The Dawn of the Lost

16

The small village was in sight. It was a farmstead, they had no warriors to fight us off. "This is going to be easy," I said shuffling in the saddle. 

"You always say that," Ragnar chuckled. 

"Do not," I replied. 

"Let's attack Ragnar!" one man exclaimed. I turned to face him, I hadn't seen him before. he was small and looked like a Saxon. 

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Aethelwold, he believes he can unite us with the Saxons," he said. 

"He does, does he?" I asked looking him up and down. "I doubt it, he will only tears us apart." I nudged my horse forward and broke into a gallop. 

"Charge!" Ragnar called and followed behind me. We thundered into the farmstead, cutting down women and men as we rode in, I left the children unharmed. We set their houses alight, and took what crops and grain they had. I was pulled from my horse and I hit the ground with a thud, it was an elderly man who thought  he was strong enough to defeat me, I chuckled and decapitated him with my axe. 

I took my steed by the reins, calmed him somewhat and hauled myself onto his back. I rode over his body and head, crushing both under my horses hooves. We slayed everyone till we were all covered in blood, even our mounts coats were red. I watched as Aethelwold attempted to slay a screaming woman as she begged for her life, he slowly stabbed the blade into her side. "That's not how you do it!" I said and stabbed my blade into her back till it protruded out of her front, I retracted it and she dropped. "You're weak, you don't belong here!" I then galloped off. 

I cantered around the perimeter making sure we missed no one. "Take everything!" Ragnar exclaimed. A  house collapsed from the flames, it spooked my horse, he reared up and kicked Aethelwold in the head with his front hoof as he landed. All the men laughed as he fell to the ground with a thud. 

"Shall we leave the weakling here?" I asked. Ragnar chuckled and slapped me on the back. 

"Yes," he said. "Is everything gathered?" He called to his men. 

"Yes," one said. 

"Let's leave before the fire consumes us," I said and cantered out of the village with everyone following me back to the camp. We placed all the food into our stores and shared some of it out. I knelt next to my horse and cleaned the blood off his hooves. "Has Aethelwold returned yet?" I looked at Ragnar as he crouched next to me. 

"No, I think your horse will have him down for a while," he chuckled. 

"He needs to take notice of where he is standing," I said. 

"You are quite right Astrid," he replied. 

"He's going to be furious when he returns," I said. 

"I know, but I won't let him harm you, but if he does he will regret it," he said. I smiled and flicked water at him. "I bathed yesterday thank you very much." 

"Obviously not well enough," I giggled.