╚════════*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*════════╝

"So do you have an army, lord Cnut?" Finan asks as they sit around eating, Sigrún watches her snake as it stops by Uhtred, the man hesitantly holding out his hand. Seidr sniffed him and recoiled in what she assumed was disgust before he slithered back to her. She laughed softly and used her pointer finger to gently caress his small head. Her baby was dramatic even on the good days.

"I do. Two hundred men, two hundred good men." Cnut claimed and watched her curiously.

"Are they all as entertaining as you are?" Finan said playfully with a grin.

"I hope not." She spoke making Cnut scoff.

"You are headed where?" Uhtred cut in with a serious tone.

"Undecided. Though if Alfred of Wessex is now without his Dane-slayer, I may consider heading south." Ragnar shoots her a confused look when she starts to talk to the snake like a child. She ignored his judgment and instead observed Cnut, she didn't trust the man.

"Call me Dane-slayer once more, I will make the square and we'll fight." Uhtred snapped with a threatening tone, Seidr hissed at the sound and arched up protectively in her palm.

"It's alright, my soul." She whispered to soothe him, the snake leaned into her for comfort.

"Why the anger, lord? You sent you killed many of us? Many Danes, many Northmen?" Cnut taunted and she sent him a glare that had him tensing up.

"Only the ones who were trying to kill me." Cnut stands with a fake smile.

"And I'm only teasing, unfairly. You must be tired from the journey and your...." He trailed off. "Illness, so be sure to rest." Sigrún watched Cnut leave like a scolded child before turning to Finan.

"I like him." Finan says.

"Why?" She asked with distaste.

"Not as much as he likes himself." Finan chuckled at Brida's remark as she too left, he looked over at them with a grin.

"Well, he's not wrong. The prospect of Alfred without Uhtred will bring fire to the bellies of many Danes." Ragnar speaks quietly.

"You included." Uhtred claims and Ragnar sighs.

"Wessex is still the jewel and I'm getting too comfortable in my fortress." Ragnar says in pure honesty and Uhtred grows nervous.

"My children are in Wessex."

"We have many friends in Wessex, lord." Finan adds looking at the man. She didn't care much for anyone but Uhtred at the moment. Ragnar was attractive though, he had that going for him at least.

"I have nothing in Wessex." She said with a shrug when they turned her way.

"More reasons to visit." Uhtred and Finan share a look. "Well, all this talk is for another time, another time soon." Ragnar gets up and starts to leave.

"You've not asked about Thyra."

"The boy Osferth told me. She is Christian and she's married. She is happy." He smiles at the thought and leaves. Finan looks reluctant to speak for a moment but when she motions for him to talk he does so cautiously.

"Uhtred, I came here to rest, to hunt, sleep with a woman, maybe. I did not come here to talk of war against Alfred." Uhtred looks at them in silence as Brida sits down again.

"I will be outside drinking ale, finish your plate." Finan says teasingly.

"I will follow, I have no use for emotional talks." She shivered in disgust at the thought.

"She's an odd one," Brida muttered as she watched the women leave with the snake. "But she saved your life. How did you meet?"

"She found me." Uhtred answers before looking at Brida with a soft smile as they soon join their people.

"We are divided, it seems. We are two people, it seems. Over here, we have the ugly, the unwashed, the shit-smelling, the pig-humping, frog-licking, the Rome worshipping, ugly, frog-licking Saxons!" Sigrún stood next to Uhtred as she watched the men dirty themselves for a game.

"Frog-licking?" Osferth muttered.

"That is who we are." Finan shouted as Sihtric bent backward as Finan poured a pitcher of ale into the Dane's mouth and then his own. Sigrún raised an eyebrow at the display, she didn't understand men and their actions.

"But we do not lick frogs." Osferth corrected and turned to the others. She snorted in amusement at the boy and wondered how he ended up with these men.

"They face, in a battle of strength the pretty, the sweet-smelling, the light of foot-"

"Apple-cheeked," Cnut added and Ragnar moved to place his forehead against his cousins.

"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 the blonde.

"I have the gift, I really do. 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.

"All they are doing is pulling a rope? Even an infant would find joy elsewhere." She replied and Uhtred bumped his shoulder with his own as he chuckled, Brida inhaled sharply at the action. It was a well-known fact one does not touch a Völva without her permission, but she noticed Sigrún allowed it for the sake of their intertwined fate.

"Is there spit in your hands?" Finan immediately spits in his palms and Osferth looks disgusted. "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 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 Brida laughed at the sight. "We bring twenty men on their arse while drinking ale!"

"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 annoyed. She hums knowing they have unwanted visitors, she moves next to Finan and the monk as she watches Ragnar and Uhtred. Seidr stretched out from where he was wrapped around her throat and with her attention elsewhere the snake chose to watch Sihtric closely as the Dane moved closer.

"Ragnar, it is the watchman."

"The gate, open it." Ragnar said urgently.

"Ragnar?" Uhtred questions.

"My watchmen don't return for no reason." He speaks as the watchman rides in.

"What is it?" He 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!"

"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.