Aeleva; The Viking Saxon

Chapter 8

I trained harder. I trained better. I moved faster, I blocked quicker and I hit stronger.

Every day, we were training all together. We moved simultaneously as one. The village folk were also getting better at their hand to hand combat. Each day consisted of morning training all together and afternoon training at hand to hand. The afternoon was when the group would split into men and women. Although sometimes we would fight each other.

Sven had helped me a lot, he trained with me most days. He was a seasoned Viking and had been to many places. His experience was obvious by the scar that ran down his face and his missing ear. However, when he had his hair down, you did not notice the missing organ. I was scared of his friendship at first as I had hit him in the leg with a hoe, but it healed well and he recovered soon enough.

For someone so ugly he was kind. At times I caught myself telling secrets or sharing memories. I had still not truly forgiven Hilda from the week before. Although I did understand that she was right to seek revenge in Dane law. However, I still ate and sat with her, I had little company in Torvik.

"I am bored of training," Sven said to me in afternoon training. "It is too hot to spend my life in the fields. I much prefer to spend the day in company of a woman." He said plainly. We were on the field exhausted and sitting in the hot July sun.

"I am a woman."

"You don't count, you are Hagen's." Before I could argue Solvi, the girl I had defeated weeks ago came storming towards us.

"Get your dagger," Sven whispered to me.

"Fight me Saxon!" Solvi shouted at me. Her face was bruised around the eye and her eyes were red and puff as if she was crying. I scrambled to my feet as she raced towards me.

"No, Solvi." But it was useless, the girl jumped on me.

She grabbed my throat and squeezed. I coughed and spluttered. The pressure was agony. I clawed at her hands but they didn't move. Her whole body was pressed on top of me.

Without thinking, I raised my hips and flung her to the side. It gave me just enough time to set my nails into her wrists and twist them off me. She cried from the pain. I grabbed her arm and twisted it around her body so it bent unnaturally behind her. My knee on her back, I whispered in her ear.

"You better leave me the fuck alone. Or it will be more than your arm I will break." I thrusted her arm up suddenly and heard a crunch. I was sure I had broken it, by her cries I was certain. I got up from her and she ran away cradling her arm.

I looked to Sven who was dumbfounded. He stared at me wide eyed.

"How very Christian," he remarked.

In the hall we were sharing our usual cup of ale and talking about the gossip of Torvik. Men and women with swords and armour were also around us, some of Torvik, most not.

When Hagen walked in, he didn't come to sit with us which was odd. He walked over and joined the Earls.

When I came back from the woods in the small hours of the morning, the day of the thief, Hagen had noticed my absence as he was awake when I returned. He didn't say anything but tried to read my expression. I don't know what he read but he went to bed to get the remaining hours of sleep. The next few days he changed towards me, he gave me more space and freedoms. I could go about my business and not follow him around the town. But the one thing that had changed the most is how he looked at me, just as he was staring then. With such intensity, it sent a hot wave down my back, causing sparks below my stomach.

"You know the raid on Ribe is in 3 weeks," said Hilda to myself and Sven. This information brought me back to the conversation.

"3 weeks? That's not long at all, I'm not ready for that." I said, worry clear in my voice. I had only been training for 2 months.