Ok, this is random. So I was randomly perusing through Hetalia fan art, and them I stumbled on one particularly cute picture of Norway with little Iceland that sent my mind pirouetting through space and ideas. And then I randomly heard Den Fyrste Song by Per Sivle, and this general idea took hold. Yes, I am aware that this song was written in 1877 and therefore, Iceland would not have been a child then, but it's called author's liberties, and I took them here. Let's just play pretend, mmkay? Also, Herborg Kråkevik made a cover of this song that is really pretty and definitely worth checking out. This story has Nyo! Norway and Nyo! Iceland as a child. Lene is Nyo! Norway and Emilia is Nyo! Iceland. There are translation notes in the parentheses. Also, there is some VERY LIGHT DenNor. Like more friendship-y DenNor. Which is why I am marking this as a non-pairing story. Anyway, I hope you like this! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I am a broke student. I do not own Hetalia nor do I own this song. Please don't sue me. *grovels*
The Lullaby of the Hour
It had become quite commonplace for Lene to be woken up in the middle of the night by Emilia's screams. Slipping out of her bed, she slipped her feet inside her slippers and padded down the hall towards her little sister's room. Cracking the door open, she peaked inside the room. The heavy blankets tossed aside and kicked off long ago, Emilia was thrashing in her bed, screaming and crying, held down only by the sheets that were losing their hold on the mattress. Lene quickly strode forward and situated herself on the floor by the bed. Lene rubbed her sister's forehead as she spoke. She winced as her hand quickly warmed; Emilia was burning up.
"Emilia, Em, Emmy, you're having a nightmare. Wake up. Wake up. Come on, Wake up."
Emilia continued thrashing in her sleep. Tears dribbled down her face, glistening as they fell from her eyes. Her hands clenched, and her nails drew blood from her palms, Lene noticed. Lene reached forward to try and pry her hands open, and Emilia gasped in her sleep and hit Lene in the nose. Lene sucked in a breath and held a hand to her nose. It came away bloody.
Emilia wailed in her sleep as Lene eyed her cautiously. Carefully watching her sister's moves, Lene took a fistful of the neckline of her nightgown to wipe her bloody nose. It was probably broken, she knew, she could tell from the blood and the pain that seemed to spread from it to the rest of her face, but she'd had worse as a Viking, and the pain didn't do much more than poke at her. Emilia pounded the mattress with her small fists, and Lene carefully tried to hold them down, only to be held back by a figure behind her. Matthias.
Matthias was quiet, he must have snuck in right after Emilia hit Lene, and a quiet serious look was spread across his face, so much more different from the usual stupid look that decorated him. Lene glanced over at the door; Berwald was standing by the doorframe and Tino stood by him, holding a few damp rags. Matthias stepped forward and firmly held Emilia's fists to the mattress. He shoot Lene a look.
Wake her up.
Lene walked over to Tino and he held out one of the damp rags. Accepting it, she walked back over to Emilia and spread it over her sister's sweaty forehead. Emilia was burning up, Lene could tell, the plague that besieged her home and was killing her people caused it. It had affected Lene the same way, and although Emilia wasn't inflicted with the disease herself, the loss of her people was hurting her and causing this fever. Ducking under Matthias' arms, Lene leaned over her sister and kissed her forehead.
"Emilia, våkne opp. Du har et mareitt." (Norwegian- Emilia, wake up. You're having a nightmare.) Emilia thrashed as Matthias winced. Lene sighed. "Emilia, vakna. Þú ert með martröð." (Icelandic- Emilia, wake up. You're having a nightmare.)
Gasping out of her fitful sleep, Emilia tore her eyes open as she panted, sobbing.
Matthias released Emilia's wrists as he stepped backward, letting her have space. Emilia sobbed as she held out her arms for Lene to take, and Lene sighed as she scooped her littler sister up. Emilia cried on her shoulder, her bloody palms unclenched and gripping her nightgown. Lene knew she was getting blood on it, but she didn't really care; she never liked this nightgown anyway. Lene was distantly aware of Tino murmuring to Berwald that he was going to go and get some tea and leaving the room, Berwald following after him, and Matthias stepping outside the room and situation himself at the door in case Lene needed help, but Lene ignored all of this and continued cradling her little sister.
"Vissir þú annað martröð?" (Icelandic- Did you have another nightmare?) Lene asked, quietly. "Er í lagi með þig?" (Icelandic- Are you alright?) They were pointless questions, she knew, but they were ones that always escaped her mouth. Trembling, Emilia responded in between shaking gasps of air.
"Já. Og nr." (Icelandic- Yes. And no.) Lene rubbed her little sister's shoulders. For whatever reason, doing that always seemed to soothe Emilia, but it didn't seem to be doing much today. She was too distressed and her breathing was too irregular, Lene supposed that she shouldn't be surprised that it didn't work.
"Það er sárt. Ég get fundið þau að deyja." (Icelandic- It hurts. I can feel them dying.) Emilia's sobs had quieted by now, but ever-present tears still ran down her cheeks and hit Lene's nightgown as she spoke. "Ég veit, elskan." (Icelandic- I know, sweetheart.) Lene spoke. "Ég gæti fundið þau að deyja líka." (Icelandic- I could feel them dying too.) And she could feel them dying. When the Black Plague had crippled Norway, she had been confined to her bed with illness and pain. She could feel each one of her people and could hear their cries of pain as they died. Their agony had been passed on to her. When it finally stopped taking the lives of her people, she had been relieved. It had never once occurred to her that her little sister could be infected by it decades later. She had though Emilia would be safe from that sort of pain. Apparently she had been wrong.
"Lene, af hverju þurfum við að deyja meðan við lifum?" (Icelandic- Lene, why do they have to die while we live?)
Lene hugged her sister tighter. "Ég geri ráð fyrir að það sé vilji Guðs. Kannski vill hann að við munum muna." (Icelandic- I suppose it's God's will. Maybe he wants us to remember.) This was a weird question for Emilia. She never asked about things like this, but then again, she'd never really suffered from a plague that had inflicted her people before.
"No, you don't understand." Emilia reverted to her English. "Why do people have to die? Why do I have to watch them fall, one by one, while I stand by, impervious to death, unless my people, my land, dies? Why do I have to watch my people pass on when I can never join them? Why? Why do I, why do we, have to live like this? There are easier ways to make people remember our past. So why would God curse us?" The walls she had built around herself broke down, and more tears spilled, hitting Lene's shoulder. "...what did I do to deserve this? And why... why are we alone? Why?" Her last word came out as a quiet, mournful question. Lene could her her sister's quiet, unspoken question in her words.
"Why am I alone?"
Lene paused and considered her next words. She didn't want to accidentally hurt her little sister after her outburst. She could hear Matthias edging his way to the frame of her door, trying not to disturb the duo, but ready to come in and help in case Lene needed it. Considering her words, Lene spoke.
"That's the thing, Em. We don't know. We don't know why we were born. We don't know why we have the capacity to live so long, and we don't know why we die only when our countries die, and why we are almost completely impervious to death until then, or why some of us don't die even then. We know that we are bound to the life-force of our people and our land, but we don't know why we are bound. We have no answers for any of this. Heck, we don't even know whether or not there actually is a God, or someone that created us to be the way we are. I think God created us, but I also think that it doesn't matter who exactly created us, because nonetheless, we are on our own when it comes to our choices and how they impact us. I think that God created us to remember the past because if no one remembers the past, we will repeat the same mistakes. I seriously doubt this is meant to be a curse. It's a blessing, certainly one full of hardship and difficult trials, but if this was a curse, we wouldn't live through it. And we're not alone. You're not alone, because we have each other." Lene poked Emilia's nose, and she giggled faintly through the tears. The sound of Matthias leaving the room again became audible. Lene ignored it.
Emilia's sobs quieted into silent shakes, and she yawned. Lene smiled faintly.
"Let's get you cleaned up and to bed, huh?"
Emilia stretched her shoulders as Lene picked up another damp rag that Tino left on a nightstand and gently cleaned Emilia's cuts. They had already stopped bleeding and were already starting to scab over, thanks to their quick healing abilities. Lene tucked Emilia in and turned to leave, before she heard her sister talk.
"Ekki fara? Þar til ég sofnar?" (Icelandic- Please stay? Until I fall asleep?) Lene smiled and sat on the corner of the bed. She stroked her sister's hair until she fell asleep. She continued petting her head until she was sure that Emilia was completely asleep, then stepped outside of the room. Matthias was leaning against the doorframe, hands crossed over his chest, staring at the ceiling.
She shut the door quietly. Her knees were shaking, something she hadn't noticed before. Gasping as the adrenaline rush wore off, her knees gave out, but before she hit the floor Matthias caught her. Her knees shook and her teeth chattered, but it wasn't from the cold air. She had had to stay calm in Emila's presence, but now that she was asleep, the adrenaline rush that had carried her in the bedroom was nonexistent out here. She was tired, sad, frustrated, and a muddled mix of thoughts and emotions that she couldn't make sense of. She softly cried on Matthias' shoulder like Emilia had on hers. Shaky and quiet.
"God-" She gasped. "D-did you hear her? S-s-she called this a-a curse. S-she said she was a-a-alone. W-well, she didn't exactly say that, but I could hear the implication, and oh, God-" Matthias hugged her tighter. She sucked in a breath and stayed still for a moment before she hugged him back. She cried harder. "God, I've never heard her talk like that before-"
"It scares you," Matthias cut her off, his voice flat, but with implied meaning. "It scared you, didn't it?" Lene nodded frantically, and gasped for breath. "A-a-a-and I-i j-ju-"
"Breathe." Matthias cut her off again. He pet her head, like the way she pet Emilia's head, in a kind of careful but calming way. Lene took a deep breath and stumbled backwards. Matthias relinquished the hug. Lene spoke one, clearer and softer. "She used to be so- what's the word, not ignorant, not naïve, not innocuous either, but-,"
"Innocent?" Matthias suggested, a curious look in his eyes. He always got this look when she stumbled on words.
"Yes!" She whirled around, facing him. Her arms were nervously waving as she paced back and forth. "It's just, she used to be so innocent," She continued. "And not in a bad way, but she used to have this air about her that so clearly said that she was a child, a child that hadn't seen her fill of suffering yet, and-" She breathed in, "I hoped we could protect it for a bit longer." Matthias nodded his head, encouraging her to speak more.
"The thing is, we were Vikings. We grew up as Vikings. We were Vikings as children, and in a way, we never really got to experience that sort of air, that aura of childhood innocence, because we spent so much time fighting and on the sea, and we were constantly surrounded by a possibility of death on a daily basis. We never really got to experience that air, so I hoped Emi could experience it for a bit longer. And she's been through disasters in the past, but she always retained that sort of innocence that we never had, and it's cracking now-" She swallowed and faced Matthias again.
"You hoped that you could protect her for a bit longer, didn't you?" Matthias finished for her, and she nodded yes.
"I hoped, I prayed, God, I begged to myself and hoped that she'd recover the same from this as she did from all of the other disasters and battles. But hearing her tonight," A few stray tears fell from her eyes. "Hearing her tonight... I'm not sure I can protect her any longer." She desperately rubbed at her eyes trying not to cry, but a few disobedient tears still fell. Matthias stepped forward and hugged her. She didn't push away.
"Let's lay the facts out here." Tino's voice resounded through the echoing hallway. Tino and Berwald stood behind them, and they both turned to face them. Lene squeaked in surprise, she didn't sense them there.
"We all wanted to protect her, but I think we all knew that we wouldn't be able to do it forever." Tino's voice was calm and matter-of-fact.
"She said that she was alone, and she called living as a country a curse." Lene's voice shook as she spoke, as if she was going to cry again. Matthias put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but she didn't seem to notice. "A-a-and-"
"We all saw this coming. We knew that the spread of the Black Death would eventually spread to Iceland, from the way it moved, it was pretty much unavoidable. And we all knew that she'd have to grow up someday." Tino spoke with great thought. "And it hurts that she'd growing up now, but it's pretty much unavoidable."
"She's hurting-" Lene started to speak, but Tino cut her off.
"Of course she is. We all are. When one of us hurts, the rest of us hurt with them. The only thing we can do now is just be sure that she knows that we're here for her."
"Yeah." Lene spoke as she stared out the window that shed moonlight on the group. It was midnight now, the nearby church bells tolled the lullaby of the hour.
"I suppose so."
"Dei sulla meg so underleg,
(It gently lulled me into sleep,)
so stilt og mjukt te sova;
(Her words could soothe me only;)
dei synte meg ein fager veg,
(They pointed out a way so grand,)
opp frå vår vesle stova.
(Far from our cottage lonely.)"
- Excerpt from De Fyrste Song by Per Sivle
A/N: So, historical notes. This takes place sometime around 1403, during the first major outbreak of the Black Plague in Iceland. There were two big outbreaks in 15th century Iceland; the first major outbreak took place during 1402-1404 and was estimated to have killed more than half the population. This outbreak that is going on when the story takes place. The second was in 1494-1495, soon after the population had recovered from the first outbreak. The second outbreak had less fatalities; it was estimated to have killed less than half of the population this time because it did not reach the Vestfjords, where about ten percent of the Icelandic population resided. There was another outbreak in 1703 of the Bubonic Plague, and a quarter of the population died as a direct result of that. The Black Plague infected Norway staring in about 1349 and ended in about 1350, when the last known victim of the Black Death in Norway died. So during this story, Norway had already had an outbreak of the Black Plague so Lene understands what her sister is experiencing.
You know, It kind of was like a rite of passage back then. "So, Norway, have you had your outbreak yet? Yes? Welcome to the club!" A bit like growing up, it happened to everyone, despite everyone not wanting it to happen. Except Poland. The Black Death largely ignored Poland. And people say that Poland has bad luck. Actually, the reason the Black Death largely ignored Poland is pretty interesting, but that's a completely different subject. Also, I say largely. Poland was not completely spared. Moving on...
During this time, the Kalmar Union was in effect, hence why they are all living together. Also, during this time, I picture Emilia to be around 10-12ish. I don't know what Iceland's canon age was at this time period, so sorry if I am wrong here. Also, Emilia personally is not infected with the Black Death, however she is feeling the effects of it that her people are experiencing. I picture this as to what happens when a country is overcome by a plague, unless they make contact with it, they will simply feel the effects that it has had on their people. By this time, a big religion in Iceland as well as Norway at this time was Christianity, hence why I mentioned the Hetalia God a couple of times in this. Also, if you think the way God is depicted in Hetalia is entertaining, raise your hand. I feel like there were a few other things I wanted to address, but I can't remember what. Oh well. If I remember, I'll edit this later. Anyway, thanks for reading this and I hope you liked it! Don't be shy and feel free to leave a review! I don't bite, I swear. Ciao!
Translation Notes: Sorry if the Norwegian and the Icelandic are wrong. I do not speak those languages, so I used google translate. Sorry again! (Please don't kill me.)