𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄, vikings

𝟏. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏; 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦
(𝗌𝖾𝖺𝗌𝗈𝗇 𝗂𝗏, 𝖾𝗉 𝗑𝗏𝗂𝗂 - '𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗀𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍 𝖺𝗋𝗆𝗒')

𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑, Sigyn Flokisdottir already knew the name of every god and goddess in Asgard and could tell their tales back and forth. Eight-year-old Sygin could use a nail and hammer better than several men three times her age. At fourteen she built a small boat nearly as good as the ones made by her father, it was when she thought 'That's it! Now he will be proud of me'. However, Floki the Boatbuilder barely batted an eye at his daughter's hard work. All the girl wanted was his approval, yet it seemed to be the only thing she couldn't obtain despite her hard work. Sigyn wasn't one to give up — although she did desire to do so time after time —, she decided that becoming a great shield maiden would be how she would prove once and for all to her father that she wasn't fated to ruin his life or her mother's, that she was more than worthy of his love and affection. That's how at fifteen she decided to leave her home — much to her mother's demise — and move to Hedeby where the Earl was an old friend of her parents — Lagertha, the great shieldmaiden. The woman soon became a huge influence in Sigyn's life, the girl admired how resilient and strong Lagertha was and wanted to be like that.

After years of training, Sigyn could even beat her mentor on sparring lessons, it wasn't a surprise when she became one of Lagertha's best shieldmaidens. Sigyn stood by the older woman when the latter decided to take Kattegat from Queen Auslaug. It seemed fair, after all, Kattegat was Lagertha's home and Auslaug took it from her the day she arrived at their docks bearing Ragnar's child. Sigyn wasn't as naive as people thought her to be, she knew there would be blood spilled — in their world, everything was solved by spilling blood —, yet the girl didn't expect Lagertha to shoot an arrow on Auslaug's back after having agreed to give the former queen safe passage. That was low and surely would have severe consequences, Sigyn didn't have to be a seer to know that.

When Ivar The Boneless came back from his journey — without any of the people who traveled with him — and announced about Ragnar's death, he didn't expect to discover his mother was dead as well. Lagertha had to face his wrath, becoming the person youngest Ragnarsson hated the most — and Gods knew he hated many people. However, there was no time to avenge Auslaug and Ivar knew that just as well as everyone else. Ragnar Lothbrook, the great Viking who expanded the horizons of his people and changed their world forever, was dead and their sons would get revenge. It wasn't hard to pull together the great heathen army, despite Ragnar's mistakes he still was an icon to his people and they wanted to fight for him and for his sons.

Kattegat was overly crowded with people getting ready for battle, the biggest army their people had ever gathered was about to sail away towards Wessex and there wasn't a single person who wasn't excited about it. Sigyn had finally found a time to visit her parents after they arrived from their journey to the Mediterranean, but the girl was finding it hard to make her way around the pathways of the large village. It took Sigyn double the time she normally would take to arrive at her parent's cabin, but once she did she was soon embraced by her mother.