The Heart Of The Warrior (Rollo Lothbrok x OFC)

Chapter 14

Kari had taken everyone to her fathers farm, having so much land and forest between them and Kattegat would mean they could be safe for now. Everyone had settled in well, even if Aslaug had complained the whole time about the state of the place not being up to standard. Kari's father Erik had done everything he could to make their stay comfortable. After a short time Rollo had reached out to farm that were close by, many had agreed to help fight against Jarl Borg but there wouldn't be enough.

"So what shall we do? We can not go to war without Ragnar, we haven't got enough men" Kari asked Rollo, a few of them sat around the fire. "We can't be sure when Ragnar will return, we will have to make do-" Rollo spoke before Kari cut him off "We can not fight with just the help of farmers." Erik, Kari's father spoke up "Kari I was just a farmer. So was Rollo. Let him speak. We can not allow Jarl Borg to believe he is secure" Kari piped down, her father making a good point. Rollo smirked "We could interrupt their transports. We cannot fight them all but we can be an inconvenience. Making sure nobody forgets Ragnar." Kari nodded "That's brilliant, I will go out and scout as close to Kattegat as I can, see their trade routes so we can plan our attacks" Kari stood up, drinking the last of her ale "You won't be going alone. I won't allow it" Rollo butted in "Since when do you get to make that choice" Kari asked angrily "Since I am the strongest warrior we have. Since I came up with the idea. And. Since you are impulsive and could easily get yourself killed." Rollo smirked Kari just rolled her eyes "so I'll be going with you to make sure that it doesn't happen. Ok." He added, causing Kari to groan and mumble to herself as she walked off, heading up to some furs she had laid out for her and Halvar. Erik had spent his whole life hunting and he always killed his own food so he wouldn't have to go into any towns. There were plenty of furs to spare amongst the group, but that did not stop Aslaug from complaining about how filthy the place was.

The next morning Kari was up and ready at the crack of dawn, she was angry at Rollo as always, but this time it was because he had been loud and woken her up in the middle of the night, resulting in her getting less sleep. She had already put all her gear onto her horse, an axe strapped to her side, she had no armour but that wouldn't stop her from fighting, she also had a bow strapped to her back, distance combat was safer than close range. "You're eager" Rollo's voice was deep and rough as if he was just waking up "Yes. If you're coming get ready we'll be leaving in a moment" she huffed, annoyed at him. He sighed and turned back to grab his axe, he didn't need anything else. "Ready when you are" he smirked, which just annoyed her more "Hold on. I'll grab my fathers horse so you can ride. Walking will take far too long" she walked over to the stable and sighed, only the goat was in the stable. "What's the problem?" Rollo called over "He's gone. Da must have taken him hunting" she walked back over and saw Rollo smirking "Guess we'll have to share this one" Kari almost punched him because of how happy that made him but then she smirked, climbing onto the horse "Alright. Hop on back" she grinned and his smirk faded "That doesn't make sense. Shouldn't I be up front? I'm heavier." Kari just laughed "It makes no difference. Now get on before I leave you here." Rollo growled to himself getting on the back of the horse "Hold on" Kari yelled as she took off into a sprint causing Rollo to grab her quickly, holding on tight. Kari took off towards Kattegat, heading into the forest as she got closer to avoid running into anyone.

"I bet you're loving this, having me hold onto you" Rollo smirked "As much as one can love a pebble in their shoe" she retorted, Rollo frowned "You don't mean that" Kari sighed "I have Halvar, he is good to me. Far nicer than I deserve. You chose Siggy" she said bluntly. "I didn't choose anything. You left me. When I was down you left me." He mumbled, sadly "What would you have had me do? Baby you? Wait for you to grow up? You treated me like a whore while you still allowed everyone to believe you were with Siggy." She was getting angrier "And you treated me like a second choice while you tried to fuck the priest" he growled "You never showed any interest, was I supposed to stay away from all men till you got the balls to make a move?" Kari couldn't help but smirk knowing he was mad "even so, I was the one who had to make the first move. If you seem to care so much about me, you have a poor way of showing it." She added, slowing down on the horse as they approached a nearby road. "I do care about y-" Kari shush him. "Someone's coming." She whispered, a cart with a farmer and his wife road by, harmless. Rollo sighed as soon as they were out of earshot "I care about you." He mumbled hoping off the horse, taking a seat by a nearby tree. They were near the main road leaving Kattegat and would be able to watch from here. Kari sighed and got off the horse, sitting beside him. "You didn't treat me like you cared" she mumbled "I didn't have the chance to" he retorted "And now you won't. Halvar is a good man I couldn't hurt him." She sighed, looking at Rollo, her eyes were sad. "why didn't you tell me you cared before... it's been years..." her voice croaked as her eyes watered, Rollo reached out and pulled her over to him and onto his lap, his arms wrapping around her he sighed "I made a mistake. I'm sorry. I wasn't myself, I was a drunk" he mumbled into her hair as he held her. "It doesn't matter, you wouldn't have left Siggy. You won't leave her. You love her" she sniffled, wiping her eyes "I-... it's complicated" he sighed. "I heard you last night..." she mumbled "I heard you both... how could you fuck her right there in my home, while we were all asleep in the barn. You knew I'd hear" her voice was full of hurt "I thought you were asleep" he thought back to the previous night and knew he was lying. He knew she was close enough to hear them, he knew Siggy also knew she would hear and was doing it partly to hurt Kari. "You knew..." she mumbled pushing away from him she stood up, walking over to the horse she got herself a drink of water as she heard the sound of horses, two of them pulled a cart full of supplies into Kattegat, they were armed and clearly Jarl Borgs men, Kari hid behind a tree and looked over at Rollo who was doing the same. They couldn't be sure the supplies would be delivered again the next day, and there was plenty of food and weapons on the kart, they couldn't risk letting this get to Jarl Borg. Reaching over her shoulder Kari grabbed her bow. There were 3 men with the transport, two on a kart and 1 on horse. Kari peaked around the tree and aimed for the kart driver, if they could stop the cart quickly, the men would not be able to get away. Kari looked over at Rollo and signalled for him to go for the horse rider in case he rode off to alert the Jarl. Once he had crept close enough Kari pulled back her bow, they didn't have much time, letting it loose it shot through the air and landed in the forehead of the driver, piercing his skull. Rollo was quick to throw his Axe, getting the rider in the back of the skull right above his neck. Kari was quick to draw another arrow and take out the last of the men. They didn't have much time before someone would be wondering where the kart was. Kari ran over, letting the horse free she quickly ran to the back of the kart and started to grab the weapons. "Help me, take them all. We need them" Rollo took the armful of weapons back to the horse while Kari decided what to do with the cart. "It's useless we don't need the meat or food, and we can't let them have it" she called out as she ran over and grabbed a bottle of oil from the horse, she threw it and smashed the bottle against the cart, the oil making for an easy way to light the cart on fire. Grabbing her flint and steel Kari lit a handful of leaves and threw them at the kart, watching the flames erupt as it caught the oil.
Rollo ran over and grabbed Kari's arm pulling her back to the horse he jumped on and pulled her up behind him, riding off as fast as he could. "What are you doing?!" She yelled "You really think they won't see the smoke! They would be there any moment we have to leave now and pray they don't find our tracks!" He yelled back, angry at her for almost getting them caught. "They can't have that food Rollo, they can not be allowed to feel comfortable, you said so yourself!" She yelled "Yes! But we need to be cautious, if they follow us we'll end up leading them back to Aslaug and the kids" he didn't yell this time, they had made a quick get away and could rest knowing that they weren't getting caught this time.

(I'm sorry it took soooo long to get this chapter out! D: there is a small part of this story that may drag on a bit, I'm sorry for that. I'm trying to write it as best I can but it'll be a bit dry. Next chapter should kick up the excitement again though x <3 p.s the photo attached is reference for what Kari's father Erik looks like, in case anyone was wondering )