She is the god's fae, condemned to look upon the Viking King Ragnar in silence and watch him as he killed, loved and lost and fall in deep love with him in the process.
Then one day on the cold hill's side, Ragnar battle worn and asking for death t...
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The pair were giddy with excitement as the women dragged her partner further into the forest, away from the prying eyes of family and friends. The young women never thought she would have him so close to her, never expected to feel the warm touch of his hands on her neck or trailing through her ginger hair.
She was only young, only out of childhood when she realised what Bjorn Ironside could offer her. And when he gave it to her, a palpitating heart couldn't let her say no.
It was a game of chase and Bjorn laughed at the child like nature of it. It amused him for a minute but then they reached a stream and the moment he saw the clearing his mind changed. His love for the women morphed into pure lust.
He grabbed her by the waist as he kicked the water below him and pulled her up. The beautiful girl howled with laughter and playfully beat his arm as he kissed her neck. If she was standing, her knees would have given way. But they weren't, the fairy like virgin was in the clasps of the Viking, the only place she wanted to be.
Bjorn didn't know if he loved the girl but she made him feel like a warrior, she drove him to fight for what he believed in. She made him better, even if he did nothing for her but give her pleasure.
The gods saw that, they saw the effect the girl had on him. They liked it, they could use her, that was a gift. To love without falling in love.
"Bjorn." She whispered tenderly.
He spoke back her name which made her shiver, she hated it. She was an outcast in Kattegat, the King has exiled her as soon as he saw her after his return. Ragnar's face had turned pale and he lost his senses around her. She could never have dreamed the amount of pain and torment a reincarnation of herself caused him. She just saw it as the act of an upset father who would never approve of any suitor for his eldest son.
She dismissed it as a crazy mans thoughts, she didn't see the way Ragnar looked at her as if he knew what was under her dress. She didn't see the look of malice his lips wore or the tinge of regret as he watched her walk out of the town.
So she met Bjorn in secret, the girl had always been drawn here, to this spot. It was as if a little bit of her soul was trapped here and connected itself to the hill side.
"Don't call me that." She told Bjorn as she grasped at his muscles around her, "Give me a new name. One your father will not know, so we can always be together."
Bjorn thought for a while, "Any name?"
"Any." She replied, she longed for a new life. A life where all she could experience was the pleasure of being close to someone. She should have hoped instead that the gods did not take everything literally, she should have never given them an excuse to take her youth and life away from her.
The Viking Prince christened her in that moment, marking the beginning of the end of her days. He spoke her new name softly in her ear, he didn't realise that the gods had given him that name. Bjorn thought he had given a beautiful name to a beautiful lady.
She shivered again, his voice like sweet honey, "La Belle Dame."
It was perfect. It was her first sweet sin by her first lover. Yet as another nymph, hidden in the shadows - with the same shade hair and same shape heart with missing pieces - heard her own name, she felt nothing.
Meanwhile the younger one opened her heart to Bjorn Ironside who was destined to become the first name in a long list of lovers.
La Belle Dame may live a thousand lives, in different times, in different bodies with different lovers but one thing never changes; she dies a thousand deaths from heartbreak.
