"Take off your clothes and undress your partner too" Dag continued, in a stern tone, turning the arrow between his fingers.

The bandit approached his companion's body and stripped him, leaving only his underwear.

Then he returned to Dag and undressed in front of him.

He left his and his companion's clothes on the ground, in front of his feet.

They were filthy white s.h.i.+rts, yellowed because of sweat and normal leather pants, similar to those Dag and his companions wore.

"Can I go now?" the man asked, feeling shame and contempt for Dag, who came even closer to him, climbing over his clothes on the ground.

As he looked into his eyes, he violently thrust the arrow into his t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, causing the bandit to scream in pain.

Blood poured down his legs, all the way to the ground.

Reidar and Karl were shocked to see the scene.

"Aaagh! You, b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Aaagh!" the man continued to scream, as Dag turned the arrow inside his flesh, piercing his s.c.r.o.t.u.m and p.e.n.i.s.

He then pulled out the arrow forcefully and pushed the man away with a kick.

"You will live the rest of your life thinking about this day. You will no longer be able to enjoy the carnal pleasures, with your wife and every other woman on this planet. And you won't be able to have children anymore. Yes, you can go now" Dag said, in a s.a.d.i.s.tic tone, approaching Reidar with the b.l.o.o.d.y arrow.

"Reidar, take your aim again and wait for my order" he whispered in his ear.

Reidar executed and pointed at the man the same arrow that had narrowed him down just before.

Dag turned again to the bandit: "So? What are you waiting for? Run away! Run as fast as you can, son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

The man got up and fell to the ground several times, before being able to run with his legs crossed in pain.

Half naked and emasculated, he slowly disappeared into the trees of the forest.

Dag turned to his companions, who were astounded.

"I told you. I hate rapers. This man dared to speak to me about family, as he contributed every day to the progress of the village of the bandits, who do nothing but kill every innocent they find around, even just for fun. He deserved a punishment worse than death... If he can't bear his life anymore, he'll commit suicide himself" Dag said, justifying his gesture to Reidar and Karl, who kept staring at him.

Reidar put the b.l.o.o.d.y arrow in the quiver because even though it was dirty, it was still usable and then he pretended nothing, grabbing the clothes from the ground and heading with Dag to the wagon.

Karl was still shocked. He was still realizing what had happened: Dag really cared about family. Just talking about honor, love, children... makes him mad.

He was indeed a determined man with strong principles, a true leader.

After recovering, he too approached his companions, listening to the rest of the plan.

"Karl and I will wear these clothes, while you, Reidar, will be locked inside the wagon. In this way, we'll be able to catch the bandits by surprise and with a little luck, we will kill Kjetil before his time" Dag said.

"We must hope that in that village they do not know these two lumberjacks well... otherwise they will understand our plan as soon as they look us in the face" Reidar said, looking at the bandit's corpse.

"They were not warriors, I hope that man told us the truth. They arrived at the bandits' camp not so long ago. But surely, attentive eyes would immediately discover our plan... we have to be fast and keep a low profile until we finally get in" Dag continued, grabbing one of the two s.h.i.+rts from Reidar's hands.

"This is blood-soaked. We will use the fabric of one of the pants to cover the stains as if it was a cape. It should work" Dag replied.

He and Reidar wore the bandits' clothes and ripped off one of their pants, making it cover the stained part of the white s.h.i.+rt.

"It really looks like a cloak! I think the guards won't pay too much attention to us" said Karl, hopeful.

"When we'll be close enough to them, we will pretend to speak to each other, so as not to show too much of our faces. The less they look us in the face, the less chance they're going to find out the truth. Reidar will be in the wagon, ready to shoot an arrow if things get bad" Dag said, looking at Reidar, who nodded his head.

"Before we went down the hill, I noticed that one of the three guards is slightly further away from the other two. I'm talking about the one that's more s.h.i.+fted to the coast... the natural slope of that area makes the descent steeper as you approach the sea, making the third guard not fully visible from the other two" Reidar said.

"Great observation, Reidar. What we'll do is: we're going to take the road closer to the coast and go through the eyes of the guard you're talking about. If he finds out who we really are, we must kill him. But then we'll have little time to get into the village before the other two bandits notice his disappearance" continued Dag, who touched his chin with his hand, trying to decide what was the best strategy to adopt.

"It seems a good plan to me" said Karl, who seemed to be braver than usual.

Perhaps having known Agnes, it had made him more determined.

The Sun was high in the sky when the three friends set off from the clearing towards the village: Reidar was locked in the wagon, with bow and arrows ready to use, while Dag and Karl sat in front, to guide the horses.

Dag and Karl had hidden their weapons under the wooden beam they were sitting on, which had a trunk-like indentation, that seemed perfect to hide something inside.