VIKINGS || GYDA

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟒 *

Aslaugs hand harshly digs into my forearm, I brace for the moment we have been working towards for most the day. With one more agonized yearn of pain, I watch as a baby boy is pulled out from his mother.

The squirming child is slightly swiped clean with the blanket that he is then wrapped in.

Oh gods.

My mind is fazed upon the boy. I watch as he is placed into his mothers arms. No one says a word. With the birth of the boy, there was not one smile in the room. 

The thralls and healer quickly dispersed as my father edges closer to the bundle. Aslaug and I remain still as father peels back the blanket that covers the child—he is fast to back away, his lip turning up in disgust.

The boys mother quickly covers him up again, cuddling his restless form closer. In an act of support I offer my hand upon her shoulder, squeezing gently.

Father gently touches her cheek as he whispers to her.

"After all...your prophecy was right." He allows his hand to linger softly against her sweat covered cheek before he strides out of the room. Poor Aslaug, mother to a cripple.

                                              |

"What do you think they'll do?"

She doesn't answer.

"You don't think they would..." I don't even allow myself to finish the sentence. I don't need to, Eira turns to me impatiently.

"Gyda, we discard babies like him for their own good. What kind of a life could he live? What parent would want their child to live through so much pain and humiliation?"

"The child is strong! This is something he can live through."

My protectiveness of being an older sister was really showing. My brother was a cripple, that was fact, but to me all I saw was a baby who would just need a little extra help in life. Which was fine to me, I planned to be by all my brother's sides.

A scoff is echoed behind me.

"He cannot walk Gyda and he never will! If he survives, he will live a life knowing nothing but pain. He will not be able to raid or fight. He will be the one who is left behind all the time. Is that what you wish for him? How will he make it to Valhalla?" She replies in a snarky tone.

"You do not know that! How can you say such things? What is wrong with you!" I abandon the stones and swirls around to face Eira. She spoke such twisted ideas of my baby brother and I would not hear more of it.

"Who are you to say what his life will be? You don't know what his fate holds!"

She shakes her head with a cruel smirk, "Exactly, who am I right? I'm just the fool who keeps her mouth shut and does what she's told." Her head then turns to her feet as she licks her teeth in disdain.

"Why are you being so cold to me? You've been like this for days. Is this about you not being invited to the feast? Eira I'm sorry that hurt you—"

"It's not that Gyda. I am simply only giving you the hard truth that you ask for. You need to understand that if he is discarded, it will be the right thing to do. There is no place for someone like him amongst our people—he is a cripple."

"He is my brother!"

There was no snarky response after that. She only looks back down to her intertwined hands.
With my anger burning lower, I swallow my rage and walk to stand beside her.

"Eira."

She doesn't meet my eyes, but I know she's listening. I take in a breath, I shouldn't have yelled at her.