[Nogrod]

Soon enough, they came into a small clearing with fire going on, and Osmod and Fion were there! What a relief! Both of them alive –although Fion didn’t seem so well with the heavy bandage on his head. There was an old man tending his wound. Osmod was standing beside them. And there were others there too.

These are strange times indeed. I thought that out party was a motley crue of youngsters and old warhorses, but look at these people here! Four youngsters, a girl and a grandfather! Are these the survivors of that unhappy village?

Athwen dropped herself from the saddle and took to walking, greeting the people at the clearing. All the Bregowarians dismounted too and headed to see Osmod and Fion: to embrace them, to ask what had happened. After patting Fion to the shoulder in encouragement, Sythric turned towards Osmod. He embraced him warmly, and with a great relief. “I’m really happy to see you two alive! For a moment we really feared you dead. Now I just hope, we are among friends, and not enemies.” Before Osmod could answer, there came others, hugging Osmod and asking about things happened.

Sythric stepped back and tried to configure the situation out. The old man that had been tending Fion’s wound had drawn aside, and was talking to three other strangers some ten yards away. The Deer! It must be their kill? Sythric walked back to the horses, took the bloody blanket from Thydrë, whispered some comforting words to Eostre’s horse and untied the deer from his back. He took the deer and the blanket, and walked towards the four strangers. He stopped about two yards from them and addressed them.

“My name is Sythric, Sythric of the Skara, Bregoware, sergeant of the Rohirrim – not in active duty, as you can see from my age, I suppose.” He nodded politely to everyone of the strangers, Athwen included, for they had not been introduced to each other. “The other senior with us there is Raedwald, also a veteran of the rohirrim. We served at Croacht, under the warden Thygulf some ten years ago. I don’t know, what our leader Osmod, and this young Fion here have told you, but we are on an urgent mission to the king himself, and would not like to be distracted. So I find these latest happenings quite unfortunate. If you are good people, loyal to the king and Rohan - as I do believe - you should see, that it’s not wise to go on ambushing each other? Especially at times like these.” He studied the men quite boldly, except for Leod, for he had been raised to honour older people, and that lesson he had learned well enough.

Before they could answer, he threw the deer to their feet. “This must be your kill?” He asked, and then threw the bloody blanket after it, to cover the deer. The deer’s hind legs were sticking from under the blanket. Sythric lifted the blanket from the corner and kicked the legs under it. As he let the blanket fall, there were no parts of the deer to be seen: it was just a bloody body under a blanket. “This is what we found from the grass, as we were searching for our friends here. So please understand us being a bit upset. Thank’s to this young lady here, we didn’t attack your encampment and continue the misery you have started.” As he thought Leod to be the leader here, he then looked questioningly into his eyes.