Rise of Rurik

After entering the polar night, the seals disappeared, and the polar bears disappeared accordingly.

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

It is extremely cold outside, and the prey hides 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 Rus and Balmers in the polar night is also within about one kilometer, and no one dares to go far, for fear of getting lost and frozen into ice cubes.

With all the limited light sources, the camp is still slowly being built, and they are strengthening the windbreak for safety.

After an unknown time, the sea suddenly became violent, and the stormy waves began to beat the shore. Anyone who approached the shore felt that this was Odin's anger.

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

The arctic cold snap is here! Murmansk is the first among them, with dense snow particles sweeping across the world, and the outdoor temperature also reaches extremely low temperatures of -20 °C at certain times. The walls of the Rus and Balmer camps blocked most of the snow particles, just outside the wall. It gradually turns into a snow slope.

The supplies of the two masters and one of the deer were further covered by Yukiko.

It seems that if you push open the leather-reinforced wooden door rashly, you will freeze to death as long as you stand outdoors for a short time.

People can only use the toilet indoors in embarrassment, and even eat raw meat and dry wheat. Fortunately, the interior was absolutely dark, and a corner of the wooden house became a toilet. Everyone could only suppress the embarrassment and endure the stench and insist on the end of the wind and snow disaster.

In the end, it took nearly ten days to wait!

Rurik had no idea how long it had been, and once he was awake he tried to fall back asleep, as did everyone else. Only falling asleep beats boredom, and only falling asleep saves food. Everyone was forced to hibernate, and in this weird hibernation, the time quietly came to January 832 of the Julian calendar.

Rurik did not keep his promise, he even disappeared into the vast world. The winter sacrifice of the Rus people was supposed to be a grand event, but it was affected by a strong blizzard, and the stone boat altars of Roseburg were completely covered with snow!

From Elronborg, Roseburg, and even the New Roseburg in the east, Tombstone Island, Lake Mälaren, Novgorod, and the hinterland of the European continent, a strong Korean wave swept across the Alps.

The whole of northern Europe was hit by a snowstorm,

In such a bad situation, no one can take care of themselves and has no chance to care about the safety of others.

People can only stay in their warm and safe homes, or in any safe haven, or keep quiet until the disaster is over, or look to statues of Odin, Frey, or other gods and pray to the gods to stop their anger.

I don't know how long it took, the violent snowstorm finally ended?

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

Forced to stay indoors covered in snow, enduring crowds and complex odors, everyone wants to get out and breathe, but no one has the guts until it's safe to do so.

Rurik had no contact with the Biyonies, let alone feeding the reindeer in the stables new hay and wheat.

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

However, Yevlo found himself unable to open the door, not because he became weak, but because the door seemed to be frozen. The warm leather curtain was removed, and in the end, many people joined forces, and even the entire wooden door was removed.

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

The outside world has seen light again, and the sun still does not exist. Rurik threw himself into the snowdrift. At this moment, the stars are shining, a crescent moon is in the sky, and the green aurora is like a streamer running through the sky.

"It's sunny at last. Come out and clear the snow, brothers, and see how the Balmers are doing."

Hearing the order, people came out one after another. Using digging shovels brought from their hometown or tools made of simple wooden boards, they worked hard to clear the snow-free open space at the door of the wooden house. Drill quickly drills out a bonfire. All that's left is to remove prefabricated pine wood from the snow and burn it.

A road was opened in the snow, and Rurik realized that the snow had exceeded a meter, and it was a great fate not to be submerged by the snow.

Those Balmers were like mice hiding in a crypt. The wooden door was forcibly opened by an external force, and they were so shocked that they instinctively drew their swords.

"Brother, the goddamn snowstorm is over, come out and breathe."

It was Rurik's voice, and it was only after hearing that Biyonny, whose heart was beating wildly, drew back his sword.

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

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

The wooden fence of the camp was basically completed. After this snowstorm, the wall facing the north gathered too much snow, and it turned into a huge steep slope. can really enter the outside world.

The fire continued to burn, and the snow inside the fence was either swept away or evaporated directly by the flames.

Rurik finally ate the boiled wheat and roasted meat. Now those bear meats, which had a stench that had not been bled and had a shy taste on their own, were eaten by Rurik, and now they are really happy delicacies.

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

This gave Rurik a wake-up call.

The Rus also regard the only polar night in Rosberg as the dividing line between the new and the old. The port of Narvik and Murmansk are relatively close in latitude, so the duration of the polar night in the two places is roughly the same.

The blizzard is over, the air is deadly low, and people are in the coldest time of the year. Once the bonfire was lit and never extinguished, the Roths and Balmers kept cutting down the hard pine trees near the camp and burning them to make themselves comfortable.

They have little meat left, and all people should limit their movement except for logging and burning fire, and the reindeer pulling sleds are also fed a small amount of wheat to maintain their lives.

Rurik also fell into a state of semi-starvation. He was patient, but he noticed that his woman, Cypolava, was getting more and more agitated.

In the long polar night Rurik preferred to lie down and Seporava snuggled, but they couldn't sleep at all.

"Did you say the night is forever? If it stays like this, we will starve to death here." The girl wanted to leave the "end of the world", she dared not say it clearly.

"It will be over soon. My little squirrel, have you forgotten what I told you about 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 are here in summer, you will feel that the sun will never set."

"That's better than the endless darkness now."

Seporava continued to hold Rurik's arm, and his body kept grinding.

"Be honest, keep quiet! This saves food."

Hearing that Saipolava slowly calmed down: "I just have a sore waist and leg pain, the sun should rise soon..."

The conversation between the two was listened to by others in the room, and now everyone is forced to keep quiet. At first people thought there was enough food, but now all kinds of meat have been eaten clean, and people have to eat bears, seals' indigestible fat, and suck bone marrow.

But when sucking the bone marrow, people lick the salt mixed with the roasted bone marrow, and they enjoy an extreme delicacy.

What should come will come. The world began to mutate, and one direction of the dark world suddenly turned light blue at a certain point, and then quickly disappeared.

This is a positive sign! The Balmers who noticed this were screaming.

Biyonni shouted excitedly at everyone he saw, "I saw the blue over there! This is a sign of the sun's recovery! Tomorrow will see the dawn!"

Dawn? Is the night finally coming to an end?

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

Everything is just as Biyonni said, and the true Balmers know that the long night is over.

Some people are bored and 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 if you continue to the north. They feel that the darkness will not end, and the reality has completely changed their imagination.

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

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

People knelt down facing the sun, thanking Odin for his reward, and even made some strange behaviors, such as taking off their shirts, bathing their hairy chests and backs in the sun, and shouting thanks for Odin's rewards.

Is this human delusional behavior?

Rurik thought it was normal, and he knelt on one knee in the snow and sang the sun with open arms.

He intended to do a ceremony to move the people present. He is actually grateful to the sun from the bottom of his heart, because the time of day will become extremely long every day, the lonely beach under the night will soon become lively again, and all kinds of prey that the Rus people depend on for survival will definitely appear.

Rurik, still chanting the sun with arms raised, lay heavily on the snow after shaking with a deliberate frenzy.

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

"I'm... fine." Rurik deliberately showed a haggard look, and stood up with Yevlo's help, facing the shocked faces of the people.

In the long darkness, what people needed most was a sense of security and hope. The sun swept away any worries, and then what people yearned for the most, Rurik knew all too well.

He roared with the joy of a victor: "My brothers! Just now, Odin recruited my soul! Odin said that we Russ and Balmerks have been tested by the extreme cold, and we are all ice and snow. Warriors. So Odin promises that in the next few days the bears and seals that have disappeared will reappear! God said, since you are all warriors, kill these prey, eat meat and blood, and let leather and walrus tusk enrich you !"

No one doubted that Rurik's surrogate spoke directly to the desires of people's hearts.

Everyone is happy that you are a warrior recognized by Odin, and in a few days, go and capture the prey that Odin rewarded! They are already gearing up.

Rurik needed to cheer up the once sluggish morale, and this move achieved his purpose. As for announcing that there would be a large number of prey, he was not talking nonsense.

Bears and seals have gone to avoid the polar night, and the fish in the sea have also entered the deep sea to sleep. When the blizzard comes, these creatures are just like humans, hiding to avoid disaster.

The hardest time has passed, and for seals and polar bears, they have to emerge to forage and prepare for the coming spring breeding season.

Rurik's judgment was seen by others as a great prophecy.

One early morning, people going to the toilet outside heard noise outside the wooden wall.

This is a Balmerk hunter. After he noticed something strange, he stepped on the snow and ran to the coast. He saw that the coast was covered with black sand and gravel by the waves, and a large number of seals basking in the sun had gathered.

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

The hunter's hibernation ended in an instant. The excited Rus and Balmers, with their various weapons, vowed to bring a bloody storm to the seals on the coast! Rurik craved fresh meat, big chunks of fresh meat! Hungry, he felt that he could devour a whole roasted seal!

They thought there were only seals on the beach, but before they got to the shore, people noticed the presence of birds.

It was probably a Nordic species of gull that could live in extreme conditions, and Rurik thought it was too difficult to hunt.

Where is the seagull? Simply a magpie!

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

What everyone is facing 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, which were arctic foxes.

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

Sven?

Do not! Must be savage!

Rurik roared: "Brothers! Hunt as much as you like! Mainly attack Big Tooth, kill me!"

As a result, hunters from the two tribes began to hunt down about twenty elephant seals with big tusks. They fought against 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 beside the bloody corpses, but the happy smiling faces of the hunters who had no losses.

"Let's start dealing with the fat and teeth. Pull the arrows out of the head first." Big Yoni said loudly.

The biggest reason for the one-sided fight is that the hunter uses a crossbow to snipe the head of the beast, which is a carbon steel armor-piercing arrow that can also be pierced by a thin steel plate. The giant beast is almost instantly killed.

People started cutting meat frantically, and this mess left Rick on the side. He just waited to get a good piece of meat, washed it with sea water and then roasted it.

He also saw some foxes sneaking around, some seabirds standing in the treetops, making a surprise attack from time to time, flying away immediately with a small piece of minced meat and viscera...

Rurik finally ate delicious grilled meat without the stench of blood. He understood why killer whales liked to eat seals.

In today's hunting, people got 40 intact large walrus tusks and a batch of small tusks, all of which are invaluable.

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

Rurik was determined to hunt wildly here, and everyone fought here for ten days, and the length of the day had become very comfortable. But when people feel it is time to leave, they realize that they have achieved too much!

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

Likewise, the beaches are littered with the remains of prey, humans get what they need, and foxes and birds feast on them.

In desperation, people can only make simple sleds, and the road back will become an extremely difficult trek.

Rurik reckoned that everyone had to dawdle and return the same way. After all, we couldn’t expect those reindeer to be transported back with people and goods.

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

He didn't have to, he'd sit on a sleigh full of cargo, wrap his arms around his Cypolava, and wander back to Fort Elrond for maybe a month.

At that time, Rurik was the hero who saw the "sea at the end of the world" and experienced the "trial of Odin".