It’s 1065 A.D. and I am going back to Scandinavia on the Windax, my clan’s chief ship. The war with Germany is over and my coastal village is in sight. Only it didn’t look right. It seemed to be . .. burning! “Bandits” I thought.

As soon as the boat touched the beach, I jumped down and ran, ax in hand. My shipmates and I smashed the skulls of the marauding thieves or decapitated them. By noon, the brigands were dead or fleeing. As I walked to the village center, a bandit jumped out of a hovel. I kicked him in the chest, and with a great twirl of my ax, I smashed his skull. Tiny bits of brain matter exploded everywhere. As I jogged to the center, the shaman, the keeper of the sacred alter yelled “Ulf! The brigands have the alter to the gods!”

My blood turning to pure rage, I screamed, foaming at the mouth. I grabbed two hatchets and began to butcher the highway men. Soon the slaughter turned a retreat into a rout. After the last of the bandits returned to the forest, I returned to the healer for my wounds. I went to my modest blacksmithing shop and began to forge a blade. A very nice blade. A week after the bandit’s of my village, I set off a mysterious container around my blade. I walked about ten miles, then I saw signs of bandit activity: a burned cart, a skeleton, a bloody knife and ash from a fire. As I turned a corner I saw six archers waiting for me. I dove under a hacked apart cart and six arrows thudded into the cart. I got up and charged at the archers with my hatchet in hand. I slayed two, the others ran away in fright.

Then I heard loud voices coming up from the woods. I crouched down and began to shuffle towards the noise. I peered through some branches and saw about twenty bandits dancing around a large stone table. I decided I should charge out. The biggest bandit said “I am the Bandit leader! Die!” He drew his sword and as he saw me run towards him.

The bandits formed a circle around me. I drew my sword and flames flickered up the blade. When I had finished making my blade I put it in a container, still hot, full of oil. So, it was still flickering in my scabbard when I pulled it out to attack the bandit leader. I dodge his first attacks and caught his sword with my sword. Clank! Clank! The noise increased as I went into my battle mode. The blows continued for at least ten minutes before the fatal blow was struck. My sword darted like a snake through his guard into his heart. He dropped to his knees and laid down, gasping his final breathe, he said “you win the altar. . . . ” His body shivered one last time.

Suddenly I notice all the bandits had fled. The big stone table, I knew, was the sacred altar. I staggered across the clearing to the altar and I lifted it into a cart. I traveled the ten miles back with altar to my village and collapsed.

The End!