Lady Luck| Finan The Agile| The Last Kingdom

EIGHT

☼

We found ourselves beside a stream with perfectly clear water and a fountain that ran off the side of a slate of rock.

I had found my way over a few rocks and taken Aelfwynn to rest underneath the fountain where droplets of water struck us, and the shade was at its coolest.

I sat with my feet in the water, my dress bundled up to my knees, trying to use the coolness of the water to bring down the fever I had so obviously developed. Uhtred watched me from afar, I could feel it, but I ignored it, choosing instead to watch Finan and Aethelstan as they floated a boat they had made themselves.

"I feel hot," Aelfwynn mumbled out softly. She sat on a small bolder behind me, watching the flow of the water as the fountain struck down into the stream.

Osferth jumped over the rocks in the water, finding his way to us, and he smiled kindly, holding up something in his hand. His water can.

"Aelfwynn feels hot," I revealed quietly, "I think we can no longer deny that a sickness is spreading inside her."

Osferth dipped his water can into the stream, letting it fill up as he turned to look at Aelfwynn and then me, "She will be alright." He pulled the can back out of the water, shaking off the excess water drops before holding the can out to Aelfwynn. "Drink this, it'll cool you."

I smiled slightly, pulling my feet out of the water and brushing down the fabric of my dress, "You wish to ignore the signs?"

"I wish to remain hopeful," Osferth combatted easily, straightening out and holding his hand out to me.

"Hope is a beautiful and terrible thing," I muttered, accepting his hand and pulling myself up, "we may wish for her health but it will be all the worse when we can not longer deny things."

Osferth's brows pinched slightly, and his smile dimmed as he tilted his head. "I... forgive me for saying this, but I rather thought you were someone who looked to the bright side of things."

I had never prided myself on being optimistic, but I knew that my tendency to make jokes in dark situations had people believing I was. The truth was that terrible situations made me nervous, and I would often let my tongue run wild the more panicked I grew. "I try, Osferth, I do, but... I fear what this sickness means if she does have it." And if I had it.

"She will be alright," Osferth repeated again, a little more strongly, "we all will."

I glanced over his shoulder as Finan said something to Aethelstan before going up the ridge of the stream to look for something. "I fear not all believe that."

Osferth turned to see what I saw, and he sighed heavily, a thin smile touching at his face, "Try not to be too hard on him. He has seen people fall to the sickness before."

"I do not judge," I clasped my hands together, taking a step back from him slightly, "I just hate to think that his worst nightmare could appear before him. It is a cruelty."

"Thank you, Osferth," Aelfwynn mumbled softly, handing Osferth back his water can.

Osferth smiled kindly, crouching down in front of the little girl with no hesitation, "If you feel any worse, you tell either me or Cissa, alright?"