Chapter 144 - Arriving At Fort North
When the ship finally reached the beautiful beach where they had landed months ago during the expedition to the north, everyone started to get off the ship and prepared all the things because they had to walk a little more before reaching the forest where the fort was.
Einar then pointed his finger at the beach where it was and looked at the leader of the settlers, "You should start marking this place because as a natural port it can work quite well so that some docks can be built here.
With which to keep this town connected with the island's capital, although due to the threat of bears, you will have to prepare by surrounding the port with a light wooden palisade.
In this way, you would guarantee their safety and the safety of all those who remain taking care of the port, as well as to see that you build some small houses and a warehouse so that anything that arrives can be saved and later transported to the town. "
Vali, the leader of the settlers and member of the Hjorth family, nodded and gave the order to the slaves to start laying out some flag poles.
"Prepare the marks very well because we will return here when we have formally established ourselves in the north fort, also do not forget to leave a marked path that takes us to the north fort because we will have to make a stone and cement path in the future.
By the way Herald Einar, there is a viable way to maintain a stable supply line through the island without depending on the sea. "
Einar smiled and pointed to the southwest, "There is a path that Ansgar followed in order to reach the tribe, only that due to the season we are in, it is not feasible to travel it at this time.
But in June or July when the summer is in full swing, I will send a group of warriors led by Ansgar himself to walk the path and mark it so that anyone can walk it in the future.
So it is likely that in December or when winter starts and it is not possible to navigate some goods can be sent through the Ansgar road, therefore they do not have to worry about anything.
Also, if you succeed with the merchants, perhaps we could found two other towns on the Ansgar road, that way we will have the entire Northwest part of our island connected.
That way we can create a small internal market with which to start growing. If we only stay in the tribe as we have been doing, we will not grow and we will be easy prey for the Vikings who want to come to settle on our island.
Because if we do not dominate the island, it is very easy for others to come and feel like they own it. Perhaps we could confront and defeat them.
But at what cost and that is no guarantee that they will not want to come again and there will come a point where we will simply be a minority and we will end up being absorbed by those groups that keep coming.
So remember that as the leader of this town your duty is primarily with the tribe, then with the people and slaves that will be under your command, so keep your head cool because all the decisions you make will influence positively or negatively, about the future of the tribe. "
Vali took a deep breath and began analyzing the words Einar had spoken to him.
After a while of working on that beach that was covered only by small stones, all the settlers, slaves, and soldiers had already unloaded all the contents of the ship.
So using some sleds that they had brought, they placed all the important things in them, including the materials that they will need in the short term.
For the things that could not enter those sleds, they had to be loaded on the backs of the slaves, who knew that they had to walk and keep up the rhythm because being an area they did not know and with the threat of bears they did not dare to be lazy or lag behind.
When everything was ready, the tools were prepared to leave marks for the creation of the road. Everyone began to walk towards where the north fort was located.
While they were walking, they admired the beautiful plains that were there and some of the settlers felt that it would be a good place to start sowing wheat.
So he ended up telling Vali who, seeing the potential they had agreed with him, so using special marks he left a sign that would serve as a guide for when they returned they would check the fertility of the soil.
After walking for almost half an hour, they were able to reach the forest where the north fort was located.
"Vali one of your most important missions is to explore and protect the forest, if you want to expand the fort it must be towards the outside of it.
In the future, I will introduce some animals that can reproduce and fill the forest with life, which also includes small predators for balance.
I would also like you to expand the forest by sowing seeds and taking care of its sprouts because that way we will have wood in a sustainable way.
In the future, I will bring a tree called Maple which will adapt to the cold environment but which can provide us with a thing called Maple honey.
But enough talking, let's go in and see how Goi manages the fort. "
Everyone then entered the forest and making the sound of a horn hoped to attract the attention of the warriors who were guarding the fort.
Goi who was on guard heard the noise of a horn in the distance, so he started laughing and raised his hands with his fists clenched in a victory pose.
"Sirs, we will finally be able to return home the settlers who promised to bring the herald and the Jarl have arrived."
The six warriors who were doing their work in the fort shouted with excitement and quickly began to organize the few things that they lacked to put away.
Among them a few dozen bearskins as well as dried bear meat that they had not finished storing.
When Einar and the rest of the companions arrived at the front of the north Fort door, it slowly opened and revealed seven strong warriors who had quite long beards and disheveled but clean hair.
Einar, seeing Goi, approached him and gave him a big hug. "I'm glad to see that you all survived the winter, tell me how was it in the winter, were there a lot of bears or was it just quiet for you?"
Goi took a deep breath and invited everyone to go to the fort "When they left the bears attacked us in some waves, none very serious because apparently, they took their time to start their hibernation period.
The problem or the beginning of January and the end of the month, as the two of them, began to wake up from their wintering period quite hungry and as there were not prey large enough to be able to feed them all.
They ended up trying to attack us to get our meat to feed themselves, unfortunately for them, they never thought that we would defend ourselves.
So we've been killing white bears in absolutely absurd numbers, thankfully the traps we've set and the use of archaic tools to overcome our lack of ammo.
We are guaranteed to be able to kill all those unfortunate animals without suffering a single casualty, and although I want to assume that due to the large number of bears that we have been killing, they no longer dare to come.
This area is still dangerous so the settlers should be prepared to confront them because although the vast majority have already died by our hands.
I don't know how many will be left loose, but from the state you are in I can assume that you did not meet any on the way.
That's fine because the last bear we killed was 2 days ago, which didn't seem too skinny so I can assume they found food or just cannibalized each other.
Whatever the reason, the fewer bears, the better for everyone. "
Einar who came to the warehouse was surprised to see a large number of white bearskins stored in gigantic piles that reached up to four meters high.
This caused Einar to have cold sweat on his back as Goi and his group must have killed hundreds of white bears during their instance.
'This number of white bears is something that I would consider impossible if it weren't for the fact that I know the writings of the Europeans who came to the Americas in 1500.
I suppose that by not having a predator all these white bears ended up over reproducing, but I want to know what the hell happened in Greenland and why all those bears come to Iceland in such numbers.
But I hope there are no more white bears, the last thing I want to do is the extermination of bears imitating the extermination that the American colonists did with the bison. '
After this, the colonists began to take their places inside the fort while Vali, Einar, Sven, and Goi began to talk about everything important to do.
The talks lasted until the evening and when they finished they all decided to take a break, so the next morning Einar got up from his bed and prepared to have breakfast because he had to find a well of water to supply the fort.
After eating a delicious plate of fish soup for breakfast, Einar got up and began searching the tree branches for one that was joined by two branches.
For the intended to use the technique, he had learned from his father to search for water called Dowsing.