Life was simple, easy, safe despite the nagging of others demanding to know what Y/n wanted to do with her life she had little to complain about.
Still she wished the sea would take her, she didn't want to worry about where her life was headed, she...
The traders caught us all, every last man that was realised found themselves back in chains and reclaimed by not only Sverri but the water, we were slaves once more, a fleeting moment of freedom was all we got before we would meet an untimely death.
That's what I thought anyway.
Secrets were also revealed in the wake of our escape, secrets meant to remain unspoken. Uhtred now had to hide his name more carefully after Halig called him lord and sparked Sverris interest.
Halig....
How I'll never forget his cries or his screams.
They echoed all the way until we could no longer see iceland. His death was slow, it was painful, unjust, he deserved so much more than the hand dealt upon him.
Hopeless and grieved by the silence of his screams I began to hum a song I would listen to often back home as I sat on the sand watching the sun fade past the horizon. Soon the lyrics began to leave my raspy throat and I serenade my friend to his heaven.
I gotta keep the calm before the storm I don't want less, I don't want more Must bar the windows and the doors To keep me safe, to keep me warm
Yeah, my life is what I'm fighting for Can't part the sea, can't reach the shore And my voice becomes the driving force I won't let this pull me overboard
God, keep my head above water Don't let me drown, it gets harder I'll meet you there at the altar As I fall down to my knees Don't let me drown, drown, drown Don't let me, don't let me, don't let me drown
So pull me up from down below 'Cause I'm underneath the undertow Come dry me off and hold me close I need you now, I need you most
God, keep my head above water Don't let me drown, it gets harder I'll meet you there at the altar As I fall down to my knees Don't let me drown, drown, drown Don't let me, don't let me, don't let me drown Don't let me drown, drown, drown
Don't let me, don't let me, don't let me drown (Keep my head above water, above water)
And I can't see in the stormy weather I can't seem to keep it all together And I, I can't swim the ocean like this forever And I can't breathe
God, keep my head above water I lose my breath at the bottom Come rescue me, I'll be waiting I'm too young to fall asleep God, keep my head above water Don't let me drown, it gets harder I'll meet you there at the altar As I fall down to my knee Don't let me drown (Don't let me, don't let me drown) Don't let me drown (Don't let me, don't let me drown) Don't let me drown (Don't let me, don't let me drown) And keep my head above water, above water
As the final note of my song finished, Sverri's yells to stop having gone ignored. I felt the harsh sting of a whip crack against my back repeatedly but for the first time in months I felt emotion, sadness and my tears stain my face.
Uhtred cried.
I cried.
Finan even muffled a sob of his own
The three of us mourned our brave friend's death and in his sacrifice only grew closer.
~~~
A month passed with the body of our friend tied to the bow of the ship and before we were once again on land. Spring had ended and summer was in fruition, the heat almost unbearable despite the lack of clothes I found myself in.
The sand felt warm under my bare feet, the king grass of the cliff tickled my heels though no laughter came from me.
The last month on the water finally broke Uhtred, Finan and myself to the point where none of us spoke and we all stood as empty shells of the beings we once were, stories of our hardship readable from the expressions on our faces.
When we did enter land this time there was no joy, no plan of escape, only silent prayers for death.
I barely registered when a man with one eye and blonde hair gripped my chin speaking the same unfathomable things as Sverri.
For once I was glad for my empty ears.
Of course Sverri had made it clear to me that he had no intentions of exchanging me or selling me off. He came to me a few nights ago expressing his excitement for my friends to be gone so that I'd finally cave and give into his request.
The blonde man's attention soon drew from me when it fell on Uhtred and I barely acknowledged that exchange as Finan pulled me to him.
It was only when a woman in grey gently took a hold of my cheeks did my eyes open and my ears listen. With the coming back of my two senses came the tears that hid behind their dams for all these weeks. For the first time in a year I felt the touch of another human being, beside my slave friends, and the warmth of a cloak on my shoulders.
"You are safe now my child." She whispered her voice like an angel to my ears.
"Are you an angel." I wept.
She pulled me into her embrace allowing me to cry into her shoulder. My tears soaking the fabric through the gaps her chainmail.
Over her shoulder as she embraced me I watched Finan kill Sverri taunting him in his death with the very same word that would forever be etched into each of our brains only to bring on bad memories.
"Pull." Sverri's body fell to the ground at Finan's feet and not for a second did I blink or think of the moral wrongs in his doing.
No, I may be accustomed to more modern punishments, I may have had morals, a sense of right and wrong, but after the hell he put me through, Sverri's death was more than deserved.
~~~
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