It was another peaceful night, and Rurik's little mind was still dreaming about the day's study.
He was muttering some strange things in his sleep, and couldn't help but snuggle up to the leather blanket wrapped around him.
A new day begins with the work of the lower-level priests, who are cooking today's breakfast in the huge wooden house.
It's not much different from the past. Bread is very precious, and the daily meals of the priests mostly consist of fish. In recent days, everyone eats venison every day.
However, not everyone ate much. The priests were used to a life of half-starvation and half-full. A small piece of cooked meat was the so-called breakfast.
After waking up, Rurik ate the meat immediately without any psychological burden.
Only his servant Rumia looked at the pieces of meat in the rough wooden bowl with many thoughts.
"Eat. If you don't eat, you will be hungry." Rurik muttered the ancient Sami vocabulary he had learned in the past few days. Without any rhetoric, he used the most basic vocabulary to express what he meant.
"OK."
Rumia felt cruel, now things have changed, even if the venison in this bowl was once her own live deer, it has nothing to do with her anymore.
In fact, Rumia didn't quite understand what a "servant" meant. As long as she worked for them, she was a servant, right?
After a few days of contact, she understood one thing. As long as she obeyed this little boy, she would be treated well.
She took a few bites of the venison sprinkled with coarse salt, and the refreshing salty taste deeply stimulated her mind.
She suddenly stumbled and asked: "Today, shall we study?"
"Yes. I also need to learn your language. You also need to learn our language."
"Okay. I, study."
Everyone is smart, and people can distinguish the core contents of Chinese languages. As long as they master these core contents, two people with different native languages can barely communicate.
Rurik originally thought that today would be another peaceful study day. Due to the bad wind and snow outside, he naturally continued to be protected by the towering priest's wooden house.
Not long after he had eaten breakfast, a "white" strong man wearing a white bear skin hurried into the wooden house.
The person who came was none other than the leader Otto.
Behind him were several of his close associates.
Otto's sudden appearance made Vilia a little dissatisfied. She suspended her translation work and also suspended the language education for Rurik and Rumia.
"My leader, you should be gentler. Don't make too much noise. Spare me, an old man."
"Oh, I'm sorry, great priest. I just came to pick up my son."
"Rurik? What's the matter? I'm teaching him personally."
"This..." Otto's eyes widened, he knew what his son and his servant were doing.
Otto supported his son's study, but due to the limitations of the times, he believed that it was enough to be better than others after studying.
He stepped forward and muttered: "Great priest, I came here just to take Rurik away to clear the snow. Now that the snowstorm is basically over, we must remove as much snow as possible from all the houses, including this big wooden house."
"Ah! I almost forgot." Vilia patted her forehead, "It's for snow removal, Bona, help me up!"
After Vilia was helped up, she felt that snow removal work was imperative.
Humanistic care? Bah! The parents must be simple and want to treat Rumia as a tool.
He gritted his teeth and said to his father: "What is this difficulty? But you have to prepare some food for me. Well...Mom!"
Niya responded with a somewhat complicated expression: "What's wrong?"
"Can you make some porridge for me? I'm preparing some dry bread cubes. I'll eat them when I finish my work."
"Okay. But Rurik, you have to be careful. Come down when you are really tired. I am different from your father. I will not force..."
"Shut up!" Otto stopped his wife angrily: "Go prepare the porridge! You have to believe in your son. He is the man who will be the future leader. If he cannot clear the snow from the roof, he will face many problems in the future.
What ability do the enemies have to defeat them?!"
Rurik wanted to laugh when he heard this, as if the snowflakes were the enemy and clearing the snow was also a kind of battle.
If you think about it carefully, similar father roles are very common. A strong father will always ask his son to challenge the impossible, and only the mother of the child will be worried behind the scenes.
So, how to climb to the roof?
The roofs of ordinary houses in Roseburg are made of pieces of wood, and a layer of grass containing soil is laid on top. Some people even lay a layer of animal skins on the bottom layer for better protection from rain.
All buildings have no tiles, and the roofs also have a certain slope.
Rurik could not climb the roof without using a ladder, and Otto did not prepare a ladder for this purpose because he thought it would be unnecessary.
After all, my son is only seven years old. As long as I hold him, I can easily throw him to the roof.
In this way, Rurik was thrown into the snow nest on the roof, and the next person thrown up was Rumia.
"You guys start!" Otto on the ground ordered.
"Okay!" After Rurik finished speaking, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and use ancient Sami vocabulary to instruct Rumia, "Rumia, start! Finish, you and I, eat something. Eat bread."
Bread? In fact, Rumia was lucky enough to eat bread for the first time in the priest's cabin after she was captured.
It was Rurik who broke off a small piece of dry whole-wheat bread for her. In fact, in his opinion, this bread was not only a good food for hunger, but also good for cleaning teeth.
It is really a real whole-wheat bread, with a lot of wheat bran in it! Even so, it has more energy than the meat you usually eat. When you do physical work, eating wheat is the first food to restore your physical strength.
Looking at the snow on the entire roof, Rurik estimated that today was really the busiest day since he traveled through time.
Is there anything more annoying than asking a seven-year-old boy and a ten-year-old girl to complete such a task while adults watch the show and call it a challenge?
Fortunately, the snow was quite soft and ice had formed at the bottom.
As the work began, Rurik personally felt the busyness of the work. After careful consideration, it was not unacceptable.
The oars of the Ross tribe's longships are not only wider, but also have some ingenious design.
Including some small oars for small boats, they are all carved from oak into special shapes, that is, a groove is deliberately carved out in the center of the oar.
This little invention will take advantage of it when paddling, and it will be more efficient than a smooth paddle.
Then, it is also very efficient to use this paddle to break up loose snowflakes.
But the snow was still too thick. The two light children worked hard and pushed a lot of snow to the ground.
Rurik took a closer look and saw that his father was certainly not just a spectator. He was also using a wooden paddle as a shovel to push aside the snow he had pushed down.
He looked around again and saw many black shadows swaying on the roofs of the huge Rossburg. Today's snow clearing seemed like a festival.
Too much snow can collapse a house, and as the snow gets less and less, the likelihood of a collapse decreases.
Most of the work must be completed in the short day. Seeing that the work was over and dressing up, the panting Rurik was happy to see that Rumia was still pushing the snow hard.
"Hey! Rumia, rest!"
"No. Over, snow, rest."
Rurik understood what she meant. This servant had indeed proved his obedience with practical actions. After all, she was only a ten-year-old child. She should not have more ideas in her mind. Given some promises, she would work hard to complete the work.
Rurik thought a lot at this moment. He sat on the roof to take a rest, looking at the girl's struggling figure, and estimated that when she grew up, she would be a good helper for him.
Although Rumia is just a child, he can teach her a lot. In the future, such a person will be an excellent right hand, even if she is a woman who will be looked down upon.
After resting for a while, Rurik subconsciously covered his stomach.
"Oh, I'm really hungry. They should be cooking porridge now, I can smell it. Finish the work early, and I'll eat early."
Compared with other children of the same age, Rurik can be called "pampered". Although he is only seven years old, Rurik's weak body still has a lot of muscle strength. He is stronger than other children. In comparison, Lurik
Mia's body is much weaker.
Rumia was really afraid of that man. She didn't know how much protection the little boy around her would give her. It was obvious that if she couldn't complete her job well, she would definitely be punished by the evil man.
Punishment must be something terrifying!
Rumia had no intention of resting at all. She just wanted to finish her work as soon as possible, but she didn't realize at all how excessive labor was damaging to the body.
Except for Rurik, everyone in the tribe has no concept of pants. The way to protect the lower body from the cold is a longer leather jacket that can submerge the knees, and high-top boots that extend to the knees. Under normal circumstances, the combination of these two types of clothing is enough
She was protected from the cold, but Rumia's new clothes didn't fit so well.
She was so thin that some of her skin was always exposed to the cold. She was also afraid of punishment and worked hard. This work was indeed very successful. Otto, who was clearing snow on the ground, also monitored her work from time to time. Otto said nothing.
, I was very satisfied with the work of the girl Rumia.
She is indeed an obedient tool.
Gradually, Rumia felt the heat, and the animal skin covering her body felt like a heavy burden.
Rurik kept pushing the snow with his head down, but when he raised his head again, he was surprised to see that Rumia was actually getting rid of the shackles of the animal skin. The cold-resistant leather coat was only tied to the waist with hemp rope.
This child was actually wearing a lined linen shirt, and her two arms were directly exposed to the cold wind from the Arctic.
Rurik was shocked.
He hurried over, his face full of shock: "Lumia, what are you doing! Put your clothes back on quickly."
Rumia basically understood the command in Norse, and she reluctantly explained: "I...I'm hot. I'm fine now."
"very good?!"
Rurik touched her arm. It was so hot! Her arm was like an ice cube!
Hugely frightened, he touched the girl's forehead with his hand, and her head became cold.
How can you feel hot when your whole body is obviously cold?
Suddenly, an extremely bad situation came to mind. Rurik waited for the girl's big eyes and snatched the wooden paddle from her hand: "Rumia, it's over. You put on your clothes and go to the ground to eat.
."
"I...I'm okay."
"enough!"
Rurik stopped talking nonsense. He directly threw down both pairs of wooden oars. Then he took Rumia's cold hand and sat on the ice on the roof. He looked at the snow on the ground that had not been cleared immediately and slipped directly.
Go down.
Then, the two fell into a snowdrift.
"Hey! Rurik, why did you come down before you finished your work?!" Otto was very dissatisfied with his son's decision, "You still can't stand this little exertion?!"
"Dad! Something happened." Rurik shouted with a frightened face: "Hurry up and give Rumia hot water. If she works for a little longer, she will freeze to death."
At this point, Rurik stopped talking nonsense. He smelled that porridge was indeed being cooked in his house. It had a comforting aroma of wheat.
But Rumia's situation is already very bad. What's worse is that the girl doesn't even realize that she is almost dead.
Rumia was dragged away. She was still feeling hot all over, but her walking was like a machine lacking lubricant. Her whole body looked very stiff.
She consumed so many calories that her mind became numb. Her brain mistakenly believed that she was very hot, but in fact she almost froze to death.
Many people who get drunk in winter lie down on the roadside and fall asleep. As the sun rises, people who get up early are surprised to find these hungover people with their clothes lifted and their bodies frozen.
Body.
Rurik was thinking of such a terrible scene. Rumia was obviously so cold that her brain was confused and she couldn't tell what was hot and what was cold!
Only he has more knowledge in his mind. It would be terrible if Rumia who listens to him has both advantages and disadvantages!
He pulled the girl through the door of his house, threw her to the sleeping nest made of animal skins and hay, and then approached his mother who was squatting and boiling wheat in an iron pot and said: "Mom, the wheat looks almost ripe. Give it to me quickly.
bowl."
"Don't worry, I'll serve it for you, be careful it's very hot." Seeing that the child was well, Niya felt really good.
She calmly filled a bowl for her son, who picked up a wooden spoon and ran to the girl with the bowl in hand.
Niya was surprised to see that her son was actually feeding the servant himself!
At this moment, Niya suddenly thought of many things. She didn't understand how a servant He De could be so noble that the future leader wanted to feed her?
Later, Otto also curiously returned to the house and saw clearly the actions of the two children.
"Rurik, what are you doing?" Otto asked strangely.
"Dad, Mom, Rumia has no idea that she almost froze to death. Mom, prepare some more bread cubes and bake some meat quickly. Dad, help me and carry her to the campfire. I don't want her to freeze to death.