In the morning, she wakes up to find her pack sitting in a pool of water. Cursing under her breath, she tries to wring it out the best she can. The things she's carrying with her are all soaked through, except the small pouch with leaves in it. Her stomach growls, reminding her that she never got to eat last night. Going outside she searches for some berries to eat on the road, or some fruits a little off the main path. ‘The forest isn’t nearly as scary during the day, it’s almost peaceful. I hope I can find something soon, my stomach is not happy about missing meals.’

Down the path, faint shouts break the morning stillness. She leaves with caution to see who it could be. ‘I wonder if it’s some traders moving along the path, or maybe bandits. I could use some more target practice while I'm here.’ Thinking to herself, she pulls her bow in front of her and readies an arrow in case it’s the latter. Creeping along the ground, pausing behind bushes, she grows closer to the source.

‘Water? I didn’t think I was that close to it here, I guess I ran farther than I realized last night.’ Out in the water, floats a Viking ship. The front has a large figurehead of a serpent with the tail reaching all the way up the back of the ship. Along the sides are shields and oars, with a man rowing each one. The mast stands tall above the rest of the short, flat ship. It waves in the breeze as they move along the shore.

Her eyes go wide as she realizes the figurehead is the same as the one from that night. ‘That means the Viking is on that ship too. Time to say hello again.' Looking around a tree catches her eye. Perfect to climb up and that's far enough away that the Vikings won't see her, but still close enough to make the shot. At the base of the tree, she leaves her pack and makes her way up. Carrying her bow strung across her back and an arrow gripped between her teeth, she makes short work of the climb. Spotting a branch from below, she makes her way up to it. Once perched in a good spot, she readies her arrow and pulls back on the bowstring. One breath in, and a slow breath out, she releases the string. Watching the arrow soar, it hits the target. Two inches above where the Viking stands buried deep in the mast.

“What was that? Find the shooter! Hold your fire until my mark.” The Viking runs to the edge of the ship shouting orders to his men. Scattering, their eyes search the trees for her, but her confidence shines, knowing they’ll never see her. She leans back against the tree trunk and watches the chaos unfold before her.

“There! In the tree on shore!” One of the men shouts. Shocked, Solvi thinks of a plan to get herself out of this.

“Rorja, shoot them down. Friatha, bring us into shore, I want to catch them alive.” His voice booms across the water, easy for her to hear.

“You can try all you like, but you’ll never catch me,” she says to herself. An arrow flies toward her and hits the tree trunk. She screams in fake pain and falls from the tree. Holding onto her bow in a tight grip, she lands behind a bush. She grabs her pack, and runs farther into the forest to find a new tree to hide in.

“Split up and look for the shooter, I know they fell around here somewhere! You two go to the left, and you three go to the right, I’ll look ahead of us.” She watches him go straight to the tree she was sitting in, and he starts to laugh under his breath. ‘I guess he liked my note.’

On the side of the tree, another arrow holds up a piece of parchment. She wrote him a note and left it on the tree for him to find. The message is clear, so he knows it's from her.

‘Don’t think I forgot about you. We’ll meet again, and we will have our fight. I promise.’ He turns away smiling a little to himself. Walking back to the ship he calls for his men to stop the search.

“Back to the ship, men, the shooter is already long gone. Let’s get moving again.” They head back to the ship and push off, out into the ocean again. Looking back at the shore, he meets her eyes. Only a moment passes, but it feels much longer to her. She understands everything he needed to say to her. They would meet again, and they would fight one on one until there is a victor. Then she would have her answers that she has come so far for.