Halfdan jumped as another thunderclap sounded, stinging his ears. He blinked heavily, trying to clear the rain from his eyes, which desperately searched the horizon.

His comrades rowed, their grunts and yells lost to the piercing wind of the storm. Their small vessel danced on the waves as would a man when bullets targeted his feet.

Halfdan knew that they wouldn't last much longer on the merciless ocean; lost for days now, supplies and morale were dangerously low, soothed only by the knowledge that somewhere close, there HAD to be land. The burly blonde remembered the strange dark birds from earlier in the day, which had given him a renewed sense hope- where there were birds, there were nests, meaning solid earth to gather the materials for and set the nest.

Out of the corner of his rainy-grey eye, he saw a dark flicker. Halfdan turned his head in that direction, but a great big wave took the place of the flicker. The water shoved the boat onto its side, throwing nearly all the cargo into the deep wet abyss.

Sten and Gudmund, Halfdan's cousins climbed over the misplaced side of the boat, trying to spin it back. The rest of the men saw their example and clung to the side, eventually turning the boat back. The cousins tried to clamber back inside, but the salty spray that coated all loosened their grips- only Gudmund made it of the two, grabbed at the final moment by Halfdan's wife, Kamini. Another man aided in pulling them in towards the centre of the ship.

That large wave now passed, Halfdan looked, before another wave could take its place, to where the flicker had been.

"There!" he cried, but his voice was lost to the wind.

"Over there!" he tried again, pointing with his arm, praying his other arm didn't lose grip on the prow.

It was a tree! Cutting out of the water, the Norsemen could barely spot the trunk, let alone the land it sprouted from. The remaining oars were grabbed, and a valiant effort was made to turn the group towards the dissappearing flora.

The angry ocean seemed to have had its fill of the vikings, and one final push of the waves shoved them towards their target; though much too hard.

The knarr left the water and overturned again, this time fully. Halfdan's last sight, before being thrown into the deep darkness, was his two treasures, Kamini and the knarr, hit the tree, the latter slicing both itself and the flora into thousands of shards.

The only thing he could do now, was keep his mouth clamped shut against the water's salty kiss, as he was tumbled along, not sure wether he was traveling towards the bottom, or the hiding moon.

-0-

Canada groaned as he leant back in his desk chair, listening to his spine crack as it stretched, audibly reminding him just how long he had been stuck in one position all day, tortured by paperwork. He pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, replacing Quebec over his light violet orbs as he stared out the window, watching a few raindrops race down the glass.

Every country had at least a little paperwork from their bosses, and not a single one didn't grumble about it, even the sweet-natured Canadian.

Bzzz BZZZZZZZ

Jumping at the sudden noise from his phone, Matthew quickly grabbed it and saw that it was a text from his brother, good old US of A.

-Whatcha doin?

Work he typed out, glaring half-heartedly at the remaining heap of papers in the 'to do' pile.

-sooooooo...no COD?

-no. Not for a while

Canadacould practically hear his twin's whine from his house, a little annoyed that Al was bored- meaning he had either finished his work already, or skipped it. Knowing America, it was probably the latter.

-Go finish your work I don't want your boss complaining about me distracting you

-I did it all!

-Really?

The two minute pause confirmed Matt's suspicions more than the text that eventually crept up on the screen.

-Most of it

-I'll tell Arthur you

Canada's thumb had slipped and sent the message before he finished typing, but what he had sent seemed to have gotten through to America alright.

-Nooooooooooo bye I've got work to do

Canada smirked as he turned off the phone screen and set the device back on the wood desk. He poked at the paperwork stack with his pen, shoving the top piece around like the pen was a joystick. He shifted the page around, uncovering the next piece.

Reading the first few words, he saw that he had accidentally printed multiple copies of the same page. Growling lightly, he sorted the pages again, half the pile going bye bye into the bin at his side.

Well, at least there's not as much to do I guess. He lamented the poor papers he had wasted for a moment before getting back to work.

That top page was slid off the stack with the pen, and looked over.

"Earthquake research?..." Matthew tried to remember why on Earth he would have this in the stack, when he suddenly recalled the last World Meeting.

"Ah, Am- Canada-san?"

"Oh, hey Japan. What's up?"

"My boss asked me to send this along to you."

"Earthquakes?"

"Hai. I know you may not receive very many, but your scientists had expressed an interest..."

"Oh, thank you. I'll pass it along."

Taking a new look at the document, Canada saw that most of the research had been done, and all that was left was several areas in the Atlantic ocean. There were even a few notes about Californian quakes and other states' data scribbled in in Alfred's handwritting.

Matt looked at the attched map and saw that one of the sections had been circled in dark red pen "Search with caution, mg & crnt dangers".

Guessing that "crnt" was "current", as in 'ocean current', he had to flick through the pages to figure that "mg" meant "magnetic". A stickie note on the page also detailed how the area was essentially uncharted, due to the dangers.

"Oh, perfect." Canada grumbled aloud. "I better pack my bags then."