Ýlir
Tyrs Day
15 | Waning Long Nights
It was a struggle trying to bring the boat towards a port on her own, energy exhausted from alternating the oars just to bring them closer to the new land. With the vessel being small and personal, currents were pulling them along with little issue - and wasted her strength. There had been a strait between two settlements that looked partially built... or maybe they were abandoned.
From the boat, she saw no movement from either one. It made her heart sink with a worrying ailment. Even the dogs were awkwardly quiet as the tide continued to pull the boat along. Her attention finally snapped from the shores when she heard the gravelly cough from Verner, bringing her head around to see him stir a little. She had wrapped him in a bear fur blanket as the temperature had started to drop with the retreat of the unnatural mist, to try and keep him warm - despite the fever. He was curling unto himself, very apparent that he was sick.
All she could do was sit beside him and rub his back and shoulder in hopes of comforting him. Edda was already flopped over his hip, sad eyes glancing up at Solveig for answers. The other two were flopping lazily on the deck around them.
"I know, girls," she sighed, pulling her own fur wrap closer around her shoulders as her tired eyes swept around their surroundings beyond the hull. There was land in the distance in almost every direction, but most of her resolve had bled out. Her arms were heavy and burning, and palms silently begged NOT to grip the oars. So long as the boat was still moving, she would conserve what little strength she had left. She adjusted her seating and eased down to settle her head beside that of the pup on his hip, her eyes falling shut with ease. The exhaustion took her away to the darkness on a gentle breeze.
The world came to an abrupt awakening with the deafening crash of wooden hull scraping stone and the ship tipping over almost entirely sideways - knocking all the passengers in the same direction with a series of alarmed noises. Solveig tumbled partially off the boat, her boots splashing into water as her legs waved. It took a moment of blinking her eyes clear before she realized that it was dead of night - limiting her sight. But it did not blind her to the bright sand of a shore beneath them before it turned into the darkened earth further inland. The boat had been shoved with a current onto shore against stones, which tipped the vessel off the keel.
All three dogs began barking like mad and scrambled to find their paws, before stumbling off the boat and waddling around the sand like freshly born fawns unsure of their legs. Verner struggled to find stability between his hands and feet, tangled in his blanket and kicking the rolled oars. Solveig gave up and allowed herself to flop back, dropping into waist-high water that ebbed back and forth on the sands. She waded quickly to the stem of the boat, kicking off excess water that soaked her pants and cloak as best she could.
Despite the inconvenience of being wet and cold... it was land. They made land. The reality almost punched her in the gut hard enough to steal her breath. It was settling in quickly as Dagny began to dart around the shore with a newfound excitement despite her hungry belly. Edda was rolling around in a patch of dry dirt with delight.
"Solvie?"
She turned and stomped through the shallow water back to the boat, in time to catch Verner before he completely fell out of the boat - offering support against his shaking legs despite her own. They made slow, shuffling steps away from the grounded boat and the tide with care - taking the time to create a comfortable distance from the sea before collapsing to lush grass and hard soil. Despite their exhaustion and their pain, he was laughing. She found herself laughing through tears with him, and cradled his fiery head to her chest as he threw an arm over her to hug her back.
"Verner," she breathed, offering a loving kiss to the side of his head. "We made it. The world isn't gone...!"
"Land," he coughed. "Gods be praised."
She kissed him one more time before settling him down and returning back to the boat long enough to find one of the stored bedrolls. It was something relatively comfortable between his head and the hard ground, and she doubled up his coverings with the cloak around her shoulders. There was an evening chill that felt like winter, but she wanted him covered. He was ill; she was spent, but healthy. He seemed to pass out almost immediately once the initial shock passed, and she was thankful for that.
Now? Shelter and food. Warmth. Her eyes moved back to the stranded vessel in the sand, letting out a breath as she concluded she should empty it - all the containers needed to be checked and accounted for, if there was any scrap of food left or a drop of water. But they needed a fire for the night, as well. He needed to be kept warm. Her gaze followed the shore to the horizon and the stars. She found what she could assume was the northern spark in the sky and came back down to the land - and realized they had run aground at the mouth of a river that snaked inland - and the dogs were splashing around and drinking willingly.
There was no shame as she stumbled with sand-caked boots to run after them and almost dive headfirst into the stream. It was sweet on her tongue, and she filled her belly with no regret. When she had her fill she moved a little further upriver to fill her empty water skin - and risked the danger of waking her bear of a mate to force him to drink. It was needed. More so afterwards was the need for fire as a brisk night wind blew downriver, cutting through every damp cloth on both their bodies. Between the nourishment and the renewed vigor of hope, hacking at the trees for firewood and kindling brush was considerably easier - at least until Dagny decided she wanted a particular stick from the growing pile and scattered it everywhere.
But Solveig could not bring herself to be angry for more than a moment. Even in the dark, she was surveying their surroundings and discovered they had a very fortuitous landing despite the landing. They were on the edge of a forest that was plentiful with vibrant pine, albeit damp. But a fire would be possible; it was a matter of splitting chunks to the dry cores to catch a flame off the lit brush. Digging out a shallow pit took some work. Trimming the ring in stones was simple. Within a couple of hours she had a small fire that would only grow as the wood dried.
The warmth from the flames drew even the rejuvenated canines in for a rest. Solveig took a short while to warm her bones before attempting to empty the boat of all it's contents; she knew most of it was going to be empty and easy to drag, but still time consuming - assuming nothing fell to the water which threatened to take any containers to sea. But after a while she found they had been pushed to the brink of oblivion - the food had been demolished and they were literally surviving on scraps before the mist receded. The water was all gone, and had been. The second bedroll was missing - likely lost overboard when the sea was monstrous on some days. The only tools that made it with them were their weapons.
This posed the next problem on top of her crippling exhaustion as she dropped beside the fire again: food. They had nothing of worth for trade that they could part with for food, or hunting tools. She would have to attempt to make her own at the risk of her own peril, and try to hunt - with no idea what lay out in the trees to be hunted. But there had to be small game out there that she could trap... the drawback being the waiting time. A breathy cough from Verner in his sleep reminded her that, even though he was not near death, he could not afford wasted time. There was some spear fishing she could attempt - that might yield a faster result... if she was any good at it.
Her thoughts wandered to the pair of settlements at the strait, and she could make out faint specks of light in the distance along the shoreline headed back in that direction. She could make it there by dawn, likely... but if it was abandoned as she had feared, there was more likely to be nothing of use there.
The only thing for certain is that sitting there would get them nothing.
Solveig called Dagny and Edda with an order to stay, ensuring they were snuggled up comfortably with Verner. She fed the fire another small log and gathered one of the decent sacks emptied from the journey, tucking it into her belt. Her blade and axe were holstered on her person. She ensured her flask was full of water, and hopped her way across the river to the other side - whistling Astrid to follow. The trek to civilization began, and she was determined to get some goods one way or another.
