- The woman remembers that, one winter, when she was very young, the fleet of Viking boats returned later than usual.
- When they came, the entire village, even the woman—just a girl at the time—and her twin brother, Eirik, helped pulled the boats into the meadow.
- But until then, the entire village waited and fretted. What if the fleet had been lost? Or killed?
- The girl and her brother didn't believe it, though. The boats had returned every autumn and they would this year, too, even if it was creeping dangerously close to wintertime.
- One day, Eirik saw masts of the ships heading in and the two siblings ran to tell their mother. Soon, the whole town realized what was happening and ran out to greet the returning heroes. Yay.
- The father of the two children—the village chieftain—stood on the prow of the boat and waved to his children. Hey there, Eirik and Melle.
- When he arrived on land, their father leapt down to greet them with a big ol' Viking hug. But, Melle could see that her father was kind of worried.
- That was her talent. Eirik might have been good with his hands, but Melle was the thinker—and something was wrong. Very wrong.