Free The Reluctant Warrior by Pete B Jenkins

us.”
    “Amora and I will do nothing that will bring harm to you for we are in your debt.”
    Jed glanced at Amora and caught her looking intently at him. She blushed and quickly turned her face away. “How did your people get here? Where did they come from?” he asked Erik.
    “Many years ago my people came in over the ice like you did. It wasn’t an impossible trek back then, as the ice wasn’t as harsh and impossible to cross as it is now.”
    “Do you think they came in from the North Pole?” Rex asked.
    Jed nodded. “I think that is the only reasonable conclusion.”
    “My people are Noragin,” Erik said. “They left our native land many years ago to live in a land that was green and fertile. When they got there they built homes and farms. But after many years the land began to freeze. The grass did not grow any more and the animals began to die. The people came to rely on supply ships from home. After several years the supply ships stopped coming and the people had to rely on hunting to survive. One day some of the men hunted much further to the north than they had ever done before and came across a warm land plentiful with game. That land was the one we are living in now. They went back and told our people about it, and so instead of waiting to die from starvation my people came here, and we have lived here ever since. But we long to return to our brother Noragin in our native land.”
     
    Later that evening after Erik and his sister had gone to sleep Jed told Rex and Jonathon what he had discovered. “These people, the Noragin, are Vikings.”
    The other two looked at him as if he were mad. “I know it sounds far-fetched, but if you’ll hear me out I’ll explain it to you.” He rested his elbows on the big wooden table as he continued his narrative. “Some time early in the first millenium the Norse planted a colony on Greenland. As Erik told us, Greenland eventually cooled and became too inhospitable to support life without supplies from the outside world. After the colony had their 500 years or so the supply ships stopped coming. Many years later when they came back to check on the colony they found them all gone. Some Eskimo’s whom the Vikings called Skraelings…”
    “So Eskimo’s are living here too?” Rex interjected. “Erik mentioned Skraelings were living in that huge forest we went through.”
    “Yes,” Jed confirmed. “Anyway, the Eskimo’s who were living on the coast of Greenland told them that the colony had packed up everything and gone to live in a new land they had discovered to the north, this one obviously.”
    “Why do they call themselves, Noragin, instead of Viking?”
    “Noragin…think about it, Rex.”
    “I have, but I still don’t get it.”
    “Noragin…Norwegian.”
    “Ah yes, of course. So we’re likely to find other racial groups from the surface of the planet here as well.”
    “It’s highly likely. But we really need to come up with some plan to combat Montrose with.”
    “We need to know his numbers before we plan anything,” Jonathon chipped in.
    Rex grinned. “We know he’s got six less than he did yesterday.
    “We’ll grill the Noragin tomorrow for as much information as we can,” Jed decided. “If we fail in this we don’t just sign our own death warrants, we’ll probably cost Erik and Amora their lives for bringing us here.”
    “And we mustn’t let anything happen to the pretty Amora, must we?” Rex said teasingly. “I’ve seen the way you look at her, Jed. Not that I blame you, she’s drop dead gorgeous.”
    “What? I haven’t been looking at her,” Jed protested.
    “And have you seen the way she looks at him?” Jonathon asked, getting in on the joke
    “I have…I have indeed, Jonathon.”
    “Aw come on you guys,” Jed half pleaded. “Let’s be serious about this.”
    “Love is a serious business, wouldn’t you say, Jonathon?”
    “I would…I would indeed, Rex.”
    Jed allowed himself the luxury of grinning.