Chapter Text
Time - Chapter One
“Are you excited to see your Uncle, my son?” Harald lifted Erick high above his head and the boy laughed in delight.
“Yes, father,” The boy giggled, now settled on the Kings hip. Yasmin reached out a hand and brushed his dirty blonde hair out his eyes. She would need to cut it again when he was asleep - he wanted his hair long like his father’s but it was growing unruly.
As the ships neared Yasmin’s excitement grew. Halfdan had been away for almost four summers in the Medittereanean. The time had passed fairly quickly, mainly thanks to her son taking up all her free time. He had grown quickly, too quickly, as it seemed like only last week he was still a baby and not yet able to walk.She was excited for the little boy to meet his Uncle.
The blonde viking was easy to spot; On the first boat he stood at the front, his hair lightened by his time in the sun. It had grown, and now he’d styled it into a mohawk braid that ran down the middle of his head, sides totally shaven to reveal his ink.
As the wooden boat came to dock Harald passed his heir to his wife to embrace his brother. Their reunion was much like Yasmin remembered their parting to be - low voices and foreheads pressed to each other.
“I cannot tell you how good it is to see you, brother,” Harald pressed his forehead against his brothers.
“And you. You have been busy.” Halfdan commented, glancing around and noticing how the dock of Vestfold had doubled in size. Halfdan told Harald of his journey there and remarking how cold it was. He was wrapped in fur, his colourful clothes peeking from beneath the bear furs, but it was almost summer in Vestfold.
Halfdan’s eyes caught Yasmin’s, then flicked to the small boy by her feet. She smiled warmly at him as he wrapped his arms around her. They stood in the same spot as years before where’d she cried uncontrollably into his tunic and then for a further three days when he’d left. She felt the tears return to her eyes.
“You look as beautiful as ever.” he breathed in her ear.
“It is so good to have you back, where you belong.”
“And who might you be?” Halfdan softened his tone, bending one knee to be equal height to the dirty blonde haired boy trying to hide in Yasmin’s dress. His eyes were dark green and almond like hers, and they flicked up to Harald before looking back to the stranger in front of him.
“Erick,” he spoke softly.
“Ah, that is most fortunate then, as I have a present right here, especially for Erick Haraldsson.” Halfdan bought out a small item wrapped in hessian from his furs.
“For me?” the boy asked, forgetting the safety of Yasmin and now standing in front of Halfdan palms opened. Halfdan unwrapped the hessian revealing a wooden carved camel painted in bright colours.
“It is a camel.” Halfdan explained, placing it in the boys tiny hands.
“Car-mel?” The boy tried out the foregin word on his tongue.
“It’s like a horse that only lives in the desert and has two humps, here, see?”
Yasmin looked on fondly as Erick listened intently at Halfdan’s explanation of the desert. He took everything in like a sponge, and was intelligent for his young age. He grasped new concepts very quickly and never forgot anything he saw or heard.
Erick laughed as Halfdan stood, picking his nephew up with him, following Harald to the Hall. Yasmin trailed behind looking at the three most important men in her life. Her heart soared and her stomach fluttered with excitement.
They could be a family again now.