Lagertha the Shieldmaiden

Walk on the Wild Side

Everyone's attention belonged to sixteen year old Lagertha and Floki, all the boys figured that a fight between a lanky boy who's not that good at handling a sword and a notorious gifted girl would be quite interesting.

"Fight! Fight! Fight" They all chanted with their fists up in the air thirsty for action. Floki tried to attack first but Lagertha dodged his sword effortlessly, it came out so natural Rollo's mouth dropped by astonishment.

Now it was her time to attack.
'Go big or go home' in less than fifteen seconds she already had Floki painfully laying on the ground with her sword pointing right at his throat. He was embarrassed.

A woman beat him in a battlefield.
The boys were impressed by Lagertha's way of taking him down in a matter of seconds.

"Told you I'm not just a woman, I'm a force of nature" She removed her sword from Floki's throat and offered him a hand to help him stand up. He declined the young shieldmaiden's offer rudely and stood up on his own. He rolled his eyes and left.

"Heard you are going South" She said trying to break the awkward silence.

"That's right, we are" Said the buff redhead next to Rollo. "A couple of bastards owe Earl Doyle big time and he demanded that they should be taken as slaves"

The unfortunate situation reminded Lagertha of her very own a couple of years ago, she tried to pull a poker face and not show how the memory of it all really affected her. How her father was taken away with such hostility and how her mother never made it to aunt Olgä's village. She accepted the fact that she would probably never see them again and tried to live with it. After all there were no options, nothing to be done besides living with it.

"Can I go?" She asked.

"Come on, you'll be nothing more but a pain in the arse" Rollo commented, not with the intention of humiliating her but with the intention to protect Lagertha from such a hostile duty.

"Not as a 'pain the arse' or 'luggage' but as a shieldmaiden" She said with a serious tone looking at Rollo with anger.

"We don't need girls" One of the guys from the back commented and Rollo nodded.

"Haven't I proved throughout the years that I can do the same that you do in a battlefield?" She continued "For Odin, Brynjar I taught you how to hold a sword. Asger I taught you how to move properly during battle and how to hunt a bear on your own. Rollo I could take you down if I wanted to and you know it. Am I still not qualified to show what I'm made of because I'm a woman?"

They all remained in silence since they really had no arguments against her besides her gender. She truly had skills.

"You go there and don't give us trouble, no one is going to look after you in that field" Rollo finally spoke up. "Don't let us down"

"I won't" She promised with a beautiful smile on her face determined to fulfill the quest and overall show off that she's not useless.

She ran home, trained herself non-stop for hours in the backyard and rested properly later on for their quest was early the next morning.