He was the conqueror. She was the sacrifice.
He was powerful. She was unexpected.
He was certain. She was uncertainty.
He formed a nation. She formed his world.
Together they would make history.
▪︎°▪︎°▪︎°▪︎
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xvii. Raging Seas
For the third time that day, Kari cursed the day she met Harald Finehair.
It was as if the man had a grudge against her with his maneuverings and commands of the boat. Whenever they would encounter a rough patch of waves, he seemed to want to go through it just for the pleasure of seeing her struggle.
And she did struggle. Immensely. Her hands held on to the wooden railing tightly as each wave crashed against the boat. She found herself regretting that she had eaten something on their journey as she felt the bread climb up her throat more than once.
She knew that he was doing it on purpose. At first, she had thought that it was a necessary road to cross for their journey but when she spotted a small smirk on his face, she knew that he was doing this to mess with her.
If she couldn't feel herself getting sick with each movement, she would have stood up and pushed him off the boat for his insolence. They had left Wessex with a sense of peace between them but when she asked about what he thought of the Mediterranean, his demeanor changed.
It was quite stupid if he got mad about the topic. After all, she only brought it up because she figured that maybe he would want to talk about his brother, Halfdan. It wasn't her fault that his mood changed faster than the weather.
After what felt like an eternity, they finally came upon calmer waters. Kari let out a relieved sigh, silently thanking all the gods for their short mercy.
She leaned over the edge of the railing, gulping in as much air as she could, thinking that could calm her stomach. It helped a little but she still felt terrible, her chest heavy and her head pounding from the incessant moving of the boat.
She may have thought of herself as a Viking now but her experiences on the boat along with the cold weather as they neared Kattegat gave her some doubts. The seasickness was awful and to top it all off, she could feel herself freezing. She stayed quiet though, not wishing to look helpless to the others.
One of the other Vikings took pity on her, handing her a ladle filled with fresh water. With thanks, she drank it up as Harald approached her.
"The waves too much for you?" Harald raised a brow, taking the ladle from her to drink. The others remained preoccupied with rowing and talking amongst themselves to listen to their conversation.
"Do you have some sort of problem?" Kari questioned, glaring fiercely at the taller man as she stood up to meet his gaze. If this was his way of mocking her then he had another thing coming.
"I don't know. Should I?" He retorted as if it was supposed to be obvious to her.
She had a distinct image of throwing him overboard. "You're acting like a child. If you didn't want me to come then you should have said so. I would've been perfectly happy going to the Mediterranean with Bjorn and Halfdan."
