Author's note: I do NOT own anything of Vikings! It is a Television Drama created and written by Michael Hirst. The only thing that I claim as mine is my OC, that is all!
Chapter 12
Eira held Torstein tight in their farewell embrace the next morning. "Tell them I love them, and that I shall have the boys returned to them in perfect condition." She told him with a soft sigh.
"I will, you have my word, Princess." He smiled at her and pressed a kiss to her forehead, mounted his horse, and rode off.
"Safe travel, Torstein," Harald told the man.
Smiling to the man, Torstein nodded his thanks for the King's kindness he'd shown not only him but Eira and the boys as well, "Thank you, King Harald," he said, returning his farewells to the men of Vestfold before disembarking early that morning
"As short of a visit as that was, I must say that I liked him," Harald said, a casual smile on his face.
Smiling up at him, Eira felt herself blush a little as he smiled down at her, "And here I thought you didn't like people, King Harald." She lightly teased the King.
Chuckling, Harald wrapped an arm around the lovely woman beside him, "It is rare that I like a person. Just ask a certain young woman." He teased her back, kissing the top of her head. She was lovely, and Harald found himself envious of his brother, that such a wonderful and gorgeous young woman would love him the way he knew they both adored one another. And sadly, King Harald found himself falling for the woman himself. But he would not do that to his brother. Therefore, he would keep himself to a minimum when with her. He could not and would not take something from his brother that made Halfdan happy.
They had stayed the rest of winter, but as soon as the ice began to melt, Eira had to force herself to say farewell.
She sighed sadly, her fingers brushing over Halfdan's flesh over his bare chest, her leg draped over his legs. The room was warm, their skin still hot and sweaty from their lovemaking. She smiled at the memory of feeling him inside of her, her core still hot and once again aching for him. Nibbling on her bottom lip as she circled her fingertips around and over his nipple, she grinned when Halfdan stirred a little, and the awakening erection that she felt grow and tap her entrance had her stifling back a moan. She squealed and laughed when he rolled her back pinned her back against his bed, she sucked in a gasp, a big smile wide on her face as rubbed himself against her making her moan and rub back against him. "That's so cruel," she mewed up at him.
Chuckling at her, Halfen claimed her lips, lifting her up, her legs wrapping around him, kissed deeply, "Wait, I want to ask you something. And I won't bring it up to him unless I have your permission," Halfdan said to her pulling from their hot and passionate kiss.
Curious about what he was saying, Eira looked at him with wonder, a smile well on her face, anything he had to say was always important, at least it was to her. "What is it?"
"It is about Harald," Halfdan started, "I see the way he looks at you, and I see the way you look at him, now just hear me out," Halfdan said, stopping her from saying anything, he did not mean to make her feel terrible for looking at his brother the way she did, there was nothing wrong with it, and Halfdan wanted to let her know he was not hurt or offended by it. "Many women he and I have shared, and I finally have something, someone that wants me more than him, and I am glad, but I also feel as if I have taken something from him as well. If it is alright with you… I'd like to…make him happy. This Princess he wants so desperately hurts him, and you make him smile like you make me smile, you make us both happy. Was it not you who said a woman should have the choice to share the brothers if they all so wished it?" he asked, setting her back on the bed as he got up and began to pace. For some reason, he felt as if he'd just offended her. "I am sorry, I feel as if I just called you a whore," he stumbled over his words, rubbing his face with regret for even bringing this up.
Softly laughing at the man, Eira sat up, wrapping a sheet around her before gently grabbing Halfdan by his hips and looking up to him with a smile, kissing her way up from his fit abdomen up to his chest as she slowly stood from the bed and onto her tip-toes to kiss his lips. "You called me no such thing, Halfdan. You are simply expressing your feelings about this. And I would not be offended at all. As long as he and you are alright with the thought. You say he is not happy, I can say I have seen his hurt when he speaks of this woman. But would he be alright and not feel terrible after I share his bed? The last thing I wish to do is make something uncomfortable between the two of you, or all three of us. I love you both, I couldn't bear it if I ruined something." She admitted to him. "Will I? Will I ruin something between us three if I do this?" she asked him.
Sighing with a smile at her worry, Halfdan held her face in his hands as he looked down into her eyes, the desire she had to make them both happy. To be happy herself, and she seemed to be happy here with them, with him and his brother, with her brothers. Children in general. Smiling bigger at her, Halfdan kissed her, "You will ruin nothing between us three, my love. Are you okay with this? With Harald sharing you with me?"
Blushing at the thought, Eira kissed Halfdan back, her arms wrapping around him, the sheet loosely around her as she nodded to him, "As long as you are both alright with it, then I have no problem." She admitted him.
Smiling wide at her, Halfdan kissed her again and slipped on his pants. "Come on," he whispered, slipping from his room with her hand laced through his fingers as he walked her to Harald's room.
Taking notice of his pants, Eira raised a curious brow, "Are you not staying?" she asked him.
"I have had you to myself many times, I think it is only fair he has you to himself for tonight, is that alright with you, Eira?" he asked her, stopped just before his brother's room, taking her face in a hand, he brushed his thumb over her cheek. He worried that she may turn away from this now.
"As long as you both are alright with it-"
"I wasn't asking about mine and my brother's feelings, Eira, I was asking for yours. Are you okay with this? Letting Harald have you to himself without me present? I want to know that you are comfortable with this. Because if you aren't, we can return to my room, I won't make you do anything you do not wish to do. I may be a cruel, brutal man, but I will never be that to you." He whispered. He did not wish to wake his brother, and he wanted to be sure she was alright with this since he was the only man to have touched her with her permission.
Smiling, she nodded. With Halfdan's help, with him being with her in the many ways she had been with him already had helped her overcome her fears of sex, to overcome her fears of being intimate with a man, but she only ever crazed Halfdan and his brother from the moment she met them both she craved them. Ached to be with them. "Yes," she answered him. She couldn't believe she was about to do this, her mother had told her on a few occasions that when Lagertha had Ragnar had been with anyone else it had been with the man or woman of their choosing together.
Nodding, Halfdan kissed her and entered his brother's room. He softly chuckled when Harald jolted awake and blinked several times as he looked at him.
Rubbing his face from his sleep, Harald looked around his room and up to Halfdan, "What is it?" he asked.
"I have a surprise for you, brother," Halfdan said, walking back to the door, Halfdan opened it to release Eira walking in a few steps, her silvery-white hair was slightly a mess, and holding a sheet around her naked body.
Speechless, Harald couldn't help but stare at the woman in shock. Closing his eyes, thinking he was having a hallucination, Harald rubbed his eyes once more and looked back to the door. His brother and Eira were still standing there. Confused he looked to his brother, Halfdan, what is this?" he asked.
Chuckling, Halfdan leaned against the wall, "She and I wanted to… involve you. But I have had her all to myself many times, I thought it only fair you have her to yourself this night. If you wished it." Halfdan told Harald. Taking Eira's hand and walking her further into the bedroom to his brother's bedside. Standing her in front of him, Halfdan wrapped his arms around Eira with a smile, easing the sheet open from her lovely leg, his hand sliding down her exposed arm. "You have our permission, but more importantly, you have her permission, brother," Halfdan told him, kissing Eira along her neck a few times, he stepped back from his brothers' room. While he ached to be inside of her, he would not lie that he was very exhausted. She took a lot of his energy every time they had sex. He couldn't wait to hear his brother's praises and see the exhaustion on him, now maybe Harald would leave him alone when he felt her effects. But damn, the woman was a wild thing. Gentle, but wild and fun.
Shocked, Harald sat up from his bed, his feet hanging over the bedside as he looked her up from the tip of her exposed toe to her exposed hip to the partially exposed flesh of her belly, the sheets covering her small breasts and up to her smiling face. "Eira-"
"Do you want me to leave, Harald?" she asked him with a soft, mischievous smile, turning just a slight amount to act as though she'd leave, "I can leave if you wish me to, my King." She said teasingly. She smiled when he grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop.
"No, no, I just… I don't understand." Harald said, easing her back to him, looking up to her smiling face as he sat on the edge of his bed, he felt his heart thump with strange emotion when she stepped between his legs and raised her one exposed leg up the inner part of his clothed leg, resting her knee beside his hip, her body coming close to his shirtless chest and her head leaning over him looking up to her. His hand dropped from hers gently took hold of her leg resting beside him, running his hand up along her smooth and toned leg up to her nice round bottom. He smirked when his hand dipped further back between her thighs and he found the heat and the wetness that seeped from her entrance. He was taken back by her lips falling over against his with a hot passion as she straddled his lap, her hands held his face and her sheet dropped from her chest, exposing all her flesh to him and curtained around her waist and over his lap. With a hand tangled in his hair, his mouth attacking hers with equal desire, he glided his one hand from around her bottom and up her hip and waist, over the front of her belly and dipped down between her thigh, he chuckled when she sucked in a breath of surprise and desire as he rubbed her, his fingers getting soaked instantly as he slipped two fingers inside of her. He felt her back arching inwards, her stomach touching his bare chest as her head rolled back as he pumped in and out of her entrance and his mouth claimed one of her nipples between his teeth, suckling her desperately listening to her moans that erected a very big reward for her. flipped her from his lap back against his bed, Harald pinned her flat, her legs spread for him to allow him to rest between her legs, her big smile had him laughing with joy that she was enjoying herself, the way she giggled and bit her bottom lip. Sitting up on his knees on his bed and between her legs, Harald grinned as he unlaced his trousers, the way she watched him with delight like she was ready to just eat him alive. "Do you look at my brother the same way, lover?" he asked her, sliding his trousers off, smiling at the heating blush that instantly grew across her cheeks once he was bare to her wandering eyes.
"I love you both," she told him, "So yes, I do look at Halfdan like this. At least I believe I do. You will have to ask your brother what he sees." She told him, looking up into his grinning face. The tattoos that were on the sides of his face.
"And you are right with us both having you?" He questioned, moving between her legs, his hands playing with her knees before pulling her close to him and crawling over her like an animal ready to claim his prize. Anchoring his arms beside her head as he loomed over her with her silver hair fanning out across his bed, her arms resting beside her head, Harald looked down into her royal blue eyes he adored so much and her happy smile, the way it grew into a playful and lusting smile, once again nibbling over her bottom lip as she ghosted one of her legs along his side, teasing him. "Yes," she answered sincerely. She sucked in a soft breath of delight when she felt his cock tap up against her before entering her, her eyes almost rolling back into her skull at how wonderful she felt filled by him. Eira smiled with her cheeks blushing further when his hands laced in through hers pinning her further into her bed as he rocked his hips into her, her skin burned against his touch, she giggled feeling him nipping along her chin, neck, and playfully nipping at her lips as he thrusted up into her. Here she took advantage of their coming release and rolled Harald onto his back, leaving her straddling him with a smirk and slowly rose upon him and slowly sank herself back down his cock. She gasped with surprise when he thrust up into her with a furry she had not known he had, over and over again, with bruises forming on her hips he held onto firmly as he once again thrust up into her. When he came and her soon after, they panted for breath, his head rested back into the bed.
Harald sighed with release and a big smile on his face. He grunted with surprise when she shifted on him, his cock twitching back to life quickly as she shifted on him, her hands running behind her over his exposed thighs, her hips dancing against him, had Harald panting and biting back a loud moan as she leaned back a little then back up, her hands moving from his legs over his stomach and gliding up his chest to rest over his pets as she rode him. He couldn't remember the last woman to do this to him or make him feel this erotic. Grabbing her hips once again, Harald thrusted up into her, managing to get a little further up inside of her, the gasp of breath she took had him smirking and sitting up from his bed and pumping his hips up into her with her arms holding onto his shoulders and sharing heated and passionate kisses as they continued to join their bodies.
When they fell back into the bed, panting for breath, their bodies covered in sweat and very exhausted, Eira smiled big when Harald pulled the covers over their naked bodies. Looking up to the window high above his bed, she softly laughed at the early morning light she saw. "I think we stayed up a little too long," she joked with a sigh of content as she rolled into Harald's arms, the man's strong arms wrapping around her as they both held one another.
"Never, it is never too late or too early for sex. Especially that kind of sex," Harald teased her, laughing when she hid her face into his chest. "To be honest, I shall not be surprised if we find you are with child from all the sex you and my brother have had since you arrived, don't think I haven't heard it. But after last night and… well, this morning, Halfdan and I shall wait for your return if you are carrying." He commented with a happy smile.
Looking up to him, Eira shifted up to rest upon her arm looking down at him, "You and he would want me to come back if I am with child? You'd both willingly keep us here? As a family?" she asked him.
"Of course, Eira you are already our family. And possibly," Harald said shifted up onto his own arm, and with a smile, he gently poked her flat and toned belly, "Our wife. If you would let us both marry you that is." Smiling at her growing smile, Harald grabbed her face and kissed her, laying her back into the bed he began to laugh as she squealed with playfulness at being suddenly tickled. Kissing her once again, Harald sighed and got up. "Come, we must bathe and dress. You are sadly leaving tomorrow and there is a lot to be done today. Unless you choose to stay." He told her, slipping his trousers up over his hips and lacing them closed.
Sighing sadly as she wrapped the sheet from Halfdan's room around her, her smile long gone and now saddened she couldn't choose to stay, Eira chose to stay silent as she sat on Harald's bed. Her heart aching at having to leave.
Noticing her silence, Harald looked over to her as he slipped his shirt over his head, her face was solemn and unhappy as she sat on his bed, one leg looking as of she was about to get off. "Eira?" he asked her, approaching the bed, he knelt before her, his hand resting over her exposed knee. "Eira, what is it? What's wrong?"
Taking a deep breath, Eira forced herself to smile at him with a shake of her head, "Nothing, don't worry." But she knew he didn't believe her. Though, her refusal to tell him what was wrong seemed to anger him when he cupped her face in one hand. "Harald,"
"What is the matter?" he demanded.
"I just don't want to leave, it's a childish emotion to my pouting I know that, and I am sorry,"
"What in the gods' names are you apologizing?" he asked with confusion. But he knew the answer to that already. "If you wish to stay then stay," he clarified.
"I can't, I have my brother to return home, if I send them back without me with them, then I am irresponsible. You know that. As my new station as well as their older sister, I have responsibilities that I cannot and will not run away from."
Breathing in deeply, Harald sighed but nodded and dropped his hand from her beautiful face. He kissed her one last time before she left his room, he thought they would have a moment longer of peace as he laid her back into his bed and crawled over her. However, when the rush of three children ran in like they probably did back home for their sister not really thinking of it, Harald laughed a little with a sigh, "Such timing," he joked. He laughed as one of the servants ushered the children out calmly, "Come," he told her, helping her off the bed and escorting her back to her room where he sent a tub and had filled with water for her to clean in. She spent her day with her brothers, watching Harald and Halfdan work with their people and the merchants of Vestfold. Until the day came to an end, and she was left sitting in the great Hall late into the night looking into the burning hearth.
"Eira, what's the matter?" Halfdan whispered his worry into her ear once he walked up behind her and knelt by her.
"I have a bad feeling about something, Halfdan. I just cannot seem to figure out what it is." She whispered. Something about the fire was calling, telling her something, whispers in her ears, but she could not hear them. "I hear the voices, but I cannot tell what they are saying to me. Am I losing my mind Halfdan?" she asked him.
Taking her chin in hand, Halfdan eased her head to look at him, her gorgeous blue eyes shining with fear and uncertainty. Kissing her, Halfdan sighed and took her hands and stood her from the chair, "No, the gods will make you hear it when you need to. For now, think nothing more of it and come to bed. You are leaving in the morning. You need rest."
When early morning came, she had the boys ready to leave, though she was less than enthused to be leaving Vestfold, Eira knew her father would likely be leaving for raiding soon, and she honestly wished to go with him. But it had been difficult for her, wrapped up in Halfdan's arms then into Harald's. Both brothers kissed the top of her head and she placed a kiss to the edges of both brothers' lips before boarding her mother's ship, now her ship, and set sail to return to Kattegat. She watched from the ship as they vanished from Vestfold and into the early morning fog. She wanted so desperately to go back to them.
"Eira?" Ubbe asked her, gently tugging on the skirt of her dress.
Smiling, she looked down to her baby brother, Ivar warmly tucked away in her arms, "Yes?" she asked him softly.
"Will we ever see them again?" Ubbe asked her gingerly.
Smiling to him, she nodded, "Yes, I think we will, Ubbe, one day we will see them again." she answered her little brother.
"How do you know that?" Hvitserk asked.
Smiling, she knelt to both boys' level and kissed their cheeks before telling Hvitserk a secret, "Because they are family,"
It had taken a few extra days to get home with the ice still melting, and they wished to be careful. The last thing Eira wanted to happen was the ship to sink with her brothers on board. But as soon as home came into view, she smiled, and her heart soared with joy when her family and the people rushed to surround the docking ship.
"It's Princess Eira!" a few of the women called with happiness.
Aslaug smiled with glee as she ran from their home with Siggy and Helga running to the docks, everyone watching as the shield maidens unloaded with Eira and the prince's walking off the ship.
The boys rushed to their mother while Eira held Sigurd and Ivar in her arms. She was expected Aslaug to kiss her and the two infants in her arms, but Aslaug had instantly taken Ivar and walked off back to the Hall. Her mother's behavior was a little concerning the way she was now ignoring the rest of her sons. However, she had to remind herself that Aslaug had never truly been away from her infant children before like this. However, she felt little Sigurd wrap his arms around her and pout silently into her neck that his mother had blatantly ignored him. Holding the little one to her, she kissed the top of his head and rubbed his back, "It's alright Sigurd."
They celebrated for days at Eira and the son's return, however, Eira had been disappointed that she had missed her father's ships, by one whole day it seemed. And her feeling of dread would only worsen. As the months drew on Aslaug, Helga and Siggy had shared the same dream, of a man in the snow, one hand bleeding the other holding a ball of snow lit aflame as he approached them. However, Eira's had been slightly different, something was strange about the way they described the covered man. While they had been interested, seduced, or a bit cautious, Eira had felt a stinging sense to watch him closely. As if it were a test for them. She felt protective for the women and their children. However, it would soon turn into an adventure of their own in Kattegat when the very same man from their dreams arrived at their home not a handful of days later, with a wounded hand full of blood and asking for help. His eyes had not left Aslaug as Eira wrapped his wounded hand after Helga cleaned the wound and applied a past to help prevent infection before he turned his attention to Eira, her blue eyes staring skeptically at him as he smiled as if he knew her. Knew who she was. And that confused her since she knew she had never seen this man before in her life. He'd told them stories as they ate and drank through the days he was there, but he also watched, studied them. Eira knew that Siggy did not know what to make of him, she did not trust him, for in her mind something was astray.
Though, Aslaug would try to spend as much time with this man as much as possible. He'd introduced himself as Harbard. But Eira watched him very carefully, and she had to say she partially agreed with Siggy. Not that she didn't trust him, which she honestly didn't, but she would not treat him inhospitably. However, he'd caught her alone one night as she cleaned while the mothers slept with the children. She had forgotten Harbard was sleeping in the Hall that Aslaug had invited him to stay. That night, Ivar had awoken, and she had taken to the infant so Aslaug could sleep, calming him as she walked around the Great Hall empty of everything but the lit fire pit. "The daughter of the gods, blessed with life twice, for a mother he heard cry thrice. Lady Eira must have been in pain for such a scream for Odin to ride down and wake you from your dark slumber himself." He said softly. "But it was not darkness you saw in your death, was it, Princess?" he asked.
Watching the man who had been welcomed to sleep in the hall, Eira watched him carefully, her baby brother held to her chest in protection. "My apologies, Harbard. I forgot you were here. I hope Ivar and I did not wake you." She said, ignoring his previous words and question.
Smiling to the Princess, Harbard approached her and the sleeping infant he knew cried in pain, "Not at all. You settle his pain, as I can." He said, reaching out to rest his hand on the sleeping boy only for Eira to step back from him. Her behavior had him grinning. Not coldly or mischievously, but in wonder and honestly, she saw no surprise in his eyes.
"With respect Harbard, I'd prefer you not to lay a hand to my infant brother. I do not know who you truly are, nor do I know what sort of magic you came baring towards my family." She admitted coldly. "Keep yourself where eyes are when with my mother. To yourself." She told him. "Goodnight Harbard," she said walking back to the bedroom and laying her brother in his crib then went about checking on the other children in their beds, Sigurd and Angrboda as well in the children's pin before crawling into bed with Aslaug, Helga, and Siggy.
But it was a few nights later that she awoke, feeling unwell. Taking a deep and calming breath, Eira rested her hand on her stomach when her gut suddenly turned. Feeling the sick erg to vomit, Eira rushed from the bed and ran out of the bedroom to outside, falling to her knees in the chilled night as she began to vomit uncontrollably. She shivered with small fright when she felt a warm and large hand rest at her back comfortingly and the other large hand gently pulling her long-unbound hair from her face and away from the mud as she threw up.
"It is alright, Princess, just let it come out," Harbard said calmly, holing her long silvery-white hair back from her face. He waited for her to finish before helping her back inside to boil water while dropping a few herbs from his personal pouch into the hot water, "Here, drink this, it will settle your stomach." He told her, watching the room closely, figuring she did not wish the mothers to know she had rushed from the room and hall to empty her stomach. Checking her brow for any sign of a fever, Harbard nodded with a smile as she drank the bitter tonic, "I know, it tasted rather bad, but it works. You have no fever, which is good. Maybe you ate something that did not sit well." He offered his opinion and took the now empty cup from her hand.
Coving her mouth after drinking the bitter tonic, Eira nodded, "Thank you," she said. While she knew the man was trying to help her in some form, she couldn't help the cold feeling of her stomach swishing around like the sea. Looking over to him as she tried to breathe easy, she took a good look at the man and grabbed his hand when he moved to leave her and eased him back to kneeling before her. Leaning towards him she brushed her cheek against his bearded cheek and whispered into his ear, "I see you,"
Nodding and swallowing with small nervousness, Harbard stood. He felt a small jolt of worry when he saw the change in her eyes as she looked at him. Rather than her dark blue eyes, he came face to face with Teal blue he knew all too well. Bowing his head to her, Harbard stepped back from her. "Rest well, Princess."
And rest was unfortunately all Eira was able to do from then on. Siggy, Helga, and Aslaug had to move Eira to her personal home to be cared for after they woke two days later and found the woman pale and covered in a cold sweat, aching and moaning. And to Aslaug's fright, Eria was discovered to be with child. None of them had noticed her pregnancy over the few months of her return from Vestfold, she had hidden it well from the three women. But her illness and her pregnancy had the women fearful for Eira. And with Eira bedridden, Helga and Siggy took to maintaining the children's care, the people, and the lands, as well as Eira's health, it gave Harbard the path he needed at Aslaug. One that Harbard took.
However, the boys had been away from their sister too long and wished to be near her, Ubbe had come up with the idea to sneak into their sister's home after a month of Eira being bedridden, wanting to see her with his little brother, Hvitserk. But the sight they found had them fearful for their lives. A cloaked figure sat beside her on the bedside, carefully draining a liquid down her throat, guiding the tonic down her by massaging their sister's throat while she slept. "Forgive me," the rasped voice said, his dry, resting one of his crackling old grey-skinned hands resting over her growing belly. The child's growth had been stunted by Eira's illness, everyone had feared the child was dead.
The young brothers watched as their fierce and strong sister woke with a piercing scream of pain that startled them both.
Waking with a sudden rush of gutting pain inside of her, her abdomen burning like liquid fire had been poured into her and a hot knife taken to her nether regions and cutting her open without mercy and a flash of hot liquid poured from between her legs, soaking her clothing and the furs and bedding with a thick silly sense of blood as lighting and thunder lit the night skies.
Startled and terrified, Ubbe and Hvitserk looked up to the now poring skies before looking back inside to their screaming sister now alone in her hut. "Go, wake mother," Ubbe told his brother and ran into Eira's home and climbed onto her bed, his eyes burning with soon-to-be cried tears. "Eira? Eira?" Ubbe called for her with fear as she cried into the night, her hands clutching at the bump of her belly where her child should have been growing. But it was as if she could not hear him calling for her. His sisters' tears and the pain she cried out with had Ubbe whimpering with his own emotional pain that he could not help his sister. Resting her locks of silver-white hair and head against his little chest, Ubbe held his sister to him, his litter arms around her, trying to give whatever comfort he could to her. "Eira -"
"What in the gods' names is– Ubbe?!" Aslaug gasped with fright at the sight she and the others came upon. Ubbe sat crying in his sister's bed of furs with her in his arms crying and screaming, the furs and sheets of her bed drenched in blood below her waist.
"By the gods," Helga gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as she looked upon the horror. The three women rushed into the crying and screaming woman, clearly experiencing losing her child at what they had measured as being maybe four and a half months along.
Aslaug tried shushing her crying son who screamed and clung to his sister when his mother pulled him from her, his little hand pulling her weak and limp hand and arm up off the bed as Aslaug pulled him from her when Eira had fallen silent quickly and out of nowhere, but she still breathed, her eyes fluttering open and closed. Something wasn't right. This had never happened before that they were aware of. Either way, this was not a good sign, Aslaug had no choice but to remove her son. "Ubbe, come, now, you must leave," she told her crying son, lifting him, but he'd began to scream in her place, in panic and clinging to Eira's arm and hand, refusing to leave. He'd held onto her so tightly that his nails had ended up scratching along her arm, pulling bloody trails, "Ubbe! You are hurting Eira!" Aslaug scolded him with her fear growing. It was only rising in their fears for Ragnar's daughter when the woman had not even cried or yanked her arm from the boy when his nails had cut into her forearm. "NO! EIRA! NO! Don't leave me!" Ubbe screamed as his mother pulled him from his sister and forced his little hand to release Eira's hand he was clinging to as he screamed.
"U-Ubbe, i-it'll be al-alright," Eira whispered weakly, she had no strength, her cries had come to a stop, she could not find it in her to scream anymore, and her pain had only lasted for a short period. Now her body trembled weakly and filled with sudden coldness through her limbs as the furs were yanked from her body and the women went about helping her. But she fainted. The pain was so unbearable it was death-worthy. She was suddenly void of her strength, her spirit, as she was coming in and out of some kind of daze. Of teal blue eyes and long brown hair, while she knew there was heat enveloping her, she felt none of it, only heard the cries of a woman and the cries of a child. Was she hallucinating? She had to be.
Seeing her eyes close, Siggy panicked and grabbed Eira's pale face with fright, gently shaking her face to wake her up, "Eira, Eira! Come on sweet child, stay awake, stay with us. Do not leave us. Do not leave your brothers. Eira! Helga, she's leaving us! Do something!" Siggy screamed frantically.
"What is happening!" Aslaug shouted with fright as she rushed back in after finally being able to get her son out of her daughter's home.
"The children?" Helga asked over her shoulder as she set Eira's legs apart to see what was wrong as she cleaned the clotting blood from the young woman.
"With one of the village women, Ubbe is beside himself, he hasn't stopped screaming for her. He says someone gave her something then she began to scream moments later." Aslaug said with tears, rushing to her daughter's side and grabbing ahold of Eira's weak hand. She was cold and clammy to the touch, more than terrifying, she was unresponsive. Aslaug choked back her tears as she dabbed a dry cloth to Eira's brow. She was pale and sickly, "Please forgive me for my ignorance, daughter. Please, wake up… I beg the gods, don't take my baby." Aslaug begged tearfully at the woman's bedside. Eira was no longer conscious.
"Aslaug, we need hot water and herbs, clean furs for her warmth. She is cold. We need to wake her, she has to push,"
"Push what! My daughter is dying because of that creature inside of her!" Aslaug screamed.
"That creature is an unborn child who has more than likely been dead for some time inside of her!" Helga snapped at the grieving woman, "I understand your fear, Aslaug. Siggy and I love her just as much as you- Yes, we do, she was ours before she was ever yours! Now, pull yourself together and be her mother!" Helga screamed, her own fright for the young woman was frightening. What if this was her daughter one day? "Get water boiling and herbs, Eira has herbs here, herbs for pain and to remove the infection from the body. We need to bring her temperature up as well. Unfortunately, we will have to give her a different tonic at different times. Now go, quickly." Helga ordered the woman. Right now, Aslaug was not her Queen, she was a panicking mother begging for her daughters' life.
With trembling hands, Aslaug gathered the water and set it to boil over the hearth and added wood for the fire before going about her Eira home gathering the herbs needed before she went about pulling fresh furs and a clean cotton gown from Eira's trunk. Sniffing back her trembling fear for her daughter, Aslaug continued silently pleading to the gods to spare her once again. 'You returned her to me once. Please, do not take her from me before she has lived a life, to have children. To kiss their heads at night, to soothe their pains. Let her have children, many children, live a life of love. Make me blind, or deaf. Make me baren if you must, but do not take my daughter!' Aslaug pleaded.
*So sorry for the long and probably the most annoying summarizing I did, I really wanted to get at least a chapter up that I've been struggling to get up for months. Literally, maybe almost a year, which is a little scary that it took me this long to get a new chapter up. Really, this chapter is mostly a filler, and I am sorry it may have been a bit boring- which I totally understand if it was. I will likely be going back after a while and editing this just because right now I cannot think of how or what may need to be edited at the moment. Right now, the date of posting this chapter is 2/13/2022. And since I missed them all; Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year. Have a great 2022, be happy, be safe, have fun with life, be respectful of yourself as well as others, and let's get moving to the next level :) I'll hear from you all wonderful readers next chapter. Hopefully, that is much sooner than this latest one was.