Needing answers-Haskell

Sofie was laying in bed starring at nothing at all. Her mind was still racing from the events that had happened to her before. Her sisters had tried to help her, had tired to talk to her about everything. However she didn't want to scare them. She had withheld information from them because she didn't want them to worry about her and themselves. She would to her best to keep his attention on herself, and to keep it from drifting to one of them. However according to Freyja, she was going to Kattegat now with the boys. So she would be leaving home and going to a new village. Something that was so very exciting to her, and in any other situation she would be happy as can be, but this wasn't a normal situation. If she was gone, maybe Halfdan would talk to one of her sisters, or do something worse while she was away. On top of that, Haskell, Hankon, and Henrik would be gone with her. Some of the best men in the village, and men that would protect her sisters if they needed to. They would be gone, and Sofie prayed to the gods that Halfdan leaves them all alone, and that her sisters would be safe in her absents. She would hate to come home from a trip just to die because she attacked the Earl for touching one of her sisters.

When she finally decided that sleep was never going to come to her, she pushed her blankets to the side and slowly got up and out of bed. Going down and into the main living area, Sofie grabbed her fur cloak and shoes before leaving out the front door. She was lucky almost all of her sisters were heavy sleeper, or someone would have stopped her for sure. She hadn't really a plan of where she was going, or what she was going to do as she walked down the empty streets of the village. The snow had started to come, and winter was here in full swing. It made her realize she was only in a nightgown, but at least she had her fur around her to keep her warm. Maybe she should have grabbed her sword as well, but it was too late. She wasn't going to turn around now. After a few minutes of walking, Sofie ended up in front of a house she had just dumped a ton of crickets into not even two weeks ago. All of Haskell's lights were off, and she wasn't even sure why her feet had brought her here.

Sure she wanted to talk to him, to get more answers, and details about her up coming trip. However it was the middle of the night. It would be so rude of her to come to his house at this time of night.Nonetheless she was here. Standing outside in the dark as snow falls around her and makes her hair wet. Taking a deep breath, Sofie walks forward the rest of the way and to his door. Lifting her hand so painfully slow, she knocks on the door. "Haskell..." Sofie says gently first before speaking again."I know its late, but please open up the door." she says to him next before she bits the inside of her cheek. If he didn't answer, maybe she would go and bug Hankon. Make him talk to her, and help calm this heavy heart of hers. It took a few moments for her to hear movement and Sofie felt bad for coming here even more. She had to look silly being here, covered in snow in the middle of the night. Eyes and face still puffy from all the crying she had done during the day. To top it all off, wearing nothing but shoes, a nightgown, and a fur cloak. When the door opened she gave him a awkward smile before waiting to see what kind of greeting she was going to get from him.

Sofie kind of just stood there awkwardly as she stood there hoping he was going to open the door for her. If he didn't she would maybe go wake up Hankon and make him talk to her, because she needed to talk to someone, and for some reason talking to her siblings really wasn't helping her all that much. With her luck talking to Haskell wasn't going to help her calm down. That she was going to be upset about this for a long time. She was just about to maybe turn around when she heard him coming toward the door and opening it up to look at her. Sofie noted he looked just as tired as she felt at this moment. ‘Sofie.’ she hears him say to her to her and she just looks at him. She doesn't even give him a smile or anything like that. She is numb still from what had happened to her. She knows she needs to get over it, and pull through. Because she needed to be strong, and mighty. However this was so hard and she had never been in this kind of situation before. She had never seen a dead body before she saw Ylva's father, and she had also never seen someone die before she watched Halfdan kill Freydis right before her eyes.

She kept looking at him as he stepped to the side and nodded his head toward the door.‘Come inside.’ he tells her, and she just walks in right past him and into his house. She hears him shut the door behind her, and looks around the house a little before she watches him poke at the fire a little bit. Making it a little bit warmer in the house for them both. ‘Looking for answers or just nervous to leave?’ she hears him ask her as he turns his body toward her again. Sofie shrugs her shoulders for a moment before speaking. "It's both, I want answers and I'm nervous." she tells him before giving him the first smile of the night. "I'm nervous to leave my sisters, I've never been away from any of them my entire life...We might fight, and they might drive me crazy...but I'm scared for them." she says to him first before she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "He knows about them now, and he seemed interested. We will be gone, along with Henrik and Hankon." she says to him before opening her eyes again. "I know freyja is a good fighter, but who will be there to help if he does something while we are gone." she says to him next.

Running a hand down her face she feels the tears coming next, but fights them away the best she can. "What does all this mean now. I'll be training with you, I understand that...but what else is going to happen to me now? What else is he going to want from me...what are you going to want from me?" she says to him next. "I can train, and I can become better and stronger, I know that I can with your help...but if he wants more things...then that...I can't handle that. I can't handle the idea of him trying to touch me again...in more inappropriate ways." she says to him before looking into the fire to calm herself down. She didn't want to be here unloading on him like this, but she needed to say these things to him. She needed to know what was needed from her, and what was going to happen with her being at his side all the time like Halfdan said she was going to need to do.

She takes another deep breath getting ready to say more things, when she hears something. A sound of a small cricket somewhere inside the house. The same crickets she had dumbed input his house a few weeks ago. The fact that one of them is still in his house, and that he had been dealing with one for this long makes her just start laughing and crying all at the same time. "There is one still alive" she said in between the laughing and the tears. However the tears slowly take over the laughing and soon, after a few minutes she is more crying standing there then she was laughing.

Sofie was glad he let her come into his house. She needed to talk to him more then he would even understand. Getting some answers from him was going to give her some peace of mind. It was going to help her mind not being running at a mile a minute, coming up with all kinds of thoughts and things that could happen. It would give her solid facts to think about and know, and not have to fall back on her imagination. So when he opened the door and let her inside, part of her already felt a little bit better just being let inside his house. Sofie sat down where he told her to, and waited to talk until he motivated her to by asking a question. She tells him her feelings, that she is worried for her sisters and he says ‘Don’t be.’ to her. It isn't that reassuring until he goes on a little bit. ‘Halfdan is playing you. By the way, I think that Freyja got it covered.’ he says to her next and Sofie bits her lip and looks to the fire. She knows her sister is strong, but Halfdan was a frightening man. He was a powerful man that could and would do whatever he wanted to in life. It was something she knew to be a fact, however she trusted her sister and she trusted Haskell. He goes on to speak more. Saying more things that help her calm down, and she is so glad for it.‘I have more then only Henrik and Hakon as friends. She will be safe Sofie, if you come back and something serious happened you can slap me on the face for it.’ he says to her next.

Smiling at his words she nods her head. That she could hit him if something happened to her sisters. She would never hit him, for it would not be his fault, but she thought it was nice that he was telling her that all the same. Giving him a small smile she says "I'll keep that in mind, but I trust you that they will be okay,and that this other friend will look out for them." she says to him as she looks at him with tired eyes. So far she was feeling a little better about leaving her sisters here, but she still needed answers to other questions so she went on. She asked more things, and he just watched her and gave her time to handle it all. ‘What Halfdan expect from you is nothing more then he already demanded, for you to obey and to do your job.’ she hears Haskell say to her first and she nods her head. That she understood, and that she was going to do her very best at. She would make sure Halfdan was happy that he kept her alive. That he would be glad he gave her over to Haskell to train and become a better warrior.

Sofie watched as Haskell looked over at her, and landed in closer to her. ‘What I demand,’she hears him say to her first before he goes on. ‘that you prove yourself, that you train, do what is asked from you. I won’t cage you Sofie but you will have it a lot tougher then the others I train. If you are up to it you can become the next Radningar, the next best shield maiden, but you have to want it in your heart and you need to step up your came to Halfdan. he says to her first and she makes sure to have her full attention on him at all times. So he knows he is listening ,so he knows that his words are important to her. His words are what she needed, hearing all this was what she needed to calm down, to understand and relax. ‘You will get used to him, he will get used to you and who knows what could come from that.’ Haskell says to her next and she nods her head again. Hopefully only good things would come out of it. For she was still terrified Halfdan would want to do other things to her as well.

Haskell however made her feel even better with his next set of words. ‘And he won’t touch you,’ she heard him say as she looked over at his face. ‘you're mine now. Nobody touches what is mine.’ he added in to her next, even putting a wink on at her before he pushed back up to sit up even more. Sofie looks at him in shock for a moment before looking away to the fire. She  smiled and had a small blush on her face as she thought of his words, she as safe and Halfdan wasn't going to touch her again. She was glad she had his protection, but the way he worded that made her feel silly and blush. Seeing as she figured he was mostly joking with his words. "I am yours now...I guess that was what Halfdan said...That doesn't have any hidden means right? I'm yours to train and look after?" she asks him first. She was sure it was just his wording, but she was a smart girl and wanted to make sure before going on to say.  "But...I'll do everything you tell me to do, and I'll do my best to keep getting better and better.I promise you Haskell." she says to him first as she looks back toward him.

"I'll train when you say, and I'll make you proud and happy that we had to be thrown together like this...I'm still sorry you are stuck with me, but I'll make sure I don't make it hard for you. I'll become the greatest warrior I can with your help." she tells him next, being as serious as she could be with him. Making him see that she meant her words to him. "So thank you for agreeing, and for your protection...and for talking to me tonight...I already feel a lot better then I had before coming here." she says to him next with a small smile. Sofie really meant her words, she was glad for him. That he was going to do this even though she was sure he didn't want to have to train her more one on one like this. He was going to protect her even more, and he wasn't super mad at her for not listening to him and getting into this mess in the first place. She wished she hadn't, that none of this ever happened. However being stuck with someone like him and having to train with someone like him was not going to be horrible. She knew he was strong, and dedicated, that he would help her get to a better place in her life, and rank up.

Then she hears the cricket and losses it completely. Sofie laughs and cries all at once as sh thinks about him dealing with that damn thing for all this time. It makes her feel almost all the way better for the moment as she thinks back on her prank and how it backfired on her so badly. ‘Yes, he just keeps disappearing on me.’ she hears Haskell say to her, and it makes her just laugh even more. Picturing him on his hands and knees looking for the tiny cricket in the hopes of getting rid of it and freeing himself from her prank. How many times had he cursed her under his breath as he looked for the little guy, and now here she was in his house laughing at him and the fact that he still had one left. "I'm sorry, but thats so funny. He must be a smart little guy to be hiding from you for all this time." she says to him before finally taking the cup of water he was trying to offer to her and drinking deep. Setting the cup down she looks around the room for a moment before looking back at him.

Sofie trusted Haskell with this, with her sisters. Something she really didn't trust anyone with, for she was so worried to leave them here after everything that happened, but she trusted him. He had done his job in earning that trust by keeping her alive like he promised he would. Sure she had almost doubted him a few times while Halfdan was getting touchy, but nothing had happened and he had done what he could. So she knew he would do what he could in this situation as well. Sofie was glad he wasn't promising her that nothing would happen. For her father had promised to come back, and he never did. So Sofie didn't like empty promises that you were not sure you could keep. ‘They will be safe.’ he says to her and she smiles a small smile at him and nods her head. She would trust in him and his friend, and she would trust in Freyja to keep the other two safe if needed as well. Her sister had trained to be a shield maiden, so she had faith in her being able to at least be able to do that. Plus she had told her sister everything that had happened, so Freyja would have some kind of idea of what could happen, but not expect it too. Sofie was sure that Halfdan was not one you could predict his behaviors or what he was going to do.

The conversation changed to being about her being his, and his words made her both blush and feel better. That because Halfdan gave her to him to train he was no longer able to touch her. However she made sure to ask his full meaning with those words, for she wanted to make sure there was not anything hidden that she was not not understanding. This was all so new for her, and until today she had only simply seen Halfdan around town. She had never spoken to him, not even a small hello. ‘No,’ Haskell said to her first. ‘You take care of yourself, I’m just the one training you and making you better in what you do.’ he said to her next and again Sofie smiled and nodded her head at him. She was very much able to take care of herself and had been for a lot time too. "Okay, that makes sense...and I'm glad its you...and not someone else training me. For I trust you...and I don't trust many people.." says to him in return about the whole thing. Sofie needed him to know that she turned him, for she knew that this would be a lot harder on the both of them if she didn't trust him.

Sofie goes on to tell him she will do everything he says and do her best, because she would. She had never half assed anything in her life, and she wasn't about to start doing so now. Sofie had always been a very dedicated person, it was just in grained into her by her father. ‘I know. You learned your lesson I think.’ Haskell said to her next with a small smile. Sofie nodded her head quickly at this, she had and it was a lesson she was never going to forget. She would go to him for things from now on, and this was never going to happen to her again. She would not make the same mistake twice for that would be asking for her own death. "I have, I promise I have." she tells him softly. They start to talk about how he is stuck with her, but she wont make it hard for him. ‘Who says I am stuck with you and not the other way around?’  Haskell says next and Sofie lets out a little giggle. "I'll take it, you aren't so bad to be stuck with, at least you don't smell bad." she teases him just a little bit. Sofie goes on to thank him for everything really, for mostly being such a great man. ‘I was waiting for you to show up, you can always talk to me.’ he says to her and she nods. He was smart, of course he would have known she was going to come.

Then the silly cricket changes the mood for the time being, and lightens her heart just a bit. Making her feel a lot better about everything. ‘I should make it your first task to look for that little beast.’ he says to her first and she shoots him a worried look that he really would. ‘But I think you can use some sleep instead. Do you have other questions?’ he says next and Sofie feels herself relax just a bit. Biting her lip she thinks for a moment before speaking. "I have a lot, but its late and we leave tomorrow. I'm mostly just worried about the boat ride and going somewhere knew. Ive never left home before, so this will be very different for me.." she says to him slowly before giving him a smile. "But you and Hakon, and Henrik shall be there. I have trust in all three of you to some degree. I know I don't have to worry about my safety at the very least." she tells him next before looking to the fire."So I guess maybe I should go home...hopefully everyone is asleep. I was stupid enough to leave the house like this unarmed. " she says last gesturing to herself before rolling her eyes. The last thing she needed was to have to kill someone for trying to pull something on her while she was weak and defenseless.