The Son Of Ragnar

Things weren't looking good for the Vikings in Northumbria but they had managed to survive the first day of their conquest despite Northumbria claiming victory in this fight.

Luckily, this was a war and not a battle, the Vikings knew that this war should have concluded by the end of the next day.

They needed to give it their all, with the sons of Ragnar reunited.

Nothing was stopping them from fulfilling the faith that Ragnar had shown in them.

Ragnar knew if he died, then Northumbria would create monsters that even they couldn't possibly hope to conceive.

However, he knew that the gods wouldn't abandon a man like him, he was everything a warrior ought to be.

"The gods haven't forsaken us…" Tyr said as he stared at the prisoner that Sigrid brought a prisoner that they could question but none of them could speak their language.

Tyr didn't know what to do, things would have been a lot better if they had Alf with them but they didn't.

There were, however, nonverbal ways to communicate with people even if you didn't speak the language.

Tyr crouched and looked at the frightened man right in the eyes, the look in Tyr's eyes felt like he was staring death right in the face.

The man didn't know when he lost control of his bladder and soaked himself in urine.

Tyr sighed, there was no need to torture him, this man was going to tell them everything they needed.

Tyr began to scribble something on the floor, it was a drawing, a skill the others didn't even know he had even though the drawing wasn't the best and could be considered mediocre.

It was clear enough to pass his message, the pictorial question was how many soldiers were there?

The man looked at the drawings before looking at Tyr, he was tied so he couldn't write down a response to this question.

Tyr looked at Sigrid and gave her a nod to which she severed the warrior's bind.

Bjorn watched as his brother handled the matter, he wasn't using violence and he hoped it stayed that way.

They needed to show these Christians that they weren't just barbarians ruled by death.

The man was hesitant to answer but Tyr just stared at him, handing him the stick he had used to scribble.

He tapped the ground twice and the Christian knew he wasn't going to ask again.

Tears began to stream from his eyes, this was how scared he was but who wouldn't be?

The fact that their job was to locate and report back meant that they were aware of the threat that these Vikings posed.

Otherwise, they would have engaged the Vikings that they were tracking.

The man began to scribble down a response and the others watched on as Tyr had managed to get rid of the language barrier that existed before them.

The man wrote a strange numerical value that no one even understood.

He could tell by Tyr's face that the young Viking had no idea what was written and decided to quickly show him what he meant.

He raised his hand and a blade was soon pressed against his neck as they perceived this as an attempted attack even though Tyr didn't flinch.

Tyr raised his hand and the sword was removed from his head.

The man began to speak his foreign language, counting as he used his fingers to demonstrate the numbers represented.

When he reached then, he kept repeating it before clearing what it was he had written and instead chose to use dots to represent what it was he was talking about.

He put down a dot and repeated the number "10" in his language before doing it again with the same procedure.

"What is he doing?" A random Viking asked but Tyr understood what was happening.

"The dots, each one represents the number 10," Tyr informed the man.

"Bjorn Ironside…" A man called his name and it was Baard.

"Baard, was it?" Bjorn had to confirm to which the man nodded before taking a seat beside the son of Ragnar.

"Tyr… He is amazing, isn't he?" Bjorn didn't hesitate to heap praise on his brother.

Baard expected him to be envious but those beautiful blue eyes, they were anything but envious.

They truly held admiration for Tyr because only Tyr could think of something so practical on the spot. This never crossed anyone's mind, they would have slaughtered him on the spot otherwise or used him to send some kind of message.

The Christian was done scribbling into the ground and there were well over a hundred dots.

The Vikings around looked terrified because their numbers were few, they barely even scratched a hundred men.

However, Tyr wasn't and now understood the message that Ragnar had relayed to Bjorn.

"He knew…" Tyr muttered to himself prompting confused looks from those around him.

"Father knew we couldn't take it if we fought head on…" Tyr said in realization.

Ragnar was thinking ten steps ahead, just when he thought he was catching up to his father.

"BJORN!" Tyr called out to his older brother to which Bjorn responded by getting up to meet his brother.

"Did you figure something out?" Bjorn asked and Tyr gleefully wrapped his arm around his older brother with a wide smile on his face,

One would think that they had acquired victory in the war with how wide his smile was.

"Father is a genius, his execution was a ruse!" Tyr said but Bjorn wasn't following.

"We don't need to kill these Christians! We just need to take their King!" Tyr said and Bjorn was beginning to catch up.

"Father's capture was a distraction? Now they expect us to come and save him, the attempt to rescue him already shows how important Ragnar is to us," Bjorn said.

"And whose idea was it to scale the walls?" Tyr asked, waiting for Bjorn to answer,

"Father…" Bjorn said as his confused face soon changed into a smile.

"Father knew he would be captured, didn't he?" Bjorn asked to which Tyr nodded.

Ragnar knew that these were new lands and the King would always attempt "dialogue" for the illusion of democracy, this was why Ragnar didn't take their lives otherwise this plan would have been nought. He needed himself to be captured and the fact that the Vikings "failed" to rescue him showed his importance to them.

Northumbria was expecting a full-scale attack, however, Tyr understood exactly what his father wanted.

"Father didn't kill their King…" Tyr muttered before Bjorn helped him complete it.

"... Because he wants us to kill him in front of everyone," Bjorn concluded.

The execution ground wasn't for King Ragnar, it was for the King of Northumbria.