Threaded Through Time|Vikings.

eleven: the breath of sigurd ragnarsson.

[A/N: we're getting some flashbacks before moving on my dears. also I hope no one has had this confusion, but I wanna clarify just in case. Aela does not see any of the boys except Bjorn as her brothers. She never saw Aslaug as her stepmother, she allowed Erik to view her as step-grandmother, but Aela never saw the younger sons as brothers because she was sporadically around them as they grew up because she was mainly with Lagertha. She was raised alongside Bjorn to be siblings, but not with the other boys. She's Bjorn's sister, Ragnar and Lagertha's daughter but she is not Aslaug's stepdaughter or the other boys adoptive/step-sister- remember she's not biologically Ragnar and Lagertha's daughter, despite my hints that her future parents look VERY much like them, she's Bjorn's adoptive sister.]

Wessex, England, 800/801 AD.

The young teenage Aela smiled widely as she rode on the horse behind Lagertha, her mother. Finally! After all this time she was coming with them to England, Athelstan's reteaching of his language would not go to waste. Her memories of her other life had come upon her and revealed much, to the shock of others, but Floki, Athelstan, and Ragnar. They had seen this as a good sign for the young woman, citing that there had always been something within her. Her father and mother had finally agreed since they'd both be away, she'd come with them. Nothing pleased her more, the idea of getting to experience more of this history she knew. They were here in England to claim the land Ecbert had promised them a year ago.

The group of Northmen guided by Saxon guards guided them inside and into the courtyard where Aela spotted King Ecbert, Lady Judith, his son Prince Aethelwulf, a holy man, and a woman she assumed was Kwenthrith of Mercia. "That's King Ecbert, he spent his childhood with the great Frankish Emperor Charlemagne. He was sent into exile, that's how he met him." Aela whispered to her mother who chuckled, Ragnar glancing over as he had barely heard his daughter speak. Ecbert's gaze moved over the entourage until it stopped on the young redheaded girl behind the blonde woman, something clicked. Lagertha brought their horse to a stop alongside Ragnar and climbed off before Aela followed, she stuck by her side until Athelstan stepped forward and was in between her and her father.

"Welcome near. I bid you all...welcome!" Ecbert enthusiastically greeted them, stepping down from his seat and over to them with open arms. The young girl turned her gaze and smiled up at Athelstan widely, she was internally hesitant of Ecbert's welcome but she trusted Athelstan to ease things.

"Does he know? He will be King of Mercia one day?" Aela asked hushedly, but not as hushedly as the girl had thought. Athelstan paused, Ecbert stared at her, and the other tensed. Her future older self would chide her for this, that the past is not meant to know the future. But Aela was still growing used to being in the past with all these memories. Ragnar glanced at Athelstan who cleared his throat and turned to the young girl.

"Aela, no. Don't say things like that." Bjorn hissed at his sister from where he stood behind her, the girl going red with embarrassment and gripping Lagertha's hand which made her mother smile and squeeze it. Judith was watching from where she stood with a gentle smile at the young girl. She looked mostly nothing like her parents but she remembered her husband and Ecbert saying she was found as a babe by Lagertha and Ragnar.

"Aela, remember, the seer said to be wary of your words and actions now that you see." Athelstan quietly told her, a hand on her shoulder and the girl grimaced but nodded.

"Earl Ragnar." Ecbert moved on, greeting the man and snapping his gaze away from the young teenager. That girl had to be Ragnar's other daughter, Aela.

"He is King now. King Ragnar Lothbrok." Athelstan piped up and corrected Ecbert, Ragnar glancing back at his friend before looking down at his daughter and giving her a comforting wink. Unlike the seer, Lagertha, or Athelstan...he understood her mind and mouth spoke before she could release the levity of the situation. She had never faced a situation like this yet, such a major one he knew she knew about before.