Conqueror Queen

Chapter 5

 Everyone had gathered in a circle around them, creating a human cage for the two women. Aiya moved her eyes around the circle, Adia stood erect, eyes fixated on her, silently reminding her she was fearless.

She was not fearless however, she had only killed two people in her life and only by pure chance. She had sparred with Gunnar plenty but never had she been in hand to hand combat for the death.

Hildegunn was a well trained warrior, taught by none other than Dagr himself. Her parents had been farmers in Hafrafell, as a child she would sneak off into the woods to train with some of the local boys. Dagr was always her favorite, he never teased her for being a girl or tell her to go home, he also, never took it easy on her. As they grew older, their sparring turned more intimate, she began to notice his strength and how strong his body felt against hers. She stopped sneaking off to train with him in combat and instead trained in other things, things only a man and a woman could do together. When Dag started raiding with his younger brother, Hilde went with. They pillaged and terrorized together, they took what they wanted from people and what ever they wanted from each other, when ever they wanted it. She loved him, she would have married him but he never asked her. He would have other woman and after a while she stopped being one of them. As angry as it made her, she figured someday he would change his mind and realize that she was the one for him but he never got that chance because of Aiya.

"I'm not sorry for Dagr, he was a monster," Aiya raised her ax, readying herself.

"You will be, for I'm far worse than he ever was,"

Hildegunn raced forward, her right ax high in the air and with all her strength brought it straight down at Aiya's head. She dodged the blow just barely, lunging forward and rolling to the other side of the circle where she stood up and turned around. She saw Ragda standing in the circle of people, eyes wide with fear and for a moment she thought she saw Dagr's face amongst the many cheering and rowdy on lookers. His dark, handsome face haunting her and in that moment she knew she couldn't fall by Hildegunn, for it would be as if Dagr had defeated her himself and she would not allow that.

Aiya concentrated on her defense, she would not allow Hilde to break through, her blows were hard and every time their axes clanged together Aiya felt a painful jolt in her side threatening to send her into the sand in torment. She was not a true fighter but she was smart and she knew she could not defeat Hilde with strength alone, she would have to get inside of her head, make her forget her training and hopefully she would slip up and Aiya could strike her down.

After a few minutes of Hilde trying to get passed her defenses she stepped backwards, separating them. They both began to circle the perimeter, eyeing each other.

"I'll never forget the way it felt when my knife slid into his ribs, the look on his face," Aiya said, a smirk on her lips. "He was so surprised," She laughed.

Hildegunn blinked at her, dazed, before lunging at her again, her face turned up in rage and hatred. Their weapons caught in the air, their arms crossed holding each other from moving. They were belly to belly, nose to nose, their heavy breaths on each other's faces.

"I just kept stabbing him, over and over," Aiya brought her head back and slammed it forward right into Hilde's nose, sending her stumbling backwards, sputtering curse words until finally she fell to the ground.

She ignored the dark spots that filled her vision as she watch Hildegunn hit the ground.

"He never mentioned you," She taunted. "Not once, the whole time he was trying to seduce me,"

Hildegunn screamed as she rolled to her feet, grabbing up her weapon. Her other ax had fallen to far from her reach so she would have to rely on the one to finish Aiya.

The crowd that had been so lively and loud now fell silent, they had been cheering Hilde on, for she had always been undefeated but they were surprised by the tiny vixen who challenged her so much.

Aiya's plan was working, Hilde was forgetting her form as she charged forward and threw herself into Aiya, knocking her on her back and landing on top of her. They struggled on the ground as they wrestled to get to their weapons. Hilde placed her forearm over Aiya's throat and rested her entire weight on her, crushing the air out of her lungs. The only thing she could do was bring her knee up and ram it hard into Hilde's side, hoping it would cause her to roll off of her, it did nothing. She tried feeling around for her ax but her fingers touched nothing but sand and pebbles as her sight began to leave her. She bent her leg slightly so she could reach her boot, where she felt for the small knife she kept tucked away. Finding it, she removed it and jammed into Hildegunn's side.

She opened her mouth but no sound came out as Aiya twisted the knife slightly, Hilde's face twisting in pain with it. Aiya removed the blade as Hilde slid off of her, moving to her knees she bent over the woman and held the knife up to her face.

"This is what I killed him with," She said. "Only fitting you should die the same way,"

Hildegunn's eyes grew wide with shock as her fist came up to connect with Aiya's cheek slamming her back onto the ground. Hildegunn bounded towards her, kicking the knife from her reach and crouching down over top of her, pinning her to the ground with her knees. Over and over she slammed her fist into Aiya's face, between the blows Aiya grabbed a handful of sand and flung it into Hilde's eyes, she let out a muttered cry trying to wipe the tiny grains from her burning eyes giving Aiya time to scrabble from underneath hear. Rolling again, Aiya snatched up one of the ax's as Hilde stumbled to attack her. She swung the ax hard, connecting with Hilde's rib cage, the sound of cracking ringing out from the force of the blade against bone and flesh. Hilde fell to her knees in front of Aiya and they stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, everything was silent around them say for the crash of the waves and chirping of the sea birds.

Ripping the ax from Hildegunn's body she watch as the formidable shield maiden fell to the earth with a thud, still.

She wiped at the blood on her face with the back of her hand, spitting into her other hand, one of her bloody back teeth and tossing it next to Hilde's lifeless body. She stood up, the ax still in her grasp and looked at all the shocked, silent faces that stared first at Hilde and then at her. After a moment of sullenness people began to shout and cheer for her victory. Never had they seen such an unlikely triumph, the girl fought the warrior despite her skills and knowing surely she would die. She fought on anyway, even when it looked as if she would fail, she did not give up. A sign of a true Viking, she would forever be remembered for that day, the day she defeated Hildegunn Oxen-Might.