*Erik*
I swallow hard the second I hear my friend say the word Jarl. I hadn’t told Ellie, ashamed of everything I couldn’t provide for her here.
The second I saw Ellie that day I knew she was mine, made for me by the Gods and blessed by them. I also knew that I didn’t deserve her. I could hear her heart skip a beat when I took her inside her house, and she saw her father’s body. She lived a good, comfortable life, and we had ruined it.
I wanted then to hold her, to tell her it was going to be alright and I would care for her and protect her, but she couldn’t understand me if I had tried. She’s been so brave throughout everything.
That terrible Jarl had wanted to keep her as a slave and took most of what I had to allow me to keep her and buy land in his village. We overpaid, for
