Chapter 10: Terror from the North
Icelanders vs Kyoshi Island: We are Vikings by Peyton Parrish
-Open Ocean, South of the North Pole-
In the vast blue expanses of the ocean far from the North Pole–and by proxy, the Northern Water Tribe–the fleet of longships headed by the Drengr of the Icelanders was making its way to the coast of the Earth Kingdom, specifically where they knew there were settlements.
However, though they'd been able to sail most of the way, the wind had calmed as they left the water spaces of the Northern Water Tribe, meaning that they had to row for a time until the wind picked up again.
Now, as they rowed, the raiders of this Tribe of warriors were singing a sort of shanty to pass the time.
"The waves amongst the sea. The clouds of darkness. The waters of the earth. Storms come with rage…" The men and women intoned together as they rowed while some beat on drums. "Shelter of divine… Kinsman anointed…" They continued as the tune got deeper.
"Give me our due. Give me our due…" Another verse came in before Ulfric–a warrior known as a Highlander in the Icelander culture, whose weapon was a decently sized Claymore– started another.
"Steady the ranks! Gather your strength!" He yelled, right as the rest joined in.
"Row, row, row, we go." They boomed, moving back and forth with their oars and moving the ship forward.
"The borders of land, we plunder the sea! Row, row, row we go." Advari continued as the Shaman woman conducted the beating of the drums on the boats.
"Find all your courage and hoist the sails! (Row row row we go). Rally our Kinsman we row with wind! (Ohhhh) Grab your axes it's time for war! (Ohhhh) Sailing to the Sea of Souls! (Ooooooh) Now all our Kinsman row! (Whooooa) Our conquest has begun!"
This chorus echoed in all directions as the warriors continued their forward journey from whence they were–and continued for several minutes–before it ended when Eivor saw land through her telescope.
"Land ho!" She called to the others, getting a chorus of general excitement for more plunder.
As the longships made landfall, the leaders of the ships hopped down, while a Shaman, Valka, took the lead.
The woman was around five foot three with long black hair that was tied in several braids and strung with beads. She had ebony skin and a lithe figure, similar to that of June the bounty hunter. And clothes wise she wore a hide tunic, a shirt, a fur lined jacket, chainmail undergarments, and several ceremonial chest pieces made of animal bones stones.
Her weapons were a dagger and an axe, and upon better inspection, it became clear that she was blind!
"Hmmmm…" The Shaman hummed as she placed a hand on the ground and focused, using all her senses and her own aptitude for Earth bending to basically sense things around her–similar to Toph–but on a much wider scale.
Almost like how Aang and Guru Pahtick sensed energies from vast distances, to an extent.
"Is there anything interesting here?" Odahviing asked as he walked up to her.
"This island seems to have been broken off from its continent and relocated here. And the process was done by a powerful bender." The Shaman replied.
"Interesting." Eivor nodded as she regarded the island in front of them with intrigue. "Any settlements?" She questioned.
"Yes. One just south of here, a decently sized village." The Shaman nodded as she stood up.
"Good." The female viking nodded as she held up a hand before closing it into a fist, prompting one of the Vikings–a man carrying a large Dane ax that looked like it come straight out of For Honor–to take a war horn and blow on it, causing the sound to travel for miles.
In the village, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the horn, many wondering what it meant.
Moments later, a hoard of Icelanders charged towards the village with weapons in hand, bellowing battle cries as they trampled everything in front of them underfoot.
"Kiyoshi Warriors, defend the village!" One of the warriors in question called out as the island's defenders took up arms to defend their home and their people. The Icelanders clashed immediately, and fighting broke out.
One of the female warriors of the island was currently trying to defend against the same Viking who blew the horn earlier, with him constantly pressing his attack with his two handed Dane ax.
"You think we'll just–!" She tried to say, but was cut off when he grabbed her head under his arm, and effortlessly snapped her neck before dropping her dead body.
"I have plunder that's waiting for me." He grunted as he proceeded onward. Another warrior tried to flank him, but he effortlessly stopped her by hooking her back with his ax, and then slamming her to the ground–before splitting her head in two.
Eivor, meanwhile, sunk an ax into one Kiyoshi Warrior's shoulder, swung the other into her midsection, and finished her off by sweeping her legs out with her first ax. Before the downed warrior could cry out for help, the viking woman sank one of her axes into her head, killing her swiftly.
"You fought bravely." The woman said, pulling her ax free. "But today is not my time to die." She added as she ran towards the village.
Meanwhile, one of the other vikings, a woman in what looked to be a ram horned helmet and similarly composed armor as the others, started making her way towards a line of Kyoshi warriors who stood against her, shields in a line.
The woman whipped her head from side to side, her auburn hair flashing as she sized up her opponents, before she hefted out her weapons, a small shield with three notches in it, and a spear of some kind.
One Kiyoshi Warrior charged at her, and was met with her spear being stabbed into her gut before the woman speared her head with said weapon resting on her shoulders. Another tried her luck, only to have her neck impaled and snapped, the spear getting stabbed into the ground. The Icelander woman chuckled before removing her weapon of choice.
"Both of you died for your home. A true warrior's death." She said before moving on. Charging her spear with fire, she hurled it at a building, causing it to explode.
Thorfinn, meanwhile, stumbled backwards as a fan strike from a Kyoshi Warrior. "Alright, if you want to play that way…" He growled as he hurled his hammer at her, which she blocked with hee shield. "Hmmm." He hummed as he held his arm out.
The girl yelled as she leapt at him to strike his fist, only to grunt as Thorfinn's hammer came flying back to him and nailing her in the stomach.
The blonde sighed as he tossed his hammer briefly. "Alright, time for you to take a nap." He stated, holding out his hammer and twisting it, causing a swift and strong breeze to hit the girl–knocking her unconscious.
Stretching, Thorfinn put his weapon away and picked the girl up, tossing her over his shoulder.
Elsewhere, Valka earthbended a Kiyoshi warrior off her feet. As she tried to get up, the Icelander earthbender pinned her down and started viciously slamming her head on the ground. After a bit, she wiped some sweat off her brow… before slamming her opponent's head on the ground one last time for good measure.
In short, the raid was a slaughter–there was no way the nonbending warriors could beat this force against them.
(Elsewhere)
-Fire Nation royal palace-
"Found anything yet?" Zuko questioned as he and Touya looked around in the room that Ozai had revealed that he'd hidden all of his mother's letters.
"Nothing so far." The redhead replied as looked around before opening a chest. "Scratch that. I think I found something." He amended as he took out some papers and looked them over. "Yep. These are definitely your mom's letters." He nodded.
"Give them here." The scarred teen said as he took the letters and looked at them. "They're all addressed to a place called Hira. A… Village in the Ember Island archipelago?" He noted, his face twisting in confusion.
"What could be so important all the way out there?" Touya wondered as he scratched his head in confusion.
"Hang on, let me read these…" Zuko replied as he started opening the letters.
Nearly half an hour passed while Zuko read the many letters, occasionally handing them over to Touya and Azula as he finished them.
"No way…" Touya said in surprise as he read.
"So that's why Azulon had their marriage arranged: Mother's grandfather was Avatar Roku…" Azula said in a slowly creeping state of shock and surprise.
"Kinda makes what we did to Aang during the war feel almost like treachery." Zuko remarked.
"Almost." The blue flame user nodded slowly in agreement. Sure, they weren't related to Aang by blood, but he was the reincarnation of their great grandfather, technically speaking.
"So, what do we do now? Follow the trail your mom left behind in hopes of finding her?" Touya questioned.
"That's about it." The Fire Lord nodded.
"Let's get moving, then." Azula said, wanting to find her mother.
Moments later though…
"Oooh!" The princess groaned as she suddenly felt a certain someone send a hard kick to the wall of her womb. "Alright… Alright… That hurt." She groaned, holding her distended stomach.
Touya was right by her side to hold her up.
"Not to sound mean, but are you sure you're fit to travel?" The redhead asked in concern.
"Don't worry. I can handle it." She replied.
"I hope you're right." Touya sighed. This moment was interrupted, however, when Zuko nearly dropped one of the letters.
"No way…" The teen gasped as he looked at the letter, blinking.
"What?" Azula asked with a raised eyebrow as she looked over her brother's shoulder at the letter he was reading… and felt her mind nearly implode at what it said. "N-No… Th-th-this c-can't be truer…!" She stuttered with wide eyes.
"What?" Touya questioned as he read the letter… and immediately his left eyebrow nearly went through the ceiling with how high he was raising it. "Okay, this has got to be fake." The half breed said bluntly.
The revelation in question was this: That Zuko was the son of Ursa's old boyfriend, Ikem and not Ozai.
"How can something like this be fake?!" Zuko demanded, and was clearly distressed from how he said it.
"Uh, there are several signs." Touya deadpanned. "For one, you were born after Ozai and Ursa were married. Second, she would have to sneak away to meet up with this Ikem for anything to even do anything–which obviously never happened. And based on the picture of Ikem I saw in the chest?" He continued, jutting a thumb at said chest. "Is nowhere near resembling you, appearance wise." He added.
The two royal siblings blinked and looked at each other. Azula then took out the picture of Ikem and looked between it and Zuko, and like her beloved had debunked, her brother had none of his features. This validated what was just stated.
"He's right. You share none of Ikem's features, and I think both of us would've noticed her sneaking out to be with him when we were kids." She stated.
"... Damn it." Zuko sighed as he sat down.
"Also, if Ursa really wanted to piss a guy like Ozai off, what do you think would do just that?" The redhead questioned, which caused the two to nearly pop their heads up.
"Oh of course!" Azula exclaimed in exasperation.
"But… this just gave him a reason to torment me, why would she…?" The fire lord questioned, not understanding why his mother would do that.
"Because she wanted to hurt Ozai." Azula told her brother, seeing the answer clearly. "But, as we've established, he doesn't have the mental capacity to feel such things." She added with a sigh. She could understand trying to hurt someone like Ozai in such a way, but all it did was doom Zuko to years of torment in the end, so it was a failure.
"Exactly." The redhead nodded in affirmation.
"Fuck…" The fire lord sighed, face in his hands.
(Elsewhere)
Meanwhile, Aang, Katara, and Sokka were currently flying Suki and Ty Lee back to Kyoshi Island after Zuko dismissed the two for some time off.
But once the island was in view… Horror overtook their features.
"What the-?! Wh-what happened here?!" Suki gasped, her hands covering her mouth as they landed and saw how ruined the village was.
"Check for survivors! Someone has to have gotten out of this alive!" Aang exclaimed as he got off of Appa and started running into the village to look for anyone alive, which everyone followed suit on.
"Right!" The others nodded, all of them running towards the village, and what they saw nearly caused them all to throw up.
Bodies were scattered everywhere, some having been skewered, necks snapped with the head facing the wrong way, and all manner of horrific brutalities. Several huts had been burned to the ground, and some were still burning–even with some of the corpses being charred to the point of looking like overcooked barbecue… which only made the gang even more nauseous as the scent of burning flesh and hair hit them.
It was hard to tell if there were any survivors at all.
"What… What happened here?" Katara gasped as Sokka rushed to examine some of the intact bodies and wreckage. Flies and scavenging birds picked at the carcasses all the while.
"Whoever attacked here was a group made up of benders and nonbenders–all different kinds–and whoever they were, they clearly knew how to use weapons." The Idea Guy noted, closing the eyes of a dead warrior.
"The place looks like it may have been ransacked. It's too hard to tell with all this damage." Ty Lee noted with a frown as she looked over the ruins.
"But who would even bother with such a thing?" The Air Nomad wondered with his own frown.
"Not bandits. The Kiyoshi Warriors here would've fought them off no problem." The former circus acrobat replied.
"Pirates, maybe?" Katara offered.
"Definitely an idea, but I don't think they were from around here." Sokka nodded as he picked up a broken Icelander shield. "Look." He added, showing it to them.
On the shield was the painted image of a three headed dragon, curled into a circle on itself. A type of dragon that had two wings, legs and tails. It looked nothing like Ran and Cha.
"Who would make something like this?" Katara frowned.
"I don't know." Aang said, shaking his head.
Suki, meanwhile, was fully silent during the conversation, staring at the wreckage of her home, before she dropped to her knees, tears unknowingly running down her face. The one place she'd known for a lifetime was gone while she was busy elsewhere.
'I should have been here…!' She thought, survivor's guilt setting in. But, her grief was interrupted by Sokka hugging her close, letting her finally cry on his shirt after holding it in.
Everyone looked at the distraught girl with sad gazes as the flames continued burning around them, but as they tried to figure out what to do next, they heard someone.
"H-Hello?" A little girl's voice called nervously, causing the group to snap their heads in its direction. To everyone's relief, it was one of the villagers.
"Oh thank goodness." Ty Lee sighed in relief as she ran towards the girl. "Are you alright?" She asked.
"I'm fine, but…" She trailed off, groaning as she held her stomach as the stench hit her nose. "Th-they came out of nowhere." She got out.
"Who? The ones that did all this?" Aang asked softly.
"They called themselves the Icelanders. They… they didn't hesitate to start attacking the village." The child shivered, recalling how much of a nightmare she'd witnessed.
"Icelanders. At least we know who did this." Katara frowned.
"I've never heard of them, have you guys?" Sokka questioned, getting negative reactions from the others, except for Aang.
"Well, I haven't, but I think I remember hearing Monk Gyatso mention people similar to that once… but I can't remember." The avatar stated.
"Are there any other survivors?" Suki asked, kneeling down to the little girl.
"Yeah. We managed to go hide in the woods while the Kiyoshi Warriors bought us time." She nodded, giving the group even more relief.
"Okay, good." Suki sighed before turning to the others. "Go back to the Fire Nation and tell Zuko about this. Word needs to get out about the Icelanders." She told them.
"Alright. Katara, let's go." Aang nodded, getting a nod from his girlfriend.
"You guys go, I'm staying with Suki." Sokka stated firmly, taking his own girlfriend's hand in his.
"Just be careful, okay?" Katara told her brother, who nodded in reply. With that, Aang, Katara and Ty Lee returned to Appa and took off on their emergency flight back to the Fire Nation.
A new enemy has made itself known. They needed to respond, and quickly.
Dragon Emperor0: Well, that escalated quickly. Talk about a poor return home, poor Suki must be devastated.
ThermalsniperN7: First the North Pole, and now Kiyoshi Island. Fighting the Icelanders is gonna be a chore for the gang to pull off…
Dragon Emperor0: And this is exactly how Vikings fought in real life, they rolled up to a place that had minimal defenses and sacked it. They rarely went to a place with a lot of defenses or let the places they ransacked ruin their element of surprise. It just wasn't their business model.
ThermalsniperN7: I'd say that's kinda cheap, but hey, they respected those they fought. No need to diss them for the way they do things if they're being cordial to their foes. Anyway, see you next time!