Hi there, dear readers! As promised, here is chapter 2. Forgive me if I got some names wrong: I have read the books in Dutch... Anyways, I hope you like this :)
"Do you have enough victuals with you?" Karina asked Hal. Hal nodded, of course he had. He turned to Thorn, to ask if he had packed his fighting arm; you never knew when you're going to need that thing. "Do you have enough money with you?" Karina questioned, though, before Hal could speak. Hal turned back around and smiled.
"Yes, yes, that's all aboard already," he assured her. Karina smiled too. She knew Hal could take perfect care of himself and his crew, but she also knew he tended to forget little details. Hal noticed his mother's concern.
"Don't worry, mom," he said casually. "We're just going to check out Araluen." Hal had heard so many stories about that country that he had got curious about his mother's fatherland. Karina nodded and pulled him in a hug as to say goodbye.
"See you in a couple of months," she mumbled. Hal smiled encouragingly at her and then jumped aboard the Heron. The rest of the crew followed his example en without needing any further inducement they started to make the ship really to take off.
Within a few minutes, the Heron was accelerating in the direction of open sea. Hal stood excitedly at the tiller. He felt extremely happy. They were finally making a longer journey again. Hal thought of all he wanted to see and do in Araluen. He wanted to meet one of those weird little rangers, see part of the country, but most of all he wanted to leave Hallasholm for a change: the Herons and he were much more respected since they'd made the journey to retrieve the Andomal, but after a while he got tired of just sitting at home. It only seemed logical to him to combine his curiosity and his longing to the see and go to Araluen. It therefore hadn't cost him much effort to convince the other Herons.
"Hey, Hal!" Stig called laughing, getting Hal out of his thoughts. "I'm talking to you!" Sheepishly, Hal looked at him.
"Sorry, what did you say?" he called back. Stig chuckled and came to stand next to him.
"I said: are we going to stop at Skorghijl, or are we going straight for Araluen?" Hal thought about it for a while. Then he shrugged.
"We'll go via Skorghijl," he said. "We're not in a hurry, after all." Stig nodded.
"Have you ever been to Araluen, Thorn?" Hal asked curiously, readjusting the tiller, as the older Skandian joined them. Thorn thought for a moment and nodded.
"Yes," he said slowly, clearly lost in thought. Hal and Stig gave him an expectant look.
"What?" Thorn asked. Hal rolled with his eyes.
"What was it like?" he asked nonetheless. Thorn frowned.
"It's a boring, green little country," he grumbled, before walking back to the bench he had been sitting on before.
"Well, that promises a lot," Stig said dryly. Hal sniggered.
"You know this is Thorn we're talking about, right?" he reminded him. Stig nodded and straightened his face.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," he said and they both laughed.
The night had fallen several hours previous en most of the Herons were lying asleep next to their benches. Hal listened as Stig woke up Edvin to take over the tiller. He was almost asleep, but he had been lying there like that for two hours. Every time he seemed to fall asleep, a random thought popped up in his head again, causing him to stay awake. After another hour, he decided to switch with Edvin a little earlier. He sat up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes and walked over to the tiller. Edvin sent him a questioning look and Hal shrugged.
"Can't sleep," he mumbled. For a while, they were just standing there next to each other in silence, as the Heron slowly made its way forward. Edvin put his hand in front of his mouth and yawned. Hal realized other persons would perhaps like to sleep at this hour of the night, including Edvin.
"Do you mind if I take the tiller?" he asked quickly, feeling a little guilty, even though it wasn't even his turn yet. Edvin shook his head and gave him a grateful look. Hal took his place and watched as Edvin walked away to prepare himself to go to sleep. Dreamily, Hal stood at the tiller till it was time for Stig to take over again. The two switched places quietly and Hal noticed he was at last able to drift away into sleep.
"Land ho!" Jesper exclaimed from the mast. He had climbed up there out of boredom; the wind was blowing in the perfect angle, so that nobody really had to do something. Hal was at the tiller again. He peered at the horizon, to see the natural bay of Skorghijl, just like Jesper had. He redirected the ship by pushing the tiller to starboard, so that they headed directly at the mouth of the bay. Ulf and Wulf readjusted the sail, and the Heron made its way to the odd rock, rising from the sea.
They rounded the bend without problems and the huts came into vision. Surprised, Hal noticed another ship was docked there. But he didn't have time to pay attention to it, since he had to dock his own ship. After a few busy minutes, all of the Herons jumped on the beach. Lydia and Stig came to stand next to Hal.
"How long are you planning on staying here?" Stig asked, looking around. Lydia, sceptically paying everything closer attention, frowned.
"Not for too long, I hope," she remarked disapprovingly. "This place doesn't look very promising." Hal chuckled.
"We probably won't be staying here for more than two hours," he answered, seeming to satisfy Lydia. "But if you'd like to stay a little longer, I'm okay with it," he added grinning. Lydia sent him a dirty look, before the three of them headed for the little cooking fire used by another crew to roast a certain amount of meat.
"Tell me, aren't you the ones known as the Herons?" one of them called over to them. All talking stopped and heads were turned to the newcomers. Thorn nodded.
"Yup," he said dryly. "That's us." A second man enthusiastically jumped up from his seat.
"My name's Gundar," he told them happily, while jumping up and down. "I rebuilt my ship to your design!" Gundar pointed over to the other ship, apparently his, and Hal noticed this one had triangular sails as well. Though, it did look a whole lot less graceful than the Heron. Hal gave the big ship a critical judging. It clearly wasn't very old yet. Gundar followed his gaze.
"That is the Wolfwill," he said proudly. Hal looked away from the ship.
"That's a... strange name?" he pointed out, sending its owner a questioning look. Gundar shrugged.
"It's been named after our Araluan friend Will," he explained. "He helped us when our previous ship got wrecked because of a storm," he added bitterly. The first speaker started to laugh.
"Well, just helping was certainly not what he did! He scared us half to death, the little fellow!" he said. "We thought he was a forest spirit or something!" The other men remembered this and burst out laughing as well.
"Yes," Gundar said. "That little ranger really got us going, isn't that right, Nils?" The first speaker nodded laughing.
"Ranger?" Stig asked surprised. "Like a mysterious little Araluan person? Like the one Erak once abducted?" Gundar cheerfully turned to him.
"Exactly!" he said. "To be precise, it is the same little Araluan person as the one Erak once held captive!" The Herons sent him amazed looks.
"You know one of those rangers?" Hal asked surprised. "I mean: you really know him? Personally?" Nils nodded smiling.
"You're repeating yourself, son!" he said. "But, yes, we really know him personally."
One of the men started to put out the fire. Gundar turned to him.
"Of course, that's right!" he exclaimed. "I almost forgot we were about to leave." His other crewmembers also started to pack their belongings.
"What is your destination?" Stefan asked curiously. Gundar turned back around.
"Araluen!" he said. "We thought it would be nice to pay our friend the ranger a visit once again."
"Well, then we might just run into each other one time," Hal said. "For we are also on our way to Araluen!" Gundar smiled beamingly.
"Well, see ya in the future then!" he said. Instead of saying goodbye he turned around and walked away, following his crew back to his ship.
The Herons used the island to stretch their legs, and then, after the promised two hours, they continued the journey to Araluen. They crossed the Stormwhite Sea in a slow but steady motion, headed for Araluen. Within three days they met a storm. Not one a Skandian should fear, but nonetheless a storm. They had been able to see it coming: a dark grey line of clouds had marked the horizon for several hours. It lasted the rest of their journey, creating a miserable sphere amongst the young Skandians. Constantly having to change the positions of the sails, they closed in on their destination.
When Araluen finally came into vision, Hal had to search for a place to dock. But because of the unpredictable whirlwinds, that was very hard. Hal wasn't in for taking risks, because this trip was technically seen only a vacation. That's why he decided to head for the very first river they came across. At least the water was a little less wild here, though it wasn't a big difference.
Following the river, he noticed that the banks slowly rose higher and higher, up till the point they got twenty meters high, towering above the little ship. Here and there were small, natural bays. Most of them were far too small to dock in, or the surrounding land was too rough to make a good camp. After navigating through the wild waters for approximately an hour, Hal spotted a bay which seemed to be fit for docking. The entire crew was soaking wet and exhausted from the constant fight against the currents and the wind, so Hal decided it was time to take this change and give them a well-earned break. He told Ulf and Wulf to change the position of the sails once again, before steering into the bay. Everyone let out a relieved sigh, when the cover of the bay protected them from the wind.
They had barely left the ship, though, when a group of fully armed warriors came running towards them, letting out battle cries. Hal quickly got out his sword and parried the first attack. He noticed his companions also grabbed their weapons, but they were outnumbered by far, and the enemy was too fast. Within seconds the entire beach was packed with men and at least five of them were facing Hal. He realized bewildered that he hadn't expected this from Araluan people. From the stories he'd heard, they did seemed to be fierce, but no unreasonable people. He slowly backed up, unable to stand his ground against these odds. He didn't get the chance to charge, because there were so many things he had to get into account already. The other Herons, though, got over the surprise and found a chance to form their wedge-shaped attack posture. Hal was the only one to be cut off from them, because of all of the attackers between them. A little panicked he noticed his reflexes were beginning to get slower, and he had to back up again.
The other Herons were getting more and more grip on the situation: they defeated enemy after enemy. But Hal felt how water poured into his shoe; he couldn't back up anymore. He let his guard down for a split second, and realized that was a mistake as soon as a sword hit his arm. He wasn't in mortal danger, but it did weaken him. He was busy parrying one, two, three thrusts at a stunning speed, when he saw a fourth sword coming up to end his life. That – luckily for Hal – didn't happen. The life disappeared from the eyes of the man, and as if in slow motion, he collapsed on the ground. After him several attackers found the same fate. Hal was now able to defeat the remaining ones.
Hal let his sword down, startled and heavily breathing, looking at the dead men in front of him. Long arrows with black feathers at the end stuck out of five of them. Hal jumped around them and reunited with his friends, who had also finished fighting. A vague figure jumped off of a rock at the other side of the beach. Automatically Hal raised his sword, but when he noticed the bow slung over the figure's shoulder and realized this must have been the one who saved him, he let it down again. The man was wearing a long grey-green cloak, the hood covering his face. Though, when he reached the group of Skandians, he pulled back his hood, revealing the face of a young man with brown hair. A weird lump was visible underneath his cloak, at the place where his side should be.
"And who do you think you are?" Thorn asked, raising the sword he had taken from one of the attackers threateningly.