I had defeated many arrogant men by the time my last opponent had reluctantly walked up to me, his sword ready in his hand.

"Dargess against Lagertha; Our undefeated champion!", our leader choked as he said this, clearly mortified that a girl was possibly going to become victorious in this day's challenge. The man that I had come to know as Dargess, had pushed himself into a ready position, as if reluctant to fight me, but not fearful. He seemed as if he did not want to hurt me, which seemed odd considering his Viking heritage. His hair was a dark brown and his eyes were a piercing green. He was handsome to my standards, but dreamy to other girls who would marry off to anybody who could become or was successful in a Viking clan.

"Fight!", barked our leader.

Dargess dodged for me, but he had intentionally missed my fleeting figure. He got up, brushing himself off as he did so. I moved closer to Dargess, accidentally tripping him. My apologies! I thought. I held my sword to his throat, my eyes pleading for him to play along. He had understood my intentions, and began to breath heavily, as if trying to emphasize his injury. Guilt flooded me as I realized that he had the power to defeat me, but was leaving his victory for mine, whatever the reason was.

"I cannot hurt this man.", I said sternly while pulling him from the ground. "Why? Are you to afraid to ruin his pretty face?", Birger mocked with a high pitched voice.

I snickered at that and turned towards our leader. He had a horrified look on his face as he stared blankly behind me. I whipped back to see Augun standing behind me, his breathing heavy and hard. He threw Dargess to the ground while he dragged me away by my blonde braids.

"What were you doing?", he questioned in an enraged and raspy tone. We had gotten to the outside of the courtyard now but he took me farther and deeper through the outdoor halls that were covered in stone. He had managed to get me far enough from the courtyard so no one could hear or see us.

"I was merely making a friend.", I replied defiantly. "Tell me the truth! I saw the way that you looked at each other! I saw the way that you had begged him to play along! I saw everything!", he spat.

"You tell lies! These are all lies!", I screamed. "You saw nothing!" Deep down inside I knew that he had seen everything. He could not have guessed those things on a whim, he would have had to see those events occur to know what he did.

"I do not lie!", he barked in return. "I hate you! I hate you! Why do you not kill me?", I said as I slammed my fists against his chest. "I do not kill you because the goddess Freya would not forgive me!", he tightened his grip on me.

"The goddess Freya; The goddess of love.", I whispered.

"Almost. Love and the night.", he corrected as he squeezed me tighter once more, but this time his actions were more sincere. "The winter nights here are wonderful. Our snow is so white that you can use it as your guiding light in the darkness.", he said irrelevantly. "But you are mine, and I do not want to see you talking to another man in any nice way.", he brought his mind back to the subject, but his tone was more protective than angry this time.

He let go of me and led me by the hand to the courtyard. "Her day is over. She has won today's challenge.", barked Augun harshly to our leader. "Yes Jarl.", he cowered. "Good", Augun snapped once more. And with that he took me away from the courtyard and to our room, were he had called in Elga.

In a matter of time, she had undone my hair, and brushed it into a lovely braid. "Put this on.", ordered Elga as she handed me a white dress with gold trim. "Why?", I asked. "Why, you have a celebration tonight. You have them every night but you never seem to be interested.", she exclaimed as she threw her hands up in the air. Oh. I thought. Elga had left the room before I had even noticed. After several minutes of thinking to myself, I had slid on the gown and started out of the room and down the stairs.

"Lagertha! My lovely wife!", exclaimed Augun. His men cheered and threw their hands into the air, their cups hoisted in their hands as the ale overflowed from the rim. "Your soon to be wife, maybe.", I retorted.

I sat halfway down into my chair before Augun had scooped me up and placed a wet kiss on my cheek. "Leave me be!", I complained as I squirmed from his grip. "Go along with it.", he taunted. "No.", I pushed him farther from me, but this only fueled his competitive nature more. "Come here!", he looked at the staring crowd while pulling me to him again. "You are embarrassing me.", he warned. "Good.", I replied sarcastically.

He brought his eyes level to mine and challenged me through thoughts. Before I could push him away for the third time, he had kissed my lips roughly before "setting" me down to the floor. He did not really set me down, considering that my Scandinavian side had peeked through to my height, making me quite tall.

I punched his hard abdomen before walking down from the landing and to the floor to join the crowd. The people cheered and threw their ale up once more before settling down and beginning to gracefully dance to their folk songs.

A strong grasp pulled me to my chair. I rolled my eyes, but this did not phase Augun. "That is enough! We are going to our room.", he spat. Once again, he scooped me from my chair and brought me up the stairs and into our room. He threw me onto the bed and stood over me, glaring harshly.

He kissed me roughly once more, but this time it was longer and more sincere. He seemed to enjoy the kiss but I was nauseated from having mixed opinions from this action. I enjoyed it, somewhat, but I was also extremely disgusted. "I know what you are thinking.", he observed. "And we shall discuss it in the morning. Sleep. It is good for a women of your temperament", and with that, I drifted into a deep and uncomfortable slumber.

*************

My eyes fluttered open, revealing an early morning darkness. I sat straight up from the hard bed, my head turning towards the exit. Slowly, I slid from the covers and started towards the door. Augun had laid on the bed, still asleep, thankfully. I quietly opened the door and slid down the stairs, out of his house, and to the stables. A beautiful male, fully black horse, huffed as I walked by. I stopped in my tracks and turned to him.

"You are perfect.", I whispered. I opened his stall and hopped onto him. Hastily, I rode out from the stables and away from the city; the city that my heart knew as Jorvík.

A/N: Don't forget to vote and comment! Bye! (I still have not had the video problem fixed. Sorry!)