NOVEMBERLAND: the little shieldmaiden

27

Two weeks after my coronation I had arrived in Calibur. I now travelled with my own ships which you would know were Lynrikan. I would now spend a few weeks in Calibur until continuing to Esca. As I arrived at the Cal harbour it was something else from when I first arrived here. It was the complete opposite, first I had felt the excitement and the unknown but this time it felt like I knew why I was there and I knew my place in this mad world. 

Before people did not really care to look at me but now all eyes were on me. To be honest I preferred being the unknown rather the known. I had gotten more and more used to it the past weeks, with all the people and the fuss. A royal carriage drove me and my people up to the castle placed on the cliffs of Calibur. I had brought with me some ladies as well as a couple guards for my journey, Tyr and Grandfather's addition really. I would gladly travel alone, but it was not safe for a queen. For Cals this way of earning a title was un-imaginable, it had to be the first heir and even better a male.  

Calibur had its charm in the summer, it was rather hot and it was decorated by the people. The castle was even decorated and when I arrived to the castle grounds the doors were even open because of the heat. The people were staring here, they stared before but now even more. A Viking was not that normal for Cals. Some servants came to take my baggage and said that I was ordered to a new room. It was probably one of the upgrades of being queen, although I liked my old room. Then I heard the guards straightening up and out the castle doors a figure came.

"King Gryffin!" I said as I smiled at him. He looked very well, not like sin and bones. His cheeks were fuller but his cheekbones were still prominent. He had colour in his cheeks too which was a good sign. 

"Queen Saga," he greeted back and grabbed my hand. "The newly crowned looks well," he said as he laid another hand above the hand he had grabbed.

"And so do you King," I said as I continued smiling at him. This was good but also surreal, that I was now called Queen and not Princess. 

We went to his office to speak privately after I had spoken to some of the nobles I had met before. Gryffin seemed in a good mood, maybe the summer air did good things for him. The office was just as I had remembered, and it made me smile as I entered it to remember the last time I had been there. He had not said anything in a while he had just closed the doors and walked out in the room. Then he turned at me and his sage eyes sparkled. 

"It's good to see you Saga," he said and gave me the biggest smile.

"It's good to see you too," I said and smiled back. "And in so good health."

"Thank you," he said and sat himself down in his chair. "I'm sorry for not attending your coronation," he then said and frowned his eyebrows in a sense of guilt.

"It is alright, it had to be done quickly," I said as I sat down in the chair in front of him making the desk stand in between us. 

Then he looked at me without saying anything. He was just looking at me as if he was analyzing. Maybe he thought that I looked different. My dark hair and the short in the front as well as the tattoos on my neck. "I know what you're thinking, I've changed."

"That was not what I was thinking, you look great. Like a Queen," he said and began looking at me the same way again. "I was thinking about how much I have missed you."

I felt something cribble inside my stomach as he said those words. There I was thinking he was judgemental when he was just missing me. And as I was just about to say it back a knock appeared on the door. Gryffin then said yes for it to open and a servant looked out the door right at us. "Your highness," the young woman said as she looked down. "King Gryffin, I'm here to remind you of your meeting," she said and kept looking down at the floor.