#auslag

Today couldn’t have been a more ordinary day than it already was for Eluney. The young woman had just finished her shift as a naval officer, after spending three months at sea.

She walked in her civilian clothes, her backpack loaded with her belongings, which was quite heavy since it contained her military uniform and a few other things to meet her basic needs.

The hustle and bustle of the city drowned out the murmur of her thoughts, which always seemed to be there. She had never been blank; she was always thinking about many things, almost to the point of exhaustion.

From the moment her feet touched solid ground, a pain made itself known in her head. She decided not to pay much attention to it, thinking it was probably just the early signs of a cold.

She shouldn’t have taken it so lightly.

Her pace quickened; to be honest, she just wanted to get home quickly. She missed the comfort and silence of her small studio apartment. It was all she needed.

She had spent so much time working, and now she just wanted to rest and get away from her coworkers, whom she considered to be great idiots, nothing more. Nobody respected her just for being the only woman on the team, but she knew how to hide her frustration quite well.

She just wanted to get away from everything.

Suddenly, the pain grew stronger and sharper, making her stop, close her eyes, and take a deep breath. Of course, that didn’t help at all. Now it felt as though someone was splitting her skull in half.

She let out a scream of pain, the backpack falling to the ground after being dropped in a desperate attempt to relieve herself from the weight. She placed her hands on her head, trying to ease the pain and pressure there.

Her vision blurred, the noise faded, her mouth dried up, and the pain intensified. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed, unconscious.

When strength returned to her body, she suddenly woke up, propelling herself into a sitting position. She was breathless and disoriented.

She looked around and noticed she wasn’t in the city. In fact, she didn’t recognize this place—it was a forest.

Standing up as quickly as she could, she staggered between the trees, trying to find an explanation for how she had ended up there.

Following the noise of some voices, she found a small village. Upon inspecting it, she realized it looked like a traditional Viking settlement—she would recognize it anywhere, as that part of history had been her favorite to study in school.

But how was this possible? This had happened hundreds of years ago.

She thought it might be some kind of role-playing game, but her doubts vanished when she saw a familiar face. A Viking she recognized as Ragnar Lothbrok, based on the description she had read about him.

She had traveled through time. She didn’t know how or why, but that was the reality.

The pain returned, extremely intense, causing her to scream and catch the attention of the Nordic man, who approached cautiously with an axe in hand, always on the defensive.

“Who are you?” the man asked defensively.

It was a shame that the pain deafened her so much that she couldn’t hear what he said. Once again, the suffering overwhelmed her, and she fainted, this time feeling someone catch her before she hit the ground.