The Valkyrie's Daughter | Vikings

Chapter One

Once again, years had passed. However, this time many, many years had passed. Rona was now sixteen years old and was now officially a sheildmaiden. 

In the last few years, Rona had received training from the Ragnarssons and Lagertha, Bjorn's mother (and also Ragnar's ex-wife) and the two had become friends, despite the fact that Lagertha did live far away. 

Since her father's death, Rona had been put into the care of a family in Kattegat who did not really acknowledge her but then moved back into the house that Athelstan and Hildr had lived in when Rona was growing up with the help of Bjorn and Lagertha. Rona had managed to restore her family's small farm. She would run the farm mostly by herself but the Ragnarssons would help her once in a while. There was only a few animals left and only a few patches of crops so there wasn't too much to maintain. 

Due to Ragnar's grief after Athelstan's passing, Ragnar just couldn't bear to have Rona in his care, otherwise he would have looked after her like his own. However, having Rona around would only make Ragnar's grief worse. 

Ragnar ended up leaving Kattegat after he was defeated by his brother, Rollo's forces in Paris after Rollo had betrayed the Lothbrock's and sided with the French. 

Rona had grown up still spending a lot of time around the Ragnarssons, including Bjorn. She would train with them regularly and she had become close to all of them, particularly Bjorn and Hvitserk. Rona still had a good relationship with Ubbe, Sigurd and Ivar though, despite the fact that Ivar and Rona were actually rather different. Ivar would sometimes be very hostile towards Rona due to the fact that her father was a Christian. Their relationship had actually been very close, almost sibling-like when they were younger. But after growing up, Rona and Ivar seemed to grow apart due to their differences in morals and due to their alliances (i.e. Rona and Aslaug did not get along and Ivar and Aslaug were very close). Sigurd was also rather annoying in Rona's opinion, but only sometimes. He could be really big headed and he would always use words to start arguments and never finish them. But Rona forgave him for that due to his kind nature underneath his big-headed act.

Hvitserk and Rona's friendship was a special one. Hvitserk was well aware of Rona's history and knew that her father was a Christian but that didn't really change his views of her. This was kind of unusual as Hvitserk had always been very loyal to traditional vikings values. The two were actually rather similar. They were both strong fighters, they both loved food and they both had the same sense of humour.

Bjorn hadn't always been close with Athelstan while growing up but he grew to love him and therefore, after Athelstan's passing, Bjorn took it upon himself to assist Ragnar in making sure Rona was alright. Therefore, over time, Rona and Bjorn had developed a sibling like relationship which was nice for the both of them, but particularly for Bjorn as he lost his sister when he was young and therefore, it was nice for him to have a somewhat sister figure in his life again. 

Rona's relationship with Aslaug had not been good since Rona was a child, which as unfortunate as Aslaug and Rona were actually rather close when Rona was younger. Rona had grown close to Lagertha while growing up and since Aslaug and Lagertha were somewhat at odds over the throne of Kattegat (not that everyone knew this yet), Aslaug disliked Lagertha and therefore disliked any of her allies. Rona would try her best to be civil towards Aslaug when in her presence because of her friendship with the Ragnarssons but it did take a lot of self-control. 

However, Rona's most strained relationship in Kattegat was with Floki. Rona hated Floki for murdering her father and she also had a grudge against Helga, despite the fact that Helga had helped Rona's mother give birth to her. Floki always kept his distance from Rona, aware of what he had done. He never apologised to Rona or anything. Helga had tried to build bridges with Rona  by apologising on Floki's behalf but Rona had made it clear that she would only accept an apology from Floki's mouth.