One Viking and 3 French Women Ch. 01

Not far up the river 'La Becque' in the North of France was a little village. It was very well situated and luckily so, the river had a series of falls the last distance towards the ocean which made traveling upriver very hard. The village lay in an area that had very bountiful farms and people were generally very happy. The local Lord was more generous than most, but it being around 800AD meant it was trying times regardless.

In this little village lived a young woman, still mostly a girl at heart but her beauty had come very quickly the last year and even the local Priest saw a woman when he looked at her. Everyone called her Belle, not because she was beautiful, which she had always been. She had arrived as a little girl on horseback along with a wounded soldier that clearly had protected her. The soldier came from this village and had been gone a few years, his parents no longer lived but his little sister still resided there. She was a widow with one daughter. She didn't know what had happened to her brother but here he was wounded, with a daughter, well a girl. All he managed to say was "Bella Lunaris" he had coughed and repeated it a couple of times pointing to the girl. Then he had died from his wounds. Everyone there had assumed it was the name of the girl, that he had fathered a daughter on his travels as a soldier and brought her home but got wounded by robbers on the way home to his hometown. The priest, not the most devote or well-studied of his kind, explained that the name meant beautiful or Sweet Moonlight. The name was too bulky to say, so Belle was suggested immediately. Since the dying soldier still had a living relative in the village, it was only logical to let the sister take her in. Everyone agreed to help, but they were a good community like that.

Years went by, no one ever learned that the soldier was the only one of a group protecting a noble with his family travelling when they were waylaid by soldiers of an enemy lord. He had been tasked to save the daughter of the nobleman and was the only one to survive an impossible skirmish against numbers far too high. He had bravely managed to break through but not without getting wounded, and instead of riding to the destination they had been aiming for he, in a feverish state... went home.

So, Belle grew up to be tall and very beautiful, not taking after what everyone thought was her father or aunt. Looking nothing like her cousin, or sister. They mostly always acted like sisters; they were similar age. Belle never felt left out and called her aunt mom, because she always thought she was. It wasn't until a short time ago when her beauty had come out for real, and all men near and wide got her attention, that her sister in a fit of jealousy told her that she was not her real sister but just a cousin.

It was a very beautiful and warm Spring morning. Winter had lasted longer and been first snowier and later a lot more rain. The river was overflowing but there were plenty of fish. Life was great in the village. Belle was always quick to get away from doing too many chores, but everyone in the village let her get away with it, because of the smile she had. She had watched the Priest a lot when he made and painted Altar Boards, and she had learned to draw letters way before she learned to read or write. But when the Priest had noticed Belle as a little girl drawing all the letters, often forming words she remembered... not as words but a row of drawings. He had taken it upon himself to teach her. She had learned the letters and was quick to write and just as swift to read.

And this particular day, she had been given a few parchments of text that the Priest had received to read and admire. She was so caught up in the parchment that she didn't hear, or rather she didn't take notice of the alarm bell being rung. She had brought the parchment with her to a small wood a little outside the village. It was only after a bit that she realized the ringing. Except for Sunday mass, it never sounded. Only once, last Summer had it been rung on a normal day. It had been 3 of the younger boys... men in the village that had done it in a dare to get the attention of Belle. There was only one guilty boy in the group but all three of them had been severely punished for having used the Bell.... to get the attention of Belle.

This was the first time it was for real. It must be for real; she thought and grabbed the parchments she had spread out and she ran toward the village as fast as she could. As soon as she was out of the woods, she could see down river, 3 long ships being rowed swiftly towards the shore near the village. Belle had never seen barbarians.... Vikings they were called... but she instantly knew who they were. She knew that the church was the only building of stone with strong enough doors to give some security and that all women and children were to go there when the alarm bell sounds. A lad would be sent on horse to the castle of the Lord to warn what was happening so soldiers could be dispatched. But no rider was seen yet.

Belle reached the village as she saw men jumping over the side of the longships. Men of the village with what tools and few weapons they had for defense ran to meet the Vikings. Some managed to find bows but all the Vikings did seem to run so very fast when Belle looked at them, while all in the village seemed to be moving in slow motions.

Then she heard it, screams of pain... of men dying. Rings of metal against metal... combat. As Belle was approaching the church as fast as she could, having frozen twice in her tracks. Once when the barbarians had jumped off their ships and again when she had heard the screams of men being hurt or killed. More men from the village rushed towards the river but the men there was already overrun and being slaughtered. Too many Vikings for the villagers to do much.

Belle saw a tidal wave of armed angry tall and mean look men seem to crash into the village. In this mass of people, with any villager than made resistance being cut down. Some of the Vikings got wounded, some were hit by arrows, but the tidal wave kept crashing forward. Belle saw him first, like standing out of the wave, was a single figure. A young man, taller than most but probably not much older than Belle. He looked strong and fierce like the rest, but his eyes looked over everything with a presence, like he was taking it all in and evaluating what to do. He saw Belle.

The tidal wave finally broke as it entered the village main and Vikings rushed at houses and in every direction. The tall young man went directly in the direction of Belle; two other Vikings went that direction too. Still men from the villages were trying to stop the assault here and there. The tall man deflected an attack and with his free hand hit the villager square in the face. The villager went down instantly. Belle didn't realize that this was an act of mercy. Instead of using his weapon to kill the man, he had just knocked him out, so he would live to tell the story of the day. The tall man pushed one of his fellow Vikings aside, so he fell, but that was because he was saving him from being hit by an arrow. The falling Viking saw that. But really that tall Viking never paused his rush towards Belle, who had almost reached the church, but the doors had been barred long before. She was swept off her feet like she was just a small toy in his strong arms. The dread of it all made Belle faint and she never felt being thrown over his broad shoulder.

Soon fighting was over, the door to the church was broken down, rape and pillaging starting. Belle regained consciousness only to hear screaming of women, seeing men taking women on the ground over furniture. Women objecting too much getting beaten or killed. The Priest was able to get the killing stopped. But didn't try to convince the Vikings to stop the rape or plunder, he was either smart or too scared to try. She felt how she was carried like luggage over the strong shoulder of a man. He carried her away to an area behind some houses that both removed much of the sound and especially the view of what was happening. She was suddenly pulled off the shoulder and for a moment she was sure she would be crushed against the ground but instead she was caught in his strong arms and laid down on the ground. Rough big hands felt her all over, her breasts, her hips, her thighs. He really seemed interested in her body. In his haste he had loosened much of her wear, and he stood up, his eyes wide as she lay there almost naked, with her clothes loosely covering her here and there. He shook his head in protest as she started to cover her breasts and privates. He looked at her in awe.

Belle had never messed around with boys yet, but she had heard from the older girls what boys like and what boys are like. And she had seen many grown men being aroused by her presence. Clearly this tall strong barbarian has aroused for her. Very much so. He was so much taller than any man she had ever met, and so strongly built. And by the look of it, all of him was equally created. He started to undo his clothes revealing what her eyes had guessed.