Thank you guys so much for being so kind :) Hoping you enjoy this one and that it isn't terrible! I get so nervous about updating, but I hope you'll still enjoy the story.
Chapter Ten
As night fell on them for the second time, Sookie found herself just as nervous as she had felt the night before about sleeping in the open on land, with no walls of a Kingdom to protect them from the many unknown wild creatures that scavenged around at night for food or something living to kill. It was cold, with the only source of warmth and light coming from the fireplace the men had assembled to pull them through.
She felt unbearably vulnerable as she sat a stone's throw away from the heat of fire, her eyelids heavy from lack of sleep and her ears listening cautiously for any danger to come their way. Eric and his men seemed carefree and particularly jovial this evening, as if they were aware their voyage home was near. They laughed and whispered in their language, hardly concerned by the possibility of any animals coming to attack once they all fell asleep and let their guards down.
A howling noise from what was probably a wild and hungry dog came not too far away from where they were and she jolted fearfully, holding her arms tight around her stomach as she inspected their dark surroundings cautiously.
Some of the men broke out in loud guffaws around her and she knew they were laughing yet again all at her expense. Most of them were watching her, looking her way, not bothering to hide their amusement at her reaction. They were obviously used to the strange sounds of animals in the night. It was only when she heard Eric raise his voice from where he was across from her, saying something in language that sounded like a stern and sharp command, that she noticed their laughter quickly died down and she caught some of the men who had laughed smile at her ruefully, as if apologizing.
"Thank you," she whispered gratefully under her breath, despite knowing he had no chance of hearing her across the fire. And she didn't want him to hear her.
Although Sookie couldn't comprehend their language she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Eric was coming to her defense- probably not a first- and immediately, she took back her earlier harsh judgments of him due to him spying on her as she bathed in the morning. Maybe she had been wrong? So he could be irritating and cocksure, but aside from all of that, he was not half as bad as her initial impressions had told her.
He clearly respected her, enough that he willingly scolded his men for laughing at her.
While most of their talks had resulted in them butting heads, he had not been completely unpleasant towards her:
He hadn't been forceful with her, as yet. Just because she was sent off with him, he hadn't demanded she go to bed with him, no less that she do anything she didn't want to.
He had draped his furs over her the evening before after he noticed she was cold, probably sacrificing his own warmth for her. That selfless action alone had spoken volumes to her.
Sookie thought about the stories her Grandfather used to tell her, of how the Viking clan lived; How aggressive they were, and how they raped women and looted precious goods. Hearing those particular stories, his people had seemed so unpalatable and despicable. The stories her Grandfather used to tell her of them, it had made her feel afraid of ever coming across people like him, who appeared so alien and terrible in all the tales she had heard.
Only now, she realized, those tales told to her as a younger girl couldn't have been further away from the truth.
They were hardly as bad as the tales her Grandfather had portrayed and depicted them as. She remembered what Eric had told her the night before, about his father telling him the same tales of that very negative nature when he himself was a young boy, which had portrayed her fae kind just as horribly and monstrously in return. It was truly no wonder why their kinds were at constant odds with each other, she thought. All that hearsay...
So now, here she was, bartered in marriage to guarantee the reconciliation between the Vikings and the fae.
A peace-pledge, so that there could be no more war between his kind and hers.
At first, upon laying eyes on Eric, she had felt terrified of him, just as much as she had with all of the men that were with him. She was expected to be married to this man who she knew nothing of, except for the unpleasant stories her Grandfather had told her as a girl. She was determined to complete her duties and honor her Grandfather's wishes, and the idea of peace established between her kind and his were so very appealing.
She told herself, no matter what, that she would do her kind proud.
That she would find love with this confusing man, no matter what the cost and how difficult it would be to open her heart to him and allow him in.
Hearing his lewd thoughts on the appearance of her body when he had come across her this morning had not warmed her to him any. But knowing of his plight with his family being massacred by wolves, she found her heart thawing out for him a little.
Due to hearing his thoughts, she could tell he was tortured. Consumed even, with the need to make whomever was responsible for their deaths die by his hand. Putting herself in his place, she could somewhat understand. Had her Grandmother or Grandfather, or brother- anyone precious to her- been viciously set upon, she might have even felt the same way about avenging them.
He had loved his family fiercely, and when she had touched him and delved into his mind and what had happened to his father and mother - something that had obviously plagued him every waking hour- she had felt his grief almost as if it was her own. Palpable, as if it had happened to her herself, the tragedy of what had happened to them however long ago it was.
He was no barbarian. He was no man like the one she had listened about in her Grandfather's tales of his kind.
She could relate, in that she loved her family just as much as he no doubt did with his. He was no savage, but a man addled with grief and loss. A man hell-bent on revenge.
Lowering her eyes to the harsh light of the embers in the fire, she focused on opening up her mind to everyone around her. Most of his men, she gained no clear insight into them and what pasts had accompanied them. Perhaps because they did not know the English language well, she heard simply fast, incoherent streams of thought in their own Viking tongue. Nothing she could properly make sense of. But one she heard clearly, set apart from the rest, that belonged to Eric's himself. She recognized his raspy deep voice, as he contemplated on something very seriously inside his skull.
She looks cold, she heard. Maybe I should go over to her... I'm cold... Could use a warm body... Knowing her, it would only insult her... Why should I even care if it insults her or not...When did I become such a woman... Idiotic... Cowardly... Just go to her...
She felt her blood warm as it dawned onto her that he was thinking of her and inhaling in deeply, she closed her mind up and waited for him to approach. The palms of her hands felt slick with sweat and her stomach was coiled in nerves when she caught from the corner of her eye his movement as he hulked over towards where she was seated by the fire; One hand resting on the hilt of his sword and his eyes cast down at the ground.
Sookie threw a swift glance up at him and pretended to be surprised when he sank down and sat near her. Whether it was intentional of him or not, she noticed he sat close enough that his side pressed against hers and their elbows met and touched. She waited in silence patiently for him to speak first, her eyes lowered to her hands as she smoothed her gown down over her knees and when not a sound came from him, she glanced quickly his way in confusion.
She found he was already looking at her, and their eyes met and held for a few seconds before she grew too nervous again and she deliberately looked away. She found herself confused. Why wasn't he talking to her or did he just approach her to gawk?
After what seemed a long time, he finally spoke.
She heard him clear his throat, then he asked, "Are you cold?"
"A little," she whispered softly.
Scaring her because he was acting in a way that seemed overly kind, she saw him move closer and then he was sliding his furs over her shoulders, as he had the night before when he had noticed she was shivering. Sookie felt her breath hitch in the base of her throat over the gesture when he used his hands to collect the strands of her hair gently, lifting her hair out-of-the-way while she brought her hands up to drape his furs more securely over her exposed shoulder blades.
While she was aware she had practically begged him for a truce between them so that they would no longer quarrel, it still shocked her, his gentleness and caring over her being cold. Despite having let herself listen to his thoughts, it still came as unexpected to her. Shifting away from her and placing some distance between them, she heard the way he inhaled unevenly through his mouth and the loud friction of his hands as he rubbed them together to create some warmth for himself against the dramatic drop of temperature in the air that came along with the night.
She felt an unanticipated pang of guilt that now he had no choice but to endure the cold because she had taken his furs.
"But now your going to be cold," she said, bringing her eyes over to his face. She could see, by the way his jaw and chin were quivering, that he was freezing.
"I'll survive," he said coolly with a careless shrug. His lips turned slightly into a smile and she found herself staring at them. She remembered when they were by the tree, the way he had kissed her, in a different way that she had never experienced before.
The way the hairs on his chin felt as it brushed against her when his lips met hers. Prickly, but not at all unpleasant. The warmth of his lips, and how... strange it had made her feel when he used them against her own lips and her skin. In a way that disturbed her, she actually wouldn't have minded it happening again, being kissed by him.
"Perhaps so," she murmured, her voice unrecognizable to her ears. She sounded... different. "Still, I feel terrible."
He licked his lips with his tongue and she quickly tore her eyes away, feeling her cheeks redden. She suddenly felt paranoid that he himself could read her thoughts, despite knowing fair well she was the only one with that ability. She found herself relieved he couldn't. For him to know what she was thinking right now, no less feeling... she would have rather died.
She couldn't believe what she was thinking, what she was feeling. How could she desire to share another kiss with him after everything that had happened? They argued and he definitely went out of his way to irritate her. She irritated him, and he had made it clear on her time and time again. She shouldn't be craving kisses with him.
She knew he felt attracted to her. Well, her body and the look of it.
After having seen her bathing in the river, she knew he had liked her breasts and wanted to climb in the water with her. He had felt tempted to. Tempted to touch her. Lick her. Be inside of her.
When she allowed herself to look at him again, she found he was still staring directly at her, his eyes bright and alert, shining from the fire. She was shaken by how grave and severe he suddenly looked, and she couldn't suppress the noise that escaped her when he moved hastily, his warm mouth suddenly by the shell of her ear.
"You are not to ride with Godric again," he whispered, and she was struck by even how firm his voice was. "You will only ride with me." It was an order and she could tell as much. His lips brushed against her ear with every uttered word, the coarse hairs on his chin delightfully buffing her.
Taken aback, she swallowed against a lump in her throat and leaned back slightly to peer at him. Again, he looked severe and harsh; His eyes staring intently into hers. "Oh? And why not?" she dared to ask, pleased by the steadiness of her voice despite how unnerved she felt. "Why can I not ride with Godric again? Why must I only with you?"
"You are for me," he insisted, his voice oddly strained, "and for me only."
"Am I?" she asked him derisively.
"Yes," he ground out between clenched teeth. "Yes, you are. You are for me and not for anyone else. You are mine, you were given to me, and you will not ride with anyone else but me."
Sookie's head swarmed at his heated declaration. She was his? Her mind flashed back to today, how peculiar he was being as she rode on horseback with Godric, how he kept sending cutting looks their way. She couldn't understand the reason for it. But now, she thought she was beginning to. She didn't even have to open up her mind in the attempts to work him out. He was feeling insecure. Paranoid with the thought that what had been gifted to him would be taken away right from underneath him by another, like his friend Godric.
"Now it has all been revealed," she sang out, her voice tremulous. "I was confused why you were behaving the way you were earlier, and now I know why." The words spilled out of her mouth passionately, "I know what my duties are and I fully intend to keep them. Clearly we do not know each other, and you do not know the girl I am. But I know the girl I am, and I know I'm one that will devote herself fully to her husband above all else, even if her husband-to-be is an obnoxious ass."
"Obnoxious ass?" He repeated in a voice as low as a whisper, and Sookie was pleased to find good-hearted humor shine in his eyes over her insult. At least he was consistent; She had called him many things- a beast, a whore, swine- and yet, he regarded them as funny.
"Yes, obnoxious ass," she confirmed, peering straight into his eyes. The severity in his expression faded and she could tell he was trying not to laugh.
"Now you are trying to distract me," he whispered. "But I mean what I say."
"Distract you? Hardly." Turning away from him stubbornly, she stretched out against the ground, wincing at its hardness. "I'm tired and I'm sleeping now. I give you good-night."
At the start of dawn, Sookie woke and raised herself up on her elbows, peering around.
She listened to birds making their first tentative sounds of the morning while she tried to work some of the stiffness from sleeping on the hard ground out of her body. Strangely, she found herself eager to reach Eric's village, where hopefully, there would be a nice bed to rest on and not earth. The fire from last night had gone out and was burning off in smoke and most of the men were still fast asleep, aside from... Eric who she could not find among them. She wondered what time he had woken and where he had gone off to.
But then more basic needs took over that needed to be immediately taken care of and she lifted herself up to her feet, grimacing at the horrible cracking sounds her bones made. She felt awfully stiff and rigid as she went off on her way, searching for somewhere safe and private to relieve herself. She found a long tree with a trunk that seemed as if it would offer her enough concealment from any of the men had they happened to wake and she clawed the bottom of her gown up with her fingers, crouching down with her back facing the tree.
She kept her eyes forward for reassurance that she wouldn't be caught-out emptying her bladder and once done, she sighed deeply with relief and stood, shifting her gown back down over her legs to cover them modestly. Where did Eric go? she wondered, Or maybe he had the same idea in mind as I did? She was still wearing his furs and she was keen on giving it back.
She returned to where the men were and their old fire, and she spotted Eric the first instance she looked. He seemed agitated and tense as he looked around searching for something, his hair blowing across his shoulders in the breeze. She didn't realize until his eyes found her that that something was her. His body seemed to sag in relief and she heard him sigh loudly at her reappearance, for reasons unknown to her.
He seemed to eye her warily as she approached him while she went to remove his furs.
"Keep it," he said quietly. "You might need it again. I feared something might have happened to you."
"What do you mean?" she asked him in confusion.
"Just then when you were gone... I was beginning to fear that you... I came back and you were gone."
"I am fine," she assured him, touched by the worry in his expression. "As I said, I can take care of myself. I only-"
Eric stormed over to where she was standing, breaking whatever little distance there was left, and for a moment he simply looked at her, with a determined and solemn look on his face. Then his head came down and he kissed her.
Hope this wasn't terrible? Thank you guys so much. Hoping you aren't annoyed with the slow pace. It'll pick up next chapter. As usual, I'd love to know your thoughts :) TY!