After entering the polar night, the seals disappeared, and accordingly the polar bears also disappeared.
Some populations of polar bears hibernate. In a sense, Rurik is also in a state of intermittent hibernation.
It is extremely cold outdoors and prey hides in caves. Why do bears and humans, who are hunters, have to wander in the extreme night?
The Rus' and Balmok people's activity radius in the polar night is also within about one thousand meters. No one dares to go far for fear of getting lost and being frozen into ice.
With the help of various limited light sources, the camp is still under construction slowly, and they are strengthening the windproof walls for safety.
I don’t know how long it took, but the sea suddenly became violent, and the rough waves began to hit the coast. Anyone approaching the coast felt that this was the anger of Odin.
People all hid in their houses to avoid the biting wind outside. Only the dark wooden house was the only warm and safe place. As for the outdoor world, it soon turned into chaos in the cold wind.
The Arctic cold wave is coming! Murmansk was the first to be affected. Dense snow swept across the entire world, and the outdoor temperature also reached an extreme low of -20°C at certain times. The walls of the Russian and Balmok camps blocked most of the snow, just outside the wall. Gradually it turns into a snowy slope.
The supplies of two masters and one living deer were further covered by snow.
It seems that if you push open the leather-reinforced wooden door rashly, you will freeze to death as long as you stand outside for a short time.
People can only go to the toilet indoors in embarrassment, and even eat raw meat and chew dry wheat. Fortunately, it was absolutely dark indoors, and a corner of the wooden house became a toilet. Everyone could only suppress the embarrassment and endure the stench until the storm and snowstorm ended.
As a result, nearly ten days have passed!
Rurik had no idea how much time had passed. Once he woke up, he tried to fall asleep again, and everyone else did the same. Only falling asleep can defeat boredom, and only falling asleep can save food. Everyone was forced to hibernate, and in this weird hibernation, time quietly came to January of the year 832 of the Julian calendar.
Rurik did not keep his promise, and he even disappeared into the vast world. The great winter sacrifice of the Ross people was supposed to be a grand event, but it was affected by a strong snowstorm. The stone ship altar in Rossburg was completely covered with snow!
Elenburg, Roseburg, and even New Roseburg in the east, Tombstone Island, Lake Malaren area, Novgorod area, and the hinterland of the European continent, a strong Korean Wave swept across Alps.
The whole of Northern Europe suffered from a snowstorm. In such a severe situation, no one had time to take care of themselves and had no chance to care about the safety of others.
People can only stay in their warm and safe homes, or any safe shelter, or stay quiet and wait for the disaster to end, or look towards the statues of Odin, Freyr or other gods, Pray to the gods to stop their anger.
I don’t know how long it took, but the violent snowstorm finally ended.Is it over?
"It seems to be quiet outside. Sir, we are all safe and sound, we just don't know about those Balmoks..." Yevluo made it clear that he was afraid that his master's new brother would freeze to death.
Forced to stay indoors covered with snow, enduring crowding and complex smells, everyone wanted to go out for some fresh air, but no one had the courage until it was safe.
Rurik could not come into contact with Biyoni and the others, let alone feed the reindeer in the pen with new fodder and wheat.
"Open the door and take a look at the situation outside. If it's safe, let's all go out for some fresh air." Rurik urged.
However, Yevluo found that he was unable to push the door open, not because he was weak, but because the door seemed to be frozen. The warm leather curtains were removed, and finally several people worked together to dismantle the entire wooden door.
The reason why I couldn’t open the door was found, and I saw that the outdoors was covered with thick snow.
The outside world has seen light again, but the sun still does not exist. Rurik suddenly dives into the snowdrift. At this moment, the stars are bright, a crescent moon is in the sky, and the emerald green aurora runs through the sky like a ribbon.
"It's finally sunny. Brothers, come out to clear the snow and see how the Balmoks are doing."
Hearing the order, people came out one after another. They used digging shovels brought from their hometowns or improvised tools made of simple wooden boards to clear a snow-free space at the door of the wooden house. Then they immediately took out dry wood blocks from the room, supplemented by a small amount of tinder, and used bows. Drill quickly made a bonfire. The remaining work was to remove the prefabricated pine firewood from the snow and burn it.
A passage was opened in the snow, and Rurik felt that the snow had exceeded one meter. It was a great fate to die without being submerged in the snow.
Those Balmoks were like mice hiding in the crypt. The wooden door was forced open by external forces, which shocked Biyongni and others and instinctively drew their swords.
"Brother, the damn snowstorm is over, come out and get some air."
It was Rurik's voice, and Biyoni's heart was beating fast when he heard it, and he sheathed his sword. .
"My brother, I thought the person coming was a bear!"
"Oh, then I am a little bear announcing good news. Come out, let's have barbecue."< /p>
The wooden fence of the camp is basically completed. After this wind and snow, too much snow accumulated on the wall facing the north, and it turned into a huge steep slope. The part facing the south has very little snow, so this direction The walls are torn down and people can truly enter the outside world.
The fire continued to burn, and the snow inside the wall was either swept away or directly evaporated by the flames.
Rurik finally ate cooked wheat and roasted meat. Now the bear meat, which has not been bled, has a fishy smell and has a smell of itself. Rurik eats it in his mouth. Now it is really a happy delicacy. .
How long will the long polar night last? Rurik had forgotten the exact date now, and Biyonyi pointed out that in the Balmok tribe, people regarded extremeThe end of the night marks the beginning of the new year.
This reminded Rurik.
The Russians also regard the polar night, the only day in Rossburg, as the dividing line between the new and the old year. The port of Narvik and Murmansk are relatively close in latitude, so the duration of the polar night in the two places is roughly the same.
The wind and snow are over, the air has become deadly low, and people are in the coldest period of the year. The bonfire never went out after it was lit. The Rus and Balmoks kept cutting down the hard pine trees near the camp and burning fires to make themselves more comfortable.
They don’t have much meat left, so everyone is restricted from moving except for logging and burning fires. The reindeer pulling the sled are also fed a small amount of wheat to maintain their lives.
Rurik also fell into a state of semi-hungry. He was enduring it, but he noticed that his woman Saipolava was getting more and more anxious.
During the long polar night, Rurik would rather lie down and Sepolava cuddle up, but the two of them couldn't sleep at all.
"Did you say the night is forever? If it stays like this, we will starve to death here." The girl wanted to leave this "end of the world", but she did not dare to say it openly.
"It will be over soon. My little squirrel, have you forgotten what I told you about the nature of the world? The sun will appear again after a while."
"Really? I'm...scared."
"Don't be afraid, everything is normal. If you come here in summer, you will still feel that the sun will never set."
"That's it. It’s better than the endless night now.”
Saipolava continued to hold Rurik’s arm and kept rubbing her body.
"Be honest and keep quiet! This way you can save food."
Hearing Saipolava slowly calmed down: "I just have a sore back and leg pain, the sun will rise quickly. ..."
The conversation between the two was listened to by others in the room, and now everyone was forced to keep quiet. At first people felt that there was enough food, but now all kinds of meat have been eaten away, and people have to eat the inedible fat of bears and seals, and suck the marrow.
On the other hand, when sucking bone marrow, people lick the salt mixed with the roasted bone marrow, and they enjoy an extreme deliciousness.
What should come will eventually come. The world began to change. One direction in the dark world suddenly turned light blue at a certain point in time, and then quickly disappeared.
This is a positive sign! The Balmoks who noticed this were shouting.
Biyongni shouted excitedly to everyone he saw, "I saw the blue over there! This is a sign of the sun's resurrection! You can see the dawn tomorrow!"
Dawn? Is the polar night finally coming to an end?
A strong sense of excitement sat in his body, and grass grew in Rurik's heart. He waited for the dawn to come in the midst of suffering.
Everything is just as Biyoni said, the authentic Balmok people know that the long night is over.
Some peopleIt's boring, but it's really because this is the end of the human world. There is an ice-free sea in front of the surface, and there is an unexplainable abyss continuing to the north. They thought the darkness would never end, and reality completely changed their assumptions.
At an otherwise boring time, the sky full of stars changed color.
The sun appeared, and even if the golden light could not dispel the cold, the world at least became transparent, and people could see the whole world clearly again in a very short period of light.
People knelt down facing the sun, thanking Odin for his reward, and even made some strange moves, such as taking off their shirts, bathing in the sun with their hairy chests and backs, and shouting thank you to Odin. reward.
Is this human confusing behavior?
Rurik thought this was normal, and he also knelt on one knee in the snow and opened his arms to sing praises to the sun.
He deliberately performed a ceremony to move the people present. He was actually grateful to the sun from the bottom of his heart, because the daylight hours would become extremely long every day, and the lonely beaches under night would soon become lively again, and all kinds of prey that the Russians depended on for survival would surely appear.
Rurik still raised his arms high and sang praises to the sun, and then lay down heavily on the snow after trembling in a deliberate and wild way.
Jevro was shocked. He rushed over and picked up his master: "Sir, what's wrong with you?"
"I...it's okay." Rurik deliberately He looked haggard and stood up with the help of Yevluo, facing the shocked faces of people.
In the long darkness, what people need most is a sense of security and hope. When the sunshine sweeps away any worries, Rurik knows very well what people long for most.
He roared with the joy of a winner: "My brothers! Just now, Odin summoned my soul! Odin said, we Rus and Balmoks accepted the extreme cold Trial, we are all ice warriors, so Odin promised that the disappeared bears and seals will appear again in the next few days! God said, since you are all warriors, kill these prey, eat meat and drink blood, let Leather and walrus ivory will make you rich!”
No one doubts that Rurik’s words directly speak to people’s inner desires.
Everyone is happy that he is a warrior recognized by Odin. Let’s go and capture the prey rewarded by Odin in a few days! They are already gearing up.
Rurik needed to cheer up his once flagging morale. This move achieved his goal. As for announcing that a large number of prey would appear, he was not talking nonsense.
Bears and seals have gone to avoid the polar night, and the fish in the sea have also entered deep sea hibernation. When a snowstorm comes, these creatures, just like humans, hide to avoid disaster.
The most difficult period is over. For seals and polar bears, they must appear for food and prepare for the upcoming spring breeding season.
Rurik’s judgment is seen as a great prophecy by others.
One early morning, people going to the outdoor toilet heard the wooden wallNoisy outside.
This was a Balmok hunter. When he noticed something strange, he ran towards the coast through the snow. He saw that the coast was covered with black sand and gravel beach beaten by the waves, and a large number of people had gathered to sunbathe. seal.
He returned to the camp in excitement, violently kicked the door open without any understanding, and shouted excitedly, "Lord Rurik is right! Odin's reward has appeared. Seals! A thousand seals are waiting. Let's hunt!"
The hunter's dormancy ended instantly. The excited Rus and Balmoks, armed with their own various weapons, vowed to bring a bloody storm to the seals on the coast. ! Rurik craves fresh meat, longs for big chunks of fresh meat! He was so hungry that he thought he could eat a whole roasted seal!
They thought there were only seals on the beach, but before they reached the shore, people noticed the appearance of birds.
It was probably a Nordic species of seagull that could live in extreme environments. Rurik felt that it was too difficult to hunt this kind of bird.
Where is this seagull? What a magpie!
Rurik saw a large group of leopard seals lying lazily, a group of elephant seals gathering together, and seals emerging from the sea from time to time.
What everyone is facing is no longer a barren beach, this is clearly a "seal beach".
Polar bears wandered over with their mouths open, and some dexterous white phantoms moved quickly. They were Arctic foxes.
There are wriggling fat meats everywhere, leather everywhere, precious teeth everywhere, and ferocious and majestic animal heads everywhere.
Elegant?
No! Must be brutal!
Rurik roared: "Brothers! Hunt to your heart's content! Mainly attack Daya, kill it for me!"
Then the hunters from the two tribes began to really fight against the two tribes. More than a dozen elephant seals with big tusks pursued them fiercely. They fought against the giant beast and won a one-sided victory.
The frightened leopard seal jumped into the sea again, and the polar bear also avoided it. The carcasses of twenty elephant seals appeared on the beach. Standing next to the bloody carcasses were the excited smiling faces of the army of hunters who had suffered no losses.
"Let's start dealing with the fat and teeth. Pull out the arrow from the head first." Biyongni said loudly.
The biggest reason why the fight was one-sided was that the hunter used a crossbow to snipe the beast's head. It was a carbon steel armor-piercing arrow that could penetrate even thin steel plates. The giant beast died almost instantly.
People began to cut the flesh crazily, leaving Rick standing aside in this messy scene. He just waited to get a good piece of meat, washed it with sea water to clean the blood stains, and roasted it to eat. < /p>
Rurik finally ate delicious barbecue without the smelly blood. He finally understood why killer whales like to eat seals.
In today's hunting, people got forty intact large walrus tusks and a batch of small tusks. They are all priceless. In order to show the alliance's intention, they will be killed today.Completely divided.
So what time is it now? The polar night in Murmansk ends on January 13th in the old Julian calendar, and the elephant seal hunt happens on January 16th. This is just the beginning of the hunting feast!
Rurik decided to hunt like crazy here. Everyone fought here for ten days, and the length of daylight hours has become very comfortable. But when people felt it was time to leave, they realized that they had achieved too many results!
Fifty polar bear skins, equal animal heads, a large number of bear paws, more than five hundred walrus tusks, and as many as three hundred skinned leopard seals with extremely fine leather, more than fifty polar bear skins, Fox fur.
Similarly, the beaches are littered with carcasses of prey, humans get what they need, and foxes and birds enjoy their feast.
With no other choice, people can only make simple sleds, and the road back will surely become an extremely difficult trek.
Rurik guessed that everyone would have to go back the way they came. After all, we couldn’t expect those reindeer to carry back both people and goods.
Everyone can only march on foot, which extremely tests everyone's physical fitness. Rurik believes that his men have this ability.
He doesn’t have to, he will sit on a sleigh full of goods, hug his Saiborava, and wander back to Ironburg for maybe a month.
By then, Rurik will be the great hero who has seen the "Sea at the End of the World" and experienced the "Trial of Odin".