Vidar the God of the Seas ~ Vikings

Burial of the Dead

Vidar

"You challenged the Earl?" Vidar asked Ragnar. "You are still too weak."

"Perhaps that makes us equal." Ragnar says.

They were talking outside Floki's hut. Thyri was with her brothers and was settling in nicely. "You shouldn't fight unless you know the odds are in your favor." Vidar tells him.

"That is easy for you to say, you are a God." He points out.

"And you are a wounded man who has been barely eating all winter. Meanwhile the Earl has experience and has been feasting the entire time." Vidar says.

"Our fates are already decided, remember?" Ragnar says.

Vidar sighs and rubs his hands over his face. "You could leave. Take your children and find a new place."

"This is my home, Vidar. I won't be known as a coward and a criminal." He then walks over and picks up his ax. "Now you can either stand there and keep talking, or you can help me train." He then picks up a shield.

Vidar glares at him then holds his hand out. His trident flies out of the water and into his hand. "Don't expect me to go easy on you."

Thyri

"Breath." Vidar said calmly. "Extend your hand out in front of you. Do you feel it?"

"Yes." Thyri said. "What is it?"

"That's your gift. Your Aesir blood coursing through your veins. Now pull your hand back, think of something powerful in your mind. A time where you felt happy or sad. Where you felt safest of the most terror in your life. Then push." Vidar spoke.

Thyri did so. She thought of the raid on the farm and how scared Jareth looked, about how Hakon cried that blood curdling cry, and how vulnerable Skadi was. She grits her teeth in anger and pushes her hand out towards the water. A straight line of spikes made of ice shot through the water and went into a tree on the other side of the stream.

She fell to her knee, out of breath. Vidar walked over and sat next to her. "Not bad."

"It... didn't feel like that before." She says sitting down.

"It's because you're not high on adrenaline." Vidar explains. "Before you made those sculptures, you were happy and having fun, so the sculptures were pretty small." He looked at her and pulled out a rag to wipe her sweaty forehead. "What did you think about?"

Thyri looked down. "The raid." She answered.

Vidar sighed and put an arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help."

Thyri leaned her head against her father's shoulder. "It's not your fault."

They sat in a comfortable silence and watched the ice glisten in the sunlight. "You know Ragnar is going to kill your father."

"He's not my father." Thyri said.

Vidar smiled and kissed her forehead. "Even still, he raised you."

"He also tried to marry me to Bjarni." Thyri pointed out. "I've known you for less than a year and you've been more of a father to me than he has."

Vidar was silent for a moment before letting out a deep breath. "I don't want you to be at the duel. You can come with us, but you will stay at Erik's home with your brothers."

Thyri wanted to argue but just nodded her head in agreement. "Fine."