When Tjodhild was erected Erik left his homeland on a quest to find the Aesir gods. He traded his seafaring skills for passage with sea raiders and fishing ships ever pushing east. For years he roamed the lands of the Norse, the Swedes, and the Danes slowly pushing south and eastward. Surviving as a mercenary, a hunter, and adventurer he fought with and against the Visigoths, Franks, Romans, Slavs, Byzantines, and Saracens. He sailed with an armada against Constantinople amassed by the Genoese. The fleet was beaten severely by the Imperial Naval ships spewing Greek fire. Gathering the surviving ships and the mercenary army remnants he launched a second assault. While luring the Imperial Naval ships away from the city with the bulk of the surviving armada, he sailed a small flotilla of longboats mounted on wagon wheels across the desert delivering siege forces to the city walls before the defenders could muster.

Breaching the outer walls, an agreement was struck. The invaders sacked the town without opposition and the ancient city was spared from firing and vandalism. While pillaging a Muslim ghetto, Erik happened upon a young Saracen Prince defending a Mosque from a group of Magyar mercenaries attempting to torch it. Erik butchered the Magyars and helped the Mosque’s holy men and the Saracen beat out the flames. Erik agreed to smuggle the Saracen and his tutor through the mercenary bands and out of the city. He decided to travel with them to the Saracen’s lands on the Iberian Peninsula. Over the long months of travel, Erik learned the ways of the east, science, philosophy, history, mysticism, languages, and medicine. In exchange he taught the Prince to hunt, fish, celestial navigation, Viking lore, and the ways of war.

Grateful for his son’s safe return, the Sultan gave Erik a grand merchant vessel laden with spices, oils, and silk. Under terms that if he could get the cargo to London safely, half of the profit along with the ship were his. Hungry for the smell of salt air, he accepted gladly. The Prince’s tutor completing his duties chose to join Erik on the trip. He found debating philosophy with a Viking priceless in itself.

After reaching London, Erik journeyed North exploring the land of many songs. He found the Scots to be an interesting breed and was befriended by the MacLeod’s and the Fraisers. It was in Fraiser Glen he encountered the first Vikings since leaving the mercenary army at Constantinople. A true Viking Warrior, Tusk and his Warrior King and brother, Doom. Doom fell into love with and married one of the Fraiser women, the Lady Seraphine.

After the festivities, Erik continued his journeys to the fortified city of Edinburgh. His plan to find passage to the emerald isle died swiftly. A lone Viking in a seafaring town was too easy a vent for ancient hatreds. By the time the town watch arrived battered, bleeding, and broken bodies filled the marketplace. A well-aimed cobblestone to the back of the head later and the Viking was being dragged into custody.

Stripped of his clothing, weapons, and belongings, Erik was chained to a wall within a locked cell. He offered prayers to Odin, Thor, and Loki for strength and guidance. Before he could finish, the cell wall was literally ripped outward from the fortress. The head of a massive black dragon peered in with a toothy grin. The head liquefied and poured within the cell reforming into a human, the Saracen tutor. Erik stared speechless at his old traveling companion. The chains dissolved from Erik’s wrists and ankles as had the cell door. The tutor stepped out of the cell and returned with the Viking’s confiscated items. He grabbed Erik by the shoulder and dove out the broken wall with him. The tutor regained dragon form and the two of them soared off into the heavens.