Frida

Chapter 23 - Baldr Son of Frigg

Frida still felt slightly out of place sitting on the throne in the long-hall, even though she had spent many hours up there next to Ragnar. However, as time went by, the edginess she always felt upon her skin slowly wore more and more off, and now she had even placed herself there without Ragnar at the side.

She was currently trying to fix one of Ivar's boots that Freke had chewed on, but she was close to giving up. The shoe was simply too damaged.

"You were just showing off, weren't you?" Frida sighed at Freke. The wolf that had laid down right next to her on the floor covered with roe deer furs.

He was pretending to be asleep, but Frida knew that he was awake, listening for every sound around them, inhaling every scent that came his way, and she smiled heartwarmingly at her new friend.

He never left her for very long. He always came back to stare her in the eyes, making sure that she was alright. Ragnar had called her 'wolf girl,' and she chuckled absentmindedly to herself as she put the damaged shoe on Ragnar's empty stool. She kind of liked that nickname, it sounded very Norse. As if she had been here all along.

Frida sighed out, and turned her eyes to look at the boys down at the fire pit. They were listening to a story that Frida had heard a couple of times before. The story of Baldr, the son of Frigg and Odin.

Frida reached her hand down to stroke Freke's head as she carelessly listened to the servant Thyra that was entertaining the boys: "And Baldr was known by all the people here in Midgård to be very wise and full of beauty. His home in the sky, Bredeblik, is a place where nothing impure sets its foot, and of all the gods he is known to be the one most gentle. His mother Frigg loved Baldr very much, as do all mothers their children, and she made every creature, disease, animal and plant swear an oath that they would not harm him, that they would not as much as touch even one of his white eyelashes."

Frida saw out of the corner of her eye that Ragnar and Floki entered the long-hall in deep conversation, both of them mumbling wildly to each other as they made their way over to the barrel to pour themselves some ale.

"But!" sounded the servant's voice dramatically, and Frida turned her head to the boys once more. "Frigg had forgotten one single plant. The parasitic mistletoe that grows along Yggdrasil's roots. And when Loki found out, because of his deceiving character, he convinced Høder to shoot an arrow of mistletoe at Baldr, which killed him instantly."

"But why did the gods not ride to Helheim and bring him back?" Ubbe asked, his eyes wide.

The servant smiled. "They tried, Ubbe, but Hel told them that Baldr could only return to Asgård if all in the world would cry for him. But the giantess Tøkk cried not, and Baldr was to stay in Helheim until Ragnarok."

Frida felt a shiver run over her skin, and she closed her eyes. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and promised herself that she would do anything in the world to protect her coming child.

Even if Ragnarok would come.

Frida opened her eyes when she felt Freke's warm tongue glide along her lower arm, and she saw that Ragnar had sat down on the stool next to her, while Floki lingered in front of them, his eyes clinging to the wolf at her feet.

Floki's dark eyes traveled up to meet Frida's, and his mouth twitched nervously, his posture slanting.

"Careful, Floki," Frida breathed out in a small smile, "He likes to chew on drunk Vikings."

Ragnar laughed out next to her before chucking down a big gulp of his horn. Floki simply hissed out before sitting down, resting his back along one of the bearing poles of the house. His eyes did not leave the wolf.