A Whisper to the North

Chapter I ✠ The Unexpected Guests

Una was walking near the shoreline of the river at dusk, as she always did. She was scouting the mountains to the north for any Danes that had come to take her head, like how they took her father, right in front of her. The last slivers of dusk were upon the kingdom, but Una could see like an owl even in the faintest glows of light. She watches as the fog begins to stretch over the water and blanket the dark forest in a thick gray loom. The eerie call of the last day bird resonates in the valleys around her.

She had done this since she was eleven, unless she was off at battle, scanning the mountains at dusk. She had watched her people every day since that dreadful night when she witnessed her father being slain right in front of her. She remembers seeing the silver sword being plunged through her father's heart, the King's heart.

Una remembered seeing her mother's corpse too and her little sister's head laying still in the corner. Steam was coming off of their still-warm blood.

She always blamed herself. If she had warned her people of the horde of Danes coming down the mountain, they would have been prepared in time if she had only got to warn the King, her father. She refuses to let this happen again, especially now that she is their leader now, their Queen.

She was merely her brother's right hand after their father's untimely demise. She was there until he got put to the sword not long ago. Yet again, it was by another Dane from the north. She remembered how she begged him not to go. She was more skilled with the sword than even he was. He knew this too that Una was a better wielder of the blade than he.

For many years, she was taught by him to protect herself after their family got slaughtered. Eurion, Una's brother, was trained by their father since he could walk to fight. Una was hesitant at first because of this. She wasn't raised as a warrior. Una had to become one, though, for her father's sake.

The very sword that was left in her father's body was the sword she held at her side. Una vowed that she would kill the man that took her father's life with his own sword one day. It would be sweet retribution.

She was looking for a Dane. She knew this because the sword had the word Ulfberht engraved in the fuller. She still awaits ten years after she first saw them coming down the mountain, across the river.

That man swore he would come back if the kingdom tried to take back their lands, and there Una will wait for him by the river until her dying breath. She had already taken some of his lands back. She had not lost a battle yet. It was only a matter of time until the evil King came back to the mountains for Una's head. He already took her father's and brother's heads.

Three years ago didn't seem like much time to Una. That is when she lost her brother. Eurion told her that day that her place was in their kingdom, to protect their people. He knew she was too weak at the time to fight. She needed to strengthen her body as well as her mind.

While all of Una's friends and family were married and had children by the time they were fourteen, Una was married to her sword at eighteen and now her kingdom. That would be her only love until she sees the blood pour from her father's murderer's veins.

She can remember the day Eurion left her. They both knew as they hugged each other farewell that it would be their last. She knew she couldn't stop him. It was his destiny to go, to take back what was stolen from them. They didn't have much gold, but there was gold in their lands, the land the Danes took when they took Una's family away from her.

Una still hesitates to kill, even now. When she did, though, it was a beautiful end. Any man would be lucky to be cut down by Una. She didn't like them to suffer. She always ended them swiftly and with precision. Men have heard the legends of this woman from far and wide. They never knew they were fighting a woman unless they cowered away and hid, only to see her take off her helmet and armor to tend to her wounds. They would see her breasts tightly bound across her chest, as not to impede her swift strikes as she cut down the men on her horse.