PREVIOUS NOTE:

From now on the chapters are longer 'cause the presentation of both main characters had be done so yeah, let's dive into the story. Nothing much to say today, just enjoy. Today... Damon's chapter again.

Oh, and remember two things: 1. English is not my first language so sorry if I make some mistake and 2. remember to read the final notes of vocabulary because there will be explanation of Vikings stuff (yeah I'm a geek in this subject) so you can have more context.

Also: I don't own Vampire Diaries or his characters.


Chapter 3: Sacrifice | Damon

"Faster, come on, we're not planting petunias". After that scream, Damon rose from the ground with his sword and picked up the shield that had fallen off him and he kept standing in front of the girl from whom such a howl had come out, and he pouted.

Rebekah looked at him with a smile and gently ruffled his hair. He was her best student despite not having a very privileged physique, because being honest, everything Damon had as good looking and handsome he had it as short.

"We've been 2 hours with this Rebekah, I think is time to stop".

"If your highness is tired... maybe yeah, we should stop" Rebekah mocked him.

"Hey!"

The girl laughed as she posed her sword and shield on the trunk of a tree and gestured to him to follow her along the road that connected the clearing with the town, which Damon did without hesitation.

"I'm joking but you have to be prepared to fight Damon. You don't have as much strength as the rest, you have to manage otherwise, be smarter, cunning... You have to know the-"

"The weakness points of my enemies and take advantage of them, be faster, more lethal than the rest... I know, Rebekah, trust me, I know. You've been telling me this exact words since we met" Damon interrupted her as he held her hands and looked at her smiling.

And the thing was that he knew, he was well aware of that.

He loved Rebekah. She was everything you'd expect from a warrior and more. Beautiful, strong and with blonde hair she possessed a spirit that just a few people ever in their lives had; it just caught you and you never want to take off from it.

Orphaned since childhood, she had managed to be who she was on the basis of dedication, effort, many hours in the forest hitting trees and Damon, because yes, he was with her all the way. They trained from the first hour of the morning in a clearing of the forest where they had placed a target and a small improvised bank. Ever since he could remember they spent hours and hours throwing arrows and fighting with wooden sticks, which years later would become real swords. Nobody knew about this, let alone his father. They were of opposite worlds and even though their culture wasn't so strict as to who you could talk to or not bassed on social classes, their friendship was tighten the rope too much. So they trained in secret, day by day, year after year, even if they were receiving the "official" instruction that everyone had to receive.

That place was their little sanctuary where they could be whoever they wanted to be without fearing anything or anyone. Their shelter.

Over time Rebekah began to stand out above the rest: agile, calculating and lethal, seeing her was like watching a valky* in combat; simply impressive. Damon had often wished to be her. It's not that Damon wasn't good, because he was, just not that good, not at her level.

Even his father, a very strict man with class differences, had fallen for her and, very wisely, decided to put her at the forefront of the instruction of the younger ones with the hope that perhaps some of her spirit would hit in them.

The day Damon found out, he did nothing but embrace her and tell her that he was proud of her. Because he was, very much. She had achieved what he always had wanted: for the gods to see and acknowlege her.

However, being in charge of the instruction wasn't easy: young people are very proud; everyone thinks they are the best, the fastest and the most cunning... until Rebekah appeared and without any regard she crushed them. It was a little bit humiliating to watch, really, but from then on everyone looked at it with unparalleled admiration and respect. What she deserves, Damon always thought.

"It's the first time I'm not coming with you, if anything happened to you..." the girl sighed as she looked down.

"Nothing is gonna happen to me, don't be dramatic, I can take care of myself. You've taught me how" he winked trying to cheer her up. "Besides, my brother is coming too, and Kol, and everyone else" finished Damon smiling. "And Elijah comes too, so don't really worry, I'll be fine, at the worst scenario I can count on them".

Rebekah frowned as soon as she heard the last name. Elijah. She had never liked him and she knew the feeling was mutual. There was something about him, something that just didn't fit. And if this wasn't enough, she didn't like how he treated Damon, even if he didn't want to see it. He isolated him and sometimes treated him like he was less than he was when all of what Elijah could be or become wasn't even a tenth of what the gods had meant for Damon, she was sure. But above all she hated him for what he represented: Damon clinging to someone who looked like he was gooing to fit into his life forever. Someone his family could accept one day for their son.

What his brother couldn't control, he wants to control it, though Rebekah. She didn't deny that the man loved her friend, no, she could accept that Elijah really loved him very much, as he always said, but he didn't love him well. Damon for Rebekah deserved someone who loved him just as he loved; with all his soul. Luckly or not to her friend, that someone wasn't Elijah. She knew it. Now she just had to convince him of it to her stubborn friend.

And for Odin* that she was going to get him to come to his senses.

"Yeah... well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, 'cause I think it's you-" she was interrumped.

"There you are! Everybody is looking for you, come on, the sacrifice is going to start" said a smiling Elijah as he kissed Damon and took him from the forest to the village.

He didn't even dignify himself to recognize the presence of Rebekah, which she thanked, and after a sigh of resignation she went behind them with one though in her mind I wish they sacrificed you, moron.

Damon loved it when there were sacrifices. Not for the sacrifice itself but for the atmosphere that was generated in the people. Everyone could feel it, the magic, the gods walking among them. Wanting to say something we still don't understand Damon always thought. But it was true that the sacrifices that were made for the good fortune of the travelers had nothing to do with the majesty of those made in the solstices in the temple of Uppsala*, they were really worth seeing.

The sacrifice started at sunset. The sun setting over the sea and throwing a red tone into the atmosphere, the torches of all the houses lit and were placed on all the streets so that, when night fell, everything was illuminated by the white and sparkling lights.

The altar had been located right in the centre of the village. Damon stood in the front row next to his brother Stefan and watched his family. The furthest was her mother who was really beautiful in her white robe for the sacrifice to be made. She was just like him; dark-haired, blue eyes, small, very beautiful and with a very marked protective personality. He adored her.

Who he didn't really appreciate that much was his father. How could he after what happened to his brother... with what would possibly happen to him. Not with Elijah, he'll get to be someone and there'll be no problem. His father was serious, tall and with a somewhat white hair already. Not that he was a bad person -because he wasn't- but he was too strict and intransigent. Nothing could escape his control, and the slighest problem was eliminated, no mattered what. Yeah, just eliminated.

Finally, next to him, was his brother who passed his arm over his shoulders and approached him by kissing him in the hair.

"Bro, where were you?" Stefan asked him smiling.

"With Rebekah, training, where else would I be?" Damon answered.

After this, Stefan looked discreetly behind him towards the area where Elijah had been located, looking back at him with a smile.

"Yeah... Well, I'm glad you're getting ready for the next journey".

And with that Stefan looked back in front, as Freyja's priestesses appeared dancing and dressed in white around the torches. They looked like spirits, goddesses who had come down to earth and who with their sinuous and repetitive dances attracted the attention of humans. There were no words to describe what it felt to see them dance, sing and entone millennial sounds. It was pure magic.

Suddenly, Thor's* priest appeared on the altar with a goat and began to recite the sacrificial ritual, which culminated in the death of the animal. The blood was gathered by the priest and every warrior was painted a symbol on his forehead and given some of that blood to be drank.

That night everyone was in ecstasy. Damon the most. It could be for the sacrifice, the adrenaline of the next's day journey or simply because of the magic that it felt on the environment. But in that moment when Elijah took his hand and took him to his room for the rest of the night he didn't care about anything else. He was just happy in that moment. That's why he may not get to see Rebekah's gaze of reprobation... or the love looks between Stefan and Caroline each one of them from a tip of the square.

He also didn't see his friends and other known people of the village screaming and dancing without fear of anything, or how the drunk ones started to head the streets.

"Leave her!"

Damon woke up suddenly.

That voice...

He looked around making sure to be where he had to be, calming down a little as he recognized the figure of Elijah next to him sleeping deeply.

Still, he took a quick look around him; the room was as it had been left at night, with clothes lying on the floor and empty bottles of alcohol. He was still not calm and carefully to not wake his partner got out of bed and put some clothes on.

Something's wrong. It was a constant thought he had in that moment.

Suddenly, he was overwhelmed, invaded with a great sense of something bad happening. I need to get out of here he tought, so as quietly as possible he left the room and headed outside.

A breeze hit him in the face and cleared him of the little sleep left. He began walking aimlessly through the streets of the village, which lucky were deserted except for some drunkards lying on the ground and by the few torches that lit up the streets. Imprint in his thoughts he arrived at the port and approached the beach.

He sat on the seashore and looked at his reflection at the sea. The sea always calmed Damon down. It was immense, quiet and only by looking at it he did feel a peace that his mind often didn't possess.

He remained silent with the sea and the stars as companions until he remembered the blood symbol on his forehead.

The signs given in the rituals were designs of the gods: crosses, points, triangles, spirals... it all made sense. His brother had a big point in the middle of his forehead just like his father because he is his successor, of course and he, he had a kind of semicircle that reminded of the moon. A sign of the gods, no doubt, but he couldn't interpret it yet at that moment.

Damon raised his head and looked at the sky full of stars. He sighed and made his way back as it began to blow a strong wind that was going to extinguish the torches as the dark-haired passed.

From the Valhalla* Freyja smiled at the young man.

Fortune favors the bold. Find yours.


Vocabulary (or additional information to understand some terms):

*valky/Valkyries: minor female entities that served Odin under Freyja orders. Its purpose was to choose the most heroic of those who fell in battle and take them to the Valhalla as Odin needed warriors to fight by his side in the battle of the end of the world, the Ragnarök.

*Odin: Considered the principal god of Norse mythology, he's the god of wisdom, war and death. But also to a lesser extent, the god of magic, poetry, prophecy, victory and hunting.

As a god of war, he was in charge of sending the valkyries to collect the heroic warriors killed in battle and in the end of time Odin will lead the gods and men against the forces of chaos in the battle of the end of the world: the Ragnarök.

*Uppsala: The Temple of Uppsala was a religious place that was created to venerate the Nordic gods of prehistoric times. Many of the most important celebrations and rituals were held there.

*Thor: is the god of thunder in Nordic and Germanic mythology. He had influence in very different areas, such as climate, crops, protection, consecration, justice, dealings, travels and battles.

*Valhalla: Literally "the living room of the fallen", Valhalla is a huge and majestic lounge located in the city of Asgard ruled by Odin. Upon death in combat, half of the dead travel to the Valhalla guided by the valkyries while the other half go to Fólkvangr of the goddess Freyja. In the Valhalla the deceased meet the masses of the dead in combat known as "einherjer", as well as with several legendary Germanic heroes and gods, as they prepare themselves to help Odin in the Ragnarök: the battle of the end of the world.


END NOTES:

So that's it. I know you're all probably waiting to them to meet but as I said this is a long fic, a long story, still so much to happen so I'm sorry but you're gonna have to be patient. But don't worry 'cause it's coming soon.

Next chapter is Alaric's chapter and no spoilers (again) but some big stuff happen so keep reading and let me know what you thing, theories, etc.

PS: I'm actually finishing chapter 5 because I wanna be a couple chapters ahead of the updates. Surprisingly (I didn't expect this), is taking me a lot less time that I thought to translate, edit and reread (for some mistakes) the chapters so yeah that's good because this way I could give you 3 chapters in just 3 days, such a short time... I'm proud of myself haha, anyways... back to the point: Chapter 4 will be posted this weekend for sure 'cause it's already ready.

Last thing: If I continue at this pace, as it seems is gonna be, the updates will definitely be twice a week, one during the week (no specific day) and the other on weekends. This will be the case as long as nothing new happens in my daily life because, as I said, I study and work part-time at the same time and sometimes it's difficult to find free time to write.

Well... sorry for not shuting my mouth yet, I'm stopping now haha. I hope you enjoyed it. See you soon.

THANKS, LOVE. AROA.