Ironclad *A Bjorn Ironside Love Story*

Fevered

He felt hot like he had been lying out in the sun for hours and his skin burned. He licked his dry lips as he tried to turn, to go back to sleep but instantly found pain.

"Careful!" A voice cries out in a foreign tongue. His eye opened and looked where the voice came from. He grabbed his sword, by his bedside and pointed it at her. She put her hands up in surrender.
" I only want to help." He could understand her just fine, but his body hurt too much to actually talk back. He reluctantly put his swords down, remembering the events of last night.
He tried to move his body back down, but again,  it hurt too much. The woman walked over quickly and propped the pillow from behind him, letting him rest upwards.
"Why are you helping me?" He said.
His voice sounded like growling wolves and at the same time like  silk.
"You saved my life." She said simply. If they had not come she would-be wife of an old nobleman who was most likely infertile. The Noble has had many wives, all of who were either killed or had run away, still, none could bear him children. She would have surely been killed.
Bjorn looked her up and down. She hand meany womanly curves, and warm brown eyes. Her hair was falling out of the updo she once wore, her hair seemed oddly short for a woman. She had a kind look about her, but not one that inspired weakness. She had calloused hands and her nails were short. She had taken off most of her formal dress and was in the much cooler underdress. She could see he was looking and color flushed to her cheeks.

She took a cool rag and laid it on his forehead and chest. After she had pulled away and was getting up to leave, he grabbed her wrist.
"What is your name," he asked in a softer voice.
She was surprised he cared, she was always told that Northman were brutal and uncaring. For him, the epitome of what a Viking should be, to ask in such a kind way.
"Trisha, my L-, My name is Trisha." She said remembering He was not her lord, nor she, his underling at the moment. He nodded and let go of her hand.

She left the room in search of new clothes, the dress was quite stuffy and uncomfortable. She had to step over the many dead knights and men. Had one man really done all this? Could anyone really be that strong? He was a massive man. She began to think about the Northman while she changed her clothes. He was rather handsome. He didn't seem dirty, rabid, and crazy like so many people had told her.
A blush went to her cheeks. He was still a Viking, who had invaded her land. She was just repaying him, that's all.

She came back looking like a normal girl, hair tied up and tucked into a cream-colored cloth.  Even then he couldn't deny she was beautiful. She took the now dry cloths and dipped them in the water again.
"You have a fever, it's going to break but we have to stay vigilant."  Bjorn stayed quiet as she worked. Mending the fire, cleaning wounds, dampening cloths.
She was not a noblewoman like he had first thought. High women did not practice such everyday household chores. Every time men had brought them from distant lands, they always had to be trained.

"What is your name?" she asked him after picking up his torn armor and starting to mend it.

"Why would that matter to you?" he said back in a thick accent. 

"Because if you hadn't come, I'd be either to weak too move, or dead."

"I could still kill you, after all, am I not just a savage 'Northman'"

"That is up to you, but I believe you are no more savage than the men here," she said, threading another stitch.

"How exactly did I save your life,  you do not look to have lived such a terrible life"

"No matter how many stables a horse has, or how much hay it has to feast, It is still no comparison for the wilds and the open meadows," she said holding up her finished work and laying it neatly by his sword. "The man that you killed was to be my husband; the man you attacked was my former lord."

"Should you not hate me then, your husband would be wealth."

"You assume that men here are so kind with there wives, or that we share in their wealth."

"That is not the case?"

"No. We are here to bear children, that is the role of the wife. Nothing more."

"Couldn't you just chose another man?"

"If I wanted my ears and nose cut off. Is this really such a foreign concept? "

Bjorn was more confused than ever, had women here suffered such horrid fates? Was their God really so cruel? Maybe that is why the men here were so weak, they did not take the support of women.

The sky was still dark, however it was past morning. The rain poured as the day drew on. The Vikings in the town below could be heard, but she could not understand a word.

" What is it like where you are from?" she asked, "Do you really worship monsters, and eat the brains of your enemies?"

Bjorn laughed in a deep throaty rumble. 

"That's a new one! No, we do not, we worship many Gods, and eat lots of meat, and... drink Ale."

she chuckled "How terrifying, what are you going to say next? Don't tell me you also let children suckle from the mother's tit?"  she feigned fear in her voice.

"How did you know?" he laughed but his laughed turned into a cough and he groaned. 

"Be careful that is large wounded."

"Tis' but a scratch," he said as she walked over and took off the covering, it was infected. she frowned, this was no good. " You need to rest,"  she said changing the cloth, and dabbing his forehead.

Trisha put on a cloak and lit a lantern, she would need to set out in the pouring rain to get the herbs he needed. This would not be an easy night.