Lacuna ||ϟ|| Ivar the Boneless

❆ Rumors ❆

"Are you alright?" Ivar's voice pulled her out of her mind.

"Oh, yes. I think so." Elin answered quietly, touching her temple lightly.

The sun is now setting down at Kattegat's fjord, she's staring at the horizon as it happens.

"What will you do next?" Ivar asked, closing a distance quietly.

"I...I don't know." She let out a sighed, closing her eyes as the last light of the day flashed itself onto her pale frame.

"If Kerr doesn't confess who's the real owner of the silver sword, he must be executed. I know he's innocent, but the rule must be the rule."

The boneless boy turned his head towards the same direction as hers, silently picturing the scene of the sun sanking into the sea and the air that blews through his dark hair.

"By the way, why are you doing here, Ivar?" She asked finally as her forearms laid onto the wooden banisters.

He frowned a little bit, can't help but feeling an appreciation blooms up in his heart.

She calls his name.

"Lagertha would want you to be in the great hall at dinner." Ivar replied.

Usually, he barely talks about the shieldmaiden and when he do, the bitter rage and vengeance would overcome his tone.

This might be the first time in his life that he said the word 'Lagertha' without any negative emotions in his voice, actually, it was still and emotionless.

He changed a lot since Elin was here, he could feel the calmness and peaceful in his heart like he never felt before.

Ivar gaze at her left part which she turned to him silently. He loved her face, her grey eyes, her soft blowing dark blonde hair. Oh how he wanted to touch it and tucked the hair back in her ears. He loved her voice that sounds like a windy music.

Most of all, he loved her lips.

Elin might be the most beautiful thing in this world, reminding him of his dead mother, Aslaug.

Gods, is he in love?

"Let's get inside." The young queen suggests, turning her bluish grey eyes to him.

He nodded and moved his body out in order to let her pass first.

"Lady first."

Her eyebrow raised up in humour as her lips curled up into a small, brautiful smile.

"What about the gentleman?"

Ivar open his mouth and gave her a wide smile, she could see his white and pearly canines under his parted lips.

"A gentleman can crawl." There was a lot of amusement in his tone.

They stared into each other's eyes, and in unison, their lips parted into a grin and a chuckle and laugh escaped their mouth.

Elin started walking, and Ivar crawled by her side to the great festing hall.

ϟ

"How's the ale?" The boneless boy asked as they started pouring the liquid into their throat.

Elin frowned as the strong-smelling thing from the wooden cup moved through her tongue.

"It's okay."

"Mind for some more?" Hvitserk approached from nowhere, offering the girl another cup full of ale.

The young queen smirked, pulling the cup from him and drink it in a single stroke.

The others around her started to cheer as the third son of Ragnar sat down in front of her and motioned the slave to come closer and refill their cups.

"How much would you give me if I won?" Elin asked smoothly, chuckling lowly.

"I gave you my best dagger if you could beat me. Deal?" Hvitserk grinned.

"Deal." She grinned back.

The crowd started cheering loudly as they started to drink the ale. The tenth and eleventh cup was poured into their mouth, yet Elin's face shows no sign of a drunken one while her competer's cheeks and ears started to went red.

"How come you're this good drinker?" Ivar chuckles, looking amusingly at his brother who's still trying to drink more of the liquid with a shaky hand.

The young queen take a gaze back and grinned, revealing her white teeth.

"I'm a queen. That's why."

The competition heats up when the two reached their twentieth cup. Hvitserk is now looking very funny with the red face and sweaty hair. His eyes dimmed down a little bit.

"Drink! Drink! Drink!" The crowd laughs and cheered. Elin reveals a triumph smile and tilted her cup, letting every last bit of ale to pass through her throat.

"Elin...may I ask you...some...t-thing?" Hvitserk began with a drunken man's voice.

"Yes?" She sighed.

"Is it true that your mother dies in her bed, killed by her new lover which is suspected to be the Berserker you caught?"

Elin's breath stopped from a few moments.

"No, she's not." She tries to calm herself down. Hvitserk knows barely a thing from the Raven Mountains. It's okay.

"But I supposed your mother did have a lot of lovers aren't she? I heard that your father was one of her bedmates. Maybe another bedmate of hers just being jealous of him and killed him when you were young, then tried to appraoched and replaced him but your mother refused. So he sent a killer to murder her." He suggested again.

The young queen inhaled shakily. Her hand unknowingly clenched into the wooden cup.

How can he say it? Had he know that he's accusing her mother for being a woman with a lot of mans?

In a viking traditions, it's not wrong for a woman to do that. But in the Raven Mountains, the re-marry thing is very rare and sometimes got the bride mocked for having more than oje man in her life.

"Where...where did you hear this?"

"It's the rumors. Spreaded a few years ago. Why?" Hvitserk raised his eyebrows, unrealized what he had said lately.

"Whatever you have heard of my mother, Hvitserk Ragnarsson. I can assure you it's not true. My mother never had a bedmate, she married my father legally." She throttled, Amdis tried to calm her down by touching her pale arms.

"If you're not mind. I have to get a fresh air outside. Congratulations, you've won." Elin said coldly, storming out of the hall.