just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides [open]

As much as Hakon enjoyed being in a new place, and as much as he enjoyed spending time with Henrik, Haskell, and Sofie, after a few days of near constant companionship, he decided he needed a break. Just a small one, just a walk along the shore. He's a quiet man, and although he knows making new friends is half the fun of traveling, he starts to feel empty if he spends too much time around them. Like he's giving too much of himself to others, and sometimes he just needs to step away and remember who he is. And he's glad to be in Kattegat, and he's glad Sofie is with them so she's safe from Halfdan, and maybe it will do her good to get away not only because of that, but because of Ylva. Hakon still isn't sure what happened to the poor girl, and the uncertainty of her fate is a constant heaviness in his chest.

Like he almost always does when he wants to feel better, to feel safe, Hakon retreats into himself. The walls slam back into place, and he becomes more of an observer than someone who's actually interesting to talk with. Sometimes he just can't handle opening himself up, connecting with other people, because look what happens when he tries. He opened up to Ylva. He helped her, he let her confide in him, he did his best to help her and he still fell woefully short. He may never forgive himself for what happened. He wants to go back to Skagen, to keep looking for her, to investigate what happened to her. But most of all, he wants to go back to Skagen and talk to Freyja about this, see if maybe she knows something he doesn't, or see if maybe she feels the heaviness that weighs on him. But he can't leave, not yet, and so instead he simply retreats.

To the shoreline, to the screeching of gulls and the crashing of waves. To the sound of his footsteps on the sand, and the feeling of the breath in his lungs. Sometimes, Hakon simply needs to retreat.

Sassa had been training for the raid all day with the other thegns. She wanted to make sure that she was going to be completely ready for all of this. So she could prove to everyone that her being ranked up was not a mistake. That she was ready to go raiding, and that she was ready to give everything her all. Deep down she was still so very worried, worried that she was going to make a mistake. That she was wasn't ready as she thought and hoped that she was. However she knew that was the voice in her head that her mother had placed there. Her mother always made her question herself, and made her feel like she was weaker then she really was. It was her mothers way of trying to control her and keep her always needing her for the rest of her life. Something that Sassa could see very clearly now that she was not living at home anymore. It made her very sad that things went down the way they did, that she was not talking with her mother anymore. However it was very much for the best.

Once she had finished training, Sassa was a hot and sweaty mess. She wasn't sure if she was ready to go home to Arngeir yet. Not that she didn't love being with him every moment of the day, but that she felt so badly that she was staying with him while she tried to figure out what she was going to do next. She was aware that he didn't mind, and that he liked her being there. Nonetheless, Sassa felt like she was forcing herself on him too much all at once. They had just only become fully together, and public with their new relationship. So she didn't want him to think she was trying to move things too quickly, even though she was very sure that she was in love with him. Something she was scared to tell him just yet. In the fear of scaring him away. So instead of going home, she decided to go down to the shoreline to look at the water and place her feet in it to cool off.

The walk had been pretty short, and when she got down there she saw that she was not the only one with that idea. There was another people in the spot she had arrived in. A man that she had not seen before around the village. So that led her to believe that he was another traveler, maybe even one of the people that was here with the man she had met before, Henrik. Putting on a small smile, she walked over to him and said. "Hello." to him first so he would know she was there with him as well. "It appears we had the same idea, the shoreline is always so beautiful around this time of year." she says to him next with a slightly larger smile. He looked friendly and safe to talk to, so she went on. "I couldn't help but notice Ive never seen you before, my name is Sassa." she says to him next before sticking out her hand toward him in a friendly manner. "What is your name?" she asked last. Hopefully the nice man was in the mood to be talking to her, or she was going to feel very badly and silly for coming up to him this way.