The Voyages of Dvergr are a collection of stories that were once dismissed as fabrications, imaginings of the Nordic peoples even as they were known to have settled parts of what would be Newfound Land and Labrador for brief periods of time. It weas not until recently that historians, piecing together the tales of the Sea-Folk legends of The Caribbean, Central and South America with newly discovered archeological sites that there actually is some basis to these claims, even if many of the more serious scholars maintain the position that this was not the result of a singular expedition, but several voyages of exploration that took place over several decades.

However, some do claim that it does explain why these regions have several loanwords from various Northern European dialects, as well as Byzantine Greek and Latin. It would also go a long way to explain the existence of the Lunar League dominating the largest of the Caribbean islands. A collection of city states that seemed to be a mixture of a nearby indigenous base with classical Greek and Nordic influence in how they structured their city states and law codes, the Lunar League was united and powerful enough to resist attempts to colonize them by the European powers.

Of course, much of what the myths claim can be taken with a gain of salt. According to the Voyages, after he and his army had defeated a powerful demon (whose body, in typical mythological fashion, was that of a snake, with the arms of a man, head of a yak, and wings of a locust, and she wielded a hammer and sickle in her hands) whose breath brought famine, pestilence and death, who had assembled an army of rotting corpses, he had merely asked the Tang Emperor for a letter of introduction and the material with which to make ships.

Some say that he was fleeing the daughters of the Rakasha Dedvamba, who had offered him a place as her consort before being slain by Artemis. Others that he was merely eager to see the world. What is agreed on, is that according to the court records of the Heian period, that Dvergr and his crew were hired to bring several bandit clans to justice, and that while considered barbarians, they were noted to be highly reliable and disciplined warriors.

Of course, according to the myths of this time, it was not just the leader of the band, but several of his subordinates that would become enshrined in local folklore. Ivar Rattlebones was said to have defeated a hundred and eight Oni in single combat and won the hand of the princess of their kind. Hamar Bearskin is claimed to have wrestled several mighty Yaoguai and fathered the Boxing Bear species. Sturla Grudgespeaker was said to have been deputized by the gods of the underworld after he sought out and brought justice to several Onryō whose grudges had formed as the result of injustice, allowing them to find rest and enter the cycle of reincarnation.

But of course, the most infamous story of his stay here is a sexual one and almost Greek in nature. Shortly before he and his crew left, east across the sea according to the records and tales, Dvergr and his wife of several years by now Artemis, tracked down the Japanese mood god, Tsukuyomi. Artemis, the Greek Moon Goddess, pinned him to the floor and to this day Japanese myth states that several craters on the moon are the results of the vicious and brutal pegging she gave him... while her husband placed Amaterasu in his lap and took her while she painted the entire scene.

Some claim that the presence of multi tailed cats and foxes in Artemis's artwork comes from this period and were the result of Amaterasu gifting clans of divine creatures to her fellow goddess to keep in touch... or potentially for future repeats.

Still, all the records agree that hulls laden down with supplies, they sailed off in a rush soon after, only to reappear in the annals of the Hawaiian islands some five thousand miles away, resupplying before continuing on their voyage (and according to local legend taking part in both a surfing contest and battling a giant squid-dragon monster from the depths of the sea), landing in modern day Mexico.

And like all places where they landed to take on fresh supplies as they moved south to the tip of the continent, there are tales of the moon and the dwarf slaying monsters and giving gifts to local champions and heroes. According to the Voyages, while they had stopped and assisted several tribes in the Caribbean, it would be several years before he returned. Instead, as they went north, they charted the lands that would be Newfound Land & Labrador and Greenland, before docking in Iceland to the astonishment of those living there.

If the Voyages can be trusted, then the first recorded circumvention of the world was in eight hundred and ninety six AD.

Zoe Nightshade (875 AD)

She lowered her head, cheeks burning with shame, as her goddess looked at her, expression flat. "I." Her tone was neutral, calm and almost entirely dispassionate. "Am not upset with you Zoe. Yes, the pit trap was easy to avoid, was were the snares, the trip wires, the pressure plates, the boulder traps and the dart traps covered in sleeping venom." As her goddess went down the list of traps in the temple, she winced. "To be entirely honest, it is something I would expect from my ingenious half brother."

Now, that sparks a blush, even as Artemis frowns. "And then there were the curses and magical traps." Now that? Her spine straightens, as she had only noticed the one! "Subtle things for the most part, and I only know about them because he explained them to me, to empower them further by revealing what he had done." Her goddesses nose, dignified and proud, flared, hands clenching in anger. "So. I do not blame you for falling for the illusion at the end."

She was glad to know it, even as she could not move from the bindings, as she looked up at her goddess, eyes pleading. "And I cannot free you." Pain and guilt where in her tone. "The queen has declared that I am to serve the bastard male that captured me for a year and a day, and by my action or inaction, speech or any form of communication, I cannot directly or indirectly assist you in freeing me or escaping once you have been captured, nor can I remove your bonds."

There was that wonderfully dark smile on her friend and goddesses face. "No, I can merely avenge you if liberties are taken." And then the darkness faded as her goddess deflated and sighed. "Which, I do not want to happen in the first place..." She paused, as there was a whisper around them, and her goddesses eyes narrowed and huffed, as she moved, adjusting Zoe... and then sitting on her. If things were different, she would have cooed in delight. "And he is watching and listening, because he is paranoid that I will find away around the commands."

There was a sort of grudging respect there. Zoe instantly hated their captor even more in that instant.

Artemis (877 AD)

Given how all the men of the band had been... suitably respectful and polite towards her and her hunters that had been captured trying to free her? She was not going to turn them into beasts and hunt them down when her freedom came today, when the period of bondage enforced on her ended. She would even, given how he had been... tolerable, give Dvergr a three hour head start before she did her best to take his head as a trophy.

And her eyes narrowed as she shot another arrow at that complete and utter bitch Dedvamba. Who had came up on a chariot made of lotus petals to give an offer to HER prey, that the tiger headed bitch would gladly accept such a man as a consort. That she would gift him a grand palace and place in her court. At the very least HER prey had said no. And so, the harlot looked at her, a smirk on her face and proclaimed that after she had captured what was HERS, she would take him in front of her as she claimed him before devouring her.

"Sensually, and then as a mooncake, topped with fresh cream and honey I think." The whore licked her lips, as she returned to to her forces beside the lake, and as the battle raged. It ended as she was sure it was, the BITCH having her head crushed even as an arrow found her heart, a sigh on her lips as she died. The ground was slick with bodies and blood, but the mortals and her hunters were fine. She may have distrusted them... but at least they had potent healers that kept her girls alive.

Which is when a woman with avian animal features, singing beautifully descended from the heavens. "I am here for the one named Artemis, of the Olympians." She moved, striding forward, freedom surely at hand, eyes on the scroll in the messenger spirits hands, as the spirit bowed and presented it. "From your Father."

Hope surged in her heart as she opened it. Only for everything to still. And then? Some, looking at the moon in the west would swear it cracked, as she read of her marriage. And of how, in the queens and the whores hands, they said that they were welcome for arranging this, as it was time she grew up... as she straddled her... husband, hands around his throat despite not being able to close them fully... she did not read that he was tricked into this just as she was.

Merely that her Hunters had been included as part of her dowry, and that her bride price had already been paid.