Chapter 2

"God, I never thought I'd be so glad to see ice in my whole life!"

Denmark stretched his arms wide over his head and he all but screamed out the words. Out from all the nations and passengers on the boat, Denmark had been the first to jump onto dry land and yell out in excitement. As Norway watched him act like an overexcited kid he wondered why oh why did he decide to become friends with the guy?

Not to mention all the sudden noise had woken Iceland from his sleep, making him start a whole new crying fit. Sweden had almost tripped in surprise when the youngest Nordic started wailing in his arms all of a sudden.

From behind Norway, Finland gave a long and hard sigh, "And here I was glad that the tension was gone and that things had quieted down…It'll have to be some other time, I guess…"

A few hours later, after many humans were unloading items and objects from their ship onto dry land, Norway sat down on the cold beach of this whole new place they had sailed to. It all seemed to hit him just then. "We traveled many miles. We're very far away from our homes."

His words caught the ears of the kindest one in their group, who decided to sit beside him, a now-sleeping nations in his arms. "Yeah… We've sure come a long way. I'm glad we found land, but I hope we find food for the trip back amongst all this snow."

Nodding, the Norwegian took a glance at Iceland. The baby sucked his thumb while he slept; he was sure any normal human would've confused him for a normal non-nation if it wasn't for the boy's unnatural hair color. It was weird that all of Iceland's volcanic activities and ashes would've been reflected in the child's hair…

"He's taking it better now."

"Hm?" Finland didn't really understand the sudden statement.

Norway nodded his head in the youngest direction. "He's not as restless in his sleep as he was the first week we left his home. He's gotten used to not being in his nation unnaturally fast."

"Oh… Haha, maybe the younger the generation, the faster they adapt? I hope we don't get left behind!" Finland smiled happily despite the possible, negative way his statement could've been taken… Disappearing was always a sensitive topic when it came to nations…

"I want to explore now!"

"No."

"Fuck you, man. I don't need permission from you."

"No."

"Didn't you hear—"

"No."

The two nations sitting on the ground turned their heads a way behind them, where the last two men of their nation group were in yet another argument. Finland was happy they hadn't had any problems for the first hours since they docked, but he preferred it when he and Norway didn't have to settle things between them. It was starting to get irritating…

With that, he gladly accepted Norway's request to hold the infant nation (Finland knew Norway preferred to take care of one baby nation than two grown nations acting like babies), dusted the bottom of his pants from the sand, and walked over to see what the fuss was about.

Following a few feet behind, Norway noticed how all the humans oh-so-conveniently had a lot more work to do when Denmark and Sweden started quarreling. 'Smart move…'

Hardly bothered by the loud blonde's behavior, Sweden continued to explain his points. "No. We need t' focus on organiz'ng all our m'terial from the long trip. We need t' check how long our food w'll hold."

"Hell to that!" remarked Denmark, "What if there's civilization nearby ? Or wild and dangerous animals? Those kinds of things are more important! That boat's humongous, and unless giant sea monsters like to come unnaturally close to frozen beaches, it's going to stay there. We can unpack anytime!"

"Will both of you quit it?" interjected in Finland once he was close enough to talk to them without yelling. Not that the same could be said for them… even Sweden's stoic voice could be loud when he wanted it to be. "Just arguing won't solve anything, we need everyone to have a say on the matter!" Not losing momentum, he continued, "And frankly, anything we decide will be fine since we have enough of people, but we need to focus on both gathering food for our return trip and building shelter, so please stop arguing for a few moments and please do something productive."

It took Finland a while to find out why everyone had quieted down for a few moments.

That was officially the first time Finland had spoken to Denmark and Sweden in such a firm voice, without being overly polite.

He went a bit red when the realization hit him full-on. "W-well, I'm sure that's the right way to do things…" he mumbled lowly. "How about you, Mr. Norway? Anything to say on the subject?" He was all too glad to put some of the unwanted attention off him.

"…" Norway silently looked in the direction of the forest some good number of acres away from where everyone had set camp. Still holding Iceland on one arm, he partially raised another to point in the direction of the seemingly endless amount of trees. "I see some fairies over there."

Conversation effectively terminated.

As if on cue, the infant in his arms squirmed as he woke. Though sleep still clouded his vision, he started to make noises of protest, unsatisfied with something.

"Oh?" Finland walked up to Norway at the first sings of the infant's discomfort, "He's probably hungry… I'll take him to see what food he can eat, okay?"

Grabbing the heavily bundled child, Finland gently rocked him back and forth in an attempt to make him happier. Before leaving, he turned to the others one last time, "And, you know…decide and stuff. Yeah…"

All three nations stood around awkwardly with nothing significant to say.

Finally, Denmark broke the silence with an unnaturally soft "I still think we should explore to make sure it's safe."

"We should keep unpacking" retorted Sweden silently.

And Norway just walked away, thinking he was friends with idiots.

XX/XX/XX

Moi- moi, I can't believe I forgot about this journal! And we have a number of interesting stories for it, too! Let's see, a pair of months after that argument between Mr. Sweden and Mr. Denmark happened…

Quite an amount of time had passed for the Vikings who traveled and reached the New World, which they decided to name Vinland. Since Denmark and Sweden had such trouble coming to an agreement on what to do, they mutually decided to do what Finland had suggested and separate everyone into groups with different tasks. Some stayed behind on the beach and would unpack their belongings, making records of what would be needed and what had spoiled and had to be thrown away. Others made small recon groups, searching the area far and wide for other sings of human life and dangerous beasts, only to come up empty handed on both accounts. The rest often searched for edible goods they could get. In the frozen and snow covered place, little edible vegetation could be found, and most food came from animals they could find both on land and sea. No matter how far they traveled, the Nordics could only find long frozen forests, long deserted plains, and views of faraway mountains. At this rate, there'd soon be little to do: their crew was too small to separate into a group headed to explore beyond their known borders of several miles and no humans planned on building permanent homes on such a lonely and cold place. Even if their Nordic homes were known for their cold climates, they had the comfort of many other humans and accurate maps of their locations among towns and cities. Not only that, but disturbing rumors had come to spread among their numbers…

Tales of a pale figure deep inside the cold, dead trees soon enough became common knowledge among the humans settled there. With each re-telling of the story, the tale became more and more ludicrous: soon enough, it changed from a figure into a ghost, then into a beast with eyes that glowed in the dark bearing long claws and sharp fangs. Hunters would return with words of hearing heavy footsteps following them deep between the trees, yet stopping near the border between the forest and the barren stretch of land leading to the hastily built village. No longer did humans feel safe about traveling the woods at night, and women would soon lock the doors on the temporary homes the men had built in the village.

The Nordics saw the tales from a different perspective; too young to be scared of harm or too experienced, knowing a physical death was impossible for them. Finland was mostly preoccupied of the effect such stories had on the human's morale; Sweden, who had seen footprints in the snow too different from a humans to know something might've been about, was fine so long as such a thing kept is distance from them; Denmark was exited with the possibility of something far from normal occurring; Norway was curious, since the new kinds of magical folk he had encountered would keep quiet about what they knew.

Regardless, if neither considerable changes nor new discoveries happened in Vinland to convince them otherwise, the Nordics decided they would be ready to pack their belonging and return to Iceland.

"Man, this is all I ever use my axe for anymore… I can't believe I've been reduced to a simple lumberjack…"

Norway continued walking ahead of Denmark, trying to ignore his whines. This had just been a quick, last minute run for some materials Finland had asked them for that their temporary house had run out of. "Next time don't come." He deadpanned, not slowing his march by even a second, even with the heavy weight of several pieces of wood in both his arms.

"I wouldn't have, but I didn't want to stay alone with a crying baby and its mom. Heck, even this dude," Denmark jabbed a thumb in Sweden's direction, who was bringing in the rear as he carried a large net filled with fish from a nearby river, "says Tino's like a wife. I can't be the only one thinking that's just a…"

Norway eventually blocked off Denmark's voice, shifting the weight of the firewood he was carrying in his arms. He hadn't asked for an explanation, and much less everyone's opinion on Finland's characteristics, he'd just suggested what was on his, and no doubt Sweden's, mind. So he made his focus just remember the way back to camp.

RUSTLE

The trio stopped dead in its tracks. Even Denmark stopped talking and sported a deadly serious glare. The forest had been erringly quiet for a few minutes, most likely due to the proximity to the human's small makeshift village, which had made the noise sound even louder than it probably was. Animals so close to a human settlement were already rare in that type or artic climate, but the sound the battle trained nations hear wasn't one of a small squirrel or rabbit…it sounded… heavier… More cautious.

There was a chance whatever was near them had been trying to stay hidden.

It knew of the presence of the three nations.

Denmark softly and slowly moved his right arm to grasp the handle of his battle axe strapped to his back. Sweden and Norway took the time to look around them discreetly, trying to locate where the rustling had come from. Still inside the woods, the trees and pathways made an irritable echo of every sound occurring inside itself, whether they were voices or steps in the snow made no difference.

Suddenly, another rustle and what sounded like claws dragging across tree bark came shockingly close to them. As the Nordics turned to the sound on their right, they saw what they had been looking for…

White.

Big.

Fangs.

Claws.

Denmark's eyes shot wide open, his tight grip on his axe slipping a bit and his face paled.

"Holy cra-NORGE THAT'S A FUCKING BEAR!"

The grand beast's eyes roamed over the group, standing on its hind legs wobbly when the Dane's loud yell echoed and reverberated between the trees. A loud roar came from the bear's mouth, and the view of its fangs glistening with saliva did nothing to calm the sudden adrenaline rush and anxiety within the nations.

Denmark finally found the command that told his legs to 'fucking move' before he got slaughtered, and jumped back brandishing his spear. Sweden and Norway also snapped into an automatic reflex from years of battles and wars and found the way to stop staring and drop their items to react properly.

No sooner than Sweden had side stepped and took partial cover behind a tree did the bear land its front legs near the ground where he used to be. Norway ran to stand somewhere behind it, knowing he had no weapon to defend or attack effectively with, and was less of a liability staying out of the massive bear's sights. It was then he caught sight of golden among the grey trees and white snow.

Violet eyes glistening with curiosity stared back at his own.

"There's…"Norway barely mumbled utterly taken aback before shaking his head slightly and turning in the direction of his comrades. "There's a kid here! He's behind the bear!"

The heads of the other blonde men snapped in his direction. "There's a WHAT? Norge, are you freaking—!"

After the words were exchanged, the frightened kid shakily hid behind the tree it was standing by, letting out a small yelp when he tripped on one of the roots sticking out from under the snow. The bear turned around at the noise, and pawed its way closer to the child still.

Shaking off his confusion and taking this opportunity for an opening, Denmark pushed forward, battle axe in hand, and—

"…Arie? No, axe. Battle axe in his…in his hand, and… Uhh… swam? No, swung…"

"Would you get on with it?!"

Blue eyes neared the battered book, as if the closeness would help the Dane reading it understand the words written. "I'm trying ya dumb bird…" he gritted out annoyed at Mr. Puffin, "But since Tino's last entry, this writing's been all weird…It's like gibberish!"

Iceland huffed, now quite wrapped up in the story and wanting to know what happened. From his seat between Norway and Sweden in the sofa, he couldn't really see the pages either.

Leaning from Denmark's left, Finland eyes roamed over the handwriting quite easily. "Oh, there's nothing wrong with it. This is Su-san's handwriting. I can read it just fine from here."

"Are you kidding me?" Denmark looked over to Sweden on the other end of the couch. He rested his chin in his hand and asked with a straight face, if not with the hint of a laugh starting to form. "Dude, do you seriously write as bad as you talk?"

Right then and there, Iceland felt very unlucky to be sitting in Sweden's way to Denmark, from the way he was glaring holes silently. He felt the tiniest bit better that if something happened, Norway was there between the two as well and might do something to stop them, but the dread far outweighed the relief.

"Uhh… You know, I'll read Su-san's entry then! How's that? Better? Good!" the purple eyed man offered quickly and nervously as he took the fragile book from Denmark (who pouted a bit) and continued the story.

The surprise attack was all that was needed in the fight. After getting a wound on its left hind leg, the bear let out a deep howl of pain before barreling away deeper into the forest, and most importantly away from the nations and the child. All three men still didn't let down their guards, getting slowly out of their adrenaline-filled state and unwinding.

"…Holy fuck, I can't believe there are bears that big in this place…" Denmark let his axe drop unceremoniously and plopped down next to it on the ground. All the energy and anxiousness from that encounter was gone and the sudden rush of relief left his knees wobbly.

"Guess that's the beast everyon' was talk'ng about," added in Sweden, starting to pick up some of the material they had dropped. In his mind, the sooner they got out, the better. That bear had kept its distance from the town so far, so the quicker the trio was in a populated area, the safer and smoother things should go.

The Norwegian male was looking around the trees and behind nearby bushes, looking for that young kid he was sure he had seen mere moments before. He soon heard a small, whimpering sound somewhere out of his field of vision.

There, near the big footprints caused by the bear from when it ran away in an unknown direction, sat the small violet eyed boy he was looking for, making small whimpering sounds as he stared deep into the trees.

"…Is that it?" asked Denmark when Sweden and him finally checked what was in the Norwegian's line of sight. He could see the kid was quite young, though still older than Iceland by a long shot. He couldn't be older than five human years. The young boy wasn't wearing much, just an oddly familiar white dress that Denmark had sworn he had seen somewhere before…even the red ribbon around the kid's neck seemed oddly familiar for some reason…

Upon hearing the human words uttered from behind, the young child visibly stiffened and snapped his head to see the trio standing behind him. His soft purple eyed widened, and he didn't dare to move a single inch. If it weren't for the cold breath cloud still coming from his nose, Norway would've thought the boy wasn't even breathing. He wondered why the blonde boy acted in such a manner after the visible threat was clearly gone.

"Hey, you think he wandered off from our camp or something? How the heck didn't anyone notice him?" inquired the Dane as he neared the boy, obviously invading the small child's bubble of personal space as he eyed him curiously. "Though I guess his dress is white enough to hide—" Denmark flinched away when the kid suddenly bursts into loud sobs and sharp shrills soon afterwards.

Denmark raised both hands up in a surrendering fashion. "I didn't do it! I swear!"

"Anyone'd cry if a much taller man th't can use an axe neared th'm like th't," commented Sweden as he pulled the Dane away from the boy by the collar of his shirt. "Is he hurt?" asked Sweden. He didn't see anything wrong with the kid, but he had been behind a giant bear; maybe he was too scared to cry out back then.

"No, he isn't," replied Norway, as he kneeled beside the boy and picked him up. Upon realizing his feet were no longer feeling the ice-cold ground, the small child stopped his cried for a mere moment in confusion. He soon started panicking and squirming as soon as he saw he was in the Norwegians hands, almost getting dropped in the struggle. Norway could only sigh, "….although he acts like it…" He turned to Denmark, who hadn't been carrying anything back to camp before the whole ordeal, "Can you carry him back?"

"Umm, what? I don't do kids. Did my earlier words about Ice just fly by you?"

"I asked you to carry him, not to change his diaper," Norway deadpanned, the boy still letting out loud cries and squirming. He sighed and told Denmark to carry his share of firewood back to camp instead.

Gripping his axe tightly and securing it on his back once more, Denmark crossed his arms in an annoyed manner. "Maaaan, why is it whining like that? It's starting to give me a headache. Did he lose his pacify-face-sucker thing or something?"

"Pac'fier, and he's at least four years old, Matthias, he doesn't need a pac'fier," deadpanned Sweden while successfully resisting the urge to facepalm. "He's prob'bly scared. Let's look for his parents back at camp."

When he noticed his cries and squirming were having little to no effect, the kid gave up and settled for twitching slightly whenever a silent sob would hit him. The sight was enough to make any concerned mother flinch in guilt and concern. Norway was thinking everything was becoming more complicated than it needed to be. And just why were all the new snow fairies he had met just giggling at him with a knowing look? More than likely they were planning to play a prank soon or something…

Sighing once more, Norway was certain things were going to become even more complicated soon…

Shortly after everyone returned to the village with the partially subdued child in Norway's arms and after finishing their tasks of material gathering did the nations come to a startling, and worrying, revelation. After filling Finland in on the details concerning their encounter with the white bear, everyone decided the best course of action would be to tour the town to see where the child's parents were. Denmark had moaned at the thought of asking everyone for a little whining brat's folks but he tagged along in the end, if only because of curiosity and lack of anything better to do.

They soon learned none of the humans at camp knew who the child was or to what family he belonged. No matter how long they asked or how many times they inquired, none of the new settlers had seen the boy before and his caretakers seemed nowhere to be found. Some of the women seemed fine with the idea of taking care of the adorable-looking kid if his parents remained without a trace and had no problem expressing this to the nations at every appropriate interval, and although the idea had seemed ludicrous at first, the continued absence of the boy's background made the chance of giving him to a substitute family all the more possible.

After the first hour or so, the kid had stopped freaking out over every bit of movement he saw and his cries had subsided. He still, however, refused to speak and looked at everyone with distrustful gazes. Judging that young blonde was at least four years of age, everyone knew he had to at least know basic words and most of the simple questions asked to him, but no matter how many times someone would ask him to provide his name or who his guardians were, he would remain tight-lipped and silent. Even Finland who was better with kids compared to the rest of the Nordics was at a loss on how to convince the boy to open up and speak. Denmark brought up the possibility of the parents being dead due to the dangerous beast they had fought what felt like mere moments before, but he himself voiced the lack of red on the pristine white-fur the bear had, along with the lack of blood or injury on the nameless child.

It just seemed as if the child had appeared from thin air…

Soon afterwards, Sweden had mentioned the probability of the child being mute due to his lack of answers or words for the better half of the day. Aside from the cries and tears the kid shed, no other sounds came from the kid. It certainly seemed likely that Sweden's assumption was correct…

Norway now knew why those snow fairies looked so mischievous earlier. More likely than not, they knew who the child was but no matter how many times Norway tried, they wouldn't give him any clear answers. They were having too much fun seeing the nations fumble for answers they knew but wouldn't provide. The only hint they provided was that 'they would know soon'.

That really didn't make Norway feel any better.

Thinking about everything, Norway could honestly see no other alternative than giving the child up for foster care if no answers came to the group. That thought made him uneasy somehow. There was something…not quite right with everything that was going on, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it just yet. It was right under his nose, he knew it. Something…something vital was hanging just out of reach and it irritated him. It was something incredibly important, but he couldn't figure out exactly what it was for the life of him. There had to be something special about this kid or else mythical creatures wouldn't really give him a second thought in comparison with other humans.

Hopefully he would find an answer soon. From what he could analyze, the nations weren't staying in Vinland for more than a couple of months. Soon they'd return home, and more likely than not, they'd leave this barren and cold land alone for many years to come.

He felt that if he didn't find his answer to his unknown question before then, it would remain out of his grasp for the rest of his life.

Norway gave a weary sigh and re-shifted the position of the boy in his arms, who barely even reacted to the change at all, seeming completely detached from the world around him. The soft-violet eyes of the kid looked glassed over but dried from all tears they once had. It was as if he was shutting down everything in favor of taking solace in his mind.

The last thought the nation of Norway had on the matter was that this was definitely become far more complicated than it needed to be.

A/N: Still not done with this story. Sigh, this sure got longer than a oneshot… I don't know when the next part will be out, but since I'm suffering from a block, I just wanted to get –something- out since I missed my deadline by about a week. Sorry 'bout that…

Kinda sure pixies are portrayed as tricksters, so I applied the same 'logic' to the snow fairies. Sorry if that's wrong, as I know next to nothing about folklore, myths and the likes.