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Five shallow longboats sliced through the seas, waves lapping at their sides as the sun shone down from above. Seawater was filling up Jofrid’s boots, the cold liquid licking at his toes. It wasn’t uncomfortable though, in fact the freezing wind and waves were like an old friend. He had spent too much time on dry land over the last year, but now that summer had returned the Viking raids had begun again and Jofrid found himself back within his favourite boat to raid the English coastline.
Their first target of the summer was a small monastery that sat near the coastline of eastern England. It would be filled with golden plates, candles and other strange but valuable items.
After the monastery was ransacked they would move north, up through Scotland before sailing around to Ireland. Skuld, the raiding party’s leader, had a cousin who lived in Ireland and who would offer them warm food before they would continue their raids down to Cornwall. Already Jofrid felt himself grinning at such an exciting and entertaining trip.
The small brick structure appeared upon the coastline, growing larger and larger with every row of the ship’s crew. The wind covered the sounds of their oars smashing against the surface of the water, Jofrid silently thanking the gods that their arrival was hidden.
The key to a successful Viking raid was being swift and sudden, giving the enemy no time to launch any type of defence. If they were still within the monastery after ten minutes then something was going wrong.
Bumping against the sandy beach, the boat came to a halt as Jofrid leapt from the ship with his axe in hand. Other Vikings were rushing beside him as the monastery came clearly into sight, Jofrid leaping over the tiny outer wall that was so pathetic it didn’t even slow him.
Splinters flew everywhere as the door came crashing down and within less than a minute, they were tearing through the small building. Monks were cowering against the wall, several of them sobbing, pleading not to be hurt as Jofrid picked up a particularly large book and threw it into the fires that they had caused. He had no use for books.
Gold and silver was hardly to be seen and Skuld soon had the monks pressed together, yelling broken English words to find out where the items were hidden. They mumbled and begged that they had nothing of value until Skuld took a step forward, axe raised and one monk blurted out the hiding place.
Jofrid rushed across the room, yanking down the tapestry and seeing the cupboard full of ornaments and jewellery. It would make a very good collection.
In only a few minutes the treasure was loaded within their boats and the monks were left crying in their empty, burning monastery.
Yelling orders, Skuld jumped into the boat as Jofrid and others pushed them free of the sand and back into the sea. As he
leapt into the ship, Jofrid looked down at the golden spoons that were sitting at his feet, the Viking with a massive grin on his face. It was going to be a fun
summer season.
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