Kingdom Come

XI. Hold On Til May

As the days moved on Jaehaera, to everyone seemed to just be a shell of the once relatively joyous girl they once knew. She had stopped interacting with everyone the way she used to. Her father noticed and it scared him. Together they gathered their things from their Wintanceaster home, readying to leave. She followed her father out of their home with Sihtric beside her. She watched Stiorra play with the gem in the hilt of her father's sword as Beocca's voice came from behind them.

"Uhtred!" he called for him. Her father stopped packing their things in the carriage when he saw the priest. "You are needed at the palace by the King." the king, she scoffed in her head, damn the king.

"For what reason?" her father asked as he kept Stiorra in his arms while walking to Beocca. "We are about to return to Coccham."

Beocca looked at Finan, Sihtric, and Jaehaera sadly. Beocca had never seen the girl like this. She had been compared to a ghost before, but now he could truly see it. It pained him to see her this way. "It would be better if you heard it from him yourself. You alone."

Her father looked over at where his eldest daughter stood with his men before handing Stiorra to Jaehaera and following after the priest to Alfred. "Jaehaera?" Stiorra's soft voice called. Jaehaera turned her head to look at her little sister. She looked so much like their mother.

"Yes, love?" Jaehaera answered, trying to sound somewhat normal for the younger girl.

"Can you tell me a story?" Stiorra asked as Jaehaera sat them down with the others as they waited for their father to return. Young Uhtred came over with Osferth.

Jaehaera couldn't think of any story she could tell the girl would be a happy one. "Oh, I don't know," she answered, "Osferth is the better storyteller, you know that, darling."

Young Uhtred shook his head, "no he's not," he pointed out flatly.

"No he's not, sister," Stiorra giggled. And the other men around laughed as well. Jaehaera looked at Stiorra and then at Sihtric. "You and mother are the best." Jaehaera's heart broke further at the girl's forgetfulness.

The older girl nodded anyway, with a sad smile. Finan and the other's looked on with somber faces. "Alright then," Jaehaera answered softly so her voice wouldn't crack as she held her sister in her lap. She thought to herself for some kind of idea. "A long time ago there lived a knight. This knight wasn't just a regular knight like Finan or Sihtric." The girl smiled up at the two men as she recognized their names which made the two men smile as well. Finan winked down at the girl making her laugh. "No, this warrior had been blessed by Odin and Thor, making him the most powerful and dangerous warrior who ever lived." The older people around caught onto the fact that the girl spoke cleverly about her father while the youngest listened intensely. "Word spread to the kings around, each one either wanting to be him or kill him. All but one. This King sought the help of this warrior to help build his kingdom. Now while the two never saw eye to eye, they managed to work together well enough. So much so that the king brought the dane into his services. One day in battle the warrior's wife had been struck down by their enemy, and in his grief, in rage, the fierce warrior broke the shield wall alone and defeated their enemy."

"He broke it by himself?" Young Uhtred asked, disbelief in his voice at what his older sister spoke about. "That's not possible, Jaehaera."

"Hush, Uhtred," Jaehaera told the boy with a smile. "It is because, with the gods on his side, the noble warrior could stand no defeat."

"Yeah, Uhtred," Stiorra copied, "he had the gods, don't you listen?"

The older people around laughed. "Of course, I listen, you bug," Uhtred shot back at his younger sister.