[ The Previous Day, Jarls Perspective ]
"The other tribes have gotten word of the boy... WHO!!!" I slammed my fist down on the table in front of me, the old oak cracking beneath my skin.
"I mean nobody has gone outside the village jarl! News can travel in times like these." Saga said while she rubbed by back, as if she was trying to calm me.
We all sat in silence within the council room, why? Why must it come to this?
"….what does this mean for us?" Egil asked, his usually cheerful demeanor no longer there, His jokefulness replaced with a solemn Expression. Not just him…. Everybody seemed out of it.
"What do we do now?" Fritjof asked
"Of course we have to prepare for the worst but right now we don't even know if the situation is bad as it seems… let's keep calm for now." Alvis responded
They're right….for now.
[Knock! Knock! Knock!]
"Sir! Jarl sir! We have a letter from the Vandals!"
Everyones attention turned towards the door…. What could this mean?
I grabbed my axe and slowly approached the door
"Come in!" I yelled to the person outside, my axe in hand
"If I may sir." The voice said from outside
A young man entered, he could be no older than 18 winters. He was wearing cloak of our tribe…. That's good, vandals are known to send their own messengers, it must be the luck of gefion herself.
I quickly lowered my axe
"Speak boy! What does the letter say!" Egil yelled from across the room
"It says th—
[Sqwelp!]
"It says that you have three days to hand the chosen over to us." A voice said as he stabbed the boy through his throat from behind.
"Gurgle…gurgle.." The boy choked on his own blood before falling to the ground
[Thud!]
"Ahhhh!!!" Saga hid behind me, screaming
The man's face now fully visible, covered in many scars, runes tattooed all over his face of arrows pointing downwards, spanning from his forehead and seemingly reaching to his chest….Einar!
"How dare you!" Fritjof yelled from across the room, charging at Einar with a sword in hand.
"Stop you fool!" Alvis and Egil held Fritjof down so he wouldn't attack…. He would've died the moment he swung that sword.
"Sorry for the mess everyone." Einar said as he swiped the blood from his cloak
I want to strike him down right now…..but I can't ensure the safety of everyone here.
"Tell me why you killed that boy!" I yelled
"Because you wouldn't have taken us very serious if we didn't set an example now would ya? Now let's get down the business, are ya gonna hand over the boy or not?"
"We would never hand over one of ours!" I stood my ground….but wait how did he know that the chosen was a—
"Welp! I've already delivered the message, if you don't hand em over in three days….. well you'll find out." He gave his last statement with a malicious grin on his face
"Do you think you can just come and go as you please?!"
"Oh! Great question Jarl! My response to that is—"
The grin from his face dissapeared in an instant
"Who's gonna stop me?" He put his hand on this hilt of his sword dangling from his hip.
"Now what if I was to say me?" I raised my axe once again
The pressure me and Einar were exerting was starting to suffocate everybody in the room, with only the two of us being the exception
"Then let's take it outside shall we?" That disgusting grin of his re-appeared.
"Ladies first." I pointed him to the door
"Awwww how sweet." He opened the door behind him and started slowly walking out
"But ladies always live while the men die in war, isn't that right jarl?" He was already to my face, his sword centimeters away from my neck.
"Such is tradition!" I yelled back. Stepping to the side, out of the path of his sword fast enough to only be grazed. I raised my axe and swung with intent to take his head clean off.
"Quite the fast one aren't you?!" Einar said to me, his twisted face showing how high he was off the battle yet it had only begun.
He ducked allowing him to dodge my axe, I quickly pivoted my left foot and grabbed the weapons handle with both hands swinging down as hard as I could while turning my body.
[Crrrrrrk! Thud! Crashhhhhh!]
"…..I know you want to kill me but was it necessary to take out the whole bloody forest?" Einar looked behind him to see the lake north of us split right down the middle and the forest behind it completely fallen…. Yet he's still alive…. His foot on the blade of my axe, no injuries….. He Is Dangerous.
"Y'know I would love to stay here and destroy the rest of this place with our battle, however….. I was already here on a time limit and it seems i wasted it."
Einar slowly took his foot off my axe and turned the other way….he turned his back to me. He started walking off into the distance not saying another word, he waved his hand in the air as if he was goodbye to a loved one with that twisted grin still on his face.
Not that it matters right now, the boy. Where is the boy?! I ran back inside the shack to find saga, the last person to see him, I also need to check if she's okay…. that wasn't the most pleasant sight.
"Saga!" I called as I entered the hut. "Saga?" She was gone from the room with fritjof and alvis standing outside the resting quarters, the door tightly shut.
"What's occurred?" I asked Alvis
"Lady saga seems to have locked herself in, she won't speak to us and when she does…. It's just gibberish." He said.
"Stand back." I told them.
I pushed the door slightly hard and knocked it off it's hinges, Fritjof caught the door before it hit the ground.
"Good job."
"Thanks."
I slowly walked in the room only to see saga crying.
"Saga, what are you doing?"
"Idontknowidontknowidontknowidontknow"
What In Odins name? What's wrong with her?
She's not making any sen——
the blood dropped from my face.
"Saga….. what did…you do? What did you do?!"
"I don't know, I don't know. I'm sorry I'm sorry, it wasn't the gods, they told me to do it. Im sorry I'm sorry!"
She kept sobbing and screaming....what in the world have you done saga?