A/N : Hi I am back with another chapter. I plan to make this a small four or five part fic. Hope you guys will love it.

A Battle Within

"You are not eating?" he saw the untouched plate of food and asked.

She had been in his tent for two days and she had done nothing but defied him. As much as it made him mad it also impressed him. She still hadn't told him who she was, she kept resisting him.

He had given her clean clothes and water and she had refused the clothes as well. She was sitting in the far corner, she looked at him and then looked away silently telling him that she will not answer him. When she remained silent he went close, grasped her arm, as expected she resisted. In one swing he picked her up in his arms bridal style.

"What are you doing? Put me down this instant. I demand you put me down." She thrashed like a fish in water but wasn't a match for his strength.

He exited his tent and took her to the stream. "Pagan your men are looking and making fun of us. Let me go."

"I will once you are bathed and fed." He replied and dropped her in the water. She shrieked and he laughed. The water wasn't much high and it wasn't cold. After the initial shock of being unceremoniously thrown into the stream, the water felt soothing but she wasn't about to let him know that. She had washed her face but refused to bathe in front of him or in his tent where anyone was bound to walk in at any time.

"You wild boar. How dare you?" she yelled. He stood a few feet away in the stream.

"Are you calling me a pig? God won't appreciate such foul language, Min skat."

"And he would condone you man-handling me?" she asked rhetorically.

He laughed at that, by Gods this woman had made laugh more in the last few days than he had in the past year. Her stubbornness and her sharp tongue were quickly becoming his favourite thing about her.

Something about the way he laughed made her want to join in but she schooled herself. She wasn't about to let him know she sometimes liked his company. The laugh lines on his face made him seem gentler, it melted her heart.

He came closer and she became acutely aware that her skin might show from beneath her wet clothes. She covered her bosom. Klaus saw her trying to cover herself and he softened.

"Bathe, Min skat. I shan't look and I will make sure no one else does too, I promise." Then he called one of his men, "Dagfin. No one is to come here and no one is to look if any man does I will take his eyes."

"Yes, commander." Dagfin complied.

"And send Merda with bathing supplies and clean clothes."

Merda came with supplies and clothes. Caroline waited for him to turn away, he was goading her with his typical wolfish smirk on his face. "You said you wouldn't look." She exclaimed.

"I did. I merely wanted to hear you yell at me in your sweet voice." He teased and turned away.

Caroline felt a smile forming on her lips, at least he was a man of his word. Merda helped her bathe. Never once did he turn away to take a peek.

Once washed she began dressing, she asked, "Why do you call me Min Skat? What does it mean?"

"You tell me who you are, I will tell you what it means."

Caroline knew it didn't matter anymore who she was. The Danes had desecrated their Holy places, destroyed their homes and killed their people, who she was and what she represented did not matter now. But she held back, in an last meager attempt to hold onto her heritage and honor. Her not giving up her name was like her not giving up on the fight foolish as it may sounded.

Was it even a fair fight, and who was she fighting, Klaus Mikaelson the warrior or herself? Surely she was bound to lose.

"There are other people here who will tell me." She came to stand beside him with a sassy smile on her face.

She dressed herself in a long frock the colour of ripe berries with breeches and boots. Her curly wet tresses, like dew drops on sunshine. Her cheeks flushed with mischief in her eyes and her smile, she looked stunning.

"Oh and you will talk to the heathen likes of us, isn't that beneath your God-fearing self?" he teased.

Her smug smile fell. He was repeating merely what she had been saying to him since she had been here.

"I was exaggerating it is not a sin to merely talk."

"So you were lying, another sin?" Klaus inquired and loved the way she squirmed. "I was not lying. You made me so mad at you that I improvised." The haughty way she replied had him laugh again. He slung her on his shoulder and still laughing carried her to his tent.

She found herself positively surprised, this wild man had somewhat of an obsession of carrying women and parading them around. She must've said that aloud to which he replied as he settled her down.

"Not all women. Just you, Min Skat." He caressed her chin. The air around them sizzled. Her heart beating fast and her breath hitched. Something about his touch made her want to lean into it. So she replied a little forcefully. "I can walk you know."

He tenderly brushed her hair behind one ear. "Do not argue anymore. Eat."

Caroline looked away wanting to shrug off the treacherous feelings he awoke in her. Klaus saw it as yet another denial so he persisted, "Eat so you can have enough meat on your bones to fight me. Odin knows you weigh less than a feather."

She nodded then and went to her plate of food. Klaus was about to leave when she asked, "Would you join me, Lord? I'd hate to eat alone." Torchlight did not do her beauty any justice, her smile inviting and illuminating, he could not say no even if his life was at stake.

He took his place in front of her, " I am no Lord, Min Skat. I am Niklaus Mikaelson the warrior." A little annoyed when she called him Lord, the title used by Saxon peacocks.

"Of Danes, the mighty and most feared I know. But you call me Min Skat and I'll call you Lord. We're even pagan." Her wit was no surprise to him by know but nonetheless he found himself chuckling and nodding, "Fair."

Sitting in front of her under the fire-light he recognised it wasn't merely her beauty that he wanted to possess, he wanted all of her and he shall have all of her, her body, her shrewd mind and her heart, no matter who ever she was.

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