𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐃 | Ragnar Lothbrok ¹

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

GOD OF MISCHIEF

IT HAS BEEN a week since the Vikings went on the raid that King Ragnar had told Sophie about and nothing much happened ever since.

She heard that they were planning on raiding Paris whom a priest from Wessex had told King Ragnar about. She had never got the chance to meet that famous priest she had been hearing about yet, and she hoped she would once they're back if they ever made it back as she knew how strong the Franks were from the few months she had spent there with them.

The days were getting boring following a slow routine as winter had begun and Sophie spent most of her days helping Helen out when she had no tasks herself. She would remember King Ragnar's request every time she saw Aslaug who seemed rather bored with her life too with nothing interesting to do that would catch Sophie's attention until one day a man appeared out of nowhere and as Helen had told Sophie he was known by the name of Harbard and it wasn't the first time he came to Kattegat.

That Harbard was the reason behind the disrupted relationship between the Queen and her husband as Helen had told Sophie. He was rumored to be a God, some even say he is Loki as he tricked Queen Aslaug into laying with him more than once about sixteen years ago which King Ragnar had eventually known of, and got angry with her, and ever since they had a really rough relationship. It all made sense to Sophie now as she always had wondered why the King and the Queen seemed so distant.

Sophie found herself on multiple occasions spying on the Queen and her mysterious lover as they sneaked away. She told herself she wasn't doing it for King Ragnar but deep down it felt like she was.

"What do you think you're doing?" an unfamiliar voice startled her as she tried to move away from where she was spying on the Queen only to find Ivar the Boneless behind her. She wasn't sure how she did not hear him approach but perhaps it was because he was crawling.

"Oh yeah, right you don't speak our language," Ivar said sarcastically as he raised himself to sit beside her. "Or perhaps pretend like you don't, but I know that you do."

Sophie was indeed pretending she didn't understand almost every time someone spoke to her, it made everything easier but Ivar wasn't someone you could trick. Just like his father, he sees through people.

"I think my father still keeps you because he's interested in you, but I'm not sure how long that would last," he said with a sly smile but Sophie refused to reply.

She just listened as she maintained a poker face. She had been warned by Helen not to get near any of the Lothbrok brothers especially Ivar who had quite the temper but now that he had caught her spying on his mother she wasn't sure what was going to happen.

"You can remain silent as long as you listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you," he hissed. "I know what my father had asked of you and I know that you are doing exactly what he wanted you to do."

Sophie felt the air get sucked as her heart started racing. There was no way he would've heard what King Ragnar had told her, they spoke her language, not theirs. "So hear me carefully, you don't say a word about Harbard, cause if you do," he paused and before she could register it, he had a knife pressed to her throat. "I'll kill you."

The last sentence was in English which made Sophie's heart skip a beat. She told herself repeatedly that it wasn't possible but if Ragnar spoke her language she thought maybe so did his sons. And when Ivar seemed satisfied with the fear he had instilled in her he pulled the knife away before using his crutch this time to walk rather than crawl.

Sophie barely slept that night as the words of Ivar hunted her. She wasn't really spying on his mother for Ragnar at least that's what she kept telling herself. She even thought of asking Torvi to teach her how to fight, as she was friendly to her, but she knew she wouldn't do that, or maybe she should give it a try.

The next day Sophie made sure to sneak away in her free time to find Torvi who surprisingly agreed to help her.

So every day she would practice for an hour after she had finished all her chores and duties so that no one would complain and after practice, she would sleep straight till the morning as exhaustion would take a toll on her.

Torvi was a good teacher and Sophie was a fast learner, and she was satisfied with the new skills she was acquiring.

Helen at the same time was still teaching her the Northern language every morning which she was considerably good at now as she could formulate complete sentences.

This didn't go unnoticed by Aslaug who one day approached Sophie. "I've heard you've been learning how to fight," she told her causing Sophie to nod her head in agreement. "I see that you've started to understand our language."

"Yes," Sophie said. She wasn't playing the 'I don't understand you' game anymore.

"That's great," Queen Aslaug said. "I'm glad that you're learning how to fight."

Sophie was expecting her to be angry at the fact that she had asked Torvi to teach her without permission and was shocked when she figured that she was not. "Really?" Sophie asked with confusion.

"Yes, every woman should learn how to fight," Aslaug told her.

That's what Sophie had been thinking all the time along. She constantly had felt the need for protection whether it was from the men that stole some dirty glances towards her, the Lothbrok brothers who wanted to bed her so badly, Ivar who keeps threatening her with his glares, or King Ragnar himself as she could never read what's going in his mind.

But perhaps the Queen didn't need to know of whom Sophie considers as a threat knowing that her sons came before anyone, especially her beloved Ivar.

Nothing threatening had ever come from the Queen as she seemed so friendly towards Sophie to an extent that Sophie wondered if she was her favorite servant. She always found a smile for her whenever she saw her. So thinking of it, she really didn't care whether she sleeps with that man or not, she didn't want to be on her bad side or worse on Ivar's for the sake of King Ragnar. He'll have to do his dirty work on his own.