“No one is a total fool if he knows when to hold his tongue”

I lifted my head to see an old man with thick, long hair in a single braid, and striking green eyes. He was directly in front of me, at most, 2 feet away. As I was still gasping for air, he suddenly placed his hand on my chest.

"Arne, breathe. Do you want to die like this? This is not a warrior's death. You will not go to Valhalla." He said, all will staring at me with the same intensity as the woman, if not more. But I can't lie, it helped me. Merely focusing on him and his eyes made my breathing slow down, and soon we matched up around the same pace.

Once he saw I was good, he stood up and turned to the woman, who I didn't even notice was there. She looked concerned as she watched me, before turning her attention to the other man. They seemed to be talking but it was like I had gone deaf. They were only a few feet away from me, but I only heard muffled speaking.

I decided to ignore them for the moment, and focus on standing. In one swift motion, I used the wall as a stabilizer, lifting myself up. They noticed my struggle, because the woman appeared by my side, holding me up and walking with me. The man stood away at a distance and observed us, all while encouraging me.

After a couple of minutes of me repeatedly falling and the woman picking me up, we finally emerged from the tent. I have no clue what I was expecting, but we hobbled out to see a camp. Not a small campsite, but a gigantic tent-filled city. With its surrounding wood spike wall and giant bushy trees, it looked a bit menacing.

I looked around in awe, wondering what this place was. The woman gently rocked me, trying to signal me to move. I merely turned my head to look at her, and in return, I was given a smile. She then straightened out her back, turned me to face her, then wrapped her arms around my waist, and lifted me up. I was startled by her strength and made a strangled noise. It was quite unexpected as she was only about 5ft.

"Arne, don't worry. Just relax, let your sæta take care of you." She said all while petting my head like I was some sort of child. Let me be clear, I did not trust this woman, not even slightly. I saw her coming back from the forest, covered in blood. I wanted to reject...her everything, or at least my mind wanted to. My body seemed to be very comfortable with her, relaxing in her embrace.

She made her towards the tent city with me as her cargo. Turns out the tent was a ways away from 'cloth' city because once we fully arrived in the midst of it, there was an overwhelming amount of people, or at least that is what it seemed like to me.

The woman held me closely as she maneuvered through the crowd. This 'journey' continued until we came upon a wooden house, more accurately a mansion. She finally set me down before allowing me to use her as a crutch to move toward the door. Opening the door we were greeted with what looked like a throne room.

The thing is, it looked very hastily made, with dingy support beams that were cracking under the pressure of the roof, along with an elevated fire pit in the middle of the room, which seemed like it was an accident waiting to happen. Of course, the entire room was made of wood, but the thing that stood out to me was the short, chair in the upper middle of the room. There were a couple of people in the room, dressed in furs and chainmail. The woman herself was dressed in similar fur clothing, as well as the old man.

I was wearing some sort of thin white tunic with some black wool pants. I was bewildered at why they were wearing those clothes, or why they dressed me like them. But at this point, my mind was too tired to even process why this was all happening, so I let the woman practically carry me into the 'throne' room.

She placed me on the ground near the front of the pit, only about 2 feet from the raging fire. Then she approached a woman who was hanging around the 'throne' and began to whisper to her. After they exchanged a few words, the other lady nodded before retreating into a room to the side that I didn't even notice was there. The woman sat down next to me, flashing me a smile. She wrapped her arms around me and leaned in.

"My Kærasti, don't worry. You will receive all the honors for saving the Jarl's life. Try to talk, hm? For me." She rubbed my back while kissing my neck, eventually settling for laying on my shoulder. Trying to ignore her, I looked around the group of people inside the 'throne' room. It was a mixture of fur-clad men and women, all with braids, shaved bald heads with menacing beards, tattoos, and faces that occasionally glared at me when I glanced at them.

But my attention was immediately captured by what seemed like the furriest fur-clad person who had just emerged from the side room. The menacing man's bald head was filled with tattoos. He sauntered up to the 'throne' and promptly sat down. The woman stood up while holding me as well, before slightly bowing her head to the menacing man.

"Signy, you're welcome. I see you have brought Arne...Why?"

"My Jarl, I don't want to...disrespect you, but what do you mean why have I brought Arne here? During the raid, he took the arrow for you. His reward would have been Valhalla and to become Einherjar. But he survived, so I am requesting you reward him for his bravery." She quit bowing her head and was staring right at the 'Jarl' with the usual intensity.

The 'Jarl' guy chuckled a bit before abruptly standing up, and walking over to us. When he arrived, he looked directly at me. He was a bit shorter than me but that didn't dampen how intimidating he was. All of a sudden, he gave an eerie smile.

"Well, Arne? What do you want me to give you?" He still had that smile on his creepy smile on his face, like if I asked for anything, he would kill me. My mind was racing, trying to come up with something that wouldn't make this crazy man angry. I felt my face tense up into a smile, which was a bad habit of mine when I felt nervous.

"He can't talk right now." The woman, or Signy, interjected. The Jarl tilted his head before looking at her. After a little while, he strolled backed to his 'throne' sitting comfortably.

"Well, I can't guess what he wants. When he can talk, bring him back." He shrugged his shoulders. I saw Signy purse her lips before slightly bowing her head again.

"Very well Jarl. I will bring him back." Signy grabbed me and hauled me through the door. She was quite rough with me this time, pushing me through the crowd rather than pulling me. I was bounced around so much that I didn't even see where we going. By the time I realized where we were, we had arrived outside the wooden stake wall.

She set me down on the grassy ground before sitting down herself next to me. Huffing angrily, she laid down on my head on her lap before petting me.

"Arne, that little conniving níðingr thinks he can just cheat you out of your reward, I don't think so. I saw you! You lept in front of that arrow to save your Jarl, but now he doesn't want to give you the respect for saving his life? The veslingr! The fokking dunga!" She was ranting so hard she was getting out of breath, while I kept my mouth shut. It felt pretty awkward, I felt my face instinctively tense up once more.

She stopped raving to look down at me in a daze. Seeming 10 times calmer, she bent down and gave me a kiss on my forehead. My body once again relaxed against my will. She continued to pet me while looking at the surrounding woods.

"Signy!"