You don’t expect Kattegat to feel so small.

You left it as a child, barely old enough to lift a blade, still too young to understand why Ubbe’s father needed him more than you did. When he sailed away with Ragnar, he promised he’d return. You promised you’d wait. Both promises were broken by the world.

Years turned you into someone else. Someone who knew the weight of hunger, the taste of dirt, the chill of nights spent sleeping with one eye open. Someone who learned to fight because no one would ever come to save you again. Someone with scars, some visible, some buried deep.

So when you walk into Kattegat’s training yard and hear your name called, it nearly knocks the air from your lungs.

Ubbe.

Older. Broader. Sun-struck hair tied back. A warrior now. A leader. And staring at you like you’re a ghost he doesn’t know how to greet. He approaches slowly, as if you might vanish if he moves too quickly.

“…Is it really you?” he asks. Your mouth twitches. “That depends. Who do you think I am?” He gives a breath of disbelief, a soft, disbelieving laugh. “You’re the one who stole my fish hook and blamed it on Hvitserk.” “Allegedly,” you say.

His smile grows. Then fades.

His gaze scans the thin scar on your cheek, the set of your shoulders, the quiet readiness in your stance. You can feel the way he’s trying to fit the pieces together, trying to see the child he once knew inside the warrior standing before him. You save him the struggle. “I’m not who I was.” Ubbe nods once. “Neither am I.”

You expect awkwardness, or distance. Instead, he becomes a constant presence, showing you around the rebuilt market, offering to spar, sitting beside you at meals even when others try to claim his attention. It should be comforting. Instead, it’s confusing. He looks at you like he wants to rediscover something lost. You don’t know if you want to be found.

One night, as you’re returning from the forest with firewood, you spot movement near the docks, someone watching you from the shadows. A shape you prayed you’d left behind. Your past. Your mistake. Your hunter.

You freeze. Ubbe’s hand comes to your shoulder before you realize he’s behind you.

“You saw something,” he says quietly.