The sons of Ragnar looked at one another, as an old man came racing up towards them; his eyes wide and breath uneven. Up until this point, it had been a normal day; well, if you asked Ivar, he would say that it had been boring. So boring that he and Sigurd couldn't even be bothered to argue. So, in truth, he hoped that whatever was going on, whatever had brought the man running up to the steps of the Great Hall, would break the monotony.

"Princes.............." The man gasped. Doing his best to regain his breath, as he pointed behind him, down towards the docks.

"There.......there............"

"There, what..........?" Ivar growled, already becoming annoyed at the man. Wishing he would spit out whatever it was that he had come to tell them.

"There.........at the dock..........a woman........a woman floating in the water........."

"So...........?" The youngest prince interrupted again. His hope for something interesting, gone. Sure, that it was just some thrall that had taken a drink when she wasn't supposed to have done; becoming drunk and ending up face down in the fjord. It not that they didn't have many more to replace her.

"You......you should come and see. She................" Ubbe holding up his hand for the man to stop. The oldest son of Aslaug sure that if he didn't regain his breath properly; he might just drop in front of them.

"Where are you going..........?" Ivar enquired. His brows furrowing as Ubbe got to his feet.

"To see what all this is about. You can either come, or stay here and continue to be bored, it's up to you." Ubbe explained. Sigurd and Hvitserk looking at one another for a moment before they too got to their feet. Ivar rolling his eyes, and then gesturing for his oldest brother to help him up onto his back.

                                                             >>-------------------------------------<<

Those gathered at the docks, parted ways, as Sigurd, Hvitserk and then Ubbe carrying Ivar, made their way over the planks of wood. The three oldest princes stopping in their tracks, as they saw what the man had been trying to tell them about. The breath catching in their throats.

"Ubbe........Ubbe.........." Ivar growled, doing his best to see over his elder sibling's shoulder. Ubbe not seeming to hear Ivar's protests, until the dark prince yanked on his hair. Ubbe shaking his head, before turning to the side, so that Ivar too could see what he and everyone else was looking at. His eyes growing wide, as there in the water floated the body of an unknown woman. A woman that wore a deep red gown that was unlike anything a woman in Kattegat would wear. Her long hair floating in a perfect circle around her head. And she was beautiful; more beautiful than any other that the sons of Ragnar had seen. Yet even though all knew they had never seen her before; she still seemed somehow strangely familiar.

"Help me." Hvitserk suddenly said. Sigurd following his brother and jumping into the water; some of the other men on the dock taking hold of the woman's arms, as the sons of Ragnar heaved her out of the fjord. All of them continuing to stare, as they placed her on the wood.

"Is she alive............?" Ubbe asked urgently, as he and Ivar looked down at her. One of the men that had helped bring her up, placing his hand over her mouth. A smile coming to his lips, as he felt warm breath fan over his palm.

"Aye........." He replied, before Ubbe ordered him and the others, to help carry her back up to the Great Hall.

                                                      >>-----------------------------------<<

The brother's sat quietly, picking at the food on their plates. Ubbe had had their strange visitor taken to an empty room; thralls ordered to remove the sodden gown and replace it with something dry. All of them waiting for one of the women to come and tell them that whoever the woman was, she was resting comfortably.

"She could have been on a ship that wrecked........" Hvitserk suddenly said, breaking the silence.

"She might have just floated along with the current........."

"Yet there is no sign of anything else, no one else. There has been no storm; nothing that would cause a ship to wreck.........No, she has not come to us, that way..........." Ubbe replied, as he finished off the last of his ale. Though how she had really come to be floating in their fjord.............

"Then the gods must have sent her........." Ivar announced. He himself having been able to think of nothing but where she might have come from, since Ubbe had turned, so that he could see her.

"Perhaps she had been sent by Njord; or is one of the daughters of Rán and Ægir. A good omen for our next raid." The young prince continued. Recalling all the tales that Flóki had told him of the nine daughters of the personification of the sea, and her husband. Sigurd about to say something spiteful in retort, until an older woman appeared in the main part of the hall; her head bowed.

"Well............?" Ivar barked, causing the woman to jump back slightly.

"We have changed her. She is resting comfortably.........Though she is yet to wake." The thrall replied. Ubbe giving her an appreciative nod, as she finally brought her eyes up from the floor beneath her.

"So..........." Ubbe said, as he pushed back his chair. His brothers looking up at him.

"You just going sit there, or are we going to see what she looks like now.........?" He added, before moving around the table. Hvitserk and Sigurd quickly following. Leaving Ivar to drop to the floor and crawl after them.

                                                          >>-----------------------------------<<

He had watched from the shadows, as her limp form had been carried to the room. A broad smile making its way across his features, as she was placed on the bed. He had made everything as it had been before she had come; there not a sign left that she burnt the town and sent buildings tumbling to the floor. He would, this time at least, keep his side of the bargain. It better that she had a son of Ragnar, than ruin the plans of the gods. The smiling man moving back into the shadows, as four young men appeared in front of the door to the room in which she lay. His eyes falling on the youngest, that dragged himself along. Sure, that something had to be done, despite what he had said about her having any son, to stop a match between the two; not even he knowing what a partnership between the daughter of Fáfnir and the dark prince could mean.

"No son of Ragnar will be yours, if he crawls along the floor, when you first lay eyes on the four............" He said softly, chuckling quietly to himself; disappearing as quickly as he had appeared, as the four princes made their way into the room.