Legend of Oria 1: Initial Contact Read Online Free PDF Page B

Even the children knew something big was up.  They were much quieter than usual.  The only sounds came from the cries of the few infants that were part of the clan.  Once the boys reached two or three, they knew not to cry.  Viking men did not cry.
    Olaf and his clan sat down and started breakfast.  They were only eating for about 10 minutes when several of Olaf’s scouts returned with bad news.  Olaf had been sending out scouts for several days to keep an eye on King Bloodax and his gang of marauders. 
    “Olaf, King Bloodax is only several hours away by water.  They are making great haste to get here.”
    Olaf roared to his fellow clansmen, “We need to board the boats immediately.  Jon, take your crew and burn the town and destroy the livestock.  We need to be under way in less than an hour.”
    Immediately everyone began scurrying about the hall taking whatever was not already on the boats. 
    Olaf sat down with the scouts and received the rest of the report.  One of them looking at Olaf and said, “We could see a fleet of two heavily armed boats and almost a dozen boats about the same size as our own or smaller.  It looks like there are several chieftains in full armor with steel axes and swords. There may even be a few archers in some of the boats.”
    Olaf knew from the report that his clan’s only chance for survival was to get immediately underway.  If they could get far enough out to sea, Bloodax would be unable to find him.  Even if Bloodax could see Olaf’s boats, he wanted as much as a lead on them as possible.  The larger war vessels would never catch his faster boats.  However, the fleet of smaller boats might be able to catch up and slow his boats down enough for the rest of Bloodax’s fleet to catch up.
    Olaf finally got everyone aboard the two boats.  As they began to row out to sea, they watched as their village burned to the ground.  Olaf had everything either destroyed or taken in one of the two boats.  Olaf did not plan to leave Bloodax anything of value. 
    Stoneax ’s fleet had traveled about 2 miles from the shoreline when one of the lookouts spotted Bloodax’s fleet.  It was only several miles from their boats.  Olaf hoped Bloodax would not spot them.  However, Olaf knew that the clearly visible flames from the burning village would be sufficient for Bloodax to know that Stoneax was already out to sea.   Bloodax would fan his small and faster vessels out to search for Olaf.  It would not take Bloodax long to find Olaf and his two boats.  At almost the exact moment Olaf considered Bloodax’s next move, he saw Bloodax’s fleet turn straight for him.
    Olaf immediately ordered all sails raised and to increase the pace of his rowers.  Immediately the drum beat quickened and the men increased the pace of their rowing.  Olaf would not surrender without a fight.  He ordered his men to rig special nets equipped with pig’s bladders filled with air.  His warriors would throw the nets overboard when and if Bloodax’s ships were able to close the gap on him.  The nets would foul up the rowing of the men on the enemy boats.
    Bloodax ’s fastest ships came within several hundred yards of Olaf’s ships after 6 hours of hard rowing.  The medium size boats were still several miles from Olaf with the larger vessels no longer visible over the horizon.  The smaller boats hoped to slow Olaf down enough to allow the larger boats time to close the gap.
    Olaf ordered several archers to the sterns of his two boats while the rest of the crew continued to row at the fast pace of the drummer.  If Bloodax’s smaller boats were able to slow Olaf’s boats down, it would only be a matter of hours before the larger boats could catch up and crush Olaf and his people.
    Bloodax ’s smaller boats quickly pulled within the range of his archers.  Olaf’s archers and Bloodax’s archers exchanged several volleys of arrows.  When the battle commenced, a heavy squall overtook them forcing