Chapter 490： Polar dawn

After entering the polar night, the seal disappeared, and the polar bear disappeared accordingly.

Some populations of polar bears can hibernate, and in a sense Rurik is now in intermittent hibernation.

It's extremely cold outdoors, and the prey is hidden in the cave. Why do the bears and humans, who are hunters, have to wander in the extreme night?

The radius of activity of the Ross and Balmerks in the polar night is also within about one kilometer. No one dares to go far. They are afraid that they will get lost and be frozen into ice.

With the help of a variety of limited light sources, the camp is still under construction slowly, and they are strengthening the wind-proof wall to ensure safety.

After an unknown period of time, the sea suddenly became violent, and the stormy waves began to beat the coast. Anyone approaching the coast felt that this was Odin's anger.

People all hid in the house to avoid the bitter wind outside. Only the dark wooden house is the only warm and safe place. As for the outdoor world, it quickly turned into invisible chaos in the cold wind.

The Arctic current is here! Murmansk was the first among them. Dense snows swept across the world. The outdoor temperature reached an extremely low temperature of -20°C in a few times. The walls of the Rus and Balmerk camps blocked most of the snow, just outside the wall. Gradually become a snow slope.

The supplies of the two owners and one of the deer houses were further covered by Xuezi.

It seems that if he rashly pushes open the leather-reinforced wooden door, he will freeze to death if he stands outdoors for a short time.

People can only go to the toilet indoors in embarrassment, and even eat raw meat and dry wheat. Fortunately, the interior is absolutely dark, and a corner of the wooden house has become a toilet. Everyone can only suppress the embarrassment and endure the odor to end the storm and snow disaster.

As a result, almost ten days have passed since I waited for a while!

Rurik didn't know how long it took. Once he was awake, he tried to fall asleep again, and everyone else was exactly the same. Only falling asleep can beat boredom, only falling asleep can save food. Everyone was forced to hibernate. In this weird hibernation, time quietly came to January of 832 in the Julian calendar.

Rurik didn't keep his promise, he even disappeared into the vast world. The winter festival of the Ross people was supposed to be a grand event. As a result, it was affected by a strong snowstorm. The stone ship altars in Roseburg were completely covered by snow!

Elronburg, Roseburg, and even the east of Shilla Fort, Tombstone Island, Lake Mälaren, Novgorod, and the hinterland of the European continent, a strong Korean wave swept across the Alps.

The entire Northern Europe suffered a snow disaster. In such a bad situation, everyone was overwhelmed and had no chance to take care of others' safety.

People can only nest in their warm and safe homes, or in any safe refuge, or stay quiet and wait for the disaster to end, or look at the statues of Odin, Frey, or other gods, and pray for the gods to stop anger.

I don't know how long it took before the violent blizzard finally ended?

"It seems to be quiet outside. My lord, we are all safe, just don't know the Balmerks..." Yevlo said clearly, he was afraid that his master's new brother would be frozen to death.

Forced to stay indoors covered by snow, enduring crowding and complicated odors, everyone wants to go out and breathe, but no one has the guts until it is safe.

Rurik could not come into contact with Bijuni, let alone feed the reindeer in the herd with new fodder and wheat.

"You just open the door and see what's going on outdoors. If it's safe, let's all go out and breathe." Rurik urged.

However, Jeflo found that he was unable to push the door, not because he became weak, but because the door seemed to freeze. The warm leather curtain was removed, and finally the entire wooden door was torn down by a concerted effort.

The reason why the door could not be opened was found, and I saw that the outdoors was already covered with thick snow.

The outside world has seen the light again, the sun still doesn't exist, and a fierce Rürich plunged into the snowdrift. At this moment, the stars are shining, the crescent moon is in the sky, and the emerald aurora runs through the sky like a ribbon.

"It's finally clear. Brothers, come out to clean the snow and see how the Balmerks are doing."

After hearing the order, people came out one after another. They used earth-digging shovel brought from their hometown or temporary tools made of simple wooden boards to clear the snow-free open space at the door of the wooden house, and then immediately took out the dry wood block from the room, assisted a small amount of tinder, and used the bow The drill quickly drilled out a bonfire. The remaining work is to remove the prefabricated pine wood from the snow and burn it.

A path was opened in the snow, and Rurik realized that the snow had already exceeded one meter, and it was a fate not to be submerged by the snow and die.

Those Balmerks were like mice hiding in the crypt. The wooden door was forcibly opened by external forces, shocking Biyuni and others instinctively with their swords.

"Brother, the **** wind and snow is over, come out and breathe."

It was Rurik's voice that Biyuni took the sword with his heart beating.

"My brother, I thought it was a bear!"

"Oh, then I'm an Annunciation Bear. Come out, let's have a barbecue."

The wooden wall of the camp is basically completed. After this blizzard, the wall facing the north has gathered too much snow, and it turned into a huge steep slope. The part facing the south has very little snow, so the wall at this position was torn down and people Can really enter the outside world.

The fire continued to burn, and the snow in the surrounding walls was either swept away or evaporated directly by the flames.

Rurik finally ate the cooked wheat and roasted meat, and now those bear meats that have not been bleeding and smelly and have a bashful taste, Rurik eats them in his mouth, and now they are really happy delicacies.

How long will the long polar night last? Rurik has forgotten the exact date now, and Biyunni said that in the Balmerk tribe, people regard the end of the polar night as the beginning of the new year.

This reminded Rurik.

The Ross people also regarded the only day of the polar night in Roseburg as the dividing line between the old and the new year. Narvik Port and Murmansk are relatively close in latitude, so the duration of the polar night in the two places is roughly the same.

The wind and snow are over, the air becomes very lethal, and people are in the coldest period of the year. After the bonfire was ignited, the bonfire never went out. The Rus and Balmerk kept cutting down the hard pine trees near the camp and burning the barbecue fire to make themselves more comfortable.

They don’t have much meat left. Everyone should restrict their exercise except logging and burning. The reindeer pulling the sled are also feeding a small amount of wheat to sustain their lives.

Rurik also fell into a half-hungry state. He was patient, but he noticed that his woman, Sepolawa, was getting more and more anxious.

During the long polar night, Rurik would rather lie down, and Sepolava snuggled, but the two couldn't sleep at all.

"Did you say that night is forever? If it keeps like this, we will starve to death here." The girl wanted to leave the "end of the world", she didn't dare to say clearly.

"It will be over soon. My little squirrel, have you forgotten that I told you the nature of the world? The sun will appear again in a while."

"Really? I'm... scared."

"Don't be afraid, everything is normal. If you arrive here in summer, you will feel that the sun will never set."

"That's better than the endless night."

Sepolava continued to hold Rürich's arm, and she kept rubbing her body.

"Be honest, keep quiet! Save food like this."

Hearing Saiporava calmed down slowly: "I just have a sore back and aching legs, the sun will rise quickly..."

The conversation between the two was heard by others in the room, and now everyone was forced to keep quiet. At first, people thought that there was enough food, but now all kinds of meat have been eaten clean, people have to eat the hard-to-swallow fat of bears and seals, and **** bone marrow.

When they smoked bone marrow, people licked the bone marrow that was mixed with salt, and they enjoyed an extreme delicacy.

Whatever should come will always come. The world began to change, one direction of the dark world suddenly turned light blue at a certain point in time, and then quickly disappeared.

This is a positive sign! The Balmerks who noticed this were shouting haha.

Biyuni shouted excitedly at everyone he saw, "I see the blue over there! This is a sign of the sun's recovery! I can see the light tomorrow!"

Dawn? Is the polar night finally over?

A strong sense of excitement was sitting on him, and Rurik grew grass in his heart, and he was looking forward to the dawn in his suffering.

As Biyuni said, the people of Balmerk knew that the long night was over.

Some people are boring to chew their tongues, really because this is the end of the human world. There is an unfrozen sea in front of the surface, and there is an unexplainable abyss further north. They felt that the darkness would not end, and reality completely changed their imagination.

At a time when it was boring, the sky full of stars changed color.

When the sun appeared, even if the golden light could not dispel the cold, the world at least became transparent, and people once again saw the whole picture of the world in the extremely short light.

People knelt down facing the sun, thanking Odin for his reward, and even made some strange actions, such as taking off their shirts, bathing the hairy front and back in the sun, and yelling to thank Odin for his reward.

Is this human deceitful behavior?

Rurik thought this was normal, and he knelt on one knee in the snow, chanting the sun with his arms outstretched.

He deliberately performed a ceremony to move the people present. In fact, he is also grateful for the sun from the heart, because the time of day will be extremely long every day, the lonely beach under the night will soon become lively, and all kinds of prey on which the Rus people depend will appear.

Rurik still sang his arms to the sun, and then lay down in the snow after a deliberate trembling frantically.

Evlo was taken aback, he rushed over and picked up his master: "My lord, what's the matter with you?"

"I... it's okay." Rurik deliberately appeared haggard, and stood up with the support of Evlo, facing people's shocked faces.

In the long darkness, what people need most is a sense of security and hope. The sun sweeps away any worries, and then what people desire most, Rurik knows no better.

He roared with the joy of a winner: "My brothers! Just now, Odin recruited my soul! Odin said, we Rus and Balmerk have accepted the test of extreme cold, we are all ice and snow Warrior. So Odin promised that the disappeared bears and seals will reappear in the next few days! God said, since you are all warriors, kill these prey, eat meat and drink blood, and let leather and walrus tusks make you rich !"

No one doubted, Rurik's acting **** made a direct attack on people's inner desires.

Everyone is happy that you are a warrior recognized by Odin, so let's take the prey rewarded by Odin in a few days! They are already gearing up.

Rurik needed to cheer up the once-slumped morale. His goal was achieved by this move. As for announcing that a large number of prey would appear, he was not talking nonsense.

The bears and seals have gone to avoid the extreme night, and the fish in the sea have also entered the deep sea to dormant. When the blizzard comes, these creatures are just like humans, hiding to avoid disasters.

The most difficult period has passed. For seals and polar bears, they must appear to forage and prepare for the upcoming spring breeding period.

Rurik's judgment is a great prophecy in the eyes of others.

One morning, people who went to the toilet outdoors heard the noise outside the wooden wall.

This is a Balmerk hunter. After he noticed the abnormality, he ran to the coast on the snow. He saw that the black sandy beach was hit by the waves, and a large number of seals basking in the sun had gathered.

He returned to the camp in excitement, kicked open the door violently, without any understanding, and shouted excitedly, "Master Rurik is right! Odin's reward has appeared. Seals! A thousand seals are waiting for us to hunt!"

The hunter's dormancy is over instantly, and the excited Ross and Balmerks, with their various weapons, vowed to have a **** storm against the seals on the coast! Rurik is eager for fresh meat, hunger for big pieces of fresh meat! Hungry, he realized that he could gnaw off a whole roasted seal!

They thought that there were only seals on the beach, but before they reached the shore, people noticed the appearance of the birds.

That's probably the Nordic species of seagulls that can live in extreme environments. Rurik felt it was too difficult to hunt this kind of bird.

Where is the seagull? It's a magpie!

Rurik saw a large group of leopard seals lying lazily, a group of elephant seals gathered together, and from time to time seals came out of the sea.

What everyone faces is no longer a barren beach, it is clearly a "seal beach".

Polar bears wandered with their mouths open, and some dexterous white phantoms moved quickly. It was an arctic fox.

There are squirming fat everywhere, leather everywhere, precious big teeth everywhere, and hideous and mighty animal heads everywhere.

Sven?

Do not! Must be savage!

Rurik yelled: "Brothers! Enjoy the hunt! The main attack on Fang, kill me!"

As a result, hunters from the two tribes began to chase the elephant seals with more than 20 large teeth. They were fighting with the giant beasts and won a one-sided victory.

The frightened leopard seal jumped into the sea again, and the polar bear avoided it. Twenty elephant seal corpses appeared on the beach, standing next to the **** corpses, but the hunter army without loss was excited and smiling.

"Start dealing with fat and teeth. Pull the arrow out of the head first." Biyuni said loudly.

The biggest reason for the one-sided fight is that the hunter sniped the head of the beast with a crossbow, which is a carbon steel piercing arrow that can be pierced by a thin steel plate. The giant beast almost died instantly.

People began to cut meat frantically, and this messy scene left Rick standing aside. He waited to get a good piece of meat, washed the blood with sea water, and roasted it.

He also saw some foxes sneaking up and down, some seabirds standing in the treetops, there was a surprise attack from time to time, and they flew away immediately with a small piece of meat and entrails in their mouths...

Rurik finally ate the delicious barbecue, without the stench of blood, he understood why killer whales liked to eat seals.

In today's hunting, people got forty large walrus tusks in good condition, as well as a batch of small tusks. They are all invaluable. In order to show the intention of the alliance, they got a full equal share today.

So what time is it now? The polar night in Murmansk ends on the 13th of January in the Old Julian calendar, and the hunting of elephant seals is on the 16th of January. This is just the beginning of the hunting feast!

Rülik is determined to hunt wildly here. Everyone is fighting for ten days hereThe length of daylight has become very comfortable. But when people felt it was time to leave, they realized that they had achieved too much!

Fifty polar bear skins, equivalent animal heads, a large number of bear paws, more than 500 walrus tusks, as many as 300 strips of extremely delicate leather from leopard seals, and more than 50 arctic fox skins.

Similarly, the remains of prey are everywhere on the beach. Humans get what they need, and foxes and birds enjoy their feast.

In desperation, people can only make simple sledges, and the road to return will surely become an extremely difficult trek.

Rurik guessed that everyone had to spend time to return to the original path, after all, he couldn't expect the few reindeer to be transported back with people and goods.

Everyone can only march on foot, which is an extreme test of everyone's physical ability, and Rurik believes that his men have this ability.

He didn't have to, he would sit on a sleigh full of cargo, hug his Sepolawa, and wander around for a month to return to Fort Elon.

By then, Rurik was the hero who saw the "Sea at the End of the World" and experienced the "Trial of Odin".