Ashes of the Fallen

The chance of someone concealing their presence amongst the trees bothered me.

Plus, I needed the lumber.

The trees would grow back, but a three-hundred yard radius would be kept clear.

I didn't need to take any more chances, going forward.

A watch tower would be setup along the river, on the other side near the farm.

That was a necessity, as the farm sat by its lonesome on the other side of the bank, unable to be defended in the case of an attack. Luckily, the attackers didn't bother with swimming across the river, in order to burn it down.

Eventually, walls would be erected there too.

Once the basic fortifications were done I would turn my attention to the communal buildings. These were going to be almost entirely underground, two stories underground with a third above. The lodge that had been rebuilt would be the last of  its kind. Dugouts were still a preference, but I wanted more flexibility and larger structures.

With two floors underground the only issue would be fresh air.

We could figure that out later.

Everything so far had been going according to plan and even with the bits of rage clouding my judgment, I could still appreciate the speed at which everyone was working. The morale and production boost was a serious thing.

They were working nearly twice as fast.

A week, one real week or three in-game weeks was all we needed.

And from the looks of it, [FWB] had returned home.

That home of theirs though, hah.

Well, it would be safe for the time being.

An interesting thing about honor in the Viking era, was the concept of revenge.

The honorable thing when wronged by someone, was to seek revenge. To regain your lost honor, to achieve vengeance, was the right thing to do. There was a saying, to the effect, "a slave takes revenge at once, a fool, never takes revenge."

I was neither a slave, nor a fool.

At least, in my mind that is.

Maybe I was both, philosophically speaking that was entirely possible.

A slave to the system, a fool of a man believing in his own freedoms… but that was neither here nor there. Vengeance was on my mind and it was to be carried out in due time. The idea, was to let your enemy believe they were safe; that you had forgotten, that you had been too scared to retaliate or some other nonsense.

And then when they least expected it, you came in, sweeping in and destroying them with them none the wiser until far too late.

That, was the honorable thing to do.

That, was what I was going to do.

The only thing left, was to improve myself.

"Katherine," I said softly, but sternly. "Prepare, we're leaving."

She nodded, in silence.

Chapter 68: Rats, Just Rats

(Friday, September 31st Game Day / Friday, April 2nd Real Day)

"What if I told you, that none of this was real, that it's all just a dream," I said with a monotony that droned on. "And when this dream ends, there is nothing."

Katherine stared at me for a moment, unsure of how to respond to my sudden declaration. We had been walking silently for over an hour, along the flowing creek that would lead us to the Rattanorv cave.

The sky, overcast, provided us with plenty of shade on our long journey. It was a little cool out, having lost all of my blood-stained furs in the fire, but it didn't matter.

It was still summer, for a few more weeks.

"I don't follow, what are you trying to say?" asked Katherine after some time had passed. "Please explain your words, Sigurd."

She had dropped all pretenses, strangely.

I was no longer Sir Sigurd, Master, Liege, or Lord… now, I was the plain Sigurd.

That's what I wanted, yet it was odd to actually hear it.

"If I told you, that everything you thought you knew, was a lie," I continued on with my monotonous voice, void of any emotion. "What if I told you, Selene wasn't real?"

"What are you talking about?" shot back Katherine almost immediately as she started to get visibly angry. "Have you lost your sanity?"

Not stopping or giving me the chance to answer, her cheeks puffed and her nostrils flared as she raised her voice and started to yell, "is this your attempt to cheer me up?"

Staring me down without hesitation, anyone could see that she was pissed.

"Because, if so, you're failing miserably and I want no further part in this conversation!" she shouted angrily at me as she stomped off ahead of me.

Ah, yeah.

What was I thinking, anyways.

My mind wasn't in the right place, it would be safer, if I didn't say anything.

The long journey without distractions had given me time to think, time that, probably should have been spent thinking of something else. Too much idle time was never a good thing when distressed. The fact I was still bothered by losing an NPC Companion, also tore at me. In a way, what bothered me the most, was that I was feeling any emotion at all to losing a video game character.