#and how athelstan sometimes calls for freyr their northern god

[writingindarkness]

okay but i’m never gonna be able to chill and get back to my wip if i don’t get this out of my system so sit down and listen up biches

the night before they’re due to sail back to Kattegat after the battle for Mercia the gods send Ragnar a dream to warn him that if he brings Athelstan back home with him he will be murdered. Homeboy freaks out because the only other option is to leave his christian boyfriend in England once more and it’s becoming painfully obvious that Ragnar can’t really live without Athelstan.

So ragnar does the only reasonable thing he can still do.

He shakes Athelstan awake, puts them both on horseback and goes away. Doesn’t tell anyone anything. Doesn’t even tell Athelstan where they’re going and why. Stan follows without asking questions cause his future lies with Ragnar and where Ragnar goes he goes.

So they go.

And eventually it’s been weeks and they’re miles and miles away from home and it’s starting to get cold again and they’re probably nearing Russia at this point. So one night kneeling near the fire while Ragnar stands deep in thought a few feet away with furs around his shoulders, Athelstan asks if they’re fleeing something specific and if they have an actual destination. And Ragnar is no liar so he tells him about his dream and how it was impossible for him to leave him behind but he couldn’t take him to Kattegat either if he was gonna die there, and so the only thing left to do was to go somewhere else. Far enough to be sure Athelstan was safe. Far enough to outspeed the guilt of having abandoned everyone and everything.

And Athelstan is a pretty chill person at this point but he still freaks out when he realizes that king ragnar lothrbok has left behind, probably for ever, his wife, his children, his friends and all of his loved ones, his kingdom and his dreams just because he wanted to be with Athelstan.

And ragnar sees the fear on his face, so he walks back to him and takes one of his hands and presses it against his chest and says ‘it’s okay, athelstan. do not worry about me. see, you fill my entire heart. so i shall not feel any pain so long as you are with me.’

and they keep on traveling east, ragnar waiting for athelstan to come to his senses, realize the whole thing is madness and turn back towards england and king ecbert, athelstan waiting for ragnar to start hating him for having had to trade him for everything and everyone else. it’s pretty stupid of them both but hey that’s how we love them.

and maybe when winter comes they’re trapped in a siberian forest and have to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. maybe they decide to stay there until spring. and maybe in the loneliness and the quiet of a strange forest, far away from everything and everyone they know, they confess their love for each other and that’s how the christian god and northern gods all come together at last. for through the blood and the fighting, the war and the raiding, through the spiritual struggles and family drama, love seems to be all that prevailed, all that is left once everything else has been stripped bare.

and you know maybe they eventually discover china or some shit