.・。.・゜✭✫・゜・。.

THE
SNAKE-EYED

Year: 878
Location: Dunholm, Northumbria

.・。.・゜✭✫・゜・。.

.・。.・゜✭✫・゜・。.

Ragni refused both the bread and barley when Ulfhild offered, denying her hunger despite the twisting of her stomach. It was Ulfhild who needed the most of it, the young women lacking in weight and usual appetite. She was a skinny thing, had but grown a few feet in the three winters they spent together.

Ragni had ate once Ulfhild finished, eating the bites of bread that was left behind. As for the barley? The pasty grain never stood a chance against the Ulfhild. But it was not the matter of food that left Ragni on her toes, but rather the lost bit of time that passed.

She could not recall falling asleep, didn't realize how exhausted she had been until she was woken by Sihtric. Her eyes lid heavy, and her vision blurred. Ragni had to admit, since their arrival to Northumbria she lacked proper sleep. Spent most nights watching over Ulfhild, and their makeshift camp. It was uncanny, how tranquil of a sleep she received beneath the roof of her captor but it was a rest she needed.

Sihtric did not say a word as he rebound Ragni's wrists, hadn't bothered waking her with a whispered sentence or warning. No, the man awoke Ragni with a light kick of his boot to her shoulder. Miraculously the sudden jolt of Ragni's body did not wake Ulfhild, who had took to sleeping beside Ragni on the dusty floor boards. Ragni wasn't the only one exhausted, it seemed.

"They have arrived haven't they?" Ragni whispered, as Sihtric helped her to her feet. Sven and Kjartan no doubt we're beneath this roof, ready to see their investment.

"They are." He proved Ragni's thought.

Ragni brought her feet to a stop before the door, causing Sihtric to nearly topple over her. "Will Tekil return?" She asked, glancing over her shoulder to peer upon Sihtric.

"No, I will return here after you're presented." He explained, reaching past Ragni to open the door. And with that, he gave her a dramatic push out the room.

Just like before, he took to looping his fingers around the rope between Ragni's wrists guiding her through the back corridor of the Longhouse. With each step the boisterous sound of the main foyer grew, the laughter and incoherent conversation of both men and women filling her ears. And just beneath that, the barking of dogs. Distant now, almost unnoticeable.

As the sound grew closer Ragni fixed her posture, straightening her slouched spine, and pushing her slumped shoulders back. With a final raise of her chin, she was drug toward the heart of the Longhouse.

There at the heart of the building, in his high seat sat the Jarl of Dunholm. The man conversing with those around him, eyes of grey widening with a spill of laughter. "A pig fucker he was!" He exclaimed, causing the men around him to heave and buckle in laughter.

Along the long tables sat a dozen more men, a handful with women laid across their laps. All of which seemingly delighted, drinking, eating, talking, and laughing beneath the glowing candles. A lively sight, one Ragni loathed more than the damned room she had been held in.

"Ah, there she is!" Kjartan exclaimed, as Sihtric weaved through the center of the longhouse with Ragni in tow. "Daughter of Jarl Sigurd Thorsson." He mused, his words less exaggerated now that they grew closer toward him.

Sihtric stopped before the high seat, pulling Ragni before him with a shove. And it was then that the room fell silent, at least to an extent. Kjartan smiled down at Ragni, his hand raising to absently roam over his braided beard.

"A pretty face, no?" He asked, turning to look at the one-eyed man that stood idly to his side. "Bruises and all." He motioned toward Ragni's face with a wave of his hand, fingers wiggling with the movement.

Ragni scowled, taking a step toward Kjartan. "The last face you'll-." Before Ragni could finish, she was pushed a step back by Tekil. The man appearing out of the crowd, to grasp her by the shoulder.

Kjartan rose a brow, glancing between Tekil and Ragni. "What is the problem, Tekil? I was interested to see what she had to say." He remarked, before motioning Tekil away with a flimsy wave of his hand.

"She spits." Kjartan answered.

Then there was complete silence, the room suffocated by the lack of sound. "Spits?" Kjartan questioned, his eyes widening with the word. It had been but a second later when Kjartan broke out in heavy laughter, and soon the room followed.

Ragni jerked free of Tekil's grasp when the man stepped aside, her head snapping toward the brute of a man that planted the bruise upon her cheek. In a childish gesture, Ragni sent the man a rather arrogant smirk. She would've furthered the matter by sticking out her tongue, but such a childish antic was past her.

With the opportunity, Ragni glimpsed behind her. Sihtric was gone, at least from what she could see. He wasn't the tallest of Dane's and no doubt could disappear behind, or between the brutish men behind her. But she hoped he kept to his word, and went back to Ulfhild. If not, at least she knew where Tekil was.

Turning back toward Kjartan, she was faced with the one-eyed blonde. The man staring down at Ragni, his one eye roaming over her face. "Eh," he grunted, his hand raising to capture Ragni's chin. "I do not need to look her in the face to hump her." He murmured, turning Ragni's face side to side in examination. Not without a little strain, due to Ragni's reluctance.

Sven Kjartansson. There was no mistaking his comment, or the way Kjartan questioned him upon her presence. Her future betrothed, and a man Ragni currently wanted to tear apart. All in time, for she'd have her chance. Believed Ulfhild would find a way out via her father, if not Ragni would be damned if she gave up searching.

Ragni finally gained the strength to free herself of the man's grasp, her bound hands raising to push at his chest. "Níðingr." Ragni cursed, her tongue twisting with the ancient word. A single word, that held enough power for the one-eyed fool to pause.

With cloak of silence that befell over the room, the ever growing sound of barking dogs filled the rooms emptiness. The howls, and cries seeping in through the floorboards underneath. The floorboards? There was no other place the sound could be coming from, not when Ragni swore she could feel the dogs bays vibrate the soles of her shoes.

"Sven," Kjartan spoke, breaking the tension that built between Ragni and him. "Go shut your bitch up." He ordered, from behind the blonde.

With that Sven made his move, pushing past Ragni, and those behind her. A breath soon blew through Ragni's nose with the departure, leaving Ragni to part her lips in a deep inhale. She did not fear Sven, or even Tekil for that matter. A punch was merely the side effect of her quick tongue, and the pain that followed a reminder.

"Does he speak to all his betrothed, like such?" Ragni questioned Kjartan, dismissing his comment about Sven's bitch. No doubt, his bunch of obnoxious dogs. One can tell a lot about a man, by looking at their dog. And Ragni could only imagine the poor shape the loyal beasts must've been in.

Kjartan shifted in his chair, regaining a relaxed posture. "No, he speaks to them much worse. He likes you." He smiled, before waving toward a nearby cup-bearer. "It's a shame, the death of your father." He remarked, as he took a cup of ape.

Ragni's eyes constricted, her head tilting with the squint. "You knew him?"

"Briefly. I was a shipmaster beneath your grandfather, and grew accustomed to Sigurd in that time." He admitted, while staring at Ragni. "You look like him, in the eyes. You share the snake." He pointed out, while bringing his cup to his lips.

The snake. Ragni had been born with it, the same splotch of black in her left eye like her father. It was little, almost unnoticeable unless one was to concentrate on the eye itself. Another reason Ulfhild demanded they were meant to share the same path, a connection to Loki and Ragni herself. Ragni personally believed it was merely a circumstance of her father's blood, but one could not question faith.

"We share more, I assure you." Ragni warned, while fixing her head back upright. If he had known her father, than he knew of the man's prowess. A son of Thor, and a bloodthirsty beast in battle.

Kjartan smiled, his nose wrinkling with the jovial expression. "You have yet to kill the man who slain him, no?" He asked, leaning forward a bit in his chair now. "Haven't avenged him."

Ragni was silent. The man knew the answer, there was no mistaking the smirk he no wore. It was a failure on Ragni's behalf, and the greatest shame that laid upon her shoulders.

"The last I heard he was here, in Northumbria." He teased, watching as Ragni kept to her silence. "You did not know?" He questioned, before leaning back in his chair. "Uhtred of Bamburgh is here, Ragni."

.・。.・゜✭✫・゜・。.

INDEX

Níðingr ➳ (NEETH-ing-uhr) villain, vile person. In Norse mythology, there was a dragon whose name was Nidhogg whose name most likely came from this word. Nidhogg was the dragon that gnawed at the root of Yggdrasil Tree of Life.