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The warlord's daughter was fully cognizant of the fact that she was beautiful. How could she not be, with two parents such as hers and a thrall who dedicated herself to ensuring that her mistress looked as attractive as possible? Perhaps that was why Aarre didn't really think much about beauty.

What Aarre was more interested in was the life of a reaver. Traveling beyond the stronghold into the rogue lands and fighting with outlanders sounded to her incredibly exciting, and there were times when she thought she would just burst if she never got to see them, but in order to do that she'd have to be a reaver, and that meant convincing another reaver to sponsor her so that their captain would take her out.

Frustratingly, none of the reavers she knew seemed comfortable doing so, which meant Aarre had to cast a wider net.

Dis wasn't as young as she liked to think she was. She had become a reaver during Aesir's rule, even gone viking with him a few times. During Njal's rule she had kept her head down, but she hadn't stopped viking. She loved viking, and it was her livelihood. She wouldn't stop just because a warlord said females shouldn't do it. He couldn't strip her of the rank she had earned, after all. The current warlord was all right, she supposed, but he seemed to be making some stupid mistakes with regard to his personal life, just as Aesir had done.

None of that really mattered to her though. Dis was not an important reaver in the scheme of things, although she hoped to be remembered for her refusal to give up viking during Njal's rule. It was unlikely though. More likely, she would someday retire and fade into anonymity until she went on a final viking to seek her death or flung herself from the cliffs. But that day was far off.

The way to Dis's den was not well-trodden, implying that the female reaver did not receive many visitors, or even spend much time at home. That wasn't a surprise. From what Aarre had heard, Dis preferred to be out viking to just about anything else. For Aarre's purposes, that made her absolutely perfect, although it did run the risk that the reaver might not even be home, although Aarre had been careful to check whether she was out viking or not.

"Reaver Dis are you at home?" she called from the entrance of the den. "If you are, I would like to speak to you."

She winced, embarrassed that she had bothered to state the obvious. Of course she wanted to speak to the older lioness. Why else would she be there? Her wince turned into a full-on cringe when she found herself adding, "It's important."

Dis flattened her ears and rolled her eyes in the direction of the pride. She had been working her way into a pretty good state of self-pity when the lioness outside interrupted. b***h.

Without moving any further from her spot than her ears and eyes could travel in their sockets she called, "Who the ******** are you? And why the ******** should I give two shits about whatever important thing you want to say to me?"

There. That ought to scare her visitor off. At least if it was one of those delicate "traditional" ladies that had appeared when Njal came to power and never quite gone away. Not that one of them would be talking to her anyway. She hated them. It used to be a lioness was proud of her fighting skills, not proud of her ability to find a husband with fighting skills. Thank goodness Njal was out.

The profanity-laced sentences that greeted Aarre came as a shock. When she had asked around about reavers she might talk into sponsoring her for a viking, nobody had mentioned that Dis would be so abrasive. The young lioness was undaunted by the language, however. This was how reavers spoke, and if she was going to be one of them, she'd have to get used to it.

"I'm Aarre Ruzskisdottir," she called back, hoping that her name would gain her entrance. She didn't actually have a satisfactory answer prepared for why Dis ought to care about her desire to become a reaver.

"Just so you know," she added in a conversational tone pitched to carry, "I will stay here until you agree to talk to me. I might even start singing to pass the time. I think I'll start with 'The Rainy Plains.'"

"Congratulations on being a successful squirt from your daddy's c**k. So's everyone else in the world. Doesn't matter who your daddy is," Dis called back, although she was intrigued, despite herself, by the question of what the warlord's daughter might want with her. To her knowledge, they had never met.

As Dis pondered the matter, the girl outside continued talking, pleasantly threatening to become a total pain in the a**. Dis physically flinched at the thought of having the warlord's daughter sitting outside of her den singing. While it was likely that Dis could outlast her, the fact of the matter was that it would be a ******** nuisance in the meantime, and it simply wasn't worth it.

"Fine. You can ******** come in and talk. You have two minutes to prove to me you're worth listening to. And don't try using your daddy's name again. I don't care."

Correctly guessing that she wasn't going to get a more polite invitation, Aarre hastened into Dis's den, then stopped short as her eyes adjusted to the dimness and she took in all the prizes from a lifetime of apparently successful vikings. Some of the loot that Dis had on display was really quite astonishing. Particularly eye-catching was a cloak that appeared to be made of something sheer and delicate with jagged edges...bat wings?

"Since I only have two minutes I'm just going to cut right to the point," Aarre said. She figured Dis would appreciate her willingness to be direct. "I want to become a reaver, but I'm having difficulty finding a captain to take me on my own merit, or another reaver to sponsor me to a captain. I was hoping you would be willing to sponsor me."

If she'd had more time she might have mentioned their sisterhood as female Stormborn who wanted to go viking, or how she suspected her father was discouraging captains from taking her on as a reaver, but with her limited time she just gave Dis the bare bones of the situation.

Dis snorted rudely after the warlord's daughter had spoken her piece. At least she had been brief.

"I'm not looking for a goddamn sidekick to mentor, kid" she said. "I don't care who your daddy is, and when you take that away, I know nothing about you. Why should I stick my neck and my reputation on the line for you? s**t! Why can't you get anyone else to do it? Surely with your ******** family connections, it should be as simple as shitting."

Hidden among the vulgarity were some very good questions. Why couldn't the girl find someone she actually knew to sponsor her? And why should Dis be the one to do so if people she actually knew were unwilling to? For all Dis knew, she would be worse than useless in the rogue lands, either too earnest and starry eyed at the prospect of adventure or sullen and disillusioned by the lack of it. No ******** way.

Aarre supposed that if Dis was asking questions, she was allowed to take the time to answer them, and so she did.

"I'm not looking for a mentor, just a sponsor," she pointed out. "And I'm fairly certain it's my family connections making it difficult for me to find one. My da's not particularly keen on the idea of me being a reaver, and I think he's been discouraging people from giving me a chance."

She realized that didn't sound like a particularly good reason for Dis to take a chance on her, so she added, "I thought you might know how it felt to just need a break, and you might be willing to give me one. I won't embarrass you or make you look bad or anything. I know everything I need to know to be useful on a viking."

Looking at Dis, Aarre could tell she wasn't going to get her way, but she made herself stay and hear what the reaver had to say anyway.

"Maybe your daddy is trying to stop you being a reaver. Sort of makes it even less appealing for me, doesn't it?" Dis pointed out. "I don't really need the warlord pissing down my back, and even if I didn't mind being pissed on from on high, I don't think my captain would feel the same."

She actually scoffed when Aarre started talking about her qualifications. "Kid, I've never seen you do any damn thing that indicates you'd be a good reaver. ********. You didn't even threaten me with violence earlier. You threatened to sing to me. I assure you, you're not going to be capturing thralls and winning battles by singing at people."

She shook her head. "So do yourself a favor and find some way to show off your skills so that no matter what your daddy says, people know you have them, and get the ******** out of my den. Your two minutes are up."