One sunny day, at the shore of the Northern Sea, by the village of SmelBaäd, young Bjarni noticed a strange disturbance in the water.
“By Loki! “, he exclaimed. “There seems to be some hideous creature rising from the deep! What is it?”
“Why…I cannot believe my eyes! ” his father said. “I have heard of these….it’s an Eldâr-KrΦne! Quick, we must run to warn the others!”
Soon afterwards, more and more of the Eldâr-KrΦnes emerged from the sea, and made their way towards the unspecting village village.
And soon they began to take over.
In no time at all, travel became difficult, if not impossible. The Eldâr-KrΦnes blocked all routes with monstrous carts that they had somehow acquired, which they drove at less than walking speed.
“How am I supposed to invade the Celts on time, with this grandomther in my way?”, grumbled Æskole.
Commerce ground to a halt and children went hungry. The Eldâr-KrΦnes crowded the local merchants, and took forever to buy something. And when they did, they insisted on paying with hundreds of almost worthless copper coins.
Village security was at risk. The Warrior-Men were weak from lack of food, and could not concentrate on their practice-jousting, as they were constantly hissed at to be quiet.
Youngsters were forced to listen to long rambling tales of Yore, and were literally bored to tears. In exchange, they were offered rancid sweets, which threatened to break their young teeth.
As the Eldâr-KrΦnes continued their ruthless invasion, life in SmelBaäd become more difficult.
The villagers were concerned, and approached Olaf Thunderfröck, the Chieftain.
“These grayish being are making life unbearable!”, they cried. “Cannot you do something about it?”
“I say, burn and pillage them! Send them to Valhalla!”, said Fjolkman the Fishmonger.
“No, better yet! Let us make drinking goblets out of their skulls!!!” screamed Bjorgolf the Bererker, and let out a mighty “…NYARGGHH!”
“I would gladly do so, but you know we cannot”, explained Olaf. “These demon-creatures…they have special powers. They are cunning, yet they dodder and appear frail and old. And our Viking Code thus prevents us from harming them. ”
“But they disrupt our village, torment our children, and tell us to keep off our own grasses and fields! ”
“Agreed, but what would you have me do?”, asked Olaf. “We cannot use force…we are powerless against their evil magic”.
Suddenly, a young voice cried out:
“But look what they did to Ursaäl!”
It was young Bjarni, pointing to the Village Bear.
“They knitted that horrid outfit, forced Ursaäl to wear it, and now they’ve made him CRY!”
“Noooo!”, someone gasped.
“The horror!”, a mother exclaimed.
Bjorgolf the Bererker was furious. “Clearly, those cursed Eldâr-KrΦnes have gone too far! No one messes with the Village Bear, except us! …NO ONE!”
“Aye…Viking Code or not, this brings the battle to a whole new level”, Olaf agreed.
“Clearly, we’re going to have to take drastic measure to rid the village for these Gray Ones, once and for all. But first, I must seek counsel…”
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END OF PART I
What will Olaf do?
How will the Vikings get rid of the Eldâr-KrΦnes?
Will poor Ursaäl need therapy?
STAY TUNED FOR PART II..!!
The Deep Friar 