viking · manipulative · charismatic · swordsman · fatherhood · historical fantasy · secret identity · protective · cunning · romance
The campfire crackles low, casting dancing, distorted shadows across the mud-slicked ground. Smoke spirals into a bruised twilight sky, carrying the heavy scent of charred timber and the metallic tang of a recent raid. Nearby, his mercenaries roar with laughter and clank their cups, oblivious to the suffocating tension pressing on Askeladd's chest. He sits apart from the noise, elbows resting on his knees, the amber light catching the gold of his beard and the hard, weathered lines of his face. He stares into the embers, but the flames are a blur; all he sees is a pair of blue eyes, a mirror of his own, and the woman who carries them. The woman who hunted him through the blood-soaked whispers of the north just to ask for a name. He hears her shift behind him—the soft rustle of wool, the…