"Hey. What is that? Why are you so scared?" I asked.
"The Vikings," she said, swallowing loudly. Even though I was talking to her, she kept looking toward the ship instead of at me. I had never seen anyone with such a great amount of fear before.
"When I was only 9 years old, they came for the first time. They robbed us, killed our king, and have been forcing us to produce a good harvest every year ever since. If we don't bring them enough, they kill us. This year, the harvest might not be enough..." She quickly looked at me and waved her hand toward the mountain.
"Go. Run, if you don't want to be trapped in that devil's contract as well." The moment she said those words, I noticed her body tense up slightly. It seemed as though she was trying to hide her pain.
"No," I said, smiling at her. "I can't just let a village full of people who only want to live suffer under circumstances like these, can I?"
She just stared at me in confusion, and I walked toward the harbor.
The Viking ship was enormous. It was about half the size of the entire village. The boat was built from solid oak and didn't have a single scratch on it. It was just docking as I arrived at the harbor.
Several enormous men jumped from the ship onto the mainland, all of them armed with axes and swords. Each of them also wore a fur coat with an eye symbol on it. But the crew seemed to consist of only 20 people.
"Hey, runt, who are you? Are you new here?" one of them said, grinning at me hatefully.
"Get out of here," I said. But suddenly, another man jumped down from the ship. He was about one and a half times as large as the others, who were already enormous compared to me. He had completely pale white hair and wasn't blond like the others. He also carried a spear that was very long but still slender. It was carved from a dark, magical-looking wood, and its tip was made of a bright metal. His spear looked much more elegant than the axes and swords of the other Vikings.
"Who but me dares to order my crew around?" he said as he slowly looked in my direction.
Suddenly, I heard someone running toward us.
"Don't look him in the eyes!" a female-sounding voice shouted. But before she could even reach us, the enormous Viking threw his spear.