Fighting, Honour and Valhalla || Vikings x The Originals x TVD

Darkness Descends

A week after Thorfinn had failed to apprehend the stranger Kattegat had slowly succumbed into chaos. It started slowly, with more and more people being afflicted by this mysterious illness. All Thorfinn could do was to keep restraining them all while Kol tried to find a remedy to this illness, but he had not and things kept getting worse. Now poles and cages lined the street and courtyard as they struggled to restrain all those that were affected, those who weren't sick were either conscripted to help or confined to their homes.

Days seemed to be shorter and nights seemed to stretch forever, some of the men even whispered that the darkness from the forest had followed them back to Kattegat. Now on a night that was usually full of the sounds of laughter and feasting, there were only screams of panic and the sounds of a more ominous laughter.

"Get the buckets before the fire spreads!" A man yelled out as somebody's home was engulfed in flames. Thorfinn who had been helping hold down one of the afflicted looked over to see the house that had just exploded into flames. "Rollo!" Thorfinn shouted, getting the big man's attention.

Rollo had just lifted one of the afflicted up and slammed him into the ground before wrapping his arms and legs in rope. When Thorfinn called for him he looked up "Hold him down!" Thorfinn instructed him. The big man nodded and moved over to them pressing his knee into the afflicted man's centre, allowing Thorfinn and the other man restraining him to get up and go help with the fire. The afflicted one beneath him tried to struggle but stopped when Rollo brought a meaty fist down into his face breaking his nose. However the laughing didn't cease.

It never did.

Thorfinn rushed over to the flaming building covering his eyes at the brightness of it. "What happened!" He shouted to one of the others.

"We don't know it just happened!" He replied as he grabbed a bucket and threw it on the growing fire. Thorfinn wracked his mind as tried to think of a spell or enchantment that would let him put out the fire, with how quickly it was spreading it wouldn't be long before it reached the neighbouring building, and the water which they filled from the sea was too slow in quelling the flames. In the end, he didn't know one, he hadn't studied the whole book and only knew a dozen or so spells. He cursed at himself for this, he should've prepared more for events such as this.

In the end, Thorfinn only took a bucket and threw the water on the fire quelling it. "Who lives here?" Thorfinn shouted to Magni who was nearby.

"Hulda and her daughter!" He replied throwing more water onto the fire.

"Has anyone seen them?" Thorfinn asked only to be ignored as Magni ran back to the sea to get more water. Thorfinn covered his eyes as he moved closer to the fire, a shutter fell to the ground as the fire burnt and turned the hinges into ash, this allowed Thorfinn to see into the house. His eyes widened as he saw Hulda and her daughter, the former holding her daughter and rocking back and forth, except only one of them was crying.

The other was laughing.

Hulda held her daughter tightly as she giggled, her daughter struggled in her grasp and tried to move but she couldn't, her mother's grip was too tight. "They're still in there!" Thorfinn shouted to the others panicking them even further. He could see the fire in the house get closer to their bodies, it started to lick against the skin of Hulda, her feet were bare and they started to turn red and blister, but despite that, the laughter never ceased. Her daughter screamed and cried as she coughed trying to get out of her mother's grasp to escape.

"Someone help me!" Thorfinn shouted as he rushed forward to the house only to fall back as fire exploded out of the open window —having come into contact with some cooking lard.