Chapter 26: It is an unexpected but welcome surprise.

Date: Mörsugur 16th, 999. (Alt: 29th Dec, 999 AD.) Location: Götaland (Ancient Sweden.)

Heath does final preparations for the illusion of the cinematic final battle, tweaking the cameras, TVs and certain shots with the 'pizzazz' needed to create a stunning show.

He knew he had no choice to use himself, and he felt crummy for doing this over a technical lie from his experiences in the game. However, the roleplay aspects, as he remembered them, were nearly perfectly captured to convey the emotions he went through.

Heath travelled back, now checking on the golems and their necessary 'serving' tasks were ready and complete, then also tried out the full cake's flavour with some extra portions with everyone in the cast, Agnarr, Arne, Asdos, Åge, Birger, Egill, Eirikr, Gorm, Leif, Hervor, Hreinn, Kåre, Sigrid and Valyria. And to give some semblance of humanity for the prisoners left in the cells, he also gave them a slice of cake, which they accepted with distrust still evident. And it was a huge victory for the revolutionary baking knowledge shown for their time.

While they said it was too sweet, many of them gobbled it in under 2 minutes. Due to this, he saved this recipe as another example put within the 'cooking' runic injector. Heath had asked what it should be named, but they simply called it 'the celebration cake.' (Very original.)

"So, there are meats that are not similar to deer ready, necessary fruits and vegetables set up in nice designs like the cornucopia, the desserts are done, and the wide assortment of drinks are ready on the table. Am I missing anything?" Heath asked them all in person. They each thought about and shook their heads, except Valyria. "How about ice for the drinks?" She asks, knowing of Heath's examples from his home realm. Heath pulled a look of ascertainment and formed it immediately, placing it in a large insulated box for safety.

Heath talked with them for about a Model half an hour before noticing the deer were teleporting in towards them again. The Doe has a small model in her mouth that would be their final choice of design. And they chose *imaginary drum rolls.*

The second option with the arms above the front legs and a longer neck, with mennskr-like hands but with distal phalange hooves! Because it matched their original bodies the most and would require the least amount of training for walking and using their arms, while the increased flexibility of their new, longer necks would allow for easier movement. "That is a nice choice. Before we complete the transformation, are you sure there are no straying thoughts in your group?" Heath asks them, feeling that not all the deer are fully certain.

But that question was met with slight defence from the Doe's part, as she believed that it would waste Heath's time. She still felt that taking too much of it would be detrimental for the party she could see from around her.

"We would be fine, would we not?" The Doe had turned back and looked at them in an inquiring manner, as this was what they had agreed on and saw no reason to alter it. The group of 50 deer exchanged glances with each other for a few moments. Their silent conversations that were untranslatable to the mennskr were efficient and delivered their verdict. They would stick with this choice. "That is good, then. Because this does not alter your minds as severely as when you gained sapience."

Heath pictured the process in his mind. "I believe you would be awake after the transformation. Want me to begin now once all of you move back to the rest of your family?" Heath sets his eyes on the portal, believing it was better to be a one-and-done process.

The Doe, her mate and her sister nod in palpable excitement. They could imagine being able to grab food with their hands, using tools and equipment that would otherwise be impossible for them to handle and the capability of catering for their group. "Wait." Heath exclaims before they leave through the portal. "Do you want those resurrected to be made of real flesh and bone, or copper like Agnarr?" Heath's questions were met with confused looks from the elders, they do not know the best option to pick.

"Let us choose the first option, I would enjoy feeling my mate's warm fur again." The Doe's mother comments, sentimental and dewy-eyed from the fragmented memories of her past. After that comment, everyone came to the same harmonious consensus.

Heath warped, then brought the bones out upon a soft bear fur quilt, each identified and isolated from their residual soul energy that would keep upon a corpse after passing. 'It works quite a bit like radio-carbon dating, but only for a few decades.' Heath internally commented to himself. They each saw the bones categorised and piled to their respective person, and those were parts of their skeletons that could not be found? They were partially replaced with bone replicas, thanks to Heath's magic. For the deer, it was a true miracle.

They never thought that the lost bones could have been retrieved, yet here it was. They did not react as extreme as they would have done, though. More than likely, they expected Heath's precautionary developments. But their gratitude grew to zealotry.

'Did I overdo it?' Heath internally wondered. 'Nah, they deserve it.' Heath just rolled with it. He walked through the portal first to then reach their new grounds and placed each of the bones in their respective positions from young to old. And through Heath's remembering of the locations of every known material needed for the spell, he warped every necessary material required for this mass resurrection. Then, through the deer's chanting of every dead deer's story, they were soon reconstituted and brought back slowly, yet efficiently.

The original surviving deer immediately recognised them after this long, yet quiet process was complete. All of them, from those who only saw them die just before their ascension, to those who had died years ago, were brought back as one.

They were beyond exhilarated, their very souls were anchored to the ground from this experience, stopping their bodies from moving as they wished. In thanks for there not being any distractions, Heath started a new chanting of magic. The ascension magic was made faster this time, as they were soundly asleep. This whole procedure took 2 Model hours. And cost about a quarter of his magic. "They will rest themselves and their souls will acclimate to their new bodies in about a day." Heath then went and grabbed a spritz-like berry cider.

He samples it before continuing. "And as an additional feature, I will update your setups as well with required facial recognition, I did not think of it at first, but then I realised my mistake. Here." Heath upgrades them magically, which he will continue with the others soon.

Just like their previous selves, they no longer felt their features were uncanny or slightly alien. They saw the contours and patterns of their new faces and even developed partial preferences to it in comparison to their old faces. "How did you know?" The Doe asks, surprised Heath spotted this. "I noticed you would pause when looking at each other, and even if you recognised the person, your soul would still appear uncomfortable with them, which I understand. Mennskr would have too if they were changed as much." Heath laughs.

"Are you alright with waiting for their awakening?" He asks them, which all the deer nod to. And Heath's group of friends and family in the background looked as if this was expected. Heath warps them to their new grounds onto the nests asked by the revived deer's families.

"Now, all of you should collect any materials or food you would wish to bring for the party. As all of you are invited and have your own meals and foods catered for your diets. We would also do your body enhancements at your home too. If you do not mind." The deer halted yet again, then suddenly bowed, and Heath rolled his eyes peevishly in response. "What did I say?" He asked with a tone that showed he was charmed, but annoyed at the same time. They shot up just as quickly and gave contrite looks, which Heath stopped them by patting.

"No need to look so rueful. This is a preparation for a celebration! Come." He walks through the portal to their grounds now, and the deer follow him like ducklings to a mother, which all, from Agnarr to Valyria, spot. Hervor nods her head and gives a quiet casting of respect.

"They grow up so fast." Agnarr comments, jokingly wiping his left eye. Egill familiarly tonks his back in jest. "Should we follow?" Egill asks, not wanting to ruin Heath's moment of action. Gorm shakes his head. "No, from what we gather, there would not be enough room for many of us either. And I am surprised you had not noticed their gazes given to you by some, Egill. They remember you as part of our hunting units." Gorm's pragmatic difference to their history caused Egill to scratch the back of his head in an emotion close to guilt.

"There will come a time when all can meet together." Eirikr responds with stolid confidence. Which the rest leave to Gorm's judgment, which he nods in agreement. "There will." Gorm states as an inexorable truth. "So, Sigrid." Agnarr questions while beside Leif.

"Yes, Agnarr?" Sigrid answers with raised eyebrows and a clear gaze with her blue, shimmering eyes. "Do you think you swap your sword to a spear, as would be seen from your prophecy?" Agnarr is instead gently slapped in the back of the head by Leif, causing his coppery hair to flop over his face. 'Ha haa ha haa' Sigrid laughs with a high pitch in a show of relaxation from the sudden slap. "Maybe, though without the curse." Sigrid says as a joke while Agnarr rubs the back of his head with a mischievous expression.

"It feels like a dream, in some moments. How we are all together." Asdos says with growing emotional range, all appreciate how it was such a sudden, yet beneficial change in their lives. "Do you believe your family would enjoy meeting Heath?" Leif asks lovingly.

"With his personality, height and strength, the jötnar would greet him with open arms as one of their own." Sigrid compliments his main telling points while thinking on the side about her father and brothers. It took a moment for her to register that everyone except Leif started walking to give her courtesy while in her internal space, then they followed them by walking through the portal to reach the top of the tower and to sit upon the grand seats, to see the twilight hues of the evening sky again. As well, Heath had finished the biological updating.

It was strangely quick and anticlimactic, taking only a few Model minutes for the 269 deer in thanks to the almost factory-style editing. Now all of them have arms by the base of their extended necks! 'Dayum, it looks freaky.' Heath comments from the hundreds there.

The Doe embodied those new neural pathways and quickly gained control of her hands. She raised and lowered her forearms, then she clenched her biceps and put her hands up high towards the Cavern's ceiling, then lowered them again and tensed her triceps in turn. She tested her hooved fingers, closing, opening, to posing them in different gestures from what she remembered the mennskr would do. She hears clapping and turns her head in that direction. "Wow, you acclimated to that quicker than I expected!" Heath praises her grandly.

The Doe's eyes dart from him to the side and widen, a telling expression of stress for deer. "I only follow what you have given us, Saviour." She says, flustered. Then she felt a touch upon her hand. She looks again, seeing Heath holding her fingers as a test.

"Can you feel fine through them from what I inscribed in your mind recalibration?" Heath asks her gently, hoping that the sudden touch would not embarrass her. "They feel even better in real life." The Doe says, leaning her hand into his own. Heath nods, then lets go. "How about you, big man?" Heath jokes towards the Doe's mate as a way of reducing heightened nerves, doing the same process. "I agree with what my mate says." The Doe's mate closes a widened smirk before Heath moves off to the Doe's sister and mother, who are together.

This process continues for every deer, while they felt it was a waste of time, Heath hoped the procedure was perfect. Otherwise, it would be a problem for the future that he would have to deal with. The procedure proved to be a definitive boon for the deer clan.

'Hopefully there are no philosophical or moral quandaries with everything I have done. They consented to becoming intelligent. . . Would the Norns stop me?' Heath thinks on it while separating and reforming a portion of his power into the soul-like catalyst objects to replace the people he saved from death. 'I should place knowledge or memories in these too, to better fool Hel and Tiwaz.' Heath suddenly stopped himself, and his eyes widened in thought of the implications that it was not co-ruled by Njǫrðr or Freyr, but Tiwaz, who ruled.

'What knowledge could King Tiwaz have of the ancient proto-Indo-Europeans? He has the same name as the original Sun-God of the Luish Anatolians. Possibly the same person, cast down into a crumbling Vanir ruler? I would like to know.' Heath then felt a nudge to his hand.

He looked down. "Huh, you just reminded me of when we first met." Heath blurts out in a well-meaning tone, causing the Doe to retract her touch in unease. "What is wrong? Has something happened?" Heath scrunches, which the Doe shakes her hands, quickly adapting. "I was wondering if, for the party tonight, we would be allowed to bring our children. They would be restless without us." The Doe asks, rubbing her hands together softly in front of her while giving Heath. . . Puppy eyes? Deer eyes? (Eh, you get what I mean.)

"Why would they not be allowed?" Heath gave his usual characteristic smile, causing the Doe to react with a tail wag. "However." Heath raises a finger. "The show we will put on may be too violent, talk with all the parents. Alright?" Heath nodded to act as if he were serious. Pfft.

'HÁ HA HÁ.' "Meet us by the top of the tower again! We will prepare everything now." Heath shakes his head to himself and waves towards them before warping himself back towards the tower. And through wirelessly contacting every golem at the temporary campsite, he asks them all to guide the people to his location. 'Now, for my speech. . .' Heath squinted while lifting his head and rubbing his chin. "What ideas are you thinking of now?" Hervor asks from behind him, wisecrackingly reproachful. He breathes out a smirk in response.

Quickly letting go of his chin. "I called the golems to bring the people, with there being 1,298 people to come in and be seated, I am thinking on what to say on the stage in the middle of the TV square." Heath scrutinises what he has already come up with internally.

"You do not need to think so hard about it, you will be fine." Hervor slaps his arm playfully, then Agnarr is spotted walking towards her. "She is right. All of them respect you, they will understand." Agnarr and Hervor then hug each other from their sides before walking off. 'Are they right?' Heath turns back and forth in place, until he snaps his fingers on his left hand. "That's it, I'll also ask them to stay for a week after this to show them my hospitality!" Heath has this eureka moment in English. Agnarr and Hervor look back for a moment.

They look at each other and stretch their mouths in a line, knowing something random will occur again. To best prepare, they move to a nearby table and set themselves down with expectation, though with the continuous developments, it gives them a basis for it.

They watch as Heath gathers all the materials to create another round of furniture. He was casting the magic and made a 9th of it before his shoulder got knocked on gently. His eyebrows twitched slightly before turning around and seeing it was Egill giving him a chastising look. "You work too hard." He pierces the situation with a grating remark. He looks down at the furniture and then up. "Have a break, Valyria said she would come around soon enough. You need time for planning." He leans his head down, then tries to push Heath.

"I am surprised you are being so decisive." Heath says wonderingly while feeling the shove towards a nearby chair. "You are to get ready for the flight tonight. You can do the furniture after the event. And why would I not be?" Egill curls a slight grin while passing a tray of food.

"And while you have been busy, we have made some new food with the better ingredients you have provided. How about you try some?" In the tray, a bowl of mysterious liquid appeared, bubbling with an inviting warmth and enticing scent that reminded him of when he first came. "Is it a similar stew to when I first came?" Egill stayed silent but nodded, looking expectantly towards Heath. He grabbed the steel spoon he had designed for the utensils in the past and had his first sip, it was magical. Heath got another spoonful quickly.

"This is really good." *Sip* "How did you make it so flavourful? While I have made the spices -" *Sip* "stronger, you would have needed to edit the recipe." *Sip sip sip* He ate it quite voraciously, showing that it was one of the better handmade meals by them.

"I made it myself with Asdos and Eirikr being the ones to pick them. A standard bone broth." Egill's response was met with a microscopic jerking motion from Heath, and he held in his breath so as not to ruin this thoughtful gift. "From which animal?" *Exhale on hot food.* Heath blew on the hot food to act as if he would continue eating. "Goat, quite lovely, is it not? I will go get some of your new tissues." He walks off to get a packet. "Great. . . I'll need to make more goat bones for once I make the goats sapient." Heath spoke in English.

While Egill is coming back, Heath puts on a face to show he is satisfied, he quickly absorbed the food with his magic to make it disappear from view, as imagining eating smart goats sickened him. "Thank you for the lovely meal!" Heath responds gratuitously.

"No, thank you for everything. Heath." Egill blinks his eyes in contentment while passing him the tissues. "You finished the meal quite quickly, must have been hungry. Do you want more?" He asks while walking off towards the kitchen square on the corner closest to them. "I would, but I am worried if I sit for too long, I may waste time for the people's event tonight." Heath creased his eyes, knowing it was only a partial truth. Egill rocks his head in response. "No, we will do the rest. Valyria's new power has made her stronger."

Heath raises an eyebrow at that comment. "How much stronger?" Egill smiles with a roguish demeanour. "About as strong as you when you came that first day, the whole 'single punch knocking down multiple trees.'" His answer caused Heath to want to respond back.

But he could not, he opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. "Wow." 'Great job, Heath.' He chastises himself for the single-word message. "We were quite surprised too, but she has been diligent towards getting stronger for you. Though it seems her progress is slowing down." Egill brings over a large metal ladle from the bowl of the bone broth and pours it into his bowl gently. "And as well, I have had time to plan." He says, better knowing of Heath's character now. "Thank you for the warning, I have had talks with my bedmates."

Heath grabs the spoon as a charade, hoping to make the food disappear while he is not looking. "What did they say?" Heath sounded hopeful about the situation. While Egill turned around, he made the soup half disappear, leaving the other half for when Egill returns.

"Marja will agree to a marriage, but Bjorn is still indecisive." A pause, then Heath nodded to Egill's verdict, he moved his unused arm to pat his shoulder with normal human strength. "Good job. I know it was difficult." Heath gave a half-grin just as he was pretending to have his next mouthful of bone broth, which disappears just as it enters his mouth. He acts to swallow while Egill smiles to himself. "I hope the both of you can find a way not to sour your relationship." Heath puts down the now-empty bowl after another 'mouthful.'

Egill pulls his mouth to the left of his face before picking up the empty bowl. "Let us hope." He moves with the bowl and ladle and puts them on the tray with the leftover bone broth, which is then carried away by an Auto. Egill sits down at the same time.

Both breathe in the new air, filled with extravagant scents of food and new furniture. It signified to both of them that the dawn of a new era is coming. Heath 'burps' as a show of good faith. "So, I will soon start a speech for the villagers arriving here. Any topics you wish for me to cover?" Heath looks towards Egill, who blinks, then appears to have a sudden jolt. "Actually, I do have some." Egill brings out some paper and writes down some information using a newly designed BIC-like pen made of patterned steel for grip comfort.

A few topics flew about on the page, from what sort of expectations they have for the future. What developments, technologically or magically, are Heath or Valyria planning. If there is a chance for not just sent prisoners, but also villagers to move in permanently, and more.

"You have a lot on your mind, Gorm set you up to it, eh?" Heath saw Egill crinkle before he started to read through it, and now cataloguing it for his speech. He is ready! "I am surprised you asked for more to move in, what of your own home, would it not be underemployed and have too many vacancies for jobs and markets?" Egill simply 'meh'd' in response, knowing it would all be solved from the future trade agreements between the two lands. "It will be fine. We will pull our weight one way or another." Agnarr comments in the background.

Heath stayed silent this time in acceptance, then moved onto the stage to prepare a vocal focus to allow it to travel to all of the tables without it being overbearing for the closest ones. He created this small charm through magic, and just in time too, the people were coming.

'1,000 people barely covers a modern stadium, yet it looks overwhelming in site when walking.' He breathlessly smirtles and coughs into his hand.