Stavanger Bay vikings mourn their dead

“Thank you,” Gyda offered diplomatically because she did not wish to be rude. “but I would not have inherited my father's title with his passing. It would have went to my oldest sibling that remained with the pack,” And of her litter Gyda had been the last born, though Mercury had left a long time ago. She supposed that if Thistle would have stepped down the rank would be held now by Gunnar ...yet she had not believed that Gunnar would have ever left Stavanger Bay. The truth was, though, that her littermates were strangers to her — just as she was to them, in all fairness. “I am a Queen,” Gyda informed though gave a thoughtful pause as she considered how to word the traditions of her culture. “but not by by my father. I returned to his birth place and challenged it's alpha and won. In my culture fights for leadership are to the death and to refuse is dishonor.” And no one wanted to dishonor the Gods by refusing a duel even if it was to the death. It was simply how the Vikings did things. It was an honorable death, at the very least and that was what mattered the most.

“I ...do not know what as become of my family,” Aside from Ragnar's death, she meant though Gyda did not express this aloud as she glimpsed, forlorn down at the mount of earth she stood over. Her heart gave a painful palpitation within her breast and she looked away, quickly, fixating her eyes upon Krypton instead. Feigning composure was quite easy, she found, though it helped that she had something to keep her mind from the corpse within the ritualistic mound. 

For a long stretch of moments Gyda was silent, mulling over the inquiry Krypton posed her way, weighing her thoughts upon the matter. At first, Gyda did not quite understand the question, which adhered to her prolonged contemplation though, eventually, the Viking Queen was able to place the pieces together to get the gist of what had been asked of her. “I...do not know,” And that was the complicated truth of it. “He was a legend, like a hero right out of the Sagas. He was a great leader and he has inspired me in so many ways,” She gave a slightly hedging pause. “but I am my own woman and I want to inspire my own Sagas.”