The deck of Grillain's home was in particular the shining star of her successful building efforts. It was a wide platform that allowed her to see all the way to the other side of the water. She'd never seen that other side, but when the sun set it was as if the whole world was lit up with fire. It filled up her whole soul and she spent as much time up there as she could. Today she was scraping down the troll hides she'd gotten from her last battle. She was going to insert thin strips of skeleton bone into the hide and use it as an armored cloak.
As she worked, she wondered what the land on the other side of the water actually looked like. Tall hills, possibly mountains were obvious from her vantage point. It pricked her adventurous curiosity, but she had no way of reaching that place. She'd tried swimming, but she ran out of stamina after a short time and almost drowned getting back to land. Even with a top skill at swimming, she'd never make the other side. What she really needed was a boat. For a moment she paused in her movements. A boat. How hard would it be to build a boat? She'd never actually sailed. Could she figure it out?
Setting the troll hide on its stretcher aside, she trotted downstairs to look at her little bay. It was very shallow which didn't bode very well for a sailing vessel. Even she knew you had to have more than just a puddle to paddle in. After dropping a number of items experimentally in the shallow bay she gave it up as a lost cause. If she wanted to do this, she'd have to do it the right way. Greylings would tear her boat to pieces if she didn't protect it. Maybe...a boat house? If she built it first, she could build the vessel in complete safety!
It took a number of days and a few adjustments before she was finally happy with the boat house, which had a deck with stairs, a workbench and two strong doors. Simple, useful. Digging out that ground was the crappiest, sweatiest, most patience destroying activity that Grillain had undertaken yet. Intelligently, she dug out 90 percent of the ground before she broke the "wall" to let water come flooding in. But even then, she wound up floating, waiting for the waves to take enough water out so she could get her feet on the ground long enough to take a swing at the remaining ground.
Then came the boat. It might have been laughable, if her father had been there. As a child she'd decided to run away once, so she'd gathered up a whole bunch of sticks and tied them together with rope. It was not particularly effective. She'd almost sunk like a stone until her father had rescued her. Luckily this time she had more resources than sticks and rope. And, she knew how to swim. This time she used common wood logs secured with hardened resin. Her mast was a little funky and crooked. The sail was a bunch of leather scraps all sewn together. She knew she had to have a rudder, so she built one, but had no idea how it worked.
The first attempt at sailing was...amusing. Not because of the raft. The raft actually hung together quite well! Sitting on the flat logs, she yanked the sail rope and it fluttered down. Almost immediately the tiny craft shot forward and slammed into the boat house wall. She yelped and yanked the rope to bring the sail up. How had her ancestors actually learned this? Should she pray to Odin for teaching? She glanced around for the valkyrie, but oddly enough, it seemed to have abandoned her. She hardly ever saw it anymore. It was just too bad there wasn't some magical item she could use to just ASK how to sail the raft. What a glorious object that would be!
Heaving a hefty sigh, she tried again. Twisting the rudder caused a gentle backward movement. Lowering the sail by just a little bit was ok too. But when she lowered the sail all the way, it still caused her to lunge forward, slamming into the rocks, into the stairs, into the side of the boat house. She would have wept if it would have done her any good, but she thought there was enough salt water as it was.
She finally experimented with turning the rudder instead of just twisting it and that gave her a left and right movement that finally allowed her to guide the little craft out onto the open water. Happily she began sailing down the coast. It was too nerve wracking for her to go for broke and set out into the wide open water. She settled for going up and down the coast a little bit, very close to shore. But this did her no good. If she didn't feel safe, she couldn't possibly go anywhere. Not really. She needed speed which meant a bigger sail. She also needed to feel a bit enclosed, which meant sides. She'd just have to build an actual boat! As the final indignity, when she got the raft back to the boathouse, a brisk wind and her own ignorance forced her to one side right into the too-shallow bay. The raft ground up on one of the hills and no amount of fidgeting with the rudder or sail would budge the little vessel. She was forced to abandon it there, splashing from the raft to the shore.
The boat she managed to wrench out was, surprisingly, good! It took quite a bit of her more valuable resources. Fine, light, strong wood from the birch. Eight whole handfuls of bronze nails. More resin, and instead of just leather scraps, she stitched together her best deer hides for the sail. She made sure to use the best trunk for the mast, so it now stood tall, straight, and balanced. Building it didn't even make her tired. She almost felt as if she'd flicked out a hand and dropped the whole thing right into the water. Wisely, she had built a storage compartment into it. Some extra wood went in there for repairs.
She was up before the sun and sailing as the water sparkled in the cool air. The boat moved her about twice as fast as the raft, which was faster than she thought she'd go. Halfway down the coast the thought occurred to her, if she could move this fast, maybe this boat could help her get close to the Elder! A wave of water sprayed away from the curving sides of the boat as she turned that baby around and started in the opposite direction. Fast as she could she pointed it in the direction she wanted to go.
And stopped.
The boat literally refused to go any further. Yanking on the sail didn't help. She pleaded with the gods, but there was no response. She turned the rudder and when she had the ship pointed the OTHER way, it moved!
"That is NOT helpful Njörd!"
The god of wind also did not respond verbally, but after figuring out which way the wind was blowing, Grillain was able to tack back and forth in a fashion that allowed her to make slow progress and slowly the wind changed. Almost as if Njörd were rewarding her for learning about the wind.
It was now quite glorious, skimming the waves like a seabird did, the sun on her face, passing giant rocks with shiny piles on them in the middle of the ocean. Grillain blinked and looked to the side where indeed, a giant rock with shiny piles was quickly vanishing behind them. Mines? How could there be mines out here in the ocean?
But Grillain had no time to think of an answer, for a deeply disturbing scream heralded the arrival of something too big to be ignored. The scream literally shook the air around her. The sound rattled through her very bones. Her breath caught at an almost endless ripple that began at the front of the boat and extended all the way to the back. Fins followed a winding path along the ripple and Grillain knew she was in trouble.
The water behind her exploded upward. Green scales and red fins heralded the arrival of a gigantic sea serpent. But they were only tales! Tales to frighten children from taking the boat out! Heart seizing with fear, Grillain had to admit that this was the tale turned to life. A monster with a lightning fast strike and more teeth than she could possibly count. It's mouth flared bright red and a terrible crunch followed the whistle of its attack. Splintering wood echoed her groan of despair. She began to fire arrows at the serpent, but realized quickly, they weren't doing a whole lot of damage because the arrows would simply snuff out as it hit their target!
She alternated firing her bow with attempting to get the boat to go faster into shallow water. She took a terrible risk skimming the waves right over sandy shoals near what she KNEW was black forest. If a troll came along, she'd have to abandon the boat.
"No No No, not my boat! Not my boat!"
Perhaps it was Odin that had blessed her, perhaps the serpent just got tired of being pinpricked in the face. Grillain never found out. All of a sudden, it just swam away, it's winding coils vanishing back into the deeper waves of the ocean. She slumped into the seat of the boat, heart still pounding, almost giggling hysterically. Being defeated wouldn't be so bad. Losing the boat, that would be a disaster. There was only so much nice birch to be had! A quick stop right there on the sandbar put the boat to rights as she repaired slats that stuck out at odd angles.
As soon as she had calmed down from the terror of almost becoming someone's lunch, she launched herself again into the water, this time following a little closer to shore. Her mental map told her that the Elder was across the water and so she dutifully turned for a trip across what had become more of a river than an ocean. She was startled and pleased to find many perfect spots to create a raiding camp. Lots of wood. She could build a little shop. She wished she could figure out a better way to get there other than crossing the water, but what she'd found was hopeful! Exploration would keep her busy.
She felt a sprinkle and was swiftly reminded of another frequent occurrence on the water. Rain. There was no land to break up the weather, so storms almost always came up quite literally "out of the blue." Within minutes, the beautiful blue sky and sun was transformed into a dark grey roiling mass with water pouring down on her. The wind howled around her ears and made trying to guide the boat a nightmare. Trying to go toward land was a mistake. The waves tried to drown the boat by flinging it over on its side.
As her choices became slim, she pointed the nose of the boat into the waves and finally the sail bulged with the force of the wind and she felt the craft pick up and go. Up and down. Up and down. Ahead of her she spied the large curve of the gray rock and took in sail until the boat eased to a drift in the rocking waves. She didn't want to go any closer to the rock until the wind had eased.
An hour or more later, she was convinced it wasn't going to happen. She eyed the odds that the boat might be smashed and decided to take the chance. Seizing her pick, she very carefully nudged the little boat as close to the rock as she could, then leaped for all she was worth, landing heavily on the rock. She knelt next to one of the shiny piles and as soon as her hand touched it, she knew it wasn't metal. It felt more like the fibrous exoskeleton of some type of shellfish. Not quite like a barnacle. Carefully she wedged her pick under the lip of the growth, but it didn't quite come loose. Setting her feet on the rock surface she gave a hefty swing. As the whole object popped up, she felt a shudder run through the rock. Was it some kind of earthquake? It WAS a rock...wasn't it?
Cautiously, she aimed her pick at another pile and struck. The shudder this time didn't stop. She snatched up the two piles of shiny material and stumbled, seeing waves come toward her. Waves? Was the rock sinking? A muffled roar accompanied the shuddering. Slipping and scrambling, she slid across the rock just as it began sinking right down into the ocean. The waves deposited her unceremoniously into her boat and a wave of cold water washed across her back. It wasn't a rock, it was some kind of leviathan! Spitting out salty seawater she tucked the material into her pack and slightly miserable, made her way back to the rudder to let loose the sail and ride the waves for home.
There was no better sight than that calm little haven that was the boathouse. The boat seemed to slide in cautiously of its own accord right next to the stairs and she fondly patted the rail as if it were a favored pet.
"Thank you my friend, for returning me home."
The boat rocked gently with the waves in a nonplussed manner. She left it and dragged herself into the nearest gate and to her fireplace next to her bed. The shiny material tumbled out of her pack and she carefully fingered it. The material looked to be good for carving. Maybe a hook? Visions of hooking one of those sea serpents came to mind. If she could get some of those shiny scales, she could make a scale shield that would hold off the nastiest gray dwarf or skeleton!
Gently, gently, she began to drift to sleep and climbed into her bed. She wondered about all the things she could do if she could reach The Elder. Her next Prey…