The Valkyrie's Daughter | Vikings

Chapter Nineteen

Rona continued to drift in and out of consciousness for some time. The last thing she could remember was laying on the ground in the market place, seeing Floki walk towards her. She vaguely remembered being carried back to the boats. Floki remained at Rona's side, which was something Rona was very confused about. Why did Floki care if she lived or died? In Rona's mind, Floki probably wouldn't care at all if she had been killed in that battle. He may even have been glad about it. But Floki had saved her. Because of him, Rona was alive.

After a while, Rona began to come around, not completely, but enough to be aware of what was going on around her.

Rona was picked up, once again by Floki and was carried on shore to where the fleet had camped a couple of days ago. Helga followed Floki closely, carrying her medicines with her. Bjorn and Hvitserk were not far behind.

As soon as the fleet hit the shore, Bjorn ran to the medicine tent and cleared a space for Rona to be treated. Harald noticed this and soon rushed over with Halfdan just as Floki was about to lay Rona down on the table.

"Bjorn, we have crew with far worse injuries than the girl has. We need to treat them first." Harald pleaded with the commander. Bjorn's face went red with rage. Floki stood by, Rona still in his arms, unsure of what to do.

"I am the commander of this fleet Harald! You may be a king but in this case I shall decide what will happen. Rona must be prioritised!" Bjorn yelled, getting into Harald's face. Hvitserk went up to his brother and pulled him away from the King before he did anything he would later regret. Halfdan then dragged Harald away from the scene so they could attend to their own crew, sensing that himself and Harald should not argue with Bjorn on this matter.

Bjorn nodded at Floki. Floki laid Rona down on the table and Helga was immediately at the young girl's side. Floki stayed by Rona once again. Bjorn turned to his younger brother and began to speak.

"I want nothing more than to stay with her but I need to tend to the rest of the fleet-" Bjorn was cut off by Hvitserk.

"I wasn't planning on leaving her side. Not even if you askedme to." Hvitserk said, using all his strength to hide the worry on his face for the young girl. Bjorn nodded and patted Hvitserk on the shoulder.

Bjorn walked over to Rona who was now on the table, writhing in pain. Floki was kneeled down by the young sheildmaiden's head, holding her hand and talking to her, trying to calm her while Helga was preparing a sedative to take away some of her pain before she treated the actual injury.

Bjorn placed his hand on Rona's head and whispered to her.

"You will not be going to Valhalla today Rona. Not today." Bjorn kissed Rona's forehead and stood back up, nodding to his brother before going to attend to the rest of the fleet.

Helga soon gave Rona the sedative she had made and Rona wasn't completely knocked out but she was very out of sorts. She felt dizzy, similar to what she had come to feel while drifting between a vision and reality. Rona had now become relatively calm and was not writhing around too much. She stared straight up at the sky, unsure of where else to look.

By now, Hvitserk had kneeled at the other side of Rona's face and stroked the young girl's hair while Floki continued looking on, watching his wife do her work.

Helga carefully removed Rona's armour (which had been damaged) and saw that her tunic was stained with blood. Helga lifted the tunic and saw a cut going all the way from the bottom left side of Rona's ribcage, covering her stomach and ending near Rona's right hip. The cut was a clean one and not too deep but it would need stitching before Rona would bleed out. Helga began her work.