Melt The Ice In My Heart | Vikings

Back To The Gods

Beside that, I made some new and old friends, tried to get some new bounds with people who clearly hadn't liked my chaos back then and caught up talking with who had missed me. I never thought anybody could miss me, but clearly the two brothers and friends had sought the whole area after the story had spread.

~~~

"Uppsala!"

We all stood, while breathing heavily, on top of the mountain we were climbing and watched the beautiful temple standing on a cliff in the middle of all the bigger mountains. It was a legendary sight, all the different bird species flying around the green and yellow treetops and the way the white water dripped of the rocks, together forming an waterfall. Within a hour we were on steady ground again and had almost arrived at the temple itself. Stepping foot between the tents, I heard bells being moved so they would make sounds and I understood we had happened to be finally there, in Uppsala.

"Does he know?"

"No."

With strong steps I couldn't wait to get inside and meet the statue of the gods again. It had been so long ago I had been here for the last time, though, I also remembered it had always given me a wrong feeling, like something was pulling me back. With bravery I walked in, not caring about the wrong feeling and relaxed I stared at all the shown gods.

"Hail to the Aesir and the Vanir. Hail to the gods and goddesses. Hail to Odin, Thor and Freyr. Hail to Vali, Sif and Heimdall. Hail to Balder, Bragi and Eir. Hail to Freya, Loki and Frigg..." Blood was spotted onto my face as it had been my turn. I had always been the one sitting onto the spot with hail Freya, Loki and Frigg, no matter in what order I had been kneeling down into... and that always made me wonder why? "Hail to Hlin and Mimir. Hail to Njord, Ran and Tyr. Hail to Odin's spear, Thor's hammer. Hail to the mighty fecund earth. All-... all hail."

"All hail!!"

Nodding and raising to my feet, I turned around so I could follow Ragnar, Bjorn and Athelstan.

"You know who that is, don't you?"

"Of course. This is Thor holding his hammer, Mjollnir. Who hasn't heard him beating his anvil in the storm? Who doesn't believe in mighty Thor, slayer of frost and fire?" I thought to myself he was acting way too exaggerated which made me chuckle a bit to the man ahead of me. Walking around we ended up at Odin where Bjorn first went worshipping him, then the sad Ragnar.

"Lord of lords, father, hear my prayer. Let me understand your will. Is it true that I shall have more sons like the Seer says? Accept the sacrifice I plan to offer you, and then answer me. Who will bear me my son?" After a moment of silence, pushing himself off of the statue, Ragnar silently made his way to me.

"Who shall you be praying to today?"

"Loki." Bursting into laughter he shook his head, followed by a slap on my back "Perhaps Hel.... No... to be honest, I shall seriously worship Tyr, Heimdall and Loki."

~~~

Seated next to Floki, I glared up at Ragnar who jumped in front of Bjorn and had let himself fall to his knees next to the young boy. "Can you sense the presence of the gods gathering here? They have left their bright halls to see us."

"They are here for sure." The blond man called Torstein responded to Ragnar. "They walk among us."

"And make their judgements on us." Grinning to Leif I gave him a shoulder bump, making him shoot out with his task. "And I know which of us is judged the most." Everybody stared at me and I just raised an eyebrow, afterwards smirking to everyone who was still glaring.

"So when do we offer our sacrifices?" Ragnar's attention was pulled back by his son.

"At the end of the festival."

Arne softly smiled at the little man then back at me. He had leaned against the wooden pole, but left his place to sit next to me instead.

"And in the meantime, we celebrate the gods and enjoy their presence in any way we can."

"Give Athelstan a drink." I switched my eyes to the one eyed man who had took his seat next to me with his cup filled with mead or beer, I didn't really know what it was.

"Arne."

"Njorun."

"Seems like we just finally became friends." He nodded handing me over his cup to take a sip from it.

"Never thought we would to be honest." We both cracked up again, probably because of how much we all had drank, but it was good to have another friend in the circle of my companions. I passed his cup to him and he took it from me taking another big sip. He then crawled a bit over the floor before pushing a cup into the hand of the priest, toasting with him before making him drink it. We shifted our spots to the fresh air when it was light and let ourself fall onto the ground, some were laying down, some like me were sitting onto a tree trunk and some where leaning against whatever they could find for support.

"Come join us priest."

"Drink-... drink to the nights and to the gods."

"And...uh... eat these." Shaking my head I tried to sign to Rollo it wasn't a good idea, but he completely ignored me. He too had eaten it so it didn't matter anymore.

"Athelstan, you don't have to eat it."

However, he wanted to proof himself, which I was afraid of. Raising his arm and opening his hand, he grabbed the content that was laying into the bowl and had put it between his teeth, chewing onto it.