Hogun teaches Eric throwing Axes

Hogun teaches Eric throwing Axes

Throwing an ax into a wooden target is easy. If that target is a man who tries to do the same to you, that's an entirely different story. However to be prepared for exactly that, is the reason for all these exercises. Don't be stiff as frozen fur in the Darkwind, relax and be light on your feet. Now go through the movements. Count with your breath to three, and get it into the rhythm of the swinging target and then throw." "I hit it before!" "I want you to hit it every time and all the time. No misses, no two out of three. In battle there are no second chances or do-it-over. There are no scores and points given. You hit first and you live, you don't and you're dead. That is the old way, that is Olafson tradition and that is how you will learn it from me!" Again I threw and the ax smacked with a cracking sound into the wooden plank. He nodded again. "Now I want to see that again, hitting the same spot!" He took the other ax and a honing stone and began to carefully sharpen the gleaming blade. "As you know we originally came from a planet called Earth now better known as Terra. The original settlers that came here and took their lore and culture to this new and harsh world. Life was hard especially when they started out." I threw the ax again and retrieved it." I know about that part, Leif Erikson gathered his people and all the worshipers of the Aseir as they were not welcome on Earth and came here to live true to the traditions and free of alien influences and all the things that made mankind soft." He tossed me the honing stone." Sit down and take care of your ax while I answer your original question." He put his ax back in the leather bag and tied the strings." Yes Leif did that, but the nature of this world was more unforgiving then expected and it has little to give in the long time of Longnight. Especially to a culture that rejects all modern technology. Each clan started to have their own idea just what the traditions should be and who should be allowed to live on the rocks in the Burgs and who had to live on the ice up north. When a Contact ship from Earth came a few clans banded together captured it, and with it started to pillage other colonies around this neighborhood of space. Other clans refused to use this modern technology and called the others traitors to the true spirit of Leif, who had already been long dead by that time."