[i]Just Outside the Healing House - Trelleborg[/i]

Eyja was actually beginning to feel kind of sorry for Raudr, to be honest. Sure, he was being a show-off with his new sword... Dagger... Well, whatever it was. And then when he was rubbing it in, about him being all grown-up and that she and Ranulf weren't much better than babies like Dagny? Yes, he [i]was[/i] being pretty dumb about it all. 

But when Haakon cuffed him upside the head, and then Svala spat words that even cut [i]her[/i] like little blades? Eyja's eyes fell. Even if Raudr had made her pretty mad, she found no joy in seeing the face of her playmate - or [i]former[/i] playmate, she supposed - turn as red as his hair. The little girl was busily studying the tabby black and grey patterns on the top of Tore's fuzzy head when she felt the first rumblings through her arms, over which the normally unspeakably lazy and pliable kitten was draped. 

[b]"Tore?"[/b] Eyja whispered as a low, keening growl began to build in the half-grown kitten's belly, reaching his throat with a furious yowl that made all the hairs on the little girl's body stand on end, her pale blue eyes wide with dread. With a furious hiss, the kitten leapt from Eyja's arms and bolted across the muddy thoroughfare, clawing his way swiftly up a framing post of the nearest building from the healing house, disappearing over the roof.

[b]"Tore!"[/b] Eyja cried, her face stricken as the kitten bounded away - and that is when Vigi's voice rang through the morning air from the healing house, drowning the little girl's dismay. 

Hallerna's eyes had been studying the ground too, but for very different reasons than her youngest daughter's. She tried to wait patiently while Svala collected Eyja, still holding one of the packs full of their scant belongings while she waited for her girls to return, so they could continue on to the Hall, to their new living quarters. But that didn't stop the embarrassment that burned on her cheeks, seeing Haakon this morning, and even little Raudr, the prick of her wounded pride before any members of the Ragnarrson household - 

- And then suddenly, that ridiculous, prideful concern ceased to matter at all. Hallerna dropped the pack to the ground, just as Svala took Eyja around her thin shoulders, whirling her about swiftly away from the doorway. [b]"Go to Madir, now! Tore will be fine - [i]go![/i]" [/b]

The little girl knew the tone of voice that brooked no argument, her older sister's and mother's both, and did not even think to question - not for a second. Eyja sprinted the short distance to her mother who wrapped her arms around her quickly, so very tightly, before pulling back once more taking her littlest girl by the shoulders.

[b]"Go Eyja, run to Loker, to the guards. Tell them what's happened. You heard Vigi - draugr. Draugr in the healing house! Don't stop for anything or anyone, you hear me? [i]Fast as you can![/i]"[/b]

Eyja nodded, frightened, shaking but certainly not from the cold. But she could be strong; she could do this thing. Hallerna kissed her forehead swiftly, releasing her daughter's shoulders. [b]"Brave girl, my Eyja. Now [i]go![/i]"[/b]

That too-tight braid seemed a veritable trail of flame red as Eyja sprinted away, and Hallerna swiftly turned to the healing house. Her own axe in hand as she made to follow Svala, to help carry away the wounded and injured to safety, or cut down the walking dead men that had somehow found their way within the walls of Trelleborg.