Wulfstan's Warband Forum Harvest Festival (Preview 2)

     Gaida took the stinking wooden bucket out of the hut as her mum had asked her to. Once outside the light blinded her for a few seconds by the morning sun. Their small yard was quiet save the chickens clucking in their shed. The yard was mud with a thin layer of wood dust sprinkled on top. There were also a few stones from some old buildings and the odd nettle. That day the skies were a blend of oily grey and fluffy white clouds, mixed with patches of blue. She smiled at Mishmari’s creation.

     Their family hut was made of felled pine logs with a thatched roof on top of an ancient brick and stone foundation held together by weak mortar. She left the warm stone step and then squeezed herself through a gap strewn with firewood piles, broken fish traps and big old storage pots, which lay between the main hut and one of the smaller sleeping huts. Beyond the reddish pots, she found the wall to their compound and a small gate. The fence was about seven foot high and like the huts, it sat on engraved bricks and crumbling mortar. On top of which her father had built a new wattle and daub fence reinforced with wicker rods.

     Through the gate was a thin strip of cool grass, which led to a five-foot drop to the ambling river below. She quickly dumped the contents of the swill bucket in the river and sat down on the edge with her legs dangling over the river. Sometimes her crusty heels would bounce off the rainbow rock below the grass. Across the river, the hill rose up dramatically. She craned her neck to see the top but could not from so close an angle. The bottom of the hill, along the length of the village, had been clad with a strong brick wall. The ochre wall paint had long peeled off and now there were only orange smudges. Trees topped the cliff and seemed to be leaning away from the edge liked frightened children. She stared so long her neck began to hurt so she looked down. In the middle of the river were four boulders. These boulders were sleek and metallic grey in colour. She had decided that the biggest was hers and so she had marked it with a white pebble. That one is mine, she thought to herself, and the little ones are for my brothers and my sister so they can look up to me. The thought made her smile until she heard her mother.

     “Gaida, time to go to the barrows.”