Marin Bornholdt yawned slightly as she headed for bed. It had been a long day and she didn’t feel like dealing with her father tonight. He had been in a bad mood ever since the latest Viking attacks. They were becoming more frequent and he was unsure how to deal with them. She knew how much stress he was under, but he became a real pain to be around. She decided that avoiding him was the best idea at the time. He was worried about Rebnore. His town was one of the few left untouched. A raid was expected any day, but they didn’t have enough protection. She was surprised he hadn’t sent her off already.

Getting up to her room, Marin pulled her long red hair to the side and braided it carefully. Once dressed in a silken pink nightgown she went to her balcony, staring off into the wide unsettling sea. It seemed to be ominously dark tonight. Her sad blue eyes watched the waves hit hard against the beach. After a while she turned to her bed and slipped quietly under the covers. Pulling out a book, she read until she grew sleepy. She blew out the flickering candle and pulled the blankets gently over her shoulder. Hopefully she would not be awoken tonight to the sounds of banging drums.

Arvid and his men had just finished sacking Kent and they had landed again near Rebnore, a smaller English town but one that had yet to be raided. He left a few men on his boats and had told them to count a hundred before starting the drums. That count would give the men on the ground enough time to get to the gates and inside the town. Arvid's body, and that of his berserkers , was perfectly concealed by the dark night.

There were a few men on the wall, patrolling. One of them saw a shine off the axe of a viking and was about to yell to sound the alarm when a throwing axe lodged itself in his chest, causing him to fall off the wall. Arvid had his men at the gates now and they were pushing them open when the drummers started banging their loud drums, echoing across the land. "Now!" Arvid yelled and his men gave a big shove, throwing the gates open and yelling loudly

Marin sat up suddenly at the sound of the drums. She swore quietly under her breath and hurried out of bed. Reaching for her robe she started for the door. She had to find her father. They needed to get to the underground tunnels. But, before she could go anywhere Lumin, her personal guard, burst through the door averting his eyes.
“I am sorry, mistress, but we have to go. Are you proper?!”, he exclaimed not waiting for answer before grabbing her arm and pulling her through the doorway. He rushed her to her father’s room where he was packing a few things. Marin growled seeing what he was doing. He was running like a coward. He was the leader of the village and he should stay. So should she, but Lumin would knock her out and carry her before he’d let her stay here. “Hurry Master Benedict!”, Lumin yelled to her father and glanced nervously out the window.

The soldiers quickly formed a wall in front of the gates. They did as they had trained. If they could only hold off the Vikings long enough for the villagers to escape, maybe some of them would survive. The first soldier was an experienced fighter. The scars on his body was evidence of that. He thrust a large spear out in an attempt to skewer as many of the Vikings as he could. He moved quick, avoiding most of their attacks. He was obviously not a normal guard. The others fell quickly and easily. He was ashamed to stand next to these men. So he rushed into the Vikings, slamming his fist into as many faces and body parts as he g\could. He grinned as he felt their bones crush under the force of his punches.

Arvid smirked softly as he saw the pitiful shield wall form in front of his men. The experienced vikings quickly broke through the rag tag guards, but one man kept fighting. "He is mine!" Arvid smirked as the others stepped out and ran into the city, grabbing woman and babies and killing whoever else they found. Arvid could only smirk as he looked at the experience soldier and began yelling at him, of course the man wouldn't know unless he could speak Danish. "It'll be my pleasure to send you to Valhalla!" Arvid said loudly before taking his large axe and swinging it at the man with enough force to splinter a tree

Once her father was ready they were off. They started down the stairs and toward the back. Unfortunately there were Vikings already in the house. Lumin quickly redirected them to the secret room in the kitchen. They huddled quietly in the darkness. Marin tried not to cry but found tears rolling down her cheek anyway. Lumin patted her gently on the back and cooed to her quietly. It was strange to here him make such a noise. But, it somehow comforted her. The tears stopped and she flashed an uneasy smile at him. They could hear rummaging outside of the door.

The man smirked. Of course he knew Danish. He was an ex-viking. He jumped back with ease. Standing straight he threw his spear to the side and quickly drew a large sword from his hip. Pointing it at Arvid he chuckled lightly.

“I am no ordinary soldier. I’m sure that is obvious by now… You may call me Hagen. Though, you won’t have enough time to say it. Not before I remove your head!”, the man shouted the last sentence in a strangely calm voice. He jumped high in the air with an angry grin on his face. His eyes were wide and his mouth open in a crazy laugh. The man seemed to be insane, but was very aware of his actions. He swept the sword over his head and hard down toward Arvid with surprising speed and force.

A viking fist punched through the door to the secret room and grabbed a handful of the girl's hair and pulled hard on it. The vikings were yelling now as more punches went through the door and grabbed what ever they could reach, before pulling everyone out of the room. A sword fell into the Butler's head first, while the girl and her father had ropes tied around their wrists and feet and necks.

Arvid stepped away from the blade easily, "You betrayed your own men and homeland!" He yelled loudly at the ex-viking warrior as he dropped his axe and took his sword and swung it hard, the blade dug into the man's stomach flesh and into the stomach itself. "You won't go to Valhalla, you'll go to Nesgard!" He said ripping the sword out of the man and yelling, "No one touches this man! He dies of sickness, not of sword!"

Marin cried out as she was pulled from the room, reaching for Lumin. When a long sword slammed through his head she quickly turned away sobbing in horror. She mumbled his name softly under her breath and shook. She didn’t resist much as they tied her. If she did she knew she would die. She had to live. She would not let herself die. Glancing over at her father, she grit her teeth as the worthless man begged for his life. The slug had even pissed himself. She was ashamed to be his daughter. She kept her head low and her eyes to the ground. Maybe if she stayed quiet they’d let her live.

Hagen turned to whip his sword into his opponent’s head. Instead he felt a sharp pain and looked down with wide eyes, seeing a blade thrust hard into his stomach. He dropped his sword and grunted slightly. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t even kill their leader. He reached for his sword again, but was jolted to a halt as the balde in his stomach was removed violently. Blood gushed from his wound creating a small puddle around his feet. He fell to his knees and continued to reach for his sword. He would not give in, he couldn’t. He collapsed to the ground, his arm still stretched toward his weapon.
“B…bastard…”, he coughed blood onto his arm, trying desperately to regain his strength. The leader and his daughter. They would die. He had to save them.

Arvid picked up Hagen's sword and looked at it admiringly, "This isn't a half bad sword for a traitor. Now this sword can be used to kill whom it was meant to kill, the English weak." Arvid smirked softly and sheathed his own sword before stepping over Hagen. The other vikings surrounded the man and began to spit at him and laugh at him, their arms shone with the many rings that Arvid awarded them.

The vikings that broke into the house brought out Marin and her father, tethered up and lead like they were dog. Arvid smirked softly once he saw the english man had pissed himself in his fear. The vikings had forced them to their feet, "You English have a habit of kissing your lord's hands." A man said for Arvid as he held out his hand infront of the two. "Lord Arvid will spare all the lives if you two merely kiss his hand"

Marin’s father immediately began to kiss his hand, begging and crying like a child. He lowered himself as far as he could to the ground, bowing in front of him. Still sobbing he even kissed Arvid’s feet. When it was Marin’s turn she spat on his hand and forced herself to stand glaring up at him with determined eyes. Her lip twitched lightly into a snarl.

“I will never submit to pigs like you! You have already killed everyone there is. I am not an idiot!!”, she growled in his face, getting a little too close for even her comfort. She knew this would most likely be the cause of her death, but she would not let these monsters get the best of her. Her father on the other hand begged her to kneel again. His voice squeaking like a mouse. She whipped around glaring at him with even angrier eyes. “Shut the hell up, you blubbering fool. I am ashamed to even consider the fact that you are my father. You deserve death.”, she hissed angrily at the cowering leader.

The English speaking Viking translated Miran's words quickly, causing Arvid and everyone else to laugh loudly. Arvid spoke to the other Viking and he began translating again. "Arvid likes you, you have the heart of a Viking woman, not a weak English woman. The others do love." The vikings parted, showing all the woman and babie's gathered around, crying weakly. "However, Arvid has a deal. The girl comes with us, and everyone else but the sniveling weakling here lives." Arvid held out the sword he took from the dying ex-viking. "He also will let the girl kill her father if she chooses to do so." Arvid smirked softly at the girl, and held out his hand. "Take his hand if you wish to join the Vikings and become a strong woman."

Marin did not expect to see so many alive. She couldn’t let them just die, not because she was too stubborn to submit. She grit her teeth angrily at the suggestion of going with these men. At least she’d be away from her coward of a father. She continued to stare into the man’s eyes, searching for some hint of mercy. Of course there was none. She lowered her head and refused the sword, stepping back slightly.

“I will become a strong woman, but not with your help. I will only go to save my people….And, I suggest you don’t give me a sword….Lest, you want your head chopped off.”, she growled at him. As much as she hated her father, she would not kill him. She was not a monster. Lifting her head to look at the large man before her she spoke again. “I will not submit. If you take me with you, I will not make your life easy. I suggest you kill me now…”, she obviously didn’t want to die. But she felt it was better then having to go with those beasts.

"Alright, if it is your choice." Arvid smirked softly before slamming the sword into the face of her father, the other end sticking out on the opposite side of his head, brains dripping from the point. Arvid yelled to his men, "Round up the women and babies and put them on the boats. Search for treasure and then kill everyone else!" He said laughing hard as men began to push the prisoners towards the boats off shore, the drums had stopped by now. Arvid grabbed the front of Marin's robe and tore it away with ease before grabbing the rope around her neck and pulling on it, leading her towards his boat.

Marin winced as the man killed her father in such a horrible way. The same thing had happened to Lumin. These men were monsters. They destroyed lives without caring the consequences. She let herself shed a few tears for her father. He may have been a bad leader, but he was a good father. He cared for her very well, and at least worried about his village. Him being a coward had more to do with whether he was a man of not.

Marin should have expected something like this. She should have known they would trick her. Sure, they were letting her live, but what kind of life would they have, living among Vikings? She pulled tight on the rope, trying to stop him as she cried out.

“You monster! I promised to go with you, let them stay here!!”, she screamed at him, still pulling the leash taught. She was not about to let her people live like slaves because she made a bad choice.

"Why? So they can die like animals? They have no body to take care of them now, they can come with us or they can die." He smirked softly as he kept pulling her with ease, despite her struggling. In truth, the people would live well. Arvid had ordered that no woman be raped, only consensual was allowed. He smirked once more as he lead her up the ramp onto his boat, the Skull Splinter, and into his quarters. He threw her onto his bed, a translator following them in. "Arvid says you are welcome to put on the clothes of a viking, but only of a viking."

Marin glared at him sitting up on the bed. She hated to admit it, but he was right. She knew she’d have to change. Her nightgown was getting rather cold, and she didn’t want to be seen in such revealing of clothing. But she didn’t know what Viking clothing was like. She wasn’t sure if they were much better. Giving in she nodded slightly. At this point she didn’t have a choice.

“So be it…”, she grumbled lightly. She needed to start figuring out a plan to get out of here. Maybe she could escape during the next raid. She was quite good at picking locks, especially after being locked in her room for misbehaving. She would have to figure out the layout of the boat, though. It might take some time.