Bludseax

I looked at the people sitting around the fire, the rain dripped from the sky slowly and lightly upon my long hair. Most of these men I had known since childhood, the children of my fathers friends, they were my friends, others came from distant villages.

The man opposite me was small and skinny. He had greasy black hair, tied at the nape of his neck. His chin was clean, he was young, though  you could see the sprouts of stubble just breaking through the mask of youth. His name was Oswald. He did in fact come from the same village as me and was the son of a fishmonger named Aelfric. He was a shy lad, never talked really to anyone but his father, he would go out eel hunting in the day and spend the evenings gutting them. I could see he was uncomfortable being around so many people, his eyes were darting from one figure to another, but, the warmth of the fire had dragged him out of his own secluded world.

A tall man with brown hair and a thick moustache walked past, deliberately knocking into Oswald, making him drop the piece of string that he was fumbling with, his face fell into the dirt, smearing the left side of his face in the thick, brown liquid. Oswald looked into the man's eyes with a shock of utter despair, as if he had been killed, and the man burst out laughing, his companion soon joined in with the mockery.

They stood there for a moment laughing at poor Oswald, and soon more people also joined in, until a tall man came. He wore a brown tunic, with knotted patterning on the rim. Attached to his decorated belt was a seax, waiting for its next victim. His blonde hair hung in front of his pale face, his beard was trimmed, though you could see that such matters had been neglected over the past days. His eyes were an icy blue, as cold as Eotanham. He strutted over to the ring leader of the mockers and put his hand on his shoulder turning him so that he could look into his eyes. Everybody fell silent. He looked up and down the man, with a smirk on his face, laughing to himself, for no apparent reason.

"Open your mouth" he said glaring into the man's eyes

"What?" exclaimed the man

"I said open your mouth!" He said this in a more sinister tone, making sure his right hand fell upon his seax's hilt, then releasing it once the man did as he had been instructed

He stood there, gazing into his mouth for some time, until he turned his back on the man.

But not for long.

He quickly turned around, unsheathing his seax, and allowing it to gracefully glide through the air, it was illuminated by the fire, and then penetrated the man's neck, tearing his voice box and sending a mass of blood in all directions. The man gasped, but no sound came from his torn throat and he fell to the ground and died. The man's killer spat on the man's body and then went towards his tent.

Not a single person had intervened in that event. No sane man dared to. No man dared come face to face with
Icel.