A Viking and a Celt

The battle cry caught Drustan's attention immediately. He spun around just in time to take her full-force into his chest, which started them tumbling through the brush. His main concern was the knife he had seen flash in the light of the fading sun. That needed to stay out of his skin. And as he thought that, he felt the sting of it as it grazed his arm.

He let out a war cry of his own and pinned her onto the ground finally, grabbing both of her wrists and holding them above her head, pinned to the ground as he straddled her stomach. His kilt was pulled and twisted and out of place, which meant she was probably feeling more of him than she ever wanted to. He glared down at her, blood-lust in his eyes. Finally, a way to get out his stress!...Wait...

Damn it.

He narrowed his eyes. "What in Hel's name is wrong with you?!" He shouted at her, not moving away from her at all. "Are you seriously protecting every animal in this damned forest just from me?! Can I not hunt anymore?! Can I not feed myself?!"
 
Aithne was pinned underneath of him, and she struggled as hard as she could. That tumble had knocked the breath out of her temporarily so all she could muster were pained breaths and a hateful look. She could smell the blood...

Curse her minimal strength! Why had she not been born a warrior like her brothers? And where had her knife run off to! Here she was, pinned underneath the man who she had seen just weeks before. What was he doing back in this forest?

She gulped for air as her breath finally came back to her, but that did not cease the look she was giving him. "Why are ye back 'ere? Do ye not 'ave your own forests to hunt in!? Why come and kill my friends?!" She was shouting this back at him. Any why not? He had shouted at her first. Today was not a good day for her, and she would let him know that
.

Still fuming, though calmed only slightly, she noticed a strange thing upon her stomach. She was slightly confused at first, but upon the realisation of what it was, she blushed furiously and refused to look her captor in the eye.

 
"This is just where the gods lead me! I follow my hounds and I was tasted with bringing back a fox for my little sister! She's such a pain in the ass!" He caught her look and frowned. He shifted, putting both of her wrists into one of his hands. He brought his free hand down, lifted himself up slightly, and tucked his kilt between them, muttering a 'sorry'. He brought his hand back up to pin her hand to the ground and went back to glaring.

"The gods want me down here for some reason and I can't figure it out! It's just where I'm lead! I ask the gods for a good hunt and they lead my hounds here!"

He shifted to take his weight off her stomach but wasn't letting her up. "If I let you up, are you going to try and stab me again?"
 
"I make no promises!" she spat. She could not promise when she did not know herself what she would do. It was probably safer for the both of them if she was still restrained... "I cannot say that thae gods are wrong, when they are not. They are all seeing and great! As ye know. But why can they not see that I want nothing to do with ye!" Why would the gods lead him here? In a Celts domain. What possible outcome could the gods and goddess' being trying to achieve here?

As he adjusted himself atop of her, she blushed once more and then looked away. She was still seething.
 
"Then I'm not letting you go." He sighed. "I don't know what they're up to either, but they say I should be hunting here and it got me a fox for my sister. Spoiled little..." He sighed again and shifted. He was actually trying not to hurt her now. "You know, I've been having nightmares about you ever since we last met." He said, trying to make it sound like an insult more than it was the truth.

He wasn't going to admit he had also been thinking about her near-constantly. He glanced over at his arm as he felt the blood trickling down and sighed. "And whenever we meet, I end up bleeding!"
 
She let out a tiny gasp as she saw his arm bleeding. She had not thought that she actually connected with flesh... She moved to raise her arm to his wound, but she was still bound. "I..." She looked at his wound, then back at him. "Ye had nightmares about me?" She was genuinely curious. Was that another sign from the gods that their destiny's were somehow to be met? She herself kept thinking of him everywhere she went. She would see a bear pawprint, her fathers Chieftain cloak, or clouds that looked like a bear... and her thoughts were lead back to this man atop her.

She looked back at his bloody arm. "I am sorry tae have made ye bleed, Norseman. I will not strike ye, lest occasion call for it." She hoped that he understood what she meant.
 
He smirked a little. "I promise to try my best not to give you reason to strike me." He hesitantly let her hands go and climbed off of her. He stood and looked at his arm, then looked away. Blood. Fun. He sat back down and rubbed his eyes. His blood should stay in his body at all times.

"Aye, I've had nightmares about you." He glanced up at her, then just away from his arm completely. "You and the bear. Sometimes he eats you, sometimes he just crushes you, but..." He sighed. Why the hell was he telling her this? He didn't even tell his sisters or his mother. "Yeah. So, there's that. And I told you last time, I have a name. Torgeir. Second son of Chief Rolf."
 
"Aye, I know yer name." Aithne got up and sashayed over to a plant. "And it seems that everytime we meet, I am always cleaning blood off ye." The inspected his arm up close and pulled it to her closer so she could see better in the light. She took a piece of cloth that was hidden inside her bodice and started to clean off his blood. "Perhaps the dream means I am destined to die, ay?"
 
"I don't know what dreams mean. Maybe it means I ate some bad pie. Who knows..." He sighed, keeping his eyes well away from his arm. It wasn't a deep cut, it was just bleeding a lot. "It's just a dream. Just a nightmare. I shouldn't even be having them at my age. I'm no child. I'm not afraid of anything!"

Except losing her? Except being the cause of her death? It did keep him thinking about her the past few weeks, that was for sure. And it was probably why he turned south when he went hunting...
 
"My people know little of dreams, I only know of thae future. And being an adult has no control over your dreams. I still have frightful night terrors at my age." She continued to clean with hard thought and she may have pressed a little too hard for his taste. "And as fears, I am afraid of thae future. There, I said it."
 
He cringed and glanced over at what she was doing. "Gods! You don't have to push so hard!" He looked up at her face, his angry expression softening. "The future? I had heard the Chieftan had a child who was an oracle...I hadn't heard it...that the child was female..."

He pulled away suddenly. "No. Nonono." He started getting up. "If what the gods want from this is that I see into my own future, forget it. Absolutely forget it!" He winced when he moved his arm and looked at it. Ohh...blood...right...his blood was...spilling all over the place...He leaned back against a tree and looked at her. "I won't hear it."
 
"Aye that's me. I am the Oracle." She held his squirming arm still and she continued to dab his gushing blood. "Stay still!" She said gruffly and pressed hard just to prove her point.

She continued to clean his wound for a moment in silence and when he pulled away and backed up against the tree she was puzzled. What had she done? "What future do ye see that ye are so afraid of?" She let her head tilt and her mane of hair fell across her face
 
He looked at her and shook his head. "No. Because you'll tell me if it's true." He slowly walked back over. "I don't want to hear my future. I don't want to hear you claim my destiny as true." He dropped down beside her and held out his arm.

He sighed heavily and looked at his dogs who had just wandered up. He shook his head and glanced at her. "You know, your little ambush wasn't bad...you caught me completely off guard..." From him, it was a compliment. It had been a good ambush. She got him pretty good and he knew if it had been any normal hunter, they'd probably be lying dead at her feet right now.
 
"Nay, it is not that simple. If you tell me the future ye see for yourself, I will not use my Oracle powers. I 'ave to be touching ye anyway for me tae see something." She held up her hands as though surrendering. She wanted to try to help Torgeir for some reason. Why? That was beyond her. But she would not use her Seer abilities unless he wanted her to. She honestly hated seeing the future. Things happened when she saw The Beyond.
 
"I've had a dream, since I was a child, that my brother would die and I would take over for my father." He said seriously, looking at her. "Every day I wake up and ask the gods to change my fate. I lead a band of men now, when I'm not hunting, and...I can do that. But to become Chieftan?" He didn't even realize he was letting that bit of information slip out. "I don't think I could do it."

He sighed and turned his head away. "I can't even stand the sight of my own blood...I get faint..like a woman..." He snorted a little, slouching. "I am not fit to lead them."
 
"Ack," Aithne scoffed. "Being a woman does not mean ye faint at blood you old sod-knacker!" She was starting to get more comfortable around him, and so her cursing would show up a little more. "And I will 'ave to lead my tribe. I am the tribe's Oracle, and I am to lead all of my people towards a brighter future. That is more stress and more of a burden then ye will ever have, were ye to become Chieftan. I know what it's like tae be Chief; I am the daughter of one." She knocked her elbow against his rib playfully and then stepped back again, not really knowing what else to do.
 
"Sod-knocker?!" He replied incredulously. When she elbowed him, he elbowed her back. He sighed. "Then, you should know what's going on between our clans. Our people on the borders are complaining of your people steeling sheep and cattle. I'm sure your people on the borders are complaining just the same. War is on the horizon. I'm afraid it can't be stopped, and for it to be over something so petty as lost sheep..."

He stood up and looked at his arm., then at her. "I'm not fit to lead them. My brother would do better. And I don't want to see him die, either...I've told myself they're just nightmares of a child, but..." He looked off into the woods, sighing. "My biggest fear is that they aren't."
 
"I do not meddle with the affairs of my tribe. My time to lead is not upon me yet." She looked up at him. "A proverb my teacher always tells me is: 'If ye do not like something, change it.'" Of course it was not that simple, but it was easier to say this than to offer advice on a subject she knew hardly anything about. "I can promise ye that my people are not stealing your livestock." She did not know what to do. She did not want to get involved with war, she hated death!
 
"I wish I could promise you the same." He sighed and stretched, then reached down to try and straighten his kilt out like it should be. "But, if you are set to take over, you should be paying attention." He looked up at her. "You should know the state of your people before you step up to lead them. So you can change what you don't like quickly."

He took a deep breath and sighed. "I need to go finish with that pelt for my sister, if you will permit it."
 
"What matter is it to what I say? Ye already killed the poor wee one," says angrily. Why had she become so angry all of a sudden? Perhaps because Togeir commented on her lack of leadership skills? She was too busy making sure the forest flourished! She had no time for her tribes petty tiffs and quarrels with neighbouring clans and tribes. She had better things to do. And when she lead along side the next Chieftan who was to be her eldest brother Corren. Luckily they were so close already, it would help them lead in the future.