Chapter Twenty Four
It was a well known fact that Gilan loved to travel. He always had and always would. His dad would tell him stories growing up of all the places he had been to on missions for the King and Gilan would soak up all of them.
It was also a well known fact that Gilan had almost never been outside of Araluen. There were a few trips to Celtica, and one memorable trip to Picta (he was actually ok with never going there again. You walk into the wrong room one time and accidentally overhear an assassination attempt and then proceed to stop it and then the Scotti become very insulted and angry with you. It was like they forgot he was a Ranger!), but he had never truly been away from home. Not like he was right now.
They had been at sea for weeks and Gilan decided that he absolutely loved it. Sure the view got a little monotonous, but there was always the chance that something could appear on the horizon in the blink of an eye.
But actually sailing was fantastic too, the Heron practically flying across the waves under Hal's expert eye.
Traveling with the Herons and the other Skandians had certainly been an experience, but Gilan enjoyed it, trying to help out wherever he could on the ship. He had spent a lot of time with them while in Aralen so it hadn't taken much effort to continue the easy friendship.
The trip was coming to an end though. Hal announced that they should be reaching Hallasholm at some point today, having passed by Skorghijl a few days past. Gilan, taking a shift in being lookout, watched impatiently for anything new to appear. He practically felt like a little kid again, that excited to finally be on a real trip outside of Araluen.
He knew the important part of the trip was based on gathering information for the war, but he refused to let that dampen his spirits at finally having a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream. Halt did always say that Gilan was a glass-half-full kind of guy.
In what only seemed like a few moments, a strip of land appeared in front of him. Quickly, Gilan called out to the group below and they sprung into action as Hal yelled out his orders. The Herons were a well-oiled machine when it came to sailing and in no time at all, they had everything ready to dock.
As they got closer, Hal ordered the sail to be brought down, wanting to row into the harbor. Gilan offered to pick up an oar and help, but Hal waved his offer to the side, pointing to Ingvar. The massive Skandian was strong enough to do the work of two men.
As the Heron pulled into the harbor, they saw that they had amassed quite a crowd of people, waiting anxiously. The little ship with its unique sail was a well known sight in Skandia and many were happy to see her back.
As soon as they docked and tied off the boat, everyone jumped off, eager to be reunited with their families. Erak was swarmed by Jarls before he had even walked ten steps, all clamoring for a full update of what had transpired while he was away. It took a lot of bellowing from Erak before anyone quieted down enough to listen to him. Gilan just laughed. It seemed yelling was very universal for the northern raiders.
The Ranger winced to himself as he thought of that particular word. No one was going to be happy at the idea of not raiding anymore. He certainly didn't want to be around when Erak dropped that bit of news. Especially since it had been Gilan's idea.
"Gil!" Hal called out, jogging up to the tall Ranger, "Got a minute?"
"I'm all yours. What's going on?" he said.
"Just filling you in." Hal explained, "We're gonna spend tomorrow restocking and getting ready for the trip, leaving the day after that."
Gilan raised an eyebrow, "You certainly don't waste any time."
"Sooner we get this done, the better." Hal snorted, "Erak's offered you a room to stay in, but you're more than welcome to stay with me and my mam too."
"Thanks, I appreciate it. How long will it take to get to the river?"
"Less than an hour." Hal said, shrugging, "The hard part will be dragging the ship past the rapids. I've got a few ideas that could make it easier, but it'll still take awhile."
"Let me know if I can help." Gilan said, but already knew the answer. Hal liked to work on his ideas on his own.
Hal shook his head, but thanked him anyway, "Just be ready to leave."
"Think we'll find anything up there?"
"I don't know.'' Hal shrugged, turning to watch Erak as he slowly got the crowd under control, "We're going based on a hunch that he has about this river. Normally we have something more…substantial."
"I've learned to trust instincts," Gilan said patiently, "Especially those of someone who's been in a lot of dangerous situations, like Erak. He knows what to look for."
"I guess." he didn't sound too convinced.
Gilan clapped him on the shoulder gently, "Think of it this way. I'd rather be prepared for something that never happens than not be ready and have it surprise me at the worst moment."
"The man who sleeps with a sword is a fool every night but one." Hal said quietly, sounding like he'd heard the phrase many times.
"Erak?"
"Thorn. You'd be surprised how overprepared he likes to be."
Gilan smirked. "That's not so different from us Rangers."
Hal huffed again, rolling his eyes, "Great, there's two of them."
"Yep." Gilan said cheekily.
Their day to restock and prepare went by quickly, the entire crew and Gilan working to pack everything they needed and soon enough, it was the day after and they were setting out once again.
Following the coastline, Gilan helped Lydia keep an eye out for the river. She had the sharpest eyes out of the crew and would be the first to spot it.
Like Hal said, it was close to Hallasholm. He could've sworn that it was only a few minutes until they spotted the mouth of the tiny river.
As they pulled up closer,the crew looked at it skeptically. The river seemed barely wide enough for the Heron, let alone a full sized wolfship. Probably another reason Erak had chosen them.
"Drop sail and get out oars!" Hal called out, the crew rushing to follow his orders.
They wouldn't be able to row the whole river Gilan knew. There were three sets of rapids where they would have to instead do something called 'portage'. The Ranger hadn't ever heard the term before, but it was explained as basically pushing the ship uphill on land past the rapids. It was hard work, but Hal had spent the previous day working on some things to make it easier for them. He had hopes for them to make it past the rapids by the end of the day.
The Heron, built for speed like it was, made short work of the beginning of the river, reaching the first portion of the rapids in a little under two hours.
Quickly, they brought the ship to the edge of the river, taking off as much as they could to lighten the ship. Hal ran ahead, attaching some sort of pulley system to the trees so it could pull the ship part of the way. Lydia and Edvin stood by with long rollers to slide underneath the ship so that it could be pushed easier and faster.
Gilan took his place between Stefan and one of the twins, he didn't know which. Together, everyone began to push.
It was hard work and exhausting. The pulleys and rollers helped a lot, but the Heron was still very heavy. Gilan's arms were aching before they were even halfway done, reminding him of the first time Halt had him shooting arrows all day long. His shoulders, both then and now, wanted to kill him.
Everyone was panting heavily by the time they got to the top, putting everything back together so they could get to the second set of rapids.
The one was longer than the first and, as if the universe hated them, even steeper. Gilan was sure that if it wasn't for Ingvar, it would've taken them twice as long.
They did stop for a lunch break before the third set of rapids, chugging water to catch their breath.
The third portage was luckily the shortest one. Gilan was glad when it was over, the Heron finally back in water for the time being. Of course they would have to go back down, but that, hopefully, wouldn't be for at least a week.
Sailing up the river, high in the mountains of Skandia, the entire crew was taken by surprise when they came upon a massive lake, bigger than any they had ever seen.
"Woah…" Edvin murmured, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"No one knew about this?" Gilan asked.
Thorn shook his head, "Skandians have never had a reason to come this far up here, and most didn't feel the need to try to get past the rapids."
"First Skandians to ever see this." Stefan said in awe, "Kind of momentous."
"We've been the first Skandians to do a lot." Stig scoffed, "Think we would be used to it by now."
"We can all stand around and gawk later." Hal called out, "Let's find a place to set up camp, then we'll start looking around."
The crew sprang back to work at his orders, the Heron sailing smoothly into the lake. It wasn't long before they came across an island, almost in the dead center of the still waters. The island wasn't large enough to have any large animals, but there was a fair sized inlet where Hal chose to moor the ship.
In moments the crew was setting up camp, each having some sort of assigned task to complete. Edvin was creating a campfire, Thorn and Stig were discussing possible defenses, Ulf and Wulf were helping Ingvar set up the tents.
Gilan looked around critically, doing a quick head count. Finding himself to be one short, he began a closer look, spotting some tracks leading to one of the trees nearby. Glancing up, Gilan saw Lydia continuing to climb, looking around the island as she did so.
He smirked. Smart girl.
"Think you'll be able to start today?" Hal's voice interrupted his thoughts.
He checked the sun, realizing that there were quite a few hours until nightfall, "I'd prefer it. We have no clue if the Temujai even came in this direction and the sooner we find out, the better I'll sleep."
Hal chuckled his agreement, "if they were here, what do you think you'll find?"
"Scouts, mostly. Maybe a small raiding party." Gilan responded, "Their main efforts have been focused on expanding south. Toscana is their next target after all. But if we do find anything-"
"Then we need to come up with a way to stop them." Hal finished.
Gilan nodded, "Any ideas?"
"A few." Hal admitted sheepishly, "The Temujai are riders, they'd have a hard time navigating their horses down this river, especially around those rapids. I figured we could make some blockades at the rapids, then make a fort at the base of the river. We'll have more room to fight there, but the Riders will be at every disadvantage, especially since there's no good crossing for them at any point along the water."
"Good plan. Do you think you could get most of that done in about a week?"
Hal scoffed, pretending to be insulted.
Gilan laughed and held up his hands in mock surrender, "Right, right. Sorry."
Hal laughed with him, "It's all good. Besides, Thorn's a master of improvised defenses. Knowing him, the blockades will be more than enough to stop those wanna-be-raiders."
"Even if you were short two workers?" Gilan asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Two?" Hal asked, confused.
"Me and one other." We'd meet you down at the base of the river." he explained.
"You thinking of taking Jesper with you?"
Jesper was the resident thief and therefore was more than decent at unseen movement. But, to Hal's surprise, the Ranger was shaking his head.
"Jesper's good, but you need him here. Besides, he's not a tracker and I want an extra set of eyes in case there's more going on than we think."
It didn't take the young skirl long to figure out who he meant, glancing up to the trees, "You want to take Lydia?"
He nodded, "She's got a lot of skills, ones that would be more useful with me than with building defenses."
Hal could only agree with that reasoning, "And you think you'd be gone about a week?"
Gilan nodded again, "No more than two. That'll give us plenty of time to try to find anything up there while the rest of you finish up here."
He could see the young man thinking all of it over. Finally, he sighed, "I'm not ordering her to go with you. She didn't sign up to potentially march right into the Temujai's path, but we can ask her. If she wants to go, then she can. It's all up to her."
The Ranger smiled, "Let's get her down from that tree then."
As it was, it didn't take long for Lydia to agree to go with him. She was eager to help and wasn't one to shy away from danger. Hal wasn't really surprised by her response, but he felt better knowing that she had chosen to go with Gilan.
The Herons dropped the two of them off an hour later, watching as they began walking east until they were out of sight.
"Come on!" Thorn barked out, "Quit your worrying and get back to work! She's tougher than all you lot put together!"
"Well that's not really a surprise, now is it?" Stig snorted.
"Well I'm certainly tougher than her." Ulf boasted, puffing out his chest proudly.
Wulf scoffed at his twin, "Yeah right. She just lets you believe that. Lydia knows how fragile your ego is."
"Psh, you mean your ego. Come on Ulf, everyone knows what a wimp you are."
"What are you talking about? You're Ulf, which makes you the pansy!"
"I think I know who I am!"
"Ingvar," Hal turned to the giant Skandian, almost conversationally, "Would you say that tossing someone into a lake has the same effect as tossing them into the sea?"
Ingvar eyed the twins knowingly, a grin stretching across his face, "I'd say so."
Nobody said a word after that.
Professor: It's a day early, but Happy Fourth of July everyone!