Dagur went home with a frowning expression. "You okay?" Tia asked him. He went over to her, "Do your friends ever ask you for gold." Her face saddened, "Well, if they really need it, they know that I would help them; however, if it's for something small, I think that vikings should try to handle that on their own. Friends shouldn't use each other." Dagur nodded and went to watch Heather.
The next day, Dagur went to the arena-like had the past week-and found no one to be present. Sadly, he returned home. Just as he reached for the doorknob, he sensed someone behind him. "Dagur," a young viking started, "Ansson says that his folks don't believe what he said about not being able to get the weapons. He asked me to ask you to go to his house and help convince them that he's not lying."
Dagur, hurriedly, went to the hut. He had seen Ansson go to grab some things from there, so he knew which one it was. He knocked and the viking opened the door. "Heard what happened. I'm ready to tell them that I said no." he told his friend. "That won't be necessary," Ansson replied, closing and locking the door behind them. Dagur gave him a confused expression, "They're mad, aren't they?" Ansson looked at him, blandly, "Not at all. They never even knew about what I told you."
Dagur raised a brow, "What do you mean? Why'd you lie?" The older viking scowled, "I lied because after a week of putting up with you, I deserved a reward. Your pop's the chief. That's the only reason I even started hanging out you in the first place." The little boy was hurt, but tried to conceal it, "Why am I here then? Just so you could tell me to get lost?" he questioned with faux moxie.
Ansson smiled, widely, "Not entirely. You get to find out why I'm called 'abominable'." he began to walk over to the boy, menacingly. Dagur attempted to stand his ground, but got pushed into a wall. "You've been a bad friend, kid. Time for you to learn a lesson in sharing." the older viking said. Dagur began to reach for something, but was interrupted when Ansson brought up his arm and punched the boy across the face. Dagur let out a grunt and was elbowed in the chest, pushing him back into the wall. Ansson punched him again, this time in the stomach. Dagur reeled over and the other viking kneed him in the face. He grabbed Dagur's face in his hand and slammed his head into the wall, following it with a sledgehammerlike fist to his head.
Ansson put his face close to Dagur's and gave a sickening smirk. The boy tried to keep fear from his eyes, but knew it was there. "Turn." Ansson ordered, as he spin the boy to face the wall. He proceeded to search him, "I don't have any gold on me." Dagur protested, with a slight quiver in his voice. Ansson "humphed" and kept patting him down. He started to pull up the bottom of his tunic, "Stop that!" Dagur insisted, nervously. Ansson pulled out a dagger that the boy had been keeping hidden and pushed it into the boy's abdomen, drawing a little blood.
"So, you weren't as gullible as I thought." Ansson realized. "I actually just always keep that on me." Dagur thought, wincing. "I should just gut you with this and throw you into the water." Ansson said. The little boy began to tremble a bit. "That wouldn't be fun, though. I'll just take this as payment for sparing your life and dealing with you last week. Of course, my precious time might never be renewed. Looks like we'll have to find a lot of ways for you to make it up me. But that's for another day." He yoked Dagur by the braid and threw him out of his house.
The young heir landed hard on the ground and got up, quickly, hoping that no one saw him. Some kids did and pointed at him while laughing. He turned beet red and rushed home with a lump in his throat. Tia and Haggard were out of the house and only Oswald was there with Heather. He glanced at Dagur and continued to play with his daughter.
Dagur did not want to talk about it, anyway. He went to the washroom and tried to clean away evidence of blood and bruising. Sure he had been spanked before for doing something wrong, but he had never been attacked like that. "Ansson's not my friend and never was." he thought, bitterly. "Course he isn't. No one ever wants to be pals with me. To them, I'm either a freak or a punk." A couple tears fell from his eyes and he wiped them away, fearing what his family would think if they saw them.
He went to his room and closed the door. An hour later, he heard the front door open and his mom and great uncle enter. Dagur felt his face and knew that his eye was swelling, "Oh no! They'll see me and get disappointed 'cause I couldn't beat him." he thought, in a panic. Running around his room, he found a helmet that had been made for his birth. It did not fit, but he hoped it would draw attention away from his face. He blew out a candle, "Shadows should help." he figured.
Tia knocked on his door, "Come in." he answered, trying to hide his nerves. She came into the room and her eyes widened as she saw the large object on her small son's figure. Struggling not to laugh, she sat down on his bed. "Any particular reason why you put your helmet on and the lights are out?" she questioned. He shrugged, "It's cool and I gotta learn how to do stuff in it. Aaand, my night vision needs to improve. " Becoming suspicious, she removed the equiptment and lit a light.
She gasped as she saw the bruises that covered Dagur's face. "What happened?" she questioned. When he hesitated, she guessed, "Was it Ansson?" Dagur's eyes told her "yes" and rage coursed through her veins. Priorities were important to her, so she, gently, took in Dagur's face. Her eyes scanning every inch as she analyzed what was hurting. She ran a hand on the back of his head and he winced. Looking close, she saw no blood on the scalp and only a knot.
"Is anywhere else hurting?" she asked. He told her his stomach and she rolled up his tunic. It was not scary when she did that and she brought him to the main room to clean the wound, properly. "Do you want to talk about it?" she looked at her son. He was unsure at first, but sighed and blurted out, "Ansson only wanted to spend time with me so that I'd steal Daddy's gold and when I said no he got mad and beat me up." Slower, he told her the rest of what occurred. It felt almost nice to release that. By then, it was late, so Dagur went to bed while Tia and Haggard spoke to Oswald.
"Did you just not see him?" the chieftess asked, angrily. Haggard stood, watching sadly from the side of the room. Oswald fumbled for words, "I was with Heather-" "So you ignore your son?!" she yelled. Haggard put a hand on her shoulder to calm her, "You have more explaining to do than you seem capable, Nephew." Oswald frowned, "I never asked for a crazy son. I'm 'agreeable' not unstable. As long as he does not prevent the peace that I have worked so hard to achieve, he can do whatever he pleases." Tia looked at him, hurt, "He's the same as any child. He wants us to love, teach, and protect him. You don't even care that a boy thrice his age locked him in his house and attacked him." Oswald said nothing.
Haggard glared at the chief, "A real chief and viking defends thier own, Oswald." "Who says that I even consider him my own." the chief said, under his breath. "I will deal with this. Just like I always do when it's confrontational." Tia stated and left the house. She barged up to the teenager's hut and knocked, loudly. A woman opened the door, "Oh, Chieftess. We weren't expecting y-" Tia brushed past and spotted Ansson lounging. She grabbed him by his collar and lifted him off the ground.
"If you ever touch my son again, you'll see Valhalla before you can blink." she hissed. She tossed him into the wall, knocking the air put of him and turned to his parents, "Control your son. That's an order." and she left.