AN:/ For future reference (though these characters may or may not be in this first chapter)….

Audun is Norway

Eirikur is Iceland

Mattias is Denmark

Thank you, and enjoy the exposition chapter!

"Tino... Tino, come here!"

Upon hearing his brother's voice from the valley, Tino crawled out of the house that the two shared. It wasn't extravagant by any means, Tino knew, but it was their house and the house that their family had owned for generations. Made out of sturdy stone and sealed with earth, the house wasn't going anywhere for a long while. It was particularly favourable in the harsh environment that they inhabited, and Tino couldn't help but give it an appreciative nod before stumbling down the hill.

Though he'd lived there for all of his life, he still couldn't get used to the steepness of their hill. Previous generations had favoured defense over accessibility, thus the house was on some forsaken mound way above the rest of the village. Stifling curses, the boy arrived at the foot of the hill and embraced his brother briefly. As Tino looked at his sibling's face, he was surprised to see his expression slightly different from the norm - his eyebrows were slightly furrowed and the corners of his mouth twitched.

Tino smoothed the wolfskin on his brother's back. It was their father's before it had been his. He felt his brother tense at the touch and, in a moment, knew why he was looking so miserable.

"Audun, what's the matter?" He asked anyway, knowing that in a few moments he would have to lead their way back to the house and attempt to talk about their predicament and what they would make of it.

Audun first turned away, refusing to look Tino in the eye. With a withheld sigh, Tino put a hand on his shoulder and guided his brother back to the house. It would probably be easier to talk about once they sat down and huddled by the fire. It was freezing outside, and Tino now felt the bitter air on his uncovered ankles (clothing was too expensive to simply buy once one grew a centimeter or two - he'd had his clothing for a while now).

The brothers walked into their humble home, greeting the animals inside as they did so.

"...Hi, Troll," The older (but much more quiet) brother pet their goat's head.

"Hanatamago! How've you been?" The younger brother held out his arms and giggled as the puppy licked his face. She smelled like ash - probably from the fireplace.

Perhaps he should pick more flowers for the house - that would get rid of the smell. Besides, that could actually be fun.

Or he could clean the fireplace more often, though that option wasn't nearly as inviting. Yuck.

Before going to light a fire in said fireplace, Tino gazed around the solemn room. The long structure and darkness of it was typical for the village, but its function was not. Normally, many more animals would be living in the house - at least in a richer home. That being said, the amount of people currently living in it was odd, to say the least. Two was unheard of in the village - normally, it was shared with parents and relatives.

Which brought Tino back to Audun's uncharacteristic sadness. He felt his way over to the fireplace and lit it, watching the smoke billow out of their house through a little hole in the roof. Coughing, Tino stepped back and stuck his foot out to shoo Hanatamago back. Now that he could see properly, he sat down on Audun's bed (well, a shelf covered with animal skin could be called a bed, right?) and patted a spot next to it, being wary of the sword that was draped across it. Because Audun was the oldest sibling, he received much of his parents belongings, as tradition directed. Audun's sword had once been his father's, then his mother's after the exchange of swords on their wedding day. Absentmindedly, Tino looked up and eyed his mother's sword, mounted on the wall with stone and lichens. It was reassuring to see them both there even when their parents themselves were not.

Audun sat down next to Tino and laid his head on his brother's shoulder, trembling slightly. Tino placed his hand on his brother's head, feeling much older than he actually was. Audun looked up at him, his eyes dilated, and said the inevitable.

"T-tino... a messenger called for me... from the village," he began, taking shuddery breaths in between phrases. "Apparently, mum and dad... Tino... they were killed in battle overseas. Our Viking army... most of it was overcome, Tino. They lasted the longest," Audun exhaled and sniveled pathetically, tears streaming down his face as though he were a child.

Tino, knowing that they couldn't do anything about it now and well aware that he shouldn't cry, held his brother close. "Audun, hush now. Knowing them, they're probably living it up in Valhall right now... they probably pity us because we're still stuck here," Tino consoled, propping him up and trying to straighten him out.

"B-but suppose they didn't get a proper burial!"

"Now, now. I'm sure that they were given the best burial possible in the battlefield. Probably with their swords in tow - maybe the survivors even put together some bread and cider to give them."

"Did you hear me just now?" Audun's tears had vanished, revealing the stoic expression that he normally donned. "They lasted the longest. The only other survivor was the messenger, and he couldn't possibly bury all of the dead."

Not even Tino's optimism could find a ray of sunshine in this news. "S'pose we get cursed, Audun! They're not going to be pleased..."

The two shivered against each other, taking in the fact that they could very well die soon. Good luck never came to Vikings that left their dead unburied, even if they weren't able to bury them. Fact was, the two were still family - they would both be blamed by the gods and by their dead parents. Tino sniffled pathetically at the very thought.

Audun, trying to change the subject, cleared his throat and stood up. "In any case, our father's cousin offered to take us in. He's our closest relative, both by blood and by actual proximity," Audun brushed a lock of hair out of his face and grabbed his sword with purpose. Tossing it an affectionate look, he shoved it into his belt's sword slot. "We're leaving today. Cousin's town is through the woods beyond our hill. We'll be able to make it by nightfall, if we hurry." Audun put on the most expensive thing he owned, a navy-coloured hat, and pulled his skin around his shoulders. With a stiff nod, he made his way to the exit of their little house, not seeming remorseful that he had to leave it at all.

Tino frowned and picked up Hanatamago, already having all that he needed with him.

Except...

His eyes fell to his mother's sword and, rationalizing that he needed a weapon of sorts, scrambled to his own bed (shelf... thing) and stood on it to haul it down. Lichen crumbled and broke away like dirt clods, showering Tino and the bed with dead plant. He grumbled and spat some out, wishing that Saturday would hurry up and arrive - he needed a bath.

Not having a belt of his own, Tino wielded the blade. It was much heavier than he expected, but he was sure that he could handle it. On his way out, he was forced to stop when he saw Troll gazing forlornly at Audun, sadness almost present in his face. It pained Tino to see anything looking that upset, so he ran and poked his brother (albeit harshly).

"Audun! What about Troll? Aren't we gonna bring him?"

Audun turned slightly, gave a shake of his head, and made his way outside.

Tino, on the other hand, gaped at where his brother had just been standing and ran out towards him. He panted from the extra weight of the sword. "Audun, Audun! Wait! Why would you leave Troll, huh?" Gasping pathetically, he couldn't help but follow his brother. Being left behind was infavourable, but Tino would rather it be the goat than him.

It was uncharacteristic of Tino to be so selfish, but it was him or an animal. Animals meant less than people did, didn't they? After all, animals didn't feel things like people did. Loneliness and abandonment were purely human feelings, right? That was the line of thought that Tino concentrated on as he walked into the forest with his brother. He didn't want to think of the cold, the curses that probably awaited the small family, the death of his parents.

For a forest, it was rather sparse. Wind hit the two almost directly while the sun simultaneously beat down on them - something thoroughly unfavourable in the brothers' eyes.

As they made their way through the woods (Hanatamago following them diligently), it gradually thickened and soon became impossible to see any sliver of the sky through the canopies. Tino was fascinated by it and asked his brother if they could camp there for the night - just to get a feel for the area - but Audun shot down his idea once it was spoken.

"We can't," he seemed to be walking faster than he was before. "Cousin said to get there as soon as possible. No dallying." Then he was quiet. No justification why, no sign that he even knew why, or anything of the sort. Though, honestly, Tino didn't mind - it was just his brother's nature. He did mind that they couldn't stay, though. It was comfortable and pretty - such a shame not to take it all in for a night. Tino jutted his lower lip out and whined, earning a glare from Audun. Even when he'd been little, Tino hadn't been able to get away with begging, pouting, or crying in front of Audun. His brother had always expected him to take disappointment with grace, though Tino couldn't fathom why. As far as he was concerned, it was better to let people know that you were upset than to bottle your feelings inside of you and pretend that you were okay.

Still trudging through the forest (and happy that there was a clear path to show them the way), Tino looked up at the sun to get a general idea of the time, then remembered that he couldn't see the sun through the trees. He looked to Audun for help, but he seemed in no mood to talk.

How typical.

Now, Tino loved his brother, but sometimes he couldn't stand that he was so quiet and direct. Would it hurt to have small talk once in a while? An occasional, 'good day, how are you? ... how's the weather?' would be nice. He longed for something to speak about - their journey, animals, fighting, the water cycle, tendencies of old people, anything - but couldn't decide on one that Audun might spend more than a minute on.

Deciding to keep the silence, the two walked in eerie quiet for a few more hours.

That is, until they heard an animal howl.

Audun stopped, his head twitching back and forth. The sword was drawn and pointed in the direction of the noise, the wielder's eyes showing no more emotion than they usually portrayed. Tino froze as well, willing his breathing to be shallow.

Silence followed, settling over the two and the forest like a curtain. They remained in this state until Tino could no longer bear it.

"Audun, I think we're oka-"

"Shh!" His brother cut him off and waved a hand, as if that could take away Tino's voice.

The brothers stood still for a few more agonizing minutes. Audun then sheathed his sword and kept on walking, as if nothing had happened.

Tino knew better than to question his brother.

The rest of their journey went smoothly. The worst of their problems was the cold - Scandinavia was pretty harsh in that aspect. It didn't slow them down, however; they arrived at the giant gates of their relative's village by sundown.

The younger brother couldn't help but gape. He'd never seen a place so well-protected before - the walls were more than thrice Tino's height and probably very thick, though Tino couldn't measure that at the moment. The doors that lead out looked immobile, he wondered how they would get in.

As much as Tino was impressed by the sight, it also lead him to wonder. Why would a village need such protection? Sure, there were wild animals out and about, but surely a wall like this wasn't necessary.

Whatever the reason, it was pretty awesome to live in such a village. Tino's feet itched with excitement.

Audun looked confused, however. Not knowing what else to do, the elder brother knocked on the giant doors, hoping that sound transferred well through it.

Apparently, it didn't. No one came to the door for minutes. Audun frowned, and nudged Tino. "Can you call up to them?"

Tino nodded enthusiastically. Anything to get them in the village - it was growing colder than usual and Tino was freezing. Cupping his hands around his mouth, Tino called out a "HELLO!" to the top of the doors, happy that he'd saved his voice for the duration of the walk over.

After a minute, a figure appeared at the top of the wall. It was hard to make out, but the person looked rather tall… perhaps a man.

The silhouette called out to them. "HEY! WHO'S THERE?" The sound echoed through the forest; some animals scurried from tree to tree, frightened by the noise.

The voice was too distorted to determine the person's age by hearing it. Curious, Tino called up, "I DUNNO, WHO'RE YOU?" which earned him a painful bruise on the back of the leg - Audun didn't take any nonsense. Tino whimpered, then amended his response, courtesy of of his brother.

"SORRY! WE'RE TINO AND AUDUN. ER… FROM THE NEXT VILLAGE OVER!"

There was a pause. The figure wandered around a bit, then they received his response.

"OH, OKAY! WE'LL OPEN THE GATE RIGHT UP!"

Another lull, and then dirt rained down on the two brothers. Shielding their eyes, the two could make out the gigantic doors parting. They stepped back and waited for it to open, hoping that more dirt didn't decide to find its way onto their heads.

After the doors were open, the two trotted into the town.

The second that Tino got his entire form into the village interior, the gates snapped shut behind them, letting loose a loud BANG!

With a squeak, Tino made sure that he was intact, then managed to give the place a once over.

It may have been even more dilapidated than their old town. The houses were much more modern, but they had many broken windows that were boarded by planks of wood. Chimneys crumbled in on themselves, the roads were worn down below normal level, and all of the houses had large gates around them, as if they modeled themselves after the outside of the village they were located in. Even Audun was bothered by the appearance of the town - he put a hand on Tino's shoulder protectively.

Something was very wrong here.

Tino wanted to question the gate guard about the village, but a man walked up to them and all desire to ask questions was forgotten.

The man had disheveled hair and tired eyes framed by an odd contraption that neither of the brothers had seen before. A mole was placed above his lip, his expression cruel.

Before either of the brothers could say anything, the man spoke up.

"Audun," he nodded towards the elder brother, who nodded as well. "…and Tino. I've been waiting for you two to arrive." To punctuate his sentence, he pushed up on the thing on his face. Audun and Tino were pretty confused about the device, to say the least. Once again, Tino itched to ask questions, but held it in, this time for the sake of being polite.

Their confusion must have shown, because the man then decided to clear up his identity. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself." He offered out his hand to both of them and shook them curtly. "I'm your cousin Roderich - you will be staying with me."

They nodded to him, not looking forward to their stay with him too much - he seemed like a stick in the mud. Expressing a rare emotion, Audun raised an eyebrow at the man and mimicked his stance, standing straight as a board and looking down his nose. Now grinning, Tino followed their cousin to his house, which (unfortunately) was as bad looking as the rest of the dwellings.

The inside was a pretty sorry sight. There were three beds (though one looked hastily thrown together) that were comfortable looking, but aside from that it was pretty dingy. A candle was flickering by the window as a woman worked on cooking something that smelled like it didn't want to be cooked. Tino's nose crinkled slightly and he milled around before realizing something vitally important.

"Oh, Odin! Where's Hanatamago, Audun?" He ran back towards the door and peered out it, earning a glare from Roderich, and then ran back, frantic.

"Whatever you're talking about, if it's not here now, it probably isn't in town, either. Don't bother yourself looking for it - no point in doing so now." Roderich sat down and glared down his nose (and that thing on his nose too) at his cousins, clearly annoyed by their existence.

Yup. He was a total stick in the mud. Tino mumbled an apology, but was cut off when a boy around his age wandered into the room. His white hair bobbed above his head, looking about as messy as Roderich's. The boy sat down at the table and placed his feet on it, staring intently at the two intruders.

Tino couldn't take it. "Er, hi! I'm Tino, and this is my brother, Audun," presently, he made a gesture towards Audun. "We're here because our parents've died and Roderich is our closest relative and cousin. Please excuse us being here! We'll try not to be any trou…ble…?" Tino blinked as the boy began to laugh. Burning with embarrassment, Tino was about to hide behind his brother, but the boy walked over and touched his shoulder.

"No, no need to apologize," the boy smiled good naturedly, and Tino noticed (and not without some spite) that he was taller than him. "I suppose that we're second cousins, aren't we? I'm Eirikur, but feel free to call me Eirik," the boy then ran his hands through his hair, quite possibly making it worse. He then lead them over to the table that he'd been sitting at before. Tino made a conscious effort to avoid putting his body on it - he didn't want dirt from shoes all over him. He was already in desperate need of a shower, thanks.

After they all were seated, Eirik spoke up again. "Now, what were you guys talking about? Did you lose something, Tino?"

Surprised that his name had been remembered, Tino forgot to speak and simply nodded.

"Hahaha, and what was that?"

"Er, my dog. Her name's Hanatamago -"

"Hanatamago? Haha, wow." Eirik laughed again, making Tino's face flush again. Could this guy hold in his laughter? Maybe?

"Y-yes. Hanatamago. She was walking here with me, but I dunno if she followed me or not - I haven't seen her in a long time…."

Eirik gave another one of his smiles. "And my dad told you not to look for her?"

Tino nodded.

"Smart of him to. We'll look for her tomorrow, okay, Tino? When it's nice and bright out." Eirik stood up, gave a wave, and crashed on his bed without another word.

Roderich coughed a few minutes later. The two brothers looked around to see Eirik's parents gaping at them, their mouths open.

The woman was the first to recover. "How did you do that?"

"Um, what?" Tino asked, a little unnerved. Too many people had stared at him today.

Roderich was the one that replied. "Get Eirik to hold a pleasant conversation with you. How did you…?"

The younger brother looked at the older one, who shrugged at him. Great. Apparently, Audun wasn't going to answer this for him. Darn. "Uh, he's not like that normally? I dunno." Tino copied his brother and shrugged as well.

The couple stood around in shock, still staring (Odin, could they stop that?). Eventually, some sense kicked into the woman.

"Oh! I'm burning the food…." She scurried around and pulled a frying pan off of the fire pit, looking at the burned fish with scorn. "Who's going to eat this now?"

By this point in time, Audun and Tino were starving - the prospect of any food made their mouths water.

"We don't mind!"

"…We'll have some…."

The two brothers said this simultaneously.

"Er, if you're sure," the woman said, offering the fish to the two.

It was gone in seconds. The only evidence that there had once been a fish was the satisfaction on the two's face, both looking contented.

"You two sure were hungry!" The woman smiled and pat them on the head. "Oh! I didn't introduce myself, did I? I'm Elizaveta - it's a pleasure to have you two living with us!"

Tino had a feeling that she meant 'I'm really happy that someone will eat all of the atrocious stuff I cook!', but decided not to voice it. He was just pretty happy that she expressed some sort of interest with them. Smiling, Tino nodded pleasantly. "The feeling is mutual, Mrs. Elizaveta. Thanks for taking us in on such short notice!" Tino dipped his head towards her before getting laughed at again. Darn. Was he really so amusing to these people…?

Elizaveta was laughing, her pretty brown hair shaking as she did so. "No 'Mrs.' is necessary, 'Mr. Tino.'" She glanced up as if something had just occurred to her. "You are Tino, right? You two look so much alike…." Still chuckling, Elizaveta began to wash the dishes with a ratty cloth. Tino kinda wondered how that would clean anything, what with it being dirty itself and all.

Tino felt like he should confirm his identity - it would help considerably if his foster parent (?) if they were to have a workable relationship. "Yeah, yeah, I'm Tino. You can tell because I'm much shorter than Audun and I talk a lot more…." He twiddled his thumbs and sat on the bed that he assumed was put out for Audun and himself. "This bed's for us, right? I normally wouldn't ask and be so rude, but I'm really tired," as if to prove this, Tino punctuated his sentence with a yawn.

Another laugh directed at him. "Sure is, Sweetie. You get some rest, now. We'll show you around town and find your dog tomorrow," Elizaveta nodded at him and went back to smearing bacteria over her dishes.

Already nodding off, Tino snuggled himself against the bed, forgetting to take his shoes off in the process. For the last time that day, Tino was laughed at, but it was by an odd source. Momentarily, Audun was tugging Tino's shoes off of his feet, chuckling to himself as he did so. Roderich glanced over and couldn't help but smile - though the older brother wasn't so keen to express himself verbally, it was obvious that he really did care for his brother.

With that thought, Roderich took off the glasses from his eyes (he had been pretty certain that the brothers were confused about them, but they would understand them soon enough) and curled on the bed he shared with Elizaveta, shutting his eyes but not falling asleep just yet.

A creak to the right of him alerted Roderich that Audun had gone to bed, then a gentle woosh and a sudden slight sagging of the bed told him that Elizaveta had blown the candle out and was sleeping, as well.

Roderich roused himself from the bed, walked outside, boarded the house's doors and windows with wood, and made his way over to the gate of the town, the stars dancing above him as he left his home for the night.

AN:/

As with any story, this one's started slowly. I have a lot of plans for it - this is probably not heading in the direction that you expect it to.

Please bear with me and follow through to the next few chapters. If there are any mistakes that I've made in any way, please point them out to me.

By the way, I've done "Viking research," so some of their customs show through in this fanfiction. It's not all going to be accurate to Vikings, but if something is blatantly incorrect in anything that I've associated with being a Viking tradition or lifestyle feature, please let me know.

Thank you very much!

-Sweet