[To be titled viking story]

TWENTY

I slung the bow across my body so the string was diagonal across me, showing more of my body than I was comfortable with. But I was alone, so it didn't matter.

At least I wouldn't starve, I mused as I chose the highest tree.

Climbing had always been easy when I was a child. It couldn't have been that hard to relearn old skills. I just needed to try again.

I pulled myself up the tree, not looking down once. I knew what awaited me if I fell.

When I got to the top of the tree I felt like I could see everything and everything was a sea of trees. I wasn't sure which way I was supposed to go. Luckily I could see the water and knew that if I made my way towards the water, I would find my home.

I made a mental note of where I was supposed to head, and spent a minute taking in the scenery. I knew that if I had someone around that they wouldn't have let me climb so far up the tree, let alone walk around the woods that I wasn't familiar with all alone.

After I committed the beautiful sight to my memory, I started to make my way down.

The funny thing is, you aren't away of your fears until you are confronted with them. Had I known that I would feel woozy and known that I would want to wretch when I looked down from a high point, I wouldn't have climbed the tree.

The floor seemed to by heavens away from me. How did I get all the way up here? I wondered to myself. Why had I thought it was a good idea?

If no one would find me before, now it would be impossible.

With all the courage that I had, I took a step down. It felt like the wind was going to knock me off of of branches that held me up!

I hugged the tree as tightly as I could and said a prayer to the gods. I needed courage.

I looked at the ground and my world spun. I needed a rescuer.

I cursed loudly as I tried to put a foot down. I shook my head and quickly brought my foot back up.

"Nope," I told myself. "You're going to grow old and die up here."

I heard the sound of a deep voice laughing at me.

"What're you doing up there, kjære?" I recognized the voice immediately and rolled my eyes at the endearment. (Googled it. It means "dear") I glanced down to see Leif's smug smile looking up at me. I quickly looked away.

"I have learned something I didn't know about myself." I somehow managed to keep the fear out of my voice.

"I assume it has something to do with the way you're hugging the tree for dear life, so please enlighten me." I could hear the humor in his voice.

I huffed and bit back my insult. I needed him to rescue me. "I seem to have developed a fear of heights," I managed to spit out.

I could hear his chuckling from the ground. "Seems like that something you should've known before climbing such a big tree."

I only barely managed not to growl at the stupid man below me.

"Will you out just get me down?" I asked impatiently from my branch.

He took a couple steps closer to the tree. "That dress is rather delightful at this angle."

I yelled at him. He put down his sword that I had just noticed was drawn, and took off his bow and arrows. He was out hunting. That meant others were probably close as well.

The quicker he got me out of the damn tree, the less likely my humiliation would be spread through the village.