Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons

Chapter 405: CDV. The Second Entrance

"I hope that his sympathy for me will last over time... by always agreeing, it will surely be easier to make difficult decisions and we will no longer risk being defeated. Master Kjell learned his lesson well, but that cost us many lives, those of the soldiers that fought with him outside the barrier. As much as I may have forgiven him, it is impossible for me to forget the faces of those young warriors." 

Dag's words broke into the hearts of his comrades, who understood how he was feeling at the time and how he felt when all those men under his command had died because of Kjell's impulsiveness, which had shown to care more about his leadership than his men.

After an additional ten minutes, all the warriors had eaten their small food rations and drank the water found in the barrels in the cave, which was fresh and tasted great, unlike what they thought.

When Dag got up and grabbed his torch, the soldiers did the same, and Kjell, Sander and Egill returned to the front line to follow Dag and the others more closely.

Based on the words of the giant wolf, who had explicitly admitted to being the only one of his Clan to have remained in the cave to watch the passage, Dag felt that the road would be free until the exit and that the real problems would come later, because, as anticipated by Gridd's perplexities, if they had been surrounded only by snow in the middle of another plain, it would have been very difficult to travel and understand the location of the village of the Giants Of Ymir.

Without losing heart and being aware that few enemies up to that point had been able to seriously challenge him, Dag accelerated the pace, determined to achieve his goal, and thinking back to the words of the man who had spoken to him of the Crystal of Fire.

The path, after yet another tunnel that led them out of the room where dozens of bodies laid, became slightly more impervious and its slope increased.

Following the uphill stretch, the soldiers did not struggle to understand that they were finally approaching the surface and that perhaps, the entrance to the other side, was not specular to the one they had crossed.

About an hour after their last break, the cave became wider and wider, until they could catch a glimpse of the exit, consisting of a large hole on the wall, which this time was horizontal, with no rugged paths on which to climb to the top.

The light coming from that direction, even if it was stronger than the one inside the cave, was almost absent, being late in the evening.

Dag accelerated the pace again, trying to gain some distance to go forward, while the rest of the soldiers continued to walk slowly and chat with each other, trying to distract themselves from the cold and tiredness.

Gridd continued to walk beside him when the two of them arrived in front of the exit.

On the walls next to the hole in the rock, the light of their torches illuminated lots of engravings, some of which appeared to be written in the same runic alphabet used on the wolf statue on the other side.

In addition to the writings, there was a drawing carved in the rock, depicting the head of a wolf with a large 'F' in the center, written in the normal elder futhark and therefore understandable by all.

"This must be the symbol of the Claws Of Fenrir" Dag said, touching the relief with his hand as if he wanted to perceive something. 

Gridd nodded, agreeing with him.

"I believe that their real base is very far from this place. When I was at Temple Of Orn, the stories about Krypstorm fascinated me a lot, and I read several books about the legends of its ancient Clans. I remember that, for what concerns the Claws Of Fenrir, they were defined as 'wandering warriors', or without a permanent home" he continued, exhuming old reminiscences.

"You mean their base doesn't exist? So how do they guard their scrolls and train warriors? Where do their Masters live?" Gridd asked, fairly.

" I don't know that no one has ever managed to gather so much information. You know, as we were able to test on our skin, they're not a particularly hospitable Clan and all those who, throughout history, have clashed against them, have never been able to tell what they had seen..." 

"So I assume that they are all dead..."

"Yes, exactly. However, by studying the details of this cave and noticing the village of peasants that we ransacked, where the supplies for the Claws Of Fenrir were stored, I suppose they have so many small bases similar to this cave, scattered throughout the nation of Krypstorm. Although this is a very different strategy system from our Clan, I think it's very effective, in its own way. Being always in different places and not having a single headquarter, the wolf warriors are unassailable" Dag replied, taking his hand off the wall and watching his sister as the rest of the troops approached them.

"Mmh... well, yes... you don't really have all the wrongs. But in doing so they always risk encountering stronger and more numerous enemies... and that's not good for their Clan, don't you think?" Gridd asked again, carefully studying Dag's hypothesis, which helped her reason about what happened.

"Obviously they're not so scared of others..." he concluded, leaving his sister the benefit of the doubt and heading towards the exit.

When his eyes came into contact with the air outside, although there was not much light, he was forced to squinch them, having remained for many hours immersed in total darkness.

After a few seconds of waiting, he was again able to open them and without surprise, he noticed that around that hole in the wall, there was nothing but a flat expanse of snow, with mountains on the horizon on one side.