Escape the reality-Henrik Andorsson

Sofie really wasn’t sure how to feel at the moment. So many things had happened to her over the past few hours that she felt overwhelmed and stressed. She had been so proud of herself for finally making her big time bully shut up. To putting an end to something horrible and annoying to her. Sofie had been so sure that would be the end of it, but then Haskell came. He came to her home and took her to a monster because that was his job. She had been so scared when she heard the words fall out of his mouth that she panicked, something she tried not to do in front of others. He took her to Halfdan, who laughed at her, mocked her, and scared her to death for hours. Along with the other Viking men and shield maiden. She thought he was going to kill her, the way he acted, and spoke to her while she was there. However she was lucky. He didn’t kill her, but he did make her very uncomfortable, from his touch and his actions. He killed her bully, Freydis, right before her eyes, and pointed his axe at her twice. Once clean and once bloody. Sofie never wanted to be in this type of situation ever again if she could help it. Maybe she would stop pranking people, and maybe she would just stop everything? Just become a mindless fighter who won’t get in trouble with anyone ever again. She now had an arrangement with Haskell, she was going to become a fighter. She was going to need to talk to him soon.

Once she had gotten free of the living hell that she had been stuck in, sofie got to see her sister Freyja for a few minutes before she was told to go to her mother's boyfriend’s house. That of course wasn’t going to happen, so she took off and found herself a nice place to go and hide and have herself a good cry while Haskell and her sister spoke.She had hurt his feelings too, on top of everything else today. She felt a combination of tired, stressed, overwhelmed, and dirty all at once because she was still have covered in blood. She wanted to run away, but hiding and crying were her best options at the moment. People she had known her entire life had laughed at her. They had mocked her, and so many other things. Plus Halfdan had touched her, and made her uncomfortable, scared, and in a way empty. Sofie has felt so many things while in his presence that she wasn’t sure what she felt, and kind of just felt every emotion all at once. Things were going to be different for her now too. Her whole life would be different because she handled things poorly. She shouldn’t have beaten that women up, because now she was dead. Even if Haskell said it wasn't her fault. She should have just kept ignoring it. Not letting it bother her. She had been weak in that aspect. To let her anger take control the way she did today. If she hadn’t, she would have been safe. Her family would be safe, Freydis would be alive, but she ruined that. She changed her whole life.

She was so wrapped in her tears and thoughts that she didn’t hear anyone coming near her at all. She was just too out of it. Too drained from the days activities to pay attention to her surroundings. Something that if it was anyone else, she was sure would have gotten her even more hurt then she already felt and was. But it was someone safe. Someone who had just witnessed everything she had been through and someone who would hopefully be there to help and not hurt.

Sofie was still sitting there crying and trying to calm down when she hears someone clear their throat before they sit down next to her. Her first reaction was to panic and want to run. What if Halfdan had followed her all the way out here to where she was and he wasn't done with her yet. Taking a deep breath she looked to the side to see it was just Henrik, and she let out the breath she had been apparently holding inside. Henrik was Haskell's and Hankon's friend, he was a safe person. She knew him, and had been getting to know him more. After finding Ylva's family together she was fairly sure she could trust someone like Henrik not to come all the way out here, to just hurt her. He would have done so a long time ago if that was his plan of action. She looked away from him and back out toward the water. Henrik didn't say anything for a while, and she honestly didn't mind it. It was nice to just have someone sitting next to her like this. When he did talk, he asked a question she was sure he already knew the answer to. “Are you… okay?” he said to her and Sofie let out a dry laugh at his words."I'm not anywhere close to okay. she says to him before shrugging her shoulder. She felt numb, and so far from okay that it wasn't even funny at all. The blood that was all over her side and face was drying, and she felt gross. Maybe she should have gone home, but that meant she would have had to deal with one of her sisters sooner. How could she even begin to explain things to them.

Henrik speaks again and she turns to look at him once more, this time fully, at his words. “I uh, I’m sorry. About what happened. And… how everyone was behaving. You didn’t deserve that.” he said to her and Sofie just looked at him for a moment before speaking. "Thank you." she says to him softly. " Not a soul deserves what happened today, but apparently the gods have different thoughts then you and I do." she says to him next before closing her eyes for a moment. "You're a good man...nothing like any of the other. I may have kept my eyes on Halfdan almost the whole time, but I saw that you didn't laugh like the rest...so thank you." she tells him before opening her eyes.She meant what she said to him, that he was a good man. If he wasn't he wouldn't have wasted his time following after her, and Aleinn wouldn't be as kind and sweet as he was as well. She knew that Henrik did a lot of raising of his younger brother, and for that alone he was a good man. You add on the fact that he thought what had happened was as much bullshit as she did, it just made him a better person."I'm scared for what will come now, but at least I know Haskell is a good man, that I'll be safe with him." she says next as she pulls her knees to her chest and then rests her head onto her knees.

She just kinds of looks at him for a few moments before deciding to talk more. She knows he likes to be more quiet then most people, but he came here, so she was going to talk to him. "I kind of want to drown myself in the ocean so he can never touch me again, but at the same time that is the weakest thought I could ever have. I am not weak, that is why I didn't crack in front of Halfdan. I stood there and didn't even react when he killed a woman right before my eyes." she says to him before looking toward the sky. "I just blinked the blood away, and she is now dead...Haskell says its not my fault...but I don't know... It could have been me, dead on the ground right now...I will make sure to get stronger from this, so that I can deal with whatever else that man throws my way. I will be the best warrior I can be." she says to him next before looking at him once more. "Repeat this and I'll stab you, but when I thought I was going to die...I thought of your brother..we have been getting closer, talking a lot..I think I like him more then a friend and I was sad I wouldn't be able to tell him...still probably wont tell him..." she says with a shrug. Taking a deep breath she shakes her head."You hate to talk too much and here I am talking to much...sorry..." she says last as she rubs her eyes a bit.

Sofie was still a little surprised that the quiet giant had followed her all the way out here like he had done. She was in many ways grateful that he had gone out of his way to come and check on her and how she was doing. Sofie hadn't been sure she had wanted to be alone at all, but she knew she also had no desire to be around that man her mother was dating. Maybe she would warm up to him one day, but as of right now, she didn't like him one bit.So she had ignored her sisters wishes for her to go and be with them while she talked to Haskell. Instead she ran out here, because that had been where her feet had taken her. Not even realizing it was one of the spots she had use to come with, with her father unit after Henrik sat down next to her and asked her if she was okay. Something her father would have done when she was little and got into a fight with one of her sisters. Gods did she miss him more then ever before in this moment.To be able to run into his arms, or reach out and hug him would be so helpful. However he was dead, and had been for five hears now. Something she just needed to accept and move on from. He was never going to come back as much as she hoped and prayed to the gods.

She hadn't meant to over load him with all of her emotions the way she had. Henrik had come here to be nice, and then she just layed everything on him so thickly that she was sure then man had to be so uncomfortable now and regretting this.“He’s a good man. He’ll keep things under control.” she heard Henrik say after she said something like Haskell was a good man, and she would be safe with him. She was glad to hear something similar to what she thought being confirmed by someone who knew Haskell better then she did. Henrik was good friends with Haskell, and him saying those words, really helped her believe them more then her just repeating them to herself. "Yes, he..he will keep things in control." she says to him first. Before she just unloads even more stuff onto the quiet man sitting down on the ground next to her. Making him even more uncomfortable she was sure.

The fact that she even told him she might like his brother was a sign of how jumbled her might was, and how frazzled she was on top of it all. These were things she wouldn't even talk to most of her sisters about and she had said them all to Henrik, a man she may have had five conversations with in her whole life before the day they found Ylva's family. “Well, your secret’s safe with me,” she hears him say and she turns to look at him once more. That was nice of him, to promise in his won way that he wouldn't tell Aleinn. She would hate to have to stab him after he was so nice to her and listened to all the trash that had flowed out of her mouth. “And also you’re right, you’re not weak so let’s not talk like that again.” Henrik said to her next and she nodded her head at him. She had to be strong, and she couldn't have those kinds of thoughts if she was going to be strong and prove that Halfdan maybe the right decision and letting her be the one that lived today.

What Henrik did next surprised her, and honestly warmed her heart a little bit. He reached out and patted her shoulder. Similarly to how Aleinn had patted her hand the had he found her in the fields. The two brothers were very sweet, and she thought it was kind of adorable that they had the same way of trying to comfort people. “It’s fine. You’ve had a rough day, I’ll let it slide this one time.” she hears Henrik say to her next, and it makes her let out a laugh. "Thank you...for everything." she says to him first before shaking her head and wiping her tears away. " you didn't have to come out here, and you did. I'm sure it wasn't fun to listen to all that I just unloaded onto you...but it helped me, so thank you." Sofie says to him next before letting out another short laugh. " You and your brother comfort people the same way, and its honestly the cutest shit ever." she says to him next and a little bit randomly. "It made me think of him, and that helped me feel better too...I'm going to be fucked up about this for a while, but at least I feel a little less like I'm going to die from a panic attack.." she say before looking up toward the sky.

Taking a few more deep breaths she looks at him for a moment before asking something that hopefully wouldn't bite her in the ass."Is serving under him hard? Is it always that horrible?" she asks in a whisper as she turns her head back toward him. Hopefully he wouldn't be offended or angry with her for asking something like this, and hopefully it wouldn't get back to Halfdan, she trusted Henrik in this raw moment she was having however. She hoped he was someone she could trust and she wasn't placing it falsely.

She was still doing her best to stay in this calm that Henrik had given her by letting her just spew all her worries at him. He was one of the good ones, and she knew she needed to keep that in mind for a while. That not every fighter in this village was like Halfdan. People like Haskell and Henrik were good people just making a living under a crazy man. They were people who liked to fight, just like her, but that didn't mean that they were evil and scary like Halfdan. Sofie was almost positive she could never look at the man sitting next to her as evil or scary even if he wanted her to. He was too good, and too kind. For it he wanted her to view him just like the rest he wouldn't have wasted his time like this. He wouldn't have let her tell him all this or even threaten him like he had done. This time right now, and when they had found Ylva's family had given her time to get to know this man a lot more, and she could see why Aleinn was such a good person. He had a great brother who had helped raise him and forum him into a good person despite all the hard thighs that the two of them had to go through together. “Just don’t tell anyone. I’ve got a reputation to live up to,” Henrik said to her and she let out a light laugh at his words.

That was true, and she knew it as well. Henrik was known to be quiet and to keep to himself most of the time unless it was with someone he trusted or was friends with. So if people found out about thing rumors could start and Sofie was sure that the both of them didn't need that kind of drama in their lives. The last thing she needed was Halfdan thinking that the two of them were an item or something. Not that Henrik as a bad looking man, but it would make things horrible for her if she was liking his brother and Halfdan made them be together or some other kind of crazy thing. Sofie would just run away at that point she was pretty sure. Smiling at him once she stopped herself from laughing, she nodded her head. "I wont let anymore." she tells him before closing her eyes for a moment. Henrik goes on to comfort her with a silly little pat she informs him that he and Aleinn do it the same way. “He gets it from me, I’m sure,” was Henrik's reply. Sofie smiles and nods his head. "You did a great job with him, taking charge and raising him...he's a good person....and as I said I like him a lot..." she say to him before blushing.

Being brave she decides to ask him what its like to serve under Halfdan. “It’s not hard, really. As long as you can ignore the few… questionable things he does.” was Henrik's reply to her. Sofie just looks at him for a moment, a long one before she finally nods her head. She knew he was right, and she also knew that was going to be something hard for her to do. "I hope that Haskell and help train me to do that too...because I have a feeling just ignoring it will be hard." she says to him before taking a deep breath and holding back the shudder that wanted to take over her body. "I think I'll go home now. Clean the blood off of me, and hide in bed the rest of the day." she tells him before slowly standing up and whipping the sand off on her dress. "Thank you again for this, but I need to go scrub this alway...I'll make sure not to get you into any trouble, but its nice to know there are good men here." she says to him next before taking a few steps away from him. "maybe if I'm lucky Aleinn feels the same way, and you would be stuck with me more." she says trying to make a joke like normal before her face falls and she shakes her head. Turning away from him and heading home to scrub her body raw.