Red

The Screams

Ragnar was standing on the wall of England while the Vikings covered the streets in oil. Bjorn and the others were coating the palace in oil also. The men were just getting done when Floki came with the torches.

All the Vikings climbed up the stairs and got behind Ragnar on the wall. Ragnar and a few others holding torches threw the torches as far as they could towards the palace. Ten minutes later they heard ear piercing, childlike screams.

"What the hell is that?" A viking asked, covering his ears.

"Sounds like a child," Bjorn said in horror, Bjorn had never killed anyone lower than age fourteen.

"No, no no no no! There is not supposed to be a child in there!" Floki screamed, Floki had told everyone that he had made sure everyone was outside of the palace. "Must have been under one of the thrones, the only place I didn't check. Why didn't I check there?"

"Floki, calm down." Ragnar said. "They're dead now, there is nothing we can do."

"But there's a child, we don't kill children unless we have to!" Floki screamed, distressed.

"We did not kill it, whomever put that kid there is the cause!" Ragnar yelled at Floki. Floki stayed silent, everyone waited, the scream kept piercing the ears of the vikings. Ragnar had his fingers in his ears.

The screams suddenly stopped. "All right, get the catapults," Ragnar said, the men grabbed the giant boards with slanted triangular wedges carved into the board to help the catapults up the wall.

Ragnar grabbed the rope that was tossed up the wall and started pulling. The catapult came up a level, the men below pushed, Ragnar pulled. It was making it's way to the top, but very slowly.

Finally they got up on the wall, then the other men threw another rope up the wall. The rope led to a giant basket full of sacks of boulders soaked in oil. They pulled the basket up the board much quicker than the siege weapon.

They lined the catapults at the bigger houses and rolled one of the sacks of boulders onto a net. Ragnar and Bjorn put the net on their forearms and lifted it up and dropped it on the catapult's arm. Everyone else was doing the same.

"Everyone ready?" Ragnar yelled to the crowd, followed by a lot yells. "Then aim!" The vikings cranked up the wheel on the side of the catapult. "Set fire to the boulders!" Everyone grabbed the torches and lit the boulders on fire. "Fire!" The sacks of boulders launched into the sky, they looked like the Valkyries of the gods in the sky. The boulders crashed into the walls of the buildings and caught fire to the buildings.

The vikings just stood there and stared at the fire, most of them were smiling. After a few hours the buildings were charcoal black. "OK, let's go," Ragnar said and everyone started packing things up.

Ragnar helped bring down the catapults. While Ragnar was easing a catapult down the ramp, a flaring pain shot in his spine. Ragnar dropped the rope while grabbing at his back, he felt around it but there was no wound. Ragnar fell to his knees while one of the vikings ran to help him.

A viking ran to grab the rope on the catapult, but he was too late, trying to grab the rope, he tripped and fell below, cracking his head open. The catapult rolled down the ramp, crushing the viking that was helping bring the catapult down.

The viking by Ragnar's side helped Ragnar back up, the pain was fading. Ragnar had no idea what was going on in his spine. Vikings were surrounding the crushed viking, some had tears in their eyes.

Ragnar got up and pulled a viking out of the way. What Ragnar saw after he got inside the circle was soul crushing. Bjorn was at end of the ramp, crushed by the siege weapon, he had blood all over him. Frey could not save him.

Ragnar fell to his knees and wept into his hands, he had no one to blame but himself. He killed Bjorn. Ragnar didn't know why everyone wasn't trying to kill him, he deserved it, he killed his own son. He wanted someone to blame, but there was no one but himself, so that is who he decided to blame.

Ragnar wanted to kill himself, he killed his own son. Ragnar grabbed his sword, he was about to stab himself, but Lief stopped him. She wrenched the sword out of Ragnar's hand. She pushed him on the ground, stomped his chest with her foot.

"I've lost a child too, you didn't see me try to kill myself!" Lief yelled at Ragnar.

"You didn't kill your child with your own hands!" Ragnar yelled back.

"You didn't kill Bjorn with your own hands! The child was killed because the gods intended for him to die during this raid. I asked the seer what would happen during this raid. He said that you would kill someone not with your hands, but because of your health!"

Ragnar was shell-shocked. "The gods..." Ragnar whispered. "He's not going to make it to Valhalla. He didn't die in battle or with a weapon in his hand."

"I think the gods will see-" Ragnar cut Lief off.

"The gods are not like that, they're cruel, they only think of themselves."

"They have reasons for this-"

"Leave me here."

"We can't leave you here!" Floki yelled, "You have your wife, your chil-"

"Tell them I said goodbye." With that Ragnar got up and walked off the wall and into the kingdom. Ragnar went out of the gate and into the forest past it.

"Aren't you going to go after him?" A viking yelled.

"No, he will just kill you."

  Ragnar was walking as far as he could to get away from everything. He wondered upon a Christian village, guards were everywhere. Ragnar walked up to the first guard.

"State your means her-" Ragnar stabbed the guard in the face before he could finish his sentence. Ragnar heard the sound of wings flapping loudly in the air, but ignored it and sliced the next guard's stomach open.

Ragnar looked up and saw a person with a raven's wings, flying in circles over Ragnar. Ragnar heard the stories when he was a child. It told that if a warrior were to die in a war a Valkyrie would fly above them and take them to Valhalla. But Ragnar was not dead.

Ragnar brought his attention back to the guards that were trying to kill him. A sword was swinging down at Ragnar's face, Ragnar chopped the sword wielder's hand off because he couldn't move his hand high enough to block it.

Ragnar chopped the guard's head off. A knife flew through the air and struck Ragnar in the left shoulder. Ragnar smiled at the man who threw it. Ragnar yanked the knife out of his shoulder and stabbed a guard charging at him.

Ragnar didn't see the sword coming straight for his right arm. The sword sliced clean through, making Ragnar drop his sword and his arm. Ragnar grabbed a two-handed axe and swung it at a guard. The axe cut straight through the guards and stuck in another guard beside him.

A man behind Ragnar sliced his sword straight across Ragnar's back. Ragnar fell on his knees, the axe still in his hand, pulling the guard with the axe stuck to him to the ground. Another axe, just like the one that Ragnar was holding, dug into Ragnar's back. Everything went black, a black so dark it was like nothing Ragnar had ever seen.