kari seemed to understand that. She smiled warmly at him.

"Want to go to the Northern Markets?*" Kari offered. "Looking at stuff to buy always seems to get you in a good mood. I never understand how you can look at things, not buy anything, and be perfectly happy after that."

"Sure," Jerrick said. "I can always bore you to death by over analysing every little thing they sell there."

"If it makes you happy," Kari said while rolling her eyes. Jerrick jabbed a finger into her ribs, and she burst out laughing. She jabbed one right back into his ribs, and before long the two of them were tusling on the wooden floor of the hut.

"When you two lovebirds have stopped doing whatever it is you're doing, could you come and clean up first? I didn't even cook and I'm doing the cleaning here," Corey called from the table. A blush appeared on both their faces.

"You're eating the stew, if that counts for anything," Jerrick retorted.

"Since when did Jerrick Thurmond Brandt ever say 'if it counts for anything'?" Corey teased. "Where's his typical egoistic confidence, unless… he's in-"

"Shut it, freckle face," Jerrick hissed. A smirk appeared on Corey's face as he turned around to glance at Jerrick. Jerrick glanced behind him at Kari. Thankfully, she was busy dusting herself off, and she didn't appear to have caught what they were saying. Jerrick cast a dirty look to Corey as he walked towards him. He began to clean up the mess with him.

"We all know you like her Jerrick," Corey said softly. "It's obvious."

"Shut up," Jerrick said again. He felt heat spread into his cheeks once again.

"You're blushing again."

"I said, shut up."

"I never said anything." Jerrick spun to his left. Kari was standing there with a puzzled look on her face.

"I was talking to Corey," Jerrick said.

"Wonder what Corey said to deserve that," Kari said.

"Doesn't he deserve it most of the time?" Jerrick said as he felt Corey's hand hit him on his ear. Jerrick cast a smirk at Corey.

"May-" Kari was interrupted by the door slamming against the wall as it was opened.

"We're back!" A cheerful male voice proclaimed, before an equally cheerful female voice followed suit. They were the siblings Dustin and Helka Sorenson. Dustin was fifteen, a year older than the rest. He had a typical Viking body. Strong, bulky muscles on a large frame, with an axe slung over his back. His blond hair stood high above his head, his fringe never touching his forehead. But Dustin was still shorter than Jerrick, a fact that Jerrick liked to constantly reinstate in his mind. Dustin always argued that he was only less than a forehead shorter, but Jerrick would always say that being shorter meant exactly that. He was shorter. Helka was thirteen, a year younger than most of them. She was almost the same height as her brother, but she didn't have the same build. She was slender yet strong. Her long blond hair fell below her shoulders, but her fringe didn't cover her brown eyes - the same colour as her brother. In fact, both of them had the same sharp jawline, the same hair and eye colour, the same rounded nose, if someone saw their faces only, they could easily pass off as twins if one of them didn't have long hair.

"How was beating up young kids?" Jerrick asked.

"We didn't beat up young kids," Dustin said.

"Yeah," Helka added. "We just gave them a run for their money."

"I sure hope you actually trained them and taught them something instead of just fighting them the whole time," Corey muttered.

"Sure we did," Dustin said quickly. Jerrick studied Dustin's face, searching for any signs that he might be lying.

"I hope so," Jerrick said. "I remember when I was twelve and Mrs Svenson put us through a similar programme where an older warrior mentors a younger one for a week of training, all my mentor did was fight me every training session. He didn't even give any tips."

"Well, we did," Helka said. "Besides, this isn't exactly the same thing. This isn't a mentorship thing. We all take turns to teach one class for the younger kids."

"Anyone want to go to the Northern Markets today?" Dustin suddenly said. "I want to get a better axe. This one's getting a little too light for my liking."

"What's wrong with the ones in our armoury?" Corey asked.

Dustin shrugged. "The Northern Markets are better." The answer, and maybe the brief death glare that Dustin shot Corey, seemed to do the trick.

"We were actually planning to go there too," Kari added.

"Great, let's go!" Dustin said, before turning around and walking out of the door, as though they didn't have a say in it. Jerrick squeezed his eyes shut.

"Are you okay?" Kari asked.

"Yeah," Jerrick said. He let out a sigh and opened his eyes. "Don't worry." He smiled a little, and thankfully he saw Kari smile back.

"Let's go get ready."

XX

The cool wind against his face was refreshing. Jerrick took a deep breath. He smiled. Going to the markets was definitely a good idea. Not only were the items for sale good - they were almost always good, he didn't need to see them to know it, the two hour sail was doing wonders to his mood. They were approaching the bustling port of the island, where merchants and shop owners did a lot of trading and traders would try to get a quick trade from the approaching ships.

"Does a shining medallion interest you, sir?" A trader asked Jerrick as they drew up to the port. He glanced to his side. Kari and Dustin were busy securing the ship to the port. He turned back to the trader.

"Do you have any other designs?" He asked.

"Certainly!" The trader replied enthusiastically. He reached into his satchel and pulled out more medallions. The designs varied considerably. One had a flower on it, another had a crest made up of a shield and criss-crossing swords, another had a dragon on it. The dragon medallion looked quite nice, he thought. The dragon on it was a Nadder, and the level of detail was extremely good.

"How much is the Nadder?" Jerrick asked.

"Good choice sir, that'll be 10 silvers," the trader responded. Jerrick reached into his pocket and handed over the silver quickly. With a nod of his head, the trader thanked him for the purchase, and he went off to another ship. Jerrick quickly stowed the medallion in his pocket, and turned around to face the rest.

"What did you get?" Kari asked.

"Nothing," Jerrick answered quickly. A bit too quickly, he thought.

"Really?" Kari gave him a quizzical look.

"Yep, nothing at all," he said. Too quickly again, perhaps. "I was just telling a trader to go away. Dragon skin really isn't what we're looking for, right?" He looked at the others for confirmation. They nodded. Thankfully, Kari bought it and didn't pursue the matter any more.

They walked off their ship and onto the bustling port. Merchants shouted the names of their goods loudly as they walked along the port. Traders did likewise too, but they never left the safety of their ships. People walked around in groups, pointing at things that interested them, conversing with the merchants and traders, or just having a good time with their friends. They walked along the wooden port until they reached the mainland. The soft gravel crunched beneath their feet as they strolled along the path. Merchant stalls lined the path, and Jerrick couldn't tear his eyes away from the assortment of goods available for sale. He eyed a stall selling freshly forged weapons.

"Dustin, didn't you want a new weapon?" Jerrick asked while pointing to the stall.

"Huh?" Dustin seemed confused for a moment. His eyes followed Jerrick's finger, and it took a few seconds for him to realise what was happening. "Oh yeah, I did. Let's go check it out." For some reason, he didn't sound completely convinced that he wanted a weapon himself. Jerrick shrugged it off. They walked over to the stall. A small crowd had gathered during the short time they waited. The people in the crowd were all wearing similar uniforms. Jerrick realised that this wasn't a normal crowd. They were probably soldiers buying weapons for their teammates. As they drew nearer however, Jerrick realised that the soldiers weren't there to simply purchase weapons though.

"I'm not going to help you kill someone!" The merchant exclaimed.

"We're not asking you to kill someone," one of the soldiers replied, probably the leader. "We're just asking you to make a few… modifications to the weapon you're giving to him." Jerrick felt a certain uneasiness. That voice was familiar, but he couldn't particularly pinpoint who it belonged to.

"Those modifications would kill him!" The merchant protested again. "I won't do it."

"We weren't asking," the leader's voice darkened. Jerrick raised a hand. Their group stopped a distance away from the stall and hid in the shadows. "You work for us. Do it." Jerrick was even more confident that he recognised this voice too.

"I don't work for you!" The merchant protested back.

"What if we gave you double the amount?" The leader continued.

"I don't care! I will not be held responsible for someone's death!" With a wave of his hands, he shooed the soldiers away.

"Maybe you misunderstood," the leader's oh-so-familiar voice continued. Jerrick swore that his name was at the very tip of his tongue. "We weren't asking." The merchant's eyes dropped to the front of the leader's belt, and his eyes widened and his face paled. He must have wielded a knife or some sort of weapon. "Now, I will still be nice enough to give you double the amount we agreed on, but only if you start work on it immediately."

The merchant gulped. He steadied himself for a moment before answering. "I will not have someone's blood on my hands."

"Then your blood will be on my hands," the leader said. He moved forward, and that's when it struck Jerrick. The leader was…

"Lieutenant Jorgund!" Jerrick called from behind and walked towards the soldiers. What was he doing? Lieutenant Jorgund was probably about to kill the merchant, and here he was talking to him? He didn't even want to talk to the man. He came here to avoid thinking about… it, and here he was, going to talk to him. Well, he decided that he couldn't sit around and watch either. The soldiers spun around and fixed his eyes onto Jerrick. He narrowed his eyes and stared at Jerrick. "Don't you remember me?" He kept walking forward. Lieutenant Jorgund kept looking at Jerrick with narrowed eyes, probably trying to recall his name. Finally, he remembered.

"Jerrick! Yes, I do remember you," he replied. "And by the way, it's Captain Jorgund now."

"Congratulations," Jerrick said. He tried his best to hide his displeasure at meeting the man. Thankfully, Captain Jorgund didn't seem to notice it. "What brings you here?"

"I'm purchasing weapons for my men," he replied hastily. Extorting, more like it. Captain Jorgund's eyes darted from left to right shiftily. The merchant had vanished, much to Jerrick's relief.

"Are the weapons here good?" Jerrick asked. He sauntered over to the weapons on display. He pretended to inspect them, keeping an eye on Captain Jorgund the whole time.

"One of the best," Captain Jorgund replied. His head turned from left to right, and he whispered something to one of his men. Two men nodded, and they hurried around the side of the stall. Captain Jorgund turned back to face Jerrick. "He always makes good weapons," he added uselessly. Jerrick continued to inspect the weapons, or pretend to do so. Eventually, the two men came back and whispered something to Captain Jorgund. He scowled when he heard the news. Before he could talk to his men however, Jerrick interrupted.

"What makes these weapons good?" He chided himself for not thinking of anything good to say, but it managed to keep them distracted.

"They're… uhh…" Captain Jorgund struggled to find something believable to say for a moment. "Made to fit your fighting style perfectly. Excuse me for a moment." He turned to talk to his men. Jerrick fumbled for something to say, and a split second decision led him to regret what he said immediately.

"What modifications were needed then?" Jerrick watched as Captain Jorgund's face darkened, and he spun around to face Jerrick again.

"So you heard it all, huh," Captain Jorgund said dryly. Jerrick gulped. What was going to happen? "No point hiding it anymore, I guess. You men, go find the merchant." The two men nodded and took off quickly. "As for you, Jerrick, I don't know what to do."

"You could move out of the way and let me pass," Jerrick said while leaning against the weapons display, his fingers stealthily clasping the handle of a sword behind his back. He didn't know what Captain Jorgund wanted with him, but he definitely wasn't going down without a fight. Eventually, Captain Jorgund sighed. "Take him back to the tavern," he ordered the remaining men. The men unsheathed their weapons and began advancing on Jerrick. Jerrick assessed the situation quickly. There were four men - five including Captain Jorgund. They were in a circle around him.

"Ahh!" A loud battlecry suddenly rang out from behind the men who quickly spun around to face the source. Jerrick was relieved to see all his friends rushing towards the soldiers with their weapons raised. Captain Jorgund stood frozen for a moment, before he whipped out his axe and began to battle with Kari. Jerrick seized his opportunity. With the men facing the other way, he pulled out the sword from behind him and slammed the hilt on a soldier's head. The soldier crumpled and fell to the floor with a thud. Jerrick searched for his next victim, but all the other soldiers had already begun battles with his friends. He rushed over to Kari and helped her to fend off Captain Jorgund. He swung his sword at Captain Jorgund, and it struck him squarely on his armour. A loud metallic clang rang out, and Captain Jorgund stumbled backwards. He regained his composure quickly though, and just managed to parry Jerrick's next strike in time. Kari struck next, and it hit Captain Jorgund on his armour again. He stumbled back again, and Jerrick took this chance to advance. But he failed to react in time to Captain Jorgund's swinging leg. Jerrick felt the wind rush out of his lungs as a powerful kick knocked him to the floor. As he fell, pain suddenly burst through his head. His ears rang, and his vision began to darken. He didn't even feel the floor rushing to meet with the rest of his body.

The last thing he heard was Kari calling his name before he slumped into unconsciousness.


*: Northern Markets: While the Northern Markets is portrayed as a somewhat evil place in the series, I would like to say otherwise. The Northern Markets is just a regular market, selling common items. In fact, there was an episode where Tuffnut bought chicken feed from the Northern Markets. The only reason it is portrayed quite negatively is because the riders are the exception among that community. Because of the sale of dragon-related products in the market, the riders shun the area and associate it with dragon hunters, and in turn, this causes the community in the market to dislike them as well. This is why they feel the need to disguise themselves in the market, not because it is an evil place, but rather because they have made themselves the outcasts in the market. As such, a trip to the Northern Markets for recreational purposes is fully plausible.