she was close. she could feel it. curled up in a pit a few feet down, she kept a protective hold on her swollen belly. if the others of the band saw her, she didn't acknowledge them. she was done with them. no one had raised a paw to help her or challenge Valkyrie's reasonings to keep a pregnant woman as a captive. fucking Vikings she thought they had some honor but apparently not. she should have clawed that bitch when she dared raise her teeth to her and her pups, but her instinct was too overwhelming. she didn't care who bought her or if Hannibal was informed. he didn't owe her anything, and she would tell him to take the pups and leave her if possible. her body still refused to birth. maybe it was stress. maybe it was her rage to never birth her children in such deplorable conditions. so there were no pups to take, no extra lives to gamble on. if there were one or two pups, Dutch would know Valkyrie's greedy eyes would ask for more. a flash of pain shot through her body and she gasped loudly, feeling some weak contractions. there was still time, and she hoped whoever was her children's rescuer would hurry up. she could be enslaved if she wanted, but her pups were innocent. at least them see the sun, the moon... all the beauty of the world offered them. she'd pause as she scented the familiar tang of her... brother? oh ancestors, Thoren. she forgot to go back to collect him when she left. "T-Thoren? is that you?" she called upward, lifting her head to hopefully see him. ""

Dutch was over due to meet him. He had lingered just outside of the bands suspicions but a rogue on the fringes could only be invisible for so long...especially when said wolf was nocturnal... He needed to travel further and further to safely sleep. As dusk disappeared and night took over Thoren would pause at the fringes yet again but this time he was cloaked in mud, dirt and leaves to mask his scent. He was going to find Dutch- one way or another. Thoren was far from being a skilled fighter, but he was prepared to fight to get to his sister if that's what it took...hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

The earth covered and toned wolf moved forward under the watchful eyes of moon and stars, sticking to shadows where he could, fortunately for him he could see better than those around him and that helped him slip by with little notice. Nostrils flared, sucking in the scents until he found the one he searched for. Dutch. He could not risk running to her, thus he was forced to walk leisurely until the scent came to a halt at the edge of a hole... what the hell... he rumbled silently. His sister's voice rose from the bottom and he peered over, ears forward and then immediately falling back against his skull. Anger flickered across his gaze as he saw his heavily pregnant sister stuck in the hole. He pushed it aside...for the moment...perhaps there was a logical reason for this. " Are you ok? he rumbled softly, keeping his tones hushed to avoid alerting anyone nearby.

so it was him. his head hovered over her, a shadow upon the already dark pit. "get out of here, Thoren!" she snapped at her brother, curling her lips. she was captured, and the last thing she needed was him to be as well. Valkyrie wouldn't get two from Donyur. she wouldn't allow her brother to be enslaved. "don't you know where this is? what their precious Blot hailed? these Vikings... they're capturing people and making them slaves. selling them off." they disguised it as "market" but it was a slave auction. their people never used slaves and while Dutch turned a blind eye to it at first, she wasn't going to any longer. "the Hjarrandi captured me - Valkyrie captured me. because I tried to leave them. I was nothing more than a tool for them. imagine what they'll do to you when they see you sniffing around" another crafter now that they'd sell their main prize? gods how could she be so stupid. her eyes grew pleading as she looked up at her brother. "get out of here. please. don't let them get you too." she looked away from him, a ghost of a snarl on her lips. if she had the capacity to shove her brother away she would. ""

His sister wasted no time, her snapping words hit him loud and clear but he only growled a warning for her to be quiet. Why would he leave? Thoren looked away from her for a moment, crouching down closer to the pit. So far they were ok, none had heard them.. atleast not that he had noticed. Dutch continued speaking and his ears came forward, lips curling as she explained what this place was. They were selling slaves...but that still didn't explain why they were treating her this way. She was not a captive, she'd come willingly to teach others to craft. Or..not? As Dutch continued, this time explaining why she was in the hole his lips pulled back fully to reveal canines on a shoe of anger.

"håll käften" he whispered, telling her to shut up. He wasn't going to leave her here days - if not hours- from giving birth. "jag tar dig ut." he told her, using their native tongue to speak to her, hopefully none of the Vikings knew their tongue. Thoren circled the pit, trying to find a way to get her out. "hjälp mig.


håll käften- shut up
Jag tar dig ut- I will get you out.
hjälp mig- help me

he was a stupid fool. Thoren told her to shut up, that he'd help her get out. Dutch pointingly looked away, beginning to growl again. she did this to herself, because she felt Valkyrie was honorable enough to let her go. 'obligations'? what was that? Dutch had never been indebted to them. all she had done was travel to Boreas with the band; she didn't pay for her travel and she could have done it herself. she had crafted until her paws bled. she had done orders nobody asked her to do. that Viking bitch was just showing her true colors. the dwarf had always been a prized tool. and now others would suffer for her mistakes. "låt mig vara" leave me be. she continued in English. "if someone happens to me, I want you to look after my children, Thoren there's no way of knowing if Valkyrie ransomed me to the father. I don't believe her and I don't trust her. befria mina barn!" free my kids! it didn't matter what happened to her, just free her damn children. "take them to Ashen, in the west. take them to their father." ""

She could think what she wanted, Thoren was loyal to his family and he certainly wasn’t the type to leave a family member in a trap to save his own skin. Besides, if their family found out he had run away and let whatever was going to happen to her happen…well… he may as well skin himself and offer himself as a rug. Family would not condone such behavior. He was unaware of what Dutch and the leader had spoken about when she left Donyur, or anything that happened between them since then, but it really didn’t matter. What mattered is he said he would protect her and he wasn’t going to break his word. Not so quickly or easily.

Her words in their native tongue was both a balm to his ears and a slap to the face. ”Lare.” no. He rumbled in response to her demand. He listened as she switched to English, though he wasn’t sure why. Still, he shook his head as she spoke, Thoren was great with pups but he would not be a good mother or role model. He flinched at her words to free the pups, not her. He couldn’t do that. Amber gaze found hers as he listened to the instructions, a hardened look in his eyes. ”What happened to fighting to stay with your pups? You are stronger than this Dutch.” He growled, jaws snapping shut as he spoke her name. ”Hare knar Krazdran…..Ov tha var corl da pups.”Stand and fight…or I will kill the pups. His tone was but a whisper on the air but the coldness within those soft tones was not to be misunderstood.

Pups were borderline sacred in their culture, and his words were not spoken lightly because of it, but he had to give her a reason to help him get her out. Thoren had been sent to bring her back to Donyur, but if he could not bring her and he was put in charge of the pups they would be taken home. She had to know that. The father would never see them. Dutch would never see them again…well…she would…only because Thoren would come back for her but they would not know her. “Be strong like ma. She wouldn’t give up so easily, big sister.” He rumbled, hoping to encourage her to make the right decision.

"Thoren" Dutch's voice was hard as he talked about killing his own kin. she didn't believe his words; family was too important for him. he had come to these lands to bring her back. it didn't matter if Ma or Pa had told him to. he had come, and she didn't think he would ever bring himself to hurt her pups. she was trying to be realistic here. if Valkyrie couldn't bargain with Hannibal, she would slip the pups through the bars before that bitch could grasp them for herself. "don't talk like that." movement above caused her to pause, retreating further to curl around her stomach protectively. "go, now" she warned him. if he trusted her to do what was best for her kids, then he should trust her now to do it. she wasn't fighting - she didn't fight Valkyrie to protect their unborn bodies. she submit because their lives were worth more to her than her own. lifting her pink eyes to her brother, she'd try to grin. "stay out of trouble, eh?" it broke her heart to think maybe she'd never see him again. ""

 

The negotiations with Hannibal had been a success and Valkyrie was on her way back to where she'd hidden Dutch. She was going to retrieve the little woman and present her all safe and sound to her...whatever Hannibal was to her. He'd made it quite clear he cared little for the woman and now Valkyrie was even more convinced it was appropriate to refer to him as a john.

As she approached, the scent of another caused her hackles and tail to rise. Someone was with the little bitch. Valkyrie trotted onto the scene and regarded the male coolly. "How nice of you, Dutch," she purred icily, "To lure in another captive for me."

She made a show of eying the male up and down, then said, "I'll be sure to deduct that from your price."

""

Her hard tone was rivaled with a lift of his lips, revealing the full length of his canines. “I swear it.” He rumbled softly, barely above a whisper. His deep tones and sharp eyes were hopefully enough to convince her that he was not lying. Oaths and promises were not broken among the dwarf community- not lightly or without consequence at least. Did she dare test his loyalty to their morals and code? When she told him not to talk like that he shrugged, it was done.

As she paused, Thoren would duck low, pushing himself into the shadows quietly to keep out of sight. He was not gone long however, moments later his head would appear once more over the pit. She warned him to leave and he shook his head, he would not leave her. They could have had her out and been waddling off by now if she would have just cooperated. Her half ass attempt to grin as she said farewell was met with a low huff, followed by a low growl as another voice spoke up. Thoren turned quickly, head low, lips drawn back over his teeth and ears folding back to his skull.

He scoffed at her words, a look of disgust in his eye as he regarded her as she eyed him. Thoren foolishly thought she was sizing him up for a fight, but he was corrected with her final words. Realization would settle over him and he would straighten ever so slightly with ears coming forward. “Who is she being sold to?” Thick accent fell forth, demanding to know the terms of his sisters trade.

 

His disgust and guarded nature were noted and cast aside with indifference. Dutch would not be a problem; she had already made her reluctance to fight known. Valkyrie was confident that if it came to a fight with the male he would join Dutch in the pit when everything was said and done.

He had the nerve to ask her for the identity of Dutch's buyer. This amused her. Valkyrie quirked a brow at him and scoffed, "She didn't tell you? My dear boy, her john will pay for her." Valkyrie had gotten a good deal too. In truth the marauder would have been content to free Dutch for a toad or something equally trivial. Profiting hadn't been her goal. The point had been to make Hannibal pay; to put a cherry on top of the sundae that was Valkyrie's hooker/Dutch comparison. When Dutch saw Hannibal next, Valkyrie wanted her to be faced with the fact that he had purchased her like a simply harlot. Even though it was highly unlikely she would actually be a captive with Hannibal, Dutch would never be able to escape that knowledge. That pleased Valkyrie and she thought it a fitting punishment for the insults Dutch had leveled at her.

""

If his disgust bothered her, she showed no sign of it, but that did not cause it to falter from his facade. If anything, her nonchalance at the situation only irritated him further.Dutch and Thoren were siblings, but that did not mean they were similar in personality or convictions. Where Dutch put her children first, Thoren did not. He had none to worry about and thus, would not go down without a fight...even if his skill in fighting was...subpar at best. Dutch had used him as a sparring dummy enough for him to have a general feel for how it worked, however.

A quirked brow and a slick response would make him snort. The father would pay. "Then release her and we can be on our way." He stated firmly, paws settling firmly into the soil to balance his weight evenly- just as Dutch had taught him. If she was paid for he had no qualm with Valkyrie. He would leave with his sister, she was after all the only reason he was here.

 

Valkyrie's eyes narrowed briefly at the presumptuous male. After a beat she loosed a pithy retort. "Insolence will get you nowhere you want to be, my dear, and I do not take orders from raggedy rogues." No, heavens forbid it. She sniffed dismissively. "When he has gathered all of the necessary items, then and only then will she be released to him."

A malicious light came to her eyes and she went on to say, "And it might be awhile, my dear. He has so much to get me." She quirked a brow at Dutch. "Who knows, by then you might have already whelped and well," she tsked, "Things will only get more complicated for you I'm afraid. It seems your dear boy is only really interested in paying for his pups. I bet if you have them before he gets back - the price will go up of course - he leaves you with me."

She took a deep breath and then sighed as though she wished for the opposite to happen. "Let's just hope for your sake that he hurries and we don't have to find out how much you really mean to him. Of course..." Valkyrie's eyes slid slyly to Thoren. "For the right price I could be persuaded to let her go sooner."

""