What you learn

Make deft use of what you learn to the degree you can gather.

-Old Norse proverb

Echo tapped the screen. "We've had signal - weak, yes, but still signal - every day at around 0900. If we can amplify it somehow, we can send a distress call."

Fives leaned closer, then shook his head. "It's too faint to send anything. We've got no guarantee of anything actually going through."

"We still have to try. Maybe... We're in a forest, so the trees probably block some of it. If we can find an open hill or something..."

"...We would probably have enough range to send a short transmission," finished Fives. "That could actually work."

Echo nodded, then changed the topic, "Got the medkit?"

"Yup." Fives held up the box.

"Then let's get going. I want to be back there before sunset."

"Just a moment..."

On the way back, both men looked very excited about something they had seen. Indeed, once they were back at the house and Echo had shown Frida how to apply the clear gel, they immediately started trying to say something. So far, they had only managed to confuse her. Finally, Fives gave up. He took Fasti's wax tablet (now always on the bench in case anyone needs it) and drew a couple of triangles on it. "Where?"

Little-Frida, who seemed to be always able to guess what they were trying to say, looked at the drawing for a moment. "Are these mountains?" To make her meaning clear, she said, "Ground," and did a wavelike motion with her hand.

"Yes!" Fives seemed relieved, and so did Echo. "Where is?"

Vebrandr thought for a moment. "There are no mountains close here, but there are hills to the north."

"Tomorrow, there. After sunrise."

"Why?" asked Disa.

Echo and Fives exchanged a few words, and then tried to explain with gestures and drawings, but no matter how hard they tried, nobody could understand anything other than that it was important for them to be on a hilltop by midmorning tomorrow.

That night, there was fire in the sky.

"Little-Frida! Fasti!" Disa called, "Come and take a look!"

Frida looked up. "What is it?"

"The northern lights," said Disa, and called the rest of the family to look at the show. It wasn't very bright yet, but she knew that as the night grew darker, the lights would get brighter and more visible.

They gathered at the north end of the house and watched as the flickering, flame-like lights brightened, then dimmed as if covered by smoke, and brightened again. Even Echo and Fives appeared amazed by the beautiful display. Vebrandr asked them what makes the northern lights appear, since they were from the sky and they should know, but he only got a shrug for an answer.

In the morning of the next day, well before sunrise, they left. Frida had given Vebrandr enough bread and dried meat for the three of them to have breakfast on the way and then some, just in case they were away longer than expected. Vebrandr had refused at first, saying that they won't be too far away from any settlements and that if really necessary, he could hunt, there's no reason to waste the food at home. But Frida had insisted, and so he ended up carrying nearly twice as much as he had expected.

They followed the road up to the village (where Echo and Fives, wearing their white armour again, drew quite a bit of attention from those already up and about) where they took the smaller path that went towards the north and those hills Echo and Fives wanted to reach by midmorning. That was one thing Vebrandr didn't understand: why midmorning? If they had agreed with being there by early afternoon, they could have left a bit after sunrise, and maybe he could have slept a bit longer. Lack of sleep made Vebrandr grumpy. It's not as if a few hours could make that much of a difference.

By sunrise, they were already halfway there. They had stopped to eat an hour ago, some distance away from the village. Now they were walking along the path, Vebrandr in front, followed by Fives and then Echo, who was carrying a rather odd backpack. Both of them were wearing those strange helmets that covered their faces (Vebrandr was actually expecting them to trip and fall over any moment, but it didn't look like that was going to happen anytime soon).

About an hour later the ground began to slope slightly upwards and they saw the hills ahead. They were by no means tall, not like the mountains Vebrandr had been to during one of the raids he'd been on when he was young, but they still stood quite a bit higher than the rest of the surrounding area, with large rocks sticking up. From then on, the ground became rougher and the path all but disappeared between the small bushes and rocks.

When they had reached the top of the highest hill, Echo took some strange item out of his bag and began adjusting the various buttons and knobs on it, while Fives walked around, seemingly without purpose. Then suddenly he turned around and said something to Echo, who nodded and, after pressing one more button, began talking. After a while, Vebrandr understood that he was repeating one single phrase. He shook his head and sat down on one of the rocks. Better leave the gods alone with their strange rituals.

This continued for about half an hour, until Fives said something and Echo stopped and packed the strange device back into his backpack.

The next morning Fasti was outside, playing vikings with Little-Frida when he heard a rather strange noise. He looked around, trying to spot its source, and saw a dark thing in the sky that looked like a bird, yet didn't. The longer he looked at it, the bigger it got until he could tell that it looked like a box with wings. At that point, Little-Frida began tugging on his sleeve and telling him to come inside, she was scared. He slowly walked backwards to the house, his eyes never leaving the thing still steadily getting closer. He turned around, opened the door, stepped in and slammed it behind him. Little-Frida ran to their mother and hugged her.

"What happened?" asked Frida.

"There's something huge flying towards us. It isn't a bird. It looks like a huge dragon," said Fasti. He could even hear the noise it made from inside now.

Suddenly, Echo and Fives stood up, took their helmets and weapons and went outside. Frida and Vebrandr followed and Fasti did as well, out of curiosity.

The box (because that's what it was, a metal box with wings and other weird bits sticking out) was quite close now, and Fives waved at it. It adjusted its course slightly and landed softly on the other side of the road, where they had buried the berserkers. Echo turned towards them.

"We go home now."

"Thank you," added Fives. They both then added something in their own language and with that, they strode out of the gate and over to the sky-ship. The side of it slid aside to reveal several others, all in the same kind of armour as Echo and Fives wore, but with blue markings. One of them stepped down from the ship and greeted Echo and Fives, and then they all climbed on. As the sky-ship took flight again, Echo and Fives turned around and waved at them.

Fasti waved back.

"Goodbye, Ekko and Faivs Berserker-slayers!" shouted Vebrandr.

Behind them, Leiknir, Disa and Little-Frida shouted their goodbyes as well.

The last thing Echo and Fives heard as they left the planet was "Far vel, Ekko ok Faivs Berserkjabani!"

"Echo, Fives. I need to talk to you." It was the Commander.

"Sir?"

"They couldn't find the planet you crashed on." Ahsoka sat down next to Fives.

Echo shook his head. "How is that possible?"

"We don't know. The whole system just... wasn't there anymore."

"As if a giant wolf had eaten it?" asked Fives. Echo chuckled at the private joke.

"No, more as if it had never even existed." Ahsoka frowned. Echo looked at the board between him and Fives and thought about what she had said, but couldn't figure out how it was possible for an entire planet to simply disappear. He absentmindedly moved one of his pieces.

Fives noticed his move, picked up the largest piece on the board (a piece of an old, broken comlink he had found somewhere) and moved it to the corner. "I win."

That drew Ahsoka's attention to their game. "What is it? How do you play?"

"Well, it doesn't really have a name, but it works like this: the white pieces, the clones, have to get their general, this one here, to one of these corner squares, while the black Seppies have to try to capture it..."

Notes:

Yes, this is the end. There just might be a sequel coming up... Maybe... But it'll probably take a long time before I upload it. So thanks to everyone who reviewed, and far vel!