Proud warrior

Ardra was sitting on the edge of a fjord in her battle armor, the wind blowing through her hair, her loyal companion Ragnar grazing the grass not too far away. She was drinking her tenth bottle of mead, the last nine empty bottles were thrown down the fjord. The mead started to get to her a little bit, she was feeling a little tipsy.

Ardra chuckled remembering a time when she could drink as much mead as she wanted and not feel anything. She remembered the time when she was a proud warrior, a proud Valkyrie together with her sisters in Valhalla. She remembered when one of Odin's generals, who served Odin for 700 years, died in battle she and her sisters took him to Valhalla. The celebration lasted a whole month. For a month, all the souls in Valhalla gathered and celebrated the general's bravery, loyalty and praised his skills in battle.

However, that was ages ago.

Eons ago, as the First war with the Vanir raged on, it seemed that the war would not end for thousands of years. Roughly, a thousand years ago one of the battles ended quite brutally. Both sides lost many great warriors.

The Valkyries descended from Valhalla, to collect the souls of the warriors who died in battle to take them to their final resting place, Valhalla. Ardra looked around the battlefield and saw a warrior, still alive, trying to get up. She walked up to him knowing he couldn't see her. Beings from the mortal plain couldn't see Valkyries, but Valkyries could see the mortals and the life force inside them.

Ardra saw that the warrior was in a lot of pain and that his life force was slowly fading away. At the rate it was fading he was going to die, but not on the battlefield. He probably had injuries that would kill him in his sleep, not here, not on the battlefield where he will have a chance to join his fellow warriors in Valhalla. His soul will go to Hell.

Ardra looked around him and saw many dead warriors, he killed around 50 of his enemies, not for himself but for Odin. And what is Odin going to do for this man, he was going to let his soul go to Hell.

Looking at the man, Ardra felt pity for the man and the situation he was in. She extended her arm into the man's body gripping his soul, pulled it out and took it with her. She mounted her horse and together with her sisters, she rode to Valhalla.

A few days later Odin heard about what happened on the battlefield. He was furious. One of the Valkyries broke the rules. After the battle was over, a Valkyrie took a soul from a man that didn't die on the battlefield and took the soul to Valhalla.

Only the bravest and most loyal warriors who die in battle go to Valhalla, the hall of the fallen, and are celebrated so that Odin can call upon them to fight by his side in the last battle at Ragnarok. The rest of the souls of mortals who don't die in battle, go to Hell.

As soon as he heard the news, he rushed to Valhalla to find the Valkyrie who broke the rules and made a mockery of him. He forcefully opened the doors of Valhalla shouting, "Bring her to me!!! BRING HER TO ME NOW!!!"

Sigrdrífa, one of the Valkyries stood in front of Odin protecting her sisters. "Enough!!! We shall not do this here!!!" She turned around and started walking towards the end of the feast hall. Odin, with anger clearly visible on his face, followed her. The rest of the Valkyries followed after.

They entered Odin's throne room. "Which one of you did it? Which one of you took the soul?! "

Ardra stepped in front of him. She never liked how much power Odin had over her and her sisters. Every time she saw him, she wanted to punch him or sometimes even kill him, but she knew not all of her sisters felt that way. "I did it." Ardra said trying to keep her voice as calm as possible but she could not hide the anger and contempt in her eyes as she was looking at him.