A/N: Happy B-day wiccademon (August 17)!

This is a continuation of the chaptered story Precious Gift so if you haven't read that, you really must… but it's only four chapters, so it's not a really big task… ;) There's also a very short drabble (number 79, the last of that collection) which could be read as well before this, as this story starts a bit after that finishes, but it's not necessary.

Precious Gift : Spring in the North

"It is here!"

Slade woke with a start as his little bird jumped onto the bed, and onto him.

"What? What is?" he asked with a yawn. It was light out, which meant he had slept in. Well, last night had been a long one. And very good.

"Spring! Spring is here!"

"Robin, there might still-"

"I heard form Erik! The ice has… has…" the young man was so excited that he had to search for the proper words in Slade's language. "Gotten broken?"

Slade sat up. He had sent Erik to the coast by horseback yesterday to check this exact thing, and it was good news.

"Seems I have to send out the messengers to the other villages then," the man nodded and stretched. "We'll have the ships in the water before the next full moon."

"Grant has already saddled his cow," Robin grinned. "He's eager for his island princess, yes?"

"I would think so, he has been pining away for her all winter," Slade chuckled as he got dressed. "And you know it's 'horse', Robin."

"I still say they are shaggy cows," the prince grinned teasingly, being used to the delicate silky smooth creatures from his homeland. Even the working-horses back in Jump looked like nobility compared to the shaggy small horses or enormous brutes his Master kept.

"Well, then I won't give you Marsa's foal then," Slade smirked.

"Oh, but no! No! They are beautiful! Oh, please may I have it? I've taken care of Marsa all winter and she is about to have the baby and-"

"Yes, yes, I was only joking, my little bird," the man chuckled.

"Bad joke from bad man," Robin huffed as he followed him out of their chambers.

"Father, the ice has-"

"Yes, Grant, I've been told," Slade told his eager eldest son. "Set off then. Take to the north. Erik, you go east and… where is Joseph?"

"Ummm… Joey and Tor left early this morning to 'hunt', before we got the news. They didn't bring their bows, though, which is rather strange, right, father?" Grant smirked.

"Very strange indeed," Slade chuckled. "Young people…" he added and shook his head.

"Oh, we heard you two last night, General, you can't really just blame their youth," Erik teased, which made the rest of the men around burst out laughing.

"I do not see why it is funny that you are very good at sex?" Robin asked, looking confused.

Slade cleared his throat. "Well. Alright, Ambjörn, you go south, then. And when you are down there, send word to Wintergreen. If he insists on wooing that widow he can at least bring her back here for the summer. The rest of you, I want to smell tar before the noon meal!"

"Um… Sir… should I send the message like that?" Ambjörn asked carefully.

"Tell him we miss him," Robin smiled. The older man had left to 'visit friends' as soon as most of the snow had melted.

"Tell him Robin misses him and I wouldn't mind having him around…" Slade muttered.

"Yes." Robin nodded. "He will know. Oh, I forgot, I promised to help with the baking!" the prince then exclaimed and was off like a flash to the bake house where most of the women had already gathered. All the chores of the estate were carefully divided between men and women in a way that it had been for as long as anyone could remember. It was therefore a bit confusing to the inhabitants that Robin chose to do both genders' chores. Slade had tried to talk to the young man about it, but that had ended with a lot of yelling in the prince's language before the whole household decided that foreign princes should do what they wanted. He did pull his weight, after all, and then some. He was a skillful hunter and had taken to tracking like fish to water. He could make wonderful embroideries that would sell very well at the summer markets and he had spent the winter learning how to prepare and weave wool as well as making knives. Slade was very proud of his prince.

After a quick meal the man began working alongside his men, sealing the hulls of the ships which had been moored on land for the winter. It was a dirty job and so smelly even Robin had complained. Still, to Slade, it was the best smell of all. It was the very essence of spring, which always meant new opportunities and new adventures. After his long trip last year, he wouldn't be going with the ships this summer, he would instead travel to the borders of the vast land, making sure all was in order. There would be a meeting as well, at midsummer, gathering the highest in rank from every area of the country for a council, and Slade looked forward to that as well. He hadn't told anyone, but if Grant got his princess, then, in a few years or so, he planned to propose his son as acting General. By then the young man would have had his own family started and settled, and was ready for more responsibility… and Slade didn't think he would have a boring retirement, not with Robin as companion. Maybe they would make the long journey back to Jump, and live out their last years together there… Slade was painfully aware of the age difference, and he didn't want to abandon his love in a dark, cold, foreign country when he could have the sun and light he loved… Well… that was for the future.

Just before the noon meal, a rather deflated Robin came up to him, holding a loaf of bread in his hands.

"Hello, my little bird, did the baking go well?" the man asked.

"I used too much flour in my batch…" the young man sighed and knocked on the bread he was holding. It sounded hard as a rock. "House mistress Anna told me that it would be good for soup, but…"

"Practice makes perfect," Slade shrugged. "And I'm sure the birds wouldn't mind that loaf… go give them a treat."

"Well… okay," the prince smiled sheepishly and set off.

Slade chuckled and shook his head. A lot of migrating birds had been making their way back lately. A few weeks ago they had spotted cranes flying overhead, and Slade had taken Robin on a two day hike to see the moor where they danced. The young man was still talking about it. It was too early for his red-chested little name-sake to make an appearance, though, but Slade knew that Robin was eagerly anticipating that day as well.

Slade had just finished his part of the hull when a terrified scream cut through the air.

"Slade! HELP!"

It was Robin's voice and the man found a hundred scenarios flashing through his mind as he ran towards the sound. Flash flood? Wolves? Rough warriors? The truth, though, was something he could never imagine. He found Robin half way up a tree.

"What in the world…?" Slade asked, trying not to laugh. Most of the people who had followed him weren't quite that subtle, though.

"I told them the bread was out!" Robin almost cried. "But they kept following me! Making those noises!"

"They are quacking, Robin. They are ducks. They are not dangerous."

"They tried eating my feet!" the prince objected.

"I thought he loved birds?" a man, Vidar, guffawed next to Slade.

"There aren't many ducks in the desert, I guess," Slade replied with a very strained voice, which threatened to break out into laughter any moment. "Robin, you can come down. Just shoo them!"

"But… I can't tell birds to go away? Can I?" the young man asked worriedly.

"You can if they annoy you. Or we could have them on the table tonight?" Slade suggested.

Robin, who never ate either bird-meat or eggs, made a face of disgust and then looked down on the chattering pack. "Um… maybe… could you tell them?" he asked, looking miserable.

The young man would have to endure giggles and laughter for the rest of the day, and whenever someone remembered the event, even years later. Still, his standpoint didn't budge: those ducks had been scary and out to get him.

Joseph and Tor showed up, without any game, just a moment later. They were really grateful for Robin's little mishap as any comments about their hunting-trip were forgotten in the light of that event.

Within a few weeks everything was organized. Grant had brought back some troubling news from the north as he had passed a few small homesteads that had been burnt to the ground and plundered. That happened sometimes in winter, as hunger made men desperate, but the leaders he had spoken with had been worried as well. Slade had decided to look into it, but first he had to send off his men. Several ships had arrived from further up the river and some had already set sail to do business with, and sometimes plunder, faraway lands. Slade was letting his eldest son have his smallest ship to go on a marriage quest for his island princess.

"I'll send some of the finest of the glassware from Jump with you as gifts to her parents," Slade told his son seriously. "That should be enough, even for a princess, but you can barter with them… if that doesn't work or if they have promised her to someone else during the winter… try to bring her home without too much of a blood bath, will you? We don't need a war with the islands."

"I thought you were about to tell me to forget about her," Grant chuckled.

"You? I'm afraid you inherited your stubbornness from your mother."

"Yeah, sure, father… my mother…" the young man smirked.

"Maybe I should let you swim…?" his father considered.

"Falcon, what would you have offered for me?" Robin, who had come up them, asked, snaking an arm around his Master's waist and smiling up at him.

"Well… I don't now…" the man smirked. "With you I just had to show up…"

"You are sleeping in the loft tonight…" Robin muttered.

Joseph was in charge of the largest ship, and that would take him and his crew all the way back to Jump. Slade had watched for signs that Robin wanted to go with them but hadn't seen any. The teen had sent several pelts of animals he considered exotic like red and silver foxes and the winter coats of snow-hares and ermines to his family. There were feathers he had found on the ground as well, most of them from the cranes but also 'his' magpies which were a constant source of amusement for the prince as they squabbled and built on their nest still. He had also written long messages on rolls of pig-skin, which had been fascinating to the northerners, who only had a very simple alphabet. Robin's strange, flowing letters looked nothing like the runes they were used to. Still, with all these gifts, there was nothing wistful about the young man as he handed them over. Slade had understood, by the way Robin talked about his city and family, that the family bonds were not as strong as he himself was used to, perhaps because the boy had been raised as a Gift. No matter, Slade was glad his little bird didn't regret coming here, after all.

Just before the ship was about to take off, however, Robin yelled out and ran towards Joey, who was about to climb onboard. Slade saw Robin whisper something in his son's ear, which made the blond turn beet red. As the prince came back, Slade had to ask what he had said to him.

"Oh, I just remembered to ask him to bring some of our oil back," he grinned.

"What kind of oil?" Erik wanted to know.

"I have a feeling that's what Joey asked just before his face went red," Slade warned him, and the man wasn't curious anymore.

The hard work of farming was left to the ones who didn't go on the ships, most of them women. Slade and everyone else knew that if it hadn't been for them they would starve most winters. There were a lot to be said for bringing home riches, but you couldn't eat glass, after all.

Since the snow had melted they had worked the land, plowing, carrying rocks that seemed to have grown on the field during the winter, and burning off new areas to farm. Slade didn't like to leave it but the north needed his attention and he had to make sure the plundering was under control. Robin, of course, decided to go with him, but he didn't take any other men, and not only to be able to be alone with his little bird. The muscle was needed at home, not on what was merely an investigation trip, and two people could move quicker than a larger group.

"I've finished with the packing!" Robin let him know. "I have asked Åsa to look after Marsa and Crane while we are gone." The young man was dressed in tight dark brown leather trousers for the trip, and a tan linen tunic full of his own embroidery. A wool cloak, dyed a dark red, and a belt full of pouches to carry the essentials like flint and steel to make a fire, completed the picture. In his hand he held his staff, which he had brought with him from Jump and which always accompanied them on travels even if it was mostly demoted to a walking staff.

"Good, I'm sure she'll do a good job," Slade smiled, knowing how much the prince doted on the newborn foal. "We'll set off then. It's good to get an early start."

They were going by horseback and had an extra horse along to carry most of their gear and some trading items, so their own mounts wouldn't be weighed down. Robin was in his usual sunny mood and asked a lot of questions. Slade looked over at him and grinned.

"Was I funny?" the prince asked carefully.

"No, not particularly. You are just very good at reminding me how much I treasure you," the general smiled and reached out to run a hand through the young man's bluish-black hair. "You're letting it grow long again?"

"Should I cut it?"

"No, only if you want to. You're beautiful either way."

"I was thinking of keeping it up? Like the women? Or a braid? Would that be… wrong?" Robin asked, wanting to make sure it would be accepted.

"Again, it's up to you. I love seeing your hair down, but a braid is good for grabbing, I guess…" the man smirked.

"Dirty thoughts already, Master? It's not even midday yet!" Robin laughed.

"I like to start thinking my dirty thoughts early in the day..." Slade leered back.

"Good thing I packed our oil then," the prince nodded wisely.

Two days into their trip and they passed the first burnt-down homestead. The spring grass had almost covered it, and only a bit of the stone foundation was still visible as well as some blackened logs.

"Why?" Robin simply asked.

"Winter hunger. People have been known to eat their own children if it gets worse enough. If there's a lot of snow small farms gets cut off from the rest of the world, and sometimes they turn on their neighbor. That's what I'm hoping, anyway."

"You're hoping people ate each other?" the prince exclaimed.

"It's better than rouges. Sometimes clans cross the borders, and if they have gotten this far, it's not good. But this might not have been either. Sometimes dwellings are torched when people move and sometimes when there has been an illness, often with the dead inside."

"Oh." The young man didn't seem to object to this practice and merely nodded. "But it's spring now? Are people still hungry?"

"If the larder is empty it's empty," Slade shrugged. "Many feuds start in spring. People can't eat grass, after all, and even the earliest fruit and berries won't be ripe for weeks yet. Hunting gets easier, though, but some people seem to want it easier than that and just take what they need from someone else."

They passed two more burned out buildings, these ones more resent, before it was time to stop for dinner, and for the night. Robin had been unusually quiet, but perked up when his sharp eyes spotted a bird's nest.

"I'll just climb up and take a look!" he told Slade who began unpacking and wiping their horses down with dry grass.

"Excuses, excuses…" the man chuckled but waved him off.

The prince, agile as a monkey, climbed the tree next to the one with the nest in it so he wouldn't disturb the birds too much. It was quite high up but that didn't bother the young man in the least. When he reached his goal, however, he was disappointed.

"Aw, it's empty…" he said. "Wow, you should come up here, Slade! The view is- Holy feathers!"

The man looked up as the teen quieted and saw him stare at something in the distance.

"What is it?"

"I think… I think there's a fire! A big one! There!" Robin pointed.

Slade tried to estimate where they were. "How far?"

"Quite far, but the smoke is filling the sky over there! Can it be the forest?"

"Too wet for a forest fire," Slade shook his head. "But I have a feeling I know. There's a small village about an hour from here, in that direction, and most of the men from it are on the ships. Come, let's go!"

They left most of their gear and their extra mount behind and set off as fast as the horses could carry them, which, it turned out, was pretty fast. Robin was surprised at the speed these rather small creatures could reach and just held on.

Because of their fast pace they reached the site in little over thirty minutes, but they had been able to smell the smoke for longer. Now they also heard screams and sounds of battle. Slade stopped, making Robin's horse stop as well, just before they entered the clearing where the few houses where, most of which were now on fire.

"Stay here."

"Now you are being silly again," Robin smirked and drew his slender staff. "I want to dance."

"Fight."

"Same thing."

Slade sighed. It actually was the same word in Robin's language, after all. "Don't get hurt. And hit them hard. I don't want anyone getting up again behind your back."

"Yes Master," Robin said grimly, eyes already on the attacking men.

Slade drew the sword he had carried slung across his back and dug his heels into his horse's flanks.

"GO!" Robin yelled out to his own horse and it shot forward as well.

It was easy to separate the attackers from the villagers: they were all men, dressed in rags and unprocessed, stinky furs with hair and beards which hadn't seen a knife for a long time. They didn't appear to be starving, though, they seemed to be in perfect health, strong and fast. The villagers, the few of them left, fought violently, both men, women and children, with whatever they could find in the means of weapons, but they were being slaughtered as their homes burned.

Robin was seldom really angry. The last time had been when Slade wanted to abandon him in Jump, and what he felt now couldn't really compare with that. This was pure anger, pure fury, it had nothing to do with love and loss, and he was going to make the hairy monsters pay.

The first he took by surprise, hitting in the head from behind. He didn't want his horse to be injured, however, and staying on it would make it a target, so he jumped off its back and landed in front of a young woman who had been cornered by two of the invaders. Robin's staff crushed one of the men's throat and his foot found the other man's solar plexus. The kicked man clutched his chest and fell to his knees where one of Robin's own met his chin violently, snapping his head back with an ominous crack.

The prince looked up, searching for his next victim, and spotted Slade in a sword-fight. He had seen his Master hunting, but never fighting before, apart from some friendly sparring, but this was something else. Robin found himself gaping for a moment before snapping out of it and focusing on his task. That task had also focused on him, and several men were now closing in.

Slade and Robin's appearance had given the surviving villagers some hope, however, and they gathered their last strength and fought side by side with them. When it was over only one of the attackers were alive, forced to kneel in the dirt under Slade's watchful eye.

"Who are you? Where did you come from?" Slade asked.

"They are barbarians from the east," one of the villagers supplied. "They don't speak our language."

Slade barked a few words out that Robin didn't understand. They sounded really… raw. The prince remembered that he had thought that the man's language had seemed a bit harsh as well, compared to his own melodious one, but this was a few steps worse.

From the captive's widening eyes it was clear the he understood, however, and he, seemingly reluctantly, spoke a few words back. Then, suddenly, Slade's sword flew through the air and the man's severed head landed on the ground with a thud.

Robin must have made some sort of sound, hopefully not too unmanly, because Slade glanced in his direction and smirked.

"I promised him a quick death if he identified himself," Slade explained. "I don't think there are more of them, or do you know differently?" he asked the villagers.

"The only rumors have been of a group of men," one of them shrugged. Others filled in with what they had heard, while other's still began crying and trying to help the wounded, now when the reality had begun to sink in. No one did anything about the burning buildings, however. It was far too late to even try to save them.

Robin suddenly cocked his head and listened. He walked away from the group a little bit and listened again.

"Someone's crying! A child!" he yelled and ran towards the sound, which came from within one of the smaller buildings, not much more than a shed, and the roof was already aflame.

"Robin! Don't-" Slade called out behind him, but the prince, of course, didn't listen.

The door was sealed from the outside, the cruelty of it making Robin's stomach turn to ice, and he wished he could have killed some of those men all over again. He got the door open and smoke billowed out. He could see two people on the floor inside, and, as he dived into the heat, a baby, sitting between them, crying. He scooped the child up and took hold of one of the adults beginning to drag her out. Then Slade was there and took the other one. They just made it out before the roof fell in.

Robin got out of the way with the child to make sure the girl got to breathe fresh air and tried to calm her. When he looked back people were busy carrying the adults away, but the way they were doing it spoke the terrible truth to Robin.

"They didn't make it?" he asked as Slade came up to him.

"The woman, the child's mother, they say, had been stabbed in the chest. The older woman, the grandmother, must have died from the smoke."

"That's… I'm so sorry…" Robin mumbled to the child who was still crying, but silently now, with a few hiccups, sooty fingers in her mouth.

"Where is her father? On the ships?"

"No, apparently they came from one of the attacked farms, the only survivors… her father was among the dead. The villagers took them in about a month ago, that's all they know."

"Well… she needs to be cleaned up and have something to eat," Robin looked around. He wasn't sure what to do, really. He had had some lessons about child-care as a Gift was expected to look after any children in their masters or mistresses household, and he loved spending time with the few children in Slade's stronghold, but he hadn't exactly been responsible for one alone before.

The village was in chaos but after a few orders from Slade a place had been set up for the wounded, another one to gather the dead family members and yet another for the attackers, as no one wanted their carcasses next to their loved ones.

There was precious little left, but a few buildings still stood, mostly storages. The attackers had set the living quarters aflame, saving the other buildings for plundering when they had subdued the inhabitants. That meant that there was still some essentials left to salvage and the villagers had scraped together what they could.

Slade rode back to their camping-site to bring their supply and extra mount, but because of the speed they had ridden here in, he would have to take it slow with the tired horse. In the mean while Robin was walking around talking to and trying to consol the villagers, the baby on his hip. Some food was prepared and even though the prince would never dream of taking any for himself he got the girl to drink some warm tea and eat a mashed up wrinkled winter apple which had been safe in an root cellar along with what remained of last year's harvest.

"What are you going to do now?" he asked an old man.

"We'll go to the next village over. It's a day's march, but they will help us to rebuild", the man said. His voice was both empty and resolved. These were tough people, they would toil on, but they had lost a lot today. The village had only held around thirty people as most of the men were out to sea, and now about half of them were dead. Women, children, teens, elderly… the attackers hadn't spared anyone. Robin sat down in front of the fire where the old man was and cradled the child. Her blonde head was soon resting against his chest as she fell asleep.

"Um… would you happen to know her name?" he asked the old man and nodded to the baby.

"No," the man merely responded, so Robin wrapped the girl in his cloak and, after putting her down on the soft grass, he asked around some more. No one knew her name, though; a child of that age was not really part of the community yet and her mother and grandmother had been strangers. It made the prince sad, but there was nothing to do about it. He returned to the fire and the old man, who had now been joined by a few others. Robin carefully picked the sleeping child up and let her rest in his lap instead.

"Did you find out her name?" the man asked.

"No," Robin sighed.

"It's a pity she didn't join her mother."

"What? How can you say that?!" the prince spluttered, but no one else seemed to object.

"Look around, little boy," the man sighed. "I'm not a cruel man, but who would be willing to take a strange child in? And a girl at that?"

"Someone will," Robin said stubbornly. "I'll ask around. She needs a name, though," he said and looked down on her. She was dressed in a long linen tunic and a cloth diaper which a woman had given to him. Her feet were bare, she couldn't walk yet, after all, just sit up and, maybe, crawl, he didn't know. The simple dress was lovingly embroidered with flowers around the collar, however, probably by her mother or granny. "I should name you like a flower, but I don't know all their names…" Robin said softly. "This one is the prettiest… could you tell me this one's name, please?" he asked a woman close by.

"Looks like a rose, to me."

"Rose… is that a name? For a girl?" he asked again, not wanting to make a mistake.

"Oh, yes, I knew a Rose once," the old man chuckled dryly.

"Then Rose it is," Robin decided. He would at least not leave her nameless.

When Slade returned over two hours later all Robin had gotten when he tried to find the girl a home were headshakes and lowered eyes. The child had woken up again and was looking around wide eyed from her perch on the prince's hip.

Slade went up to talk with the old man and a woman who were the ones in charge now.

"I want you to take a message to the next village and make sure that they send someone to Wilson Hall if there are more attacks. You should have sent someone already; we could have stopped this if we had known!"

"We sent word to our commander; we were promised that he would take action."

"That's Alf, isn't it?" Slade asked. "Good. I'll have a word with him at the summer meeting. It can't be easy to find forty or so men who are constantly on the move, but he should have asked for help. Before you leave, though, you might want to send your best trackers out. Find their camp. There should be looted goods there, if nothings else. If so, it's yours."

Robin had joined Slade's side now, and the man glanced down at the child.

"She's calmed down. Have you fed her?"

"Of course, and she was very good-" Robin began.

"Good. We'll leave tomorrow morning. As far as I know there's no longer a threat here."

"Oh, good. Her name is Rose, and-"

"Pretty name. I'll leave our extra horse with them; they need more strength to carry what they can when they leave."

"Yes, but how about-?" Robin began but his Master was in full planning mode.

"We should see what we can spare too, but it might not be that much."

"Slade!" Robin almost barked.

"Yes?" the man looked at him like he wondered why on earth he had taken that tone with him.

"I was trying to ask you something!"

"Fine. What?"

"Well…" Robin shifted his grip around the child and bit his lip for a moment, trying to phrase the question properly. "Well… do you want a daughter?"

The End

A/N: Of course Slade can't say no, not to Robin… ;) When I asked for ideas on facebook for this story, there were wishes for Red X to appear, but he doesn't feel right for this story and I didn't want to introduce more canon characters, so sorry… good ideas, though!

I realized that I regret one thing IMMENSELY about this universe: the military ranks. Making Slade a General was my first idea, but then, as "Precious Gift" unfolded, I set it in somewhat of a fake Viking age… and that doesn't fit at all with a military state… unfortunately I didn't realize this in time to change it so now I'm kinda stuck with it… -_- Well… nobody's perfect… ;)

I still think of this universe as more of an original story than anything else, where the characters just happen to be named after DC characters… ;) Not only is it so AU, they also speak differently and so on, and it's also one of the most romantic universes I've written… in my opinion… ;) So it might not be for everyone but I hope you fluff-lovers have enjoyed it!