I squinted my eyes against the sun overhead and waited for a dense cloud to lazily glide in front. It was shaped like an apple and made my already empty stomach groan even louder in my gut. I half listened to my elder cousin as he explained the formation we'd be taking, something I wasn't very keen on. According to my elder brother, of whom was standing tall and attentive beside me, it was always the same when raiding. The men were gone to hunt, and that left the women and young like us. Sometimes there were older boys, and that made the raid dangerous, but according to our scout Elyth, every single male free from weaning was gone from the target today. Hearing that news, I was more than glad. The last thing I wanted was to have to kill someone, especially given I'd never been on a raid before. The very idea of it seems detrimental to me. In my mind, if everyone worked together, we'd have no need for bloodshed and theft.
"Theo? Are ye listenin'?" Freyr, my older cousin, hissed through crooked teeth.
I quickly returned my gaze to him and nodded my head, a little too much. My brother Thadius wacked me across my back, hard.
"Don't stare to the sky. We're goin' to war."
Another boy his age, who I recognized to be the chief's son Elrais, leaned down to my level and whispered with a handsome smile, "Yer brother is right." He placed a hand on my shoulder, and I could feel how warm it was. "Yer young, so follow our e'ry word, lest you'll end up like me own kin."
I swallowed harshly and slowly nodded my head. Everyone in my tribe knew the grotesque way that the neighboring village dealt with their last raid. No one had come back, but an older boy swears he saw someone beaten and hung in a cage. No one believed him, however. That was weeks ago, and though our fathers refused to retaliate, us boys decided we'd take it into our own hands. Thus, we banded together to take anything not nailed down, and to dig an item into the ground that was blessed long ago. I turned to the boy holding the tool, and saw it tied to his back. To most, it looked like an ordinary branch off of a tree. But to our Seer, it glowed with the eerie light of several souls. We were going to use it to curse the very ground their crops grew on, so that from now on, they'd never be able to hurt us again.
Even surrounded by boys of like spirit, I found myself, on the eve of battle, doubting the very idea itself. I'd thought it would be foolish to temp the souls of the wood, should our own village be hit with a malady. As well on my mind, was to make an enemy of a village more populous than our own, so close, just a day's journey away. I raised protests the morning of our departure but was quickly told off. I've since remained quiet, afraid of yet another verbal lashing by the older boys.
"What's all that golden stuff aroun' the houses?" A boy my age named Gelmir asked my cousin, who was staring down at the village from our campsite.
"Dunno. It looks like grass." He answered, and I peaked over the boulder we were using as a shelter.
Sure enough, fields and fields of golden grass gave as wind rushed through their stalks. They were fluffy on the top, and there were women parading around through them, laughing like children. They were beautiful, I thought.
"Can't be nuffin' bad." Gelmir pouted. "Look at those girls!"
"Wish I could bring one back to our house…" My brother sighed. He was at that age where he'd have been mated with a girl in our village, though the only girls our age died during the winter, just a few cycles ago.
My cousin smirked. "If we're lucky, and show how manly we are, maybe they'll just want to come back with us!"
That made all of us boys smile, and I remember thinking my cousin sounded like a good leader, even maybe like my dad.
"All ways, get rested everyone. We'll head down when Odyck chases the Sun away. 'm hopeful we grab one of the boys down there and get some revenge for Gellpir, and the rest!"
We all nodded, sure of our cause. Though, even now I felt a bit apprehensive about it all. Even with my cousin's cajoling and the rest of the boys seemingly on board with it all, I found my hands shaking while gripping my obsidian knife. It was knapped, possibly by dwarves, and given to my grandfather's grandfather. My father was it's true owner, yet my brother snuck it from under the hay he slept on. He'd given it to me, saying it was magyked to give courage. I doubted that very much now.
As soon as the sky turned angry and the clouds enveloped the moon, my cousin woke all who were sleeping and pointed to an old game trail we'd be using to get closer. He'd made us memorize some hand signs and calls long before we'd departed, but now I couldn't seem to recall any. I tried getting my brother's attention, but he was listening to my cousin like he was the Seer, a gleam in his eye at every mention of the word, war.
"-and let it be then! We'll tan 'em fer all that they done!" Freyr threw his hands up into the air with dramatic effect and raised his whisper to a small voice. "Yer all warriors! Lets bring back all the stores, so that they'll call us men too!"
The cheers were hushed, but one could tell there was thick excitement imbued within those breathy howls. Directly before we descended the hill, we all shared a prayer to Tramir, the hound of sharp wits. It was customary before any use of a blade, to take a moment to respect the god that honed them. Once it was done, very quickly in a single file line, we rapidly fell upon the village. I was told to go to the smaller houses, but I stayed with my brother, clutching my knife to my chest. He angrily told me off in a hiss, but ultimately gave up trying to send me away.
"Watch me back then, craven boy!"
He and I quietly marched around a bigger home, and I watched him use his own stone knife to dig into the side of the shack. The wattle gave way, excruciatingly loud, and we both sucked in a breath. We waited just a moment, and listened for any other noise, but there was none. My brother stuck his hand in, and began tearing away more wattle, as quietly as possible. Once he'd made a big enough hole, he turned to me expectantly. My hands grew clammy when I realized what he'd wanted me to do then.
"Aye?!"
"Ye wanted to come with me, now do yer part."
He was angry, so I swallowed my fear and burrowed my way in. Once I was inside, he handed me my knife and told me to go deeper. I did, minding my step until the darkness took even that. It was permeating, and deep. I crunched loose kernels of something under my feet as I walked, and on all sides of me were towering shapes I'd never seen before. They were square and were made of dark wood held together with something metallic. As soon as I noticed, I took a step back. It was extremely taboo to touch any kind of metal, for it was a beacon to evil souls from across the sea. Metal was evil, plain, and simple. Being then surrounded by such evil in this space, my heart quickened, and I longed for the safety of home, now more than ever.
"Can I go?" I called out to my brother, with no answer.
"Thadius!" I raised my whisper to a normal voice, and he still did not answer.
The door suddenly flew open, and several large men rushed in, grabbing me by my long blonde hair, and dragging me out. I lashed furiously with my knife, until someone grabbed my hand so hard, I lost my grip and it fell onto the ground beside me.
The man gripping my hair said and leaned down to meet my eye. His were dark, like tree bark, and his breath smelled, badly. "Quanto plura debemus suspendere antequam discas?"
I had no idea what he was cursing me with, but I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth. I felt him yank on me, then we continued walking. To where, I knew not. I'd already wet myself, but if I could've again at the site of what laid before me, I would have. My brother, as well as my cousin, were in cages, and the younger boys were all decapitated in the center of the village. I began crying, and the man threw me into the pile of my former friends and family. I didn't know what was going on, and it was all happening so fast. This wasn't how things were supposed to go, the men were supposed to be gone, hunting. Winter was coming soon, so it made no sense that, all around me were fully grown men larger than anyone in my tribe. Did they sacrifice food for short term safety?
"Theoderic!" My brother called for me, as they raised the cage into the air. A dense fiber was responsible, and once he was several meters into the air, they tied it off, and let him hang.
I was pushed again by someone in the crowd, but who, I knew not. Their voices were so loud now, cheering and screaming while my cousin was stabbed in his cage by four men with long sticks, atop which glimmered metallic heads. Once he'd stopped moving, they hoisted him up next to my brother, who was inconsolable. Another man, with a shirt of wool stood in front of me. He hoisted an axe, slick with blood, and motioned for me to come forward. I fell to my knees and began praying at the top of my lungs.
"Let this nightmare end! Frendyr, lead me home!"
I was yanked up by my hair, by someone strong, and the voices all around stopped. The only sound was of the night, and my brother's weeping from above. I held my eyes shut, for if the end was coming, I did not want to face it.
"Barbarorum."
The man's voice was high pitched and whiney, but it was spoken with command. Another voice, much deeper, began speaking rapidly in the same language, but I could not decipher what sounds he was making.
"Exculta?" I opened my eyes and found that the man holding me up was wearing dark robes, with a metallic necklace hanging from a thin piece of leather around his neck. I closed my eyes again when he began thunderously laughing.
"Boy? How age?" He spoke, his tone much softer. I opened my eyes wide at him and furrowed my brows. He was making sounds I knew. "Need know. Young?"
I nodded and held up my winters using my hands. "Six."
The man smiled, showing jagged, but clean white teeth.
"Perfectum." He leaned forward and kissed me on my head. "Sanctus Tiber this day has given new life unto you. I baptizare you through this blood, as Lystra."
I frowned, and every voice around me cheered, with several actually full-on clapping and whistling. Here I was surrounded by cheering faces, when just moments ago, they were crying at the top of their lungs for more bloodshed. Just what kind of monsters were these, and why did they wear the skin of men?
The man in the robes released my hair and I fell to my knees. I understood the words he was saying, mostly, but I didn't know exactly what magyk he'd used. I looked up at my brother, who hung so far above me, and wept.
"A miracle!" The man said and clutched his necklace tightly in his hands. "The barbarian cries at the feet of Sanctus Tiber!"
Every face around me cried out in joy while I sat and watched my brother squirm high in the cage. Not knowing yet that he'd remain there for years and years, his soul ultimately finding peace just three days after he'd been brought up. As for myself, I was taken in by the man in the robes. I wasn't allowed to leave his side, and if I ever did for any reason, I was severely beaten, and made to sing some song I couldn't understand until my voice gave out. I cried for a season, and even when I was ultimately moved by the man in robes onto a cart, I still had hopes that home would come for me. They were hopes I held for seasons yet on my journey to the capital of Grand Tiber, hopes I'd lost years after I'd accepted it as my home, and hopes I'd forgotten after hair began to grow on my face.