As we walked in the fort, it wasn't too long since we arrived at a hall.
Let's just say, those people who hated redheads from my past life will kill themselves if they saw that scene. Every single head has a degree of red on it. I couldn't help but grin from what I saw.
Still, the pressure from bringing looked at by all these people caused me some shivers. I inner-cast 'Scan' and the number of people in here was almost around sixty-something.
So these are the Firemanes.
In my mental image, the hall had nothing but chairs and tables. It has no high area for elders to sit on or all that! Just the entrance here and another their with a big fire pit in the middle that had three cows being roasted on it. The hall itself looked gorgeous. It was like sixty by thirty meters big.
There was a table on the other side of the hall that had few strong Auras there.
"Jonhild!" Hilda called as she wanted me to follow her.
I followed Hilda and Alina took the rest and joined the group of people on the side.
We walked across the hall and all the Firemanes around were silently looking at me.
I put on some serious expressions and didn't get intimidated by the air around the hall. Still, I felt happy for some reason.
We arrived at the table and the people on it stood up, except two, a man whose hair is red and eyes are blue with a ridiculous beard done in braids and a woman whose hair is jet black and eyes are light grey. They both looked as if they are in the people who stood up. By the way, among the ones who stood up, there were Skadi, Njord, and the owl guy who I don't remember his name, there was also a very unexpected person... Tor! He doesn't look that much of a redhead. Why is he here?
"Pa! Ma!" Hilda sounded a little bit awkward in her speech. So the ones who were sitting down are my grandparents! Pretty friendly!
My grandma who I don't her name yet raised her brows and spoke.
"Well, there you are, stranger. Where have you been to since last month?" Her voice carried a hint of 'you are so screwed'.
"Ma, I was hunting! I took the Ylva and the ship!"
For some reason, I have seen this conversation before when girls go out and return home late.
"Hunting, huh? A Giant Sea Serpent or an Emperor Mudcrap this time?"
"A Shark Queen!" Hilda said while not making an eye contact.
"I see!" The grandpa spoke. "By any chance, did you use a keg of Fire Honey Wine as a bait."
Fire Honey Wine? Wasn't that the wine Hilda and Nuri...
Oh! I see.
"....." Hilda had the expressions of someone facing a crisis!
The two were gazing coldly at her to the point I could feel their gaze. I had to take a step away from her.
Hilda felt it and looked at me as if she felt like being betrayed.
"Father! This is Jo..." She pointed at me and tried to change the subject but her words were cut in.
"I know who he is, we still aren't done with you." The man said.
For some reason, all the attention switched from me to Hilda completely.
Hilda who was getting smaller and smaller seemed like she got enough of it and looked at the man with a sneer.
"You know what, it was delicious! I drank the whole keg with my friend in two days. Jon got some too."
Hilda seemed to have come to a realization that the only way out of this is forward.
"You... you drank the whole keg!" The man's face turned pale.
"Till the very, last, drop." Hilda was taking a stance as she was speaking.
The man stood up and he was looking at Hilda as if he lost a son to her. "I will squeeze it out of your bones if I have too..."
He was about to jump over the table but he got pulled back to his seat by the woman next to him.
He kept looking at Hilda and said. "... later!"
Silence took over but the woman cut it.
"Hilda!" She winked to Hilda.
"Sigh! This is Jonhild son of Jonrad son of Ve Firemane! Jonhild, these your Grandpa and Grandma, Tormund and Jenna Firemane."
Tormund and Jenna! From what I see Grandpa is a Firemane but Grandma is a Moonblade.
They all looked at me and smiled gently!
"This is Njord, you met him before, he is your oldest uncle, this Bragi my second brother, Balder the third, Forseti, Heimdall, Skadi my twin, Tyr, Hermod, and the youngest is Vali.
[A/N: recognize these set of names?]
They all nodded with a smile.
Still, that is a lot to take in. I've met Njord and Skadi before, Forseti is the guy I met in Dawnstar who had an Owl on his shoulder and he also gave me a hand in acquiring my first ship. I also met Tyr in Dawnstar but he called himself Tor and was with a man I called Old Jon and another who was called Glemet.
So he is a Firemane and an uncle to me at that, his hair is not red though, it is a bit brown.
"If you are wondering about Tyr then he just didn't inherit the Fireborn blood but he inherited the Moonborn blood with the Titanborn blood too. He is half a Firemane and half Moonblade." Hilda seemed to have read my mind.
"Yeah, we met in Dawnstar and he taught me stuff about the Aura." I said.
"Hehe! Good, you remember! Did you manage to release it." Tyr asked me.
"Naturally!" I said. The Aura is not hard to use. Tyr that day told me many things about it as it was something that also called 'Battle Spirit'.
"Haha! Arrogant prick! I'll put that to test myself."
"Hehe! Bring it on!" I accepted the invitation.
"Fine! Jonhild, this is the rest of the family, this is Zand, Gunmar, Frejya, Sena, Zal, Veka, Vladimir, Ragnar, Lela..... Kera, Hafthor, Bjorna, Ingrid, Valka, Reda, Eirik, and Signi." Hilda introduced me to around sixty people in exactly a minute, she pointed at every person and said their names. One per second.
"How much do you remember?"
"All of them!" I said and the people around laughed at me. There is no way I can possibly remember all of their names.
Or is it?
"Signi, Eirik, Reda, Valka, Ingrid, Bjorna, Hafthor, Kera.... Lela, Ragnar, Vladimir, Veka, Zal, Sena, Frejya, Gunmar, and Zand!"
"..........."
Yeah! I like the expressions they made. Don't make fun of me ever again or else.
"Well, he is Jonrad's son after all!" Grandpa Tormund then laughed.
Seems like my old man can do weird stuff too. I like him already.
Truth be told, I ordered the system to make the names of the people I recognized appear over their heads so when I see them I don't forget their names. It proved to be a useful technique against Hilda's prank here.
Grandpa Tormund stood up and came in front of me.
"Jonhild! I'll speak formally to you now." He said and cleared his voice. "For many years we always knew that there is a blood of ours got taken away by fate. We couldn't fight that fate and we didn't want to from the beginning as it was not something a man would endanger his family to fight. I, as the patriarch of the clan, am not apologizing for the decision I made even if you, son of my daughter, resented me for it. But as your grandpa, I have many things I need to apologize for. Many regrets and many memories you should have had were all deprived of you by the coward decision I took fifteen years ago. In the past, I would have never thought that a day would come and I make the decision that son of Jonrad and the grandson of Ve would be left in the world to fend for himself alone..."
Grandpa Tormund seemed to have had a lot in heart. When he stood and came to me, I noticed that all Firemanes around were standing around. He kept going about things from the past when he and his distant cousin and best friend, my other grandfather who was called Ve Firemane, survived the Great Collapse in Winterhold and went as refugees to their friends in the Moonblade Clan. Since then, they were taken into the Moonblade and got married to the daughters of the patriarch then were assisted to rebuild the clan once again in the hidden glade. It seems that Ve Firemane has died early in battle alongside his wife and they left their son Jonrad who was to become the next patriarch but as Jonrad's birthsign was the 'Serpent' he wouldn't be able to inherit the patriarchship and the one who had to inherit it was Grandpa Tormund.
It seems that those who are born under the Serpent can't inherit the leading positions in the hidden clans and has no rule in management, all their political rights are to be passed to their children. It is not a sort of bullying, those who are born under the Serpent also can be considered exceptions and the clan doesn't bother them with its rules. They are free from both ordering and being ordered, they are also considered the most special people in the clan and they get a better treatment. I once read in a book called 'The Firmament' "The Serpent wanders about in the sky and has no Season, though its motions are predictable to a degree. No characteristics are common to all who are born under the sign of the Serpent. Those born under this sign are the most blessed and the most cursed". This is the reason why the hidden clans don't associate the ones born under the serpent in politics as their fates are not ordinary and may cause the clan to get into a lot of trouble.
Jonrad, my father, was to be the next patriarch but he was born under the Serpent. His child then was to inherit his right by the law.
I wanted to make a big cringe but another bomb fell down on my head.
"But you too, child, are also born under the stars of the Serpent."
Phew!
"This is why unless Hilda bears another child with Jonrad, the child of Jonhild Firemane will be the patriarch of the clan when his time comes!"
I don't know how to feel about that but I will apologize for my son for this.
"Listen, Jonhild! I know you may take this as something annoying to take in but you should know one thing. Among the Firemanes, you are the one with the thickest blood! You are the grandchild of both me and Ve, the last two of the Firemanes who survived the Collapse. So it was my dearest wish to bring you here to your clan. I know you have something to say, maybe something you are angry about... please, say it!"
To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting many things like me being born under the Serpent and me having the thickest Firemane blood, or that the patriarch of the Firemanes would be this welcoming.
"If I have to say it then sorry to disappoint you. I don't feel any resentment or need a lot of explaining. I already understand what you feel to a certain extent. I too would do anything to push a disaster away from the people I love. And then I am not worthy of that praise even if my Firemane gene in my blood was made of pure crystals. But as I got your feeling, and allow me to address you as Grandfather, as I got your feelings, I became aware of the place they came from and how much you would do to make this family safe. So on behalf of those who can't say it, Thank you so for what you did to the clan, you took the right decision at the right time. And as for me, I totally see no harm in any of what happened. Without it, I would have never met the friends I have and the family I built. So thank you once again for the opportunity. And one last thing..."
I took a deep breath and looked around.
"... I'll be in your care."
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A/N: Before you say anything .. the next chapter will be about his father .. and this is not me killing the usual drama and rivalry between family members, it all will happen so don't roast me on the comments just yet.