House of the wolf

Because I´ve felt so restless now that I´m heading home, I´ve spent over fourteen hours daily on the giant oars rowing with the men.

First, they took it as a challenge to have a lord outperforming them in grun, which is a shame to every man who works for his meals. So they all tried their best to row for as long as me but almost all gave up trying to keep up after 10 hours, but a certain few could row for as long as me but certainly not as rigorously as me. Nor should they, I´m just too restless.

But the relentless rowing has made my shoulders noticeably wider, stronger, and more toned.

After three weeks of this, I could understand why galley slaves in my old world were said to only last at most a year until they died of exhaustion. 

Well, I say old world but looking beneath the bench I´m sitting on, seeing the chain links it seems that galley slaves are a thing here too, not that surprising to be honest.

However, unlike those slaves, I´m well-fed eating the best food you could eat nutrition-wise. 

Fish, fish oil, butter, and chicken eggs from Arsa who is keeping chickens on the boat. And not getting whipped bloody every time I stop to take a breath.

But other than that, I basically went through the same thing, now I have something to talk about if I ever meet a galley slave survivor and we can bond over our shared woes.

“Land!” I hear a shout shocking me out of my thoughts and I look through the gap for the oars and see an island surrounded by nothing but rocks and mist in the distance. Making me curse in my mind for we will not be able to approach the island on this ship.

I go to the top of the deck “Get ready the rowboats, York you come with me Damon you and the other guards stay on the ship, Beron, Arsa you pick sixty of those most likely to leave us if they stay on the ship and make them come with me to the island Beron comes with me Arsa you stay on the ship.

Nobody argues so as they lower the rowboat I put on a shirt and leather armor with some armor plating and my helmet.

By the time I´m ready, they have all almost filled the rowboats, and am one of the last to get on.

“Beron you know anything about the Skagosi,” I ask as we sit while the men row.

“Only old wife's tales of how they eat people and I´m afraid those aren´t just old wives’s tales” He speaks his face grim as he looks at the waves crashing at the rocks and the mist making us unable to see into the island.

“Aye, if half the things I hear are true then these are people who treat themselves worse than most treat their worst enemies but that´s why I need them. There are three houses on the island sworn to House Stark it would be best if your men don´t say or act like you´re sellswords until the Houses have affirmed their allegiance” 

He looks at me in surprise and after understanding my meaning there is a newfound respect in his eyes as he nods his head.

Finally, after rowing for 30 minutes we are approaching the heart of the island and see something resembling a port.

Hundreds of men with weapons of all shapes and sizes of materials as varied from stone to bone to old steel and bronze I even see some wielding dragon glass.

Looking at them I see that their appearance is not so different at all from Northmen only they seem a bit hairier and a bit bigger on average and that´s saying a lot because Northmen are already the biggest people I know of.

I see a flag depicting a green lobster holding a harpoon which means this is house Magnar and we step foot on the island the atmosphere is heavy as nobody speaks.

Step step step 

We hear footsteps a huge man with a beard is walking toward us with a smile on his face “Guests, guests! How long since we had guests welcome, welcome! House Magnar welcomes you” he speaks in old tongue so no one but me in our party can understand him, they all look more unnerved by the jovial giant of man saying words they cannot understand.

“Don´t look so scary come inside let us welcome you to our island” As he waves at us to follow him making them even more nervous and me the only one who understands what he is saying, am a thousand times more unnerved than any of them. 

So unnerved that, I forgot to speak and just followed deeper into the island and we reached the destination a giant hall made of wood with Driftwood sigil on it meaning this is the driftwood hall of House Stane.

Looking at the welcoming feast going on I feel more and more lost every second.

While the food in the feast is not plenty I can imagine how scarce food is on the island so this is going above and beyond.

These!.. are the savages I read about in the history books is the library of Winterfell even more biased against the Skagosi than the English history books were against the Vikings?… actually, that makes sense a bit too much sense damn why did I not think of this before.

I decided to eat to complete the guest right and stand up and speak in the old tongue “Thank you for the food it was delicious” As the hall turned silent the Skagosi were all surprised that I could speak the old tongue. 

“You speak our tongue why do you not speak when I welcome you?” The jovial giant gets angry.

“The warm welcome left me too stunned to speak from what I have heard of your people and how you welcomed me are too different”

An old man with a beard down to his knees scoffs “The Southerners all judge before they see” 

“I am no Southerner I am Edwyn Stark and have come here for you to reaffirm your pledge to be our bannermen and follow me to help the North”