Frey too follows behind me, and we run towards the direction of the sound we heard before getting near the woods. All I see is blood.
I see a huge golden cat with dark spots that I have never seen before in the trees, showing its fangs and growling. Its eyes are a vibrant gold, and it has blood on its chest and mouth.
Then my eyes glance at the ground to see Noma at the side of a black and gray wolf. It’s panting and it has a chest wound. It is Leif...he is bleeding a lot.
Frey, who gets behind me, begins to snarl after looking at his brother then the large cat up in the trees.
Right when he goes to lunge, Noma warns, “Enough, Frey! I already warned you this would happen if you provoked him.”
“He challenged me first!” Frey growls out to his mother before he yells, “And look what he has done to Leif!”
“I don’t care! I told you not to associate with him at all before I left!” she yells back. “And we have to get Leif back to the house! He’s injured badly.”
“But Adisa...” Noma warns, looking up at the cat in the tree. “Don’t think you will get away unscathed for hurting one of my sons.”
Adisa snarls at her and Noma’s eyes are evil as she looks up but then she looks back down at her severely injured son who has yet to shift back to a human.
Frey then joins her side, and I glance up in the tree at Adisa, unsure why he had initiated an attack in the first place. I don’t like the sounds of Noma’s words, and I feel terrible, but I was unsure of what to do.
Adisa, as usual, was an ever-confusing man.
Chapter 17
Remission
May 8th, 1001 AD
For Adisa’s punishment, he is forced to live in a small cage for an entire month. The rules are that no one is supposed to visit him, all but the guards who will feed him stale bread and give him water from time to time after he begs enough for it.
I find it cruel, and I break the rules more often than I should.
After the guards lazily fall asleep in front of the cage, I offer him the food and water that he needs and depending on if the guards are in a deep sleep, I will make conversation with him.
He barely speaks to me during these days, and he’s grown bitter and cold, but there are days he isn’t, and he goes back to his normal self, speaking to me like he usually does.
When I ask him why he hurt Leif so severely, he doesn’t answer and refuses to speak on it. But I have come to my own conclusions on the matter.
I’ve come to the conclusion he is in love with Runa, and when Leif got home, he had gone after him over jealousy and hatred, first luring in Frey using me, then going after Leif himself.
Though, I imagine Adisa will never confess this to me. He, after all, is a quiet man and keeps to himself.
After that brutal month has passed, he is let out, and he somehow returns to his normal life like nothing has happened.
Leif, on the other hand, takes a long time to recuperate and spends most of his time in bed after the fight is over.
My kitten, which is now four months old or about, takes to Leif. I find her most often on Leif’s bed, sleeping on his chest.
During this time, Runa obviously found out about the situation and begs to see Leif but is only turned away by Noma who blames her.
I saw the fight with my own two eyes while hanging out the laundry one day.
Noma struck her and snarled at her calling her a deformity, telling her she regretted accepting her into the village. She also screamed she was a whore. I was shocked by Noma’s anger towards Runa, but perhaps she blamed her for her son’s wounds.
She also couldn’t see Adisa during this time, stuck with being alone for the remaining month, and even when Adisa was let out of his cage, she doesn’t go and visit him like I would have imagined.
Arvid fought with Noma over the situation with Runa on multiple occasions, and everything was a mess. Including mine and Frey’s relationship…I mean, after all, I told him that I hated him the day Leif had gotten hurt.
Frey had found my horse, which had gone missing after Bard’s death, shortly after. He told me he’d found her just outside the house grazing on the grass, and that she must have gotten loose from her stable and they hadn’t even noticed with all the commotion.
I’m glad my horse was found, still quite healthy except for her white coat, brown from the dirt and mud she had gotten on herself.
Currently, rain pours down on to the ground, and thunder shakes the skies. I realize then Thor must be angry about something. That something I do not know, hopefully not me...
I scrub at the laundry, my current task, as I hear the rain hitting the ground outside.
Luckily there is a shack, specifically for doing laundry with a barrel full of water, soap, and a laundry line. I peek through the cracks in the wood, seeing how hard the rain is hitting the ground.
I sigh, hanging up a pair of underwear that looks to belong to a man, whether it be Arvid, Leif, or Frey. I don’t question myself further, just wanting to get rid of this horrible task of doing laundry.
I then move on to a pair of men’s pants and begin scrubbing after soaping them up. It is very quiet outside other than the rain, and I find the sensation odd after all the commotion that has been going on lately.
Once I hang up the pants, I bend over and pick up a shirt, dipping that into the water before doing the same repetitive motion. I also begin to notice the tips of my fingers getting wrinkled for being in the water for too long.
But soon after I hear the door creak open and my eyes drift over to see a wet Frey come in.
Everything on him, including his hair, drips on the ground and he complains, “The rain caught me off guard. I was going out to hunt, but I got interrupted. I didn’t think anyone was in here...”
“Well, someone has angered Thor,” I say, still working on the shirt. “And no one else has done the laundry.”
He is quiet at first, and he says, “I can go if you wish me too.”
Oh, that’s right, we haven’t really been alone since I told him I hated him.
I think about it as I scrub the laundry, and I mutter, “You can stay....” I glance over to him, and I reach up, hanging the laundry on the line.
He shrugs off his sopping wet shirt, takes off his boots, and pushes them aside with his bare feet. “I’m glad then. I hate the rain.”
He then throws his wet and dripping shirt over the line with the clean laundry.
Silence returns, and I pick up another piece of dirty laundry, quickly glancing at his bare chest, and seeing some faint scars along with muscle.
It takes me a few seconds before getting back to scrubbing at the article of clothing and getting it clean.
He then wanders over to me, and I can smell his masculine scent. He smells like the earth and smoke, leading me to believe he was inside and by a fire not long ago.
He smells good.
He then asks me, “Do you need any help, lass?”
I’m about to refuse his offer before I look down at the pile of clothing on the ground and I reply, “I could use the help…”
“Good, because I have nothing better to do,” he says, and he reaches down, grabbing one of my dresses. He grows closer to me in order to get near the water, and he begins to help.
As we work side by side in silence and hang up the clothing, I then ask, “Can we start over?”
He glances over to me in question, his eyebrows knitting. “What do you mean?”
“I want to start over,” I say looking down into the water, seeing my reflection. He still remains quiet, and I continue, “As friends. I want to be friends.” I then glance up towards him, meeting his eyes which look uncertain.
“I see. If that is what you want to do,” he says, looking down at the pants in his hand.
“I still haven’t forgiven you for taking me from my home...I don’t think I will ever forgive you for that,” I say, and he refuses to meet my eyes, still continuing to scrub, his muscles obviou
sly tense.
“But I am happy here,” I confess. “I don’t think I want to go back home. I wouldn’t be accepted...Not as the woman I have grown to be.”
“You’re happy here?” he questions me, his eyes lifting from the pants to meet mine.
“I am. I don’t think I could go back to my old ways,” I say. “You see, I wasn’t a commoner. I was a princess from the kingdom of Thovalon. I was to be wedded to a complete stranger and forced to listen to his rules and be a submissive wife. I would have hated my life. So, in a way, I should be grateful to you.”
‘What was I saying?’ I think briefly as I stare at the shocked face of Frey.
“You were a princess?” he asks, bewildered. He then looks away, and he says, “That explains the hair...Only the queen has such an odd hair color.”
He looks back to me, and my heart clenches in uncertainty.
“How come you didn’t mention this before?” he questions me.
“I guess I was scared,” I say.
“Of what?” he asks.
“That you would try and use me to get to the Kingdom of Thovalon. Use me for ransom and such,” I confess more.
“I wouldn’t do that. Not with you,” he says. “But don’t mention this to anyone else...Ok?”
“Ok,” I mutter.
“Well, I guess since you shared with me, I should share with you. Is that how this goes?” he asks.
“You don’t have to,” I say, kind of shocked he is making a game out of this.
“Well, I will,” he says, smirking before he rinses the soap off the pants he is scrubbing and slowly losing his smirk.
“When I was younger, and just a young lad, I used to be in love with Runa. She came here out of the blue one day. A farmer’s daughter who couldn’t pay their debts to my parents, so they gave us Runa, who was supposedly favored by Loki himself,” he says.
Runa again...It seems she is quite popular. Perhaps because of her eyes that are like that of gold. Vikings liked gold...
He goes on with his story. “Both Leif and I were children and so was she at the time. Leif was quite timid back then and had trouble approaching her, but I used to bully her from time to time. Push her around, insult her, call her a pig.”
“You were horrible,” I mutter.
“I was, but that wasn’t even the worst part,” he says, hanging the pants on the line.
“The bullying was because I secretly loved her and wanted her attention even though what I was doing was harmful. As time passed and Leif grew out of his timid phase, he started hanging around her more, gaining her affections and love.”
“I was jealous. Leif was always a favored child,” he mutters. “Favored by father, our uncle, Runa. And my mother favored me only because I was alone. Her love was fake, it probably still is...”
“I felt totally alone, so when he tried taking Runa away from me...I tried drowning him in the river, and he didn’t put up a fight. He used to be weak...”
I look at him, shocked, and he continues once more, “That was until Runa started beating some sense into me.”
He points at a faint scar on his forehead before he says, “She whipped a rock at me and then started pounding on me. A side to her which I never have seen before.” He begins to laugh before he says, “She hurt me so badly she broke my arm and took Leif home by herself.”
“And so, she hated me, and I was pushed further away from her love,” he says. “Then, after Dag and Eira, being the evil runts they were, tried to drown me in the river for revenge for Leif. Unlike Leif, I nearly died.”
“But even now, I still hold some love for her,” he confesses to me. “A small part of me still seeks her affections.”
“So...you didn’t really love me when you asked me to marry you?” I ask him, raising my eyebrows.
Well, how could he? He just came back home when he asked me the question.
He sighs, and he replies, “I want to be able to love someone like I loved Runa. When I saw you again, I guess I felt a small fragment of that love or perhaps want. More likely want than anything.”
I feel my cheeks heat up, and my heart starts pounding in my ears as I continue with the laundry.
“But I don’t have any luck with women,” he says. “I guess somehow I always ruin it for myself. Even Astrid has left me, but she only wanted the perks of being my wife.”
“That woman from before?” I ask him, my voice trembling slightly before I clear it, trying to control myself from being flustered.
“Yes, that fling you happened to witness,” he grumbles.
“I still owe you for that,” I say, remembering when my leg had been broken for quite some time.
“Yeah, yeah, lass,” he says, flicking water at me, and it hits my face making me flinch.
I then reach into the water before flicking some at him, making him flinch in return.
I grin slightly at him, and he then reaches down and cups water before he tries to splash it on me, but I quickly dodge it, and he misses, the water landing on the ground.
“Better luck next time, lad,” I say, mimicking his usual terms of speech and laughing at him.
“Come on, don’t do that. You’re going to hurt my feelings, lass,” he says, mocking me back.
“Well, that was intended,” I say. “You can also do the rest of the laundry.”
“Well, I will accept that punishment for your broken leg,” he says.
“Deal,” I say, tired and not wanting to do laundry anymore.
He grins before he starts working on the rest of the laundry alone, and I lean my back up against the wall, relaxing, watching the rain through the cracks of wood and listening to the thunder.
Hopefully, the rain will stop soon.
May 12th, 1001 AD
Unlike the last couple of days, the sky opens up revealing the sun and starts to warm the earth rather quickly, the slight chill from the rain disappearing.
And unlike most after such wounds, Leif is up and standing, seeming to feel better. He sits down on one of the benches, his chest bandaged and his face still having three long scars running down it. Scars that will probably stay with him for life.
Adisa really put damage on him. It is hard to imagine what he did to Leif in the couple minutes they were fighting.
I also note he is no longer blonde. After his sudden change to a wolf his hair turned dark much like Frey’s and his mother’s. Black was his natural hair color, blonde being artificial with the help of lye.
The first thing Leif asks me is, “Where is Runa?” His face is stern and unusually cold as he stares at me and also Frey who sits next to me.
I take a bite of the recent strawberries that were harvested from one of the farms, and I reply, “She has come to visit you, but Noma turned her away.”
“I thought so,” he mutters, looking away. “I’m going to go visit her.”
“Do you think that is a wise decision, brother?” asks Frey helping me finish off the rest of the strawberries Noma brought us for a treat in celebration of Leif’s recent recovery, even though Leif has not touched them.
“No, but I’m going to, anyway. I have been in bed long enough,” he grumbles before standing and putting on a shirt, even that making him wince from his chest wounds.
It seems the injuries Leif had gotten from Adisa lingered, unlike other injuries.
Adisa was another type of beast, and perhaps that is what hurt him the most. Maybe beasts can only really hurt their own kind. Adisa was a strong opponent, and to think he dealt this much damage to Leif is scary.
What would he have done to Frey or Arvid?
Frey stands up, following behind him, and he says, “Then let me go with you.”
“I want to be alone,” Leif snaps at his brother angrily.
Frey gets quiet, and his lips are tightly pursed before he grumbles in defeat, “Fine. Do what you will. I can’t stop you from going by yourself.”
Leif narrows his eyes slightly, and he bends over, slipping on his boo
ts all the while holding in pained grunts. He bites his lip in order to tough it out.
All Frey can do is watch his stubborn brother as he leaves hastily out the door in order to see Runa even though she cheated on him. It seems their relationship isn’t totally over yet unless Runa wants it to be over.
He still loves her and wants to see her, and maybe she feels the same.
I get up from the bench and go by Frey’s side at the door who watches his brother, and I mutter, “That isn’t wise.”
“I know,” he says, narrowing his eyes as well. “But he is a grown man and makes his own decisions now.”
“Will you follow him?” I ask.
He smirks slightly, watching Leif get on his horse after coming out of the barn, and he says, “Of course. Do you want to come?”
“Perhaps,” I reply, smirking as well, and we watch Leif take off on his horse.
“Then, let’s go,” he urges me, leading me out the door and grabbing my wrist, not wasting any time.
It seems we’re going to be prying into Leif’s love life today.
I feel a bit uncomfortable riding with Frey at first, but he insists on riding on one horse seeing as it would make less noise and will be easier.
For some reason, I listened to him, and now I am pressed against his back, my arms around his waist.
He inhales, shutting his eyes briefly, trying to scent Leif out as earlier he had lost his trail. It takes him a couple seconds to find the scent again before he says, “This way.”
He nudges his horse forward, and I ask him looking around the woods, “Why would Leif be all the way out here? Wouldn’t he be in the mead hall?”
“Leif and Runa have a particular spot they like to make love in. Maybe he is hoping he can find her there,” he explains.
“Oh,” I say, a little grossed out before I ask him, “How do you know of it, then?”
He laughs before he replies, “Well, let’s just say I stumbled upon this spot one day, and I have witnessed the sweet lovemaking take place.”
“I see,” is all I can say to him and before long we come across a creek and then a clearing.
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