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Ailbe sat looking into her mirror. The glimmering object looked back at her, but it wasn't herself that she saw. Her flaming hair was the same, her face, but it wasn't her. The woman looked back at her with vacant eyes and a gentle smile. All her worries were calm, she was kind and forgiving, free and immune to anger.
Ailbe looked down at her shaking hands, she could hear music but she knew not where from.
Something within her was screaming, crying, yelling. She couldn't silence it, she could only ignore it. Overtime, the screaming became a whisper and she learned to live with it. But it never went away. This woman that she saw in the mirror, this ancient woman from lands long gone, was more her than she had ever been. This disquiet within her was surely evidence enough.
Slowly, she packed up her things and exited the apartment. As the small car door closed behind her, and she looked to Ivar with a gentle smile, she bid farewell to England oncemore.
"Have you ever been on a plane?" Ivar inquired, making her shake her head in turn.
"I prefer to sail... Though I've never really liked the sea." She grimaced just thinking about the bottomless waves rocking her around.
Ivar chuckled at her expression, "Scared of the Kraken?"
"Well, not on a plane I'm not." She smiled back.
As the narrowing road became an airport, people everywhere and huge metal birds flying high in the sky, Ailbe stared out of the window in awe. "Not the Kraken," Ivar commented calmly, stopping outside the doors of the airport. "Just high probability of us crashing and falling to our deaths."
Ailbe turned to him with wide eyes, only to see his grin as he got out of the car. "Remind me to never travel with you again." She pouted, opening her door and grabbing her things. "You're a nightmare, do you know that?"
Ivar nodded, gently kissing her and turning away again. "And you're stuck with me for a month."
Though she enjoyed pretending to be annoyed by him, Ailbe couldn't help but laugh as she trailed behind him. Even if he was a nightmare, she supposed he was her nightmare.
By the time they reached Oslo, Ailbe had decided she enjoyed flying even less than sailing. Though, she wasn't sure if it was the actual flying or Ivar's seemingly encyclopedic knowledge on every single way that they could die. She decided, in the end, it must've been a little of both.
The two of them were rapidly located by a group of giant bearded men - who Ailbe had at first been terrified of but had come to realise the family resemblance between them and Ivar. But one of the men she recognized instantly, with a wide smile - and he did the same - as the man that she had saved during the Battle of Monte Cassino.
"Hvitserk!" She smiled, and he quickly returned her beaming expression upon seeing her beside his little brother. Though Ivar looked less than pleased at the reunion.
"Nurse." Hvitserk returned warmly, hugging her. The brothers all looked at the interaction oddly and a dark blush soon spread across Ailbe's features. "This is the nurse that saved my life." Hvitserk explained to the other two - who Ailbe presumed were Bjorn and Ubbe.
"You didn't tell me you were at Monte Cassino." Ivar looked down at her suspiciously. Ailbe quickly avoided his gaze, turning her own eyes towards the floor.
"Well, brother..." The oldest of the four gestured between Ailbe and Ivar, as though expecting an explanation.
Ivar, pulled Ailbe in close, sending a glare towards each of his brother's - especially Hvitserk. "This is Ailbe." He answered calmly, though what followed seemed a little more threatening. "She's mine."
Ailbe frowned at him, batting his grip away. "That's not my surname by the way." She spoke warmly.
"Nice to meet you, Nurse Ailbe." Ubbe greeted with a smile.
Bjorn simply nodded and the four of them went on their way with Ailbe trailing behind Ivar once more.
