Don't Wait For The Gods To Be Ready ~ An Athelnar One Shot

Don't Wait For The Gods To Be Ready

Ragnar's PoV

Ragnar awoke with a deep gasp, which was funny considering he was pretty certain he was more than dead and thus, technically didn't need air. There was no way all the poison from the numerous snake bites hadn't given him the rest, not that he hadn't been already severely been wounded and on the brink of death from all the torture before.

Slowly, Ragnar squinted his eyes, taking in his surroundings. He was in a vast space of nothing, just light fog and pitch black surrounding him, as far as his eyes would go.

Carefully, Ragnar sat up and he was a little surprised as he felt no pain. Looking down at his body and touching his face with his hands, Ragnar took notice of the fact that all his wounds were gone. Wounds that clearly should have been there. Not that he was complaining though.

So, he either was at the brink of death caught in a fever dream or he had actually died which would bring him to the inevitable question of ... what now?

What was one supposed to do once he had crossed the line between life and death?

Obviously, the Valkyries hadn't shown up to take him to Valhalla like they were supposed to or maybe they were just taking their sweet time to do so or maybe he got denied entrance since he technically didn't die in battle ... or maybe this was Helheim and he had been sent here as punishment for daring to question the existence of his gods.

Whatever the case, currently he was just sitting stupidly in the middle of the vast nothing, not really knowing what to do.

Slowly, Ragnar stood up, slowly turning around himself as he again tried to see something but besides fog and darkness, there was still nothing.

Great, obviously being dead fucking sucked.

Ragnar rolled his eyes as he simply continued to stand in his spot, waiting for something to happen.

Still nothing.

Ragnar started to get slightly annoyed, almost getting a heart attack and dying a second time as then suddenly out of nowhere a crow came flying out of the pitch-black vastness in a nosedive, landing directly in front of him.

The crow crooked its head to the side, looking at Ragnar from its pitch-black eyes before it shortly crowed once.

Ragnar just stood there, stupidly blinking at the crow.

Then, his dead brain finally clicked after the initial shock and with his next exhale, he breathed out one word.

'Odin.'

It was almost like he had broken some kind of invisible spell with that one word because suddenly the sounds of hundreds of crows filled the vast space, almost being too loud, not that he could see any of these crows in the pitch-black - well apart from the one right in front of him of course - but he could clearly hear them.

Then the darkness in front of him cleared slightly and Ragnar could see the silhouette of a middle-aged one-eyed figure stepping slowly towards him.

'Odin.', Ragnar said once again and the one-eyed figure nodded in confirmation.

'Ragnar Lothbrok.'

Odin's voice seemed to come from everywhere around him in the vast space as he started to speak.

'I apologize for the wait but it took some time to inform all your sons about your death.'

Ragnar simply nodded because what was he supposed to say really?

'I have come to take you to Valhalla. Even though you did not die in battle, you're a Viking I wish to have in Valhalla, to fight with us once the time for Ragnarok arrives.'