Get a grip on time.

Ragnar Lothbrok the biggest viking king of all times had won many wars, from a farmer to a king, he went far away on a raid to knew kingdoms, soon after they found themselves on a castle full of monks, and that place was called Lindesfarne, then brought a christian friend who told him stories of other countries, who told him stories of other God, and went back for more, the so called Paris that the christian had talked about, he was always looking forward to a better future, wanting more.

They spent a lot time together, the priest and Ragnar, each other starting to stagger each other's beliefs, the slave became a friend and started Ragnar taking advantage starts to suck information out of him about the place they raided, and Ragnar wants more of that. Ragnar becomes earl, they go on their first raid together, after the raid which was successful and they decide to leave an earl to look after the new land taken, and shockingly Athelstan decides to stay in the new place, Wessex.

After some time they are attacked and Athelstan is taken captive by king Ecgbert, he falls in love with king Ecgbert son's wife, and at the other hand back in Kattegat Ragnar takes back his land, that was stolen when he was gone, and makes for more raids with his wife-no longer (Since he had denied the proposal of dismiss Aslaug whom already had given birth to three Ragnarssons Lagertha had gone with Bjorn but she had returned to help him take back Kattgat.), Lagertha and others. Leaving again Aslaug to the care of their three children and the new no-born, whom Aslaug had prophesied that would be born a monster because Ragnar didn't wait three days after he came back.

She does give birth to a deformed child, almost killing her. Ragnar openly regrets this child whom, through his eyes will not have a place in the viking world, and kidnaps his own son willing to kill him but he just can't make himself do it, after that Aslaug does her best on rising the kid, they name him Ivar, changing her entirely and the relationship between every member in her family. She takes care of him as the most valuable treasure.

Ragnar and his war crew, including Lagertha, leave back to England to reclaim the promised lands.

Athelstan who has been kept by king Ecgbert, is sent to talk to Ragnar for peace, after making a deal of land, they agree to build a settlement and leave back to Kattegat. Athelstan after loving a woman that was not his and returning some of his first beliefs to him, finds himself in a crossroad, he then chooses to go back with Ragnar his friend.

The new information that his friend tells him, feed his entrails with an insatiable thirst of the unknown. Paris a big fortress but not impossible to penetrate, at Athelstan words. Ragnar finds out the settlement in Wessex was compromised, and Floki kills Athelstan defending their beliefs and believing Athelstan was a bad influence over Ragnar.

Paris was a stronger enemy, since everyone was doubting Ragnar's leadership, he decides to give everyone a chance to try their plans, all of them fails but his, who "becomes a christian" and afterwards fake his death with the help of his son Bjorn, and a sickness that is eating him from the insides. After the raid they decide someone should stay near, just to let them know that they were still there, Rollo, Ragnar's brother, who's known by betraying him once, is chosen by Ragnar to take that spot.

After sometime Ragar goes back and found himself betrayed once more. Then he went back to battle and lost, defeated he went back to home, to Kattegat.

After that he left, leaving his wife and children. He'd been lost for years before his family heard anything from him. The children all grew to be men and the union was always there, with some disputes, but that always happens in brotherhood.

Ivar.

After Floki killed Athelstan, Ragnar had condemned him to shame for several days, and after that he had become Ivar's company just because he had a like on him, this little guy had a fury in him since he was very young, he was always on pain and yet you could noticed the need of him to be around kids of his age, to be one more of them, at six he killed his first human, just because he didn't want to give a toy away, it was hard for him to play with other kids, because the lack of movement on his legs so he was not really integrated in the games. He proved smart in other kind of table games, he was a natural tactician, and while he grew older the dislike for other people was more, he didn't care about other's emotions anymore.

Will he keep growing he would feel the need of putting a lot more effort than the other children of his age to do "normal" things, like string a bow properly, throw an ax with accuracy, the right handling of swords, etc. So he would crawl at nights, when nobody, except Floki but he never took notice, to the practice field and practice on his own. And even after all that, and prove his skills before his brothers, he knew, everybody knew he was good, and he was too tenacious that scared others, he was not afraid of killing, but they also knew that he was just a cripple, and he would not be able to go to a battlefield.

His brothers always took care of him, out of pity apparently, and yet he always tried his best to gain the affection of them, the bigger part of that problem was their mother whom always favored him above the others, his father , in the other hand, tried to kill him in cold blood when he was still a baby, because he was a cripple, always crying out of pain, and thought useless, he had brought him back and after that Aslaug, his mother, had always someone to look after him, mostly Floki, "It'd be an honor" he had said when becoming Ivar's mentor, he would teach him about the gods, manners, which was the hardest part, since Ivar had his own description of what manners were as a prince, and he used to play with him near the water with toy boats made specially for him, just as he had made a special bath tube, a special bed and all of the tools his best friend's son would ever need.

Summer was almost at its end, and Floki had taken Ivar to his place, "Wait here", he said said leaving him sitting on the shore, the sea tried to call him in, singing to him in a soft lullaby, "I'm afraid I have to refuse the invitation Sjövættir ", he told the sea, and he snorted on himself, "Why you ask?, can't you see I can't swim with these?", he said with a touch of annoyance, Floki was listening from behind all of the solo conversation, "Fine! I'll go and you drag me in and drawn me, but if you let me live, I'll see you in valhalla and kill you with my bare hands", he said already dragging himself to the water, Floki walked backward and hid behind a dead trunk of a tree, Ivar hesitated a moment but in his own frustration he kept crawling himself in. Floki was already undoing his cloth so he will go after him when he notice his fear or hear his yells for help. But he never heard a thing. Suddenly Ivar had disappeared and he sprinted in the water, Helga his wife ran after him and waited in the shore, Floki dived in several times until he was able to see the body sitting on the bottom and trying to reach something, someone with his hand, Floki swam faster and grabbed him from under his arms and dragged in out, Helga helped to took in their cabin and changed his wet clothes, he was unconscious but breathing. He didn't want to talk about it when he woke up, and he looked at the sea terrified ever since.

Floki took him once to the seer after that, "What did he say to you?", Floki asked Ivar when he was coming out of the dark place, "He just speaks stupid riddles", he answered annoyed, "But what did he say?", Ivar sighed, "Darkness, the end of this land is what thy spirit bring, but I see a light, he said and then he grunted as if he was being hurt and he kicked me out", he finished, Floki inclined his head a little to the side, unknowing what that might meant and he couldn't help himself, "Wait for me here", he said and ran back to the seer, "Right, even if I keep crawling you would catch up to me in no time", he gnashed his teeth in frustration and just kept crawling. Floki came out astonished, scared and curious of how that would be possible.

He knew this little guy had potential, but that was just very big, and he didn't like they way it was shown, "A white man with unsheathed sword standing before Ivar, stopping the seer to be able to see his fate", he whispered to himself as if trying to understand why, and who was this white character.

I had spotted them, all my brothers, with the same girl a few times already and something in me told me I had to have her too, since I was the only one who hadn't yet. "You know the slave girl", I started, and my three brothers turned to look at me, "Which one?", Ubbe asked, "Come on, you know which one I am talking about, you all had her", I commented, the sand underneath started to itch, "Yes, so?", Hvitserk asked, "I want to have her too" I said, they all exchanged looks "Alright, I'll ask her", Ubbe said, "She's a slave, what is there to ask?", I said, "She'll say yes, I just want to ask her to see what she thinks", I scoffed "I know what she'll think, I'm a cripple" I finished, "You are one of us, you are Ragnar Lothbrok son too", Ubbe said.

The next day, at evening I was taken to a cabin in the woods, they had built a sort kind of boat made of wood sticks and helped me cross a lake, then Ubbe took me in, it had fires inside and there she was waiting for me sitting on the bed, my brother's went away and she started to undress herself and me, I was scared, my heart was beating like crazy, I had no idea what to do, and she kissed me, I felt things in my chest "Don't be afraid" she said, and everything started. As I thought, I couldn't do it, I could not please a woman, I didn't work properly, and she screamed in pain, and I didn't want to be ashamed by this, I tried to shock her throat with my belt, "Don't kill me" she managed to say, "I must, or you will tell my brothers I can't satisfy a woman and they will laugh at me", she pleaded so I loosed the belt, "You're special Ivar in many other ways, I've seen you throwing the ax, and your aim with the bow is more accurate than any of the other princes, I won't tell anybody about this",she said and hugged me, and I cried, stupidly cried, and fell asleep just like that.

I made her of my property, of course, I didn't trust her words. "You can't keep her for yourself", Hvitserk said to me, I smiled, how could I not? "Oh, I can", I smiled and had her sitting by my side at the table. "You are just a cripple, mother always lets you do as you please because she pity you", Sigurd snapped, and I got so very angry, I knew all that but I was not going to let him say whatever he liked, so I grabbed my knife and helped myself with the table and chairs to walk to reach him, he stood up from his chair, afraid, and when I was close enough he made me fall moving the chair, "We only helped you because we pity you, Ivar the boneless, that is how everybody knows you", he mocked with that snake eye, and said those words others didn't have the courage to say before, I threw my knife, which got stabbed in the wall behind him, leaving a trace of blood falling down his forehead, then I regretted it for I could have killed him, but what done, was done, and he ran off.

One day the great Ragnar came back from the dead, when we heard he was in town my brothers went out to see him, I didn't since the last memory I had from him it was that he despised me, when they came back I asked what he had said, he had invited them all even Bjorn to go to England again, he had no army, nor ships, and yet he was willing to go, none of them wanted to go with him, Bjorn had his own plans with Sigurd, and Ubbe with Hvitserk were going to stay with mother, they were simple minded people, and me I was thirsty for blood, for war but I could not move after all.

One night, when everyone was asleep I did what I did every night, crawled my way to my father's throne, and after I finally sat down, thought of how to be a normal legged person would feel, and how nice it would be to rule and conquer, suddenly it surprised me to see he was there eating at the great table shocking on goat milk cheese, "The king Ragnar Lothbrok, son of Odin", I mocked with a grin, he looked like a beggar, "Ivar, can't mistake you" he mocked back, I scoffed, and he approached slowly, drinking ale and sat on my mother's throne beside me, "So...I heard you're going to seek revenge on Ecgbert, "I am", he said resting his arm on the chair, "Do you have a crew? you asked my brothers what did they say?" I asked already knowing, he smiled ashamed giving me that as answer, "I thought so, and yet you haven't ask me, because I'm a cripple", he turned to me annoyed, "let's go then", he said, "Not until you ask me like you did to my brothers", I teased, he sighed, "Would you-" I interrupted "Of course I will", I said laughing and crawled back to bed.

In the morning I crawled my way to the port and found father standing there, "Just the cripple I was waiting for, let's go" he said, his mockery was funny just like Floki's, so I followed, and followed, 'til we got to the west outskirt, then into the woods, and then we climbed a hill, just then he started to dig, "Why are you getting your treasure? you won't have anything in Valhalla", I said, "If there is Valhalla", he said and hit wood, with a crooked teeth smile, "Help me lift cripple", he said, and I helped.

Next morning I heard my brother's arguing about father giving away his stuff so he could get a crew to sail with him, I laughed inside, "There's nothing wrong with that, people pay people for the same matter", I said very serious, they were in disagreement of course, as always, they thought he was shaming himself. After I told my mother I was going to England with father she ran off to look for him, I rolled my eyes so hard that I felt dizzy.

The day had come I had ordered some things to the blacksmith to be able to stand up and walk like a normal person, or so I thought, I was slower than a normal, but at least standing, so I was late to the port, "Finally" father said when he saw me "Hurry up cripple" he said, and I smiled exhausted, I walked a little more and entangled myself on a fishing net, then fell, Ubbe intended to help me up but mother stopped him, she had a forced smile on her face, I knew she thought I was going to my deathbed, just like myself, and everybody else, "Just crawl, hurry", father said and helped me in the ship.

We had so many time to talk on the ship, "You think I could be of use to you in this small raid?" I wondered with the sun burning my brain and my empty stomach from throwing out while he was directing everyone with a bright, transparent yet colored stone, "You're special, you'll find a way" he said. That night Thor played to kill us with the most terrifying storm I had ever been into, I was so scared of the sea, of the water itself, I could not swim after all, and with this storm even more, I kept screaming and yelling and my father lift me up and tied me up to the mast, suddenly I saw a huge wave coming to us and I saw father, he was taking it, we were taking it, my eyeballs were almost out of its place, and the boat turned upside down, I thought I was about to die, but father dragged me along, he swam for the both of us and even got me a piece of wood so I could float, and by the gods' mercy we got to a shore at sunrise, he dragged me like a puppet, I caught sand between my fingers and grasped to it as if that little sand would keep me safe, my crutches were still hanging at my sides, father fell dead on the sand, and I blacked out.

When I woke up he was still laying the same way, his eyes were open, I hit his leg with my fist, no response, "Hey!", I yelled at him, no response, so I hit harder "Hey!", I yelled louder, he hit me back with his foot, "What?", he answered upset and got up, "What now?" I asked him, "Get up and crawl, let's find our people, if there's any", he said with a crazy look in his eyes, and then we heard them coming from the other side of the shore, we were few, twelve, and weak.

We entered a cave and warmed ourselves, "What's your plan Ragnar Lothbrok?", I asked chewing dry meat, "I don't know, we should warm ourselves first", he said annoyed with sort of a smile, "Alright" I said, and everyone agreed.

Later on I was behind everyone else, crawling my way up the hill, with a hardest effort because I was carrying, my items to be normal and from time to time they would get stuck in a rock and slower me even more, father got annoyed for I was slower than before and like a lighting he jumped on me, "Stop! get off me! I can walk like a normal man with these!" I screamed with him suffocating me, taking my crutches and then throwing them away down the hill, "You are not normal, when you realize that, is when greatness will happen, now crawl", he ordered, and after a while we traveled in the woods for days, walking and hiding like rats. One night he got closer to me and whispered, "We're almost there, but we are too many, we're going to be caught", I frowned trying to understand, and now doubting my father's sanity, we were too few, we were mostly going to get killed, now if we were less, that was the stupidest idea ever, unless... that was what he wanted, "Did you come here to die?", I asked, he smiled, "I need you to bring the news back home", he said, shocking, just when I was getting a like on him, "Ubbe knew, everyone thought you were coming to get you killed, I thought different of you, but you are just a coward", I said with resentment, he smiled, "A little sacrifice for a greater good, so we need to kill them tonight", and so we did, silently we cut the throats of our friends.

He wanted us to go faster so he carried me on his back, "Onward donkey" I said, and he brayed like a donkey. Suddenly he threw me to the bushes and shut my mouth when I groaned, "Soldiers" he said, I glanced up, a hundred probably, so there was a plan, we could not die in a random place. "You know, I'm glad I brought you here", he said eating the last of our dry meat and giving me some, "Right, your cripple son, the last choice, that became a burden and now you have to carry. Why did you tried to kill me when I was a baby?", I had so many questions, he got annoyed I could tell, "It was a mistake, you grew up to be better than any other man, I can see that now so for that I am sorry, I love you son", my eyes filled with tears, I felt shit in my chest but I had to mock the king of vikings, "The king is accepting his mistakes", he took a deep breath, "And the last, now crawl", he said but he carried me again, we walked about two hours more.

He put me down in front of a wall, "Alright, so no matter what they do to me, you have to act...", I smiled, "To behave as an useless cripple" I finished, "Yes, they don't have to see you as a threat, because you need to go back to kattegat, and bring the news", it was sad, but this was going to give force to our people again, he knew that, his murder will bring revenge. He kissed my forehead, "No matter what they do to me, you behave", he said and we got closer to the gate, he called himself friend of king Egcbert, but he was taken hostage by his son, Aethelwulf, but just after a proper beat, me, well, I was a ward, where I was left without food in an ominous room, until King Ecgbert came back from his journey and send me water and talked with father, he called me up just then and feed me, that was the last time I saw him, "Everyone will always underestimate you, let them see they are wrong", were his last words in old norse so no one could understand, and I was taken away, they spoke for days, ate and got drunk, and talked more,.

One day I was taken away from a game of chess with prince Aethelwul's son, Alfred, whom was actually son of the priest that my father befriended years ago, my father was being taken to King Aelle and I was going to be sent to Kattegat on a ship, as promised to my father, for his life, that's all I knew of it all.

Fainted by seasick I got to kattegat with king Ecgbert's soldiers that soon left, brothers and mother, even Bjorn was already there, Ubbe took me home and after some time we were eating, they started to ask stuff, and I only answered, "He's dead", nobody wanted to believe me until each of them heard his cry in the wind, "How the little piglets would grunt if they knew how the old boar suffered." I heard him also. Now it was for sure.

The revenge might had been the greater good my father mentioned, because with his death everybody in Norway wanted to avenge him, in no time we summoned the biggest army ever, and we argued for the leadership of it, but of course they would choose Bjorn Ironside, the first born, we celebrated this new union, and Ubbe even married the slave we all had had (well...almost all had), whom was now a free woman. And I had gotten an enhancement for my leg's reinforcement, it forced my legs to stay firm and I could stand longer, it was more painful but it was worth it. In few days we sailed away with the biggest float ever in the vikings history. When we first got to a coast, it was called East Anglia, we did as father had once said, we looked for information, and found some children that were fishing, I was the only one who spoke their language so I asked about the nearest christian celebration,"It will be in three days", I said smiling anxiously, then we burned them as offering to our gods. We waited for three days and I asked Floki to build a carriage for me so I could be in the battlefield with them. We needed to find everybody in church and not too much guards on the walls and during the celebration that was possible. We won, as expected, we took the city and argue of what to do, we decided to attacked York, thus king Aelle, so we headed there with the great army thirsty for vengeance. King Aelle could not offer resistance, we were too many for his little army, after the battle we easily won we took him to the place he murdered father, a snake pit, the drums started to play and Bjorn did the honors, he cut away every rib from the spine and then ripped out his lungs and extended them like an eagle, I got closer crawling and drank his blood that was being spilled in a bowl, every drop of his blood was air to my lungs, I felt strength, I felt complete, not, not yet. We had the city but there was way more to conquer.

We had a feast, a feast I rather we wouldn't had, we argued, again, Ubbe wanted to make a settlement and farm the lands and I wanted to conquer more. But older brother wouldn't listen wouldn't he?. Then Sigurd stood up and started to insult me for being so stubborn and cripple, again why couldn't he just leave me alone? When the only thing he could do right was played the flute and in a moment, out of anger I threw my ax at him, it got him in the chest, everybody gasped, he took it off so I felt relieved for a moment because I hadn't kill him, he walked to me with the ax in his hand, I got nervous then, everyone was looking astonished, even our brothers froze, but then he fell dead on his face, I regretted it so much, I almost cried right there, since I knew every hope of being loved was doomed, but I better got angry, and crawled away.

So we were going to go to Mercia, where king Ecgbert was supposed to be, at least they agreed on killing Ecgbert too. And we headed there, we sent our scout first and days after he said their troop was two days far, so I wanted to study the ground, I talked to Bjorn and we went to sightseeing, "They would expect us to attack from the front, we could use the woods" I said, and Bjorn agreed with all of my plan.

The day came, we were facing each other across the field, and we made our first move, to fake a retreat, they followed, as planed, then we used the wood and ran through it to the other side, excitement and laughter filled my surroundings, we now were where the others used to be first, two times we played them fool, and the third, after we ran through the woods they decided to look for us in the woods, but we were expecting that too, we attacked a flank for them to go where we wanted them to, and killed some, there was a strange woman with them, she didn't seem like one of them Christians, she didn't seem a soldier, nor shield maiden, nothing I had seen before, I was looking at black haired through the woods, maybe she was a christian witch she was wearing a funny round hat, so I threw my ax at her and she dodged it with a soft move to the side, I laughed so hard she was good, I wanted to fight this woman, and she scoffed with a twisted smile, I ran with my carriage to my spot, she was as eagerly to fight as me, they charged to our next crew that suddenly disappeared, again. Prince Aethelwulf yelled like a dumb and ran in the direction I expected, "It's like you planned! you are a genius!" Floki said and kissed me, "I told you", to the boats, and we had a trap waiting for them in the pass, there died a lot more of them, but there she was, I was looking from above the hill, she wore no mail, only on her torso she had a plate there and the rest was regular cloth and bandages, where one would use armor, no boots but boiled sandals strapped to her knees, and she danced among her enemies, faster than I had ever seen someone fight, she was like the waves coming and going seducing her preys, perhaps myself, killing with a touch of her skinny blade, she was fierce, I could see like blue fire emanating from her, she was smiling, she enjoyed killing, something inside me was warming up, I needed to fight her, "Retreat!", Aethelwulf said, and she turned confused, disappointed, she looked up at me in my carriage and we glanced at each other for a moment, then she smiled in excitement, scary, and she ran behind Aethewulf. Floki didn't let that go unnoticed, and gave me a pad on my back, "You try" he said giggling and excited at the same time, "I'll kill her, you'll see", I said and he giggled again in response.

We won the battle and of course he was going to come back, he was not dead yet and we had the king in Mercia, before we killed him we made a deal, he did papers and sealed them for us for a part of land in East Anglia, he let me know that he was skeptical when he heard I was leading the "Great Heathen Army", they called us, and I snorted, father had been right, and Bjorn still thought he was in charge, that was music to my ears, and he asked us to let him choose his own way of death, Ubbe helped him with the knife, and like a coward he killed himself. After our feast at Mercia, Bjorn left us to fulfill his fate and navigate the Mediterranean sea, Floki went away alone and that the reason of his voyage was that he had lost his wife and life had no beauty any longer and had to find it back, it was harder to let him go, I went to see him before that, he was building a small boat, "Why are you making a toy boat?", I asked, "It is not a toy, is a one person boat, functional", he answered, "Where it is supposed that you are sealing to?", I asked, "Where the gods take me", he said, he was like my real father whom was always there for me, "I don't want you to go", I said with my voice breaking, and he said nothing, "My heart is breaking, you are like my real father", I said with watery eyes I felt could no longer held in, and he jumped off the boat to me, "Your real father is Ragnar Lothbrok, don't forget that, I love you, and I loved your father, and who knows, if the gods' will is to sail me back to you, we will see again, in this world or the other, and we'll drink together again", Floki said and gave me a kiss on my forehead, "Leave, I need to finish", he said and with my heart broken, I did as told. They all left, leaving the three of us in charge of the army.

I suggested we moved back to York, it was closer to the coast and we could have our ships at hand and could have more coming from home, faster for their next approach. BUT, Ubbe suggested peace, he would go and talk to prince Aethelwulf, nobody agreed but they went anyway. The next morning I was getting my back inked when Ubbe and Hvitserk approached, they got a good beat, "No peace?", I asked, and Ubbe just clicked his tongue in response, I scoffed, "Back to York then", I said and we started to get ready.

After a couple of days we got there, it had been taking care for one of my guys and gladly gave it back, it took us some days but we enhanced the walls, and we left just some parts uncovered for the enemy to think we had forgotten those places, and so, they would try to enter through them because we would put guards just from time to time in case they would scout, it wouldn't look so obvious.

From the author.

Hello to the brave people that venture into new simple writers. Even though I tried to follow the story line of the TV Show, I changed a little of it, and added what I wanted to make it personal, hope you like it and comment please, I'd like to know what you think of it, thank you!

"Darkness and light", I wanted it to sound cool but also to make sense, darkness because with Ragnar the darkness to Viking's era starts to unfold, and Ivar comes to complete that, and light... because through other's perspective, light is coming through darkness.