Officially Written by: Georgina Gulyás

(In Fact Written by: Eric Norseman)

A Warrior's Life

Viking, a noun used for people who lived a century ago in the Scandinavian Peninsula, barbarians, who raided innocent villages, killed in cold-blood, mercilessly.

Though people think this way about them they don't realise how wrong they are. Vikings weren't simple murderers they were warriors who raided to keep their families alive, to be able to feed them and give them fresh water every day. And how do I know this? I was one of them, more than a century ago…

I was born in about 996, but I can't be sure, because we weren't Christians then and our time didn't exactly match the Christian. My mother's name was Ragnhild and my father's name was Leif Norseman. He was a quite wealthy man and a great warrior. I was my father's second son and I was named after my great-grandfather. My name became Eric, Eric Norseman and I was to find land to live on as the eldest son inherited the land and that wasn't me.

I had a quite enjoyable childhood as I played a lot with my siblings. I had an elder brother, Leif (named after his father), two elder sisters Tora and Ingegjerd, a little brother who was only one year younger than me and looked exactly like me, Olef and a little sister, Hannah. I mostly played with my brothers, because my sisters were lot elder than me and they got married when I was about four. Leif taught me and Olef how to use a sword and at the age of twelve I counted as a man so I had to go into battle. I thrived well in battles and survived the most of them with only small injuries.

I was sixteen when we went into a bigger battle. I fought with all my might and it seemed that we would win, when I heard Olef's scream I quickly rode my hose into his direction, but suddenly something hit me from the left and I fell from my horse. A soldier attacked me as soon as I fell on the ground. He was highly trained and suddenly he made a deep cut on my left side with his sword. I heard myself cry out in pain and I knew that I would die there, but suddenly Leif came there to help. He killed my attacker, but two more came and he couldn't win against both of them. I lay helplessly and watched my brother's death and I couldn't do anything. The emotional agony overpowered the physical pain and I couldn't keep back my tears as I saw my brother sacrifice himself for me, I had hoped that at least Olef was alive, but that hope was pale, really pale. Suddenly I heard a tramp of a horse getting closer to me and my father knelt down next to me, and tried to tell me that everything was going to be all right. I didn't quite listen to him, but there was something I had to know. "Olef?" I asked and it surprised me how hollow and painful my voice was. "He will be fine." Came the answer then I felt someone lifting me up then nothing…

When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was Aude, Leif's wife. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. "Aude?" I called out for her. I wanted to calm her and wipe away the tears from her eyes. She looked at me and started sobbing again, then she came to my bed, hugged me carefully and said "He is dead, Eric, Leif is dead!" "Shhh… I know. It's okay. Everything will be fine." I knew I lied, but I felt the urge to calm her. We stayed there for a while hugging each other, then a maid came and informed my family that I was awake… I recovered quickly, faster than I expected and I was able to go into battle after two months. Olef was in full health in two weeks, because he was a lot less injured than I had expected. Six weeks after the battle we kept our marriage with Aude to keep our families bonded, and she was willing as both of her sons from Leif died and she wanted more children, and she kind of liked me. And from my side I was in love with her as much as a sixteen-year-old-boy can love someone who he barely knows.

She bore me six children in seven years, but only three lived through their first year. We had two living sons, younger Eric and Leif, after his uncle, and a little girl, Aldís, who crawled into my lap every night to tell her a story before she went to sleep.

But with the sixth child Aude died too. Two days after the baby girl was born they both caught a fever and we didn't have antibiotics that time, so they died. I buried them in a beautiful tomb. My wife had her best broach on her dress, and I laid the baby on her breast. At then I was in my early twenties, about twenty-three I think, and I was left with three children, I knew I had to find a new wife to be their mother and take care of them while I was in battles.

One night I went to a wife-candidate. She lived about two or three miles away. I had some worldly goods, my father was a chief, and I was a handsome man and a notes fighter so a good prospect. Her father and her brothers seemed to like me and she seemed to be agreeable. I tried to get to know her a bit and I had high hopes. But I drank too much and I never got home… It was full moon and I saw a man lying on the side of the road. I thought he was hurt so I went over to help him. If I hadn't been drunk I would have looked around to see who attacked him, but I was drunk, I wasn't thinking. As soon as I got close enough it turned out, that he wasn't injured, but I was soon after that. He got to his feet unimaginably quickly and then I felt a sharp pain in my neck then nothing…

I never saw my family again, but I knew that they were looked after by my brothers and sisters and were taken good care of.

End

Warning! If you are satisfied with the ending of the story, don't believe in supernatural, or don't like the supernatural world don't continue reading it!

Three days later my new life had started as a vampire, I was turned by Appius Livius Ocella. He turned me because he was lonely. He released me 300 years later and now I'm spending 10 minutes of my eternal life with writing this composition for a 16-year-old girl , who is a student at a high school in Hungary. I don't know what had gotten into me. My progeny, Pam thinks that I'm crazy to do it. Maybe she is right, but I can have a bit from the girl's blood after I have written this so I think it worth it…

The End