The immortal vikings, p.1
The Immortal Vikings, page 1
CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
11. The End
Vanessa Brooks - Penning Passion!
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THE IMMORTAL VIKINGS
VANESSA BROOKS
Copyright © 2022 Vanessa Brooks
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Any references to historical events, real people or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters and places are products the author’s imagination only.
This book is lovingly dedicated
to my friend and editor, Susan Williams,
who sadly passed on 29 August 2022.
Susan loved this tale and was excited to see it published, sadly she died before that happened.
THE IMMORTAL VIKINGS
CHAPTER 1
Long, long ago…
Njord followed the creature through the narrow opening and swum into the deep waters of Oslofjorden. It appeared to trust him after the time he’d spent swimming alongside, or behind the ancient behemoth. He believed the animal dated back to the beginning of time, perhaps before the formation of the gods, although as a god himself that was a sacrilege he would never repeat aloud. He sensed the sea monster’s loneliness. He could have changed his appearance to one of the prehistoric creature’s species, but decided it would be cruel to allow the animal to think it was no longer the last of its kind. As God of the sea, it behoved him to care for the creatures under his domain.
Njord knew where the lonely beast was heading and joined him in order to witness once again the fair maiden who somehow managed to communicate with this unique being from a bygone age.
Reaching the shore, he leapt surefootedly onto the land, despite the darkness of the night. Before his feet touched the soil, his legs emerged from the fin of the merman shape he’d shifted into which propelled him through water with such grace and speed.
As a god he wasn’t susceptible to cold, but he chose to hide his naked form within a dark cloak, wishing to remain camouflaged in the shadows until the maiden he’d come to watch had communed with the creature from the deep. Soon he planned to reveal himself to her as a man, not as a god.
He heard her light whispering steps approach. The fresh floral scent of her perfumed the air, as intoxicating to him as any liquor. The moon emerged, casting a shimmering path of silver across the dark waters of the Fjord. The pale light kissed the maid’s auburn curls, turning them copper. Her hair cascaded down her back lifting in the breeze causing tendrils to swirl behind her head in a halo of glinting licks of flame. Moonlight held her in its silvery embrace causing the young woman to glow with an otherworldliness which gave him pause, he wondered if she was indeed mortal? Despite her svelte form, she held a commanding presence standing on the edge of the jetty, arms outstretched over the inky waters of the fjord.
“Come to me my friend, come and allow me to bring you solace,” her soft lilting voice flowed across the watery abyss carried on the gentle gusts of sea air despite the fact she spoke so low. With a rising of bubbles the despairing animal rose from its watery depths. A large scaled head emerged supported by a long neck which, as he watched, arched towards her. Undaunted the ethereal young woman reached out and gently wound her pale, slender arms around the beast’s thick throat.
With his superb hearing, Njord listened to her sweetly crooned words of comfort and sympathy, as she offered affection to the ugly behemoth. The sight moved him as nothing else had done in a very long time.
The girl and beast stayed thus entwined for some silent moments before it slipped gracefully from her arms to disappear back down into the depths of the river.
Njord watched her turn and began to walk back the way she’d come.
He waited until she’d reached her small wooden house before he stepped forward into the bright patch of moonlight.
Recoiling, Sassa frowned at the large man suddenly blocking her path. Where had he appeared from?
“There is no need to be afeared, sweet maid. I only wish to talk with you.”
“I don’t do readings at night. Come back in daylight.” Circling him, she hastened to her small dwelling, but there he was, blocking the entrance to her home. “How did you do that?” Her heart palpitated with shock.
“The speed and stealth of a warrior,” he replied giving a shrug.
Pulling up her shawl she clasped it tight about her. Nervously glancing about for a means of escape. “What is it that you want from me?” she asked suspiciously.
Stretching out his hand he lifted a strand of her bright hair, entwining it about his finger. “Ah, Sassa, so soft and lovely like your name. ’Tis like spun copper,” he muttered to himself.
A vision swiftly filled her mind. She was intimately embracing him.
“Who are you?” Sassa insisted. Her gift projected the suspicion she knew him; there was certainly something familiar about him. “Have we met before?” With such a handsome face of strong lines marked by a dark golden beard, coupled with a regal bearing, this man could pass as a god.
Removing his hand from her hair, his finger he traced the outline of her cheek. “I do not believe so, but perhaps in another time, another place, who knows?”
She stepped backward, out of his reach. The touch of his flesh on hers instantly produced another mirage of jumbled images. Uninvoked visions always unsettled her. “You are a strange one…What is your name?”
“I’m sorry it was not my intention to scare you, beautiful maiden. I shall return in daylight and we shall talk some more.”
“Your name,” she pressed, but he’d already vanished. Sassa blinked. How could he have disappeared so quickly? Unsettled by the visit from such an extremely strange visitor she hurried inside her little house and barred her door, something she rarely felt the need to do.
Njord arrived midmorning to find Sassa seated outside her dwelling. A circle of people sat on the ground waiting patiently for their turn with her. Watching from the forest, he again cloaked himself in shadows so not to be seen by humans.
With his exceptional hearing he listened intently to each of her consultations. Clarity dawned; the maid was a volva, a seer. Sassa treated each and every person with the same courtesy. Every vision she took the trouble to explain with respect, telling her individual visions in tones of a benediction. Each visitor left her an offering by way of payment, these they placed in a large woven basket set beside her stool. Someone left her a knitted shawl, another a loaf of bread.
As her final client turned away a large man entered the glade and swaggered up to her. “People tell me you are a seer… What I want to know is this, who in this godforsaken place has the most gold and silver hidden away.”
“My gift does not work that way. I can only see what I am shown by the fates that have gifted me,” She explained in her soft melodious voice.
The man snatched Sassa’s thick braid of auburn hair which hung to her waist. He tugged her head forward to meet his snarling gaze.
“Don’t play games with me, maid, unless you have death-wish?” His spital sprayed her face.
Njord growled enraged and aspirated, placing himself between the two of them. The man’s expression of shock might have been comical had the situation been different.
“Go, and never return,” his words, laced with venom reverberated powerfully in the still air.
The man’s face changed to one of fear. The fellow clearly understood the threat Njord posed. As a God in human form, he stood seven feet tall, his physique powerful. Gently he blew into the bully’s face and watched as the man tumbled away like thistledown.
A jolt ran through him. Glancing down he saw that Sassa had placed her hand upon his arm. “Enough,” she whispered. Her sea-green eyes widened with fear as she implored. Softening his gaze, he nodded. They stood side by side and watched narrow eyes until the man was safely out of sight.
Another featherlight touch brought him back to the present.
“Can I offer you something to eat?”
“Do you have enough to share?” he asked, aware of her lack of means.
She nodded and turned to pick up her stool. He reached for her basket and followed her inside the humble dwelling. Her small abode smelt of herbs and flowers. Directing him to a table where he could set the basket down, he did so, then seated himself upon a stool and watched as Sassa busied herself stirring a large black pot which hung over the fire. Moving to the table she took the bread from the basket and tore it in half. Setting aside one piece, she ripped the other into two chunks, placing one in front of him. Returning to the fire she collected two wooden bowls, from the mantle above, into which she ladled some of the contents from the pot into the bowls.
After she’d placed his portion before him, Njord lifted the bowl and took a breath of the fragrant stew.
“Something smells good,” he said
“Fish and vegetables flavoured with my dried herbs.” The simple fare tasted as good as any meal he’d eaten before, he who supped regularly at the tables of the gods.
She sat staring at him.
“Is something amiss? he asked.
“Um, you promised to tell me your name.”
“Njord.” He waited for the dawning in her eyes, but she simply nodded and turned her attention back to her meal.
His ego felt bruised; had she not heard of him, the great God Njord? He who was one of the principal gods of the Vanir tribe of deities! An honorary member of the Aesir gods, having been sent to them during the Aesir-Vanir War along with his son, Freyr, and his daughter, Freya.
He commanded the wind, seafarers, coasts and inland waters. God of fertility, fishing and wealth with the power to evoke storms with the ability to calm waters and quell fires. Able to grow to any size he chose, or shrink as small as he wished. Extremely wealthy and prosperous, he could grant wealth in the form of land and coin to those who invoked his aid. A venerated Norse god, he was insulted she did not react to his name and remained silent with shock.
“What do you do hereabouts?” she asked moments later.
“Why don’t you use your gift and see what that tells you?” he suggested, intrigued to see her reaction on discovering he was a God.
“Have you eaten your fill?” she asked politely.
“I have, thank you. It was delicious.”
She acknowledged his comment with a nod and a shy smile. A small dimple appeared in her cheek. He couldn’t resist and reached out to touch her face, but instead she intercepted his hand and held it between her own. In an instant her expression took on a faraway look, her clear eyes grew cloudy.
Abruptly she let go of his hand and flew to her feet, her eyes wide.
“Stay away from the giantess!” she cried.
This was strange and not what he was expecting. “Did you not see that I am a god?”
Looking puzzled she wrinkled her forehead. “You’d already told me that.”
“No, no I haven’t,” he replied.
“Your said name is Njord.”
“Yes,” he agreed.
“Well then, Njord is God of the ocean, wealth and fertility, your symbol is a gold coin.” she stated matter-of-factly.
“This knowledge does not disconcert you?” he asked surprised.
She shook her head. “No, I have met many of the gods, each seeking to use my gift as a volva.”
Now that did surprise him, but then he realised it shouldn’t, for he knew the gods to be notoriously secretive and competitive, playing games of one-upmanship on a regular basis.
“And did you help them?” He was interested to know.
She shrugged. “I don’t think they truly understand how my gift works. I don’t truly understand it myself.”
“So, this giantess, you think she will be a threat to me?” he asked, casting her an indulgent smile. After all, what harm could a mere giantess bring to him, the great God Njord?
“I do not see the whole picture in my visions; I see flashes from the future combined with a powerful intuition. In your case, you will betray the one you love with a beautiful giantess.”
Her stony-faced reply surprised him. There was no one he loved, not yet and he told her so.
Sassa tossed her head disdainfully. “My visions have never deceived me.”
“There is always a first time,” he teased.
Glowering at him, she pointed to the door. “I think you’d better leave.”
Pondering his next move, he concluded it might be best to go and give her time to reflect. “Very well, but first allow me a kiss to show there is no ill will between us.” He agreed.
Regarding him shyly from beneath her lashes, he noted the pink flush which tinged her pretty cheeks.
“Come Sassa, I only wish to share a single kiss, no more than that, I promise,” he cajoled.
“I am still a maid,” she explained softly.
Standing he drew her to her feet, the disparity in their size moved him. She was so small and fragile. His hand cupped her cheek, his thumb swept over the bow of her lips, then he lowered his mouth to meet hers. Softly she parted under his insistence allowing him entry to her mouth where his passionate press morphed into an urgent mating of tongues.
A half sigh, half moan mingled with her breath.
The taste of her became addictive and all encompassing. He who had kissed hundreds, nay thousands, of women in his charmed, immortal life, had no previous experience of a female affecting him in such a profound way. Drawing back abruptly he left. Aspirating, he returned to safety and the world of deities he understood.
The heated support of his muscular body vanished leaving her bereft and alone; Sassa staggered and caught the table edge, steadying herself, wishing for the billionth time that her mother still lived. She so needed her advice…
The fact that she was already half in love with Njord did not surprise her, for was that not ordained by the gods, and expected of mere mortals? The vision regarding him concerned her, for what if it were she… The one that Njord was destined to betray? Surely not? Gods did not fall in love with their subjects, did they? “Oh Mother, what would you advise me to do?” she wondered aloud. The silence stretched. Sassa laid her head on her arms and wept tears of regret and confusion, sometimes she hated her gift.
CHAPTER 2
Determined to stay away from the perplexing woman, Njord couldn’t shake her from his thoughts. She filled his mind day and night. Restlessly, he wondered what she was doing and worried that the man who’d pestered and intimidated her before might have returned. A respite to his anxiousness was the echoing call from a distressed whale pod, parents and a calf. Foreign sailors had caught the calf in their nets. Arriving amidst the chaos, he discovered the vessel was indeed a whaler, and far from home. Giving a twirl of his wrist, he conjured a mighty storm.
Rising from the water until he towered above the vessel, and ripped the netting from the ships side to free the calf. Filling his lungs, Njord blew the craft back across the ocean whence it had come.
Sinking below the waves, he issued forth calming vibes, surrounding the whale pod to help them feel secure, and left them to recover from their ordeal. Shifting into the merman shape he used for swimming Njord, swam into the mouth of the fjord heading for Sassa’s home shore.
He watched from the shadows as she completed her daily tasks. She collected a wooden pail and headed for the water’s edge. Stealthily he followed, wrapped in his cloak of shadows. Lowering the pail, she filled it to the brim and set it aside. Glancing about her, he worried she must have detected his presence, but after perusing the area, she bent and reached for the hem of her gown, drawing it up and over her head revealing her nakedness.
He gasped at her beauty, the creamy unflawed skin of her high breasts tipped with rose pink nipples, the gold thatch betwixt her thighs, and finally her shapely legs which carried her eagerly into the clear shallows with such grace. Blood rushed directly to his cock, which swelled rapidly.
Watching her swim, he swiftly plunged in after her, transforming instantly into his merman form. Gliding over to her, he shrugged away his concealing shadows and emerged by her side. At first, she balked at seeing him there but as he splashed her playfully with his tail and frolicked in front of her, she giggled and reached to stroke his scaly fins.
Capturing her to him, she placed her hands on his broad shoulders. He bent his head to hers, their lips met. The blood rushed in his ears as he kissed her hungrily, it was as if a year had passed and not a few days since last they’d met. Finally, he tore himself from her tempting mouth.
