Allured

Ch. 1

He just barely missed an axe throw that went across the side of my head. Glowering, he turned his eyes over to the male that rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "Are you trying to god damn kill me?" He spoke up to the other guy, not pleased at all.

"No, I'm not trying to get you killed, Raul. You're the one that suddenly walked in front of me practicing. You should really watch where you're going." He pointed out at Raul, grimacing.

Raul tried his best to try not to look sheepish and failed. Lowering his eyes, he bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Welch. I'm just in a hurry."

"You're not thinking about entering the games, are you?" Welch asked, narrowing his eyes at Raul. "You can't even lift an axe. You shouldn't be thinking about anything but help us keep our cattle safe. You're our best caretaker of our food. We don't need any more brawns on this island."

He brought a fist to his chest. "But I'm not considered a man unless I can prove myself."

"We don't need you to prove yourself." Welch chuckled as he nodded towards him. "You may not be as muscular as we are, but you know that we acknowledge every man around here. We all have our own roles on this island, no matter our gender." He grinned at him. "You just want to show off to the man you've looked up to as a rival."

Feeling that he was caught, Raul felt heat rising quickly to his head. "He's not a rival." He mumbled. "I'll see you later, Welch."

Quickly, he ran off before Welch could say another word to him, feeling embarrassed. Raul had tried the games before and wasn't even given a chance. Now, he knew that they wouldn't let him again. 

Running over to the ledge that anyone can take a view of the practice area below, Raul paused and laid himself across the grass. His eyes roam over the other Vikings until his eyes landed on the one man he wanted to see – tall, young, lightly growing black facial hair contrasting against his brown leather armor. His eyes a stormy gray that was rare in Vikings to have. He had grown much muscles over the years. Being a son of a chief, he had to live up to an image that was given to him.

"Theron!" Kagan called out, a short blond man, waving at the man Raul was looking at. "Father made more weapons for the games. Will you let Chief Baldrick know?"

Turning towards Kagan with his sword down, Theron smiled at him. "I will let my father know that Fahim is done what was requested. Thank you both for your hard work." He drew his sword away. "The first day of the games are over, so I'm sure we all be celebrating tonight. I will see you and your father at dusk like always."

The Vikings had games for a solid of five days at every spring because once the games were over, specific warriors will go on a voyage to go get more supplies. They don't much morals when it came to protecting or providing for their people. If it meant raiding other lands, killing innocents, then that was what they did.

Last year, Theron's brother, Ichiro had done the voyage and his adventures were successful. This year, the chief was going to test Theron to see if he could do the voyage this year, depending on how well he does the games versus last year since Ichiro was given the task to watch the other side of the island. Now, for Ichiro, that was a huge honor as that meant the chief acknowledge him to be able to watch their other half of their people over there. All because he made a very good impact last year.

That was why this year was important because Theron was given a chance to prove himself to go on a voyage. If he cannot, then that meant his father would have to send his second in command and that would be embarrassing. Currently, they were all feeling the stress of the games since they start tomorrow.