Melt The Ice In My Heart | Vikings

Our Bound Faith

"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.

~~~

The city had been looted, murdered, and destroyed, all before half of our victorious group was torturing a priest in the church for fun. Meanwhile they had fun in the main building, I had to search for the disappeared group of Christians, because many had fled from our sights. I couldn't find them though, except for a few children that I didn't want to expose to death so I had left them alone, and made my way to the last kitchen where Ragnar seemed to be. It wasn't looted yet so perhaps that was the reason he was in there with a small group of other Vikings. He signed to me to join him when he noticed me in the doorway and when I obeyed him, he had opened my hand and pushed something looking like food in it.

It looked like round bread, with some kind of white powder and I laughed not knowing what he meant. "Try it! Go on!"

Contradictory, I took the food to my mouth and took a bite. Immediately my mouth fell open in shock after I had tasted it and took another bite as I stared at Ragnar. It was delicious and sweet. "We better take all of this with us or else I'm not leaving!" I pointed out at the guys and they all bursted into laughter until Ragnar agreed and actually repeated the sentence, making them take the food with them. I actually never thought about it, but because of the light that fell into Ragnar's eyes as he stared at me they looked like a reflection of Valhalla.... and for one second I swear I could see the gods in them.

Unfortunately, he quickly looked away and was fascinated by a kind of cooking hole in the wall, which caused him to click it open with his sword and soon let another device divert his interest where he slipped grain through his hand. Why did this man have to be married? He was so sweet and caring... even though he doesn't always look like that. I closed my eyes and lowered my head towards the floor before I got two hands around my upper arms, shaking me back and forth so that I had to open my eyes again to see who it was. Me startled to see that it was Ragnar, he carefully nodding his head to behind him, making me look over his shoulder.

"You see her?" He whispered as he grabbed me in a embrace and I nervously giggled, confused why he embraced me because it wasn't needed, I had already seen the girl.

"Yes." His arms let go of me as the kitchen slowly emptied with men, favorable for us so that we could cover the girl who had hid herself into a wooden container, probably made to hold water during cooking. We pretended there was nothing in the kitchen and I made the last men taste some of the food while Ragnar pulled a blanket from the wall to cover the red-haired girl under it before sighing. It wasn't long before the men tried to shoot their chance to flirt a bit and I laughed when Ragnar glared at them causing them to quickly walk out the door in shame.

"Every now and then I wonder why I got married."

"You still love Aslaug, right? That's why you married her."

"Yes, but....." Ragnar wanted to say something, but sadly a man called out for Ragnar and he sighed before grabbing my hand to pull me along out of the building. Together we walked in silence until we were left alone by the group of men who needed his help and I immediately spoke up, talking about the hidden kids, not wanting to ruin his marriage.

"You know that's the umpteenth here."

"What? Were there more?" Ragnar seemed concerned that the fugitives had left their children, but it was a better response than perhaps being angry with me for not killing them, what normal men would be.

"Yes, I have already hid more than I can count on my hands."

"Dear Odin... so what now? Those kids can't hide forever."

"Well, they have no choice until we leave."

"True..." The handsome, but lovely man wanted to talk about something important, I knew that, but it would end the same way as me and Rollo had ended up as. He was married, they both were and I didn't want to be such woman that is known for breaking love contracts. Over the time I had grown closer to Ragnar, I had to admit that and I knew something was special between us, like our faith was bounded, but the gods had made the decision between me and Aslaug and I seemed not worthy to live a love life.

"Why don't we go back to Athelstan?"

~~~

I really don't know what to do with this fic! Of course I will continue it, but as I watched Vikings further I noticed *spoilers——— that Ragnar and Rollo never grow single for a long time and both end up gone (one even dead). I will ask you dear readers if you have a good idea to solve this problem or if there is something you would love to read in this fic to make it more interesting! ♥️