"I. am. Bored," Hvitserk said, sitting down at the table for lunch.
"Are all the sheep shorn?"
"Yes."
"The wool stored?"
"Yes."
"Did you sweep the snow off the roof?"
"Did that too, see there is nothing fun to do."
"For a...72?...year old man you don't know how to entertain yourself."
"Well you sure know how to nag like a 69 year old woman."
"Are you calling me old?"
"You have aged beautifully, örlög mín."
She plopped down across the table from him, and pushed across a bowl.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Eat first, ask questions later," she pushed.
"Words to live by."
"Words that could get you poisoned," she added. He put down the spoon.
"Why did you have to say that, Dani?"
"It's not like you'd die. Well, it's not like you won't come back."
"So is it poisoned?!"
"No! Just eat it!"
She reached over and took the spoon, taking some of the bowl's contents and putting it in her mouth, and handing the spoon back. She looked excited and expectant, and he wasn't sure if that was tempting or terrifying. He dipped the spoon into the bowl and pulled out a solid, pink glob. There were clearly strawberries in it. Maintaining suspicious eye contact with Danika he put the spoon in his mouth. She nodded slowly with a big smile making its way across her face as his face lit up. He ate another spoonful.
"This is delicious. Sweet. What is it?"
"It is called ice cream! Or it is more like gelato? I know how much you love sweets so I was experimenting and this time I got it just right."
"Well it is good enough that you got me eating something cold in the middle of the winter."
Danika chuckled, "wait until iced coffee becomes a thing."
"Since you're so bored, consider the ice cream an omen."
"An omen?" his mouth full of ice cream, "an omen of what?"
"Close your mouth. I've been doing some numbers and I think we have enough for a ship, finally. A small one."
"Do you want me to get up and hug you, or finish the ice cream first?"
"Ice cream first, it can melt."
"Not likely this time of year."
She lightly smacked the top of his head before leaning down to kiss him on the cheek, going to clean up from her cooking experiment in the kitchen. After years of learning navigation, sailcraft, and memorizing vague directions from passing travellers, they would be moving onto Iceland. She hummed the melody of Drunken Sailor before transitioning into the words, dancing around the kitchen, toweling off the wooden spoons before throwing them from across the room back into their holding cup. Hvitserk dodged one of them as they flew by.
"I should be glad that wasn't a knife."
"Oh yes, we should start packing all of our knives."
That spring they purchased a small ship, and filled it with the supplies they would need to make it to Iceland. Nonstop it was a thirteen day voyage if they kept true to course and one that was especially difficult for only two people to navigate alone. Danika threw coil after coil of rope into the ship, along with her fight bag. Hvitserk tied the sail into place and then began to secure the bags together so they wouldn't roll about. With a slight little jump, Danika floated down into the ship, causing it to rock back and forth.
"Are we ready?" Hvitserk asked.
"As can be," she replied, unmooring the ship from the docks. Thus they cast off. Hvitserk hoisted the single sail to full height and they watched as it caught the amicable breeze. They were a few miles into their journey, still in the peaceful coastal waters when Danika handed her lines to Hvitserk and grabbed her bag.
"If I'm going to help sail this ship, I am wearing pants, not a glorified sail around my legs."
"Lest the wind catch you and blow you away."
The first part of the voyage was the easy part. They kept just off the coast and sailed north and east until they reached the end of the great isle. Then they kept that course to the first crop of islands, where they turned hard to the West and only slightly North where they moved to the next and final grouping of small islands. Then the dangerous part began, as they were set to cross many miles of open, near arctic, ocean. If they fell too far off course there would be no land between them and Antarctica and although Hvitserk might not be able to yet imagine the size of the Atlantic, Danika certainly could.
As the ocean plummeted to greater depths, waves got taller their ship was buffeted to and fro, sometimes listing so far to the side that Danika and Hvitserk were practically climbing onto the exterior hull as it leaned. But the ship was strong and did not give against the waters. On good days they ran with the wind, the keel at a strong angle. Both Danika and Hvitserk held lines to the mainsail and hiked out of the ship over the side to keep the balance. Danika briefly let one hand drag into the freezing seas as they flew over the water, sea spray keeping their hair perpetually wet.
"I am not sure how I feel about this fog." Hvitserk said one morning as the horizon became increasingly obscured by a dense mist. Soon enough they were in a gray cloud on all sides.
"It must be a good sign. The land of Iceland is warm. The cold air and warm ground create a lot of fog. We must be close."
Hvitserk put out their lantern and so the only light came from the sun as it filtered through the shifting mist. Danika squinted out from the bow and caught the flocker of a shadow in the distance.
"I see something! Land!" she shouted back over the wind. The familiar site of two stone arches rose out of the seas and the gray of the fog, along with a grouping of sea stacks which in 1100 years would still look the same. Danika thought back to when her father had brought her to a Norse Music concert in Vík. The black sands of Reynisfjara emerged as their ship was carried to the shore on the strong waves. Ropes in hands they both jumped ship and digging their feet into the inky black sand they hauled the ship further up the shore with the rhythm of the incoming waves. They kept pulling higher and higher onto the beach before sitting down in the sand.
"It's black." Hvitserk picked up a fistful of the gravelly black sand and let it run through his fingers. Danika ran her thumb over a sea-smoothened black stone.
"Yes, it is volcanic."
"Volcanoes? There are volcanoes here?"
"The entire place is basically a bunch of volcanoes."
"Remind me why you wanted to come here?"
Danika lay back into the wet sand. It was raining softly, dampening some of the fog down.
"This place will be like this for a long time. It will be safe for us to come back to, over and over. And it is so beautiful, don't you think it is beautiful?"
Hvitserk looked around. As the fog receded the sharp cliffs turned into great rolling green hills, dotted with trees. Birds circled overhead, and in the distance, a glacier sat like a white diamond in a green cushion. To his left, columns of stone spread out like a fan and to his right the coast curved with great towers standing guard over the surf as it beat the beach relentlessly. This was not a quiet sea. This sea was a beast, raising its haunches, daring them to try and venture back the way they came.
"It reminds me of home."
Maine, USA (Modern Day)
"This is Rae - Gideon? - wait, slow down…what?! I'm on my way over."
Hopping into her car, Rae drove well above the speed limit, which was nothing new in Maine, to the Lovelle house which was at the end of a long driveway in the forest near the cliffs. Getting out, the air smelled like fresh rain as a squall had blown through just a few hours earlier. She knocked on the door and it was opened by a Gideon who looked somehow more frazzled than usual.
"I was telling her about my new job in California and it wasn't like I told her she needed to decide right now, but she went out to go think, and she always goes up to the cliffs, but then the storm blew through and she didn't come home. It's only been a few hours and I know she was going out with you later tonight so I was wondering if she had gone straight to your house instead of coming back here, she would walk all the time, she's stubborn like that."
"No I haven't seen her since Tuesday-"
This only made Gideon's condition worsen, he began to pull at his hair.
"Hey, Gideon. Danika has been out in the woods since before she could walk, I'm sure she's just waiting for the weather to get better before coming home instead of walking the cliff side during the storm."
"You're right, you're right. I shouldn't have told her yet."
"You can't blame yourself,"
"Yes but things have never been the same since her parents died and I had no clue what I was doing and now she's off who knows where! I'm used to her going off on hikes and stuff, but she's always told me where she was going and when she would be back, even if she was upset. This isn't like her."
"I'm gonna make some calls, maybe she waited out the storm at someone's house and forgot to call. You know how some of them can be once they get talking there is no stopping them."
Rae pulled out her phone and began sending out mass texts to everyone.
"Hey friends! Has anyone seen Danika?"
"No"
"No, y?"
"Nope."
"Not since yesterday."
"No"
*X arms emoji*
"ok, if anyone does see her let me know she went out and hasn't been home"
"Are u sure she just isn't out for a hike?"
"Or just a walk even? U know how she is"
"yeah I know just keep an eye out"
Rae walked back to Gideon and relayed the negative news. She called the guys who they were supposed to meet that night and rescheduled. Family stuff was the excuse she gave. Not a lie. Gideon was sitting on the couch, head in his hands, worrying himself sick.
"I'll give it a few more hours, but then I'm calling to report a missing person."
"I'm sure it won't come to that. She would never do that to you."
"If she got washed off the cliff, it wouldn't be intentional would it?"
"Don't get down on yourself. We'll cross that bridge when we get there."
Vík, Iceland (921 AD)
Danika stepped outside of the house they built a little ways inland from the beach. It sat atop a hill, but it was built into the hill, and the green of grass was already creeping over the edge of the roof. Danika thought it looked like a hobbit hole, despite Hvitserk being six feet tall. The placement of the house was strategic. The hill would hopefully protect it from seasonal wash outs from the glaciers, and also from any eruptions that would most certainly happen. Building houses into the ground was the practice of the time, but Danika was hoping that the dry interior would help preserve their things. It was strange her to think that the clothes she was wearing the tools she was using would become artifacts. Things to be examined and studied and then put on display in a museum.
Hvitserk appeared behind her and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder. Far below them they could see the lowlands that would one day become the town of Vík.
"I need your help packing some of the old clothes."
"Alright, I'll be right in."
Danika and Hvitserk had extracted salt from the sea water and put them in pouches, which they interspersed in with the clothes and outdated tools to protect them from the moist air. The house was more storage than living space, their bed sitting in a corner, surrounded by wooden chests which they had built. Danika packed her Viking clothing away after a long period of nostalgia where she stared at each piece, laying it out on the ground and feeling its seams and the tartan fabric. Since Hvitserk's Viking clothes were his frozen ones, he elected to keep them wherever they went, the same way Danika kept her modern clothes.
"Hello!" a call came from outside. Startled, Danika threw her fight bag on the bed and covered it with a blanket. Stepping outside, Hvitserk saw a man in his late thirties, early forties climbing the hill. He looked uncannily like Hvitserk's father in the face, although his hair was fairer and he was taller. He waved and approached Hvitserk, with his bow in hand.
"Hello, who are you?"
"I am Ragnar Ubbeson. I saw your house when I was down on the beach looking for the best place to hunt some puffin. I did not know anyone lived here. I thought people only came out here in the summer for the hunting seasons."
"Ragnar? That is a great name," Hvitserk commented.
"After my grandfather, Ragnar Loðbrok."
"He was your grandfather?"
"Yes. But I never knew him, he died long before I was born."
At this point, Danika stepped out of the house and caught the tail end of the conversation.
"And what of your father, Ubbe?" she asked.
"74 years old now. He does not speak anymore, but he minds my children along with his wife while I come out here to hunt for the season."
"So he lives here?" Danika asked further. The statistical improbability was astounding that in 100 years in a medieval world that she and Hvitserk had managed to run into almost every living family member he had.
"In a settlement a four days journey from here. Did you know him?"
"My father knew him well," Hvitserk responded.
"Ah well, then I think he would be happy if you came to visit. Back even when he was speaking he was a man of few words, but he always complained about how there was no one to talk to here. I was born here, I know nothing else, but he talked about the great communities back in Norway."
"We would like that," Danika smiled and gave Hvitserk's arm a squeeze, "When do you return?"
"Tomorrow. Today is my last day out here for now."
"We would be happy to accompany you. The best puffin spot is up on the cliff there," Danika pointed to the East, where flocks could be seen lingering around the rocks.
Ragnar nodded and smiled and began to walk off that way, leaving Hvitserk speechless watching him go.
"That is my nephew."
"Yes. He seems a fine man."
"He looks older than me."
"That too."
"I did not think you'd agree to me seeing Ubbe while he was still alive."
She turned and took both his hands into her own. Pressing her forehead to his she looked up into his eyes.
"I have learned to stop denying you your family. I must trust you will do the right thing. You deserve a chance to have what I never did, which is a chance to stay goodbye. How cruel would I be to take that away from you?"
Tipping her face up she pressed a kiss to his lips.
"It gets harder every time," Hvitserk said, "to see them even though I truly want to see them. It feels like I am dead watching them grow live and die, but I am not reunited with them when it is over."
"Do you want to go see Ubbe? It is alright if you do not."
"No, I want to see him. I may never get another chance."
Although Ragnar came on his horse, he walked with Danika and Hvitserk as they walked along the misty rolling hills towards the primary settlement. They passed outlying homesteads and saw more and more people the closer they got. Ragnar led them to a cluster of houses where a woman with red hair came out and wrapped Ragnar in a tight hug, followed by three children whose cries of "Papa see what I made, see what I did!" cut through the wind that almost always howling across the landscape.
A white haired woman stepped out of one of the homes and greeted Ragnar. She was shortened and her skin clung tight to her bones but her graceful chin and big eyes stood out to Hvitserk immediately. Torvi.
"And who is this, that you have brought back with you. I thought you were hunting for puffins not people."
"Ah mother, this Halfdan and Siggi. They settled south on the coast, all by themselves. Hvitserk said that his father knew my father and I thought it would be nice for father to see them since he is always looking for people to talk to."
Hvitserk and Danika prepared themselves for what was the inevitable interrogation. They had prepared their answers in advance this time.
"Who was your father, Halfdan? You look familiar, maybe I knew him as well."
"My father was named Soren. He spoke often of fighting with Ubbe in the Great Army in England."
"Soren? Hm, for a moment you looked like someone else I knew but maybe these old eyes are getting tired and seeing forgotten faces everywhere. Come, he is inside and we can find something for you to eat."
"I unfortunately knew nothing of Ubbe, but perhaps you can point me towards someplace where I can trade some goods, while my husband recalls fond raiding stories," Danika tactfully diverted Ragnar and his wife away from Ubbe's house as they walked her towards another part of the settlement, their children joyfully in tow. One of them pulled on Danika's sleeve and she swooped down to lift him off the ground and swing through the air. He giggled and put his arms out like a bird.
Inside the warmth and darkness of the house, Hvitserk took a seat on a stool next to Ubbe who sat in a chair at the table. His hair was gray and his beard went far down his chest, but he still stood straight and proud and he turned to look at the man who had entered his home with his wife. All it took was one look before Ubbe smiled so wide and clapped both hands to Hvitserk's face. He spoke no words but his old hands shook Hvitserk's head with a great force as Hvitserk smiled and laughed in the presence of his now much older brother.
"Hello Ubbe. It is good to see you again. I'm glad to see you have done well for yourself. I have just met your grandchildren. And your son. You named him after father. He looks just like you."
"And like me." Torvi interjected, running her fingers into Hvitserk's hair. He looked up and she cut him off before he could even deny.
"Oh get that look off your face. I am an old woman now and I am too tired to ask dangerous questions about the mysterious ways of the world. Unless you have come to take my family from me, I do not want to know and do not care, Hvitserk. It is good to see you."
"He does have your blond hair."
"And my eyes, although they are more blue like Ubbe's. Now tell us the story. We want to know."
"What story?"
She placed a hunk of bread in front of him, "Do not play the fool to us. Tell us of your adventures. Stories are what get us through the days here."
Ubbe nodded in agreement and poked Hvitserk in the chest. Old or young, Ubbe and Torvi were still the same, although seemed to have made Torvi even stronger minded and sharper tongued.
"Well I must tell you I did not enjoy living under the rule of Ivar-"
Ubbe put a hand on his back and waved a finger in Hvitserk's face. I told you so.
"But," Hvitserk persisted, "if I had not gone back with him, I might not have met my wife."
"Siggi? I saw her outside. She is pretty, although I cannot place where she is from," Torvi observed. "Her skin is darker than ours but she has a strong face and big eyes, although their shape is quite foreign."
"Yes, well she hasn't exactly been forthcoming about her origins with me either. I think she wants to be mysterious. She just says far away."
"Maybe it is to keep you interested," Torvi joked.
"I left Ivar for her. I left Kattegat."
"Ah well, so did we," Torvi said and Ubbe held up a hand urging Hvitserk to go on.
"We have been travelling, just the two of us, seeing the world and many places. But we decided to come for a while. For some peace."
"Why don't you stay here in the settlement? Why did you settle so far away?"
"We did not know who was here. We landed where we landed and stayed there."
"Yes, but know you know we are here. Come stay with your family." Ubbe seemed thrilled at the idea, nodding and shaking Hvitserk's shoulders. Hvitserk considered.
"I would have to ask Da-Siggi. It is difficult. You may know who I am. But others cannot. It would not bode well."
Ubbe looked to Torvi. Ubbe did not speak anymore, so the burden fell to her. She thought about it for several moments before resolutely pronouncing, "after all these years I know how to keep my mouth shut."