2 Rebirth

(AN changing Pov to 1st person)

After meeting death I fell through a portal and now I feel warm and I can't seem to move . Every so often I feel a hand pushing against me but it feels like a leather wall is blocking direct contact. I must be inside my new mothers womb, so I guess I will get a full restart. Then I closed my eyes, fell asleep and woke up back into the real world being held in a man's arms.

The man holding me has a long and full braided beard. From where I am being held I can see a woman laying in a bed with a smile looking toward me. She has a beautiful white face with red hair wearing an off white nightgown. As the man walks back and forth with me he is speaking a language i cant understand. Dad says something to who i guess is my mom I can see the whole house. From what I can see it looks like my new home is from the viking era. The building has some partitions but the roof extends over the whole house.

My father then walks toward my mother handing me to her, This baby body is really useless because my arms don't seem to respond to me. My mother then did something I wasn't expecting giving me milk from the source. After mom feeds me two kids run into the room. One was a young girl being held by an older boy looking about 5 or 6, I guess im not the only child. It could be nice to have some siblings. The both come over to mom and I, giving us both a kiss, but the milk i just drank makes me start to feel tired.

I guess I fell asleep, and when I wake up, mom is putting some clothes on me. Mom is putting me into a small blue tunic and wrapping me in multiple furs. After being dressed, mom picked me up and allowed me to see that all of his family was wearing a clean set of clothing. Now it appears my family is going to some event. We all exit the long house, and once outside, I can see other longhouses all in a circle around a larger long house almost twice the size of our family's. I guess we aren't the chief family, which isn't too bad. Wondering where we are going, my family starts to walk toward the gate of the village.

Once out of the village, we head down a side path from the main road. After a five minute walk, my family comes to a little shack that is covered in engraved runes and a large animal skull hangs on the door. My father walks to the door, but as soon as he is about to knock, a voice from inside the house yells out. When my father responds, an older skinny man with a full-face tattoo of a skull comes out of the door. After some pleasantries, the old man looks at me saying something. I really should have asked for a language skill.

Then the old man leads us toward his back yard. From where I am I can see a pond and a fire pit with seating. My mother walks toward the seating holding me and places me on what seems to be an altar made out of a wood tree stump. Around the stump both on it and the ground are more carved runes all in a circle. Once mom makes sure i won't fall, the old man who I can only guess is the village seer walks up to me and starts to touch my temples and then my chest. The creepy old man says some sort of incantation, and once finished, the water from the pond begins to rise like a pump was turned on. The water shoots into the air making an umbrella-like figure. The fire in the pit turns blue and heightens as if attempting to out match the water. After a minute the water and fire turn down but then the birds begin to sing as if announcing my arrival. I wonder what the gods blessings gave me. I try to listen close and i can understand what the birds are singing. I dont know which bird it is but they all sing "The new king is born, glory be to the gods above."

Well at least I can speak to animals. The seer then walks over to a table picking up a cup and shaking it before dropping them on a small table. After some intense stares at the runes, The seer looks at my family and says a few words i still can't understand but my family all looks at me with the largest smile I have ever seen. Once finished my mother and father both hug the seer. My father reaches into a satchel pulling out a small bag which jingles with coins. Once everything had ended I started to feel drained falling asleep. The next day started much like any other with me being a baby. I sit in my crib playing with a ball and some mishaped blocks. I attempt to use my magic but unfortunately nothing happens.

This went on for 3 years, finally learning the language and his family's name. My father's name is Sigurd, my mothers name is Gertrude, my older brother by 6 years is Bjorn, my sister is Estrid, and everyone keeps calling me Erik. I still haven't heard of my last name i hope that it isnt something lame like from the books, but thinking logically my last name might just be Sigurdson because i am nordic. Every day I just play tag or hide and seek with my brother and sister. I watch my brother train with father always losing but making progress. I continued to try and train my magic but nothing seems to happen i hope that death didnt make a mistake. My strength and speed is still that of a child knowing I have a long time till I get my special abilities. After 6 years I started to help with chores and watch my brother train with father.

On my 9th birthday my dad gave me a wooden axe. Father then says "today is your 9th year so you will start to train as a warrior. This will be your axe, carry it with you always." I responded "Yes father." Dad continues "you will use a tree everyday slashing to practice. Your brother will spar with you and I will train you both. Every other day you will go to the seer and train to be a seer." I nod at him with the biggest smile on my face. I get to learn how to fight from a real viking and how to carve runes. I go over to the tree knowing this is the first of a thousand steps to strengthen myself. Dad made me train like this for what seemed like was forever. After a 4 hours dad yells "sons its time for a test spar. Now i dont want any strong blows Bjorn your brother is only 9. I just want you to show him some footwork."

Bjorn looks at dad saying "Yeah i know im not gonna hurt my little brother dad." I then look at dad saying "Yeah hes not going to burt me but i cant say the same for me hurting him." My dad laughed but i knew that i couldn't hurt my older brother. Bjorn starts by saying "When we fight we are normally in a shield wall, this mean that their is one man in front getting low and bending at the knees. While another man is behind supporting him with his body and his shield over top. When he push and break the shield wall you will need to know how to fight. The goal of the battle is to out strengthen your opponent then to out speed them. The axe that slices first wins."

Dad interrupts saying " You dont need to always be stronger just be more precise. If i cut your arm its harder to hold your weapon and shield." Bjorn replys "I was going to teach him that once he learns how to knock out a weapon from the enemys hand but do you want me to show him precision?" Dad answers "Yeah show him precision he is still to small to knock a weapon from a grown mans hand. Bjorn then turns to me saying "Okay get into a stands like me." He shows me a fighting stance with his legs bent at the knee and arms in front. Bjorn then says "pick up that shield over there" Pointing to one of the wooden shields sitting next to our cabin. I walk over and pick up the shield but as i do i hear a wooden sound from behind me. Rolling to the side i see my brothers training axe slide past my head.

My brother than yells "always be ready" I get into a stance and my brother responds "good now we spar." I block the blows with the shield but Bjorn doesnt give me a chance. I tried to push up against my brother with the shield to make him lose balance but of course I failed. He jumped to the side making me fall to the ground. My father laughs saying "Son your brother has more strength you have to be speed against a bigger opponent or make him miss step." My father and brother continued to train me. All day I failed to beat my brother in many different ways. After training my brother and father went inside our house, giving me a chance to practice some magic.

I walked into the forest outside the village to get some privacy. I took a seat attempting to feel the magic. Thinking of the spells in the book I attempted a simple spell moving my finger saying "Loomos" only for nothing to happen. After attempting multiple times I had a eureka moment. Many of the fanfics I read talked about imagination being a keey part in casting. Making a clear picture in my mind I opened my eyes to see my index finger shining. I then attempted a slashing curse moving my hand horizontally like a windslash from naruto. An invisible energy followed my hand cutting a tree in half. Like a child I jumped up and down in excitement. As I jumped i saw a pitch black raven watching me.

I looked at the raven attempting to speak to it and I said "hello." The raven tilted its head then said "you dont have to chirp I can speak norse." To my surprise when i was attempting to speak i subconsiouly started chirping at the bird. Luckily ravens are one of the species of animals who can learn human language. Switching back to norse I asked "How do you know norse?" The bird responded my name is Hugin the familiar of Odin. He has sent me to watch you. Lucky for you he gave you a blessing. Thats why you are in a norse village. Im not supposed to directly speak to you but you speaking to me isn't breaking any rules." I ask "Why does odin want to watch me?" Hugin responds "I can't answer that I am only a soldier following orders, but you peak my intrest. So i will give you this. Treat it well."

After hugin flys to the ground dropping an egg near my feet. I pick up the egg to ask another question only to notice Hugin is no longer around. Looking at the egg i felt a life inside. After picking up the egg i walked back to my house passing a couple neighbors saying "hello" as i responded in kind. Getting back to my house my mother walked up to me asking where I went. I told her "i went to the forest to train some more." i kept the egg a secret thinking they wouldnt believe me saying i meat a servant of the allfather. Mother responded "grab some food and go to bed tomorrow you have to see the seer. I did as she said walking into the kitchen grabbing a bowl of porridge and a slice of bread. Eating it at the large table in the middle of the hall. Once finished mom grabbed my plate and i went to my bed. Once in my bed I held the egg and once both of my hands were on the egg I could feel my magic being eaten. After a few minutes i was completely drained falling to sleep. The next day was seer training. After breakfast, I said goodbye to my family and walked out of the longhouse.

(AN: This is my first published Nobel feed back is appreciated and more chapters coming soon)