Eric Olafson, Neo Viking Vol. 01

A cast iron pan of enormous weight and big dimension was now hot enough for the bacon. The strips were soon sizzling and the fat was making bubbles around the wooden spoon, the right temperature for the onions and diced weed heads. The smell that was wafting through the room was mouthwatering and I realized how much I enjoyed what I was doing. I almost could hear Midril and her instructions.

Again he utterly surprised me as he was right behind me looking over my shoulder. I almost ran into him after I had swung the kettle over the fire to bring the water to a boil to get salt and oil. For an old man he moved quickly and silently.

"Don't let me stop you, Eric. You are doing fine so far, just a tad slow perhaps."

Wordlessly I took flat bread I had put in a covered pan close to the fire to warm it, sliced it up and placed a spoon full of fried bacon and onion in it and handed it to him." Midril often does that when I found the stew took too long. It's good!"

He smiled and took it. I now put the fish cubes into the pan to roast them. He was done with it faster than Greifen and Greifen was known to be a good eater! "You were correct this was good!"

He walked back to his seat. "What I will teach you while you here however are a few things a future warrior, father slayer or Space ship captain might find handy to know. Including how to walk making much less noise moving around. You sound like a herd of Nubhirs on the run for the water!"

I emptied the pan with the glazed onions, the bacon and the browned fish cubes into kettle added more vegetables and herbs and closed the lid. "It will now take a little time till it is done."

"Tomorrow I will take you inside the mountain and show you where we grow these onions. There is also the only garden on Nilfeheim, as far as I know. But for now tell me what you are going to do after you killed your father, assuming you succeed?"

I shrugged, lifted the lid to stir the stew and check if I should at the noodles made from the starchy marrow of the stems of certain seaweed that could be found mostly in the southern ocean."I am not sure, but I might simply end it all."

"I know a little about you, Eric and the sad thing is I believe you might actually do that, but would that not disappoint your grandfather?"

"Maybe but he only very recently came into my life and I had no chance really to think about it, on one hand I really want to leave and simply leave this planet. I would be free out there, he could not reach me, but I might not be good enough and they don't accept me at the academy and what happens to my vow to revenge my mother? I have failed her before. I did not protect her! I should have done something but I did not. I just cried like a girl and tried to hide like a coward!"

Hastily I turned and wiped my eyes. I would not cry!

"What could you have done? You were five and I know your fathers strength and size!"

I stirred the stew and said."There is always something one can do. I did nothing! I should have tried something!" I realized I was almost shouting. I clenched my fists and tried to find the strength to calm down and push the images I was seeing before my inner eyes in the background.

"That stew is it ready yet? It is getting late! I am quite old you know I might not be alive by the time you are done with it!"

I shook my head trying to clear my mind. "I just have put the noodles in. It will be about ten more minutes."

"I hold you to it!"

From the shelf I took two bowls and spoons. They were made of a light weight metal and seemed not to fit with the other ancient things. As if he sensed my thoughts he said."You picked the oldest antiques in the whole place, do you know these are titanium alloy bowls came to this world aboard the Stockholm Ark."

"The Stockholm Ark?"

"I wonder what do they teach you in that Union school? That was the name of one of the three ships that carried the Settlers from Earth to this world. The Stockholm, the Oslo and the Copenhagen. It happens that the Stockholm was the first one to land."

"The actual settler ships?" I gasped. "Should they not be in some museum?"

"How many Museums do we have on Nilfeheim?"

"I don't know. I am not allowed to go to the Town."

"There is not a single museum to be found, Eric. For a world that claims to be deeply rooted in traditions, these Neo Vikings of ours have precious little interest in their heritage. You did not even know the names of the ships that came to this world. It would wager none of your generation does. In those days they made things that went aboard these settler ships to last and these are perfectly good bowls. No be a good lad and fill one up for me. I think that stew is ready."

"There is Heritage Class in the afternoon, but I am not allowed to go there. Maybe they teach about it there."

I swung the pot from the fire, scooped a generous helping into one of the bowls and carried it to him with some bread and then helped myself.

I was sure Midril's stew was much better, she let it simmer for hours and certainly had a better hand in seasoning but at the moment it was the most heavenly food I could imagine.

He croaked." I hope for your sake you made enough for a second helping!"

Dutiful I filled him another one."There is plenty for tomorrow too, I made more than we could eat."

"Good lad!"

The thin old guy actually emptied a third bowl and then burped unashamed. "You did your Midril proud." He turned in his seat peeked past the back rest. "What in Loki's name are you doing?"

"I am cleaning up, Mr. Keeper."

"Leave that alone. There in the back is an alcove in the wall, padded with furs. Go and sleep! I will wake you in the morning for all your chores!"

I found the alcove and lay down and I was sure I slept even before my head hit the stuffed skin.

I found myself lying on coppery Nubhir furs, lined with bronze colored satin. Mother had the book of legends in her lap and wore that maroon velvet dress with the golden seams and her hair shone like spun gold and I knew I was dreaming and I knew I was almost at the point of waking up and I didn't want to, I tried to hold on to the dream say something to her and with these thoughts the dream images disappeared and I found myself awake in that alcove of the old Keeper's house.

It was cold! The Fire place was out. The place had been tidied up. Everything was at its place. The kettle clean and the kitchen utensils back in the shelf. The whole place looked the same and yet completely different as if no one had lived here for ages. The Old man as nowhere to be found, I checked the door into the pantry but he wasn't there and all the food that had been there was gone as well. On the stone seat where I had seen him last was my fur vest.

The steel door was heavy and unlike yesterday made a rusty creaking sound as I opened and into the yard. A man dressed very similar like the Old Keeper, stood there by the corridor to the outside door. He also appeared old but was muscular and did not have that ancient look and was also much taller. He stared at me in obvious surprise." Who are you?"

"I am Eric Olafson."

"I am the Gate keeper. I expected you yesterday as your Grandfather send us a message you would arrive. How did you get in without me opening the door?"

"The Old Keeper let me in." I realized he had never given me a name." the one that lives in that house."

"Eric Olafson, this was the house of Elkhart the first Keeper. It is a shrine and a holy place and we keep it as it was for Millennia!"

A shiver went down my spine and my mind spun. This had to be some sort of trick. "But the old man who let me in, we talked and ate and he knew much about me. He must be here somewhere."

The man gave me a strange look." Did you fly in during the night and sleep in there?

"No Sir I am telling you I met this old man on the stairs about half way up and I helped him carry a sack o Soak stones. They should be still outside the gate. He let me in and I made Tyranno Stew for him. Grandfather dropped me off yesterday on the foot of Muspelheim. I have no means of flying."

"Your Grandfather is a most honorable man and his word is beyond questioning, but we take great offense to those who use technological means to come here and then lie about it. I will not hear about it anymore. I will find out how you managed to get in here! Now come with me so I may show you to your chamber and give you your chores!"

To say I was confused would have been an understatement. Grandfather had made a point to talk about supernatural things before we came here, but I simply could not believe in ghosts and even if there would be such a thing, what ghost could eat? He was solid I touched him. Yet remembered he was very cold and maybe it was all an illusion or a dream of some kind. Yet I still had the knife and I was inside the walls of the Burg.

The man had given me no name other than his title and led me across the yard to a door that led into East wall. They sure loved narrow stairways around here; inside the wall was a steep upward leading stairway. Atop a long slightly curved and vaulted gallery, to one side arched open windows that allowed a view far over the icy planes below, that stretched white and almost featureless to the lead colored horizon. It drastically underlined how isolated this place really was.

To the other side were doorways with drab colored rough looking curtains.He stopped at one pulled the curtain to the side and revealed a small chamber with a narrow open window. There was stone slab with a few rag-like sheets, of the same kind as the brownish gray curtains. There was a small pile of snow right below the open window and He said."This is your chamber. This is where apprentices and students sleep while they are here, not in the sacred house of the First Keeper!"

"I cannot tell you anything else, Sir. I met an old man who was dressed just like you except he had a fur brimmed skull cap and appeared much older and very thin and it was him who let me in and told me to sleep there."

His eyes narrowed." This is how the First Keeper looked, but someone could have told you that. His picture is not a guarded secret. I will report all this to the Chief Keeper and we will investigate. He will then decide what is to be done."

I simply nodded, too confused to argue."

He turned to leave and then he turned." That Old man you said let you in here, how did you meet him?"

I told him about the sack with the Soak-Stones and the old fragile Low Man I helped. I told him about the closing door and the fire.

He then said."I need to tell all this to the Chief right away. You will go down and enter the Sacred Halls; the Keeper of the Halls will give you your chore."

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Chapter 9: Keepers

I found the Halls of Hasvik easily enough as they could not be missed. Next to the huge doors ;which were as I could see now, were made of dark wood with large Ultronit bands holding large timbers together; was a smaller metal door and I knocked there.

It did not take long and another man opened, he too was dressed like the other one but he was the stark opposite of the Old man I met the day before. He was fat, Midril would have appeared like a weightless Elf compared to this man. His woven suit and overcoat would have been large enough to fit a pregnant Fangsnapper. The front of his tunic was stained with a myriad greasy spots. He sported not one but at least three chins under his thin black beard and he had a tiny round mouth with pouting lips. He looked at me from eyes squished to slits by his cheeks. "Ah what a fortune, the Olafson whelp." He then said. "The frames need a good cleaning and we are short of apprentices and pilgrims this season!"

Without any other word he turned and I simply followed.

I stopped in sheer awe as I saw the hall and the seven faceless for the first time. There in a huge hall with a vaulted ceiling so far up I got dizzy, stood seven stone statues. Huge windows were placed in such a fashion that the light that came through them highlighted each of the statues. All in majestic, lifelike poses. I estimated them to be at least thirty meters tall.

There was Odin, his hand resting on the grip of his mighty sword still in its scabbard. His pose was just like grandfather when he had his hand on Mjörden. The Statue of Thor had arms like Uncle Hogun and he held Mylonir his Hammer. To his left the goddess Ydun with open hair and a flowing gown and to his right was Freya and she wore her Falcon feather coat and I was instantly reminded of my mother. Balder and Heimdahl were easily recognizable and so was Loki who alone stood separate from the others and had the slim body of an Elf, as it was his heritage.

Before Odin burned a bright fire, this one was smoking like a typical oil fire would. yesterday There was nothing else in this enormous room. The Fat man yelled and I saw he was already a good distance further into the hall."You will have many days to gawk at the God, but now follow as I need to show you to your chore so I can return to mine!"

Only now I noticed a group of young men and boys on their knees scrubbing the floor before Thor with hand brushes, but he did not stop there and went on until we reached an area behind behind the statue of Odin, there was a metal scaffold reaching all the way to the top. He said. "Take that bucket with polish and a good supply of rags and climb up there. You will find wide steel beams that are part of the ceiling structure. They are incredibly old and need a good cleaning and oiling so they don't rust."

He was about to leave and said with a snickering tone." Don't think you can skip a spot, you will be watched!" He whistled as he left.I expected something like this even before I came here and it was just another variation of the main theme of my life and I was so used to it that I simply accepted it and started climbing the ladders of the scaffold. What I could not explain no matter how I racked my brain was the strange meeting with the old man. Did I really meet the ghost of a Guardian who was thousands of year's dead? Why did he then know Midril's cooking? The Knife was real and so was the sack I realized I was still wearing. He was friendly enough unlike the other inhabitants of this Burg.

I wondered why the fat man singled me out to do this. Either I truly was the unluckiest person on Nilfeheim or there was someone among the gods who really did not like me.

I reached the top of the scaffold and there were steel beams forming large squares with an X of steel beams in each of these squares. In the middle of each x hung a huge chandeliers on chains. Small copper pipes led to each of these chandeliers. I counted sixty chandeliers and the same number of steel frames. Each square measured perhaps 30 meters across. The last frame was in far in the distance above the big door. The Steel beams were about 30 centimeters wide. I was certain, looking at this I would be doing nothing else the three month I was supposed to be here.

The statues of the Gods beneath me now and the stone floor far below made the entire task quite dangerous. I was not afraid of heights, but this made my stomach cramp with fear. I walked onto the first beam, sat down, since that made me feel safer and started cleaning.

What I thought was black paint turned out to be black sod and it came off only slowly. Sitting on the cold steel beams was anything but comfortable and they were quite cold as the rest of the place, but seeing my peer far down scrubbing the stone floor on their knees I did not really feel singled out, that had to be equally uncomfortable, of course much less dangerous.

I could not tell how long I was scrubbing. I had left my wrist PDD with grandfather as he told me that no modern tech items would be allowed here. But judging from the distance to the scaffold and my aching arms I estimated I did this now at least for five or six hours. In all that time I was thinking about the Old man and what had happened. A boy perhaps my age appeared on top of the scaffold and he looked pale and held fast to the hand railing of the scaffold. He called." Hey you, Olafson you are to come and follow me to the Head Guardians chambers!"

I got up and walked back. Just as I was about to step back on the scaffold, the boy tried to kick me! This came so sudden and unexpected I almost fell. I was only alive because he was more scared of the height and his attempt was quite clumsy.

I lunged forward grabbed the hand railing and pulled myself on the scaffold. He kicked me again and this time his boot found its target, my shoulder. I was on the scaffold now and this kick as much as it hurt was no longer unexpected or hard enough to send me back and all the way down. His face showed fear but I somehow felt he was not really scared off me and he did not let go of the hand railing; it was now clear to me he was afraid of the height. Like something physical that started deep in my guts, I could feel my own anger rising very fast and I easily avoided his third kick as he still would not let go of the hand hold. I grabbed his leg with one arm and hammered my elbow on his kneecap." You stinking cowardly bastard. If your clan has some quarrel with the Olafsons then declare your challenge like a real Viking." I yelled at him at the same time. He screamed in pain, my elbow blow was done with force and anger and he did let go of the hand railing and I pulled him close. He flailed at me, one of his fists scarped my left ear and made it feel like fire, but I still held his leg and twisted it with both arms as fast as I could. He slammed hard and with a loud crash on the grated metal. I was over him pelted him with both fists in the face. I must have hit him on a right spot because he gurgled, rolled his eyes and went limp.

I leaned back and scrambled to my feet. It took me a few moments to catch my breath, then I as I looked down I saw the fat Guardian looking up and as he saw me he actually turned and waddled away as fast as he could!

The guy I knocked out groaned. He was dressed like every Neo Viking, breeches, tunic, boots and fur vest and now I saw he wore some sort of square pads over his knees. This explained why my elbow didn't hurt as much as it should have. The force of my blow still had made him scream. Well he did deserve it.

I grabbed him by the tunic as he was about to come around and I hissed at him as he opened his eyes."You want to challenge me? Then do it now!"

There were actually tears in his smooth face."We have no quarrel with the Olafsons. We are the Lindberg clan!"

The Lindbergs were one of the traditional alleys of the Olafsons. "Then why in Thor's name did you try to kill me you coward?"

"Because your father offered great rewards to my father if we make sure you do not leave Mount Muspelheim. That keeper down there is my uncle and he told me to make sure you will not come down alive to report to the Headmaster."

He still cried."I failed them! They said they would punish me if I fail!"

All my anger was gone; I felt sorry for him and thought to myself that I was perhaps not the only one on Nilfeheim who had it bad back home."You are still a stinking coward, this is not how we settle things."

He actually cried."I had to obey."

"I wonder why father wanted me dead before I was sixteen."

I only realized that I had spoken my thoughts out loud when the Lindberg boy answered."You don't know? If you die here serving the gods you are immediately declared adult and you get a warriors funeral. Without declaring otherwise all that is yours becomes your fathers."

He wiped his eyes." I had no plans to come to this place until your Grandfather declared you will come here. I was there when your father explained all this to my father and offered my clan a hefty share on the wealth of the Ragnarsson holdings."