Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
╚════════*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*════════╝
"Good?" Ragnar asks watching his brother as Rúna sits next to Uhtred.
"It is good." Uhtred replies with a smile as Brida sits down with a smile of her own.
"We thought you gone, lord." Finan said and watched the lord softly. Rúna noticed how close the two seemed and she was happy to know her brother had someone to look after him.
"The same, I fear I'd die an old man's death, under furs." Uhtred spoke and knocked his head against her own softly.
"So the great Dane-slayer was afraid?" She looked at the walking thorn in her side known as Cnut.
"You are who?" Uhtred asked plainly as he ate.
"He's no one important, Uhtred." Brida informed with a grin, Rúna smirked at the betrayed look Cnut sent Brida.
"I am Cnut."
"You are what?" Finan spoke.
"He is Cnut, he's mine and Rúna's cousin on our mother's side." Ragnar said.
"I'm a Dane, lord Uhtred. So are you gonna kill me too?" Cnut taunted.
"Leave him alone." She spoke and watched Uhtred smile at her before looking at Cnut.
"You talk like an infant."
"How many of us have you really dispatched to Valhalla? Is it twelve? Twenty? Forty?" Ragnar interrupted their cousin he had noticed the anger fuming in his sister's eyes.
"Cnut, you'll shut your mouth. Now show my brother some respect."
"Or I may have to kill one more." Uhtred teased and watched Ragnar and Rúna laugh with a grin.
"He's back! He's back! Get up. Upon your feet! Get up!" Ragnar says happily, Finan looks at them with a smile as Uhtred stands. "He's back where he belongs. Where he has always belonged, you're a Dane for life now. Say it!" Ragnar says happily.
"I am a Dane for life." Uhtred says softly.
"No, say it." She urged him, the Danes began to thump their fists on the tables.
"I am a Dane for life."
"Mean it!"
"I am a Dane for life! From this day onwards." Ragnar and Rúna pull their brother into a hug.
"This means everything to me." Ragnar says softly to Uhtred, as the men cheer around them.
"So do you have an army, lord Cnut?" Finan asks as they sit around eating.
"I do. Two hundred men, two hundred good men."
"Are they all as entertaining as you are?" Finan said playfully with a grin.
"You are headed where?" Uhtred cut in breaking the calming vibe of the room.
"Undecided. Though if Alfred of Wessex is now without his dane-slayer, I may consider heading south."
"Call me Dane-slayer once more, I will make the square and we'll fight." Uhtred snapped with a threatening tone.
"Why the anger, lord? You sent you killed many of us? Many Danes, many Northmen?" Cnut taunted and she sent him a glare.
"Only the ones who were trying to kill me." Cnut stands with a fake smile.
"And I'm only teasing, unfairly. You must be tired from the journey and your...." He trailed off. "Illness, so be sure to rest."
"I like him." Finan says once the Dane has left.
"Not as much as he likes himself." Finan chuckled at Brida's remark as she left, he looked over at them with a grin.
"Well, he's not wrong. The prospect of Alfred without Uhtred will bring fire to the bellies of many Danes." Ragnar speaks, and Rúna frowns when she sees the look Uhtred and Finan share.
"You included." Uhtred claims and Ragnar sighs.
"Wessex is still the jewel and in getting too comfortable in my fortress." Ragnar says honestly and Uhtred grows nervous.
"My children are in Wessex."
"We have many friends in Wessex, lord." Finan adds looking at the man.
"More reasons to visit. Well, all this talk is for another time, another time soon." Ragnar gets up and starts to leave.
"You've not asked about Thyra."
"The boy Osferth told me. She is Christian and she's married. She is happy." He smiles at the thought and leaves. Rúna smiles softly at the thought of their sister being happy.
"Uhtred, I will only say this once. Do not betray our brother. I understand the loyalty you have for the king but don't make an enemy out of Ragnar. I do not want to have to choose between the two of you." She whispered knowing if it came to that she would choose Uhtred. Uhtred pulled her into his side with a frown, he didn't want this to happen.
"Uhtred, I can here to rest, to hunt, sleep with a woman, maybe. I did not come here to talk of war against Alfred." Uhtred looks at them in silence as Brida sits down.
"I will be outside drinking ale, finish your plate." Finan says teasingly as he leaves.
Finan, Sihtric, and Osferth leaned against the building talking to Mary and Trig, the five of them were drinking ale and watching Sindri and Rúna train.
"Does the big guy not talk?" Finan asked them when he saw the older man crack a smile but said nothing when Rúna landed a punch on him.
"No, he swore an oath," The three men turned to Trig with silent questions. "After her family died he sailed the sea to find her, when he did he swore an oath of loyalty and silence until death."
"Ragnar and Thyra killed them, did they not?" Sihtric asked remembering his father getting beat to nothing by Ragnar.
"In all rights, yes. But Rúna feels guilt for what happened, she believes her family died because of her." Mary said quietly with a frown. Sihtric looked over at the blonde sister of Uhtred.
"Either she mourns her family properly or she must die so he may speak again." Sihtric said with a sad expression and had never felt more guilty for his heritage until now.
"And I do not see either happening anytime soon." Trig said sadly.
"She has lived with this guilt for years and he is damned to a life of silence because of what my father and brother did? That is not fair." Sihtric failed to notice Trig and Mary shooting him with looks of confusion.
"He's Kjartan's bastard son, he was unloved." Finan cut in and threw his arm over Sihtric's shoulders teasingly.
"Do not tell her, she will kill you where you stand." Trig said with full warning.
"I would let her, you know? If it brought her peace." He whispered looking over at Rúna.
