The raiding party burst through the trees in the midst of the night; the sounds waking the villagers immediately. Mardre, who had been dozing in the chieftain's hut, barely had time to register the sounds coming from outside. The screams of terror and pain pierced the air as she reached for her master's short sword - the closest weapon to her. Her chieftain had warned her that if any raiders were to come through, she was not to fall to their hands, or be defiled in any way. As his property, while she served him willingly, he considered her sacred and refused to share her with anybody else. Wearing only her shift, and grasping the sword in her right hand, she reached across and shook her master, in an effort to rouse him.
"My lord," she called to him, in a whispered scream. His skin was cold to the touch, and she recoiled in shock, as the door to his hut was forced open. Giant hands seized her by the shoulders, lifting her off the ground. This was her attacker's error - for Mardre's master had taught her to defend herself by all means necessary. After all, as her lord had drilled into the girl's head - she was sacred and no other may touch her without her lord's consent. While Mardre's attacker had only seized her by the shoulders, pinning her arms, and gripping so the sword fell from her hand, he failed to reckon with the rest of her flailing body, until she planted one sharp, swift kick to the man's groin.
He grunted, and his grip eased, so that Mardre could writhe out from his hands, or so she thought. But as she turned, he had recovered enough to land a stinging blow across her face, cutting her across the eyebrow and nearly flinging her halfway across the hut. Her head rocking backwards, she managed to ease her eyes open, and was rewarded with her first glimpse of the invaders to her home.
The man who had struck her was tall, like the dreaded Saxons of the tales she had heard, with dark waves that framed his cruel face. Well-muscled, she realised that if he had hit her any harder, he might well have killed her. Mardre, for all her restless beauty and strength drawn from the years of her master's instruction, was still a slight girl, barely out of her teens - only nineteen, and fully aware of the harsh and brutal capabilities of a man. As she struggled with her captor to reach for her blade, she gradually became very aware of her shift sliding off her shoulders, giving the stranger a modest view of the swell of her cleavage.
"Get off me, you arrogant, ill-mannered barbaric swineherd!" she yelled as she struggled harder, determined to reach anything that would ensure she enter the next world undefiled. The dark-haired stranger just looked at her in amusement, even as she squirmed, trying desperately to reach the cruel dagger on his belt. But as she touched it, his hand struck her again, stunning her into stillness, and proceeded to rip her shift in half. The sound of the material being torn apart jerked her back into action, kicking her captor, and grasping the dagger at his side.