The Self Evolver.

The night was dark with only a beautiful silver moon acting as the only source of light towards a village located on an island deep within the sea as the very stars had decided to hide during this particular night. Within this village, in a certain wooden house, a woman could be seen laying on a wooden bed surrounded by various women almost all of them wearing clothes of a similar design consisting mostly of long tunic shirts, leather skirts and beautiful leather belts that wrapped around their waists. This was a common style of dressing for the women in the village. The woman on the bed however was wearing a loose white nightgown.

The woman on the bed was currently breathing heavily, her face a concoction of worry and anxiety as she struggled on her current task, giving birth to her child.

One of the women in the room, an old woman with grey hair and a face full of wrinkles, approached the woman on the bed.

“There is no need to worry Helga, all signs currently indicate that both you and the baby are in full health, nothing will go wrong.” Said the old woman as she placed a gentle yet comforting hand on Helga’s shoulder. This seemed to ease Helga’s anxiety a little as the old woman by her side was the most well renown midwife of the village with a lifetime experience and high success rate in assisting women to deliver children into the world. The old woman’s name was Torhil.

“What about my husband, is he here yet?” asked Helga as she clutched her belly in pain. She could already feel the baby within her already making its way down her birth canal and she was struggling to hold it in as long as possible. After all she wanted her child to arrive in the world to be greeted by both her and her husband. This was simply one of the happy dreams she had always wished to fulfil as a new mother and even though her attempt to slow down her birthing process was causing her pain, she still held on.

“He is on his way, we have received a message that he has already dealt with the invading Viking party and is currently on his way back, don’t worry.” Said Torhil to which Helga nodded.

A few minutes passed by with Helga bearing a look of pain until Torhil with a worried look spoke once more.

“Helga, it’s time to begin, any more holding back of the baby could result in disastrous complications to both you and the baby.”

Helga wanted to argue that they should wait for a bit longer but the fear of harming her unborn child caused her to finally sigh in defeat and agree to begin.

**********

A few minutes ago on the South of the island was a harbour where some ships both large and small were located, was a large number of male fighters staring outwards towards a few ships that were currently leaving the island in terrible conditions, a sign of their immense defeat by the hands of the male fighters at the harbour.

Among the group of fighters on the harbour, a man wearing a large helmet with L-shaped horns that only covered the top part of his head approached another much larger man with a stoic build, a large hat-like metal helmet with four horns rising out of it in a wavy like manner, large black beard and a large scar running through his left eye that looked like something that was made by a large creature trying to claw out his skull.

“Chief, the warriors of the Berserker tribe won’t be returning any time soon given the number of warriors they have lost.” said the first man as he glanced around him at the large number of dead bodies, approximately 4 dozen, that lay still around them not accounting for the few bodies drifting on the sea in front of them.

“I know Harold but I still need to make sure that none of them are still roaming around on the island otherwise the people in the village won’t be safe.” Said the latter man as he glanced around with a serious expression.

“I know chief and while that is something that needs to be done, there is also something much more important that you need to do.” Said Harold as he placed a hand on the first man’s shoulder.

The first man showed a look of sudden realization as he remembered that something incredible was happening back at the village where he needed to be. He had forgotten all about it as he had been busy dealing with the attack from the Berserker tribe.

“Right I need to head back or Helga will get mad,” said the first man as he glanced at Harold.

“Are you sure you will be alright here?” he questioned with a concerned yet hurried look.

“Yeah don’t worry we will handle everything else on our own, won’t we boys?”

“Yeah!”

“Don’t worry chief, just head back!”

“Say hello to the baby for us!”

“……” shouted all the fighters present each expressing their support to the man they regarded as their chief.

“You heard them, you best head back to the village Bjorn otherwise you might never hear the end of it from Helga.”

“Alright then.” Said the first man, or rather Chief Bjorn, as he quickly turned around and began to run back towards the village at full speed.

********

Helga was currently in the middle of pushing when the door to their house was violently smashed open, revealing a large man with a large scar running down his left eye and a large black bushy beard who was heaving as he tried to catch his breath.

While the appearance of such a mean-looking man busting through the door would scare most people both men and women, Helga on the contrary was delighted.