Nørns of Vulvar by J. K. Spenser

Author:J. K. Spenser [J. K. Spenser]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sage Knight Press Ltd
Published: 2022-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

15

A Muktuk Appears

It was midday on the third day of our voyage when the lookout aloft finally shouted excitedly as she had spotted the first muktuk. I hastened to the bow to look and saw suddenly a vapor plume at some distance. Then a magnificent gray-skinned sea creature broke the surface a far distance ahead and to the left of the longship. Mølnir shouted orders. Four women hauled in the sail while the rowers rushed to their benches. They threw open the thole ports, thrust out the oars, and affixed them to the iron swivels. Then they began rowing as Mølnir shouted course corrections to the female at the helm based on reports from the lookout aloft. The pursuit had begun. Another woman beat a hide covered drum with wooden mallets, calling the stroke of the oars.

I observed at once that three women were on each oar now, instead of only two, and as they lifted, dipped, and pulled, the longship seemed to skim across the surface of the sea. The lookout shouted to confirm that the ship was gaining on their quarry, but from my vantage point near the bow, I could already see with my own eyes that the distance was closing.

Mølnir and another tall, muscular female carrying a harpoon, a long spear-like instrument and tool, arrived at my side. The harpoon had a long wooden shaft with a shorter length of iron at the one end that ended in a pointed barbed blade. The female hastily thrust the end of a rope through a hole, bored through the butt of the wooden shaft, and made it fast.

“Once we overtake the beast, Estrid will cast and set the harpoon,” Mølnir explained. “When set in the beast’s flesh, the barbed blade will hold fast.”

“And then you’ve caught the animal and will tie off the rope to the ship?”

“Not immediately. We must wait to see the beast’s reaction. It may swim away at high speed, dive, or even turn on the ship. With its bulk, a muktuk might smash or overturn a longship and spill us into the sea. We will reverse course and let the rope run until we learn the reaction of the muktuk. Only when it swims away swiftly on the surface, will we make fast the rope.”

“I see.”

Mølnir nodded. “Setting the harpoon is the most dangerous time,” she said soberly.

I turned back to look out at the muktuk, which remained almost stationary as if unaware of the fast approaching longship. As we neared the creature, I glanced at Estrid. Poised at the rail with her feet set, she held the harpoon at chest level. Her left hand grasped the shaft near the middle and her right further back near the butt.

When the ship came within about fifteen or twenty feet of the muktuk, I saw the harpoon in flight. Then the iron point struck the animal and sank deep into the creature’s flesh. Immediately, the muktuk began thrashing the sea.

Mølnir had already turned and shouted to the rowers to reverse.

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