Wolves Among Danes

by Dolly Nightmare

  He stops his horse from going any further once spotting Leif’s horse tied to a branch.

  “Seems he’s here somewhere,” Frey says, his eyes searching the clearing.

  My eyes also search for Leif, my hold around Frey’s waist loosening.

  “Well, where does your nose say he is?” I ask him, my eyes narrowing.

  He sniffs once more before he reopens his eyes and looks towards the left of us.

  “Over there,” he announces, pointing to where there are more woods after the clearing.

  “Good,” I say, fully letting go of his waist. “Let’s go take a look and see how he is doing.”

  I didn’t realize how nosy I am until today….

  I step down by myself, my feet hitting the ground and soon Frey follows in my footsteps and ties his horse up next to Leif’s.

  I start to walk towards the clearing before I quickly make my way towards the spot where Frey pointed earlier, my footsteps quiet just like when I am hunting.

  As I make my way over, I nearly walk straight into Runa and Leif’s view, and I quickly have to step back and go behind a tree.

  They’re sitting in the grass, their backs turned towards us, so luckily they hadn’t seen us.

  Frey almost does the same thing I did, and he quickly hides behind a tree straight across from mine, cursing at himself silently, not paying attention to where he is going.

  I hear Runa speak first. “You know, I didn’t ask you to attack Langley.”

  “You mean, Adisa,” Leif says crankily.

  Runa falls quiet, trying her best to probably bite her tongue before she says, “Yes, Adisa.”

  “You aren’t pregnant by him, are you?” Leif asks. “I mean I can’t tell if you have a pregnant belly or not. Your belly is always kind of round.”

  ‘If any man said that to me, he’d be wishing he was dead,’ I think to myself.

  “No,” Runa replies, her voice sounding offended. “I wasn’t fertile when I slept with him, and I think you would know if I was.”

  “I still can’t believe you cheated on me,” Leif grumbles to himself.

  “You haven’t even marked me,” Runa complains. “Or mentioned marriage or anything else. So really, you have no right to complain.”

  “You haven’t given me a chance,” Leif says quickly, his tone snappish. “Even Frey isn’t married yet, and he’s my older brother.”

  “Well, he marked Ellie as soon as possible...Didn’t he?” Runa states, not hesitating, just as snappish.

  Leif falls quiet before she mutters, “I thought so.”

  “Are you still sleeping with him?” Leif questions.

  “No,” Runa replies. “I finished it. We haven’t spoken since.”

  “I see,” Leif mutters, an awkward silence befalls them. “Then…”

  Runa interrupts him before he is even given a chance to finish “Let’s start fresh...If you want to, of course.”

  Leif is quiet at first as if giving it some thought before he mutters, “Alright. But don’t speak to that man or even look at him the wrong way. Understood?”

  “I understand...” Runa mutters.

  Leif sighs before he says, “I’m glad we got this over with. And I can mark you right now if you want.”

  I see Frey out of the corner of my eye crinkle his nose all of a sudden and he looks towards me, trying to wave me off, pointing back to the horse.

  I give him a confused look before I peek and I see Runa move on top of Leif who is laying on his back. She begins to lean down towards him saying, “Then do it....”

  Leif’s hands move to Runa’s waist, and I turn around not wanting to listen, and Frey is long gone in the second I have watched what they are doing. I can see him in the distance already walking back to his horse and keeping out of view.

  I release a silent sigh before I do the same, following back after I hear the sound of lips kissing flesh, this being a private moment that shouldn’t have been seen or overheard to begin with.

  After trailing through the field and back to Frey’s horse, I catch up to him and I ask him quietly now that I begin to think about it, “Shouldn’t Leif and Runa have smelled us and known we were watching?”

  Frey unties the reigns, and he says, “Not always. You have to focus on a particular smell if you want to smell it. And Leif is too busy for that right now...obviously. Perhaps he will smell us later on his way home. Same for Runa, but she probably already knows we are here. She is more one with her wolf.”

  It makes me wonder what he means when he says that Runa is more in tune with her wolf. What made her different from Frey and Leif?

  Noma says she is deformed but Runa looks the same as everyone else. There are even other villagers who are fat. I will have to ask Leif or Frey.

  He then mounts his horse, and I walk towards him, and I ask curiously while looking back over my shoulder, “Does kissing really feel that good? Everybody seems to enjoy it in the village, including Leif and Runa.”

  ‘Why am I asking such a dumb question?’ I think briefly.

  “Depends on who is kissing you, I suppose...and where,” Frey says, and I turn back around and face him seeing he is eyeing me from on top of his horse.

  I make a face before I mutter, “Pervert.”

  I then go by the horse’s side, and Frey outstretches his hand for me to grab on and lift myself up, but instead of taking his hand, I grasp his forearm.

  I then sit behind him, and before Frey can turn his horse around, we hear a screech coming from Runa. “OW! That hurt, you worthless bastard!”

  Then we hear loud laughter, “I still haven’t forgiven you for cheating on me. How did that feel?” and a pained grunt echoes across the clearing.

  And I hear Runa yell, “Well, how does that feel?! You’re a cheater too. Don’t think I don’t know about the nuns. I heard everything from Dag and Eira about how you enjoyed yourself with them. You and Frey both.”

  And then silence befalls the couple.

  Frey smirks, and I wrap my arms around his waist. “Seems the honeymoon is over rather quickly, and the nuns we were just playing with. It’s not what you think.”

  “Seems so,” I mutter, looking in the direction of the loud voices, and Frey then turns his horse around. I mutter under my breath, having a clear idea of what he had done with the nuns, “You’re disgusting…”

  “What was that?” he asks, rather loudly to me.

  “I said you are disgusting,” I grumble to him.

  “Why? I didn’t do anything,” he says, snarkily. “Dag likes to make up lies.”

  “Sure,” I say.

  “It’s the truth, lass,” Frey continues to say. “I wouldn’t lie to you. I didn’t do anything with no nuns.”

  I rest my head on to his back. He tenses slightly and I say, looking off into the greenery, “You disrespect my God by sleeping with women who have taken a vow to him.”

  “I swear to you, we didn’t do anything with them,” he says.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I mutter, and he begins to nudge the horse forward and slowly relax.

  I don’t seem to care about my God or the suffering of my people anymore. It seems they are of a different world now, and I was never a part of theirs.

  I strayed from the righteous path...I doubt there is any way to redeem myself now.

  We then hear one last final scream from Leif in the distance. “SO, is that a no with sex?!”

  Then silence from Runa’s part, and I begin to grin while relaxing against Frey, finding the warmth radiating from his body soothing.

  It looks like things have finally fixed themselves.

  Chapter 18

  Double-Edged Sword

  June 3rd, 1001 AD

  The village is currently filled with lots of life. Everyone is laughing, talking, and preparing for tonight’s events. Today is a special day, a festival for the wolf people, something that normally wouldn’t involve someone like me.

  However, I assume they have accepted me, and m
y eyes glance towards Margaret, who busily prepares in the mead hall. It seems even Margaret is getting accepted after all these years of being a slave. She seems happy and almost peaceful looking.

  But is she truly happy here, like me who has come to actually enjoy this place? Are her smiles all fake? I watch her while sitting on one of the wooden fences.

  Sometimes I like to sit and watch everybody I have come to know. Some are good people, and my eyes continue to watch Margaret, while others I am uncertain about, and my eyes shift to Runa. Then there are the evil ones, and my eyes linger on a new face in the mead hall.

  He has long and straggly fire-red hair. His beard matches his hair except for the few crumbs from a meal he has eaten in the past. He is muscular, but he is also slender, and unlike other Vikings, his skin is unusually pale.

  I continue to stare as his brown eyes watch Margaret sternly, something off or evil about his gaze. The man is not only an outsider, but he is a strange man overall, if not menacing…

  Something is off about the man next to him too...The man sitting with him has long, straight black hair, and half his face is covered with a mask making him look even more suspicious.

  It looks like he is trying to hide something, perhaps his expressions...

  My gaze lingers on the two strangers, the eyes of the man with the mask shift towards me, immediately feeling my stare. His eyes are a piercing blue, much like Frey’s.

  Shivers run down my spine when our eyes meet and not the good kind of shivers...I swallow as his stare remains, and he lifts his cup of ale to his lips, keeping his eyes on me.

  I feel intimidated by his gaze, and I am the first to look away after slipping off the wooden fence. I begin to wander off and walk more into the village. Boredom makes my eyes wander to find someone to talk to or find something to do.

  Runa and Margaret are busy today, the same with Noma and Arvid who were all preparing for tonight’s big events.

  Even Adisa is missing from his normal spot, and it makes me wonder what he is up to as he doesn’t celebrate the same holidays as the Vikings unless the days of the beasts are worldwide and he too has something to celebrate.

  And finally, Leif is off hunting since early this morning competing with his older brother, Frey. They are competing to see who can kill more for tonight’s feast.

  I sigh heavily, me being the only one not doing something. I feel left out as no one has invited me to help them prepare or keep busy. I am simply forgotten.

  I walk towards the harbor that seems empty and unattended to, and my eyes linger on a boat getting flashbacks of when I first came here. I was so frightened, feeble, and small. I hadn’t even learned their language yet.

  I step onto the deck before going to the end and staring out towards the ocean—that which connects our worlds.

  England hasn’t been something I’ve thought about in a long time, the faces of my family blurry. I can faintly remember what my mother looked like, but I am sure she has aged since I had last seen her. The same can be said with my two brothers who have matured into men, one even a king of Thovalon.

  One of my brat brothers a king...it is hard to imagine.

  My eyes glance towards the boat, and I begin to wonder if I could go on their next journey. I was a shield maiden, not some feeble child anymore.

  I will have to ask Noma or Frey when their next journey is. I’m sure they would answer, “not for a while” because they had only come back from England not too long ago.

  I want to see the faces of my family—see how they aged, speak with them again, and perhaps bid my final farewell.

  As I go to turn back around, I almost bump into the chest of a tall man wearing a black cloak. My heart nearly jumps out of my chest.

  My eyes glance up towards him. He is a young man with short and spikey black hair with an unusual set of eyes, one eye being blue, the other brown.

  He stares down at me before he grins ear to ear and says while giggling, “You’re the wolf girl.”

  “What?” I question, confused about his words. It was odd I didn’t even hear his footsteps.

  “Ah, you probably don’t recognize me,” he mutters, acting strange, and I begin to notice he has a necklace made of wolf teeth around his neck. “I think I said something about you being taken by wolves...Does that ring any bells, dearie?!!!”

  Bells...wolves.

  It hits me. That old woman the day of my kidnapping...but he wasn’t old, and he wasn’t a woman. I stare at him confused, my eyes wide.

  “Seems you remember me now,” he says, leaning on a wooden cane he is holding in his right hand. “See, my prophecy has come true. I wasn’t wrong. I said you would be taken by wolves after capturing the beast’s attention...and then you’ll become his wife.”

  “How did you know?” I question, and then I ask more, stunned, “Who are you? A God?”

  He laughs at me before mocking me, “A God?? I am no God; I am but a seer.”

  “Do you know more about my future?” I ask him sternly. “If so, can you tell me?”

  He sighs before he says, “Needy girl, doesn’t everyone want to know their future? What good would it do you knowing anything more than what you already do?”

  “Can you at least tell me something?” I ask him.

  He grins before he says, “I can tell you something, but you have to pay me first.”

  “I don’t have any coins on me.”

  “No!! No!! Not coins!!!”

  “Then what do you need?” I ask, feeling uneasy especially how he voiced he didn’t want coins.

  His grin grows. “Give me a taste of your blood. That is the price you must pay because it is what I want.”

  “My blood?” I question him, making a face.

  “Yes, your blood…Do I need to unclog your ears, dearie?!!!” He giggles before sticking two fingers into his mouth then yanking them out.

  They are covered in saliva, and he leans towards me, his fingers moving back and forth as they get dangerously closer to my ears.

  I put my hand up. “Wait, I am good. Just let me think...”

  He frowns and sighs dramatically before wiping his fingers on his robe. His face becomes vacant after some time passes. His expression says he is lost in some deep thought and becoming eerily quiet as he does.

  He finally looks at me before he glances at my hair and says, “and also a lock of your pretty white hair or shall I call it silver?”

  I am silent as I think about his weird request, and I’m about to tell him “no’ as any normal person would do, but curiosity surfaces in me.

  “Fine then,” I say without thinking much on it, forcing my tongue to say the words.

  He takes out a knife from inside his cloak, and he eagerly grabs my hand, turning it over to deposit the knife into my hold.

  His eyes stare into my own, and mine glance down at the knife in my hand. It appears I would be cutting my own flesh, and I raise my hand before cutting into my palm quickly with the knife, the blood welling in my palm as soon as the knife cuts.

  I flinch when I feel the pain after the initial cut, and the odd seer drops his cane before getting on to his knees.

  He opens his mouth, and it is then I see his teeth, all of them sharp and all different shapes and sizes. The teeth are all smooshed together, but they are still just as dangerous, and not to mention creepy, more so than the bared fangs of a wolf.

  I feel odd and uncomfortable, but I drip the blood into his mouth after tilting my hand. Once my blood slides down his throat, his eyes flash crazily all different colors. Some colors I have never once seen, so I had no name for them. I was either stupid or brave.

  He then stands to his feet all to suddenly and I retract my hand, curling my fingers loosely into my palm. Blood still wells from the cut and drips on to the deck, making a constant “plat” noise.

  “I see. I see,” he mutters to himself. “Interesting.”

  “What’s interesting?” I ask him.

  He grins at me, his t
eeth seeming normal again. Maybe it was my imagination about seeing his teeth like that...no... those were real. I was sure of it.

  He just giggles the same maddening way before he takes the knife from my hold and without asking quickly cuts a lock of my hair off.

  He holds on to the lock of hair before he says, “Payment was still due, my dear. Seems you have forgotten.”

  I raise my hand to the strand of hair he has cut, a large lock of my hair missing. I feel irritated at how much he has cut off, but I simply ignore it for now and ask once more, “Now tell me.”

  “You have two choices, two outcomes, two endings. You’re like a double-edged sword. I have never seen someone with a choice in what happens to them. Maybe the Gods like you enough to give you those options.” He giggles after looking up to the sky and walking away all the while braiding the lock of hair he had stolen from me.

  He continues, “One choice, you will be free, a well-lived life with the people you love. You will have a husband and give him many sons. But in this life, I see tragedy, war, and death. You will suffer, the other side will make sure of it. Those who share your blood betray you in the end.”

  ‘The people I love? Could that be here or England?’ I think.

  “The other life, you will never be free—you will be trapped. You will also have a husband in this life though he is different than you, a foreigner. An inhuman man who thinks he owns you. You will be forced to marry him, brought to your knees, and you will worship him. He marks you with bites and uses you day after day until you…”

  The seer draws close to me grinning before he says, “Snap...But it is too late. You can’t escape him. For he will just lock you up in a cage if he has to. You eventually give him a child, a handsome little son, but no more for you become barren. The other side calls out to you in this life. You yearn to go back but you can’t as the child holds you down. You’re bound to the land and hated by many, but for the rest of your days you will live in solitude.”

  He then pulls away, his eyes seeming to hold mischief.

  I swallow, unsure what options are the best. Neither of them sounded great. A fairytale ending apparently isn’t for me. The second choice I am told about reminds me of Frey...Does he think he owns me?