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Once, when I was a child, I recall a birthday of mine. My father had been so busy with work the previous weeks, and I remember the vicious arguments between he and my mother. How she'd told him that they'd not have me forever, that they must cherish every moment they had with me - because soon they would never see me again.
My father had baked me a cake, swords iced over the top. I'd been so in love with war at that age, lord alone knows why. I suppose because I'd never truly seen war, nor understood it. To me, it was a game of wits - not people, not real lives. But now I realise the truth.
A red velvet cake. That's what he'd baked me. My favourite kind, of course. Such luxuries would never find me here. Here in a world where they were yet to even exist. No pizza for dinner or takeout noodles. Nothing. No homely comforts, nothing that I was used to or loved. And yet, I found that I had everything that I could ever need or love exactly here. At home.
As I sat before that cake, the candles flickering as the smell of my mother's lavender permeated my nostrils like the sweetest scent of summer, my father had told me to make a wish. To ask for anything at all that I wanted, and blow out the shining flames to bring it into existence.
At the time, there was only one thing that I wanted. Only one thing in all the world. I'm still not sure why I made that blasted wish. I'm not sure what good I thought it would do, nor did I fully grasp the reality of the wish, but it was something that I suppose came true eventually.
I wished, in my foolish and ignorant youth, to be a Viking.
I never thought such an idiotic dream would come true. Never in a million years could I dream it so. It was impossible, unfathomable, and yet it somehow happened.
"Don't be nervous." Astrid smiled, holding onto my arm with a small squeeze. "Nothing will happen to you."
"I know." I looked over towards my husband with a smile, knowing full well that he would never let anyone or anything hurt me. I wasn't afraid or nervous, not so long as he was there with me.
And yet, the closer we came to the meeting place, the more nervous I became. Not for myself, but for him. Nothing would happen to me, but Ivar? With his headstrong ways and his manner of saying things for the simple cause of antagonizing them. Lord alone knows, if anyone was going to get themselves in danger it was him.
Sometimes I think about that damn birthday wish. About how maybe, just maybe, it changed everything. Maybe if I hadn't made that wish, things would be different. Maybe if I hadn't made that wish, I wouldn't be here now. How strange life is - for such small things can change the course of everything.
I released Astrid's arm, walking over to my husband so that I might stand beside his chair. Astrid followed my action, moving to stand beside Harald - who also took a seat before our enemies. My eyes were immediately drawn to the people in front of us - the ones I knew, and the ones that I did not. An older man with long blonde hair and a beard seemed to tower over everyone else - myself especially - and I immediately knew who he was.
