brave in the heart. vikings

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Chapter sixteen

Within a week of being in Kattegat, Merida hadn't done as much as she had hoped to do in the foreign place. She hadn't seen Floki with his boats or climbed up to the falls with the Bjorn. She hadn't seen Lagertha at all or visited Aslaug and the boys. The only thing that she had been able to do was speak with Athelstan. He was adamant that she needed to know the language before she could enjoy the the pleasures and adventures of Norway. She agreed to some extent, but that didn't stop her from craving to leave the comforts of her new home and venture into the surroundings.

It seemed to call out to her as she moved between places of the city, making the back group harder to ignore. The mountains had never looked ominous and threatening nor had the vast landscape ever looked unreachable. Beautiful, was all she could describe it as.

On the way to the place that Athelstan resided in, Merida strayed from her familiar path. Kattegat was bigger than she had realised it to be, and the walk to his small home took ten minutes to walk to from where she stayed near the centre.

In the past weeks, the priest had been helping her with language. She was better than she had ever been, unsurprisingly, but it came with the price of always being with him and never being out and exploring the village and it's surrounding area. Ragnar and Bjorn insisted she learned the language first, just like they had, but she felt it was more like a plan to keep her out of the way than anything else. The only event that had taken place since she had arrived, was another large feast and it had been just as the first.

Merida paved her way through the market stalls, her hair like a burning torch through the narrow pathways. It had grown colder in her time there too, making everything whiter and icier and her hair even redder.

As Merida stepped around the corner through the market, she felt a hand on her arm. As she turned, she almost expected to see Bjorn, smiling down at her and offering to walk her to her language lesson, but then she was pulled harshly, another hand resting in the base of her neck. Merida whipped her head away, her eyes meeting those of an old man, half of his face covered by a dark cloak that reached to the ground, the dark material soaked through with snow. His dirty hand were still gripped on her arm.

"What are you doing?" she exclaimed. "Let go!"

"Very pretty." The man muttered, his second hand shooting out to grip the top of her other arm, his hold like an iron chain wrapped around her skin.

Merida's eyebrows furrowed worriedly. She pulled herself from his grasp, his sharp nails ripping through her skin like an axe and wood. But he pulled her back again by the back of her skirt, the material pulling in two as he wouldn't let go.

"So pretty." She felt him touch her hair, his grimy fingers wrapping in her fiery lock.

Merida frowned lowly, her elbow hitting out to connect with his face. The man screeched, his teeth baring and eyes wide, dropping to look like a child who had just been told off. She sent a boot down to his foot, crushing his toes between the snow, the melted water seeping through. He bowled out in pain once again.

The man began to mutter something incoherent, his hands reaching to her hair once again, before recoiling as if he had been burnt. She couldn't understand, though her language was good enough. It was like her was talking another language. Merida had kneed him again, sending toppling further into the shadow. The man screeched, his eyes widening and landing in a figure behind her shoulder.

"What is going in here?"

Merida's head snapped around to see Ragnar behind her, eyeing the man who was whimpering on the floor against the hut. He was pointing at her, his hand holding protectively at his stomach as he tried to shift himself away.

"He attacked me," Merida growled, glaring down at the man.

Ragnar's brow raised as he looked at the pathetic figure in the ground.

"It looks like you attacked him."

"I didn't-"

"I know," Ragnar cut her off with a grin and a laugh, stepping forward to nudged the man over, hearing him groan and moan.

"Let's sort this out."