[i]collab between Igraine and idlehands[/i]

[i]Mid morning, Trelleborg[/i]

They ran, their feet kicking up the snow as they dashed past the longhouses were curious people were looking out of, raising their heads from morning chores as the commotion from the healing house grew louder. One man tried to reach out to stop them, shouting a question and Raudr dodged him, calling back over his shoulder. 

[b]"Draugr in the healer's house!"[/b], the boy cried breathlessly. 

The man looked shocked and frightened, he was older and no warrior. His dark hands spoke of his craft of tanning and with a sharp order, his family ran back inside where he boarded their door. Raudr snorted in disgust at the cowardice of the man hiding rather than running to the aid of Haakon and the others. That moment of distraction though lead him to not see the long handle of a shovel left carelessly in front of one of the longhouses, half buried in the snow. He stepped on it, feeling it roll beneath his foot and he fell forward, his knees hitting the cold wet ground. 

[b]"Oof,"[/b] he grunted, putting out his hands to push himself back up, his bright yellow and red shield now muddy. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a movement from the doorway and he turned to look. 

The draugr's face was covered in blood, his eyes wide and full of demonic hunger as it shuffled quickly toward him. It was one of the men that had come out with the supply raid, a man who had been bitten on the arm and thought nothing of the wound but to have his wife bind it. He was one of four that had not gone to the healing house, preferring to recover in privacy. He lurched into the snow covered road toward Raudr and behind him the wails of a woman and child could be heard.

Without weapon or shield or great strength of her own, Eyja's judgment of the tanner was far gentler than Raudr's. She spared only the shortest glance in the old man's direction, a pitying look of understanding far beyond her handful of years just as the door to his home slammed shut against them. 

But no more than Raudr, did the little girl see the shovel handle that tripped up his feet. As if Tore's feline spirit ran with her, Eyja leapt over the tangle of Raudr's legs at the very last instant, landing beside him on her hands and feet in the frigid, muddied snow. Pale blue eyes wide with surprise, her gasping breaths puffing little gouts of mist, she turned about to grab Raudr's arm with both hands, to yank the other half of her little wolf pack back to his feet.

And that was when she followed his horrified gaze.

Eyja screamed, trying to all but drag the boy to his feet with the strength that terror-fueled adrenaline coursed through her small body."Raudr!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs, her small hands locked in an iron grip on boy's arm as if she could simply pick him up all on her own. She heard the cries of the woman behind the walking dead man, and the child, and whimpered softly in her throat. Great tears began to well at the corners of her eyes, the too-fresh memories of their flight from the farm beginning to tear and bleed at the edges of her thought.

[b]"Raudr [i]get up![/i]"[/b] she pleaded, releasing his arm with one hand to reach to her feet, fingers grabbing at a mud-covered rock she found there, and hurling it at the nightmare coming for her friend.

Raudr's heart was in his throat, he felt his skin crawl as the thing got closer and Eyja's shrill cries pierced the morning air. He pushed up on his shield, getting to his feet, feeling her hand clutching his arm. The rock thrown bounced off the draugr's head and did nothing but make it snarl and reach with grasping hands toward them. He pushed at Eyja, a part of his brain registering the cries from the house had ceased but for a thin wail of an infant and he shuddered, blocking out the noise. 

[b]"Run, Eyja, run fast!"[/b] he shouted, pushing her ahead of him and at the same time he swung his shield up. 

He turned, facing the monster that lunged at them. His knees shook and he felt a sudden surge of shame, how badly he wanted to run even if it meant leaving Eyja behind. He was scared, even more frightened than when the draugr had attacked their farm because then there was his Fadir and Haakon and Ivarr and all the other brave grown men that protected them. He shouted again, his voice cracking with fear. 

[b]"Go! Get my Fadir!"[/b] 

The draugr made a swipe where Eyja's hair would have been if she had not moved and Raudr reacted with instinct, forgetting to think and let his training take over. The small shield smacked the draugr in the face, the iron boss connecting with it's jaw bone. That got it's attention and he turned on Raudr, bearing down, snatching at the shield. The boy backed up, keeping the shield between him and the snapping teeth of the undead creature. 

The weight of the horror that had once been a man overwhelmed him and he fell backward, still keeping the round shield between them. He cried out, wanting nothing more than to hear his Fadir's voice and to see Skulltaker coming down on the draugr that was trying to eat him and Eyja. 

The doorway stood open beyond them and a figure appeared. He could see only out of the corner of his eye but she was tall and thin, her mousey brown hair soaked in blood and her arms covered in hideous ragged bite wounds. Her nude body was dark with blood, where her breasts had been was nothing but raw flesh and she gripped a long knife tightly in her fist. The woman was not dead yet and she screamed in primal rage at the draugr, stumbling forward. 

The woman buried the knife to the hilt in the draugr's back and it roared, forgetting Raudr for a moment as it lurched up, snatching at the bleeding woman. She bared her teeth at the draugr in rage and shrieked at the boy, [b][i]"RUN!"[/i][/b]

Raudr did not wait, he rolled free, forgetting to grab his shield as he bolted away from the scene, following Eyja.

Eyja had no idea where Raudr's father was, or she would have found him! She really would have! But Madir had told her to find Loker or his guards and at least she knew where they should be. Eyja was torn - and it was that split second of indecision that nearly cost her life.

The draugr's clawed hand snatched the air where she had been standing, but it was Raudr who saved her. He slammed into it with his shield while she just stood there, helpless, paralyzed with terror as he fell beneath its weight. All she could see was her big brother Tore all over again, beating back the walking dead thing that had been her Uncle Ormarr with only a piece of timber in his bare hands. He had a snarl on his lips - they would not have his baby sister, not his funny, fiery little Eyja! Tore had been relentless, but even he did not have the stamina that unending hunger gave the draugr. All it took was one misstep backward, one stumbling step and he too fell...

The screams, they filled her ears and she could not tell if they were Tore's or her own until she heard that word, that same agony-filled, desperate and furious command all over again - but torn from a bloody, mutilated woman's throat as she fell on the thing that had once been her husband.

[b][i]"RUN!"[/i][/b]

And Eyja did. Just like at the farm, frigid gasps of air burning her lungs - but this time her savior caught up with her. Eyja glanced again to Raudr, her pale eyes filled with tears that made her whole world swim, but she didn't care. The little girl reached out to clasp his hand in hers, praying to every god she had ever known that they would find an armed guard who would not run away. That they would meet the giant man meant for smiling, the housekarl Loker; or her brave friend the painted man Orran; or Raudr's warrior Fadir - someone, [i]any[/i] grown-up, who would know what to do!

Raudr grabbed her warm hand, feeling the strength of her small fingers clutching his own and they ran together. His saex had stayed sheathed and forgotten during the brief but frightening ordeal. His first thought was to find his father but they were running toward the Hall, away from their home. The Hall though represented security with it's heavy walls and armed guards. They would find the housekarl and men with chainmail and swords to kill the draugr. Adrenaline surged through him, for the second time in as many days he was running for his life within the stout walls of a holdfast, Trelleborg that was supposed to be so safe.