Once upon a time, there was a great Viking warrior named Berwald. Every day, Berwald the great Viking warrior would, after slaying enemies in a battle, walk on the sandy shores of the beach enarby and collect seashells he would offer as beautiful penance for his slaughters.
One day, as he squat in the sand and ran his hands through it to find buried shells, a soft, bright light suddenly burst into existence in front of him. Flinching back in surprise, Berwald reached for his sword and began to pull it out. But he stopped.
Floating just above him was an angel, an angel so beautiful to Berwald with his soft face, lithe, nude body covered at the waist with a simple cloth, and skin that illuminated like sunlight. Pushing his sword back into its sheath, Berwald watched the angelic being in awe.
"What..." was all he could say as he reached forward towards him. The angel opened his eyes- revealing violet irises as delicate and enchanting as the flowers in the forest- and gazed back at Berwald with a look that had motherly tenderness not known in the world. Without a word, the angel reached into the folds of his cloth and took out a handful of seashells, many more spilling from the fold. He got closer to Berwald and held out the seashells.
Berwald looked down at the shells and back up at the angel. "These... these are mine..."
The angel nodded and shook the shells in his hands, indicating to Berwald to take them. Berwald held out his hands and let the angel pour the shells into his palms. Berwald was confused at first- of seeing a breathtaking angel before him and receiving the shells he collected back- but as the angel pat his head and smiled gently at him, he started to understand.
He was forgiven.
Because of that encounter, Berwald went to the beach to collect seashells for penance less and less. It was hard to break the habit, and even harder to forgive himself for the bloodshed, but he was slowly drawing away from his need to do so.
Because of that beautiful violet-eyed angel with the perfect smile of peace, Berwald drew himself from battle after after, seeing more to actually helping people affected by the battles.
Until finally, he fought no more.
(So I followed the Pixar format of story telling from this writing prompt blog, and decided to post it here since I haven't posted anything in a while.)