Prompt: Precious Treasure
Characters: Mikkel
The exact weights and sizes and printed patterns might differ from nation to nation and time to time, but people all over the Known World still used the same metric to measure value. Colorful bits of paper. Pieces of metal, forged and molded into uniform shapes.
Did nobody understand the concept of true value in this world?
Apparently not. A fun adventure, a chance to prove oneself, an opportunity to bash troll heads… nobody else who'd signed up for this mission had been invested in seeking the knowledge of a lost world, only in fulfilling their own selfish desires.
Even the man who'd funded the mission had seen the books they sought not for the precious treasure they were, only a means to help himself to more metal nuggets and slips of paper. After all, what was knowledge in a world ravaged by disease, to a family that was slipping into poverty? Only a way out.
"Soooo… you're gonna just read stuff… voluntarily, is what you're saying?"
In some ways, he thought, Sigrun was lucky: born into exactly the right place at exactly the right time, with all the necessary skills for survival and happy with the world that she lived in. That still didn't stop her from grating on his nerves when she couldn't understand that he was less perfectly adapted.
"It's one book that I happen to find particularly interesting." As if she'd understand—could she even read? He was tempted to remind her of the golf book, but decided it wasn't worth the energy.
"Whoah, hey! No judgement here! To each their own, you know?"
Yes. Their own. Some were a good fit for the world they were born into. Others… not so much. Once Sigrun and Emil had left, Lalli had crawled under the bed to sleep, and he'd made sure that Reynir was out of harm's way and not bothering Tuuri, he sat down beside her, picked up the first page of Tuuri's transcript, and began to read.