NOVEMBERLAND: the little shieldmaiden

13

"My gods Saga, don't you see how he treats you?" Tyr said when I had explained everything to him. We had returned to one of the cottages that his family owned in Ygritte. He seemed furious and annoyed by Gryffin. But it was like if he did not understand that he had changed.

"Tyr-"

"No Saga, he expects you to be there for him, and then he just treats you like shit the next day. That is not alright Saga," he said as he cut me off. I felt embarrassed and bare, it was as if he stripped view I had of Gryffin down to one. 

"But he's changed now, he cares," I said trying to make him understand. 

"Then he changes into the person he was when he met you, the selfish and rude king that he is. I remember when we wrote to each other, all you wanted was to get back here. And of what you've told me right now, you've been on and off with that idea multiple times. It shouldn't be like that," he slammed back at me, and I could see the fury in his eyes. He was not mad at me, he was mad at him. His dark blue eyes were no longer dark, they were black, of anger. 

"You stopped writing," it dropped out of me, and that was one of the things that made me a little upset about him.

"You did not write either," he answered back quickly, but he had a calmer voice now. 

"I'm sorry, a lot was on my mind," I apologized and looked up at him. His body had gotten more lean and muscular. His face was tanned of the days at the settlement, but his blonde hair was lighter, probably because of the saltwater lightening it in the sun. "You look good Tyr."

"Well you look, sick," he said and kneeled down in front of me. He placed a finger under my chin and lifted my face up. "I think you did not get any fun nor any good food in Calibur," he said and grinned at me. He now looked like himself, the Tyr I knew, the one that was always up to something.

"What are you offering?" I asked and smiled at him back.

"That is what I like, a smiling Saga. Of what I'm offering, I don't have much. But we have bread and ham, which we both know is my specialty," he said and rose up to go to one of the kitchen tables that were placed by one of the cottages pantries. 

"But do you have some spring berries?" I asked and stood up from the chair.

"No, but we can go get some. I found a little bunch when I was out exploring a few days ago," he said as he began putting on his clothes.

I began putting on more clothing too, it was not that warm today, but you could smell the spring arriving. He seemed so joyful as we went outside, it was as if he had been trapped for days and now he got out.  His golden locks swirled around the hood as he lifted it over his head. Then he threw a headband so that I could have it around my ears, and I needed it, I had forgotten one when I left the castle that morning. We rode up towards the mountains of Lyndra again. His horse was much taller than Dimmi, but that made sense as that Tyr was taller than me. The sounds of nature around us was like music to my ears, this was what I felt was right. To be exploring, with him, in the nature of our kingdom, with no worries. 

When we had ridden for a while we arrived at a spring that came out of the mountain. It was surrounded my frozen grass, but at the end of it, a bush of red spring berries stood glistening to the sun that shone on them. "Here it is," Tyr said and jumped off the horse.

"But how are you supposed to get them?" I asked as I could see that there was no way to get there. 

"I'll swim," he said and begun undressing. He had many layers, but they came off fast. As he dragged his shirt over his head his back tattoos unravelled. He must have gotten them whilst I was away, and it was not like the regular ones, these were different. Down his back Bardhyl was written in runes, and around it multiple runes and drawings swirled around it. And then he took off his pants and jumped in. When he reached the surface he shook his head so that the water spritzed around him. The two braids at the back of his neck were easier to see now, and as he swam you could see his muscular arms being tattooed too. When he had gotten a few berries he swam back and left them on his clothes, leaving a little water circle around them.