Stone Circle And I will sing a lullaby

“I know,” she groans remorsefully, lifting her head now.

“I’m sorry. Sometimes these things are not planned, life just… happens,” she knew one day he’d have a better understanding of it even if it might have confused him now. “I never meant to break your trust, I am sorry.”

“But I will love you, just as I always have. And this is a good thing. I want this: you and him and the puppies. To be a family, Skáld, do you want that too?”

Naive, perhaps. Not a Nornir or a mother but a scared girl in this moment reaching for some solid footing. She hadn’t known she wanted any of this before. But with Fig, she did.

She apologized but left him with little more than a moment to think she might amend her terms, and swear to right the situation by choosing him, and only him. And the children she was going to have, as there was no avoiding that. But she didn’t want that. She wanted all of them.

Family, to him, did not include a stranger. He closed his eyes and shook his head, uttering a soft, strained sound. This wasn’t what he wanted at all. He felt left behind even though she was promising him a place in her family- and she hadn’t even planned to expand her family, it had simply happened.

He felt like a puzzle piece that had been tossed in whichever box had been opened- only to be discarded every time it was discovered that he didn’t truly fit.

She could not have known the complexity of Skáld’s emotions in that moment. In her eyes he was her child, one desperately in search of home and family- and weren’t these the things she offered him now?

He shakes his head and her ears pin. It was hard enough convincing him to embrace this change with her. Piecing together a shared language was an entirely different challenge.

“Can we just- for a moment think about how Fig is feeling?” She asks of him. “You and I have each other and Kvarsheim but this is all brand new to Fig. Whatever we’re feeling, don’t you think that’s much more scary? And can you help me extend a little welcome to him?” Her ears perk, hopeful.

She couldn’t bare this growing division, but she felt it could be fixed. As soon as Skáld and Fig could spend some time with each other, they’d both see in them what she did.

Stubbornly, Skáld did not care how Fig felt, or how he would feel to be greeted by an ungrateful host. He felt slighted that Tauris would ask him to consider Figment’s feelings when his own had been trampled so badly. Had he not cared for Tauris so deeply, he would have simply left her to be with the one she’d chosen- but stubbornly, he still hoped she’d come around and realize that she’d made a promise, and that she should keep it. 

Selfishly, he wanted Figment to be uncomfortable. He was encroaching on a family that had been fine just as it was. He shook his head. 

”No. I help Tauris…Not Figment.”

There is almost no reasoning with his stubborn, defiant ways, and all she could wonder is how such a sentimental boy had no room in his heart for another. She sighs, arms loosening, feeling defeated but refusing to allow this initial conversation to dampen everything. He would change his mind, she knew he would. She just needed the patience to allow it to happen naturally.

She brushes her lips over his ear for a kiss before whispering, “Then for me, Skáld. Give him a chance. Please, that’s all I’m asking for.”

She won't wait for his reply before rising, glancing into the meadow to find the pale giants retreating.

“Hey,” she rouses him, “let’s go back to sleep.”

He remained still, resolutely convinced he’d been slighted and that yet another wolf was going to forget about him in favour of some other wolf, or some other adventure. Of course, she seemed to want to include him- she was begging him to be included…But this Figment, he didn’t trust him.

He didn’t want Figment to make Tauris feel the way Skáld felt when someone left. 

He sighed, and wandered back to the den trailing behind her. He didn’t want to go back to sleep but at this point, it seemed he’d simply have to accept the fate of whatever happened soon.