Rise of Rurik

Villa had been waiting for the right time and had to announce the beginning of the sacrifice at the right time.

She endured the pain in her neck and looked up at the stars from time to time, especially the position of the Big Dipper.

The European world Greece and Rome endowed the Big Dipper with mythological roles, namely the seven daughters of the main god.

In northern Europe, the locals don't give them any special emotion. But some sages of the tribe have learned some news, that is, they can estimate how long the night will fall and how long it will be until the sun rises by the movement of the seven stars. They are also using the position of Sirius to determine the time.

In the eyes of the wise, this is as casual as clearly distinguishing the morning and sunset.

Finally, the stars are in the right place.

Villa deliberately opened her arms slowly, her strange behavior attracted thousands of whispers, making the entire altar extraordinarily noisy thousands of people instantly lost their voices!

Pairs of eyes stared at the woman in the antler helmet, eagerly watching it walk into the stone boat and approach the territory full of oil lamp flames.

She commanded in a low voice: "Everyone...everyone! Kneel down..."

The order was contagious like a cancer. For a moment, she was the only old man in the entire venue, barely standing in the posture of a forest saint, her entire old face facing the aurora in the sky.

Together with the leader Otto, together with all the priests, and all the more than 7,000 residents, they all knelt on the ground, waiting for the prayers from the high priest.

Rurik and Rumia knelt inside the stone boat altar, their knees pressed against the snow through the hide.

Rurik could feel that Rumia was not willing to kneel abruptly, but as long as she looked at the solemn and solemn scene around her, how could her servant He De stand? Look at the leader himself, isn't he also kneeling?

The time of the whole ceremony is not long. The most important thing is the recitation of the high priest and the handling of the victims.

Veria recites the Hanukkah prayers she has mastered, and her successor, Bona, has done the same.

The eulogy may be from a very ancient time, and Villar believes that his own tribe's eulogy is as old as the 870th birthday of the saint whom the Romans admired.

The lengthy eulogy was full of cramped words that made it difficult for the common man of the tribe to understand.

Yes, "eulogy" is the language used by priests, and many words are different from the spoken language of life.

It is very different indeed, and many words are not Old Norse at all, but borrowed directly from Latin long ago.

Latin, the mother of European destruction, although Latin itself borrowed a lot of words from ancient Greece, after all, these hundreds of thousands of words radiated outward from the Apennine Peninsula through the influence of the Roman Empire.

Villa finally finished reciting the vocabulary, and she felt that her neck would be crushed by the heavy antler helmet. For the ceremony to go smoothly, she must endure!

She slowly lowered her head, gave a low command, and everyone stood up slowly.

"Rurik!" she called slowly.

"I am here."

"Now is the time for your performance." After that, she motioned Bona to return the steel sword to its owner, and then motioned for Otto to bring all the five deer over. starter

The steel sword was stuck in the snow, and the deer were brought for Otto.

Three strong warriors abruptly pressed a deer to the ground. The deer was so frightened that it went crazy and tried to break free, but the three of them worked together to hold it down. Otto quickly tied the deer's limbs with hemp rope,

Forcing it to lie on its side on the ground, neighing sadly.

The other deer did the same, and soon they were sacrifices that Rurik could easily execute.

"Son, it's time for you to take their lives. Don't worry, you just stab the deer in the neck with your sword." Otto commanded, panting slightly.

"I..." Rurik's heart was pounding, he couldn't help but glanced at Rumia out of the corner of his eyes, and noticed the sadness on the girl's face.

But the deer must be executed!

If the highly anticipated successor of the leader behaves cowardly at this time, then everything will be over! starter

Rurik had never personally killed an animal larger than a mouse, and now he wants to...

"Hundan, are you a man? Be brave if you are a man! Here is not a thousand years from now, the weak will be servants to robbers!" After some inner self-inflicted abuse, Rurik calmed down, bent down and pulled up the handle steel sword.

Holding his breath, he held a sharp blade and walked towards the deer that his father was stubbornly smashing by the neck.

Otto showed an encouraging smile: "Do it now, cut the neck and let the blood of the deer flow into this altar."

"OK."

Rurik knelt down slowly with a sullen face, he noticed the deer's desolate eyes illuminated by the firelight, and a trace of pity rose spontaneously.

kindness?

Do not! Not now!

He held the deer's neck with his left hand, touching the place where the deer's pulse was strong, and the blade of the steel sword in his right poked directly into this place. The whole process was called decisive.

In an instant, deer blood sprayed his face, and the warm and bloody deer blood did not bring fear to Rurik.

The deer was struggling violently, and the blood of the deer was still flowing out, and Rurik's bloody face was witnessed by thousands of people.

The quiet crowd erupted into strong cheers. The reason was very simple. The leader's only seven-year-old son had personally donated a deer to Odin. Tribute!

Executing a deer isn't a scary thing, but what's with the beating heart?

Rurik tried his best to focus, his bloody sword pointed at the other helpless dazed deer.

Sadly, these deer have been the most thoroughly domesticated in the hands of the Sami. The Sami people keep deer for food, including Rumia, who has already witnessed too many deer killings. Lumia wouldn't feel terrible, she just felt that the deer that belonged to her family was executed so hastily by them, and by her own little master.

With the first success, the following work Rurik was not sloppy.

The deer blood stained the snow, and they died for the son of the leader, Otto Blesser, and Rurik, with a blood-stained face, completed the proof of his strength in front of all the clansmen and guests.

The sacrifice went smoothly. The deer sacrificed was the property of the priests. The deer skin was peeled off for the leader and others at the first time, and the venison, also known as an important sacrifice, was piled on the snow.

The position of the stars moved, and the sacrificial activities came to an end.

Now, Villa can finally take off the antler helmet that was about to break his neck. She looked at all the clansmen and guests who were watching, and solemnly announced the end of the Hanukkah festival, and solemnly announced: "Now, you can go back to your home to drink, and you can light a bonfire on any road. Celebrate as much as you can and welcome the first sunrise."

Everyone burst out with astonishing roars, and they began to leave the altar one after another, rushing towards their house to guzzle all the ale stored, recklessly nibbling on the stored jerky.

In a short time, there were only less than a hundred people left on the still brightly lit altar.

The blood on Rurik's face was still there, and his leather coat stained with deer blood had to be washed deeply. His mother, Nia, didn't scold her son for being careless about soiling his clothes, but only affirmed his son's strength.

It's all over, and the five deer will soon be a meal for the priests, and the five furs will be processed into clothes. The deer blood on the blade was wiped away by the snow, which shone coldly under the aurora.

If anyone was in a bad mood by now, it was poor Rumia.

"Let's go, my child, we also have to go back to our own house." Otto reassured his son.

"Okay, I have to change this dress."

"Take your servant with you." After that, Otto sternly urged Rumia, who was staring at the deerskins piled up on the snow in a daze: "Servant, follow us, or I will kick you with my boots. butt."

"Okay...I...I'll go."

Rumia squeezed her eyes hard, and Rurik noticed that a few drops of sparkle splashed from her eyes.

She is in a bad mood!

I am in a good mood.

Although it was a little nervous to execute a deer and get the approval of his parents and clansmen, Rurik now only has a strong sense of success that belongs to men, a kind of joyful feeling of a master.

After the big festival, the celebration that belongs to ordinary people begins!

The savage Varangians, men and women, danced under the aurora and the stars, and Hanukkah seemed like a carnival.

People vented their excitement, including the children, who were more than happy to throw twigs at the burning pyre for more fire.

The kids are really just playing with fire, after all, their boring winters are sorely lacking in toys.

What's so fun about fire?

Rurik had no choice at all, and was surrounded by his small group of subordinates toward the fire. The children don't care what the adults are saying or laughing. They draw burning wood sticks from the fire, supplemented by more dry branches, and build their own bonfires.

When the little face was sorely burned by the flames, a trace of fun came to my mind.

The feeling of warmth, even the feeling of being roasted, is so blissful that Rurik, as the king of this group of children, also threw branches into the flames with the flow.

This is called the high flame of people picking up firewood?

If he hadn't been playing with fire with a group of children, he would have been waiting at home, and he would have even been drunk by his father Otto.

The good ones among the children witnessed Rurik beheading the reindeer with his own eyes, as well as the appearance of blood.

Almost all of them are afraid of killing deer at their current age. Someone who can do it is a ruthless person.

The bald Fisk, who threw an unknown amount of dry wood, cautiously approached Rurik, his eyes fixed on the sword pinned to his waist: "My leader, I really want to see your divine sword."

"Really? Then I'll show you."

Rurik didn't think much about it, he pulled out his short sword and showed it to his "General" Fisk while holding the hilt.

Under the firelight, the sword body reflected a strong cold light.

It is really the most perfect existence, the blade is smooth, the blade is straight and full of murderousness, and the terrifying point of the sword seems to be able to pierce all armor.

"What do you think?" Rurik asked deliberately. "Did you want it?"

A sentence immediately aroused Fisk's desire, and it also caused more than a hundred children to rush over.

"I...I want one too! I heard that you were the leader who gave Odin's wisdom to the blacksmith."

"But you have no money," Rurik said bluntly.

"Yes!" Fisk lowered his head silently, and his arrogance disappeared. He muttered silently: "My father has died in battle, and he didn't give me much property."

"A long time ago, you couldn't afford it." Rurik's mouth curled with a regretful smile, "Fisk, how much do you think this sword is worth?"

"Maybe three silver coins? Or... it seems, ten silver coins."

"Oh, Fisk, you really underestimate this sword. How stupid are you to think that Odin's wisdom is only worth ten silver coins?!"

Rurik's words suddenly made Fisk feel a sense of blasphemy, so he stepped back subconsciously and asked in a low voice, "Could it be twenty?"

"At least fifty! Fisk!"

"So much?!" Fifty silver coins, I'm afraid some men can't hoard so much wealth in their entire lives. Yes, for some so-called pacifists who cultivate in barren land or simply fish, and accumulate wealth in such a traditional way, it is foreseeable that they will be poor for a lifetime.

If you go out of the barren land and snatch the wealth of other rich people, you will risk your life to become rich overnight.

"Do you want to get it? Of course you do!" Rurik said deliberately, then paused: "So you have to get it yourself! You will eventually get a sword like this, even better than it. The premise is that you must be loyal to me."

Since killing the deer, Rurik has really become a man. When standing on the altar with the blood of the deer and raising his steel sword to receive the respect of thousands of people, he feels that he has really grown up.

Rurik has always considered himself to be a mentally nearly forty-year-old old guy, but in reality? For a long time, he was still too young and sometimes even naive, and he was naturally indecisive. Although some adults had intrigues in business, they still lacked strength.

He paid special attention to Otto's exhortation at the altar that a leader needs kindness, but must be cruel in critical situations.

After washing his face with deer blood, Rurik consciously grew up in an instant.

He is determined to truly be a leader, he must target these children, and he cannot inspire them with friendship and some circulating oracles. To deal with this group of guys, is to give them orders to execute. Those who do not perform well will be whipped. Of course, if they do well, they will also be granted certain benefits.

Rurik looked up slightly at the bald boy in front of him: "Now, as Odin's blessing, I order you to kneel!"

Fisk did not hesitate at all. He knelt down on one knee like a normal warrior when he was meeting a leader, with his left arm on his left knee and his right on the snow.

At this moment, Rurik was completely sure that his performance at the altar had already conquered too many people.

The boys of the tribe are very simple, and their lives are heard one after another heroic deeds, and some legends about wealth.

Boys are always undervalued by adults, they are eager to prove themselves and a leader who belongs to boys.

This leader is Rurik!

Looking at Fisk's dry scalp and the respectful look of this man, Rurik asked sharply, "Fisk, follow me and you will surely get riches. Are you willing to obey my orders and serve me?"

"I would."

"What? What did you say? Talk like a weak woman. Say it loud!"

"I do!" Fisk shouted violently.

Fisk, who was almost ten years old, was the oldest of all the boys and the one with the strongest physique.

In any era, boys are willing to find someone older and more powerful than themselves as a playmate, and respect him as a big brother. Because doing so is very beneficial to the boy himself.

Rurik gave Fisk not a sense of security, but a promise of wealth and status.

He breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at all the boys whose hearts were shaking with excitement.

"All of you! Kneel down!"