Chapter Text
On a snowy night in a rural village of Iceland a girl and her father were walking home from gathering supplies for the house the temperatures outside were freezing the girl sneezed “father how much farther are we going i’m freezing” she said shivering her father looked back at her and chuckled “ not much farther now, and tara you know the route home”
tara looked at her father and glared daggers at him and started complaining “I didn't even want to come out here in this weather, come on father why don’t you carrying me home you do it with thorfinn and i rather be at home curled up in blankets and sleeping” her father shook his head chuckling.
"I needed you to come with me to get the supplies and i’m not carrying you, also your 18 you can walk and also how would i carry you and the fire wood tara pouted then sighed and stayed silent the whole walk home they finally reached the house and inside you can hear the laughter of children inside her father opened the door to see a man telling the kids stories of his adventures “what’s this? the children are still awake,helga?”
A woman with long blonde hair looked at him with a smile “I'm sorry thors, i wanted them to hear leif”s stories” helga looked at tara and smiled “oh tara how was the trip with your father did you have fun?” Tara looked at her and shrugged her shoulders “kinda it really freezing out there tonight helga but father wouldn’t carry me” she said dramatically with the back hand to her forehead like a damsel in distress.
Thors chuckled at his daughter's remark towards him then you hear a boy no less than 6 spoke “a true warrior…. Your really amazing mister” the man named leif looked at the boy “aren’t i? And you're a very smart little boy thorfinn, will you ride on my ship when you grow up?”
Thorfinn looked a little annoyed at that saying “why can’t i ride now father says the same thing! Why do I need to grow up fast?” Leif looked puzzled and really couldn’t think of an answer to tell him “why? Well that's a difficult question to answer.”
Another child spoke“ your story doesn’t make any sense mister leif” the boy rose from where he was sitting “ my grandpa told me that… the great sea serpent jormungand prowls the sea and to the west and gobbles up every ship that ventures to close!” He tried to sound scary, which didn’t work on the other kids. “and that if you keep going the sea just disappears into nothingness…” Leif spoke up again, being serious while smoking the pipe he had in his hand.
“And it’s those tall tales that make my discovery all the more momentous, don’t you see? Here’s the proof! A warrior’s….” but the boy cut him off again “is that real? Besides you're not even a warrior, mister leif” leif rose from his seat “NO,NO,NO! You kids have to learn with your head “
while wiggling his pointer finger trying to be funny “not all warriors fight on the same battlefield with sword in hand. A sailor makes his living battling the sea!” then all the kids spoke up laughing “see? i knew it "yeah” leif was now getting annoyed even more with these kids “?, and what's so funny?” then a little girl spoke “ everyone says the mister leif is just a big kid with whisker” tara found that funny and started giggling to herself “that is true leif is just a big kid but his stories are always fun”
she thought to herself and went into the bedroom to get out of her wet clothes as she got into the room she thought once more “man i would kill to go out to sea just once to see the whole world is but i’m stuck here for the rest of my life” she had her back against the wall and sunk to the floor “ i’m 18 now i should have had found a husband by now but i don’t want to get marry i want to live my life how i want to not how everyone else wants me to”
tara then heard leif yell “THORS! Are you listening to them humiliating me?!!!” and then she heard her father “oh grow up leif” tara busted out laughing hearing this and she stood up and walked out of the room “come on guys don’t pick on mister leif now, kids its time for bed let go!” she said, shooing them thors stood up from the fire pit “tara’s right its time for bed, ari can you walk them all home” a boy with long black hair in a ponytail walked up “sure thing, thors.”
Later on after everyone left thors, tara, helga and leif sat around the fire “i see… so the people are freezing in greenland’ thors said with a sad look on his face, leif looked at thors with a serious face “Aye. The cold snap will be fierce this year. Much of the livestock will be lost” he looked down at the fire." I suspect there is a connection between this year’s chill and the weather currents bringing warm water from the south.”
“Do you see any hope for a return to normal weather, leif?” thors asked leif. Leif looked at thors again “ I can't afford to be optimistic, thors. Thors took a sip from his cup “ we haven’t suffered any major damage from the cold yet. The long term issue is whether or not it’ll continue to worsen as the years go on” just then the front door opened and a girl of only 15 came in with two sheep and she looked cold.
“it’s….. FREEZING out there!!!!” Helga got up from her seat and walked towards the girl wanting to help her “thank you yvla.” “these were the only two taking in the chill we ought to them inside for the night they might die if we left them in the pen” tara looked at yvla with concern and said “you know i would have done that sooner sis, you didn’t have to do that” she said as she got up walking to her younger sister.
Yvla looked at her older sister “it’s fine you were helping father today” leif looked up and turned towards yvla “you must be terribly cold yvla, come sit down over here and let uncle leif warm you up” yvla look at him annoyed “ no thanks lecher!” she said, sticking her tongue at leif, tara took both of the sheep “i got it you two get some rest.” Helga looked at her with a concerned look on her face wanting to help.
“Tara its ok you did enough today why don’t we help and you sit down” tara looked at the ground and looked at helga while smiling “ its fine i don’t want you getting sick again,helga” helga knew something was bothering tara but she didn’t ask “ok then, come on yvla lets go to bed” with everyone out of the room it just left leif and thors to talk “its not much easier in iceland” leif said “it’s not” thors said with a sad face.
“It might not be long until the islands are smothered by a winter so fierce, my brother thorvald is making plans to leave greenland” leif said while taking a drink thors looked at leif with a confused look on his face “isn’t that far? “Well I made it there and back, didn't I?” Leif smiled but turned his attention to something else on his mind “by the way, I noticed that Tara is still here, How come?” he questioned thors.
Thors looked at the fire in front of him with a sad face "I can't force her to marry someone she doesn’t want to marry, me and helga have talked to her so many times that she can settle down and start a family of her own but she is stubborn about it” leif looked at him and to the bedroom “is it about her birth mother, thors? I know Helga isn’t her mother or is it something else that's keeping her here? You have to ask her that sometime soon thors or it’s to late.”