The Riverside
a little short thing I wrote for my dnd oc Trygve and his girlfriend Katrin 😌
Trygve laughed as Katrin pulled him along to the river’s edge. Her spritely feet seemed to find no hindrance as she danced past the forested edge to the Tearstain River. Far were they from the watchful eyes inside the wall of his uncle’s holdfast, and with the breath of spring wind warming their backs, they knew that there would be no one to chide them as they spent their day together.
“Where are you taking me?” He asked as they came to a stop on the stony edge. “Are you planning to wile me away into the river, drown me as a nymph might? Will I become so moonstruck by your fabled beauty that you will pull me under?” His hands snaked around her waist as Katrin giggled.
“You tease me!” She accused. “I am not a pretty rivermaid, Trygve, but you might be a sly fox.I brought you here because I found this part of the river once when I was a girl. My mother brought me here to pluck heather for dyes as a child.” She gestured with her hand to the river, and Trygve turned his head to follow the line of her hand. “I would hop along the stepping-stones here while she worked. She was always afraid that I would fall in.”
“Did you?” He asked. Trygve’s lip twitched upward into a smile as he imagined the smaller, round-faced child that Katrin was, hopping along the stones and singing her fairy-songs.
“Once,” she laughed. “It was early winter–the river hadn’t frozen yet, but the stones were icy. I had never felt water so cold. Thankfully my mother was there to drag me out before I could turn to ice. It didn’t stop me from jumping across again when the spring came the next year and thawed them out.”
“How fortunate for me, then,” Trygve said as he reached up to brush a loose strand of brown hair away from her face. “That you did not turn to ice that fateful winter morning, so that you could bring me back here in this warm spring. Do you wish to hop across the stones now?”
“Now you’ve made me scared of nymphs!” Katrin protested. She chases the sensation of Trygve’s hand against her cheek and in her hair. “I have a much better idea of what we could do today instead of jumping river-stones.”
“Oh?” Trygve said. “And what idea have you in mind, Katrin? What could be more fun than jumping river-stones? I, for one, have never found a thing more riveting than–”
“You talk too much,” Katrin groaned before she leaned up to press her lips to his. Trygve chuckled into the gentle kiss, and his hands settled at her waist with a feather-light touch. Slowly he pulled her closer to him, and Katrin reached up to grasp at the high collar of his shirt. “There,” she said as she pulled away. “Is that not more fun than river-stones?”
“It is,” Trygve agreed as he blinked his brown eyes open once more. “What else did you have planned?”
“Something… like… this.” The mischievous grin on Katrin’s face was so quick that Trygve had no chance to think about what was in store for him before he was nimbly brought to the ground–thankfully on the grassy knoll near the shore rather than the stones themself. Katrin’s laughter echoed through the treeline where it opened upon the river.
She loped her arms around his neck and dragged Trygve down. His red hair was like fire spread across the green grass of spring, and her dress was stained with the color of verdant life. “Promise me that you will love me forever,” she whispered. Trygve, who knew his word was his oath and honor, said nothing and merely smiled as he leaned down to kiss her. That is promise enough.
When they had enough of playing kissing games by the river, they stripped down to their smallclothes to play their stepping-stone games and their swimming games instead. The cool waters with the warm sun on their backs only lends to laughter as they chase and swim and kiss until the sun is high overhead. They ate fresh ripe berries from between their fingers and drank of honey-mead that Trygve had snuck from the jarl’s personal store.
Soon, Trygve wrapped Katrin up in his arms as he leaned back against the grassy knoll on the shoreline. She hummed pleasantly, and draped her soft and plush form across his lean body. Together they spent the rest of the afternoon curled up together in sleep. Warmed by heart and honey-mead and the sun itself, there they rested until the blue sky was streaked with hues of gold and pink and purple, and Trygve was only roused from his slumber by the gentle kisses of his lover.