A/N: I love the Icemark chronicles, but the amount of stories available is pitifully low. Therefore, I figured I would add one.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Icemark Chronicles or any of its characters.

The Emotions That Follow

When Eodred first learnt of Cerdics death, he quickly denied it. He felt cold and numb, because there was simply no way Moon-howler spoke the truth, thus his twin simply could not be dead.

Then he saw the body and that icy numbness turned into a horror unlike any other he had ever felt. He saw the gaping wound where Sulla Bellorums bullet had ripped through.

It was then that he felt like was suffocating. The moment he wanted to scream and shout…anything to release the sudden anguish that had enshrouded his entire being. To destroy something, everything until it became as broken as he was inside.

His life was over, Eodred surmised with a forlorn clarity. For how could he exist without his second half? How could he hope to continue when he was not complete?

He had to watch his mother, the Queen of the Icemark and leader of many war-hardened men, break down with a cry of keen despair while his father Oskan, enveloped her in a tight embrace, his dark eyes the only window to the pain he too was feeling.

Cressida buried her tear-stained face in grimy hands. Medea was not present. There was a chance Sharley might not ever learn of his older sibling's demise…The grief was too much. The room was stifling…and Cerdics bloodied corpse was an image he would never soon forget. Eodred did the only thing he could think of.

He ran.

For days, Eodred remained in his room, alone. He did not eat. He barely slept. The minutes passed slowly and the hours even slower. Thoughts, feelings and haunted memories merged in his dreams chaotically, following him into his waking stupor where they became more focused and clear.

He could not seem to pull away from the growing emptiness. He could not find a reason to continue his pathetic half existence. He did not even have the will to end it quickly, content to remain where he was and waste away until nature claimed him through neglect.

Then everything changed. Cressida happened and he found a reason to live.

It still hurt, he could never imagine a time where it would not hurt, but his sister was right when she said his moping would not bring his twin back. His misery accomplished nothing and outside the walls of Frostmarris, people were hurting too.

Cerdic was gone but that did not mean Eodred should give up, especially when he still had people around who he loved, people who missed his twin as much as he did. They were at war and many had lost loved ones, not just he. Everyone suffered and the emotions following that pain, were only natural, but you could not let them take over…you could not let them consume you.

Eodreds biggest inspiration, though he probably would never admit it aloud, was his younger brother Charlemagne, who despite his disability, never gave up and kept on even when others doubted him. Like Sharley, Eodred would keep fighting. He would live. Then one day, when the Gods decided his time had come, he would join his twin in Valhalla.

For now, he was alive and he had a country to defend, so that no one else would have to suffer the horror of loss that he and his family had.

A/N: I know it is short and almost pointless, but the idea gripped me and I really wanted to post something for this category.