Cinematic opening: The husk Hoggvandill animates the dead body of Thorbjorn , still floating in the waters of sea cave, and inquires in a raspy, dead voice: “Where is my SPEAAR?!”

Replenishing his supplies, Arn then sets out to find a weaponsmith to repair Ulvetann. He comes to a serene river and makes camp to recuperate from the past days struggles.

Moving on from his camp, he comes across a group of half-giants repairing their massive longhouse that was damaged in a recent storm.

After a couple more days his supplies are running low and he make camp and does some hunting, which he finds a harder than usual in the barren forests at the edge of the Deep Wilds. He continues on into the forests until he reaches a wide trail with milestone markers on the trees along it. He recognizes the fluid characters on the markers as being Elvish.

Arn meets a wooden-masked Elf with three wolf companions named Balathu. When Arn asks if there is a settlement nearby with a blacksmith, the Elf tells him that there is no such place nearby and warns him to leave. However, upon mentioning Thaugolos, the Elf invites him to follow him to his settlement as they have also been harried by the dragon.

Balathu is the first Elf that Arn has ever seen. To the Ironlanders, the Elves were part of myth and legend. He leads Arn to the settlement of Windhaven.