Toki's Saga

"Come" he indicated again. Again Freya shook her head. The lead man rolled his eyes upward and shrugged his shoulders as if to say "No problem." He turned his head and grinned again at his three companions. He took a stride towards Freya and then another one, and then I saw Freya draw the large stick from among her skirts and swing it full strength at the approaching man.

CHAPTER TWO - First Blood

The distance was against him, as was the momentum of his confident walk, and he could not stop before the piece of timber smacked him soundly on the temple. He crumpled to the floor.

Freya was not cowering anymore she took an aggressive stance, and gripped the stick with both hands. There was one moment, just a perfect moment when the remaining three men just stood with gaping mouths, and then they seemed to rush forth as one, letting out a joint roar of indignation. I felt a rush, and I heard my self scream, my fear and anger at the death of my family exiting my body through my mouth, I ducked down and pulled the axe from the belt of the fallen man. I remember noticing that it was not shiny, it was not an ornament, it was a weapon, it would have killed people, may be it had even killed my father. I stood as one of the other men came towards me, a dark haired man with straggly beard and moustaches. He hadn't drawn a weapon, thinking himself under no threat from a mere boy. Again I was witness to the glory of a look of surprise in his eyes as he saw I was now armed with his fallen comrade's axe. He tried to draw his sword, but I had swung a wild, undisciplined shot at him, my height making the axe come in a horizontal line directly level with his elbow of his right arm as it reached across his body to draw his own weapon. The axe bit deep, and I heard my first scream of pain, of pain that I had caused. I felt power, I felt good, and I felt the strength of Tyr and Odin run through me. I looked around quickly, seeing what was happening, one of the others had reached Anna and scooped her up, and she struggled and screamed and kicked her legs, kicking him in the shin. He laughed, to him it was all still a joke, he had not seen the injury I had done to his friend, and he did not realise that I was armed. He swung Anna around as if engaged in a violent dance with her, and I took my chance. Again I swung my horizontal axe and it made contact with him. With a sickening thud my shot found a target and imbedded itself in my enemy's spine. The momentum of his body swung him and Anna around enough so he was facing me again, then the pain registered in his face. He did not shout out just looked at me with a confused expression. He could not stand or support himself any longer and collapsed with his full weight against Anna who in turn collapsed under the dead weight of the invader. I rushed across to them and rolled the body off of our old servant. He stank of ale. But then our luck ran out. I heard Freya scream and turned towards her.

The last warrior, cautious after his fallen leaders run in with this stick-wielding mad girl, and now drawn his own weapon, but using his own superior body height and weight had grabbed the end of it as she swung it at him, hoping to repeat her first success. He had yanked hard, pulling my sister off balance and then with two long strides had been upon her, wrapping her in his muscular arms. And this is how I saw them as I turned to face them, Freya screaming in anger and frustration more than fear at being caught.

"Don't try anything little wolf!" warned the man with laughter in his voice.

"Put down the axe!" I hesitated; I felt strong and like a man with two kills under my belt and the axe in my hand. He could see I needed to be persuaded. He drew from his belt a small sharp knife and held it against Freya's neck.

"Drop it!" No laughter this time. With a cry of disgust and bitter disappointment I tossed the axe to the ground.

"That's better, now, what have I come upon here, a hag, an upstart wolfling and a vicious vixen! Well, we will see about that!" With a quick movement he moved his grip from around Freya's throat and up into her hair, swinging her around to face him. "A pretty fox, when not snarling!" He leered at her and moved as if to kiss her. Freya struggled, putting her hands up to stop her hair being pulled from her head. She spat straight into his face. He saw no fun now, and struck her around the face, hard, and I watched her fall to the ground.