On Adventure's Doorstep...

By the time my hand had stretched out as far as the door of Earl’s keep, I could feel the warm from inside.  The night was damp, and cold; spring had only begun, in truth, and the night time air was still crisp and chill to the skin. 

I could almost see the thin currents of air that flowed from the cracks in the building and spread across my face, though they were a fleeting comfort to the icy air on my back.

I knocked twice, and waited.  A moment of silence.  I knocked again.

“Hold on, I’m coming” called a faint voice from the other side.

I waited for a few seconds, and then the door swung open hastily.

As a billowing wave of warmth hit my face, so too did an almost blinding amount of light.

As my eyes became accustomed to the light, I saw a figure almost my side, a woman, standing in the doorway.

“You must be Ingrid’s daughter, right?  I can tell where you get your patience.”

I stood there, silent, and the woman’s face softened.  One eyebrow slowly raised.

“Well alright then, at least you don’t talk as much as she does.  Now come in, before the hearth runs cold.”

The woman gestured for me to move past her and inside, and I managed to mumble a ‘thank you’ as I entered the warm building.

Once inside, she quickly shut the door and turned to face me, offering a hand to take my cloak before noticing that I had none.

“It’s far too cold out to be wandering about without a cloak, young...  what did you say your name was?”

“My name is Sigrid, Thorodsdotter...  and you?” I said, embarrassed at my on manners.

“Geirny, Larsdotter.  It is good to finally meet you, Sigrid, after your mother has told me so much of your beauty.  I can tell now that she lied.”

“Oh...” I muttered, once again at a loss for words, my muscles tensing.

A wide smile crept across Geirny’s face.

“You’re a far greater beauty than she had me imagine,” she said with a hint of her smile in the words, “though I never knew your mother to be humble.”

My muscles relaxed.

“But enough idle chat.  You’re here to see the Earl, yes?”

“I am” I nodded.

“Then after you, young Sigrid.”  Geirny gestured towards the large hall beyond an arching doorway, where the others likely awaited me.  “The Earl has much to tell you...”