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imagine-loki · 7 years ago

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A Warrior’s Life

TITLE: A Warrior’s Life

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter One Hundred and Seven

AUTHOR: wolfpawn ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Viking Loki coming to your village, raiding, and pillaging, before deciding there is something about you that intrigues him and deciding to take you back to Asgard with him. There, you are forced to learn a new life and language, and though you hate what has happened to you, you learn that Loki is not as bad as you think.

RATING: Mature

NOTES : So, as stated already, Brian Boru was the first undisputed High King of Ireland, he defeated the Vikings in battle and was all and all, one bad ass and brutal man. Domhnall (pronounced Do-nal and as many would recognise the name from the lovely Domhnall Gleeson who plays Hux as well as Bill Weasley among other things) was indeed one of his sons.

Maebh, Loki and Thor sat analysing the men in front of them, who, in turn, were analysing them. Behind them, Thodin and Nafi would not be forced from the room.

‘Are they not young for this?’ One of the men asked, indicating to the boys.

‘No.’ Thor answered bluntly, the men looked at the two others in question.

‘Thodin,’ Maebh indicated to her nephew, who nodded at the mention of his name. ‘Is the future king of Asgard. As you can tell from his appearance, he is Thor’s son.’ She then indicated to Nafi. ‘Nafi is the future king of Svartalfheim, and he is our son.’ Nafi nodded, though he scoffed slightly as the men looked at the boy and then to her in confusion. He did not know what Midgardian words Maebh had spoken exactly, but there was no denying their meaning. ‘As two future kings, and as men, they are very much encouraged to be here, regardless of the language spoken.’

‘They are fine youngsters, and no doubt will be formidable warriors and rulers.’ Lord Brendain stated.

Maebh folded her arms and stared at him. ‘Lord Brendain I am not sure if you are overplaying because of fear or because you want to lull me into a false sense of security, but regardless, I am in no mood for either of such. I have dealt with too many of my old realm’s men of late, in fact, I have to say merely speaking this tongue makes me want to wound something terrible, with a force not befitting this conversation.’

‘Understandable, of course.’ Brendain gulped. ‘We hear stories of what was done to you and your daughter in Laigin, the anger and indeed resentment you feel is very just, but we truly mean no malice or harm, we only want peace.’

‘All say they want peace, but when have you ever truly seen it?’ Thor commented.

‘Peace is an ideal, it is not always possible, but we should strive for it nonetheless, hence why we are here today to speak with you.’ Brendain stated.

Thor looked to Loki and Maebh, the second of which, gave a slight nod. ‘Maebh believes that your Boru is a man worth considering listening to and you claim to have terms, let us speak of them, and see if we can arrange a truce.’

‘Thank you.’ The lord bowed before he turned to the man next to him. ‘This is Domhnall mac Briain.’

Maebh sized up the man introduced to them. ‘Are you a son or a brother of Boru?’

‘Son.’ The man confirmed.

‘Part of me is suspicious, this can be interpreted two ways as far as I can see. That your father instilled a great deal of faith in you, wanting you to be to the fore of these discussions, or that you are the one he can sacrifice to here, and were we to slaughter you, permit his coming here with an army.’ Maebh stated.

The men gathered looked at each other in terror. ‘I swear to you, I am not here for a fight, quite the opposite. My wife is on Midgard, she will birth our first soon, I want to make it back to her as swiftly as possible.’ Domhnall explained.

‘I know that feeling.’ Loki declared. ‘I too have walked into the home of a sworn enemy, my wife heavy with my child, and me anxious to return home to her. Let us see if we can get you home in time. I was somewhat disappointed I did not.’

‘Did the talks take a long time?’ The Midgardian prince asked.

‘No, not overly. The stab wound I took from those who thought to doublecross the King of Svartalfheim and us, took longer than I would have liked to heal.’ The men’s eyes widened, looking for a moment to Nafi, having been told that he would be king of that realm. ‘So, if this is truly a peace talk, we can ensure that.’

Nodding, the men sat in a more relaxed manner, and they began to discuss matters that would need to be ironed out between the two sides to make such agreements work. After a time, the Warriors entered the room and gave a nod to Loki, Thor and Maebh, telling the trio that the nearby area had been scoured for possible surprise attacks, but nothing had been found. When the men gathered looked at the other Aesir worried, Maebh unashamedly admitted to them what was occurring, though mildly insulted, the men understood the reasoning for such. By the end of the day, those gathered were able to come to agreement on most everything. With the men given a place to rest for the night, they were invited to eat with Loki and Thor’s families. Though Nafi and Anna were supposed to return to Svartalfheim, they agreed to wait until after the Midgardians left, if for nothing other than to see what was agreed to report it to Ásvaldr and keep the other king in the loop of the situation with Asgard.

The men watched in awe as the Aesir families sat together, the notably sized brood of the Ulaidh born princess and the Aesir prince being the first thing they noticed. ‘Is there….how many children had you that so many survived?’ Domhnall asked in awe as the twins sat beside one another, both eyeing the foreigners warily, Kushtrim not letting Danu out of his sight.

‘Only two were lost, one before birth, another to disease.’ Maebh stated solemnly, thinking of her unborn daughter and beloved Liulf.

‘Just two, in that many years?’

Loki looked to his wife for an explanation. ‘On Midgard, more than two making it to adulthood is noteworthy.’ She explained.

‘I see. Having heard from Maebh what you call childbirth care is, what we would call, barbaric. You see it as sordid and filthy when it is the most honourable and great thing a woman can do. On this land, should a woman die during or because of it, she is automatically welcomed to Valhalla in the same manner as a fallen warrior.’ Loki explained. The men stared blankly at him. ‘Valhalla, it is…..what did you call it?’ He looked to his wife.

‘Heaven, they call it heaven. And if a woman died in childbirth, she is not seen as any great fallen martyr and the child cannot be buried on sacred ground, it can only be dumped like a dead animal.’ She explained. The Aesir stared at her in disgusted shock.

‘Is this true?’ Sif looked at the man that spoke Aesir in utter horror.

‘I, well, the child is unbaptised, so it is not deemed a child of God.’ Lord Brendain explained, though highly sheepishly.

‘Norns, I have never heard something so horrific.’ Frigga had been silent for the most part, unhappy with Midgardians having been so rude as to merely turn up for talks rather than checking with a messenger.

‘They also stab old women, I would not put such an act passed them.’ Vali stated, glaring at the men from beside his grandmother.

The men, bar Lord Brendain, did not know what Vali had said, they did, however, get the general gist with the tone he was using. Domhnall asked Brendain to translate, Maebh saving him the bother and did so before the Midgardian Lord could recall the words. ‘What can I say, my children cannot let go of the actions again our family just yet, perhaps they will with time, Frigga will never walk unaided again, her life has been shortened by this, she is the matriarch of this family and none of us can truly forgive what happened her, or the good men that fought and died to protect us the day Danu and I were taken from here, they were not warriors or fighters, yet they tried regardless.’ She explained unapologetically as Einar began to fuss for some milk. ‘You also are about to learn something else of here, we are not as prudish as you. This is not going to be done to offend you, it is simply timing on my son’s behalf and I am not finished eating.’ The men went from frowning to wide-eyed as Maebh moved her dress enough to allow Einar to feed from her. Loki and Thor looked on with amused faces, the children with confused ones and the men gasped and winced.

Mother?’ Kushtrim looked at her worriedly. ‘What are they doing?’

‘No one has harmed them.’ Anna commented.

‘It is because I have the audacity to feed Einar here.’ The children looked amongst themselves, failing to see the issue. ‘Midgardians see such things as sordid, to be done in private.’

‘But…..he has to eat.’ Danu commented.

‘Did you not say that that is why girls have them and not men?’ Vali asked.

‘Yes, but to men who embrace the God that these men have embraced, women are subservient and are required to act in a manner that does not tempt men.’ Maebh explained.

‘How is feeding a baby tempting men?’ Modi asked, utterly confused by the situation.

‘Because some men feel that their urges need be justified by the actions of a woman. Women are seen as the downfall of man, and need to be treated as such.’

‘According to whom do these women lead to the downfall of men?’ Sif asked curiously. They knew of the God that Maebh had been raised on, but they seldom asked of the teachings and ways of the God and life she had lived before she came to Asgard.

‘Men, ironically enough.’

‘There is little shock in that, is there?’ Thor scoffed, looking at the men. ‘Here, women are accepted for what they bring to our people. They are capable of something men cannot do. They grow and birth our children, an act as good as the strength of the Gods themselves, they can farm, tend homes, weave nets, cook, teach and even, scarily enough, tend to accounts, as such, they are not subservient to the men they marry and a nursing mother is the earthly depiction of the Goddesses of life and childbirth. Though Maebh does hold a title on Midgard now I believe, of an old Goddess.’

Brendain cleared his throat, his eyes very much looking everywhere bar at Maebh. ‘Yes, well, we have heard such, and talk of a raven….’ He paused when Danu sneered and pointed up. The men looked up to see Morrigan on the beam above them, having been there the entire time, watching them closely. ‘Oh, God.’ The man blessed himself.

‘So it is true….’ Domhnall stated. ‘You invoke the old Gods?’

‘I invoke no one, though I believe they seem to act as though they work through me.’ She smiled, sitting Einar up to wind him. As soon as she did, he reached for Loki, making small attempts to get to his father. Smiling at his son lovingly, Loki took him and winded him, Einar dozing off again as he did, leaning in against his father, surrounded by his natural scent, something that settled Einar every time. The men frowned again at that. ‘Men here are aware of what their offspring look like before they reach puberty.’ She informed them after placing herself inside her dress again. ‘You really have no idea the drastic and severe chasm of difference there is between these two lands, and while you think that this one is barbaric and uncouth, please be reminded that that sentiment is shared and reversed to you on this one. All peoples tend to see themselves as better than others and the most advanced, and any that differ from that are wrong and less enlightened, but in truth, there are many ways to skin a rabbit, as long as the rabbit is skinned, not many of them can be accused of being wrong, can they, but those who do not agree with others ways of doing it more often than not tell them they are wrong.’

The men remained silent, thinking over her words as Domhnall analysed her more. ‘You are seen as an equal here?’

‘No, for there are none to equal her here.’ Thor scoffed, causing Loki to laugh also.

‘But you are a man’s equal?’ Maebh nodded. ‘What age are you? You do not seem overly old, your youngest is not more than two months.’

‘I am, on my last recollection, not yet three decades. I was brought here when Nafi was five, and I was just two decades, he is now thirteen, you do the math.’ She smiled.

‘On Midgard, as you know, for a man to speak that wisdom, he often studies for years at a monastery.’

‘Yes, that is because he is a man, were he a woman, he probably would have been born with it.’ She grinned, causing Thor to bellow in laughter and Loki to be forced to translate for the rest of the family, who laughed along with him and Thor.

#loki #other #submission #submitted fic #a warrior's life #wolfpawn #viking au #village #raiding #pillaging #intrigues #chapter 107

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