Conqueror of the Vikings

The Plan

I finally uploaded : D yay! My exams are over so I can finally commit to my book. I hope you guys like this chapter. Please vote and comment on how I can improve.  Pic of Adrien over there >>>>>>>>

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I rested my head against Adrien’s strong, warm, shirtless chest. For some reason I was freezing.  Adrien had been running for about twenty minutes when his pace slowed and we came to a large tree in the middle of the forest. He set me down on the moss covered ground and I looked up at him questioningly. He gave me a small smile and kneeled down with his back to me. It took me a while to figure out that he wanted me to get on. I slowly moved toward him, not knowing if I could actually trust him, and wrapped my arms around his neck. When he stood up my legs tightened around his waist. 

   He easily lifted me up as if I weighed nothing and placed his hands on the branch closest to us. Adrien used the trunk of the tree as a guide to propel his body up to the next branch. I absolutely hated my fear of heights. I kept my eyes closed, afraid that I would lose my breakfast, even though I didn’t have any this morning. The thought of food made my stomach growl and I felt nauseous. After what felt like an eternity of climbing, we were finally at the top of the tree.

   He set me down on a sturdy branch with my legs extended out towards him with my back against the trunk of the tree. I noticed he was sweating and panting from the climb. His dark brown curls were messy and some of them stuck to his face.

   Images from earlier raced through my head. I had so many questions to ask him, it was hard not to shout them all out at once.

   “Why did you save me after what happened this morning?” I blurted out, feeling a bit relieved.

   He gave me a sheepish smile and scratched the back of his head, making sure to avoid my eyes.

   “When I see someone in trouble I always try to help.”

   “So you like to help and kill people. Well aren’t you a pleasant contradiction,” I scoffed and rolled my eyes at him.

   “This morning was an accident, trust me it’s not what you think,” this time a sincere look was on his face.

   “Explain,” I demanded.

   “Well I got news from my friends in the village. They said they were fooling around in the forest when they saw a woman with flowing red hair and fair skin talking to a man who looked to be a Viking. They overheard the conversation and took note of it. The supposed Viking was explaining that after each group partaking in the Day of Manhood reached their first destination they would ambush them and capture them. We tried telling the chief about this, but he didn’t believe us, said our imaginations were running wild so we took the situation into our own hands. When I saw you, the only girl in the crowd crossing the river, and how much you fit my friends’ description, I put two and two together and well you know what happened.”

   I nodded.

   “My mother,” I whispered.

   He looked up at me. Obviously confused.

   “My mother is the spy and my brother Clark is working along with her. My captor told me that their lord, Sven, is tired of us killing his men every year and that he’s also looking for some people, they don‘t know who. That’s all I was told.” I hadn’t even realized I was whispering.

 “While I was nearing my first checkpoint with my partner, we saw a few other teams running away in the distance. My guess is they’re going to try and hunt us all down until they find who they’re looking for,” he mused.