Disclaimer: Sookie Stackhouse - Southern Vampire Mysteries belong to Charlaine Harris. I do not own this story!
Chapter 2
Eric's Point of View
The guard was correct; she spoke in a strange English tongue. But what shocked me more was that she was the spitting image of the woman from my dreams. The dreams I'd been having for the past month and the cause to my non-existence intimacy with the woman of my choosing from the court. I rose from my chair and made my way down the platform.
"Leave!" I command the room at large. "Except for my brother and the guards." I say again in Swedish.
I look down at the woman again and study her with curiosity, which often on more than one occasion curiosity gets the better of me. I wait until the room is empty with the exception of the guards and my brother before I speak again.
"How do you know my name?" I ask in English, my Swedish accent strong.
She looks at me confused.
"Eric, stop fucking around and tell these assholes to let go of me." she snaps, growing annoyed and angry.
"Woman, I have no idea how you know my name. According to my guards you just appeared out of thin air. Is what they are saying to be true?" I ask her, moving closer.
I took in her clothing choices and it was the same dress as in my dreams that she wore this night. Are these all signs? The dreams, her being hear now in the flesh? She looked like I'd just hit her in the face and she suddenly glanced around, taking in her surroundings.
"No, no, no, no, no." She whispered, but of course her whispers were pointless as they echoed around the silent room.
"No, what woman?" I asked, feeling impatient.
"What are you?" She asked, looking me directly in the eyes.
I look back at her slightly confused and glance at my brother who looks equally perplexed.
"I am the King of the Vikings; King Eric Northman of Sweden and Norway. My name is well known around the European countries. You are English, are you not?"
Her pretty looking mouth drops a little as she gasps in shock.
"You're shitting me right?" She asked me, confusing me with her choice of words I ask what she means.
"I am unfamiliar with the phrase you speak of."
"You're not lying. I… I am in the era of Vikings?"
I feel myself frown.
"Era of Vikings?"
"Yes dumb-ass. I don't know how or why but I think I've some how been transported through time and travelled about 1000 years into the past." She takes a deep breath before continuing, "You see, before I somehow ended up here when before I was just outside in my garden, sitting on my swing by the woods in the corner of my gardens after hanging out washing. When I was about to go back inside, because the sun was becoming too hot, somehow I ended up here. Then these trolls suddenly had me pinned on hard ground when before I was walking barefooted on the soft grass of my garden."
"Interesting," my brother said, speaking for the first time.
Her eyes go to his, and I find I do not like her attention fixed on another.
"Indeed. So you are telling me that you somehow came 1000 years from the future, to my era of the Vikings?"
"Pretty much. I don't know why or how or understand the meaning of this, but I swear if this is someone's idea of a screwed up joke then it's them in the shithouse not me."
She looked rather pleased with the last few words she spoke. I raised my eyebrows and told my guards, in Swedish, to let her go.
"What is your name Miss...?" I ask her.
"Sookie, though you should already know that if this is all some fucked up joke or crazy ass dream you've fixed into my mind," she glares at me accusingly.
I just raise my eyebrow again. I tell my guards to leave as she's clearly not a threat, just confused. When she is freed from their restraining hands, she straightens up and my eyes immediately go to her breasts that grow before my eyes as her posture changes to straight backed and perfect shoulders. Her dress had been slightly lowered in the interference with the guards and I could see the peaks of the pink flesh around the buds of her breasts. My view is suddenly blocked by her arm and she snaps at me again.
"Oh no you don't buddy," she glowers at me, as she covers her breasts up.
I'm in front of her in a flash and take hold of her arms and stop her from hiding her delicious looking mounds from the brief glimpse I caught of them.
"Do not hide your figure Miss Sookie! If what you say is true then you'll know we Vikings have no shame in showing off nudity, especially woman and their figures."
She raises an eyebrow back at me, in almost the same way I did to her just a second ago. My brother laughs, a laugh I hadn't heard in a long time.
"I do believe brother that you have met your match brother. Miss Sookie has spit fire back at your every word. No woman or man would have the nerve to do that to a Viking Warrior who's a Major when in war and a King at home."
"Miss Sookie, now we are all but alone, overlooking my idiotic brother, you seemed to know who I was even though I've never met you, yet you talk of dreams and me meddling with them," I paused, "what do you mean?" I ask her.
I wonder if she'd been having dreams of me too. She looked at me confused for a second.
"You really don't know who I am?" she whispers.
"No."
Sookie glances back at my brother.
"He can be trusted. What is said here will not leave this room or we can take a walk to my privy chambers where only ourselves will be allowed to be."
"I've probably said too much already," she mumbled looking down at the dark wooden flooring.
I glance at my brother with a raised eyebrow. He is looking at Sookie with curiosity before meeting my gaze and nodding.
"I think it wise we continue this discussion in a more private area where we will not be interrupted."
"Are you up to walking Miss. Sookie?" I ask, delivering her a smirk.
"Fine," she says.
When she moved she stumbled making myself and my brother smirk.
"You've been manhandled by strong men and if what you say is true then you've been forced into another world, way out of your time. You've travelled a long distance even if you do not realise it. You've had a slightly unpleasant shock, and you've just proven you can't walk far with out stumbling," I say smugly.
Sookie glares at me, trying to not look amused. She looks to my brother.
"Is he always such a smug bastard?" she asks.
My brother laughs delightedly.
"I am unfamiliar with the term bastard Miss Sookie, but yes he's always painfully smug because he's nearly always right. That's why a lot of people trust his judgment."
She huffs and mutters out another, "fine."
I sweep her up into my arms; she feels as light as a feather in my strong arms. I of course wore no shirt, I hated the things. My normal clothing usually consisted of linen trousers in the winter months and cotton in summer covering my lower regions but that is all. Clothes simply did not fit my large, muscled body and felt uncomfortably tight when I did wear them. I grudgingly wore a linen tunic shirt in winter. I didn't bother this evening because the dining hall can become rather hot with all the dancing and entertainment.
I had to have my trousers made from scratch and at a specific hand, by a woman who's my mother's sister. She took on the role when my mother passed away. We may have Viking Royal-blood in our veins but my mother still liked to knit and sew even if she was a Queen and could demand someone else to do it. She liked to look after us herself.
We do not go out the same door as my people did but instead move to the door to the right of my throne. We walk down the long platform, about half way from my throne to the wall. My brother opens the dark wooden door and then closes it once we are through, placing the bolt and locking it. Only the royals were allowed through this door as well as a few selected guards or certain guests.
We walk down the long stone corridor. Miss Sookie wraps her arms around my neck in a neck lock. She is tense and her eyes dart around everywhere, taking in her surroundings.
I wonder how she feels, suddenly being thrust into a different era than where she came from. I could tell she was telling me the truth; I've always been good at knowing the difference between truth and lies. Call it one of my natural instincts if you like but whatever it is has helped me a great deal.
Finally we came to a circular room again all stoned walls and dark wooden flooring. There are several doors, three in total. One ventures off to my brother's privy chamber and another on the other side leads to mine. The middle leads to my parents' privy chamber but neither my brother nor I have ventured down there since their deaths.
I turn left and my brother opens the doors to my chambers. I have warm colored blankets draped over the walls to make my chambers feel more welcoming.
As I move out of the corridor and up the stairs with my brother following behind me, we climb about forty steps, leading up to my private rooms. I have a tower and there are several entrances. A private way (the way we just came) and another way from a different entrance within the castle. We all had our own secret passages and I knew of many. However when we reached my chambers we were not alone.
"Viking, put down my grand-daughter."
The tall man had his back to us. I tense and my brother, Christian, draws his sword.
"Great-Grandfather?" Sookie questions in a wary and shocked voice as I place her back on her feet.
The man turns around and Sookie collapses, luckily I manage to catch her before she hits the solid wooden floor. I glared at the man standing before me.
What involvement does Niall have in all of this, what do you all think? I'm interested in hearing your theories.