The first ten pages of my full-length historical fiction novel, Venom Of The Malice Striker.   ???Alrik Olvirson is a hunter, an exile, and a Viking. Cast out of Christendom, his family ekes out a meagre existence in the high north of Norway. In the winter of 1348, their existence is threatened by a dark omen; a Plague Ship blown ashore by the winds of change, filled with victims of the pestilence. The disease claims his wife, and if his young children are to survive, he must journey south to the lands of his enemies in search of a cure.   The novel is complete at 101,759 words.