Melt The Ice In My Heart | Vikings

When Heaven Falls

I was pulled along with Ragnar and he shook his head at me. "Never put yourself in danger like that."

"No, but putting you best friend in danger is much better?" Ragnar examined his surrounding before lowering his head.

"You're right." He sighed before we together killed off the last few Christians attacking us to retrieve our victory.

~~~

In the silence and recovery that followed the battle, King Horik and Erlendur tried to tend to the injured Ari, and I knew he was a lost cause. Meanwhile everyone tried to help one another, I leaned against the tree behind Athelstan, seeing Ragnar approaching us and while seeking support on the shoulder of Athelstan he sat down next to the new born Viking.

"You did not hesitate today." Ragnar praised a quiet Athelstan for not hesitating for killing his former people and I smiled softly when I noticed what Ragnar pulled out of his pocket. "Take it, if you want."

Ragnar wanted to give him his arm ring, which Athelstan accepted and probably was going to wear proudly. I always had a small feeling Ragnar would gift him the arm ring and I was happy to see it happen before my eyes. It was not long before Ragnar got up with a sigh of pain and helped Athelstan raise to his feet as well, then after offered his hand to me to walk with them. I wasn't sure for what I had to join them, but I had nothing else to do in these beautiful yet gloomy times so I just followed the two men. I wandered through the leaves a bit with my feet and Ragnar suddenly held onto a dismembered head of a soldier when I looked up again then I understood he took us with him to interrogate two of the survivors.

Athelstan asked them, in a mutual language, where they were from and through the soldiers, we learned that we found ourselves in the middle of a kingdom called Wessex, and that their king was King Ecbert, whose reputation was noticeable known to Athelstan.

"Where are we? This is not Northumbria. You are not King Aelle's men?"

"No. We are not." Athelstan quickly checked Ragnar before swallowing while speaking up in his language that I understood a little after my imprisonment.

"What is the name of this kingdom?"

"This is Wessex."

"Wessex?" I was not fully listening as I was mostly focused on the difficult breathing of the man on the ground next to me. One of the English warriors was still weakly alive and I tilted my head to look at him. He was unknown to me, but I turned his body around when I got down on my knees to see him from a good angle. The man couldn't speak, but I knew he was softly begging for him to be killed and slowly and quietly I snapped his neck, making Ragnar slap my back gently when I got back up. It seemed that he had witnessed the scene.

"Yes."

"So your king is King Ecbert?"

"Yes, our king is King Ecbert. Have you heard of him? Have you heard of him?"

"I have heard many things about him."

"Everything you heard is true." It looked like Ragnar had some sort of angry tone to his face, but was also quite curious about this new king of Wessex that made him focus his blue eyes on Athelstan's.

"What have you heard about King Ecbert?" Athelstan hesitated for a moment and kicked a stone away with his foot as he looked at the ground, but answered anyway as I nodded to just tell the man. I thought it was strange how the warriors spilled everything without any torture or harmful manners, I saw it as being weak, but of course they wanted to save their own life so I could somehow understand why they did it, although I may not believe that Ragnar or King Horik would let the men go.

"That he's just like you." It was not long before Athelstan led the way through the forest, afterwards we decided what happened with the warriors. We had chosen Athelstan to lead the way because he was of course the one who knew the most about all these kingdoms which I thought was logical and had voted
for the idea of him helping us while some hated him and were against him because he could might 'set us up'. I knocked away a few branches so they wouldn't get in my face and heard someone behind me screaming in pain from a branch coming into his face and I quickly walked next to Ragnar so that it seemed like I had never walked in front of the man.

"What is that place?" We all looked down on the beautiful large green meadow and the wild life that lived on it, while behind it stood a large surrounded place with a high wall made out of big rocks. Even a greater surrounded place than I had seen in my captivity. Questions quickly began to arise that other people asked Athelstan.

"It's a Christian church, a minster. A large one. It may be Winchester." He explained as Ragnar gazed at the high buildings rising from behind the walls.

"Is it important?"

"If it is Winchester, Saint Birinus is buried there. It's a place of great pilgrimage."

"And will there be treasure there?" Horik interfered and I smiled. If it was important then yes it would have many treasures, but he didn't seem to find the link.

"Yes. A lot of treasure." Athelstan confirmed while chuckling a bit and I nodded at Floki who seemed the most enthusiastic of us all. We were ready to go into battle and wanted to pay tribute to our dead who had fallen to get us where we are now.