Chapter 72: Chapter Thirteen

ADA

During the months I was queen, Oranmore began to thrive again. Our people were being cared for, clothed, fed, and employed.

However, without expansion, Oranmore would not continue to flourish. The location of Oranmore did not allow for a seaport.

Cayden and his friends traveled our kingdom to find land that mirrored that of Dundalk. The land they found was only a day’s travel away and would allow for safe and easy trading for Oranmore.

The restlessness of our Viking friends made effortless their decision to travel with us to settle a land of our own; they too had grown tired of being waited on every day.

So that was where our fates took us. With our group of friends and a few others, we began to build our town. Ships began to arrive, as did newcomers.

In a short amount of time, our town, Caoimhe, tripled in size. Cayden knew that new measures of security needed to be made. With Padriac, Egil, Caxton, and Gosta, our town’s defenses were impenetrable.

Over the years, we began to welcome the newest generation. Cayden and I had three more children, two girls and another boy.

Sayer had even settled down in Dundalk, and much to his mother’s delight, began breeding the future chiefs of Dundalk.

Muireann traveled back and forth between our two towns twice a year. The first trip had been for Kyra’s marriage to Padriac, which happened just in time for the birth of their child.

Gosta and Caxton never seemed to lose their Viking ways. Their hearts were as fickle as their desire to build a residence; though it seemed they had fathered a few children over the years.

We often found them slumbering in one of our homes or the stables.

The children had fun waking them up with buckets of water or clever new tricks, usually instigated by Cayden, Padriac, and Egil.

Even though our lives were harder than they would have been if we had stayed in Oranmore, they were our ~own~.

We spent most evenings feasting and celebrating small accomplishments in the main hall where Cayden and I lived, always remembering what was most important in life.

Years later, I found myself on top of the hill overlooking our town. Our son was almost of the age where he would need to follow his own destiny.

I empathized with the decision he needed to make; it would not be an easy one.

My thoughts turned to all the paths that fate had chosen for my destiny: the times that I took risks, that I was almost killed, the strength I needed to find within myself.

If there was one lesson I hoped all my children had learned, it was to never imagine there was only one path for their lives. My thoughts were interrupted by Cayden’s arms wrapping around me from behind.

“What troubles you, wife? You have been up here most of the day.”

I sighed. “I am worried about our son and the path he will choose to follow.”

“Aye, the future is always uncertain.”

“That it is… It has caused me to reflect on our own lives and everything that has led us here.”

“And you regret with your decision to fall in love with me, your Viking husband. You wish that bag of fodder had knocked me out cold all those years ago. That I never followed you into the woods.”

I turned around to face him, finding his face smiling down at me. I nudged him in the chest for his teasing.

Time had placed a few more wrinkles around his eyes, but the feelings between us had never changed. Our love only seemed to grow stronger over the years.

“I do not, husband…,” I replied, raising one eyebrow. “Though it would have done you good to knock out some of that arrogance.”

“My arrogance, cailín, is what won your heart.”

I laughed to think that there was truth in his words. Without his pride and stubbornness, he might have never pursued me all those times we were torn apart.

I loved him for who he was and never doubted the eternal love between us.

“I do not regret anything about our lives. Every difficult path led me to my destiny,” I said, kissing him. “You have always been my true destiny.”

—The End—