The Wolfs Viking

Episode 4: The Marks

~Saga's P. O. V~

Week 2 of missing my true home, Chief Calder had asked me to stay in this room for the time being until he could find a vacant home for me to stay in. I held my knees close to my chest as I cried, missing my sisters. Kali would be on a rampage by now, Thyra would be the one home cooking mother's old foods to handle her anger. The realization hit me.

"Mother... Father... I'm so sorry." I let my father down, I was to be Gamma like him, like my grandfather. I let my whole family down. I'll never be able to face them in Valhalla. I took a sharp breath in, "Their graves" I'll never be able to visit them again.

I jumped at the feel of someone's hand on my back, making me go into attack mode. I took a defensive stand on the bed.

"Easy there, my lady." Chief Calder backed away. He took a glance up and down at my stance. "You're a warrior?" A hint of a smile plays on his lips.

I relaxed my stance and fell back on the bed, "I... Used to be." I looked down at the floor. "Do you have a second or third person you put your trust into?" I didn't know how human clans worked.

"I have a commander and general, but they are away on war business. Why?" I looked straight at him with tears threatening to overflow.

"Which would you say is your third?" Humans do not have the same concepts as we wolves.

"My commander, again I ask, why are you asking these?" He took the chair he left in this room and sat across from me.

"My father was a commander in your terms. He..." I lost it, remembering my pack, parents and all that I lost, "I was supposed to take his place." I quickly wiped them away, "I trained since I was a p- A child to take my father's place."

"Had your father bared no sons?" He asked, I shook my head.

"I am the oldest of 3 women." Kali and Thyra probably went out on their own to find me. I hope they didn't. They would be rogues too.

"3 sister's, huh? How old are you?"

"I just turned 21." I saw his smile widen.

"You and I are the same age, my lady."

"And you have already seen battle?" I was surprised, father said that wolves to be sent out to battle had to be at the age of 25.

He let out a chuckle, "Of course, raiders and other clans challenge us regularly. Those who cannot fight, help in the village with hiding the elders and children." He looks towards the doorway then back at me, "Have you gone to battle yet?"

I shook my head, "Mother once said to me, 'The reason we keep our warriors and fighters from war fronts until age 25 is to make sure they are truly ready. Send them out too early, they'll be killed.'" I looked to the roof and whispered, "I miss her and father."

"I reckon they miss you as well."

I shook my head, "They died, several years ago. I had to take care of my sisters until they could take care of themselves."

"That's a lot of responsibility. When did it happen?" I guess being my second chance, he's rather calming to talk to.

"I was 10. Thyra had just turned 9 and Kali was 8. No one knows what happened. They just... Vanished."

"It's an unfair world, it's cruel that you and your sister had to endure that way." He came to the bed and sat next to me. "I do not understand why, yet I feel compelled to you." I looked at him. His eyes drew me in like the ocean waters in a deep cavern. "Compelled and protective." He put his hand on my cheek. He started to lean forward, I was frozen. Our lips were getting so close, just a few inches more and this will be an official kiss. Just before our lips touched, someone knocked on the frame.

"Chief? We have an issue." A man said.

Calder grunted, "What is it?"

"Sir, we have claw marks and teeth marks on the walls and gates." Calder looked confused.

"Bear?" He stood and opened the pelt door.

"No, sir. Wolf from what we could gather. They are not the size of a normal wolf however." I mentally took a deep breath in. Kali, Thyra, what have you done? Unless... It was Hakon. But why? He rejected me. If it was him, why would he try to find me?

"A wolf? Take me to them." He looked at me. "My lady Saga, please come with me. If we have a wolf of a larger size, I do not want to leave you alone here." Maybe that's a good thing, I can identify it. I know my packs scent. Though, Kali and Thyra don't have their wolves. So, who was it? Calder took my hand and led me through his village. It was equally as big as the pack village. I saw so many people working different trades. I noticed some were staring at me. I felt uncomfortable with this. We walked to the front of the gate and immediately was hit by the smell of the packs best tracker. Geir. And Kali's blood? I looked to where the smell was and sure enough, a splatter of blood. I looked back to the marks. Why would Geir try to get in here? I looked out to the woods in wonder.

~Chief Calder's P. O. V.~

As one of my guards were talking to me, I noticed Saga look to the opposite side. I looked to where she was looking and saw bloodstains on the wood. Fresh too. She was holding her breath for a minute then looked back to the marks. She knows something about this. From her expression, it terrified her, not in the sense of a phobia. I will have to ask her later. She turned her attention to the woods in deep thought. I walked up the marks and indeed they were wolf. Huge too, I've never see claw or teeth marks this big.

"What do you think it wanted? Food?" The way these marks are? I highly doubted that. Wolves travel in packs, this was done by one wolf.

"I doubt that. It was after something." The crunch of snow caught my attention. Saga had taken a couple steps back before running off. "Saga! Come back!" I tried running after her, woman was fast. Before I knew it, she was out of sight in these woods. I started panting. My guard followed me. "Keep searching for her. If a wolf of irregular size is near here, she ran straight into it's hunting territory. What was she thinking? I tried to follow her tacks, until they stopped at a river. She'll freeze to death. "Saga!" I called out. "Saga, please?!" It was then I heard a loud growling. I finally saw it, a wolf the size of tall tree. It's fur colored of the red woods, eyes that were black as night. It came towards me snapping it's jaws. I slowly pulled out my axes. It became defensive. Just before it lunged at me, Saga came running back to me, putting up her arms to protect me.

"Stop!" She screamed. It's ears went back and it backed down. I knew she was hiding something. Is she a witch? "Hakon, go back!" She was crying. "Do you know how hard it is to see you?!" She screamed at it. "Go back to the pack!" She fell to the ground holding her stomach as she cried. "Why?! Why now?!" The wolf came over and licked her head. "Just go away!" It backed up as if it had been kicked in the ribs. It whimpered to her, "GO AWAY!" It finally listened to her and ran into the forest.

I put away my axes and went to her. "What was that all about?" She just shook her head.

"Please don't ask me. I cannot tell you." I had to get her to talk to me. How am I supposed to protect her if I don't know what's going on?

"Saga, I am not asking as a friend. I am asking as your new chief. Don't make me use my title." She looked at me from the ground with pleading eyes. Knowing it wasn't getting anywhere she sighed and wiped her tears.

"Then, I ask that you give me time. I need to know I can trust you with sensitive information." She kept pleading with me using her eyes. "It's who I am, please, if I do tell you, when I tell you, don't be afraid of me." She whispered. I decided that I would trust her for now. I picked her up bridal style and walked her back to our village. I met up with my guard about half way. With another person I had not seen before.

"Who is this?" He was staring at Saga.

"I am not your concern! I am here for her." She looked like she had seen a ghost.

"Geir... How did...?"

"Saga, please come home. I know what happened was wrong. SHE visited him. We all felt it." Felt it? What is he talking about? Saga moved to get out of my arms, I gently put her down.

"It doesn't matter, Geir! He rejected me! He banished me without cause! Leaving Kali and Thyra to suffer!" Much like the wolf, he began to back down.

"Gamma, please?" Gamma? Her eyes went in rage, for what, I could not tell.

"Do. Not. Call me that." Her voice went low, I could almost hear her growling. I looked back at him, I could have sworn he acted as if he was about to bend the knee to her. Who is she?

"Saga. Everyone misses you. Including Ha-" He tried to explain.

"Don't say his name!" She screamed. "If he comes here, I will declare war on him! Even if I stand alone!"

"Don't say that, Saga. You'd be going to war against your own. You're just Gamma ranked!" That was when she lost it. She went up to him and fisted him in the face. He went to the ground.

"And you're not even warrior ranked. Don't challenge me, Geir." She came back to me and took my hand. "Let's go back to the village." She turned her attention to this Gier man. "Send him this; If he doesn't stop, I will kill him for breaking my heart, making my sisters suffer, never even loving me! He was supposed to love, cherish and hold me! He better choose another. This is no empty threat." She warned.

"As you demand, Saga Berkanan. It won't be pretty. I just hope you know what you're doing." Geir turned around and walked away.

I felt her relax against me, "I apologize for that."

"You really need to explain, Saga. Gamma? Rank? Who is the SHE he mentioned and apparently felt?" I looked down at her.

"Again, I ask that you give me time. It's not easy to explain, nor is it easy to to understand." I nodded in agreement and we went back to the village.

~Hakon's P. O. V.~

"She said WHAT?!" I roared. She'd declare war on us? Her own pack?!

"Her new mate is the chief of that village." Geir explained.

"He certainly wasn't afraid of Leif. And he's scarred. Meaning he has seen war." Of course, he wasn't afraid. I waved Geir off and thought about her words. She would declare war on us? She may not be a part of the pack, but she is still family. Even if I faced her in combat, I could never hurt her. I leaned back in my chair and thought of her. Our childhood together, the day I turned 21 and smelled her. The day we got lost in the woods. Why would she hate me so much? She knows I love her, I told her I did. Unless the shock of the rejection was bad enough to where she wasn't able to hear me. Oh, s**t. If that's what happened, of course she'd hate me. I got up from the chair and went to my mother. I found her at the iced pond.

"Mother? May I talk to you?" I loved her so much.

"Of course, sweetie." We sat and talked the rest of the day.