Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or the characters, they belong to Eiichiro Oda.

Prologue: Don't Look Back

The sky was lit a brilliant amber as the sun set into the purple haze on the horizon, the scattered rays glittering on the gentle currents of the river. It should have been a promising sign that the gods were with them, but her stomach churned with trepidation as she stood in the door of the long abandoned farmhouse. She had no idea where she would go, all she knew was that she had to go as far as she could.

Far from that man. Far from his ambitions. Far from his intentions.

"Nami," her sister whispered as she came up behind her. "It's growing dark. They'll be searching for us soon."

She turned to Nojiko and couldn't help but smile at the young woman. Their mother would be proud to see her then. Light blue hair braided tight on either side of her head, pulling back the strands into a long plait bound with red linen as it fell down her back. The top of her hair was woven into the braid at the back of her head while the unbraided locks added to her height and painfully reminded her of the strip of long magenta hair their mother wore atop an otherwise shaven head. Nojiko wore a yellow wool dress more fitting to everyday life in the village, but over it she had strapped the old, worn leathers and mail that once belonged to their mother.

With the shield thrown over her shoulder, and small axe on her hip, she looked as a shieldmaiden should. As their mother had.

"Here," Nojiko said, handing over an extra axe for Nami. The oak shaft was smooth from years of use and the crescent blade shone from her sister's work sharpening it as they prepared to leave. "Are the provisions in the boat?"

Nami nodded as she took the weapon and slipped it into the woven leather belt at her waist. It hung awkwardly, the braided fabric unused to the extra weight. Nojiko could only find one set of their mother's armor, and Nami insisted she wear it. Nami didn't need it, after all. He wouldn't kill her.

"It should be enough for a few days, but we'll need to find a safe steading to get more," Nami said as she secured her fur cloak on her shoulders. The air had grown chilly as night drew near. The linen of her white under-dress was too thin to be sailing on the open sea so late at night, and the blue apron dress she wore over it would not help, either. But freezing was the least of her worries.

"Do you know our route?" Nojiko asked as she took her sister by the arm and guided her over the worn path, through the tall grass and reeds that had grown in place of crops.

"Ideally we'll follow the coast up from Kattegat and head toward Skagerrak," she said at a hush, her gaze casting around the hill for any sign of his men. They had told them they were merely going for a walk and that they would return before nightfall. They would be upon them soon if they did not leave. They all knew where their walks took them. "We can't risk going out to open waters."

The old faering their mother had brought them to the village in had certainly seen rougher waters, but it was far from a proper seafaring vessel. It was likely a miracle of the gods that their mother got through the storm in that small boat. Even a longship might have had difficulty in the shallow Kattegat. After eight years of disuse, there was no chance the boat would survive open waters, no matter how much she tended to the vessel's upkeep.

She shivered as the breeze picked up, whipping her hair into her face. She should have plaited it like Nojiko, but there hadn't been time. Only the top portion had been braided tight to her scalp, while the rest was left in a thick tail of bright orange waves that cascaded over her back and shoulders.

They were near the beach when they heard a faint rustle in the distance. Nojiko grabbed her shoulder and pushed her down to hide them in the tall grass. As Nami held her breath, listening as the sound grew nearer, she prayed that it was nothing more than a hare. She would even take a wolf roaming nearby, as long as it wasn't him.

"Nami," Nojiko whispered, patting her on the head to draw her in and rest their foreheads together. Her smile was tense, wary, but she tried to remain confident. Nami found herself mirroring the expression, as forced as it was. "No matter what happens, you run, alright?"

Her eyes widened in surprise, her breath lost. She shook her head. She couldn't. There was no way she could leave without her.

Nojiko lightly smacked her head to hers in silent reprimand. "You run. And don't look back." Nami's lip quivered as her sister took her left hand and pressed a hand over the bracelets there, gifts from a childhood long behind her. "Mother will protect you."

A holler broke them apart. "Nami! Get out here," he shouted, and Nami couldn't hold back the shiver of fear that raced down her spine.

She really would have preferred a wolf.

"Woman," he called out again. The rustling grew louder, and she knew he wasn't alone. "Search the house! She has to be here."

She heard his men call their understanding and move to search for her. She couldn't stop trembling.

Nojiko shoved her toward the beach. "Go," she whispered harshly. She waved her hand at Nami's startled gaze. "And stay low."

"No…" Nami breathed out, but her sister shoved her again and then stood up from the grass.

"Nojiko!" He hollered, and Nami finally scampered away from her sister as she listened to his footsteps trudge down the path. "Where is your sister?"

Nami knew she had to run then, but she couldn't leave Nojiko to him. She watched, scared, as the older woman drew the axe from her belt, the sharp silver crescent glinting with the last rays of the sun.

Nami panicked. It was happening all over again.

"She's gone," Nojiko answered firmly, waving her axe behind her to signal that Nami get out of there.

"What?" he growled, and Nami finally found the resolve to run just as Nojiko lowered her round shield in front of her. "What do you mean gone?" he snarled, and Nami stifled a sob as she listened to his heavy footfalls storm toward her sister. "Where!?"

"Far away from you, you monster!" Nojiko shouted. "You'll never lay a hand on her!"

Nami broke out of the grass and onto the beach. She was out in the open, but the boat was in reach. She would make it. She would get away from him.

She made the mistake of looking back when one of his men shouted to signal where she was. He stood towering in front Nojiko, rage-filled eyes casting over the beach until they landed on her. His long black hair was tied in a low tail. The inky waves seemed to swallow what little light cast upon him. His lips curled in an angry sneer. The only way he would look more like the monstrous jotunn he claimed to be, was if he had fangs to that snarl.

"Nami! Get back here now," he called in warning.

She hesitated as he took a step toward Nojiko.

"Nami! Run!" Nojiko reminded before turning to slam her axe into the jarl's side. The strike didn't do anything to him. They all knew it wouldn't.

A blade buried in his side and he hardly let out a grunt before his narrowed gaze settled on the woman who dared to strike him. Nojiko balked in the face of such a dangerous man, and Nami was relieved to see her spin and take off in a sprint for the beach.

"Nojiko, hurry," she called out as she waded toward the small faering, biting back a shiver at the icy cold waters. It was still early spring, and the melting winter snow had left the river bitterly cold.

She looked back once she got to the vessel to watch as their jarl slowly pulled the blade from his side, barely grimacing as he did. At least he bled, though it wasn't as much as he deserved. He turned to wave at his men, ordering them to give chase, and Nami turned frantically to beckon her sister toward her.

"Come on, we can still make it," she insisted, climbing over the wale and into the boat. When she looked back again, Nojiko had just reached the water and was wading to the boat, but the men were sprinting down the beach toward her. Nami reached out her hand, desperately hoping she could reach the woman before it was too late. "Nojiko!"

Her sister reached the boat, and Nami watched, stunned, as she only shoved the boat out into the river.

"Nojiko," she screamed as her sister turned back to the men splashing into the water after her. She screamed again when the woman slammed her shield into one man in a vain attempt to shove him over. He wasn't stable on the silt of the riverbed, and slid, crashing down into the steady current, but another was there to grab at Nojiko. Her struggles threw that man off balance and sent him back into a third that had been aiming to wade out after Nami.

They were so much larger than Nojiko - true giants. She was no match for them. Even less for the enraged jarl storming toward her.

Nami screamed again, the sound strangled with a sob as she watched, helpless to stop what was coming. All he had to do was backhand Nojiko once and she staggered in the water, blood trickling from a cut lip. He grabbed her braid in a tight hold, winding his hand around it, and yanked the woman from the water and onto the shore. He shoved her to her knees and then kicked her in the side as hard as he could. Nojiko fell with that single strike, curling in on herself as she coughed up bile and blood.

"Don't worry, Nami," the jarl called out as he reached down and pulled Nojiko up by her hair again. His grin was sickeningly amused as the woman hung limply in front of him. "I'll take good care of your sister until you return to my hall."

"Don't hurt her," she cried out. "Please!"

His grin spread and he yanked on the woman's hair until she yelped in pain.

"Arlong," Nami screamed.

"Run as far as you want, Nami," he laughed. "I'll find you. After all, the Norns have willed that you'll belong to me. You'll never get far enough to escape that fate."

His laugh carried on the wind, echoed in the night. It followed her all the way out to the Kattegat.

All she could do was curl up in the hull of her small boat, hands pressed to her ears as she desperately swallowed her sobs.

He was right.

She would never escape him.

A/N: So, I've started the Viking AU. Though, to be honest, while it's heavily inspired by the Vikings, I will be taking a lot of creative liberties in this story. It is more heavily based in fantasy and Norse mythology, but I'm going to do my best to keep some significant historical aspects of the Norse people in the fic (namely related to clothing and daily life - but even that will be loosely used). As I was researching this, I realized it was going to be incredibly hard to keep it as historically accurate as I might have originally wanted to, mainly because there isn't a lot of accurate information on the Vikings. Most historical documents are written by the people who they raided and warred with, and the few stories transcribed later on (namely the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda) were collected after Christianization, when most all aspects of Viking culture and paganism were twisted and destroyed, so a number of historians find them to not be completely reliable (though easily the best information they had to go off of, despite the obvious Christian influences). The Vikings relied on an oral history, rather than a written one, so there are no historical texts from them and archaeological research is constantly contested. I've read so many theories and counter-theories and back and forth arguments, it's kind of a headache, to be honest. There are a few things that most seem to agree on to one degree or another, but much of it I am going to rely on the theories that fit this story best, from a creative perspective... Which is also why I'm taking this in a more mythological direction, where I feel I have a little more freedom to play and re-adapt. Also because the mythology works so beautifully for Kid and Nami (especially Nami, holy shit I'm gonna have fun with her in this)... and even Arlong fits perfectly into it. I might make remarks on the more vague mythological references I make in later author notes because I personally find it very fascinating.

One thing that I debated on with this was geographic context. Since this takes place in ancient Sweden and Norway (and a bit of France), place names aren't really known, so I'm using more present day names for certain villages, towns, and geological landmarks to help better orient it in context to where exactly they are. It's entirely because I'm obsessive, and probably wouldn't matter, but for my sanity I feel a need to use the names of present name regions I'm referring to. Were there Viking settlements in these places? I do not know, at least not for certain. There's evidence for a few spots, but not all, so I'm just tossing my hands in the air and not worrying too much about it.

As for where in the Viking era this falls, I want to say near the end, so around 1000-ish. But again, this probably matters to no one but me.

Oh, and more important than all that:

I considered posting this fic to AO3 instead of here for a few reasons. This fic is going to be extremely violent. If you've watching Vikings on History Channel, you can imagine just how violent. There will also be a lot of sex at later points. I'll also be pushing more boundaries with the types of pairings I include.

Pairing-wise: Obviously this is a KidNami fic. They are going to be the main points of view and the main pairing, but I will also be including one-sided Arlong x Nami (I'm not sure if anyone has noticed that I do tease toward this pairing at times, admittedly more so with KidNami fics), one-sided Enel x Nami (very vague, though), hints toward some Kid x Killer, and possibly some stronger hints toward Killer x Nojiko.

There are going to be three antagonists to this fic. I'm sure based on the pairings above, you can guess who two of them are (as if one isn't already obvious enough). The third is going to be a surprise! Because I'm proud of myself for coming up with it. XD You'll find out about that one near the end.