Tino Väinämöinen trudged up the steps to the front porch, a large, black bag in one hand. He stepped carefully; it had snowed that night in Louisville, Kentucky, and the entire city was coated with the slippery, white crystals.
Once on the porch itself, Tino found himself standing in front of the green door to a small-ish brick house; a house he knew well. Cheerfully, he rapped at its wooden surface; the sound echoing through the desolate, wintry, mourning. Not even a minute later, the door swung open with a blast of hot air, revealing Tino's good friend Lukas Bondevik.
The Norwegian-American stared blankly, as usual, but his lips were upturned into a slight smile, revealing that he was indeed happy to see Tino.
"I suppose you are here to take photos of the artifacts?" Lukas asked dryly.
"Well, yeah. You said that you needed some good quality photographs of them. I'm a photographer, after all!" Tino replied, the soft lilt of his Finnish accent washing over his words.
"Then come in." Lukas said, gesturing stiffly with a slim arm.
The warmth of his friend's house was the perfect escape from the cold, and it warmed Tino's reddened cheeks. He could feel the snowflakes that had dusted his platinum blond hair melt into droplets of water. The young photographer smiled as he took in the familiar surroundings. Lukas' house was decorated nicely, but was still rather minimalistic. He had rustic, wooden furniture. Black and white photographs of the Norwegian countryside hung on the light brown walls. On a pine coffee table in the living room sat various artifacts. Tino immediately knew that these were to be the subjects of his photography.
Lukas took a seat in a slightly worn leather arm chair, his favorite, in front of the table. He gestured to the matching couch beside it.
"Sit."
Tino sat down on the couch and placed his camera bag at his feet. He turned his attention to Lukas, who was running a hand through his white blond hair and getting ready to speak.
"These are Finnish artifacts. A Finnish archeological company dug them up off of Lake Paijanne's southern shore. Got them for a fair price, they found hundreds of little artifacts like this."
Tino smiled. Typical Lukas. Even though he worked as a freelance writer, the other young man had plenty of money; his late parents had left it in to him in their will, after all. Of course, Lukas spent most of the money on the necessities, such as food and private schooling for his teenage half brother, but still had some left over to support what was perhaps his strangest hobby: collecting ancient Nordic artifacts.
"It's been a while since you bought anything Finnish. What do you want me to take a picture of first?" Tino said. His friend picked up a tiny wooden amulet carved in the shape of a bear.
"Start with this one, if you don't mind."
As Tino set up his camera and adjusted the lighting, one of the artifacts caught his eye. It was made of white bone, and carved into the shape of a bound man. It was small and insignificant looking, only roughly the size of Tino's thumb, but he still felt himself become inexplicably drawn to it.
"Um, Lukas, what's that?" He asked, lifting the sculpture off of the table.
Tino's companion answered quickly: "I read about these things a while back. Apparently, magic users in ancient Finland used these to seal people away for years on end. Even as a magic user myself, I can't for the life of me figure out how someone would be capable of casting a spell like that. It's probably impossible, just a myth, ya know."
Tino turned the artifact over in his hand. It felt strangely warm. "Well, Lukas, wouldn't it be awful to be the guy stuck in there? I mean, there definitely isn't a person in there, but could you imagine?"
"Tino, don't think too hard."
Suddenly, the little bound man began to grow hot in Tino's hand. Literally hot. So hot it burned his skin.
"Perkele!" Tino yelped, dropping the artifact to the hard wood floor.
"What is it?" Lukas said in a rather annoyed manner.
"Th-that thing just got really hot. It BURNED my HAND."
"Don't over react, Tino. You're imagining things."
"I'm serious!"
"Calm down, let me see it."
Suddenly, like blinding, silent lightning, a bright light flashed across the vision of both young men. When it cleared, the little bound man of bone had cracked in half. Next to it was something, no, someone, far more unexpected and surprising.
He was a giant of a man, with broad shoulders and long legs. He lay on the floor, clothed in a blue tunic and not much else. His facial features were sharp and his eyes were cold, blue-green and steely. At one point, he may have had a beard, but that appeared to be roughly shaved off; his face was dotted with fresh red scabs. His ash blond hair was treated in a similar manner. It was cut roughly; longer in some places than others. Thankfully, however, the man didn't seem to have any weapons.
Tino gasped. Even though he was unarmed, this mysterious stranger still seemed dangerous.
The man struggled to his bare feet, towering over both Nikolas and Tino. He blinked his sea blue eyes and squinted; obviously, he wasn't used to electric lights, or anything else in the house for that matter. He looked around, his expression unreadable. His eyes, however, were full of what might have been confusion and bewilderment. He parted his chapped lips and let out a deep, bellowing cry to the sky, his voice shaking the house.
Lukas was in shock, speechless, frozen.
Tino screamed. It came out far more girly and high pitched than he would have liked. The giant before him took notice and fell to his knees before him, gripping his small hand in his own large, rough ones. His blue eyes were wide, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. His face was still as sharp and hostile looking as ever.
Again, Tino screamed. "What the hell are you doing?" The man in front of him looked genuinely hurt, but continued to hold Tino's hand, mumbling something in what could have been Old Norse.
Never in his life had Tino been so confused or frightened.
((A/N: Oooh, cliff hanger! Anyways, here are a few notes:
*Perkele is a Finnish swear word. It's kind of like "damn it".
*This story takes place in a modern fantasy type setting, so people using magic like Norway says he can are not considered unusual.
*If you haven't figured it out, Lukas Bondevik is Norway.
*Old Norse was the language spoken by the Vikings.
*The story takes place in Louisville, KY. I know it's a derpy setting, but I used to live there. I wanted to write about what I know so the fanfic's setting would seem convincing.))
