Viking With A Heart

Chapter 10 (Reworked)

Asher's POV:

As people are taking things to the ships, I notice my friends leaning on the side of the pen; so I walk over to them. Right as I get there, they all look at me then back in at the girls. I notice their eyes on the area where my future bride is and start to feel uncomfortable with how they are staring in that direction. She had just got to the group that I would assume are her friends. She stands up and starts to speak to the group of girls and young women and they listen. So I decided to speak up and ask, "What are you three staring at?"

Langley was the first to speak, "I claimed my lady today, she is in the blue night dress with dark brown almost black hair. She got in between me and the girl who is clinging closely to her so I would think she means something to her. So she shall be our house help and if she is so important to my lady then I shall keep her alive and safe." I look over and I see the girls he is talking about sitting a girl away from my bride, and nod.

"I claimed mine too, she has the curly short black hair in the tan night dress." Calder spoke up smirking while looking at his, so I look over to her as well. She is sitting next to the girls Langley spoke of.

Maddox was quiet and just nodded his head toward the one sitting on the other side of my bride then spoke, "The girl opposite of Lang's, next to the girl in the red night dress." I spoke, "The long black hair in the green night dress?" He nodded and smiled then spoke again, "Yeah, she's mine. What about you Asher?"

"The wavy brown hair in the red night dress, that one is mine." I look over to my friends smiling then back over to my bride to see she is putting that paste she made on the necks of the other girls who have been marked and cutting a piece of cloth and putting it over the paste then someone puts the paste on her. I look over to the guys, "What do you think she is doing?" They all just shrug and keep watching what is going on. I see her pull out a block of cheese, a loaf of bread, and a log of dried meat. Maddox looks over at me and smirks.

"You couldn't resist giving her food, could you?" he speaks up. I just shake my head and respond by saying, "She took what we didn't want." So he just nodded and we watched the scene again. As we watched I saw her then get up and have all the food in her arms and walk around to each group breaking off pieces for each girl then went to walking back towards her group. But as she was turning she saw us looking in their direction and caught my eye. She looked away and down sitting with her friends and they started talking while she was barely eating and this was concerning me. She looked up and noticed one of the girls no longer eating so she took her food over to the girl who couldn't be more than fourteen, and as she turn around she caught my eye again. I am just trying to figure her out. She looks down yet again and heads to her friends. Is she scared of me? Does she think I will cause her pain like who ever did that to her face? So many things are going through my head. I just want her to love me and love her back and show her that we are going to be okay. I am snapped out of my train of thought when Calder speaks.

"What do you think they are talking about?"

Langley shrugs, while Maddox speaks up, "I don't really know, but how are we going to over come and learn what they are talking about?"

I look to them, "Ey, don't start thinking negative about it, our parents over came the talking barriers and now they have us, as well as other kids, besides Maddox's family."

"That's true, we will learn to communicate with them, they just have to accept us first." Langley says with a hopeful but determined look in his eyes.

An idea came to my head, and I want to show my bride and my friends brides that we mean them no harm. But to do that I think we need to start this over again; by that I mean give their families proper send offs. So I tell the guys, "Why don't we give their deceased families a proper goodbye before we leave in the morning?"

Maddox looks confused for a second, "What do you mean? We don't know anything about their customs, would we burn them like we do our own or what? Besides you would need to talk to your father."

I look at him and shake my head. "I know about their customs, my mother was taken from one of these lands by my father, unlike the rest of yours. And don't worry about my father, he will be more than pleased to do this because we found our brides as long as all our fathers probably attend to see who we all chose. But if you will feel better I will go and ask."

I walk around for a while searching then find my father by the docks. As I am approaching him he turns to look at me smiling. "Asher, my son, it seems to be another successful pillage for our tribe. We may have lost a few men, but I can also see that some others have claimed brides for themselves, or the slave for the way back." I just nod to him as he continues, "So tell me did you happen to find a girl, I was hoping this would finally be the spot you would, if not then maybe the next one." I look behind me towards the pin smiling, then back to my father and nod. "That's good my boy, I can't wait to see her."

"That's the thing father, I would like to request to restart on another foot with my intended, and give her family a funeral since they are dead with the rest of the village."

"You know we don't do that my son. She will warm up to you eventually, give her what she needs and she will."

"But father, her mother was killed in front of her eyes, then I marked her as she watched her mother die. I want to make it better, please. Just let Maddox, Langley, Calder, and I do this for them. You and their fathers can be there if you so wish, but mother has told me how they would honor their dead and I want to do that for her. Please."

"Fine, but I as well as the other fathers will be there."

I smiled at at him nodding my head, "Agreed." Then ran back off to my friends to tell them we needed to start making wooden pallets for the bodies.