A Viking and a Celt

"Yes, I have. As a present for my sister telling me my other sister is set to marry my friend." He sighed, starting back up the small hill. "Look. After this, I won't hunt down here ever again, ok? You'll be rid of me. You won't ever have to see me kill your precious furry friends ever again." He started up finishing the work he had been almost done with earlier.
 
"Ay, good! I will not 'ave to clean up after your bloody self! And bury the bones of my brethren." Aithne got a faraway look in her eyes for a moment, but it was gone as quick as it came. "Just take your pelt, and go. And I congratulate your sister on her betrothal." The Prophetess turned her head abruptly from the situation and she crossed her arms. She started to walk back to her tribe, glad to be rid of the animal killer.
 
"I know I left you nothing to bury. I brought the bones with me." He sighed heavily and stuffed everything into his back. He looked around for his dogs and saw them following her. "Oi!" He started jogging up. "Get back 'ere!" He shouted to his hounds.

The stopped and looked at him, then at her, then at him. He stopped and glared at them. "Come."

They sat.

He let out a string of curses and sighed. "You wanna go with her, fine! See if she feeds you better'n I do!"
 
Aithne was joined by two tall dogs. She laid her hands on their hands and gave a hearty pat and scratch. "Why 'ave ye come after me? Do ye not wish to be with your master?" She did not use her animal-speak because she was afraid of their answer. She did not want to be the cause of Torgeir's loss of his companions.

As they were walking back to her land, she kept each of her hands on their heads the entire time. She was not keeping them next to her, or forcing them to stay. It was just simply nice to have two loving canines beside her.

She began to unconsciously hum a lullaby her mathair sang her as a babe. She was content again.
 
"Gods...I...ugh!" He stormed after her. "Fine! We're camping here for the night! Is that what you want?"

The hounds stopped and looked back at him. Camping sounded nice. They just knew something was supposed to happen. One of them walked around in front of the Oracle and started pushing her back towards Torgeir.

"No, I'm not camping with her! What are you two trying to do! It's cute back in town when you do this, but not with her!" He looked up. "...Not...to be insulting..."
 
As one of the dogs started to push her back towards where she had come from, she did not question it and gladly followed him.

As they came back into view of Torgeir, she heard his complaints. She looked him in the eye, "What do they do back in town, uhn?
 
Torgeir suddenly found himself in a very sticky situation. "Well, they uh...they....uh..." His eyes fell to his hounds and he glared at them. He sighed and looked up at her. "Find women for me to make camp with." He said as politely as he could. He shook his head and looked around. This just got really awkward for him. "As it were...." He sighed, fearing what was going to come next from the woman. Some Pictish women were so...so volatile, and she had been blessed with the eyes of the gods as well, so there was no telling what she'd do if he really, honestly insulted her...

And he had just basically shouted to the four winds that he didn't want to bed her...
 
Much to Torgeir's surprise, she laughed. A tinkling kind of laughter that one rarely even hears, even her family. "Ye think I would be offended? Bah!" She chuckled once more. "I 'ave no interest in being a woman of those sorts." She leaned down and petted his dogs while smiling at them.
 
Wait...she didn't want to sleep with him either? Ok, that was weird. He walked over to her and crouched in front of his dogs, using one hand to push his kilt down so he wasn't flashing anyone. He reached up and scratched his hound under the chin. "Of bedding random men you meet in the forest? Or of bedding men at all?" He asked, looking up at her.
 
She pursed her full lips in thought. "Perhaps one, perhaps both. Who's tae say?" She shrugged a bare shoulder to the sky and leaned down next to him. She continued to pet the dogs absentmindedly. "Truth be told, I 'aven't thought about it."
 
He blinked, finding her chest almost right in his face. He looked down at the dogs. "Well, just so you know, I didn't mean for it to sound like I don't find you physically attractive. It's the fact you scared off one hunt and then tried to kill me a few moments ago that makes me not want to bed you."

One of the hounds licked his face, both of them wagging their tails. He couldn't help but smile as he gave one of the hounds all the attention a loving owner should, scratching his neck, rubbing his ears, all that.
 
She continued to play with the dogs, though she was shaking her head causing her reddish-brown locks to tumble all about. "I will apologise for hurting ye earlier, t'was not my intention. I thought ye an intruder. However," she paused, "I will not be sorry for protecting what is most dear to me." She looked at him thoughfully.
 
"You know, it will be boring for me to hunt anywhere else after this...if I go hunt somewhere else." He smirked. "You put a challenge to it."

Maybe it was the fact he was really taking in her 'clothes' for the first time, or the fact she told him she was flat out not interested, but he was starting to notice things about her that he did find attractive. Like her spirit, the way she didn't care he was bigger than her, by the gods she was going to try and kill him...and it had actually been a bit of a struggle for him to pin her down...And maybe it was how kind she was to his hounds...but there was just...he really couldn't put his finger on it...
 
She saw Torgeir watching her and she batted her eyes as him, though not flirtatiously. "What Torgeir?" She asked nervously. Had she done something? Did he not like her to pet his hounds? She withdrew her hand cautiously and placed it in her lap
 
He shook his head. "Nothing. I was thinking how easy my hunts will be once I am rid of you." He shook his head and sat back, letting his hound try and lick his face. "It will be much easier to hunt bears without you running in wrecklessly." Was he teasing her? He didn't look at her again either way. He looked down at his hound, kinda brushing out his fur with his fingers.

"I gave the pelt to my brother, by the way. For his child. He told me the child slept peacefully for the first time since it was born." He shruged. "The meat, my mother cooked, and we made haggis from the rest. The bones are being made into tools." He looked up at her. "He did not die for nothing."
 
"Well, if you want tae be rid of me so bad, why not leave now?" She was asking a genuine question, no condescending tone what so ever. She was very glad that he had held to his word and used the bear to its full potential and that none was wasted. She was happy that the babe was able to sleep sound. "I am glad," she said. She did not give a clue as to what she was happy about, she just did not feel like she had to
 
He heaved a sigh and stood up, stretching a bit. "Because it is dark and I must make camp. I was going to make a stew with the fox so my hounds and I could eat, and while I find you abrasive and annoying, it would be rude of me to not invite the Chieftan of Clan Dougall to eat with me."

Very diplomatic. And true. His father would have his head if he knew Torgeir had been so rude to the Oracle of the Dougall clan. He now had a bit that he needed to make up for. And he was still trying to figure out why the gods would force them together twice now...surely it wasn't just a coincidence.
 
She did actually scoff at the "annoying" part, but her skin was thick and she brushed it off as just him being an ignorant man. She held her chin high at her clan's name and crossed her arms under her chest, inadvertently raising her breasts a bit. "Was tha' an invite to dine with ye?"
 
His gaze dropped to her breasts, then snapped back to her face. "Yes, it was. And I know it isn't polite to ask my guest to bring anything, but if you knew where some potatoes and maybe carrots were around here, that would be helpful."

He looked around. He knew where a stream was and had actually brought a cooking pot with him, a small one. This should actually turn out nicely, except maybe for his company. He figured where they were was good enough and started gathering wood for a fire so they could actually cool the stew. "Unless, of course, you don't want to join me. If that's the case, I'll eat boiled fox meat with my dogs." He laughed softly.
 
She squinted her eyes at him suspiciously, wary of his intents. Was he trying to fool her? She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and to join him. "Aye, I will join ye. And I happen to know where there are some vegetables growing wild. Follow me? Or want me to get them myself?" She did not care what he chose.
 
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