See, normally, when we find a crofter's baby, we perk up, and play the
baby-spear game. Toss the baby up in the air, and catch him on a spike.
Stand in a circle and toss the baby from spike to spike. First one to
miss gets razzed something terrible.
   But this time, there was this baby that...it's hard to believe, but I
really saw it. He leaped up and danced on the sharp tips of the spears.
His red-haired mother, tied to a post nearby, nose bloody, booby hanging
out, stared in stunned awe.
   It sent us into a frenzy, as you might imagine. We leaped and capered
and jousted into the air, trying to stab that baby. With his chuckling
baby laughter, he leaped and pirouetted, his little wiggle worm
undulating, his fat dimpled knees working, the pink new soles of his feet
unblemished and lovely.
   Finally, exhausted, we all lowered our spears and sat on the ground.
The baby continued to dance in the air, leaping from sod roof to slate
wall, from standing stone to standing stone.
   Then...this...do I have to tell it?
   [You must.]
   Can you...would...I think I really need...
   [Yes. When I snap my fingers, you will be temporarily disconnected
from your emotions. You will see everything and be able to describe
everything, and you will be unaffected in any way emotionally.
Aaand...three...two... one...*click*.]
   Ah. Yes. Where were we? Yes. At that moment, then...the baby stopped.
He stared at Bjorn Ragnarsson, who was standing just to my right. The
baby's eyes glowed like two tiny suns. And then Bjorn's head exploded.
From the inside out, not like when you bring a sword down on it. I can
almost see it in slow motion — like a flower of some kind. Pop!
   The baby was clucking with laughter as he went from man to man,
exploding their heads. Finally, he turned his gaze on me.
   "You," he said in perfect Norse, "will bear this vision back to your
homeland. This is what awaits your people if they continue to harass the
Western Isles. Now leave this place."
   [...
   [So what happened?]
   I don't know. Nobody ever saw that baby again, and we destroyed every
croft and monastery and stone tower in the whole fucking place.