Adlif found himself watching the odd witch scuttle away with the strange sense of laughter coming to him. Had the witch just boldly ignored Adlif’s wishes? Implied that Ásdís would be his whether or not Adlif said so? Stood up to him in effect? Or was the man so devoid of human contact that he completely missed the possible meanings?

Or…Genuinely had no lecherous intentions? The thought that the Witch could be within the realm of reasonable men disturbed Adlif and his way of thinking and so he shook it off and turned to return to the farm where Ásdís was already detailing the events of the meeting to her brothers and mother with great enthusiasm. 

“And Hralding is by far the most masculine, strong armed of the men I have ever seen. He will make a great leader and we will be vastly successful!” 

Adlif held back the scoffing laugh he felt rising up. If this was his last night with his daughter he did not want her memories to be of disloyalty and derision. 

“Yes, you will have many adventures to be sure.” Adlif agreed, settling next to his wife Aten. He settled a broad hand on her thigh, squeezing it reassuringly as he could tell she was greatly apprehensive for their smallest daughter’s wellbeing. Of course there was no shame in dying a warriors death, and ones death was a fixed point upon the time of their birth. Ásdís would die when it was her time and not a moment sooner and so if she were to parish on this first voyage it was the fate she had been granted whether or not her family sheltered her from it…

Still, to have birthed and raised, clean and fed a creature for as many years as they had Ásdís a parent could not but hope their efforts were not in vain. Looking at the gleeful smile on her plump lips, the wild look in her green eyes, her red hair smoothed from her face and falling straight down her back as the maidens wore it, Adlif felt the strong urge to keep his smallest one here by the hearth. Lock her away and keep her safe. 

Sighing Adlif patted his wife’s leg and watched as Ásdís packed away her meager life’s possessions. She had to go, he knew it now. But that did not make it any easier for Adlif.