Chapter Three

Reason

Christen eyed him as he stared at them. Beside her Sookie was doing the same as she stroked, the recently found, Evie's scales.

"Why?" Christen asked.

The man looked at her. "Why what?"

Christen narrowed her eyes. "Don't play games with me. Why did you have your son and nephew seek us out?"

Sookie glared at him too as Evie began growling along with Shadow.

He ignored her question. "I'm King Ulfric…"

Christen held up her hand stopping him. "I don't care if you're a god, you better answer my question before I let Shadow have you and I'm sure Evie is hungry also."

From around Sookie's shoulders Evie released a happy chirp. Ulfric eyed both dragons as Shadow eyes him licking his lips. The King turned his gaze towards Christen and stared at her.

"Very cleaver." He commented.

He heaved a sigh before gesturing them to follow him as he turned and began walking away. The odd group followed him. Ulfric took them to his study. He sat down in a chair then gestured for the two girls to sit down. Once seated both girls gave him expecting looks. Shadow took residence beside Christen when she sat down.

Ulfric sighed. "As you know I'm getting along in my years to remain on the throne any longer. My only hope is for my son Eric to take over. But In order for him to become king he needs a wife. So for each time he is to leave I remind him of this issue. But he and I end up arguing."

He looked at them. "Then rumors began to surface about two young girls who have been giving slave traders, bandits and mercenaries a hard time. These two became even more legendary when word of a dragon was seen with them. They were then later known as The Fire Priestess and The Ice Princess because of their strange powers."

"That still doesn't answer our question." Sookie stated.

Ulfric huffed. "When word of your accomplishments reached our walls my son and nephew became intrigued by you two. They became so obsessed with you two that whenever word of you two being spotted in a village reached them they would ride out to that village, hoping to catch you before you moved on. But as it turns out my son and nephew aren't the only ones looking for you."

Christen raised an eyebrow while Sookie released a huff. "Understatement of the year."

"Now since you are here," he gestured towards Christen. "My son can finally marry. The two of you are now engaged, the wedding with take place within a year."

Sookie's eyes went wide as Christen bowed her head with her bangs covering her eyes. The blonde's eyes moved then to the brunette. She noticed how her bangs hid her eyes and how tense her shoulders were.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Christen snapped angrily.

Ulfric jumped as shock covered his face. "Beg your pardon."

Christen lifted her head glaring fiercely at him. "You're not my father," she scoffed. "You're not even my King. So don't even start to try and decide things for me."

Ulfric grew angry. "You two came out of know where. No one has ever heard of until now. I doubt you even have a father to begin with."

That ending comment had both girls glaring at him now. Christen stood up along with Sookie and walked over to his desk. She grabbed parchment and a writing utensil and began to write. Once finished she held it out to Shadow.

"Shadow, I want you to take this message straight to father. Then hurry back with his reply." She attached the message to him. "He'll want to hear this bullshit when he gets here."

The dragon nodded at his mistress before nuzzling his head against hers. They lead him outside and he took flight. Sookie moved forward and stood beside Christen as they both watched Shadow until he disappeared.

"How long do you think it'll take for him to get here?" Sookie asked.

Christen sighed. "Not long. I'll give it two maybe three days' tops before he'll arrive."

Sookie sighed too. "I hope your right."

{…}

Over the next two days Christen had to endure the constant affections of one Prince Eric, The tall blonde Viking. Every time she shot him down he kept coming back. She had no help seeing as whenever Sookie tried to help her Eric's cousin Hunter would interfere and keep her away. But Sookie had Evie to protect her whenever Hunter got to close. Since Shadow was gone Christen had to fight off his advances alone.

Right now said girl was walking down a hallway with a scowl painted on her pretty face as she cursed like a sailor. Any servants that happened to be in the hall quickly moved out of the young woman's way. However there were only three people in the whole castle that wasn't afraid of Christen and her anger. One was Sookie, the second being the Queen Eric's mother and finally the third being a six year old girl named Dot, Eric's little sister. The three were always there to help calm her down, well the second two were seeing as Sookie had to deal with Hunter most of the time.

She entered the dining hall and sat down in the furthest seat from Eric. Eric and his father spoke of the things that Eric would need to do after the wedding, which only made Christen angrier. At the other end of the table sat Sookie, the queen and Dot watching as this went on.

"Your sister seems to be unable to control her temper." The queen stated.

Sookie sighed. "Chris always had the patients of a saint but with the way your husband and son keep mentioning wedding plans and what your son's doing after the wedding is wearing her patients thin."

The queen raised an eyebrow in her direction. "You speak as if the wedding will never take place."

"With the way how our father is overprotective of us this wedding will never happen unless Chris says so. Add in fact that your husband and son don't believe we have a father is making it a lot harder." Sookie stated.

Sookie turned her gaze to Christen. She could see she had her eyes closed and was taking deep breaths to calm herself. But when Eric mentioned wedding night Sookie saw Christen's hand tighten on the eating utensil causing it to bend under the pressure. The glasses that were near Christen began to crack. Sookie knew just one more thing said by either of the father son duo would send Christen over the edge.

"How long have you known your father?"

The question broke Sookie out of her thoughts. She turned her head and stared at the queen.

"For about five years. He didn't know about the two of us until he was nearly robbed by thieves." Sookie answered.

However before anything else could be said a servant rushed into the dining hall and straight towards the King. The servant bent down and whispered something frantic into the King's ear. The King went from happy to angry then paled all in a second. Seeing this caused everyone to become curious as to why that happened. Sookie and Christen shared a look wondering what's going on. The King abruptly stood from his chair with his son following and exited the dining hall. Christen and Sookie got up and followed. They followed them until they reached the throne room. Standing in the throne room was a man with short gold blonde hair. He was dressed in a forest green cloak, a white shirt, black pants and boots. He also had two swords on his right hip.

The King cleared his throat. "Tobias."

The man Tobias turned and faced them showing his face to Christen and Sookie. Once they saw his face they burst from there hiding place and ran straight towards him.

"Father!"

Ulfric and Eric became shocked at their sudden appearance but for Tobias, as soon as he saw them his hard expression melted to only be replaced with a soft one. He was quick to wrap his arms around them holding them tight. He pulled back and got a good look at his girls. However what he saw shocked him. They were both dresses like princess, Viking princess. He knew his girls would never wear something like this on a regular bases.

"What is going on? Why are you two dressed like that?" He asked.

Sookie was the first to answer. "They dressed us in these god awful things." She pointed at the King and Eric.

Tobias frowned. "Did they at least ask for your opinion?"

Sookie shook her head. "No. What made it even worse was instead of treating us like warriors they've been treating us like dim-witted princess."

Tobias's frown deepened however he became worried when his youngest was very quiet. She was never quiet when it came to things like this. He reached a hand forward and cupped her chin bringing her face upwards.

"Christiana, why are you so quiet my child?" He asked.

Christen looked at him wanting to lie and say she was fine but the look in his eyes prevents her from doing so.

"We were on our way back from collecting the supplies you asked for when we ran into a group of men who asked for the Ice Princess. There master wanted to marry me and would do anything to achieve so then another group showed up, Vikings. We turned our horses and ran away but were knocked off by Prince Eric and his cousin Hunter. They then proceeded to try and sway us but we pushed it aside. Then they tried to knock us out but our reflexes kicked in. We then ended up fighting against them only to have me save the prince and take an arrow in the shoulder for my effort. We were then brought here and changed into different clothes. Our weapons were put on display over there." She gestured towards the wall beside the throne.

"We took them down and were intending on making our way home when it came to our attention that Shadow had come to rescue us. We find him being tied down surrounded by these Vikings. One even stepped forward to finish him off. I interfered and freed Shadow where the both of us then battled the Vikings. The King shows up and we ask him why we were here and he leads us to his study where he proceeds to tell me that I'm engaged to his son and that a wedding will take place within a year. When I tell him he has no right to do that he then tells us that we practically came out of nowhere and denies that we even have a father. And he and his son continued to believe that as they continue to make future plans for us."

Tobias was quiet as he released his daughter's chin. He bypassed his two daughters and walked calmly towards the now nervous King. He eyes Ulfric with an emotionless face.

"Tell me Ulfric…"the king flinches. "Is what my daughter saying true?"

He may not have seen them being brought into this world but he knew his bloodline better than anyone. His girls may not have known about them being his blood but he was going too make sure they were loved and cared for.

The King opened his mouth to say something but couldn't so instead he nods his head yes. The King knew he wasn't acting like a true Viking right now but he wasn't stupid. He heard about this man and what he could do. This man was known as the Crimson Dragon King. He earned that name as he could command thousands of dragons to do his bidding. As for the crimson part well he earned that part because his clothes and swords were always bathed in the crimson of blood.

When Tobias saw him nod he released a terrifying growl. "How dare you do that Viking? You of all people knew how they were precious to me and you go and pull something like this, it's unforgivable!"

"I didn't know they were your daughters." He gestured to Christen and Sookie. "I thought your daughters were younger than Dot."

That just made Tobias angrier. Christen could see how this was affecting her father so she walked towards him and grabbed his hand. Tobias snapped his head towards her.

"Papa, please calm down and try to talk with a level head." She suggested smiling softly.

Tobias closed his eyes and took calming breaths before relaxing. He opened his eyes now, not completely, calm. "How do you do that?"

Christen just smiled. "Practice."

Tobias just chuckled as he turned away. "Come Ulfric we have much to discuss."

With that Christen released her grip on her father and watched as he and the King walked away. Christen released a sigh as her shoulders sagged in relief. She turned to face Sookie only to notice that Eric was eying her with a smirk on his face. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"What the heck are you smirking at? If you think for one second that my father would agree and allow our marriage then you got another thing coming, peroxide pest."

Eric became confused at the last part of the sentence. He didn't understand what she had said but Sookie did and it took everything in the girl not to laugh at the blonde male's look of confusion.

"Come along Sookie I have a certain dragon to take care of and a bath to get to." Christen called.

The blonde female nodded and joined her as they left behind a confused Viking Prince.