A Valkyrie's Dream: Chapter 2.1

Alyss awoke with a gasp as the breath was knocked out of her. She was lying on the ground, the Einherjar looming over her. 

“Wha?” she asked, her sleepiness still apparent in her voice. She tried to sit up, but groaned at the pain. She was so sore already, and falling off of Eerro hadn’t helped at all. In fact, she was pretty sure that she was bruised all over.
“You fell,” the warrior replied in an amused tone.
Alyss glared at him as she succeeded in propping herself up to a sitting position.
“Why didn’t you stop me from falling off?”
“I thought you told me not to touch you,” the warrior answered.
Alyss ignored his remark and looked around. They were in a large courtyard paved with cobblestones, surrounded by looming marble walls. At one end of the enclosure, there was a large arch, which Alyss supposed was the one they had just came through. There was an ornate door carved into one of the walls, and many other small arches. The Einherjar had moved away now and was occupied by tying Eerro’s reins to a hitching post nearby. He finished and motioned to Alyss.
“Come girl,” he said.
Alyss struggled to her feet. To her surprise, when she stood up, the pain was much less than what she’d thought it would be. She limped after the Einherjar, trying to catch up to him. As he stopped to knock on the door, Alyss stood next to him, her mind racing as she tried to imagine what would be inside. Why was she here? The warrior shifted impatiently next to her as he waited, distracting her. He knocked again, this time harder. Alyss struggled to her feet. This time, the door swung open with a slight creak. Inside, a homely maid was struggling to keep the heavy door open. Alyss didn't envy her. The door was wood with silver etchings, and it was large. It would be a constant struggle to keep it open, and the maid had a slight build. As they walked through, the warrior pushed the girl aside roughly, causing the door to swing closed. Alyss, who was in the middle of the doorway, instinctively put up her hands to try to stop the door. It slammed into her body, causing her to stumble back outside and fall to the ground, dazed. The door slammed shut with a thud and Alyss stared blankly at the night sky, wondering why she was on the ground again. Her chest hurt so much, and her hands now ached even more than the rest of her sore body. As she struggled for breath, the face of the concerned maid appeared above her.
“Are you okay?” she asked in a frantic voice. “Is there blood?
Alyss tried to reassure her, but all that came out of her mouth was a rasping wheeze.
“Oh by Odin’s name she’s going to die! Please wake up.” The maid pleaded. “You can’t die! I’ll be flogged for sure, probably killed!”
Alyss moaned loudly as the maid shook her roughly, intensifying the pain. The Einherjar, who must have come outside when the maid had, took charge of the situation.
“Leave her.” he commanded.
The maid stared at him with an expression of bewilderment. “But, Sir?” she ventured. “I can’t leave her here to die.”

The warrior scowled. “This is what she deserves. It also makes for a fitting test.”
As the maid scurried away, he approached the prostate body and squatted down near Alyss’s head.
“Let’s see how strong you really are.” he murmured. With that, he hooked his arms underneath hers and hoisted her to her feet. Alyss’s face grew pale at the pressure of his arms against her bruised chest but she resisted the urge to scream and bit her cheek instead, causing the metallic taste of blood to fill her mouth. He stood her on her feet and let go. To her surprise, instead of collapsing, Alyss felt a rush of heat course through her body. It felt like her blood was on fire, but a strange kind of fire which burned with a freezing pain. Her body felt like lead weighing her down, but it was like air and she was floating. She could focus with tremendous intensity, but when she tried to concentrate on the Einherjar he seemed to blur, and then sharpen at the same time.
After what seemed like an hour, but in reality was probably only a minute or so, it slowly faded to a distant buzz in the background and Alyss became aware of the steadying hand of the warrior on her arm. She pulled away and whirled to face him, still a little unsteady on her feet, but her aching body already feeling much better.

“What was that?” she asked him. “Why did you heal me?”

The young man smirked. “Oh, that wasn’t me, girly. It was all you.”

Alyss’s eyes widened as she stared at the warrior. She had healing magic? Ridiculous. There was no way. She didn’t know what his plan was in lying to her, but she resolved to pretend to believe his lies. As long as it kept him happy… well, there was no harm in that.
“I have healing magic?” she asked.

He nodded. “I honestly thought that you were a dud, but you proved me wrong. At least this means that I didn’t go all that way for nothing.”

Alyss pressed her lips together. A dud? Really? She hoped he wasn’t too disappointed when he found out that he was wrong and that she was actually just an ordinary girl. Maybe they would send her back to her village and she could be happy.

A soft touch on her arm made her jump. The warrior stared at her still ashen face. “Are you okay?” he said gently. “I know this must be a lot to take in.”

Now he was being nice? Alyss was extremely confused. She could deal with the aloof and dismissive Einherjar, but she had no idea what to do when one treated her like a human being.

“I’m fine,” she muttered. She wondered if she would be able to finally get some answers for her questions now. Might as well take advantage of him if he decided to be soft.
“Why are we here?”

The warrior studied her for a few moments and then turned away. “Come with me and you’ll find out.”

Alyss started after him, her body feeling only slightly sore but even more tired. She noticed with a start that the faint buzzing noise in the back of her mind was gone, which probably meant something, although Alyss wasn’t sure what it was. He opened the ornate door himself, and Alyss hurried through it, not forgetting how much it had hurt when it had hit her. She glanced around quickly as the door slammed shut behind her, causing her to wince.
The walls were tastefully decorated with murals and paintings, more elegant than anything she had seen before. The warrior’s boots clicked on the polished stone floor as he continued on, and Alyss padded after him silently, her shoes soft and supple. He turned left, then right, then left again, while Alyss trailed after him, glancing around with wide eyes. They stopped in front of an oaken door, and the warrior knocked softly, first once, then twice. While she waited, Alyss was drawn to one of the numerous tapestries on the wall, which depicted Odin, the Allfather, siting on his throne with his wife Frigga beside him, cradling a baby boy in her arms. She stretched out an arm to touch the rich fabric, but jerked it back when she heard a voice coming from inside of the room.

“Come in,” it commanded.

The Einherjar carefully pushed open the door.
“Go on,” he told Alyss, and escorted her into the room with his hand placed on the small of her back.

She ventured in slowly, feeling heat rise to her cheeks as a tall, muscular man rose to meet them, his gaze fixed solely on her.

“So,” he asked with a searching gaze directed at the Einherjar. “Are you sure it’s the right one?”

The warrior nodded emphatically. “Yes, Sir. She manifested while I was with her.”

“Really,” he mused. “Most interesting. We’ll discuss this further. However, in the meantime…”
The man rang a small bell on his desk, turning back to face them as he did so. “Gunhild will take you to your quarters, child, and the training will begin tomorrow.”

“Why am I here!” Alyss asked again, hoping desperately to get some answers. “What training? What are you doing with me?
I don’t understand,” she choked out, the room blurring slightly.

The man scowled, his pleasant demeanor gone now. “Will somebody shut her up,” he growled.

The warrior backhanded Alyss across the face. She recoiled instinctively, but his calloused hand hit her nose and face, causing her to stumble backwards, barely keeping her balance. Something wet trickled down onto her mouth, and she clasped her hands to her face to find blood streaming out of her nose.

Sometime during this, a stout woman had come in, who Alyss supposed to be Gunhild, escorted her out of the room and down the hallway, turning frequently at almost every intersection, until they reached an inconspicuous looking door. She opened it and gestured for Alyss to go in. The room was sparsely furnished, with a small cot and a table with a basin and a pitcher of water on it. The room was lit by lamps mounted on the sides of the walls which provided some light, but not enough to properly illuminate it. Gunhild led Alyss over to the cot and sat her down.
“May dreams overtake you,” she said, and Alyss felt a pang of nostalgia pierce her heart. Her mother had said that to her every night, even when she had protested that she was too old for that nonsense. Gunhild patted Alyss gently on her shoulder, then walked over to the door.
“You can clean yourself up over there,” she said, gesturing to the table. “Someone will come and get you in the morning, so don’t worry.” 

With that, she turned and left the room, closing the door behind her. Alyss heard the snick of the door locking, and silence filled the room. With it, came the realization that the niggling buzz in the back of her mind had returned. Alyss got up, and walked loudly to the table, trying to drown it out. Washing her face, she noticed that the blood flow had stopped, which she supposed was good. The water slowly turned pink as she wrung the cloth out above it, and Alyss returned to the cot after turning off the lamp. She knew that the smart thing to do would be to stay awake and watch, but her body seemed to have a mind of its own and she found herself lying in bed, her aching body covered by the thin cotton sheets, her eyes already closing.