I Will Follow You Into The Dark~ On Hold

Chapter 22

It was a lovely day for a ride. Thor, at some point during the feast the night before, had been told that the Warrior of Three and Lady Sif were in one of the nearby villages and had hoped to join them. When he raised the topic, Lilja was quick to agree to it, but Loki took a little more to convince. It was easy once Thor reminded Loki how much Fandral tried to flirt with her; Loki long out of the room and was catching up to Sigyn who had already left, dressed in leather riding pants and a deep green tunic with a corset over the top.

Loki had asked if Lilja was ever going to go back to the name Sigyn. Lilja had thought about it, it had been her chosen name, Freyja had told her that Sigrún and Freyr had spent months thinking of a name and they chose Sigyn because of its meanings; 'victory' and 'friend'. A friend's victory, Sigrún had told Freyja that Sigyn would be a fine warrior and would help in many battles; so, the name was perfect. But Lilja had spent so many years as Lilja; she felt as if the name Sigyn was strange, alien-like to her now.

Sighing, she sat upon her horse, a beautiful white mare, one that had been bred with the stallion Loki rode upon. Their gorgeous foal was back at the stables, being cooed over by Tony who fell in love with the animal. Something about the marking on its forehead caught Tony's attention. Lilja knew it was the fact that Tony had always wanted to be a father, a better one than his own. Lilja looked out in front of her, Thor was leading the group with Loki by his side, as expected of the princes. No matter if it was a ride for leisure, a hunting party or as a group of warriors heading into battle; the princes always led the brigade. Freyja and Natasha were having fun seeing things in the marketplace, so Lilja was the only one with the boys; but even though there were only three of them; she felt alone and outcasted. She had never been allowed to accompany the princes on rides before, having been one of the Allmother Tjeners. The Allmother would have her wait for the princes and their friends, in case any of them needed healing; but besides that, never had anything much to do with them; so, she had no idea of what to expect.

Lagging behind Lilja watched as the scenery changed. Tents that held wonderous trinkets and food slowly disappeared as trees and forestland took over. It was a stretch of woods for what felt like an hour until they finally hit paved path; leading up to a village. There were houses lining the entry to the village, one of the few that Thor said the Warriors of Three could possibly be at, drinking to their recent success. She was starting to regret coming on this ride, especially with how many maidens made lovey dovey eyes at the brothers. Trying to ignore the sensation of jealousy, she occupied her time with stroking the mane of her horse and watching as the village came into view. Unknown to her, a certain prince was reading every thought that was running through her head and wondered how he was going to get her to realise that she was not a Tjener, not at heart or birthright.

The sounds of horns blaring caused all three of the horses to rear up and throw their riders off, scampering back into the woods, probably heading back to the palace. Lilja groaned as she landed on the ground, sprawled as the wind was knocked out of her. Groaning she sat up and watched as houses started to burn and villagers ran screaming for their lives.

One of the bandits launched at her, swaying the blade around, barely dogging her own swings. Her daggers repeatedly sliced him on the arms and side, counteracting any promising hits from the sword. Slamming the handle of her dagger into the side of his head, Lilja used the second one to stab the arm that wasn't holding the knife to the ground and proceeded to twist his sword holding arm backwards, causing him to drop the blade.

Backing away, still holding his arm proved to be a mistake as he kicked her second dagger to join his sword and swapped a smaller sword; more of a knife to his free hand. Grabbing his hand, she twisted herself underneath his arm, and pulled the arm with her, so he was straggling himself. The horned alien growled in frustration and grabbed onto her hair; his thoughts on how beautiful the colour was loud enough for Lilja to hear; she knew it was confusing him.