RAGNAROK IS COMING
Break Me, I Dare You.
Liogoo rolled her wrists. She hated this, hated Midgard and its caveman instruments. She heaved again, slashing the wooden oar through the sea that splashed her in Niflheim's icy waters every chance it got. Midgard was a hateful, hateful realm.
She glanced to her right where Tannis held the other oar and matched her rhythm perfectly. He caught her gaze and a smile hitched his face, Liogoo scowled.
They had stolen this boat, woken Tannis from where he slept in the inn and scuffled through the night's shadows.
It had been Tannis that spotted the vendor from earlier and him Avrid sent out as a distraction while they untied the ropes.
The boats were the strangest shape, Liogoo concurred. Too long to be nimble or fast and too thin to be steady on the realm's icy shores. And then there were the oars. Heavy blasted things that moved through the water like a leaf through the mud.
Of course, Avrid didn't see it as a nuisance but rather a training exercise for her, an activity to 'strengthen her muscles'. Liogoo had merely looked at Tannis with squinted eyes and he'd taken an oar.
"Where are we heading?" He spoke now from beside her, a thin sheen of sweat on his brow.
Avrid pointed Forseti to his left. "The wrong way."
Cursing, Tannis let his oar drop and pushed against the force of the boat until Avrid nodded that they'd straightened on course.
How Avrid could tell where he was going seemed a mystery to Liogoo. Everything in sight was either a cloudy grey or murky blue and now that the sun had stolen the stars, there was neither north nor south to be distinguished. Still, he lay across the bow bobbing to the waves like a babe in his mother's arms.
The dead human they'd left buried in the dirt somewhere had said something to him, one word that left Avrid stuttering and a grumpy mess. Liogoo found herself unable not to pry.
"Berk." Liogoo stilled, "It's Berk we're going to isn't it?" there was nothing but silence in response.
"Avrid, answer me."
She got one open eyelid yet it was enough to make her look away. He sighed then and got up from the bow, ushering Tannis from the oar so that Avrid could face her.
"Berk?"
His jaw flexed but he answered her this time, "Yes. Berk is an island I'm… familiar with. But, when I knew it last, their defences were far from fortified. I suppose in time it may have-"
"Berk was your home."
His eyes snapped up a warning. He snatched the oar from Tannis, handing it to her and made to move, a strange twitch on his face. "This time don't pass my orders off."
Liogoo knew what she was saying before it came out of her mouth. "Berk is where we're going and it's the place you don't talk about because you fear what I will think if you do."
Avrid's eyes had gone ice cold. "Liogoo,'' he warned.
Liogoo stood, walking slowly as if Avrid were a scared mutt. "Berk is why you have those scars, is it not?" His hand twitched involuntarily. " It's where your dragon lost its tail and you that leg, the one you think I don't know about."
He went deathly still as Liogoo came closer. She was prying and she knew it but there was excitement in seeing how far she could push.
The waves were an angry thing bashing at the wooden sides of the boat.
"Berk is the place you're ashamed of because you have always been ashamed of where you came from. Berk is where she is, the one whose wedding ring lays on your heart." Liogoo pushed the palm of her hand hard on his chest, revealing the thin rope around Avrid's neck. The one that indeed held a wedding ring.
He couldn't speak.
This close, Liogoo could smell his rising temper, could feel hot breath on her cheeks. "Where she died or left you so heartbroken you ran the nine realms, barely keeping the pieces of yourself together. Where, even centuries later, you still fall to your knees every night in hopes the Old Gods can hear you beg for forgiveness."
That snapped his resolve. Avrid lurched for her, his hand wrapped viciously around Liogoo's neck. He pinned her to the helm and even Tannis seemed to be frozen by his anger. Liogoo tried to push him off, scratched and wheezed whatever air she could.
"You dare!" Avrid seethed, squeezing so tight, Liogoo's already blue lips seemed to turn sapphire. "You dare speak in such matters again and I will ensure you can never speak again."
Too far perhaps.
He let go of her and Liogoo fell, coughing and spluttering to the floor. Avrid grabbed her by the jaw, his fingers digging in enough to bruise. She was forced to look at him, the pain in her throat and jaw almost making her sob.
"The moment my message gets back to Radox you will return with a suspension for the sheer insolence of your attitude."
Liogoo fell in a heap, still trying to breathe and clutching her jaw. And then she laughed.
One great victorious laugh.
"You think I disrespect you when I only tell the truth. The truth you refuse to admit." Her voice was raspy but it didn't undercut the tone in her words. She managed to sit up and threw her head back, gulping in the air now free to her.
"That I know you, even the parts you don't tell me."
Avrid watched her, one hand braced on the boat's edge. He watched her like one would watch the end of a candle flicking out.
"You may never let me into your Court because you claim I can offer nothing, but I know the real reason. I know you only fear the connection we have."
Avrid chuckled this time. Small and mocking before he turned his back to Liogoo and instructed her to keep rowing or he'd throw her over the side. She'd obeyed with a small smirk but it was Tannis that noticed who won.
...oOo…
"You're meeting Drago in ten minutes. Astrid, what on Midgard are you doing in bed?"
She sighed and buried herself under fur and fluff but Heather was having none of it. The heels of her boots clicked against the tiles as she moved through the room. Astrid was just beginning to fall back asleep when Heather yanked the covers off.
"Leave me alone!"
The other girl only extended a hand, a sour look pulling her lips tight. "You've got thirty seconds before I beat your ass with a bedpan."
Astrid shoved her away and clambered into the bathing room, shutting the door before Heather could follow.
"Two minutes Astrid! Or it'll be your demise." She snapped through the door.
Astrid fell to the floor. She was spent. One hour of interacting had her drained and she'd come back from the alchemist to head straight back to bed. And though the sun had begun to fall there was still a massive throbbing in her head. All she wanted to do was climb back into bed. She sat there a moment, head rested uncomfortably and knees pulled to her chest, but still, her eyes shuttered closed.
Something knocked her forward.
Heather's face poked past the door. She shook her head slowly but didn't chaste Astrid. Instead, she gently pushed her way in, ignoring Astrid's grunts until she stood, hands on her hips in front of the blonde Viking.
Despite the bouquet of disapproval from Astrid, Heather managed to prim and press every spec of her. Like a prize pig ready for slaughter and when they were done, Heather walked her up to the floor-length mirror.
There was no difference in the way she was dressed from the night before or this morning. The colours too bright and not enough fabric. Beyond that, the paleness of her skin, the heavy bags under her eyes and unhealthy skinniness, it was far from beautiful. Still, Drago had described her as such, decided that she would be the one to keep as his plaything when he had Yrsa and even Heather more fitting than herself.
Astrid was far from vain but to see her strength and years of hard work to transform her body into a thing of power diminished into this? It was easy to believe the alchemist, to believe she was but a skeleton walking. This skeleton, however broken, was about to show Drago just who he had captured. Vikings are strong-willed, stubborn and she would survive this; let Drago try his best.
Resolve tightened her limbs and Astrid pulled deadened hair from her face, looking heather straight in the eyes. "Well, where is he?"
The corner of the girl's mouth tipped in a half frown. "Waiting for you."
Without thinking on what that would mean, Astrid lifted the silk shawl left on the end of her bed and wrapped it over her shoulders; raising a hand to indicate Heather to lead the way.
A small nod and Heather took her through the living room. Paeton led her from there out the corridor and through the castle. His steps were sure and his head high though he walked slower than his normal march. There was trepidation as if the guard wanted this just as much as she did but Astrid didn't even let that strike fear in her.
Soon enough he had taken her up the northernmost wings of the castle and though she had tried her hardest to keep a general map in her head, Paeton had obviously been taking her in loops to throw her off. When they finally reached a large wooden door he knocked twice before opening it.
Where Astrid had thought her room huge, practically the size of her home at Berk, this room was far larger. There was barely any decoration though, rather a minimalist amount of furniture and pale decor. For a man who dressed his staff in uniforms that screamed rich and a castle wrapped in silk and velvet, his own chambers were almost boring.
Walking in with far too much familiarity, Paeton pulled white curtains over a large window and began lighting the candles around the room. One nearest the bed- which seemed like a fire waiting to happen- others dotted here and there. Along the back of a pale couch and in the crevices in the walls.
"This is his chambers?" Astrid said in disbelief from her stationary spot in the door frame. Paeton looked at her with disregard.
"No. This is where you- where he will meet you when he is finished with his conference."
Nodding, Astrid wandered to one of the candles; tempted by the gods to push it over and watch the entire castle be engulfed in flames. As if he could read her thoughts, Paeton called her to sit on one of the sofas lining the far wall, closest to the window.
She complied, trying her hardest not to snide. "So am I meant to sit and wait for him?" Paeton ignored her, and, finished with making the entire room a potential fireplace, stood by the door, his face the picture of stone.
"Do you not feel sympathy at all for what he is doing? For what he has done to my home?"
Silence.
"Have you been here long? Captured from another village or come from Drago's?"
Nothing.
Frustrated and anxious, Astrid turned to the empty pale curtains and tried her best to stop the bobbing of her leg.
"No."
Her head snapped to Paeton, waiting for him to elaborate but he was still looking straight ahead, statue straight. Astrid wondered if she'd imagined it before.
"I came from a huge city- a place outside the Archipelago. We were formidable and peaceful." There was no emotion in his face but she could hear a wave of simmering anger in his voice.
"And Drago did the same with your village as mine?"
His mouth twitched. "No. He didn't raid my village." Paeton finally looked at her and despite his cold demeanour she knew it was all a mask; they always were. That scar over the bridge of his nose told more than his words could.
"He slaughtered them."
The door swung open at that exact moment and the monstrous form of Drago limped in. Astrid tried her hardest to ignore him, but his size was too big, his mere presence enough to make her shudder.
The drag, click of his metal leg became a countdown to her demise as he came closer. Beyond his hulking frame, she could see Paeton slip out of the room, the click of the door a signature to Valhalla.
Would Drago kill her for making a disaster of his show the night before?
His gruesome face was the picture of pleasantness, something almost worse than a raging monster. Drago wore the same dark collection of hides and medallions over his chest, in his right hand- the flesh one- he held a spear.
He came up to her, his giant form meant her face rested just above his knee as she peered up. She pushed as far back into the sofa as she could, refusing to even breathe his smell of blood and metal.
When she turned her face into her shoulder he made a hateful grumble and reached out for her jaw. His hold was firm and crushing and would most definitely leave bruises on her pale skin.
"What are you going to do to me?" She hated the tremor in her voice, hated the welling in her eyes.
Drago's mutilated mouth curled like a vine as he yanked her up, close enough to his face she could taste his foul breath in her throat. Her feet dangled off the ground, the entirety of her body weight placed on her jaw.
There was no point in even trying to fight him off, she knew that. That would waste her energy and quite possibly fail spectacularly. When she didn't move, his fingers gripped tighter and the pain became a pounding in her head.
"Do you know," his voice was as deep as Helheim, like trees in a storm, "the embarrassment you caused me?"
Even if she knew what to say, his grip was deathly.
"You are immune to my serum, utterly immune. That has never happened before, not even my immunes were utterly unfazed by its poison. Yet, according to the alchemist, you seem to be thriving on it."
Drago's eyes flashed and then he threw her to the ground, her knees bashing painfully against each other. Tears were forming in her eyes, but they weren't from despair. Still, she kept quiet and gently pulled herself onto the sofa again.
Drago walked over to the bed and placed his spear against its headboard. "Tell me what realm you come from. Who is your king?"
This time she couldn't stop the exasperated sigh that came out. "When you speak like that it makes no sense to me. I can't give you the answer you're looking for because I come from here, Midgard. I'm assuming that's what you mean." She stood up, tightening the shawl to keep herself from falling apart."I am not a Giant or a God or a Dwarf or Vanir. I am Astrid Hofferson, Shieldmaiden of Berk. I am a Viking, a human. I don't know why your magic potion doesn't work on me but if you're going to kill me then get over with it."
Drago looked at her, his forehead creased in what she guessed was amusement. "Oh I don't want to kill you, Shieldmaiden- tell me, how much of a maiden?"
She could stop herself from stumbling back. Drago walked back over and she forced will in her eyes and strength in her bones as he ran his scarred hand down her cheek.
"Have you ever been humped before?"
Scarlet fear pulled her heart to a stop. The word whore had a meaning and she knew it, but the reality made her want the world to start bursting into flames.
Drago smiled, "I'll take that as a no."
His hand fell to her neck and by the gods, she wanted to scream and roar, kick him in the crotch like her mother had shown but she was so weak. Her own hands came up and fruitlessly pulled and scratched but she was like a kitten to a lion.
He pulled her into his chest and never had she felt so small, so helpless. Men were cruel and mean, she knew that already but she had always been strong enough to ward them off. To fight her honour. Even as she tried to ram her knee into his stomach he caught her easily.
"When I tell you to do what I say it is never a suggestion but a demand. When you live and breathe you are mine to scratch, choke, hump, slap and play with, do you understand?"
Have Loki tie a string around her neck before she would ever become his play-thing.
"Or I know two small boys who would be perfect experiments for my alchemist."
Ice-cold fear wrung her face dead.
Drago practically beamed. "Oh yes, I have them now. I was going to test and see if your immunity carried through in your bloodline but perhaps your cooperation would sway me from that idea."
He stepped away from her then and reached for the clasp under his neck that kept his cloak in place. If he had Sunnil and Ryther- if he tried this Freabole on them and she was, in fact, the only one that could withstand it, if he killed them. A single tear traced down her cheek. Astrid would do this, for her brothers' lives she would do anything.
"How do I know you have them, that you're telling the truth?"
"If you play nice, I'll have the guard take you to them." And that was enough to break her resolve. Even if she went along and was lied to in the morning, then at least she would know he didn't have them; screw survival instincts, she would throw herself out her glass window before walking into this room again.
"What do you want?" her voice didn't tremble anymore, she had a purpose, a worthy one. This shame and defiling would not scar her as it once did her mother, she would walk with her head held high and the moment her chance came.
The moment she has the strength to jam a blade through his heart, she would end his vile existence.
"Take off my armour."
Astrid walked over and began unbuckling and pulling off the furs and leather armour, doing so with as much force as she could muster. Drago watched her every move, his eyes roaming her chest when she pulled open the buttons on his trousers. When she was done and all that confined him were thin slacks and a tunic she stood back and waited for his command.
"Remove your clothes."
The rest of her movements became a numb blur and when the cold air pinched her chest she refused to be ashamed. This was not her body and not against her control.
Except it is, and you're defiling yourself. What would your mother think of you now, cowering and heeding to a man like this? Her own voice mocked back.
It is for my family, she would understand, Astrid repeated over and over. It's for Ryther and Sunnil.
When Drago pulled her to the bed and roamed and took she looked to the pale white roof and imagined anything else, anyone else. Her mind wandered to a dangerous place but she focused instead on the roof. On the mild pattern of it, on the candle burning beside the bed, watched as it burned all the way down to the wick.
And when the moon was full in the sky and her heart a shattered mess Astrid couldn't stop the tears from falling. Drago had fallen asleep and she ran to the bathroom and found a bucket to empty her stomach as quietly as possible. A silent scream battered and scratched her throat.
When there was nothing left in her she crawled to the window and behind the curtain. Pressing her body against the cool glass, she watched the moon until it was outshone by the sun.
…oOo…
I was fully planning to forget about this story but then I got a little PM and a new wave of inspiration- also procrastinating the hell out of my exams- and here we are. I can't say when I will be updating again- actually, I have the new chapter ready to go but alas we shall see what happens.
I think this story is well over four years now, published first in 2019 and I have only thirteen chapters to show for it- the life of a procrastinator. I won't give up though, so stay or don't, cause it's definitely been -and will continue to be- a long one.
And again, any topics I hit that are sensitive do consider that this is a mature story and refer to my last chapters, I want you to know the purpose of my including such topics are to continue to express and show some of the most horrid things in this world and remove the stigma and as well to remind you that you are stronger than what happens. That you can be the hero. - ewwww, but still, my message stands.