As soon as we reached the shore, almost all of the women were surrounding me, patting me on the back, smiling happily that I had won. It felt wonderful, yet I also felt terrible for cheating, despite the fact that my sister had done it to me. I followed my mother to the center of the village where two guards were standing at the ready to open the cage door for us. Once it was opened, they prodded the man out and moved him into the small hut that had been designed for this situation. My heart was racing and I felt weak with relief, fear and nervousness. My injured leg was throbbing, but my heart was joyous. But before I could go join my prize, my sister stopped me.
"Not so swiftly shall you go just yet." When she yanked my mask off of me, the look on her face was almost better than ten season's worth of harvesting. "Kyrja!" Her face became pale and she looked as if she were going to faint. I smirked at her and then pressed the mask back on my face, turning to our mother.
"I am ready, Queen Hausta." I held my chin up, daring her to tell me I had not won my prize, but she smiled so briefly I nearly missed it and saw something akin to pride in her eye. She motioned to the cabin where Willhulm was waiting.
"Then claim your prize, sister, you earned it well." I felt bad at her words for a few moments as I walked slowly to the hut, ignoring the pats on the backs and rude comments about best positions and such. But before I could enter, Freyja grasped my arm and leaned in to me to whisper in my ear.
"I have lied to you, Kyrja. Forgive me." I stopped, startled at her words. What had she lied about? "When I told you the herbs were magic, it was a lie. I told it to you to give you confidence. And it looked as if it worked. I knew you could win without anything but belief in yourself." I blinked, taking in her shocking words. I had won on my own?
"The powder...?" I gasped softly.
"...Was simply chamomile. Good for tea, but not so much for winning an exhausting tourney. You have truly excelled today, Kyrja. I knew you could do it." She pecked me on the cheek and began to hobble away, leaving me in shock in her wake. I glanced ahead at the guard standing at the door, waiting for me, and braced myself in preparation for what was inside. When I entered, limping as I did, I took in the room. The fireplace was made of stone, but screened so that the males could not bring harm to themselves, the hut or their new mistress. There rested a huge grizzly bear hide rug on the floor in front of the fireplace. And in the background was a nice-sized bed made of pine postings with leather shackles at the head and foot of the soft mattress to keep the male submissive. Sitting on the bed, his back to me was my prize. Willhulm.
As I stood there, studying his bare back, he rose slowly and turned, glaring at me in sheer defiance. I was startled at first, but then remembered I was still in the competition top and loincloth as well as mask. My eyes were drawn to his body. He had been given simply a loincloth to wear, which accented the rest of his muscular frame. His arms and chest rippled at the slightest movement and I realized that blacksmithing must require quite a bit of strength, as he had the muscles from it.
"So, you are the winner, here to take your prize?" His voice was full of rebellion and I smirked underneath my mask. "Why do you hide your face from me?" I opted to toy with him a little and began to slowly circle him.
"Aye, I am your new mistress." I said the words softly so that I would not give my voice away if he recognized it. "And I am not hiding my face; I am playing a game with you." He leaned in a little, confused and curious. "If you can tell me my name, Willhulm, I will take off my mask."
"Hmm." He began to scratch his hairy chin, thinking of a name that could fit a Valkyrie champion living in the middle of a jungle. As he began to form a random name in his mouth, he blinked at me in shock, realizing he had given no one his name. But me.
"If I were to say 'Kyrja'," he asked, clasping his hands behind his back and circling me now. "Would I be far from the truth?" Without letting me answer, the man pushed my mask off of my face and laughed. "Kyrja? You won the tourney?" I nodded proudly; especially proud now that I knew I had done it without cheating. He grasped my hand and pulled me to the bear rug beneath us. "You must tell me how you did it!" I winced when my leg brushed against the rug, which made him look down. "Oh, no. Your leg. It looks quite painful." He reached out to touch it, but refrained, worried about hurting me further.
As we sat, dining on fruit and fruit juice left for us to enjoy, I explained about the mask and how it had probably saved me from the wrath of my sister, but not so much since she had almost cost me dearly. I told him of every event and the things I went through and the things running through my mind. When I told him about my sister lifting my mask and her reaction, we both burst into laughter.
"Oh Kyrja, I wish I had seen it. I am certain it would have been side-splitting." He smiled warmly and then looked at me almost as if seeing me in a different light, and not just the one from the fireplace. The heat was making me a little drowsy, but I fought it, enjoying spending time with the man. "How did you do it? How could you go through all of that and have the courage to finish?"
I blushed profusely at his question, knowing the answer, but went forward with my reply.
"You." I saw the confusion on his face. "Anytime I drew close to giving up, I just thought about my sister mistreating you. It encouraged me to put more effort in, so that she would not be put in that position." I blushed again, knowing how it made me sound weak. But I saw some sort of glimmer in his eye as he reached out and stroked my cheek gently. I shuddered at his touch; it felt so nice.