Akin to Gods

prequel

you were cold - cold and so impossibly small. as you stumble barefoot through the frozen and unknown woodlands the winter chill bites through you, leaving you shaking as you walk.

there was no memory of how you got here or how, it seemed, that your body had aged backwards - all the way back to a child. it was terrifying to be so lost, confused, and afraid.

but as you walked through the trees you stopped - the sound of a woman calling to you ; her voice spoke in peaceful yet concerned tones but you were unable to understand the language she spoke. if you weren't so cold, perhaps you would have run from her - but you were terrified of frostbite setting in and forcing you to lose a limb or two - so when she gestured you to her, you willingly went.

taking off a set of furs that sat on her shoulders, she wrapped you in it just as a man stepped out from behind the trees. they spoke in that strange language of theirs and you wished you understood. you had a thousand questions. it seemed as if they argued for a moment before he sighed, clearly softening to whatever the woman said, before scooping you up in his arms.

-

back in their little cabin - their small child fast asleep as the snowstorm picked up and raged on - they tried to speak to you. you knew from the tones they used that they were asking questions, probably wondering why a child had been out in the storm. but you didn't understand and they quickly realised you were foreign to their lands.

you went to sleep that night, exhausted and afraid, with more questions than answers. the snow storm would trap you in their house and winter would be passed with their little family as they tried to teach you their language.

one night, while the man - floki, you believed he was called, was holding his daughter and speaking to her, you recognized some of the names of the norse gods as he spoke. she was too young to understand the stories he told her and you didn't understand nearly enough to know either, but you had once loved mythology. and so when you heard the name of one of your favorite gods - fenrir - you echoed it with excitement.

from then on floki and helga would call you fenrir, and although it was not your true name, you didn't mind. as winter passed, you learned small bits of their language and even came to realise that not only had your body gone backwards in time, but you had too.

you would spend the next several years of your life as fenrir flokison, for once you were able to properly communicate with floki and helga that you were flokison and not flokidottir, they didn't argue.

you would grow up alongside the sons of ragnar - your life in the modern age would become nothing more than a distant dream. and you would find adventure and love where you least expected.