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Skaldi woke to birds chirping and the sun's bright light in her blue eyes. She groaned as she covered her eyes and attempted to hide under the cloak that Sihtric had lent her. She would take it to her grave but she had used the cloak to find sleep, a peaceful one for once, she had liked the smell of the fabric and wondered if he often went around with the scent of lavender and mint clinging to his skin.
Skaldi blushed and quickly shook the thought from her mind. She shouldn't be thinking in such a way of the man who saved her, though she felt like she had an excuse. She had been her mind prisoner for ten years, if she wanted to linger her gaze on Sihtric, she would happily do so. Skaldi reluctantly crawled out from under the warm cloak and hesitated on leaving, Bloodhair was not in the tent, and after a brief look outside she noticed Sihtric nor Skade was near.
She chewed on her thumb anxiously, she was never one to socialize and she hated not knowing her whereabouts. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, she fisted the tent flap and walked out before she could talk herself out of it.
Unfortunately, she managed to run into three men. Of course, she had the worst luck. One of the men grabbed her wrist roughly and jerked her around with a snarl, the other two followed like little lambs.
"You are not Skade." She sent him an annoyed look and clicked her tongue as he gripped her wrist tightly. It would leave a bruise no doubt.
"Oh, what gave it away? The lack of tattoos or the fact your cock hasn't been cut from your body?" She deadpanned and hissed in pain when he attempted to shatter her bones, the other two men crowded her between them to avoid her escaping. She was not in the mood to deal with three disgusting pig-fucking freaks.
"I quite like her, she looks innocent. We should hump her first, Skade would never look our way." One of them behind her spoke with a smile, she grimaced at his missing teeth and dirty teeth. She felt the silent one place his hand on her back as he slid it lower and sniffed her hair.
What the fuck.
"No, you will not. Sihtric will kill you." She spoke with confidence. She almost hoped they would try something so she could feign fear and have Sihtric comfort her. Maybe she wasn't so different from her sister after all. The Danes chuckled at her claim and moved in closer, she leaned away from the ginger-haired man. He was far older than her father was and he was balding, she almost felt bad for how ugly he was.
"And where is he? Hmm? Where is your Dane in shining armor? No one will save you, whore. The best thing you can do is spread your legs." Skaldi hummed for a moment and shook her head.
"No." She said simply which angered the men, apparently a woman saying no hurt their fragile egos. When the ginger jerked her to his chest she glanced at her free hand, she looked at the bandage and noticed fresh blood was seeping through. She must have torn the stitches in the process, the Dane held a dagger by her cheek as he softly dragged it down her unblemished skin. She narrowed her eyes at his audacity and wondered how far he was willing to take it.
"We should hump Skade next, put the witch in her place." The silent one spoke with mockery and that was her final straw. No one spoke ill of her sister.
She allowed a tint of red to glaze her eyes as she slammed her wounded hand on the blade of the dagger and in his shock she stabbed the crimson-covered blade into his eye. She ripped the dagger from both his eye and her palm and used it to slash the silent one's throat. The third Dane tried to escape but with her anger, she guided the blade toward him, she aimed it and threw it. She was proud that her skills had not faltered.
It was a bullseye.
After the adrenaline died off she immediately gagged.
"It is in my mouth. Oh my Freya, his blood is in.." She trailed off by gagging, she coughed as she frantically tried to spit out the blood. She had managed to smear the blood across her face and she made the mistake of using her hand to wipe her mouth and only managed to smear her blood across her lips.
She vomited immediately after.
"Skaldi?" She turned when she heard Sihtric. Now, she was truthfully panicking about the blood she had ingested and was beyond disgusted. Was she scared though? Not at all. But did that stop her from breaking out into tears to pretend she was? Nope. Sihtric ran to her side as he used his tattooed fingers to guide her face up to check for any injuries, the amount of blood on her was concerning. His eyes trailed behind her where three bodies lay, bleeding into the soil, he looked at her with an unreadable expression that had her adding a little more dramatics.
"They wanted to touch me, Sihtric. They wanted...they—" She was cut off by her hysterical cries as he slid his arm around her lower back and pulled her into his armored chest. Gods, he did smell like fresh lavender and mint leaves. She curled into him as he held her tightly, she hid her smile in the crevices of the metal.
"Shh, you are safe now. I am sorry, my fated one. I failed to protect you." Sihtric whispered into her blond hair as he kissed the side of her head. She frowned deeply at his confession, no, he wasn't supposed to feel guilty. That's not what she wanted at all. She pulled away with great difficulty, she wanted to stay in his arms forever and looked up at his beautiful eyes that held remorse.
"No, this is not your fault. You found me, you are comforting me. That is all I ask." She declared with a small smile, her smile tightened into a thin line when she remembered the blood settling in her stomach. "I swallowed his blood." She spoke as she nearly gagged at the thought, Sihtric sighed fondly as he walked her back to Bloodhair's tent. Just as he removed his arm, she conveniently winced to gain his attention, she may have forgotten about the hole in her palm.
And just like that, his attention was back on her.
"Shit." He muttered as he guided her to the bed, she bit her lip when he crouched in front of her and gently unwrapped the bandages. He looked a little too fine doing absolutely nothing, how could he be so effortlessly beautiful? "I am no healer, unfortunately. That was always our monks' position in the group," He trailed off as he looked at the self-inflicted wound intensely. "Are you in pain?" He whispered so softly she nearly misheard him. She furrowed her brows as she thought about it, no, surprisingly enough.
"Not at this moment, I think my body is still in fight mode." She spoke and she laughed when he shook his head, he sent her an amused smile and it was breathtaking. She shivered when his hands cradled her injured one, her smaller hand was dwarfed by his. It shouldn't have sent a sudden rush of warmth through her body.
She never experienced the hormonal phase growing up, Sihtric single-handedly jump-started that chemical reaction by merely existing it would seem. She inhaled sharply when he raised her hand and placed her fingertips to his lips, she felt his lips graze her skin like kisses from butterflies, before suddenly standing. She was about to voice her complaints when he guided her hand to her lap, and as if he had heard her, Skade marched in with a look of murder in her eyes. She had two daggers in her hands and it didn't escape Skaldi that they were dripping red.
"Skaldi, what happened?" Skade questioned with poorly concealed rage. Though she had just killed Bloodhair, Skade was beyond livid to hear of men attacking her sister. She managed to make a paste to stop the infection and to clot the blood flow, Skaldi winced at the sting when Skade stuffed it into the hole.
Skaldi bit her lip until it bled, it felt like her flesh was being burned from the bone. Sihtric leaned over as he used his thumb to glide across her bottom lip, upon feeling the ghost of his touch she released the abused flesh. She looked up into his mismatched eyes and noticed they had clouded over for a moment, she had never witnessed them change into a deeper color before.
Her hands ached to paint them, to make a newer rendition of the deep and rich color they had darkened into. She felt her fingers spasm at the sudden urge, she wanted to make art of any kind to worship this beautiful specimen currently tracing the seam of her lips to soothe the teeth indentations.
