Well, as you might remember, I had started another story, all excited, but I set it aside because, while I was writing, I got another idea to do something fantasy-based. Over the last few weeks, I've been working hard on learning how to make maps, asking Sangy for drawings, and meeting up with friends to develop the lore, and in a way, I already have something ready. Considering that this story still needs about 60 chapters to finish, I already have something in mind for when I wrap it up.
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Pov of a Varangian
Anno Domini, 831-January-15-24
"That one is still alive." I said while pointing at one of those sarakenoi who was crawling across the ground trying to escape after we had finished massacring every last one of them in our skirmish.
"Then go and finish him. We are busy checking whether these types even carry anything valuable." the hersir replied while searching through the pockets of the dead.
"Fine…" I said while drawing my dagger and walking toward the crawling man, who was leaving a trail of blood behind him.
It did not take me long to catch him. His leg had been shattered by the blow he received and the man was dragging himself only with his hands. The moment he saw me approaching he began pleading in his own language.
Without paying attention to his whining and tears I grabbed his head with one hand and drove the dagger into his neck, opening it completely. I heard the wet choking sound of the sarakenoi drowning in his own blood while I nearly severed his neck from his torso.
I quickly cleaned the blood from the dagger and searched through his pockets for anything valuable since these men rarely carried much.
Finding several coins that appeared to be copper I stuffed them into my pockets and it seemed he possessed nothing else worth taking. Grabbing the shoes from his feet we began piling all the loot into our transport cart although there was barely anything important.
A few padded gambesons were the only pieces of armor that could be found in the area. The sarakenoi garrison was terribly poorly equipped which made fighting them extremely easy. Besides most of these men were not even warriors.
In most cases they were guards accustomed to dealing with thieves, nothing like us.
We had traveled from the north to accept the proposal offered by the Roman jarl known as Basil. He possessed the reputation of being a great war leader since his ships always overflowed with prisoners and gold, so after much thought we simply followed the same road many others like us had taken, sailing south along the navigable routes.
Traveling through the lands of the Slavs, descending the river until reaching the sea of the Greeks, we were received by our own people, many of whom had migrated just as we had after hearing the offer of land in exchange for defending the borders of the Romans.
Which we accepted, arriving at the land the Romans called Carpathia. We settled there for several months where we tried cultivating the land and although the soil was certainly more fertile and less cold than what we were accustomed to working, it was far more than we could manage by ourselves so we needed more laborers. But we had no coins left, so when Jarl Basil announced a recruitment among the sons of the north I volunteered to join one of the warbands that entered the conflict with the intention of bringing back prisoners to work our land.
Although this seemed far more difficult than one would expect. Unlike the sons of Svearrike who were armored in steel almost up to their noses, we did not have much to wear and there had been hopes that by raiding the sarakenoi we could obtain good steel or iron, but so far everything had felt like a terrible joke since all we had encountered were archers and spearmen.
For the moment we had not been given permission to attack any inhabited villages because we could not distinguish Christians from Muslims and because of that we might cause deaths that would ruin the Romans' relations with the people we were raiding. It was irritating.
Many of the prisoners we captured were so badly wounded that keeping them became more of a burden than a help, or they simply ended up dead, so until now I had achieved nothing of what I came here for while still carrying only the axe I had brought with me along with an old suit of armor my father had given me.
"Anything good?" I asked while approaching the group dividing the loot they had gathered.
"A couple of swords and that is it. The rest are spearheads we need to hand over so we can try convincing one of the jarl's smiths to melt them down and forge something out of them." the hersir replied while showing several curved swords we had captured.
"Still no permission to raid any village? There are several nearby that we could easily strike and completely empty in order to get thralls. So far we have fought several times and barely gathered around twenty thralls. Not even enough for each man to take one home." another of ours complained about the problem.
"That is precisely why we are not authorized. The villages are mostly Christians ruled by sarakenoi. If we go and turn everyone into thralls we will have problems with Jarl Basil and if we have problems with him we probably will not be allowed to return since they will deny us passage aboard the ships. So for now follow orders and we will see what happens. We are supposedly taking part in a major assault soon so perhaps we will gain more than usual." the hersir replied before grimacing and spitting into the sand after finishing his words.
"Hopefully soon because it feels as if we came here only to waste our time if we cannot raid something worthwhile. So far there have been many rich targets to plunder but if they refuse to let us do anything then perhaps following Jarl Basil was not so profitable after all." I said while scratching my beard with the axe.
"For now there are no great or important battles. Most of these are merely poorly armed garrisons marching out to try securing the area and pushing as much grain as possible into the city we are going to attack. So our task is to prevent that, although so far we have only encountered the men sent to do the work." the hersir replied.
Without saying another word we continued stripping the dead until we had taken everything important before moving toward the area one of Basil's hövding had pointed out, making sure nobody passed through. Once again we fought another sarakenoi force wearing their typical light clothes and carrying spears. Crushing them was relatively easy since they were twenty and we were three hundred, so these encounters usually ended in quick fights where we argued more over who got to keep a prisoner or who had the right to claim him, assuming the prisoner was still useful.
After an axe blow or a sword through the guts a thrall was not worth much with his entrails spread across the sand.
So we returned to camp with food, a great deal of food, but honestly this was not what we had come for, which made things difficult. At best we could sell it and buy thralls from the Romans because from what it looked like they had many. The camp where we rested was full of sarakenoi prisoners being transported to the ports so they could be sold in Roman markets.
Just as we were preparing to continue fighting the sarakenoi forces our hersir finally returned bringing information judging by the way he entered the camp.
"Good. We finally have orders. We will participate in the siege of the city of Alexandria. Apparently Jarl Basil tried negotiating the city's surrender but they refused and reinforced the defenses while waiting for an army to come relieve them, so this will be a long siege. There is supposedly a chance someone may open the gates for us although nothing is certain. If it happens we must stay alert in case a gate opens, but for the most part we will simply be guarding the gates, nothing more." the hersir said.
"Wonderful. We will not even get to loot the dead." one of ours complained, sounding irritated by the situation.
"If the city falls its riches will be within our reach and the city is extremely wealthy. We only need to reach the homes of some rich local and we will have enough gold to buy thralls and solve our lack of workers." the hersir replied while pointing in the direction we were supposed to move.
I did not complain since there was little use in doing so. It was exactly as they had said. There were no prisoners we could loot or capture, but that was how things stood. If we had to besiege a place in order to loot it then hopefully the siege would be short because I wanted to gain something valuable here, like a good suit of armor or a proper axe, something better than the one we used for chopping trees.
So our camp soon moved together with the Roman commander directing the troop movements and before long we had surrounded the city supposedly founded in honor of one of the great conquerors the Romans admired.
Something good did come from it because upon arriving we found many abandoned houses where valuable belongings still remained and we immediately began looting them, finding many useful things, although that was greatly reduced once the common loot had to be divided. But at least that guaranteed everyone received a share and forced us not to do anything stupid to secure loot for ourselves.
After looting the houses near the walls we were positioned beside one of the many gates and then the work began: digging trenches and planting stakes because the Romans were obsessed with having a secure camp so they could calmly kill their enemies.
So we ended up doing the dirty work, digging for hours so the Roman commander could have his beloved trench and palisade finished while we took position in front of the gates and waited.
While we waited we soon saw those Roman siege machines constantly hammering against the city walls.
Several days passed like this because apparently the idea that someone would open the gates for us never came true, so we had to besiege the city the old-fashioned way just as we had done at Damietta.
Every day we watched as the Serbians, a group of Slavs following Basil, marched against the sarakenoi defenses with their mobile walls and spent the entire day exchanging arrows and bolts without rest while the catapults hurled stones over the walls and we listened to the constant fighting taking place along the defenses.
"How boring." I muttered while lying on a blanket staring at the walls of Alexandria.
"The good thing is the city resisted and because of that we have the right to plunder it even if the people are Christians, which means we will get loot once the final assault begins. We only need to know when that will happen." one of my companions replied while sitting beside me watching the city gates under the torchlight.
"Do you think there will be good steel? I would like to own proper armor, a sword or an axe not forged for chopping trees but for crushing these weaklings." I said while stretching after a loud yawn.
"That is certain. I do not know if they have it here but I heard the sarakenoi possess good smiths. Not like the Roman smiths serving Jarl Basil, but we will find something worthwhile once we enter the city." my watch companion answered.
"Hopefully later they let us raid without so much supervision. There were villages full of people we could have looted ourselves instead of letting the Romans take everything." I muttered while rubbing my eyes.
While lying there staring at the gate I noticed a torch moving from side to side repeatedly.
As I picked at my nose I watched without understanding why that sarakenoi was doing it until I saw the city gate slowly opening inward.
"The gate… the gate…" I muttered while jumping to my feet.
"The gate!" my companion shouted and the camp immediately began to stir after the alarms sounded.
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