[color=fff200]"Piss off! We're full!" [/color] the decrepit excuse for a captain told Þórsteinn and tossed him a half eaten apple core before untying the knots and ordering his men to push the ship off with their oars. Þórsteinn threw the fruit into the sea and spat in disappointment. There was no point in even replying to the geezer, let alone starting a fight with him.

There was but [i]one[/i] whaler in the [i]entire[/i] Kattegat, and with all its rotten planks and patchy sails, it looked more like a leaking bathtub than a proper ship, and its crew looked like a school class rather than a band capable of capturing the mighty sea beast. All of Þórsteinn's efforts to reach the town already seemed fruitless after no more than an hour spent in it. 

There were a lot of merchants, however, and of course slavers. In his exile, Þórsteinn had grown completely unused to having slaves around, and the truth was, he came to the conclusion that slaves are for lazy people. He surely felt like a slave when he stopped by the seeress on his way into the town. The old woman made him clean her entire home before even considering giving him a hint of his future; and the things he heard were so vague that he kept cursing both her and her kind in his mind for hours afterwards. As he remembered this now, the capitan's straightforwardness seemed like a refreshment, however rude he may had been. 

He took a salted herring from his pack and started chewing on it with a sigh just as he came across a marvelous vessel freshly arrived to the port: not a whaler, but a long ship. There was a handful or guards around it chatting. [color=39b54a][i]The rest must be striking some deal with the jarl...[/i][/color] Behind it, Þórsteinn saw at least a dozen more similar ships peacefully floating. 

[color=0072bc]"That's a fine ship," [/color]Þórsteinn said as he approached the guards seated on some barrels. [color=0072bc]"She must have a name, I am sure. Such beauties seldom don't."[/color]

[color=f7941d]"And who may you be?"[/color] one of them asked, a burly looking fellow with fat fingers holding a tankard.

[color=0072bc]"Þórsteinn,"[/color] he answered. 

[color=f49ac2]"Þórsteinn...? So is my brother. That doesn't tell me much at all,"[/color] said another man, younger, with flushed cheeks. 

[color=0072bc]"Þórsteinn Halvardsson. I'm looking for a whaling crew or some work to do here,"[/color] he said.

[color=f7941d]"Does this look like a bloody whaler to you?"[/color] the burly man said and got up all shakily.

[color=0072bc]"No, but you sure look like a whale...."[/color] Þórsteinn said and grabbed the hand of his ax.

The burly man stared at his eyes and started breathing heavily, biting his lips under giant red mustache. Suddenly his friends started laughing behind him. He turned towards them and started spitting and yelling gibberish, but the laughter went on. Now really mad, he kicked the barrel he was sitting on, and a whole lot of sweet ale started spilling down into to the water.

[color=a187be]"He is so right, Orm! You are so fat! Almost as fat as your own wife!"[/color] said a skinny fellow who lacked a finger on his right hand. 

This made everyone's laughter even greater -- although mixed with sporadic grieving for the spilled drink -- and Orm would have started a fight had he not been so drunk. Instead he stumbled and had to sit down, right into the puddle of ale that had spilled. 

Now passers by had begun to gather around the scene and children pointed their fingers and started throwing pebbles at Orm, laughing at him for being clumsy. All laughed except one of the guards who kept only smiling and making weird noised with his mouth, but he too seemed to be having fun.

[color=f6989d]"Come on, Tongueless,"[/color] said the fifth guard to the smiling man, [color=f6989d]"let's pick him up."[/color] Wen he got up, Þórsteinn saw a curious knife at his side, unlike any he had ever seen, very beautiful and ornate with some gems that must have been foreign. 

The two of them together lifted Orm up and left him standing supported against a wall just as a group of men was heard coming through the crowd. The tongueless man pointed with his finger and his friend said [color=f6989d]"easy, everyone, the captain's here."[/color] 

[@Sirkaithethird]