A.N. HI THERE! THIS IS MY FIRST FIC BUT I'VE BEEN A LONGTIME READER OF MANY AND WHEN I SAW THE EPISODE WHERE IVAR MEETS TANARUZ, I WISHED THE WRITERS HAD TAKEN THAT SOMEWHERE SO BADLY, I JUST HAD TO WRITE IT MYSELF. YOU MIGHT HAVE TO BE A BIT PATIENT SINCE THEY DO NOT SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE BUT JUST THINK JAIMIE AND AURELIA IN LOVE ACTUALLY. OH AND OBVIOUSLY SHE DOES NOT STAB HELGA, I HATED THAT. I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY AND PLEASE BE SURE TO SEND REVIEWS SINCE IT WILL BE THE FIRST FEEDBACK I'VE EVER GOTTEN ON ANYTHING. THANK YOU!
ps. this chapter might not be as fast passed as some of you might want but I wanted to establish what was going on in her mind since she had been taken. But Ivar will show up very soon and stir things up as he always does!
Chapter One: The first week
It was so cold here. The temperature on the long journey gradually dropped from the pleasant and mild climate she was so familiar with, to an unforgiving chill. She was used to days being long and clear and the persistent sun warming the air. Now, in this bleak new land she's been taken to, the air is cold and only a damp mist can be found in the air. When she looks around at this new, foreign land her eyes only compare the images in front of her to those she clings to from her past life. Small things like weather were easier to focus on. The bigger ones were too painful.
In place of her airy and well-lit home she had grown up in, a dark almost windowless shack near the shore.
In place of her lightweight colorful smocks, thick heavy sweaters and shapeless dresses.
In place of her mother, with long, dark hair and skin the color of caramel, a stranger with braided hair, and skin so light, the likes of it Tanaruz had never seen.
The woman was nice enough she had to admit. After seeing the horror the Northmen had inflicted upon her people, the treatment from this woman was more than she could have hoped for. In fact, she had the feeling that this strange North-woman was trying to be a mother to her. When Tanaruz could find the effort to look at the fair skinned woman's face, she saw eyes with sadness in them. Her husband also bore the same look at times but mostly looked upon Tanaruz with pity and as if he was considering what to do with her.
They did their best for her, she could tell. They gave her warmer clothes, tried to feed her and make her acclimate to her new environment. But just when she started to give into their warmth, exhausted from fighting the cold environment and thoughts, she would remember her mother being slaughtered by these same Northmen and pull away again.
During the long grey days, the man would work on his boats outside the house on the shore, the woman would go about the household chores and bring her husband food and company. Tanaruz could not understand anything they said to each other but it was clear that they loved each other deeply and had created there own little world here on their little stretch of shore. That also made her wonder why they bothered with her. They didn't beat her or use her like a slave, in fact she spent most of the day sitting in a corner of the house. Her thoughts would orchestrate different ways she could escape from this grey land. But she didn't even know where she was exactly, she didn't speak the language of its people, the terrain looked too harsh to survive on her own in, and from the various animal pelts around the house, she knew there were too many fearsome animals in the surrounding areas. She decided it would be better to wait and learn about these people and the land more before she made a move to free herself.