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.・。.・゜✭✫・゜・。.
"Ragni!"
Thump.
"Ragni!"
A ragged breath escaped the lips of Ragni, the deflating of her lungs leaving the Dane to gasp in a desperate need for the air around her. Quick to catch her breath, she searched the darkness of her shared grubehus. The fire that had been previously lit now but embers and ash, leaving the bitter chill of the land beyond to slip through cracks and unpatched holes.
The previous calling of her name left her to rise from the small cot she laid upon, her hands frantically moving through the furs beside her in search of the young girl that drifted to sleep hours prior. "Ulfhild." She called into the darkness, her voice straining with wry.
Slipping out from beneath the furs of the cot, Ragni took to searching the room using the sinister little holes in the thatch roof for light. Slivers of moonlight illuminating the tiny hovel, specks in the lightless room, offering but the smallest glimpses across the wooden furniture, and trinkets. "Ulfhild." She called once more, slowly stalking across the dirt floor.
Then she heard it. The subtle hum, the whimsical tune slipping from beneath the door to waltz through the room. A tune that left Ragni running through the room, narrowing avoiding the humble furniture that laid scattered across the floor.
Slinging open the door of the grubehus Ragni bit back a gasp, the chill of West Mercia's harsh winter season coiling itself around Ragni, scales of ice nipping at her bare feet and face. Biting back her loathe for the snow that covered the ground, she took to following the hummed tune.
Only stopping when her eyes landed on a small figure, bare of both clothes and metal sat Ulhild in a heap of snow. Her body slouched close to the earth, her lips parted with an ever-growing hum. Words left the child's lips, incoherent and gargled between the hums. "Ulfhild, we must-." The words tumbled from Ragni's mouth as she gained ground, only to stop short with further inspection.
Before the child crimson droplets dirtied the pale earth, tainting the snow Ullr threw upon the land. "Hild," Ragni whispered, dropping before the girl, her hands moving to capture her wrists. Blood streamed down her fingers, seeping from the center of her right palm.
Ulfhild did not speak, did not move. Frozen, trapped in the trance of her father's making. Carefully picking up the girl, Ragni began to make her way back toward their shared home. "It's okay." She murmured, watching as Ulfhild's head rolled against Ragni's chest, eyes of brown rolled back in her skull.
Upon entering the home, Ragni placed the girl back upon the cot, working quickly to cover her with the several furs that had been thrown earlier. "It's okay." Ragni repeated, moving frantically throughout the home collecting both herbs and cloth.
.・。.・゜✭✫・゜・。.
Throughout the night Ragni sat stoned beside Ulfhild, bouncing her attention between her bandaged hand and the fire that roared in the fireplace. There was nothing more Ragni could do, not now. These fits came and went like the seasons, leaving Ulfhild with wry and lucid dreams.
'Words of my father, visions' Ulfhild had told Ragni a winter prior, when the girl was adopted into her company. Two winters since Ragni departed from her family home, watched it razed and burned. She had witnessed the death of her older brother, and father then.
Two winters since her name was tarnished, and she had yet to find the killer of her kin. It was her reason to live, the very hatred in her soul pushing her to survive. And then, it was Ulfhild, the girl finding Ragni in the forest of West Mercia, shouting at the gods in rage and fear.
Ulfhild saved her, and for that Ragni would not waver from her side, bound by fate, entwined through the will of the gods. 'Father lead me to you' Ulfhild said that first week they were together, when Ragni tried every effort to leave the younger girl behind. And now, here Ragni sat staring at the girl with wry pinching and twisting at her heart. The cut on her hand was not deep, a scar would be left behind, but nothing more.
But the cold, Ullr's kiss is what worried Ragni. Could recall babes losing their lives to the winters of Danmǫrk, and children losing digits. Ulfhild could lose both, perhaps the latter more so.
"Father spoke to me," Ulfhild whispered, pulling Ragni from her worries. "We are to leave Mercia, must leave." She added, reaching out to capture Ragni's hand.
Ragni took the girl's hand, fingers giving the unwounded appendage a tender squeeze. "Are you cold?" She whispered, dismissing her words. Loki's rambling could be discussed later, right now Ulfhild was the priority, not the snake god.
Ulfhild shook her head, causing strands of damp brown to flutter across her reddened cheeks. "We must go to Northumbria," she whispered, searching Ragni's blue eyes with intensity. "Tomorrow, yes?" She added, squeezing Ragni's hand a bit harder than before.
"It is the beginning of the season, food is scarce, and it's bound to get colder. We will leave when the ground thaws." Ragni instructed, trying her damndest to dismiss the eerie pull of Ulfhild's stare.
"We cannot." Ulfhild whispered, squeezing Ragni's hand a smudge harder. For such a young girl Ragni could admit she had strength, one that surprised even Ragni in moments.
A moment such as this.
"And if we do not?"
Ulfhild looked away from Ragni, releasing her protector from the intensity of her focus. "You'll die."
.・。.・゜✭✫・゜・。.
INDEX
Danelagen ➳ (English; Danelaw) Danelaw is found in one of the most important sources, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. The term essentially refers to the areas under Danish laws and customs, later expanding in understanding to mean the geographical boundaries designated by the agreement. The Danelaw was at its pinnacle an all-encompassing territory which spread from London to East Anglia, through the Midlands and up to the north of England.
Grubehus/'Pit-House' ➳ A 'grubehus' is a smallish building, partially dug into the ground, frequently equipped with a fireplace. These type of building has been found from the iron age up until the early middle ages.
Ullr ➳ (pronounced Oool-er)God of Snow, Patron Saint of Skiers, the son of Sif and stepson of Thor, the God of Thunder.
