Though the longhouse was warmly lit by the crackling central fire pit, the rugged hunter shivered as if he were standing naked in the freezing wind.

Kjetil looked down at his bound hands, his one good eye wide.

"They are the white ghosts of the north." Kjetil whispered, "They are demons made of ice and hunger... Weapons just anger them."

Halig scoffed loudly, gripping his hunting knife. "Demons? Ghosts? Have you gone entirely mad, old man?"

"Wait, Halig..." Torstein suddenly interrupted, stepping forward.

Torstein looked at Erik, his grip tightening on his iron musket. "King Erik... Lord Commander Leofric spoke to me in private before we left City Titan. He told me that King Ragnar had a very specific warning for us if we sailed this far north. I thought it was just a strange story at the time."

"What kind of warning?" Erik asked.

"Leofric said there are animals here named polar bears," Torstein explained, "Ragnar said they are not like the brown bears in Francia or the black bears in Norway. If we do not hit them in the eye or the heart... maybe our muskets can’t kill them."

"You are telling me," Erik started, rubbing his temples in disbelief, "that we just blew up an entire Danish fleet, survived a volcanic shockwave, and conquered a rebel city... but we might get eaten by a really fat bear?"

"It is not just a bear!" Kjetil screamed from the floor, thrashing against his ropes. "If you march your men into the Black Jaws, you are marching them into a slaughterhouse!"

"Shut up, Kjetil!" Halig barked, though the big warrior suddenly looked a little less confident. He looked at Erik. "Damnit... if Ragnar himself warned us about these things, maybe we shouldn’t go poking around in their hunting grounds."

Erik stood in silence, listening to the threatening rumble of the volcano outside the wooden walls.

If they stayed in the city, they would all starve to death in a matter of days. If they marched to the canyon, they might face an unkillable monster.

"We will try," Erik finally said, "If these polar bears bleed, then we can kill them. I don’t care how fat they are."

"Halig, you are with me." Erik commanded, throwing a cloak over his shoulders. "Torstein, you stay here. Keep the city secure and make sure the prisoners don’t try to riot while we are gone. If the mountain explodes... well, try not to die."

"Good hunting, my King." Torstein saluted, slamming his fist against his chest. "Bring us back a feast."

"I will bring you back a white bear-skin rug for your bedroom," Erik grinned playfully, trying to ease the tension in the room.

They marched out of the longhouse and quickly gathered the 300 men.

The men were hungry, exhausted, and covered in soot, but when Erik told them they were marching to secure enough meat to feed the entire city, their morale instantly skyrocketed.

...

The journey took two grueling days, just as Kjetil had promised.

They marched away from the rumbling volcano and deeper into the frozen wilderness of the northern coast.

The deep snow was difficult to walk through, especially on empty stomachs.

Halig marched right beside Erik, his stomach letting out loud complaints every few hours.

"If this giant sea-cow meat doesn’t taste good, I am going to be so fucking angry..." Halig groaned, wiping a layer of gray ash off his nose.

"Just pretend it is roasted pork, Halig." Erik chuckled, though his own body was aching with hunger. "With enough salt, anything tastes good."

Kjetil walked ahead of them, his one good eye scanning the white horizon.

"We are close." Kjetil whispered late in the afternoon of the second day.

He pointed a bound hand toward a massive ridge of dark, volcanic rock ahead of them. "Just over that ridge. The canyon drops down to the black sand beach."

"Load your weapons! Check your powder!" Erik ordered the musketeers behind him. "Stay quiet! We don’t want to spook the herd before we get a clean shot!"

Erik, Halig, and Kjetil crept up to the top of the jagged rock ridge. They dropped onto their stomachs and carefully peeked over the edge, looking down into the massive coastal canyon known as the Black Jaws.

The canyon walls were made of black volcanic glass, leading down to a massive beach of pitch-black sand.

Crashing against the shore were the freezing waves of the northern ocean.

And lying on the black sand were the ivory-tusks...

"By the gods..." Halig breathed out, his eyes widening.

There were dozens of them. Massive, incredibly fat, brown beasts that looked exactly like giant slugs with flippers.

But sticking out of their mouths were long, brutal white tusks that looked sharp enough to pierce a ship’s hull.

Kjetil wasn’t lying; these beasts were absolutely colossal. A single one could easily feed hundreds of people. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"Look at all that meat..." Erik whispered, a smile finally breaking across his face. "We did it. We just have to climb down, line up our shots, and we are completely saved."

"No... King Erik... look closer." Kjetil stammered. He pressed his face flat against the cold rock, terrified to even look.

Erik frowned and narrowed his eyes, looking past the massive herd of walruses resting near the crashing waves.

He scanned the far end of the black sand beach, near the icy caves built into the canyon walls.

Lying in the black sand was the massive carcass of a half-eaten walrus. The snow and sand around it were soaked in bright red blood.

And standing directly over the dead sea-beast, ripping massive chunks of flesh from its bones with savage power, was exactly what Ragnar had warned them about.

It was a bear. But it was purely white, blending with the surrounding snowdrifts.

It was easily twice as tall as Halig, with heavily muscled shoulders and claws as long as iron daggers.

Suddenly, the wind shifted in the canyon, blowing directly from Erik’s position down to the beach.

The giant white bear stopped eating.

It slowly raised its blood-stained head, its black nose twitching as it caught the scent of 300 sweaty, ash-covered humans hiding on the ridge.

The beast turned its eyes toward Erik, letting out a low growl that echoed all the way up the canyon walls.