Vikings in the Mist · Part 2 (2/2)
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The village was located on a flat piece of waste ground near the harbor. The back part of the village had about a dozen fibreboard huts painted to look mediaeval. Four expendable painted cardboard huts were in the foreground, facing the audience. These were filled with scrap wood and would be set on fire as the Vikings left the pillaged village. The spectators were kept behind a fence about twenty meters from these huts. Spotlights were spaced along the fence to provide night-time illumination.
The Viking raid, the concluding event of the day's festivities, took place just after sunset. The longship grounded on the edge of the village and the crew, augmented by Tom and his volunteers, jumped out and charged into the clear space between the audience and the huts. They were met by the village defenders, and the battle began. The battle didn't last long, since the Vikings carried shields and were armed with swords and axes, while the villagers had only clubs and farm implements. Soon the ground was littered with 'bodies', and now the air was filled with the shrieks and cries of women running through the village, pursued by Vikings intent on plunder and rapine.
Four women wearing coifs were standing behind a hut, out of sight of the spectators. Hannah hid behind them, anxious to avoid Ragnar. Luckily, it wasn't long before Tom jogged by, and she rushed out and bumped into him. She shrieked, "A Viking! Woe is me!" and pretended to faint.
Tom was startled, but he rallied quickly. He wrapped Hannah in a hug to keep her from failing and then lowered her to the ground, face down, and brought her hands behind her back.
Unlike Diana, Hannah hadn't been involved in the rope practice, so she was startled when Tom slipped the loop around her wrists and pulled it tight. Recovering instantly from her 'faint', she cried, "What are you doing?"
"I'm tying your hands behind your back. What does it feel like I'm doing?" He pulled the cinch tight and knotted it.
"I never said you could tie me up!"
"I'm a Viking. I don't have to ask for permission to do anything. Especially when it involves a woman I want." He tied her ankles together and stood her up.
Hannah was stunned. She had never been tied before, not even in a childhood game, and she was shocked to be so helpless. She struggled briefly to free her hands and then squeaked when Tom lifted her over his shoulder. She squirmed, and then yelped as he slapped her bottom.
"Be still, wench!" he ordered. "I can tell that beating obedience into you is going to be a hard task."
As Tom walked toward the fence, Hannah's mind was reeling from the new sensations. She was uncomfortable, bent over his shoulder, and she couldn't see anything except his back. She heard the cheers of the crowd and blushed when she realized the indignity of her position. When Tom entered a hut she was glad that she no longer could be seen by the public. Then she was frightened. Tom had always be so diffident before. Now she realized she actually was a captive maiden, at the mercy of a possibly brutal captor. She gasped when Tom put her on her back on the dirt floor.
Tom sat beside Hannah and touched her face. She whimpered and flinched. He boasted, "You are right to fear me, for I am famous for the number of my conquests. A woman taken be me rejects all other men." Then Tom realized Hannah wasn't smiling. "Are you really scared?"
Hannah nodded.
"Don't worry, we won't go any farther than you want." He kissed her cheek. "Was that acceptable?"
Hannah calmed down. This was Tom, not a real barbarian. "Yes, that's OK."
He kissed her full on the lips. "How about that?"
"Still OK. Will you untie me now?"
"I'll decide when to free you, and now is not the time." He kissed her again and fondled her breasts. "Still OK?"
Hannah said, "Keep going, I'll let you know when I want to stop." 'If he will stop,' she thought. She struggled with the ropes. 'I'm not exactly the one who's in control here.'
They continued to kiss. Tom unlaced Hannah's bodice and nipped at a hard nipple. She moaned with pleasure. After a while he untied her ankles and knelt between her legs and opened his fly.
"Stop."
"Stop?"
"Yeah, I never have rape on the first date with a barbarian. And it's also a bad time of the month. But if you help me kneel I have another orifice you can penetrate." She licked her lips.
Once the 'battle' was over Derek looked for Ella. He quickly spotted her and took up the chase. She shrieked and ran towards the audience. Derek quickly caught up and tackled her to the ground. She landed face down in the dirt and Derek kept her there by sitting on her thighs. He grabbed her hands and pulled them together. The rope loop was in place on his left arm. Ella didn't resist, so it took Derek less than a minute to tightened the loop of rope around her wrists and cinch it. He turned and used his other piece of rope to bind her ankles. Derek stood and pulled Ella to her feet, then put her over his right shoulder, holding her in place with his arm across her thighs.
He replaced his shield on his left arm and strode along the fence, giving the spectators a clear view of his helpless captive and the ropes binding her. Ella's long blonde hair fell free and brushed the top of Derek's boots as she squirmed ineffectually. There were a lot of (male) cheers from the crowd.
Ella had helped Derek practice his rope work, so she wasn't surprised by having her hands tied, but she was surprised when he tackled her. But she soon got back into her captive maiden persona, and started to scream and struggle as Derek turned away from the fence and moved back among the village huts. He ducked through a burlap door covering and dumped her onto the floor of a hut. Ella still struggled against the ropes binding her wrists and ankles and screamed until Derek lay beside her and blocked her mouth with a kiss.
When there was a pause in the kissing Derek gloated, "So, English girl, now you will find what it's like to be taken by a real man, a Norseman. Unless you can be ransomed. If so, your virginity is safe, for now."
Ella giggled. She hadn't been a virgin for a long time. She recognized this as a chance for an opt-out, but she was panting, and not just because of the effort she put into struggling. An easy decision. "Alas, I am only a poor peasant girl," she said in a theatrical voice. "You'll get no ransom for me, you Viking devil! Do your worst! You may violate my body, but my soul will be untouched!"
Derek pretended to think about it, then answered, "I'll settle for that."
He unlaced Ella's bodice and exposed her breasts. He stroked her rock-hard nipples and she moaned. "We aren't going to be interrupted, are we?" she asked in her normal voice.
"No, I dropped my shield outside the door. That's the 'do not disturb' sign. Now, where were we?" Derek kissed her again, and then paused to untie Ella's ankles. He lifted her bottom off the ground so he could pull up her dress and bunch it around her waist. She wasn't wearing underwear. Derek moved beside her and cupped her mound with his right hand while his left hand kneaded her breasts.
Ella moaned and writhed. She struggled to free her hands and found her arousal was more than she had ever experienced. When Derek's finger penetrated her and caressed her clit she gasped, "Yes! Yes! Now!"
Derek paused only long enough to roll on a condom before he climbed between Ella's legs. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and as soon as he entered her she exploded with a massive orgasm. She had another before Derek had his own climax.
Once she got her breath back Ella asked, "Time for another?"
Before Derek could answer a horn sounded. "Nope, that's the recall signal. Time to get on the boat." He stood up and fastened his trousers, then helped Ella to her feet. He re-laced her bodice and brushed the dirt off her bottom before he lowered her dress. Instead of replacing the rope on Ella's ankles he tied one end of it around her neck. "Come along, wench", he said, tugging on the leash. "Scandinavia beckons."
Derek led Ella out of the hut. While he retrieved his shield she looked around the village. The four huts in the front row were engulfed in flames. The spotlights had been turned off so the fires and the fading twilight provided all of the light. Vikings were boarding the longship, which was now equipped with a gangplank. Some of the men had bound women on their shoulders, and others had their captives on a leash. Ella wondered if this had any correlation with events that might have recently taken place in the huts. She noticed Ragnar standing near the land end of the gangplank. He held the leashes of three women in his hand. Then she was pulled away from the hut.
She resisted for a moment, suddenly balking at appearing in front of the crowd in her present state, but Derek yanked on the rope and she stumbled forward. She fought the rope on her wrists and felt a wave of heat between her legs. 'Damn,' she thought, 'can't we wait in the hut for the next boat?'
Several weeks later Tom, Derek, Ella, and Hannah were in a pub near the center of Whitby. It was a clear but cool Tuesday night. Derek looked at his watch. "Where is Di? She said she'd meet us here at eight, and it's almost nine."
Hannah said, "She told me she might be late. She was re-running her calculations, trying to get an exact time and place for the Viking's appearance."
Ella asked, "Does anyone know where this 'landing' is supposed to take place?"
Tom answered, "Di gave me the approximate latitude and longitude, but the coordinates pointed to a location nearly a mile out to sea."
"Di says that's because of the changes in the coastline," Hannah explained. "She said she'll have a corrected location with her that will align with the present beach."
"That's hopeful. I've got a GPS navigator in my car, so if she has calculated the landing location we can find the spot on the beach, if it is on the beach and not in the middle of York, or somewhere inaccessible."
Derek asked, "You saw Di's 'proof', Hannah. Do you really, really believe in these ghost Vikings?"
"No, I'm afraid she's deluding herself. All of her medieval documents have vague references to mysterious ships, but nothing that could be considered conclusive. But she didn't show me everything she had. She was very secretive about some of the evidence."
Ella said, "The last raid was supposed to have happened in 1779. Surely there would be some surviving records from then."
"Actually, there is a record of a raid on a fishing village near here at that time. It was burned and some women disappeared, but most historians believe an American privateer was responsible."
Derek said, "Let's let the girls in on the secret, Tom. They're just as skeptical as we are."
Ella asked, "What secret?"
Tom replied, "I asked Ragnar to sail his ship up here. He agreed, and should be in position by now. Di's 'mystic Vikings' will appear right on schedule."
Ella laughed, "That's cruel, Tom. But very funny."
"I don't want to ridicule Diana," Hannah protested. "We could lose her friendship over this."
Derek said, "It's for her own good, Hannah. If word of Di's delusion gets spread around in university circles it will kill any chance of her having an academic career. We're actually doing her a favor, and she will realize it once she gets over the shock."
Hannah still wasn't convinced, but before she could protest further Diana entered the pub and joined them. "Sorry I'm late. Making the calculations took longer than I expected."
Tom asked, "Do you have a beach location now, Di?"
"Yes, and it's not too far from here. We just drive south on A171 and then take a side road over to the beach. We'd better get moving. The Vikings will appear soon, and we want to be in place long before they arrive."
"All right. It'll be cramped, but we can all fit in my car."
They left the pub and climbed into Tom's battered Mondeo. Diana gave her coordinates to Tom and he entered them into his GPS navigator. Diana didn't notice Derek texting the corrected coordinates to Ragnar.
The highway part of the journey was uneventful, but Diana's 'side road' turned out to be a muddy track. After creeping along it for several miles Tom asked, "Are you sure this is the right road, Di?"
"Yes, but I thought it was in better condition. How far is it to the beach landing site?"
"Just under a mile to where the road joins the beach, and then a north a bit." The car lurched to a stop. "Damn! We're stuck." Tom tried unsuccessfully to drive out of the mud.
Everyone piled out of the car. Tom said, "Why don't you girls start walking to the beach? Derek and I will try to get the car out, and we'll join you as soon as we can."
Diana agreed, "That's a good idea, Tom. But don't bring the car much closer to the beach. The Vikings might be frightened off by the headlamps. Remember, they're still living in a ninth century world."
Derek muttered, "And what world are you living in, Di?", but luckily she didn't hear him.
The moon was just past full and provided plenty of light for the women as they walked down the track to the beach. Diana stopped them about fifty meters from the water. She muttered, "Let's find a place to hide in these dunes. We'll have a good view for quite a ways up and down the beach."
The women sprawled in the sand behind a low dune. Ella said, "I'm glad there's not much wind, Di. This could be really uncomfortable if there was."
"Yes, and the surf is unusually calm. According to my records, these conditions are always present when the Vikings appear."
Hannah said, "The records also say there's a fogbank, with the Viking ships appearing out of the mist. I don't see much fog, and the horizon is clearly visible except for a few spots. Do you think this will keep the Vikings away?"
Di shrugged. "I don't know. It's possible. Or it may be that the Viking ships cause the mist. All we can do is wait and see."
Ella exclaimed, "Where did that come from? I thought it was clear just a moment ago." She pointed to a small patch of fog close to the beach. As the women watched a longship sailed out of the mist and grounded on the sand.
Ella sat up to get a better view as a dozen or so men jumped off the ship and waded ashore. Diana hissed, "Get down, Ella! Don't let them see you!"
"Take it easy, Di. I just want to see what's happening. That man in front of the boat looks like Ragnar, doesn't he?"
Hannah also sat up. "You may be right, Ella. He does look like Ragnar, but I can't be sure in this dim light."
"Let's say hello."
"I don't think that's a good idea, Ella. Ragnar frightens me sometimes. We should wait for Tom and Derek."
"Oh, you're imagining things, Hannah. He just likes to play at being a Viking." Ella walked towards the men on the beach. Hannah reluctantly followed her.
Diana was very frightened. She didn't think the man was Ragnar, and the ship looked different, too. She crawled away, keeping the dune between herself and the men.
A man shouted something in a foreign language, and Hannah replied. There were more shouts from the men, and then many loud shrieks from Ella and Hannah.
Diana risked a look back and saw one of the men pick up Hannah and sling her over his shoulder. Her hands were tied behind her back and cords bound her knees and ankles. Ella was face-down in the sand with another man crouching over her, and then her bound body was also picked up and draped over the shoulder of her captor. She was loudly protesting, and the man holding her swatted her bottom. The other men laughed as Ella was hit again. Diana took advantage of the distraction to stand and run up the track.
After running several hundred meters Diana met Tom and Derek walking towards the beach. She hugged Tom and gasped for breath. She was exhausted, and tears were streaming down her face.
Derek asked, "What's wrong, Di?"
"The Vikings, they appeared just as I said! They captured Hannah and Ella." She looked back towards the beach. "We can't stay here! If they saw me they may be coming this way!" She tried to run, but Tom held her.
"Don't panic, Di! There's no danger."
"How can you say that! Vikings are barbarians! They'll kill you two and carry me away to a life of slavery! We've got to run!"
Derek said, "She's really upset, Tom. You'd better tell her."
"Tell me what?"
"I arranged with Ragnar to have him sail the Viking Society ship up here." He tightened his arms around the now furious Diana. "It was for your own good, Di! If word of your delusion got around the university you'd be a laughing stock. What you saw was Ragnar's ship. There are no mystic Vikings."
Diana started to cry. "You mean all my research was wasted? I can't believe it! I don't want to believe it!"
Tom patted her on the back. "It's better that you find this out now, rather than before an audience at the university. You'll get over it." He loosened his grip once he was sure that Diana wasn't going to be violent. "Let's walk to the beach and meet Ragnar and his crew. Don't worry, Di, they just 'captured' Ella and Hannah as a joke. Ragnar's a notorious practical joker."
Derek grabbed his arm and stopped him. "Wait a minute. I just got a text message from Ragnar. The wind was bad and he had to turn back. He says his ship is at Hornwick."
I welcome your comments.
Vikings in the Mist · Part 2 (2/2)
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