only met him once or twice, but that was more than most boys had the right to say.

As with all things on Skagos, his youth was hard and filled with violence and struggle. The blood of his mother was strong in him, and was evident from onset. He was a large and heavy babe, and grew sooner and larger than all the children around him. By his tenth nameday Jormun had already passed five foot four and stood only three inches shorter than Mila, the woman who had taken the most responsibility in his upbringing.

At three and ten he got into a fight with three boys that were four years his senior, but at six foot he was of a height with them and just as broad ifnot more so. He smashed one’s head against a rock, killing him.

Recent Past

Death has always seemed to follow Jormun, since his mother gave him to the world before her corpse was completely cold. In 402 AC, during the early months of the Scarlet Winter he lost Mila to the cold and Thorst, a young orphan boy who began to feel like a brother, followed her soon after. The death that followed him did not end that year.

In 404 AC, when the Mainlanders came to Skagos to raid in hopes of surviving the Winter, he was fighting alongside Skagosi men on the Western Shore. When he returned back to his village settlement, he found his home burned not Amia, the woman he called his own. After searching near an