Om

The period after the end of The War With The South is almost a blair of activity from everyone that has survived the fighting. The Tribes have never been more intertwined together in purpose and in suffering. The Horse-Eater and Saxan Tribes are so depleted of people that there is talk of making them each a clan and absorbing them into what little remains of the Scavenger Tribe.

The Viking Tribe already doing the same, now becoming the Viking clan of the Norse Tribe and abandoning their ancestral towns and villages since there currently aren't enough people in each to make staying there feasible protection against beasts or raids. Not that there is anyone planning to raid anyone else anytime soon.

Damage has spoken to me about the fight that left me crippled and left Sachihiro in the state that he was in. Apparently, a defeat like that can cripple a warrior mentally as much as physically, leaving them unable or unwilling to ever face another fight or making them restless to prove themselves leading to stupid mistakes.

"I appreciate the concern but I'm fine." Is the response I gave him at the time but to be honest the ease with which I was dispatched worries me and causes a bone-deep fear within me. I had never faced an Awakened Warrior before that day because of that I've never really learnt to fully appreciate the difference in power between us.

Because of that, I have thrown myself at the feet of one of the Dwarven Master Hammer Wielders Dobrynya Nikitich. The man made me beg for a while whilst he continued training with his cousins and nephews, an embarrassing and humbling experience for any Barbarian warrior to bare but what shame is greater than being found on the battlefield unable to move and having had shit myself?

Eventually, he took me on as a student though, I'm not sure why but I think Divina had a hand in it. The man worked me to the bone hoping I would give up but I really couldn't. I had to be better than I have ever thought I could be. I had to be good enough for both Harold and I and vindicate my mother. My new mate I barely saw more than 10 times that first month and I'm sure I made her unhappy but I had no idea what to do about that.

Sachi eventually woke up from his coma and the relief I felt was palpable. I hadn't even realised I was so worried and uptight until that point but it let me let loose for the first time since the battle and I finally went home and I spoke to Kiera that night. Really spoke to her as I've never spoken to anyone ever before. We talked and shared a meal and we laughed and I cried and we had slow passionate sex and spoke some more. I didn't go see Sachi that first night as I spent the entire 40 hours with my mate, wife as her people call it.

The following day was training as usual but that night I went to see him. He looked much better than he had the last time I'd seen him and I was grateful for that and from then onward I saw him every night as we had visualization training with the Hermit. To be honest with myself I only started doing that to spend time with Sachi without it being too weird, plus I'd gotten fonder of the old man as well. But then the visualization and meditative exercises started to work and using aura became simpler and simpler.

By the second month when Sachi was fully healed and doing his own training during the day we were meeting at night with the Hermic and sometimes even Asger and Caden who had become our comrades then friends during these past few years. Four months after The War With The South most of what was left of the way of the tribes was consolidated into four primary tribes and only a handful of towns turning cities.

Hill Town was now called Hilton and being extended using the new construction methods and some of the building designs learnt from the different peoples still building Paradisum. The other towns that had withstood the Sandersonians were also being rebuilt or renovated and extended as tribes swallowed each other to compensate for our now meagre populations. Towns like Viper's Nest and Hill Home that had withstood Sandersonian attacks were being rebuilt with hopes of one day being the first fully Barbarian cities.

In just a few years the tribes had gone from a prolific powerful people that have spread all over the vast tundra of the Mid North to an endangered people. In our own lands, our numbers become almost comparable to the numbers of the guests we had invited to help us turn the invaders.

There was even talk of absorbing one of the refugee peoples into one of the tribes to help bolster our numbers and have strong children. I do have to admit that a half-orc half-barbarian child sounds like a terrifying enemy to face but the orcs are a very different culture, then again if any other humanoid race of people could understand them it's definitely us.

At the end of it all, there would be more artifacts than there were people to wield them amongst the tribes for a while until new warriors are born to our people. Every weapon had a story though, a story of who had wielded it and how they died and if possible who the opponent that delivered the killing blow was.

An entire building two stories high and 10 stories deep is being built and dedicated to such stories. Each weapon put on displace with a likeness of the first wielder, the creater, and the story of its involvements in battles. It is becoming a building known as the Museum and even includes regular steel weapons that the original wielders have donated in favour of the new artifact weapons.

And of course, this all means I could get a hammer made because the is currently more ore than is actually needed and it is being given as a reward to everyone that is part of the tribes, every surviving Barbarian warrior and then minted into our new coinage in small amounts.

It is a way to try to ensure that the original tribal families always have more wealth that the people we are sure to share our Tundra with in the future. With the help of Master Nikitich and some donations and bribes from Sachi, I've managed to convince a grandmaster dwarven Hammersmith, the only one of his kind in all the Dawn according to him, to travel to the new mountain Hito settlement and participate in a soul forging so I could get a soul-hammer.

The ritual is not what I had expected and the pain is unbearable, I'm not just saying that as a figure of speech. I really couldn't bear it and passed out a number of times but passing out during a soul forging doesn't relieve you from feeling the pain of the process. It took something like 48 hours to forge my hammer to completion and almost the entire time pieces of me were being shredded away and placed into the thing.

I had sacrificed my entire shin bone to the furnace fire when I was told that having the carbon for the smelting come from the prospective wielder sometimes makes it easier to bond with the finished weapon and sometimes even the soul forging easier. Nothing was easier in there and Grandmaster Smith Bogatyrs was thoroughly worked to the bone and weary-eyed after the entire thing I'm told. By the time the bonebender fixed my leg I was actually relieved to feel pain I could interpret and understand.

From the mountain settlement now known as Ōshima we travelled straight towards these Hidden Valleys Sachi speaks so fondly off, just Sachi, Gorr, his wolf and I. It was a long journey, one Sachi had to ask for permission for us to accompany him on. But I wasn't about to let him into the Titan mountains without me or some backup.

The trip was enlightening in many ways but I struggled through it. I felt like staying alive was an uphill battle let alone continuing on with the trip. But my hammer was beautiful and taking care of it was the only time I felt a modicum of normal.

The head of the hammer is big, as big as a person's head but rectangular in shape. The head is made of layers with the core of the head a type of celestial steel while the middle portion becomes softer iron and the outmost a layer of dross that looks and feels more like a covering of stone than metal. The head isn't smooth or polished or decorated as one would expect from a dwarven made weapon but instead, it has uneven grooves, humps and bumps on its surface as though while it was wet a child used it for finger painting. It's an ugly dark weapon that is nothing but a tool for making things quiet, it's perfect.

The shaft is as long as my arm and has some engravings decorated into it under the bindings for the grip.

The shaft is a square cylindrical shape instead of a circular pole and has a beautiful cone-shaped spike at the bottom. The metal of the shaft goes partly into and partly around the metal head, meeting at the top and enclosing it almost like two separate pieces fastened together by thick metal wires. I keep it holstered on my back with the stone-metal head between my shoulder blades and the shaft going down and to the side.

We reached the Hidden Valleys after six months of travel and spent another six months there with Sachi's family as they all got reacquainted and Sachi got back into training with the other samurai.

The Hermit and I eventually joined a beginners class from sheer boredom as at certain hours of the days and nights almost everyone goes to practice some variation of the sword. An entire people dedicated to a way of life inspired by a beautiful weapon Sachi described them as, more obsessed by my opinion.

I learn a lot there though I have to admit, and the peace and quiet of the mountains is something I'm realising I deeply appreciate. Or I could just be suffering from this soul sickness that befalls all who undergo the forging. Toska the locals call it and they have no one to remedy it or reduce the pain, how I miss my mate.

Gorr has found himself numerous lovers here from a number of Awakened women that apparently don't want to get involved with the other Awakened men of their own tribes for some reason. Here and now he seems to be trying to make up for all the sexual encounters he denied himself back home, denying no woman that approaches him. Even availing himself to sex with the forest nymphs that are infamous in these parts.

Sachi is also having sex on a daily basis with his adorable Awakened Hito woman. The sounds that sometimes permeate through the small house are distracting to say the least. But the training, peace and discipline here resonates with me, I like the way these people lead their lives.

We leave there six months after our arrival with Sachi's new mate Kuyoki, a recently Awakened petite beauty of a woman with beautiful black hair and deep dark eyes, Mira a redheaded southerner with highlander blood and their two children Vigdis at 7 and Deshna at 4 years of age.

* *

The trip back is slower but we travel with a larger group heading to Ōshima so it was hardly a difficult journey and the children love it. When close we took a little detour to visit some cults in the monastery was Sachi spoke to a cult leader of the following of Eolas the deity of knowledge. Letting his children receive a strange blessing from said deity.

From there we travelled back to the Tundra where Sachi's parents met his new family. We all made a home in Paradisum and lived our lives simply but well for three years in Paradisum, furthering our development and the development of our homes. Keira and I truly got to know each other and the ache of my soul caused by the forging of Stone-hammer subsided some.

We continued our training with a Gorr who divided his time between Paradisum and questing deep into the Dawn Forest with Fenrir. We had three good years of relatively simple peaceful lives with our families. We stayed in the tundra even joining the newly established military patrol units for two seasons.

We stayed in Paradisum until Sachi was satisfied his children wouldn't forget him and Ava's nagging finally won through and we travelled with the next group going south to Asriel's people and Pangaea.

The trip was interesting and eventful. We passed through Sandoria since our borders are now open to each other but the glares and hateful speech we got exposed to was grating to endure without shedding blood. There were 83 of us in the group, including some of the ones that have been to the Conclave before, acting as our guides.

I never knew there were so much land and forests in our continent but there are. Some we had to skirt around or face Ancient beasts, others we could carefully travel through but have to be alert the entire time. We met some interesting people and had to face a group of what is known as bandits, after killing a few dozens they all scattered away except for one, who followed us for days.

I don't know why we didn't kill him but by the time we got to the coast at the edge of the continent Sandaria, he was emaciated from starvation. Teà and Belgaria went to talk to him and determined he was no threat before we let him travel with us the rest of the way through the Undine underwater tunnels and islands. There is nothing that broadens one's horizons like travel and getting to experience other peoples.

We eventually reached Pangaea and from there it was simpler to reach the Training Camp of the Conclave.