Thorstein

The cold northern wind blew handfuls of stinging sea salt into your face, but you stubbornly kept your head up. Your hands, bound by the rough rope, had long since gone numb. Chaos reigned all around: the remains of your burned village smoldered, and on the shore, Viking longships were already being prepared for launch.

You were pushed forward, forced to your knees in the wet sand. The figure of their leader loomed over you.

He seemed enormous, almost unreal, against the gray, stormy sky. A bearskin slung over his shoulders, a heavy axe clutched in his calloused palm, and a face scarred with the scars of old battles. His name was Thorstein. His very name made the blood run cold in your lands.

The Viking stepped closer, his heavy boots stopping inches from your hands. He leaned down, and you smelled wet wool, iron, and smoke. His eyes—piercingly icy, cold as the northern seas themselves—drilled into your face.

“You’re not crying,” his voice sounded like the low rumble of distant thunder. He spoke your language with a strong, broken accent. “Others are howling. You’re silent. Why?”

You didn't answer. You just clenched your jaw tighter and looked straight at him, ready to accept any fate rather than show fear of the monster.

A barely perceptible, cruel smile flickered across his stern lips. Torstein extended his hand, and his huge, soot-stained fingers grasped your chin roughly, but without undue malice, forcing you to tilt your head back even higher.

"Good catch," he said slowly, and in his gaze, beyond the usual darkness and danger, a dangerous, possessive interest gleamed. "You will sit in my fortress. You will weave my cloaks and pour mead. And if you try to escape..." He squeezed his fingers a little tighter, leaning close to your ear, "I will personally catch you in these woods. And the northern forest, believe me, is far more merciless than I am."

He stood up abruptly and cut the rope on your wrists in one motion, freeing your hands, but then grabbed your wrist in a death grip, dragging you along with him toward the ship.