Taken from the novel, Forced Blood The Norseman.

O'Reily barked, "Step aside!" Logs were coming in for the walkways and Dag stood where they needed delivering. He jumped onto the log he was securing to the walkway; it rolled forward with his weight. He balanced himself just enough to jump from it. His first foot to the ground, however, slipped sideways, pitching him forward. He got to his hands and knees and rolled over to a sitting position; this with much swearing to the gods, known and unknown to him. Standing happily in ankle deep mud, a pair of fun loving, not long-from-the-breast boys laughed and pointed. 
     With a great clamorous noise, rolling logs tumbled from a sturdy cart into place along the walkway, at O'Reily's orders. One hit a corner of the walkway and bounced across the fingertips of one of Dag's hands. He wasn't hurt and so gathered a wad of mud and flung it at the small boys still laughing. 
     Before much time, a huge woman with hands on hips screamed at Dag, demanding why he'd "dirtied up her boy." He coaxed the woman to move off a distanace by walking away himself, so that all his charges at the walkway couldn't hear as she insulted him loudly and without letup. He could all but feel the waddle of flesh at her neck in his hands as she brayed so loudly he could not be certain of her words, "How's a woman to keep a boy clean?" Dag laughed nervously. She caught him completely off guard. Lightening fast, she removed her hands from her wide hips and shoved him. Stumbling backwards, he finally landed in a sitting position, once again, in the deep mud. She whirled around, hitched up her skirts, heaved great sighs and trudged off. 
     The miscreant boys ran to her side, and did not fail, to the boy, to turn and launch nasty faces back at Dag, and that as his men jerked him to his feet, pretending concern while enjoying the diversion. A soft rain fell. Dag kicked out violently in the direction of a lazing "good-for-nothing dog" while spewing forth searing threats to gods and "worthless humans" alike. "Stand'em in the rain, woman!" he blathered dry-mouthed while stumbling and limping straight across the stable yard in the worst of the ankle-deep mire, and well out of hearing of the annoying woman. 
     O'Reily caught up and pounded Dag's shoulder as they fought the sucking mud. In good humor he apologized overloud "... for letting loose the logs on ya!"
     From where Brand stood, he watched from the window two small boys flanking a tall wide woman with her skirts held high, exposing bread-dough flesh above her knees. The boys, he assumed boys, girls seldom wallowed in mud to his recollection, were having great folly making faces at some one behind the ferocious grandmamma. Curiosity prodded him to hang from the window, where he just could see a knot of men pulling some clumsy soul, from the mud to his feet ...

More about the novel Forced Blood The Norseman at our website, www.christopherperryandlindanewtonperry.com