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As luck would have it, Halvar was busy strolling along the borders. He wasn't patrolling, but he was keeping an eye out for something. A gift. Flowers? Flowers seemed foolish. A pretty rock, or a bird for a pet, or ... something, something perfect for his Ulrika! He felt light enough to skip along like a cub, although being a manly and ferocious reaver that would never think of such a thing he walked at a sedate and manly pace instead.

His first thought when he saw the lioness was: A gift!

But she might want to challenge him, and it would be just wretchedly nasty to try and take a challenger captive. Even if she lost, she had the right to lick her wounds and try again another day. Halvar, not being known for subtlety, decided to ask her.

"Are you here to fight for your place in the Stormborn?" Halvar asked, sauntering up to the lioness. Something about her was sparking urgent little signals in his brain, but mostly he was considering how strong she looked. She would be a great help to Ulrika if he could capture her.

Well, Halvar had never expected that answer. He had never really patrolled, but he was very sure it wasn't usual.

"Your dad?"

Halvar had inherited a good deal of his father's inability to take a hint if it bit him in the face, and he stared at the strange lioness in bewilderment for a moment.

"Was your dad captured?"

It didn't sound like that really, but the idea of a b*****d cub returning to demand to be let in didn't occur to him. Halvar had never spent time with a female outside of the pride (and how could he with his mind full of Ulrika), but like most of his reaver friends he naturally assumed that outlander females kind of ... were just there. They didn't really do anything. The cubs they bore were only real if their fathers made the effort to go and fetch them.

He didn't know what happened to bastards that were never fetched. He hadn't thought about it before.

"That sounds a lot like a Reaver," Halvar said doubtfully. It was hard to wrap his mind around the female being a reaver's b*****d, but that was what her story sounded like. He guessed it was possible for a reaver to simply forget about some of his cubs, but it sounded strange.

"I don't know who it was though. I mean, you're old. You're my age. Usually our lions just bring back their b*****d cubs, they don't tote home grown females," Halvar objected.

"I myself was viking-born, but my father brought us home to be raised as proper Freeborn," Halvar added virtuously.

This female was perhaps the most uppity one he had ever encountered. She was most definitely of Stormborn blood.

"I'm not Freeborn any more," Halvar protested, insulted. "I'm Stormborn now. If you're to be one of us, which I doubt, then you'll have to learn to speak properly!"

But that was hardly as offensive as her bald-faced lie about Gunnar being her father. Halvar's jaw dropped.

"Gunnar can't be your father, Gunnar's MY father!" Halvar snapped, glaring at the lioness whose markings were almost twin to his. "Listen, missy, I think I know my own father, and I happen to know he brought all of his boys home. He didn't leave a bunch of cubs just TOTTERING around willy-nilly! You're an impostor!"

There were times in one's life when one faced a crisis. A turning point. A point when everything one thought one knew was turned upside-down.

Halvar had already lived through asking Ulrika to marry him. He hadn't expected another one of those moments to come so soon, but ...

"You're my sister? I didn't think ... but ..." But she looked just like him, and now that poor Halvar had it pointed out to him he couldn't deny the resemblance. "But this is great! I have to show you to the family -- Thorgrim, Lena, Gunnar, NOTGaved, my brothers -- our brothers -- BrynjaErlingEVERYONE. And my wife! Well, wife-to-be, but I know you'll love her, and you've come just in time for our wedding! Come here sister!" Halvar yelled joyously, pouncing at Naja for a hug.

Halvar was a simple fellow. He loved his family (with the exception of Gaved, who was hopefully a fluke), even though he still felt a little shy around Thorgrim. This lioness was Family, therefore, she was Good. Maybe if he'd had a sister around as a cub, he wouldn't have felt so awkward around Ulrika for so long. She could probably give him advice about Ulrika, as well ... he wanted to drag her along by the paw to Ulrika and insist that they become best friends, immediately, but that would have to wait.

"Naja," said Halvar brightly. That was a good name. It sounded kind of sassy. "I'm Halvar. There are bunches of us. Father. My -- our brothers Wodin, Kalii, and Lucivar. Lena, that's our grandmother, and Thorgrim, our grandfather. Runa is Lena's sister, and she has a son by Thorgrim, but we don't really talk about those two because they're really not our kind of people. Uh ... Erling is Thorgrim's brother, and his daughter Brynja -- by Dagmar of course, only she's dead and it was very sad, so we don't talk about her either -- is a priestess. And she has a daughter too, I think." He was a little bit confused about that last part.

Disregarding the fact that it was surely impossible for Naja to absorb this information all at once, Halvar plowed on. "What about Pumzi -- our mother? I don't really remember her. I didn't even know her name." Halvar felt sad about that. He had always wished he had a nice mother around.

"I'd like to visit them all one day," Halvar said. Half-brothers and sisters! They wouldn't have true Stormborn blood, of course, but ... they would still be family of a sort. And he certainly wanted to meet his mother. He wondered what kind of pride they lived in.

It didn't seem like the time to ask though. He didn't want Naja to get homesick and march back there! "Of course they'll like you," Halvar reassured her. "You're family." He took a moment to consider. "I think Thorgrim, our grandfather, will love you. You're very ... bold. I'm sure he thinks I'm too silly." He had meant to say that she looked big and tough and like the kind of lioness that took s**t from no one, but sometimes lionesses could get fussy about you saying that kind of thing.

"Do you want to go meet some of them now?"