Abduction

Snotlout groaned and rubbed at his eyes tiredly as he rolled out of bed. The pounding clearly wasn't stopping, nor did it seem, as he slowly regained consciousness, to actually be either part of the dream he'd been having or a result of the rather inflated amount of ale he'd consumed before going to bed an hour ago. No, it would seem the pounding was at his door, and since he didn't hear the crackling sounds of flames or the clash of battle outside, someone must want something else. At three in the morning. On a Friday night (or should that be Saturday morning? Whichever).

Clearly what someone wanted was their head bashed in for being obnoxious. The banging still hadn't stopped, and even though his door was solid oak, Snotlout was beginning to wonder if they weren't trying to chop it down to get in.

"Keep your helmet on, for Odin's sake," he called out, "I'm coming!"

He almost didn't recognize the young man on the other side of the door when he opened it, but then again, he wasn't exactly given a whole lot of time to work on that recognition, seeing as how the moment he opened the door he was pushed backward through the opening and pinned roughly against one of the main pillars of his home by the throat.

"Where is she?" his attacker growled.

"Where is who?" Snotlout blinked, confused, "I think you must be mistaken, I live alone here, there aren't any women in this house." He squinted, the flickering light from the hearth finally revealing that the man who had practically bashed his door in was none other than... "Tuff? What in Thor's name are you talking about?"

"If you don't tell me where she is right now," the clearly enraged viking grated, "I'm going to slice your belly open and pull your guts out an inch at a time until you do, friend or not! Now get talking!"

Now, at this point it might be helpful to point out that although not by any stretch of the imagination a genius, Snotlout was also not a complete and utter fool. There was really only one female Tuffnut ever got this worked up about, although not usually out of concern.

Snotlout took as deep a breath as he could manage and shook his head. "Tuff, she's not here, I swear by Freya she's not. I haven't seen Ruff since yesterday morning!"

He watched as Tuffnut's face fell and he seemed to slump, his hands releasing their prisoner and falling to his sides. "Nobody has," he said. "Last time anybody's seen her was yesterday morning, an' she was headed over here, so if she's not here..."

He got a strange queasy feeling in his stomach that had absolutely nothing to do with the ale he'd consumed. Two women had gone missing in the last two months, both of them unmarried young women, and now...was Ruffnut the third? But...but...this was Ruffnut for Odin's sake! She was a terrifying Valkyrie of a woman (which was more than a little of why Snotlout loved to tease her, she was really, really hot when she was angry) who was never without some form of defense.

"Are you sure?" he asked, "She's not just out there in the forest somewhere training for a few days or something?"

"Yes I'm sure, damnit 'Lout, you don't think I haven't already thought of that and checked?" Tuffnut glared at him. "Besides, she didn't take any of her weapons other than the knife she always carries. I checked that, too."

"Shit," Snotlout swore quietly.

Meanwhile, at about the same time as the two young men were arguing, the subject of their concern was groaning her way to consciousness. Her head hurt like she'd been on a week-long bender, she couldn't see a gods-damned thing 'cause something was covering half her face, and she couldn't seem to get her arms to work to push it out of the way. She managed to roll over onto her back, but that was extremely uncomfortable. For some reason her hands were trapped under her backside, and they were...tied?

Ruffnut screamed a number of obscenities as the surge of adrenaline she suddenly felt was not nearly enough to allow her to break the ropes binding her. Someone...someone was going to pay dearly for this once she got free! But how in Hel's name had they managed to tie her up in the first place? She was a trained warrior! Not some helpless, hapless milkmaid unaware of her surroundings! She shook her head. The last thing she remembered was seeing something glinting on the ground near one of the quieter coves. She'd headed over to check and see if someone had perhaps dropped a coin, and... She shook her head harder, hissing with pain as the motion set her head to pounding again. She couldn't remember anything after walking toward the shiny thing. Clearly that had been a trap and she had fallen into it like some kind of day-old dragon hatchling that didn't even have its eyes open yet. Oh Tuff was never going to let her live this one down.

But where was she? Not being able to see or feel around her certainly didn't help her figure that out, so she concentrated on her other senses instead. Breathing deeply she caught a distinctive salt tang in the air, so wherever she was she must be near the sea. Then there were the creaking groans, and (if it wasn't just her aching head) there did seem to be a soft, slow sway... She was on a ship!

She whipped around as she heard footsteps approaching, preparing to defend herself as best she could with her hands and feet bound.

"Oh look," a nasal male voice jeered, "our little sacrificial lamb's woken up." She felt and smelled rotten breath passing over her cheek as he leaned in to whisper in her ear, "Are you going to be a good little girl?"

"Fuck no!" she growled and blindly headbutted him, hoping she managed to catch him in the nose although any kind of hit would be good at this point.

"Damnit you little bitch!" she heard him yelp, and she grinned through the pain of her increased headache momentarily. Until something hit her on the back of the head and she surrendered once again to the deeper darkness of unconsciousness.

Well, I must admit I didn't have any intention of getting sucked into writing for this fandom... *sighs* I should've known better. Given Loki's influence on my life, I don't get to ignore good Viking characters to play with LOL

I make no guarantees of how often this will be updated, I have other fanfic that takes precedence and I'm really not entirely sure where this one is going yet, but it wormed its way into my brain and would not be denied so here it is! Hope you enjoyed!