Ragnar Ironborn's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Ragnar Ironborn ran through Duskwood with two axes in his fists, and something hungry ran faster. A day ago he had stepped through a portal, a Viking king ripped from his own shore. He had come here to gather the forest's broken warriors and rule them. Now he might die alone, before a single man knew his name. The beast crashed through the brush behind him. He had caught its glowing eyes at dusk. It took his scent and never lost it. Its ragged limbs never tired. Ragnar's did. He reached a huge tree with dark, rugged bark and thick low branches. He set his back to the trunk and turned to face the thing. Better to die swinging than gutted mid-stride. The creature shambled into the open. Its jaw hung loose. Its skin was torn and gray, its wild eyes fixed on him. It lunged. Ragnar buried one axe in its shoulder. The blade stuck. The beast did not slow. Claws raked his arm and knocked him against the bark. He lost the second axe in the dirt. "Down!" a voice called. A girl stepped from behind the tree. Purple braids hung past her waist. She wore a light dress and thin shoes, no armor, no blade. Ragnar thought her mad to stand near the fight. Then her braids moved on their own. The hair whipped forward like ropes. It wrapped the creature's arms and throat and yanked hard. The beast toppled. It thrashed against the braids and could not tear free. "Your axe," the girl said. "Now, while I hold it." Ragnar pulled his weapon from the ground. He drove the blade down into the creature's skull. It shuddered once and went still. Her braids slipped loose and settled back down her shoulders. He stood over the body, chest heaving, and looked at her. "You have a warrior's timing," he said. "Few would stand for a stranger." "I'm Lily," she said. "I heard it hunting. I don't like what that thing does to people it catches." She wiped dirt from her dress. "You fight like you mean to take this whole forest." "I do," Ragnar said. "I mean to unite its warriors and rule them." She studied him a moment. "Then you'll need more than two axes. The scattered ones won't follow a man they've never heard of." She lifted a braid, and it glowed faint at the tip. "I can open doors that steel can't. Fear, memory, the way a crowd thinks. I'll lend you that." Ragnar looked at the dead beast, then at her small hand held out to him. He had come here with nothing but weapons. Now he had one ally, and a way to reach the rest. He clasped her wrist. "Then we start with the nearest camp," he said. "Lead me to the warriors who've heard the beast howl. Tonight they hear it stopped."