It was late morning now. The dragons roamed the land. The Vikings out of their homes; working, fighting or something other of the sorts. And one healer sat on a stool, observing with great interest the stranger than stumbled into her abode in the early hours of morning.
His flesh-torn back was now bandaged and herbs had been reapplied every couple or so hour.
He stirred in his sleep and often hissed, as if in a bad dream or in terrible agony. If not both.
Blood Eagle was such a horrible fate. The worst known to Vikings. Unleashed only on highly treasonous and damned criminals. But this man didn't look like much of a criminal. He barely had any muscle to commit any crime, and he didn't seem particularly daft to commit something as treasonous as the crimes succeeded to unleash a Blood Eagle. Then again she could have been mistaken.
"Who's this?" A voice startled the girl, when she was absent-mindedly putting away a strand of hair out of her patient's eyes.
She turned around and found herself facing her older half-brother. "Thor damn you Junior! You scared me."
"If you're scared that usually means you have something to hide." He bounded up to her and landed on one of the beds, right next to the strangers and his sister's chair.
"Ha. Ha. Ha." She said, dryly.
"Who's this?" He asked.
"Some random person that stumbled in last night." She said, rubbing her eyes off sleep.
She didn't want to go into detail about what was wrong with him, with her half-brother. If he knew the man was Blood Eagled, he would assume this was a criminal; a highly dangerous criminal, at that, and then… all hell would break loose. Being the overly-protective brother that he was, he'd throw the poor man in jail and send her off to another tribe. For no purpose whatsoever!
"Doesn't look like a Viking." Hiccup Junior cocked his head sideways.
"Probably a traveller."
"So, what's the matter with him?"
"Malnutrition, dehydration, some other stuff too."
"Alright… you're the doctor. Where's the little weasel?" Hiccup said, referring to Hakon.
"On my hammock."
Hiccup proceeded to the hammock to play a devious trick on the unsuspecting young Chief, when a groan came from the throat of the stranger and his eyes cracked.
The girl watched with batted breath as his hand travelled up to his forehead and he slowly sat up on balanced elbows.
"Where… is… I?" He asked, in his strange accent and grammar that he had to say it again for his new acquaintances to hear him.
"You are on Berk," Junior said, once seeing that his sister was far too intrigued by his person than to answer his question. "Do you mind telling us your name?"
"I'm… name?..." He pointed to himself, Junior nodded. "Athelstan."
"Why does he talk funny?" Hakon, who had just awaken and spoilt Junior's chance of a heart-felt prank, lay on the hammock wiping his eyes.
"Me… from far away… England."
"That's… where even is that?" Hakon looked at the oldest, since he was the one that was more interested in exploring lands outside Berk than anyone else in the Viking World. Ran in the family, probably.
"That's far… very far away… I've never been there, personally… but traders talk of rumours about a land far out in the West called An- Eng- Anglo- how do you say it?"
"England." He said that with an accent so fresh and clear that it felt like his rightful speech.
"How do you know Norse?" Ash finally asked.
"In the small traces that he has of it," Hakon remarked.
"Oh hush!" She hissed at him. "Ignore my idiotic brother. You speak good Norse for a foreigner."
"Thank thee." He bowed his head slightly, smiling at her. When she returned the warm smile, he blushed and turned his head to the two men in the room, as if shamed that he looked at a girl. Which, of course, confused Ash and bewildered the two brothers.
Wherever this dude came from was a seriously strange and messed up place.
"I'm travelled a lot and met people… them taught I Norse." He said the last word with a strike of dislike and fear in his voice.
"What's your trade?" Junior asked.
"I's trade?" He looked puzzled. "Oh!" He slapped his forehead. "I have none trade. I am a monk."
"What's that?" Hakon asked.
"A servant of God."
The three exchanged glances. In the Norse religion, you had priests and elders who were a Viking's connection to their mythical gods. But none of them dressed in his weird attire, shaved their heads or carried any books with them. But then again… cultures were funny and weird things.
"I believe I'm a priest in Norse… if me translate my Norse rightly." He looked sheepishly at the three teenagers.
"Oooooh." The two boys muttered, now understanding what a monk was.
"Are you hungry?" Ash asked, in a sort of tenderly motherly fashion. He had just been Blood Eagled, now was not the time for an interrogation.
"No." He attempted, but his grumbling stomach betrayed him. "Some bread… will be… fine."
"Uh… okay," Ash said, awkwardly. Most people would as for a piece of meat or something to gouge on to savour their famished appetites and release them of the torturous grip of hunger.
The healer went to her personal kitchen and took the bread that, to her at least, felt a little bit ungenerous. But he, as she would later discover, harboured a great devotion to break and water. He blessed the food that he received with some kind of strange prayer in a tongue foreign to the three Vikings. He ate in utter silence and no matter how many questions the two young Chiefs asked, they wouldn't get a word out of him while he ate.
Eventually, Ash shooed them both out, muttering something along the lines 'finding something better to do, Chieftains'. Herself she occupied with assorting herbs, sowing one of her brother's shirts or reading. Anything to distract herself from the somewhat handsome, strange, silent young man.
Little did she know, how much noise this man would cause in her life…
-000-
There you go guys. A bit of a longer chapter.
PLEASE REVIEW, even if the story is ancient.