The request:
Author's Notes | To this situation, I'm doing a special scene to each one of them, so consider they are meeting the girl who will become significant to them at this moment, ok? The woman is a Christian slave who's being displayed in a suspended cage, obligated by the slave merchant to dance as an exotic bird to attract clients who want to buy her. But she has an expensive price that makes her inaccessible to the great majority of the clients and the ones who can pay simply don't want to pay so much. She has a beautiful talent but when our princes are able to see her, she's already sad and hopeless, dancing beautifully as a dying swan in his last magnificent song, and they are able to see such a unique treasure being destroyed by her owner's greed. In the beginning, she was trying desperately to be purchased by the terrible hands of the merchant, but now, she's not trying to attract a buyer anymore. Her movements are soft and sweet, and her eyes are far away like she is using her last efforts just to express with her art the sadness inside her soul.
Warnings | Mentions do violence and some cursing.
His curiosity has taken him to a huge amount of places, but unlike the other Viking men, Björn is not only a raider... He's an explorer, someone who understands that there are more things on earth than our poor culture can include, so he doesn't destroy everything he sees in order to get more and more lands converted to his behavior. He explores, tries to learn, to get something good from everything he finds. Like his father, he is a curious man and his curiosity is exactly what makes him get closer to her cage.
But, also like his father, he is intelligent and perceptive enough to notice the little details that shouldn't be present on something so delicate as a dancer like her: the bloody stains on her shoes, the tears in her eyes... Such a beautiful and delicate artist shouldn't be on a cage, exposed like an exotic animal...
"Pull her down... I want to see her closer," he asks, getting closer to the cage when the merchant land it on the ground causing the sweet ballerina to shrink in a little ball at the center of the cage.
To the eyes of the others, just another step of the beautiful dance she starts again in the next second, swirling around her own body so graciously... To his eyes, a clear expression of pain.
"Open the cage. I'll take her with me" he says, getting near the bars, seeing when she doesn't even look surprised by being purchased. She already heard it before... And when the merchant tells him her price, she closes her eyes on another turn around herself, thinking he'll go away like all the others before him.
But the sound of a surprised sigh and a bag of gold being moved makes her movements stop, as graciously as she was dancing. And she can hear the sound of the cage being opened and the merchant's jaw clenching in angry.
The beautiful blonde prince takes her by the hand and pulls her to his arms as soon as she's out of the cage.
"Such a relic must be well treated and protected, not explored like a decoy."
His eyes are caught by her dance while he was looking around the market, talking with Hvitserk about the new merchants they saw at the docks and how Kattegat has grown in the last years. He suddenly lost the attention to what his brother was saying, looking at such beautiful and gracious movements, so contrasting with the scenario around her.
"Ubbe? Brother... what are you looking at?" Hvitserk asked and he pointed to the cage, hearing Hvitserk's surprised expression, without losing not even a second of her sight.
Her movements making him get closer and closer to the cage until his face was almost touching the bars. His blue eyes staring her eyes, following the sadness on them in each turn around her own body.
"Did you like my little bird, my prince?" he listened to the merchant's voice, throwing his heavier gold bag on him without even counting the content.
"She's not yours anymore..."
The different movements inside that cage caught his eyes for a second and he got himself mesmerized by the beautiful young lady inside that little jail. So delicate, so gracious, so attractive... So sad...
He couldn't let pass the tear in her face, rolling down as gracefully as she was dancing, losing itself in the air on another turn of her body around herself.
"I want her." he declared.
Knowing the fact that the prince, third son of Ragnar Lothbrok, had recently come back from his trip to the Mediterranean and would probably be able to pay any price for his desires, the merchant tried to be clever.
"She is not for sale, my lord"
But his attempt went wrong in the smile on Hvitserk face, leaving no space for arguings...
"Ah... So she's a beautiful gift to your prince? I'll remember your generosity, my friend..."
He doesn't need too much time to notice what was going on in that place. And it made his blood boil in his veins.
He could feel the fear, the despair and the sadness in each movement of her body, dancing to a melody he listened repeating unceasingly, forcing her art on her body, turning what was supposed to be a pleasure into terrible torture.
He didn't even ask for anything, pulling down the cage himself, opening it and taking her out to his arms, with his own hands.
"You can't do it! She belongs to me!" the merchant came from inside his store, complaining but Sigurd just threw on him his own bag of gold.
"There is much more than what you were abusively asking for her, now take your damn gold, your possessions and go away from my town! I don't want torturers selling their stuff on my docks! Get out!"
"Prince Sigurd..." the merchant tries, but Sigurd's voice is strict and harsh.
"Out!"
And so he turns softly to the poor fairy in his hands, so broken and hurt.
"Don't be afraid, sweet fairy... There will be no more suffering in your way"
He stops his chariot, getting down and dragging himself furiously to the cage after a few minutes observing her movements and grace.
"Pull her down immediately" he orders, causing the merchant to look at him, scared.
"Is there something wrong, my prince"
"Did you hear me? Pull her down! Now!" he yells once again, causing the merchant to pull down the cage, afraid of Ivar's reaction if he dared to disobey, opening the door, giving free passage to the furious prince who drags himself inside the cage, sitting on the ground and pulling softly the tired body of the sweet girl to his lap, holding her into a protective embrace. "Who do you think you are to keep locked a goddess, you bastard?" he says, shocking the merchant that tries to argue
"She's not a goddess, my lord... she's a..."
"She is what I say she is!" Ivar answers the man, furious "And such grace and beauty couldn't come from less than a goddess you dare to keep locked like a toy."
He slowly put her over his back, making her embrace his neck so he can crawl back to his chariot carrying her over his body.
"My prince, she is expensive..." the merchant tries, and Ivar turns his fierce eyes to him
"She's priceless... Consider my benevolence in keep you alive a good way to pay for her freedom"