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Althea missed her sons. She couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt at leaving them behind, she knew the travel to Dunholm wasn't kind and that that had to be safer with Thyra. But something wasn't right.
Something felt so wrong. Like a calm before the storm, a warning from the universe.
And no matter how much she liked to believe her biological father wouldn't harm them out of spite she wasn't so sure anymore. But she swore in that very moment that if anyone harmed her children, she would burn Wessex to the ground.
Sihtric groaned in his sleep as she nuzzled against his chest and she couldn't help but laugh quietly when he tossed a leg over her own. Her husband pulled her closer in his sleep and she thought back to her sons.
Her boys, Hvitserk and Arthur.
Hvitserk was the embodiment of a dane like his father, eager to learn how to fight and make his father proud. Arthur just like his brother loved training but she had noticed he liked hearing stories of adventure from his uncles and a part of her knee when he was old enough he would leave to sail the seas.
"Go to sleep, princess." Sihtric mumbled into her ear before kissing her cheek. She hummed in thought and rubbed Sihtric's back to lure him to rest once more. At some point, she had fallen asleep because he gently woke her to ask if she wanted to join the others for Ragnar's game. She agreed hoping it would keep her mind off her sons.
"We are divided, it seems. We are two people, it seems." The crowd laughs at Ragnar's joke. "Over here, we have the ugly, the unwashed, the shit-smelling, the pig-humping, frog-licking, the Rome worshipping, ugly, frog-licking Saxons!" Althea looked over at Sihtric who just grinned at her.
"Frog-licking?" Osferth mumbled.
"That is who we are." Finan shouted as Sihtric bent backward Finan poured a pitcher of ale into Sihtric's mouth.
She was so going to ride him tonight.
"But we do not lick frogs." Osferth corrected. Uhtred pulled her into a side hug and smirked at her, she grew flustered when she realized Uhtred had caught on to her dirty thoughts.
"Do you both even speak? Or is it only humping?" Uhtred teased and she shoved him when Brida laughed.
"How many women have you bedded again, Uhtred?" Althea questioned with a smirk making him splutter in shock.
"They face, in a battle of strength the pretty, the sweet-smelling, the light of foot-"
"Whoo-hoo!" Brida yelled with a grin.
"Apple-cheeked." Cnut added and Ragnar moved to place his forehead against his cousins. Althea didn't care much for Cnut, but she kept that thought to herself.
"The apple-cheeked, golden-haired boys of Denmark and beyond." Ragnar shouted as the crowd cheered.
"Ragnar, you are a Skald, not a warrior." Uhtred shouted to his brother.
"I have the gift, I really do," Brida and Althea laughed softly as he turned back to the men. "You may take the rope."
"Come on! Let's do this! Come on!" Finan yells.
"Are you prepared?" Ragnar asks.
"Look at him, he loves it." He says to the two women next to him.
"He'd play games every day if he could." Brida says as Althea nods.
"Is there spit in your hands?" Finan immediately spits in his palms and Osferth looks disgusted. Althea gagged at the grossness of it. "Good earth beneath your feet?" Ragnar shouts.
"Come on! Get with it, Ragnar." Brida yells teasingly.
"Come on, let's do this!"
"Pull! Saxons, pull! Pull! Pull! Are you a dane? Pull!" Ragnar yells watching the men, the crowd cheers in excitement.
"You never tire of this game." Uhtred said.
"If only all wars were fought this way. Pull you, bastards!" Ragnar unsheathed his sword and moved to hold the hilt of the sword as he slashed the rope in half. "Ragnar, son of the fearless is the victor!"" He screamed as the men fell to the mud and dirt, and Uhtred and Brida laughed at the sight. "We bring twenty men on their arse while drinking ale!" Althea moves to help up the boys and sighs when Sihtric pulls her into a hug getting her dress dirty.
"You are life itself." Uhtred says and hugs Ragnar, their moment is cut short by a guard ringing the bell.
"Ragnar!"
"We're playing games, can't you see that?" Ragnar said in irritation.
"Ragnar, it is the watchman."
"The gate, open it." Ragnar said urgently.
"Ragnar?" She and Uhtred questions.
"My watchmen don't return for no reason." He speaks as the watchman rides in.
"What is it?" She asked the man.
"Men and horses, lord. Warriors."
"How many?" Uhtred asks.
"Forty or fifty, I don't recognize them."
"Spears and arrows to the walls till we know who they are and what they want. Hold your aims until command!" Althea moves to stand by Finan and Sihtric and her husband immediately pulls her behind him.
"Finan." Sihtric says as he jumps up and retrieves their weapons from the roof.
"Bar the gate!" Ragnar dunks his head in the water to sober up ending their fun.
