𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄, vikings

𝟒. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒; 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦
(𝗌𝖾𝖺𝗌𝗈𝗇 𝗂𝗏, 𝖾𝗉 𝗑𝗑 - '𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗋𝖾𝖼𝗄𝗈𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀')

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐍𝐀𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 couldn't have been more successful. The Saxons got so scared they abandoned their homes and fled to save their lives leaving King Ecbert and a priest behind. So now not only had the Vikings now taken over a castle, but they also had Ecbert as their hostage. Even better than what Ragnar had asked for. Sigyn stood outside talking with Hvitserk and a couple of other warriors while the others were exploring the place and taking for themselves any valuable thing they could find. The bliss of their victory seemed to hang above every single above every proud warrior. Nothing could ruin that, Sigyn thought. And she thought too soon.

Floki emerged from the smoke that surrounded the castle, a lost look in his eyes as he carried in his arms the lifeless body of his wife. Sigyn froze when she recognized the orange dress of the woman her father was carrying. It couldn't be. The gods had no business being this cruel. Sigyn didn't know whether to be furious or heartbroken.

"No." Sigyn's actions happened before her mind had time to think, in seconds she was by Floki's side looking at the lifeless body of the person she loved the most. "Mother." she called hoping it would make the woman open her eyes. "No, no, no, no! Mother, wake up!" the tears fell down her blood-stained face as she screamed in denial, Sigyn was a complete mess at that moment and she felt like one too. "What happened?" the heartbroken daughter asked her father who was feeling no better. "Who did this to her? I will kill them. I will make them pay!"

Floki the Boatbuilder, for once in his life, was at a loss of words. All he did was look forward, an empty gaze in his eyes. Perhaps it was the shock of losing the love of his life, but he could barely hear his daughter swearing to burn the entire earth if it meant avenging her mother and Hvitserk trying to calm her down. Sigyn was out of control. She wasn't violent, but right there and then she would brutally destroy whoever was responsible for taking her mother's life. Eventually, Floki started to walk again. Small steps towards an already dug grave. As he did so, Sigyn stopped her raged promises and wasted no time in following after her father.

The time the two spent preparing everything Helga needed to be buried with, was the most excruciating hours of the father and daughter's lives. Helga brought light to their world, she believed in both of them even when they themselves couldn't. What were they supposed to do now that their light was gone?

"When Balder, Odin's beloved son, died, not only did people weep." said the boatbuilder as he gently placed around his wife's corpse the golden bracelet his daughter handed him. "But fire wept." he put one of Helga's necklaces around her neck and took a deep breath. "And iron and all the other metals wept." Floki took the iron knife Sigyn handed to him and placed it close to the comb that laid next to their lifeless beloved. "The stones wept. Earth wept." a rock was the last item the husband placed on his wife's body.

Sigyn Flokisdottir had never seen her father so broken, and, somehow, the way he talked to the lifeless version of their Helga only made the pain she was feeling grow. It wasn't fair that they had to go through the loss of the most important person in their lives. Even though, Sigyn believed in Valhalla it seemed like too much time apart from her mother. And she didn't want that. The stupid girl still hoped for happy endings, or maybe a happier life.

Poor Sigyn, so full of hope and not a single clue of the amount of death still ahead of her.

"Farewell, voyager." a lonely tear fled from Floki's eyes as he prepared himself to never see his wife's face again. Well, at least not until they found each other in Valhalla. "Farewell, my heart, farewell..." his tears just wouldn't stop falling now, and Sigyn wasn't in a different situation. "For now."

So the family, which was now reduced to two individuals, wept. Each in their own space. Now that the glue that kept them together was gone the distance that always seemed to exist between the father and daughter grew to the size of the ocean. And as they covered the grave this distance seemed to grow even more, as if every bit of earth being put down with the shovel was a piece of their souls that was breaking.

"She wanted me to tell you she loved you with all her heart." Floki told his daughter in a quiet voice. "She's meeting Angrboda now. She is happy." his eyes were focused on the grave, but Sigyn wished he was looking at her to tell her that the two of them would be alright. But that would be a lie. That was just Sigyn's first heartbreak from the many come.

Nothing would be alright.

↳ A/N
rip helga 💔😭🤧