Rurik opens his eyes wide, gasping for air, still feeling an icy shiver running across his flesh. Looking around, the Varangian warrior finds himself lying flat on his back, a ray of light piercing his eyes from above and hindering his sight, noises ringing in his ears. His whole body aching, Rurik struggles to get up, pain radiating from the places where the arrows had pierced his flesh, now cicatrized, and coughs, his throat filled with dust, before finally managing to get on his feet. At this point, Rurik is firmly convinced that he is indeed still in the land of the living, and that the peculiar situation he finds himself in is not the result of an interesting night spent at the Drakkar, Holmgarðr's finest tavern. Probably.

The Varyag warrior looks around, touching his Mjǫllnir pendant, and finds himself indeed at the bottom of a dusty earthen pit, a ray of light coming from above, as well as strange noises. His armor looks worn and threadbare, his axe and shield are lying in the dirt, and as Rurik ties his large round shield to his back and picks up his greataxe, he begins to wonder exactly where in Hel he is, and how did he get there. Perhaps the Komi saved him from the river, and took him as prisoner? Impossible, they don't take prisoners, and if they did, they wouldn't have left him his weapon. Someone else, then, saved him? Once again, impossible: if a good hearted man had rescued him, he would have woken up in a bed, not at the bottom of a pit. Rurik grunts and spits on the floor, the waves of pain still running across his muscles and nerves now more bearable, and slowly begins to climb his way out, the dusty earth crumbling beneath his hands and feet as he conquers inch after inch, using his axe as a pick to drag himself towards the light, muttering profanities in Old Norse, as the noises above him become recognizable as voices, screaming and talking in a confused manner. After almost falling down a couple of times, the Varyag swings upwards his axe, and feels it gripping the flat surface along the boundary of the pit, and, clenching his teeth, pulls himself up, his left arm finally appearing from below, followed by his head; Rurik looks around, and realizes that he ought to stop frequenting the Drakkar.