Chapter Text
There was a time in her life when the phrase get your head of the clouds was all but plastered to the back of her mind.
Her parents constantly asked her, "how will you ever enjoy your life if you're always so engrossed with things that don't exist?"
That was the thing... Rosaline Blaine was never trying to enjoy her life, she was trying to escape it.
It was why her head was always in the clouds. Why her music was always too loud . Why she had no desire to insert herself into society and find a place for herself like her family constantly begged her to do.
It's why she never saw the bus that hit her.
Last thing Rose remembers is her ears ringing. The music from her headphones crackled in her ears as she struggled to open her eyes. Every inch of her body aches as she tries to get a hold of her surroundings.
Her heart, once pounding at a rapid speed, seemed to suddenly slow down... So slow that Rose could count each individual beat per second.
She wouldn't when she would hear its final beat.
Her mind drifted off before she could notice.
"What do ya think she is?"
"A demon… has to be a demon."
"Demons are not real, baby monk. "
"She's definitely something, she's dressed as a man!"
"Perhaps she's a heathen like Sihtric."
"Perhaps she's a turd like you."
Her eyes started to open, straining to adjust to the light above her as bodies seemed to scatter away from her...
The first thing Rose noticed when her eyes opened is that there is no light per se above her, just the morning's sun. The second thing she notices is the three strangely dressed men staring at her from a distance.
So as any normal person being stared at by renaissance faire employees would do, Rose starts to scream.
Her screaming makes the three men scream, making Rose scurry away from them as she tries to keep her distance. Only to back into something hard.
"Enough with your yelling, you are not children," a voice from behind her scolds as Rose looks up to realize the hard something she's backed into is another strangely dressed man, who stares down at her and smiles, "Apologies, Lady, my men are not usually such a menace," with a tilt of his head his smile turns to a smirk, "at least, not around ladies of beauty."
Rose scrunches her brows as she gives him a strange look, "Your men?"
"Yes, my men," He explains to her, walking around Rose so he can help her to her feet, "We were traveling the trading route when we found you lying on the road."
Rose tries to recount what's happened to her, remembering hearing her music… and then feeling something hit her hard-
"I was hit by something…" Rose looks at the men as she tries to speak, when suddenly she gasps, "The bus! I was hit by a bus."
She expects them all to say something to the equivalent of oh shit, yeah the crazy bus we were all on… but instead …
They look… confused?
All four of them share the confused expression on their faces. The man in charge with his long hair in a ponytail and his weird black clothes looks confused. The man who looks like a monk with a bowl cut looks confused. Even the scruffy brown haired guy and the lost looking emo next to him looked confused.
That's when she realizes there is no bus to be found, only an old wooden cart that seems to have been flipped over followed by a seemingly endless sea of green.
The scruffy one speaks, his voice a surprisingly heavy Irish accent, "What is… a bus? "
Rose blinked twice as she turned back to the men, tilting her head, "You're kidding?"
"Perhaps you are confused, Lady," The emo one says next, his accent much different than the Irishman but harder to place, "There are no such things in Wessex."
It's pleasing to her ears, but his words are not.
"Don't call me a Lady, I'm not a Lady -"
"Clearing not with those trousers," The Monk jokes with a mutter, a smirk on his face.
Rose knows she doesn't dress like the typical twenty five year old but she knows there's nothing wrong with her outfit. So confused about what may be wrong with her clothes, Rose looks down.
Only to realize… this is not the outfit she was dressed in when she left the house this morning.
It's basically a similar fashion to what she had on, but instead of her baggy, oversized sweater or tattered jeans, Rose wears a baggy tunic with long sleeves and a pair of strange pants.
So… what happened to her clothes?
"This can't be happening," Rose muttered to herself as she checked her pockets for, well, anything at this point. Her phone, her wallet, her keys… and as she padded herself down she came across the one thing she had never been so grateful to have in her life:
Her iPod.
Oh, thank God .
With a sigh of relief, Rose removes her hands from her pockets and looks to the man in charge, "Listen, I don't know what happened… but I need to go home."
"That is fine, Lady, but first," he takes a step closer and asks, "What is it you're hiding from us?"
Rose blinks twice, "Hiding?"
"In your pocket," He clarifies, nodding to the side where she knows her iPod is in, "Show us what you have."
For whatever reason, he seems nervous, and when Rose looks at the rest of the men she finds they have the same confused face.
Also, it is only now that she realizes they are all carrying swords.
The scruffy Irish one and the emo one both have their hands on the handles of their weapons. Even the monk seems ready for a fight should he need to be. As the four men take a step in unison closer to her, Rose takes one step back and pulls the iPod, as well as the wired headphones that are wrapped around it, from her pocket and shows it to the strange men.
As she holds it out for them to see, men all take a back with fear. The monk even crosses himself with one hand, muttering under his breath as the other hand holds onto the cross around his neck.
Nervous and confused, Rose cannot help but chuckle, "I know it's old… but it's not that scary…"
"Osferth is right, Lord, she's of the devil," The scruffy Irishman tells their leader as he reaches for his own cross, "Kill 'er, Uhtred. And let us be done with this."
His words make Rose panic, backing up as her heart beats much faster than she's ever counted before, "Kill me? For an iPod?!"
"No, let us take her back to Coccham, and send a man to King Edward, he may wish to know of this witch," Uhtred, the man in charge , replies as he looks to his men, "Sihtric, get some rope. We will bind the witch and take her with us."
Witch?!
"Wait a minute, you must be confused- I'm not a witch," Rose tries to argue as she continues to back up but Uhtred and his men only continue to move closer, "This isn't what you think, I'm not supposed to be here."
"Sihtric?!"
"I found the rope, Lord!"
"No rope- No! Rope!" Rose yells at Sihtric as he comes back to the others, with Rose still walking backward, "I am telling you, you're all mistaken-"
"Lady-"
"I am not a witch, you have it all wrong-"
'"Lady, please, come back!"
"Just- stay away from me!"
"Lady!"
Rose takes a final step back and her foot drops beneath her, the rest of Rose's body falling with it. She screams as the world seemingly vanishes from under her, ready to die again for a second time but before she lands with another silent thud a hand reaches for hers and holds on tight.
Too scared to look up, Rose just holds on to the other person tightly and keeps her eyes clamped shut.
"Lady, climb up," Calls out the voice she now knows as Sihtric, "I have you, but you must climb."
"I can't-"
"You must!" Sihtric shouts back to her, grunting as he keeps her from falling, "Or we will both fall to our deaths!"
Unsure of what his word fully means, Rose opens her eyes only to find that Sihtric is the only thing keeping her from falling off a cliff and down to the ground below. Unfortunately for Sihtric, Rose is scared of heights and starts to panic once she realizes just how high up they are.
"Sihtric, drop the witch and come back!" The monk's voice calls out.
"No- no, please don't drop me!" Rose begs, reaching out with her other hand to grab the wall of rocks and dirt nearby, "I'll climb, just… please , don't drop me."
Sihtric looks down at her and nods okay, "I will not drop you, Lady, I swear."
Rose takes a deep breath and starts to climb up, using Sihtrics' strength to pull herself up. As she gets closer to the top, Sihtric helps the hand he holds reach for the ledge, and from above Finan and Osferth help pull her up.
Once she is up, Finan goes for Sihtric as Osferth holds her to the side. As soon as Sihtric is safe, he looks to Rose and asks, "Are you okay?"
Rose nods yes, rubbing on her arm, "I am... thank you, Sihtric."
"What now, Lord?" Finan asks, picking up the rope that Sihtric must have dropped when he ran to save Rose.
Uhtred looks at Finan and then at Rose, and before he says anything Rose holds out her arms, "I will go without a fight," She tells Uhtred, looking between him, Finan, and Sihtric, "But I am swearing to you, I am not a witch."
First looking to Finan, who shrugs in response, Uhtred smirks and then looks back to Rose and replies, "We shall see."
There are plenty of things on her journey from where Uhtred and his men have found her to their arrival at the village they call Coccham that should have set off that something very, very wrong had happened to Rose.
For starters, the men take her on horseback all the way to town. Her hands are bound by the wrist so she can at least hold onto the reins of Sihtrics' horse as he rides.
The second is the silence.
Not a single car has passed. Not a plane in the sky or cell phone ringing in her ear. Rose almost still half expecting one of these guys to tell her she's being pranked, but not a single sign that this is anything short of a nightmare.
The final thing, as they ride through the gates of Coccham, is the way people speak to each other.
Everyone seems so… proper. If that's even the right word for it. Words like Lord and Lady being thrown around as if it was normal… .
Actually-
"Sihtric," Rose calls out as they arrive at the stables, "What year is it?"
Sihtric gives her a strange look as he dismounts his horse and moves to help her down, "I am not so great with dates, Lady. Osferth would know better…"
"Well, what century is it then?"
"Does your head hurt?" Sihtric questioned with a tilt of his head.
"What? No-" Rose huffs, trying her best to itch her wrist where the rope has been tied as she clarified, "I just think… maybe I'm just confused."
"The ninth century, Lady," Osferth calls out as he passes, stopping beside Rose and Sigrid as he adds, "The year is eight hundred and ninety-nine."
"The year… eight hundred …"
Osferth’s words make her dizzy, Rose struggles to retain her balance as she sways back and forth but the two men reach out to balance her.
"Lady-"
"She must have hit her head, we should have her lie down, Lord," Osferth calls out to Uhtred as he and Finan approach them.
"Take her to the cell house, we will hold her there until we figure out what to do with her," Uhtred tells his men, who nod in agreement.
Rose doesn't have the energy to fight anyone, knocking out almost immediately after the order is thrown.
She wakes up in a dark cell.
The sun has gone down and the room has grown cold. Rose shivers as she sits up from the bed… well , sorry excuse for a bed. Her body aches, making her long from her mattress at home as she stands up to stretch. After a long yawn, Rose looks around to get a better idea of where she is, walking over to the barred window and taking a peek outside.
Except it is so dark, she can hardly see a thing.
The darkness makes her uneasy, stepping away from the window.
As she's backing away, the door to the room creaks open and when Rose turns around she finds that Uhtred has entered, followed by Finan and Sihtric.
Uhtred watches as Finan walks over to the edge of the cell, pulling keys from a pouch and opening the door so that Sihtric can walk in and hand her a plate of food and a fur cloak. With a nod, Rose takes what the man has to offer and Sihtric smiles slightly as she does.
It is in this moment that Rose notices the colors of his eyes.
One brown like the Earth's soil and the other the color of the clear summer sky.
"I have not asked your name yet, Lady," Uhtred tells her as Sihtric exit's the cell and Finan locks the door, "What do they call you?"
A no one is Rose's first thought.
But her actual answer is something more realistic, "Roseline Blaine," When she sees the men do not fully comprehend her answer, she adds, "But you can… just call me Rose."
Uhtred nods okay, his hands resting on his belt as he steps forward, "We found you on our Mercian borders, but I do not think you are Mercian."
Rose shakes her head no, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Lord, I do not like this," Finan mutters to Uhtred, glancing his way, "Was Skade's torment not enough?"
"She is no Dane," Sihtric tells the Irishman, his arms crossed over his chest, "She is something else , Uhtred."
Uhtred nods in agreement, and from a pouch on his belt he pulls out Rose's iPod, making her gasp, "What magic is this then?"
The carefree way he holds her most prized possession makes Rose anxious, leaving the cloak and food on the bed as she rushes over to the bars, "It's not magic, please, don't break it!"
"Then what is it?"
"It's my iPod," Rose tells the men, who only give her strange looks. Forgetting she needs to dumb herself down, Rose groans and then explains, "It plays music!"
Finan grimaces at her answers, "How so?"
"Give it to me and I will show you," Rose tells Uhtred as she puts her hand out for the iPod.
Uhtred struggles for a few moments, Finan giving him a look of disapproval as he starts to walk over to the cell.
The Irishman groaned, "Lord-"
"Let her show us, Finan," Uhtred tells his man as he places the iPod in Rose's hand, "Show us."
Rose nods okay, pulling her hand back through the cell so she can get a better look at the iPod. Thankfully, it still has battery and turns on without a problem.
89%.
Thank fuck.
Unraveling the headphones, Rose puts one of the sides in her ear and then holds the other up to Uhtred, "This goes in your ear, same as I have it in mine."
"Lord, don't-"
"Uhtred…"
His men watch with a careful eye as Rose helps Uhtred place the headphone carefully into his ear. Once it is snug, Rose looks back down to her iPod and makes sure it isn't on the max volume before pressing play on whatever the first song she can reach the fastest is.
Thankfully it is a softer song by one of her favorite artists, the blissful melody of the song playing in their ears as Uhtred's eyes go wide, looking down at the machine in her hand before drifting up to meet her eye.
When their eyes meet, Rose can see the wonder in Uhtred's eyes, and it makes her chuckle.
Yet when the lyrics begin to be sung into Uhtred's ear, the man jumps back anxiously, the headphone falling from his ear and hitting the metal bars with a clang as it drops.
"There is a voice…" Uhtred struggles to speak as he points his finger at the little square machine in Rose's hand, " a woman - in your box."
"It's a recording, there is no woman," Rose groans when she realizes she's only confused him more, "Meaning… it's only the spoken words, the woman who sings this song, sang it into the box and the box keeps a memory of it for me to listen to whenever I want."
"And what do you call this if not magic?" Finan scoffs as he argues with his Lord, "Uhtred, I beg of ya. Do not keep her here. She will only poison Coccham further."
Uhtred looks at Finan and then back to Rose, stepping closer to the cell, "Where did you get such a box?"
Rose knows she simply cannot say well, I went to the mall with my mom and she bought me the iPod at the store not realizing it would help further separate from society , so her best next response which probably sounds just as crazy is:
"It's from the future," Rose explains to Uhtred, the only answer she feels he may understand, "I'm from the future."
The men just... blink at her.
No one moves, no one speaks, Rose is almost certain the three warriors might have even forgotten how to breathe.
But then Finan takes his sword from his belt and rushes for the cage, making Rose stumble all the way back until she hits the wall.
"Lord, please! She is of the devil!" Finan snaps as Sihtric and Uhtred fight to hold him back, "She will destroy us if we keep her here- Uhtred!"
"We will not kill her until we know the truth," Uhtred growls back, he and Sihtric finding the strength to throw him back. The Irishman's ass hits the floor with a hard thud, "We will wait and find the truth."
"Uhtred, I beg of ya- Do not do this."
"If she was truly of the devil, Finan we would have never been able to bring her back to Coccham with our lives," Sihtric argues in Rose's defense, looking at her through the bars with a small smirk on his face, "I am sure she would have the bars ripped off the hinges by now, was she truly of such great evil."
His words make Rose snicker lightly, her lip barely twitching into a smirk but it's enough for Sihtric to notice and smirk wider.
"We shall keep her here and have men watching her at all hours," Uhtred promises his worried warrior, looking back to Rose one last time as he starts to leave the room, "And do not worry, we shall uncover her truth... with time."
The three warriors leave the room, and as the door closes shut behind them Rose lets out a heavy sigh.
Finally alone again.
At least she prefers it this way.