Prompt: Insanity

Characters: Trond, Sigrun, and... Sigrun. Well how about that.

Ship: Implied Aksel E./Sigrun L.


They'd have to be insane to want to work for us, they'd said. They'd have to be idiots, they'd said. We can't make this team work with insane idiots, they'd said.

Hmph. Doubters.

Well, Trond knew exactly where to find insane idiots who knew how to get the job done, the thriving community that Dalsnes had become since his childhood was testimony to that. It seemed that he saw more of Aunt Sigrun's mark on the place every time he went back.

Aunt Sigrun, if his Uncle Aksel's tales were to be believed, was one of the few people in Dalsnes who had cheered when the Rash had come. She and Uncle Aksel, along with his parents, had been the ones to fortify the town, figure out the best way to quarantine, and begin hunting trolls and beasts rather than simply hiding from them.

She'd also nearly gotten Trond killed, on multiple occasions. First there'd been the fireworks in the barn. The paint bucket incident was also particularly memorable. Then there was that one time with a wooden plank, an overdue library book, and a chicken, that no one else was going to find out about ever. All of this in her efforts to, and he quoted, "turn that kid into a Viking warrior if it's the last thing I do."

She did, and it was. Though Trond hadn't made his first kill in time to save her, it had been his first, and she'd seen. She'd gone out with a smile; her last words to him had been "I'll pay you back for that one, kid." She was probably wreaking havoc in Valhalla this very minute.

Well, that or wondering what in the name of Odin had taken him so long.

When they'd first made contact with Iceland, Sigrun had been the one pushing him onto the boat because it would be a fun adventure. (Oh yes, and a leviathan had nearly killed him that time, too.) She hadn't come with him on all of his international stints, of course, but that first boat trip into the unknown was what had gotten him started on a long, successful career that had eventually made him a hero of his country, and given him ample blackmail material along the way. If not for Sigrun, Trond would not be where he was right now.

…forced into retirement, bored out of his mind, and crawling back to the hall of his birth in his desperation to have at least one last bit of fun before he finally bit it.

That particular brand of insanity was exactly what he was looking for. Aunt Sigrun would have loved the idea of an expedition into the Silent World, would have been running out the door at the very mention of the idea while Uncle Aksel desperately tried to hold her back. Now, the only question left was who he would—

"ME! I VOLUNTEER!"

Trond's attention, along with everyone else's, was drawn to the Captains' table, where a tall redhead was practically leaping out of her seat, waving her arm around in a way that demanded attention.

It took all he had to hold back a smirk. He might have known.


A/N: I just about drove myself up the wall trying to figure out whether it was more plausible for Gøran and Ingrid to have been Trond's parents or his grandparents. I eventually went with parents, but the match could work either way depending on how old they were and how late they decided to have children.

I also like the idea that the Andersen and Eide families have known each other for so long that they all end up as honorary aunts and uncles to each other's kids, but have never intermarried.