Facing Time

Chapter I

"Do you think he's dead?"
"There's no way. You saw that light. God did this. He was struck down by the Lord. No one could survive that."

Where am I? What are they talking about?

"His chest moved!" 
"I told you there's no way he's alive!"
A wheeze escapes my lips as I open my eyes, finally able to breathe again. Two men are staring at me in terror.
"He must be the devil. He should not be alive!" The man steps away from me, but the other shoves him forward.
"Tie him up! We will bring him to the king."
I feel myself being man handled as I'm restrained and shoved into a boat. My head hits the wood and the world fades back to black.

~*~

Magnus-
I wake up to the rocking of the boat. I moan as I lift my head. People are talking around me and I listen attempting to understand what's happening. As I look around, I find us sailing away from my home. What the fuck...

"What happened?" I ask nobody in particular as I watch my village burn in the distance.
"We were invaded by the people who we raided last spring." A familiar voice responds. I follow the voice and find Björn watching me closely.
I shift in my uncomfortable bonds. Björn continues to stare at me as he speaks again.
"Ragnar is dead. Our city burned and where were you? You seem to be one of us but I have never seen you before. Who are you?"
Who am I?
Before I can reply I hear a woman crying hysterically. I look over to her.
"Sif?" The woman looks over at me. She's holding a lifeless child in her arms.
"How do you know my name?"
"W-what do you mean? We grew up together." She glances to someone else, then back at me. I look over to the other person and find Thorsten protectively watching her from his spot.
"I've never seen you before."

I look back to her child. It does not have the scaled skin that her last child did. I'm confused because the child appears to be months old whereas her other child died during the birth.
"How old are you?" I quickly ask her.
"I am nineteen years old." Tears still stream down her face, but a look of slight curiosity keeps me prying.
Wait... she's nineteen. I'm twenty. I didn't travel to a different time... this is the same time I left my mother and went with Allison to the future.
What the Hel is going on?

"Where is Estrid?" I ask turning to Björn.
"Estrid? The same Estrid who was captured by these people ages ago and turned against us?"
"What?" I lean toward him confused. Floki speaks up from behind me. I am unable to face him when he speaks due to my bonds.
"Estrid has been blinded by the King. He gave her everything and yet nothing. She has turned her back on the gods." There is clear bitterness in his voice. "Why are you so interested anyway?"
"She's my mother." Floki giggles loudly, causing a few of the Christians to look at him uneasily.
"Estrid has not born children. Even if she has, they would not be like you."
Silence falls over us as one of the kings lackeys punches Floki in the face and screams at us to stop talking. I breathe deeply as I attempt to rest. This will be a long journey.

Estrid-
"My king, the ships have docked. They have been destroyed."
My husband gleefully jumps up from the throne excitedly. I do not show as much as a smile. He destroyed my birthplace and killed my old friends. I must say, King Fáelán had been very generous to me. He saved me from death once, and has never let me down since. Until he started attacking my peoples villages.

"Let them in! Bring in the prisoners!"
I watch as a line of chained people enter the large room. The sunlight casting a slight shadow on their faces. I recall the names of each person as they are brought in.
Björn, Helga, Thorsten, Floki, and The Seer.
I relax a bit to see Floki alive. The way he refuses to look up at me saddens me though.
"Is this all?" I glance to the man next to me. He has a large grin on his face.
"No my lord, there is another." The guard replies.
"Where is he?" I notice a couple soldiers look at each other before the captain speaks.
"We had some trouble getting him off the boat."
Hm. Must be Ragnar.
Through the doors, a young man is thrown onto the ground. His face is covered in cuts as if his skin had cracked and split. He looks directly at me. Blood gushes from his nose and he spits blood out of his mouth onto the floor as he stands.
I feel as if I should know him, but I can not recall who he is.