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...
"It'll be amusing. She's a fierce woman, stronger than she knows." Finan says absentmindedly. "If not for her sharing her food, Uhtred and I would be far worse than we are now. We owe her a debt."
"You owe me nothing, I didn't do it in hopes of gaining something. I did what was morally right. After all you and Uhtred are warriors, you needed it more than I did." Came a thick raspy welsh voice.
Eyes turned to the girl who barely offered a smile at her best.
"Yet you'll always have my protection." Uhtred swears.
"Cross your heart and hope to die." The girl jests while she situated herself at Finan's side, letting him throw the blanket he had draped over his shoulders over the both of them.
Finan and Uhtred chuckled at the girls modern speech which confused those around her. We take a minute to explain to those at the camp my situation, many didn't believe me of course even when Finan prompted the question of oath making in my time.
"Is that how you make oaths in your time?" Finan, amused asks
"There are many rituals to creating a promise or swearing an oath in my time." Y/n replies looking the Irishman in the eyes for the first time in a while.
For a moment she found herself mesmerised by the fire which reflected in his dark orbs.
"For example." The girl takes the Irishman's hand folding all his fingers down to create a fist them unfolding the pinky. Mimicking the action with her own hand she hooked her pink around his with a chuckle.
"This is called a pinky promise. This is one of the most sacred packs you can make with a person. It can never be broken." She says with a slight laugh at the look of confusion on Finan's face.
"I don't understand how hooking to fingers together can be a sacred oath." Steapa chirps in confusion.
Giggling the girl unhooked her finger from Finan's eyes landing on the orange flames of the fire before her.
"It's very important to some. Children mainly use it, it is not often you see adults making those types of promises. Yet I've seen entire friendships come crumbling to an end from someone breaking one of them packs." The H/c haired girl explained, E/c eyes reflecting the dancing flames before her.
"Have you ever?" Ragnar asks not finishing the sentence. "You talk as if you've experienced the breaking of this promise." He clarifies.
"I have. There was... this girl I knew from the time I could walk. We were basically sisters we did almost everything together. It seems so stupid now that I think back on what led to our friendship ending." Y/n trailed off with an awkward laugh.
"In short we both grew very fond of a boy, I was the first to confess my feelings for him to her. Had I realised she liked him too I would not have said anything. I was young and in love with the idea of being in love and she used my secrete against me , outing my feelings before the boy in front of all the other boys and girls our age." Her voice grew distant as she reminisced on the first time she'd ever been in love with someone.
"He was my first love, even if it was one sided." Her voice barely above a whisper.
"Embarrassed he rejected me, rather harshly as well, but my tears that day did not shed for his rejection towards my confession but at the true colours my friend showed." Y/n coughed regaining composure as she continued on with her story, forgetting about the boy.
"We got into a pretty heated fight later on and for the first time in my life, I threw a punch towards her face." Y/n paused to laugh. "I broke her nose...We've never spoken since."
"How old were you when this happened.?" Hild asks.
"Seventeen." The girl replied quietly.
"Seventeen? Should you not have been married and had kids at that point." Steapa remarked making Y/n choke on the water Finan had offered her.
"MARRIED!" She exclaimed. "I'm far too young to wed. Anyone marrying at 17 would have some seriously explaining to do." She replied after taking a moment to stop choking on water.
"It's very common in this time for woman to wed before 14." Finan explained.
"But they are still children." Y/n argued. "They aren't even at the legal age of consent."
"Legal what?" Ragnar chimes.
"14 isn't old enough to legally consent to sex." She explained.
"Y/n, are you a virgin?" Uhtred asks out of nowhere making the aforementioned girls breath catch in her throat. Her silence was enough of an answer earning a few chuckles from the men in the camp.
"Are you not almost 23?" Finan teased.
The girl shoved his shoulder burying her face in her knees. "Virgin shaming is sinful." She muttered.
"Leave the poor girl alone." Hild scolds the men. A few more chuckles echo in the air before a silence settles over us.
Time passed as the night drew on and people began to turn in for the night. Y/n laid next to Finan the pair of them awake and staring at the night sky hoarding thousands of stars the girl never even seen before.
"We survived." She muttered eyes glancing from the sky, to Finan who lay next to her then over to Uhtred who lay in the grass a few feet away from them. "And yet I feel nothing, no joy, happiness, relief. Just numbness."
"It'll take time for those feelings to return to you." Finan spoke to the girl.
"Hope is always a good start to retrieving that of which you have lost." He said turning on his side to face the girl and propping up on his one elbow to stare down at her.
Conflict painted the girls expression who meekly nods in response to Finan's words. Sighing Finan did the only thing he knew to comfort the girl. He laid back down and pulled her against him so that her head could rest upon his chest.
"Sleep, do not think of the past anymore." He instructs running his hand through her hair as he waited and listened to the familiar sound of her soft snores.
~~~
To Be Continued
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