𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐑𝐎𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍; vikings

chapter two; a feast of betrayal

When the darkness of the night has passed, Valdis sleeping and calm figure was greeted by the joyful laughter of playing children and the warmth of sun rays, beaming through the small holes in the wooden hut behind the Great Hall. As the guest of honor, she had the unalterable permission of Earl Ragnar to reside with his family until the conditions of her life might change.

He wouldn't want to disobey or give Lagertha a reason to unleash her anger on him if he treated her favorite shield-maiden with disrespect and let her sleep in the barn with the servants. Between the prickling bales of straw and the unignorable noises of the farm animals who weren't meant to share their shed with humans.

Brushing the utter mess of black strands out of her face with the back of her hand, Valdis kept her lids closed but couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from turning into a simple smile at the cheerful laughter from the main room of the Great Hall. For her future, she prayed for happiness and love; it did not matter if she found it on the battlefield or in between the endless wars with a husband. A blessed marriage with children; and the laughter would echo through their house.

With a strangled groan from the pain in her lower back, a reminder of the long training sessions in Hedeby with Lagertha, she heaved her body up from the bed. Seconds after her first movement of the morning, the shield-maiden was greeted by a blow of air and the wide smiling face of Ubbe, who stood next to her seated figure. Arms neatly crossed behind his back and finger intertwined, the eldest son of Princess Aslaug watched the foreign female slowly embracing the morning atmosphere of a new day.

"Good Morning, Ubbe. Are you already enjoying the early hours?" Valdis asked the young Ragnarsson with a genuine but faint smile. She wasn't sleeping anymore, neither truly awake but none of the children were responsible for the short rest.

Thoughts about the upcoming raids to England, about her father's low and rustic life on the farming ground of Hedeby. Her mother died at a young age as the plague haunted the citizens of Norway and travelled through the mountains and field like a voyager without a destination. With her permanet stay in Kattegat, Valdis left the only alive parent figure alone with the misery of plowing and trying to have a good harvest which would allow him to sell the fruits and gain money.

"Are you okay? You look sad." The little boy in front of her asked, his smile was turned downward and mirrored the beginning of a frown as Valdis nodded her head repeatedly to reassure Ubbe about her well-being. Placing her hand on the boys' shoulder, she tried to comfort him. It would be an utter disaster to see the Ragnarsson in misery about her odd behavior.

A bright and refreshing smile of happiness and joy covered the young boys face as he turned around, running through the already open door and towards the fire pit in the middle of the Great Hall, where his younger brother awaited him. A slow and deep breath left her parted, suddenly dry mouth without another sound. She did not want to scare Ubbe or intended to show a broken condition while preparing for their England Raid. A disappointment to Lagertha was the one thing, Valdis never wanted to be called or treated as.

Standing up from the white duvets of the bed that Ragnar offered her last night, the black and thin fabric of the nightgown fell to her bare feet and covered the entirety of typically golden skin. As a woman from the Northern area, Valdis was blessed and cursed with a darker tan than the usual kind of female seen in Norway. A reason for being an outcast, as the people around her thought and whispered about her true heritage. The words were spoken loud enough to ensure she would understand their undeniable problems.

One night, she was brutally battered by a handful of children who she played with at a younger age until their parenting figure told them to stay far away from the outsider. A curse applied on her by the gods, that was exactly what they said; how Odin would not love or admire her and offer the shield-maiden a place in Valhalla. With the ten years of age, Valdis did not waste a breath to disagree with their opinions, she wanted to prove them wrong and when her father decided to move to Hedeby, she was granted a new chance to show what she was made of.