Disclaimer: I own only Tia by name. Her role and every other character is property of Dreamworks animation and Cartoon Network/Netflix.
A viking of five years was browsing in his village. While his mother was caring for his baby sister, she had asked his father to let him get some fresh air and go with him to run errands. His father had gone off about an hour ago to do his business and told him to find some of his own. The boy was extremely bored looking at the different villagers as none of them did much of anything.
Everyone seemed so old and worn out, so the boy went to look for some children with whom to play. He smiled, brightly, when he saw a group of three. There was a dark haired boy, an auburn girl, and a blond boy. He skipped over to them, "Hello, I'm Dagur. Want to go chase some chickens?" he asked them. They gave him confused looks, "Uh, no. We're about to play tag. You can join, I guess." the girl said, hesitantly. He smiled in a crazy way and the trio looked at each other, "You be it. We'll hide." the blond boy told him.
Dagur closed his eyes, then hunted the others down. He found the dark haired boy getting some food and tackled him, "One down." he laughed. Before the boy could react, Dagur was up and running to find the other two. He found the girl at the trading station with her parents and tackled her when they were not looking. Lastly, he found the other boy at his house and got him.
"Okay, that was pretty fun." he admitted. The three had followed him and were glaring. "That wasn't fun. You play too rough and weren't even supposed to find us. We thought that you'd give up." the brunette complained. "That wasn't too rough. I just pinned you to the ground and got up! That was all. And what do you mean I wasn't supposed to find you? I thought that's the point of the whole game." Dagur defended. "We don't want to play with you. You're weird. Stop following us too." the girl told him. Dagur frowned back and turned to leave.
Dagur found another spot to sit, "They don't know what they're missing. Stupid brats." he thought, bitterly. A viking crying out caught his attention, "Spooked yak!" A large yak in a frenzy ran out into the village, almost impaling several vikings with his horns. Dagur pepared himself to attack it when another viking leapt onto its back and forced it to the ground. With wide eyes, Dagur watched the viking get off the yak, triumphantly.
"A million thanks, Ansson!" the yak owner said. Ansson gave the man a cocky smile. "It's nothin'. Just try to keep that thing in the pin next time." he instructed. Ansson walked away as Dagur ran over to him. "That was amazing! You were all like," Dagur pretended to do as the older viking did, "and-" "Who are you?" the teenager inquired. "I'm Dagur and I've heard about you, Ansson. Everyone seems to love you."
Ansson began to walk away and then stopped, "Dagur, you said? You're the chief's son, ain't ya?" Dagur nodded. The viking thought, "Well, why didn't you start with that?" he put an arm around Dagur's shoulders, "Come on. There's hours of sunlight left today. So much we can do. Don't have any plans do ya?" "None. What do you have planned?" the boy asked, with a deranged twinkle.
The two went to the arena, "Now catch the knives and toss them in the air like this." Ansson demonstrated. Observing diligently, Dagur copied the movements and executed them, properly. "Not half bad." Ansson said, impressed, "Next, you gotta tackle those yaks. Are you up to it?" he questioned. Dagur looked at the yaks, "Of course I am! Watch." he climbed over the fence and mounted the back of a yak. He shifted his weight and tried to pull the yak down, but he was too light.
Ansson laughed, "Not so good at that, though, huh? Well, there's plenty of other things to try. How about boar pits?" The duo spent the day doing all sorts of dangerous stunts and Dagur loved every second of the action. Just beforw dark, Oswald returned from his errands, "Dagur, I'm going back home now." he said. The boy hurried over to him and waved to the other viking, "See you tomorrow, Ansson." Dagur called.
They arrived home and Oswald went to his chieftess, giving her a kiss on the cheek and smiling at his uncle before going to his throne room. "How was your day, Son? Do anything fun?" Tia inquired. Dagur grinned, "Uh-huh. I made a new friend. His name's Ansson and we tackled yaks and juggled daggers and all that. It was great!" She smiled, "I'm glad you had a good day and could spent it with someone. Where was your father?" "He was doing the errands." Dagur answered, honestly. The chieftess set her jaw, "Want to play with your little sister while I go speak to Daddy?" she offered. Dagur bounced over to the baby's cradle in response.
He loved his sister Heather, dearly. Smiling, he rocked the cradle, gently. She cooed and grinned back at him. "You gotta get bigger so we can play too." he encouraged. He made a silly face and she laughed. That made his day whenever she did. "Do you want to bere a story, Lad?" his great uncle Haggard asked. Dagur smiled and sat down to listen to the exciting war tale that was to come.
Tia went into the throne room and frowned at her husband. "What's the matter, Dear?" he questioned. "Do not act so oblivious. When I asked you to take Dagur with you, I was implying that you spend time with him too. Is that too much to ask for?" she inquired, annoyed. Oswald was busy looking at his model ships, "I suppose not." he answered, vaguely. Tia's frown turned to a glare, "You suppose not? Good to know retorical questions are futile against Oswald the Agreeable. Maybe if you could be Oswald the Listener or Oswald the Good Father sometime, that would be splendid." She stormed out the room and put a smile on her face so that her son would not sense anything being wrong.
"Toughest three!" Dagur laughed. Tia gave Haggard a look that said that she wanted to talk with him alone. The two went to the study as Dagur kept getting Heather to giggle.
She closed the door, softly, behind them. "He does love his son, right?" she asked the elderly man. "I believe so. He just doesn't understand him." was his answer. "Well, I didn't understand him either, but then I paid attention and learned how his mind works. It's not an impossible feat." Her eyes glistened, "I only had Heather so soon afterwards because he promised me that he would be there with Dagur and help him. I wasn't going to stop raising him, but I have to make sure Heather's health is fine first. Enfants are tricky to be sure with." she told. "Give Dagur another week going with Oswald into the village and if nothing comes out of it, take action." Haggard suggested. Tia sighed and conceded to the idea.
The rest of the week went like this: Dagur would go outside and meet up with his new friends and they would do death-defying tricks. On the seventh day, Ansson was pensive. "What's wrong, Anssy?" Dagur asked him. "Oh, nothing. It's just that my pops is trying to get me some new weapons and no one is willing to trade. They really want some gold that we just don't have." the viking elaborated. Dagur brightened, "If that's the only issue, that's easy. I have some gold saved up that you could borrow. Probably won't need it anytime soon." "How much do you have?" Dagur shrugged, "I don't remember. I've never spent any of it, so I think about ten pieces."
Ansson's face went somber, "I thank you, Friend, but that will not be enough to cover it." he glimmered with hope, "Doesn't the chief have some gold of his own that we could use?" Dagur's brow furrowed, "He does have his own gold, but we can't use it for this. It's for chiefing, I guess, and all those old people problems." "But he's your dad. It's, practically, half yours." Ansson pressed. "It's really not. Um, maybe we could use your and my gold and then see if they'd be willing to barder for the remainder?" Dagur suggested. Ansson shook his head, firmly, "No, they were steadfast in saying that they would never barder for it, they just need a pound of gold." The little boy's eyes went wide, "A pound?! How much do you have saved up?" "Not much." the older one divulged, looking at his feet.
"I'm sorry, Pal, but I can't ask my dad for almost a pound of gold. He'd think I'm crazy." Ansson said, under his breath, "Too late for that." and louder, "I never said to ask for it. My folks always say what's theirs is mine, so there's never any words exchanged." Dagur looked at him with horror, "He already doesn't like me asking for stuff, since that costs money or time. He'd be furious if I did that!"
"Dagur," Oswald called. "Coming!" the boy answered. "Sorry. See you in the morning?" he asked, hopefully. Ansson nodded amd frowned after him.