Moonlight on Silk (Ivar x Mermaid!Reader)

Moonlight on Silk

The people of Kattegat were wary of the youngest of Ragnar's sons. The respect they showed him was inducted by their fear of becoming the next target of Ivar's increasingly frequent mood swings. One could never be too careful around him, for his apparent harmlessness was but an illusion. It was common knowledge that he was the preferred son of his mother, Queen Aslaug, whose influence extended as far as Ragnar's reputation did.

Ivar knew she favored him because he was like her in many ways – seemingly not a threat to anyone, possibly even considered helpless and utterly incapable of being so much as a minor bother. Yet she ruled over their lands with an iron grip and allowed Kattegat to thrive beyond imagination. She proved them all wrong, showed them that having power and having strength were two different things.

He would show them too, make them regret ever looking at him like he was less than a man. Ivar the cripple, Ivar the useless son, inferior in strength and moral to his brothers. But his parents believed in him, and it was enough for him to go by. His wits would give him what his brother's legs could not. He might have to crawl to get where he wants, but in the end he would reach his goal.

Until then he would have to wait for the night to fall to get his peace of mind and escape from prying eyes. He found that sitting by the still water was quite calming and allowed his mind to clear of parasite thoughts. He would have laughed at the irony of him finding comfort by the water even after he almost drowned in the ocean, if his near death experience wasn't still burning in his memory. Looking down at his useless legs, Ivar scoffed in disdain before looking away again, not bearing the sight of his own impotency. Oh if the gods had provided him with strong legs, surely he would be invincible.

He would be respected for who he is and not for who his father was. He would stand tall next to his brothers and not lurk in their shadows anymore. He would be in his home, pleasuring a woman, eating and drinking with his people and not be considered a weight for his kin. Instead he was sitting here yet again, wondering how his nightly disappearances from the family house went unnoticed – even his slow witted brothers should take notice. He knew his mother did though she kept to herself.

It was enough gloomy thoughts for one night, Ivar decided. He did not come here to dwell on things he could not change. The cold and the silence of this peaceful Spring night was meant to bring him comfort. It was a cloudless night, there was no wind either – everything stood still, as if the course of time had been suspended for a moment. The full moon basked the town in its pale light and made the water shimmer.

Something disrupted the smooth surface of the water. Ivar saw ripples appear – whatever was underwater appeared to swim straight toward him. He was not sitting on the sand of the beach where waves crashed steady all year round, but on the grass, farther away from the port.

The sound of a splash of water was heard and Ivar's vigilant eyes scanned the surface of the water to find the source of the noise but he saw nothing.

"You seem troubled, young viking," a crystal clear voice said from his right.

In a split moment Ivar had rolled to his right to face the intruder and raised his ax, ready to kill whoever sneaked up on him. Surely enough there was a woman there, by the edge of the water, her arms resting on the ground a few centimeters above the surface of the still water. A naked woman, Ivar realized when she tilted her head and her hair slid down, leaving her skin exposed from her shoulders to her neck.

"Rest easy, viking," she purred innocently. "I represent no threat to you."

"Of course you don't," Ivar snapped back, stung in his pride.

He lowered his ax despite his best judgment – she was naked and unarmed, and Ivar son of Ragnar would not be seen holding a weapon above an unarmed woman's head. But was she really inoffensive? What kind of woman would wander alone in the dead of night to take a midnight bath?