A Village Targeted By Barbarians ((install)) -

The targeting was not random. It was a science of cruelty.

First, they cut the road. A felled oak and a line of sharpened stakes sealed the Vale off from the king’s garrison two days’ ride away. Then, they took the miller’s daughter. Not killed—taken. They dragged her to the edge of the village green and tied her to the hitching post, a living promise of what would happen if the doors did not open. a village targeted by barbarians

What happened next was not a battle. It was a transaction. The Vale laid out its best: a roasted pig, three casks of sour ale, a loom’s worth of wool. The Wolf Clan ate and drank, but they did not stop. They smashed the loom. They kicked over the well’s bucket. They methodically set fire to every building except the chapel, which Skadi declared “cursed.” The targeting was not random

And the villagers? They fled—not as heroes, but as ghosts. Silent, barefoot, clutching infants and heirlooms, they slipped into the cave mouth hidden by briars. Behind them, the Vale burned. The sky turned the color of a bruise. A felled oak and a line of sharpened