Chapter 7

My name be Aria, I live in the prosperous kingdom of the Geats. My father, the King Beowulf has ruled for fifty years and is a good king. No a great king, but an awful father. He had abounded my mother, Arietta and I on our own. Without husband, without a father, without any man.
But I refuse to sit by and doodle when my mother fends for us. I struggle to live in a man's world. The army has rejected me as both a woman willing to serve on the battlefield but also a woman disguised as a man. My neighbor and good friend Wiglaf has been accepted. He has always been willing to lend a helping hand to us. We both share humble roots and maybe a history that could be a story to tell young girls.
I remembered our days as children, and our journey in life together.
Flashback
"Wiglaf! Wiglaf!" My small high voice chimes like bells as I run out my window, across the patch greenery to the small hut that dwells next to our humble little shelter. My brown hair untangles itself from the worn out ribbon my mother has wrapped around my hair. My small bare feet pad against the earth and struggle not to get caught in my green floor length shirt.
My white shirt frees itself from being tightly tucked away into my skirt. I barely dig my toes into the earth to come to a decent halt. My small body crashes into the side of the wood hut and the window opens and a small boy's head pops up.
"Goodness Aria, the heavens can hear you and they wish you to be silent like the rest of our world." A young Wiglaf says. His blonde hair rides his small shoulder blades and the blowing wind. His green eyes glisten with teasing mock erring and all I could do is smile back.
"Then let the heavens hear me shout for wonderful Wiglaf!" I say. "I am not wonderful, how do you dare call me by such a feminine word? You will make me weaker." Wiglaf says hopping out the window. I laugh and grab his small hand mine "Atlas Wiglaf, you are such a wonderful thing that earth has been lucky to be bless with." I say still smiling.
The corner of his mouth twitches and he looks away. "What news do you holler about?" Wiglaf asks as he turns away from me. My small hands grab both his cheeks and I turn his head to my child face. "Let me see your fair face, it is what I have came to see. Not to talk to air." I say smiling. The young Wiglaf laughs nervously before taking my hand and leading me to the woods.
"A challenge?" Wiglaf asks as we meet the forest edge. "If you arrive at the center before I, then you may tell me the news that take your mind's focus." Wiglaf says. "And if you become victor?" I ask. "Then I get one slavery wish from thee." Wiglaf says.
"I accept." I say. "And... Off!" Wiglaf says as we booth take off. We dodge trees, hurtle over logs and skip above rocks. "You will never achieve this victory!" Wiglaf calls. "Do not cry in agony when thou have to come last." I shout. I take a sharp turn, filtering through the tall oak tresses. The sky is mix of green and blue.
I pull to a halt to see Wiglaf lounging against a tree and I stomp my foot. "Looks like your shortcut 'twas not short enough." He says a smile plastered on his face. "Curses." I mutter. "Aria, a lady lets such foul language spew from her tongue." Wiglaf says embarking closer to myself.
"Atlas I am not be a lady, I be a girl. A mere child." I say with a grin. "But soon you will grow and prosper into a lady. Best to rehearsal for the role that god intends for thee." Wiglaf says.
"I have plenty time to grow, I will grow my entire life. But I do not wish to prosper into a lady to be wedded off and bare children then to crumble away from existence. No. I wish to become brave and mighty and to travel! To corners of the world, depths of seas, colors of people and the density of the deserts. I want to grab the fruit of life when ripe and enjoy its sweetness within every bite." The young naive me says.
"Are you mad woman?" Wiglaf asks with wide eyes. I grin "But most of all I wish to serve our great kingdom. To fight with its glorious title." Wiglaf's blue eyes look as if they were to fall out. "You have indeed gone mad. But surely there must be another form of dedication." Wiglaf mutters.
"However is there so, for a female?" I sigh. We were quit for a moment before Wiglaf spook again. "I'll fight and serve for thee, for thy honor, title and pride." Wiglaf says his cheeks pink. I stare at him before my lips split into a smile. "How sweet of thee." I say going on my tip toes and placing a kiss upon his cheek. His widen and his hand flies to cover to which my lips pecked.
"But although Wiglaf, we shall serve together, side by side." I say gripping his hand and giving me an excited look. He sighs "My eyes see that you are so lost in thy world that I cannot save you from it's intoxicating spell." He says grinning and I smile back.
"Now... As for my wish." He says and my happy face falls. "Even is even, you had one, now bind me." I say sighing. Wiglaf's cheeks turn pinkish again and he goes deep into thought, falling into the caverns of his mind. "Since we'll be fighting together, and you say you will not wed let's form an arrangement." He says.
"An arrangement?" I ask and the blonde child nods. "We survive together and grow together and be with each others always. I command you to be with me forever and a day." He says his cheeks now red. I stare at him with my brown eyes.
"That be all?" I ask and he hesitantly nods p, his cheeks aflame. A smile lights up my face. "Wiglaf that be the greatest thing to pray for. No pain or struggle require. Consider me yours, I would love with my all to forever at your side." I say. At the time I did not know the depth of my words nor did I value it.
He smiles, and holds my hand, leading us along through the woods.
Today
I stare out my window of my humble shack, staring out to Wiglaf's family's dwellings. Wiglaf has grown to the age of twenty one, much like me but has ripped himself from his roots. He; now sworn into the royal guards fights. But I still unwed, still stubborn and very much unladylike still sleep by my roots.
"Aria, my child come heather. I much to say." I turn to my mother, her brown mane now gray at thy roots and thin, her hands shaky and old. Yes much time has passed.
"Yes mother?" I ask walking to her and clutching her frail hand. I kneel at her feet and look up at her like I have for so much of my life. She sighs then looks down at me with tears in her brown eyes. "I have kept something from you, kept Locke away in the depths of my worn heart. But now that time is thinning itself I speak and proclaim." She says, my eyes widen but I stay silent.
"Oh sweet child, child of love and child that I love with my all... You father... He be... The king. King Beowulf be the father to you, a child born of passion and youthfulness." I stay mute, as if my lips have been sown together.
"I know thou not believe me, but today be his last day on this earth before his soul takes flight to heaven. I heard of wind that he will fight a horrific dragon. He is not young no longer, so quickly, leave. Go to him before... Before..." my mother couldn't complete her sentence. A shaky gust of wind rips through her and she weeps loudly.
Her words float on the surface of my mind, still hovering by heads and echoing. Suddenly I launch to my feet and run, grabbing my skirt as I fly towards the household of Wiglaf. "I'll be back!" I call to my mother as I cross the threshold and run to the window of Wiglaf's corters.
I swing open the window and climb in, my body knowing what is to be done before I know myself. I find his old mail shirt and amor, the one he trained in before his body sprouted like a tree, himself becoming to large for it. I change hurriedly, the metal suit a wee large for my petite frame, but I endure it. Finally I take an old sword and jump out the window and start to run.
Why hadn't I seen it before? The way mother would always steel herself when King Beowulf was mentioned. The story of how mother changed kingdoms the extract timing to which the king and his men sailed to Denmark and came back! How did my eyes go blind and my ears go deaf to the truth?The words of my mother finally sink and I feel tears build in the corners of my eyes. But I refuse to let the sign of weakness fall.
I steady my swaying heart and continue to run, till I reach the dragon's castle. I hide in the woods and peak out to king Beowulf... My father old and frail, but also brave struggle with the dragon. He might die, bringing down the dragon before I may have speech with him.
Why does he fight alone? Where be the other men? Where be Wiglaf?
If he must die, then I refuse to stand here as some weak damsel. I run out from the trees, and another warrior comes with me by my side. I turn to see... Wiglaf. He, no child no more. His frame meaty with muscle, tall and broad shoulder and his blonde hair oddly cut to short. He turns to me and his blue eyes widen in alarm.
"Say nothing! Please... Just fight at my side!" I call and he nods. We head onward the flames making the air melt into gushing hot winds. Beowulf sees us, and an energy brighten his brown eyes, and makes his strength return. Wiglaf and I stab at the inner belly but it is king Beowulf who slathers the dragon.
He lays tiredly on the ground and I feel my heart tighten. "Who be?" Beowulf gasps. "The warrior Wiglaf and..." Wiglaf turns to me. "The daughter of Arietta." I say and Beowulf's brown eyes tear. "I am glad to see that she has wed to another, and had a child and..."
"Sire! My mother has finally spoke the truth, I be a child of unconventional methods and ways. I be a child of a youthful love." I say. "I am yours." I say falling to my knees next to my dying father.
"So it be so?" Tears form in the old king's eye but he does not let them fall. ",y memory tells me when I have journey through the village and of how my eyes were captivated by thee. A stranger of how the resemblance so near myself. You bowed when I came, not curtsy." He laughs. So we do have a memory. He runs his hand through my hair then my cheek.
"I regret not knowing of thy earlier, since the dawn of thy birth." He says before turning to Wiglaf. "Warrio, you are brave unlike the others, be the next king. But make my blood reign as well." He say before closing his eyes.
"I love you father!" I shout hurriedly that he hears before he leaves me. "And I thee." He says before going cold beneath my fingers. I look to Wiglaf then back to father,
"No!" I scream and wail over his lifeless body.
Months later

"Who would have assumed that you of all people be wed?" Wiglaf says as our bare feet walk in the sand of the beach, Wiglaf's amor covered lop with mine. Like father had wish, Wiglaf has now become king. In honor of father, Wiglaf has built a large tower here at the sea, where my father's body sleeps peacefully, over looking the sea. "I broke my one of my goal." I say as my white dress swipes against my feet. But we turn to each and smile "But I kept my promise, to always be at your side." I say.
"And soon you will keep your other goal, to serve your kingdom, now as queen." Wiglaf grins. That is right, after out wedding ceremony today, I will be sworn in as queen. Wiglaf and I walk down an aisle of sand, heading towards the light house the persist that waits for us. We pass smiling faces of villagers, warriors, noblemen and my mother.
My white dress flows in the breeze, lapping my braid that held with flowers and a crown of flowers rests on my head and in my hands. We stop at the doors of the lighthouse, the persist welcoming the guest then going into a chant that everyone had sang along with.
Once done filling the air with melody he had bonded Wiglaf and I together, forever and a day.