406 CDVI. The Lull

Soon after, he looked up: the sky was much clearer than usual, and the stars, as well as the other planets, were able to illuminate the area, ensuring a minimum of extra visibility.

Little by little, all the soldiers came out of the cave, breathing in the cold but clean air that didn't smell like moss and mud.

Some of them dipped their hands in the snow to rinse off the dirt and impurities they were dirty about.

"Finally the sky is clean! The fog that enveloped that village was asphyxiating!" Kjell said, looking up at the sky with Dag and commenting on the view.

"This is probably because we have strayed from the sea. Being closer inland, the clouds thicken on the other side and leave the sky on our heads much clearer. If you focus on it, you can also feel that the air, despite being cold, is still less penetrating than when we arrived. This is due to humidity, always caused by proximity to the coast" Dag said, feeling an urgent need to explain the scientific reason behind those phenomena.

"Wow! You know lots of these weird things to be such a skilled warrior! How do you do that? I mean... who taught you all these notions?" Kjell asked, fascinated by the explanation and trying to compliment Dag for being forgiven.

"There were many things taught us on earth. I wish I could access the books I used as a child to study... I would spread them to all of you."

"Mmh I don't know if the warriors would appreciate it! Hahaha! Studying has never been our strong point, we prefer the steel of weapons!"

"Captain, so? What do we do now? Are we going to spend the night here?" Reidar asked, interrupting the conversation and bringing more practical and urgent questions to their attention.

"Yes, Reidar, it's a great idea. For today we have walked enough, I can not see the coast from which we started even in the distance! We will sleep here, doing the usual guard shifts to check the entrance and the rest of the corridor leading to the deep part of the cave. Inform the men" he commanded, agreeing with the archer, that despite the physical fatigue, could always be one of the most attentive and responsible subjects.

Reidar executed the order and all the soldiers began to settle down at the entrance of the cave, preparing bedding for sleep and lighting small bonfires, but trying not to place them too close to the entrance, so as not to attract suspicious glances.

Dag, on the other hand, was not very sleepy and took the opportunity to calm down to walk with Thalos and explore the surroundings.

The exit of the cave was carved into a sub-vertical rock face, which, as seen from the outside, looked like the skeleton of an ancient landslide mountain.

Together with his friend, Dag circumnavigated that small headland and climbed to its top, just over 6 meters high, hoping to get a better view of the surrounding landscape.

But of the village of which the dying man had spoken, still no trace.

"Hey, Thalos... where do you think we should go? Do you think we're going to be able to see something tomorrow morning? If the village was close for real, I should be able to distinguish lights or something, wouldn't I?" Dag said, speaking aloud to the wolf as if he could answer him.

Walking back and forth on the fresh snow, he decided to sit on the ledge under which was the entrance to the cave, thinking.

Just as he was immersed in his usual thousand thoughts, he remembered the two scrolls found in the Claws Of Fenrir camp that had handed him one of the two soldiers and pulled them out of his bag.

He took one and looked at it first from the outside, noting that it did not look much different from the ones he was used to seeing, then unhooked the lace that kept it closed and opened it slowly, unrolling it cautiously so as not to risk ruining its contents, considering that it looked like a particularly dated object.

Even though he had left the torch in the cave, the natural white light still allowed him to see the details, also thanks to his good eyesight.

Surprised, he discovered that on the scroll was written a text the same size as those of the low-level skills he had learned in the past, with a single, important detail: the alphabet, once again, was not that he was able to read.

"Fuck, but how is it possible? Apparently here on Krypstorm, they write in a completely different way from ours, even if we speak the same language... I wonder why..." he thought, puffing and rolling the parchment again, given its indecipherability.

After the first, he also opened the second one, already intending to close it, thinking that it too would be incomprehensible, but something caught his attention.

That scroll didn't contain a skill inside, but a map.

"Oh, finally! Thank you, Odin!" he exclaimed, looking upwards and ironing that, lately, a little more luck would be convenient for him.

Pointing his finger at the map, Dag tried to figure out what area it was referring to and joyfully noticed that it was the one in which he and his men were located at the time.

Once again, the toponymy and every other word written on the scroll were not in elder futhark, but since there were many explanatory drawings, he still managed to decipher it, discovering that it was about the area around the cave, represented in its entirety in the drawing, below the surface and above it.

The exit on which he was sitting at that exact moment, was a few kilometers away from a not very large village with an unpronounceable name, composed of five letters that seemed to be almost all consonants.