dear_mun | (no subject)

(no subject)

Is this it, then? This is all you do?

What a life it is that you live.

Mother! [Bjorn comes running over.] The people here are strange!

If it makes them happy it can't be all that bad.

[ And if there were anything in this world that would make her smile, it would be nothing else but her children. She catches Bjorn with a hand to his cheek, a hand to his neck. ]

They are. They're very strange.

And lazy.

Their happiness comes before ours? You would agree to that?

I met a man who says he is a son of Odin, born mortal. Do you think such a thing is possible?

[ Small shrug. ] Sometimes others need it more than us. There's no shame in helping.

To the mad and the ambitious, everything is possible. Did you believe them?

But there is a certain shame to keeping yourself helpless.

I do not much like that thought.

...He can turn into a raven.

[Not that that's an answer.]

Oh, Bjorn.

[ She feels happy for you, if a little bemused, and feels concerned about this stranger calling himself a god's son. ]

And what else can he turn to?

[Bjorn shrugs.] I don't think he likes father's slave very much. He told me to be watchful of him.

The priest is not like us; it would be wise to be watchful of him, that is true.

You don't trust him, then?

With this? Yes, I am. No sense of adventure with this one.

The god-man? No, I don't think so. [But really he isn't sure.]

I ask her the same question everyday. Perhaps you will have a better chance at convincing her, as she would not listen to me.

And of Athelstan, do you trust him now?

He is strange. But... he is good. He saved Father from drowning.

It turns out he's quite useful a slave, didn't he? [ She's just amused, really. And grateful. This is a life debt she feels she can honor wholeheartedly, and without weight. ]

You've only been talking to men whose ears are closed against you. [ Like the Earl. Like his cronies. Not like our comrades, our brothers in arms. ] Perhaps she might listen to you, she has no affections for the Earl as well.

[ indeed. ]

And you're still a handful now as you were then, when you first came to my door with wedding gifts. [ Her tone is intensely fond. ] Now you've sailed west, where no others have gone before, and brought us back a priest.

[ for all her reservations about athelstan, he did turn out to be good for us, did he not? ]

And that I am heavy with child, and would not care for these new riches either way.

I worry for your latest raid, Ragnar.

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