 i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take There is one last place to check. Nothing more than a shadow beneath the waves, Ivar looks for her. He watches each figure, trails their travels up and down the cliffs, observes their sparring and their interactions. None of them are Isobell though, and none of them are Lothbrok. Surely they'd have come to the sea by now if they had returned to Nerine, and Ivar - who tastes the sea with each breath he tastes - would have sensed it. The days stretch into weeks by the time he accepts the truth of it. When he does, at long last, he growls deep in his burn-scarred chest and dives into deeper water with almost supernatural speed. Hours later, when the sun is just barely starting to turn the eastern sky from pitch black to tar black, Ivar lets the tide wash him into the beach. The waves had crashed against the granite cliffs all through the night along the wild northern coastline, and Ivar had crashed with them. Throwing himself against the sea at the last moment, fighting to avoid being crushed between the waves and the stone. It had filled him with sharp sense of satisfaction, pride in his own physical prowess and in his mastery of the sea. Though his muscles still burn pleasantly, he knows that soon the warmth will blossom into a wildfire. He'd rather be asleep by then, so as he rolls to his feet in the gray sand, the kelpie's eyes are flicking along the coastline in search of shelter. There, a cave half-hidden in the shadows. Ivar must brush uncomfortably close to both walls, but the strong smell of saltwater encourages him onward, and does not disappoint. The narrow entrance he'd come through was not the only one, and he rounds a sharp corner only to find the sea again. Overhead, granite provides protection against most of the open sky, and Ivar barely has time to tuck himself into an extra-dark corner before sleep over takes him. By the time he blinks open his eyes again, the stars have begun to appear in the small windows to the sky |
okay in my head where he is looks like this but like with grey rocks and sand