Siren

"I love you soooo much!"

"I wuv you even mooore!"

I watched Rupac mingle with his new Quetzalcoatl girlfriend, Lucille. I'd brought back nine Quetzalcoatls from my recent visit to the Mayan Empire. Five were female, four were male. Rupac immediately formed as attachment with Lucille, and ever since, they'd been hanging out together. They were sickeningly sweet when they were together. It almost made me want to throw up.

Then there were the other Quetzalcoatls: The females were Linda, Cindy, Itzel, and Annette. The males were Chac, Joey, Zeus, and Joseph. None of them had paired up with each other yet, which was what I wanted because if they paired up and started having kids, it would give me a lot of insight into Quetzalcoatl behaviour. I knew a lot through Rupac, but there was also a lot I didn't know. How do they mate? Do they lay eggs? How do they feed their young?

I had similar questions about Toothless as well. For all I knew, there were no more Night Furies out there, or Toothless traveled way too far south or north. It seemed more likely to be north, but I had no way of knowing. The only way to find out was to travel around a bit.

I looked back to my notes on Korean. I was struggling with the translation of the Korean shamanism manuscript. Korean was hard to learn. I'd only been studying it since last March, and I had a very limited ability to hold a conversation. It was like that with Japanese, and I'd started learning that a few years ago, so I had lots of time to work on it.

Sighing, I put them away, and pulled out some of the kids' assignments. I flipped through the Japanese-Nordic translation guide. I noticed on one of the pages, Japanese was translated into the Japanese word for Japanese: Nihongo. I smiled as I flipped through. I could recognize shiroi, which was white, and other words as well.

Like me at that point of learning Japanese, my ability to speak and translate it was limited. In a few years, it wouldn't be limited anymore, and they'd have little problem with the language.

That being said, I wished I'd had them make a Nordic-Celtic translation guide instead. Celtic was easier to learn, and a lot quicker. I sighed. There was nothing to do about it now.

I was a week into spring break, and I was a little bored. I wanted to travel out, but I wondered if Al was willing to continue looking after my crops for me. It was hard work to look after them. I needed more than one person to look after them for me while I was away.

Luckily, I knew some kids who would gladly do it.

"You want us to take care of your crops?" Freya asked, raising an eyebrow. Hod and Magnus were with her, and Rigunth, Fredegund, Gunn, and Alfhild were playing behind them.

"Yes. I'll be away for the rest of the spring break. I'm out to see more lands and learn new things. I'll share them with you when I come back," I said, taking a bite out of my apple. Apples are supposed to keep you eternally young. It keeps the gods, and Idun, guardian of the apple tree, eternally young, so it's gonna keep us Vikings eternally young as well.

Freya scratched her head. "Okay, then."

I've learned one thing from Freya: Not all redheads are fiery and feisty. Some are surprisingly agreeable, more so than you think.

"This is so good!" I shouted, as Annette, who was wrapped around my neck, had her teeth chattering. I was going to bring Rupac with me, but the minute I tore him away from Lucille, he started throwing a huge tantrum and tried to bite me, so I left him behind with Lucille.

"Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!" Annette screamed, shutting her eyes closed. Not too far away, land was there. I saw some figures moving, and they looked like they were carrying baskets.

"Toothless," I commanded. "Slow down."

Immediately, Toothless slowed down to fly at the top speed of a Terrible Terror. I felt nauseous right away, and it took all my willpower not to throw up. Slowly, over the course of half an hour, my nausea began to ease, but not entirely.

"Thor's beard," I muttered, thinking about Rupac and Lucille, "I hope if there's another Quetzalcoatl pairing, then they won't be like Rupac and Lucille."

"Sister, you're in for a rough dealing with Quetzalcoatls," Annette said, her teeth no longer chattering. "If a Quetzalcoatl mates, then both start acting like Lucille and Rupac."

"Okay, then. That's not good," I said. It was a nicer version of what I was actually thinking: I'm fucked. Very fucked.

I decided to change the topic of the conversation. "What do you think the people on that island are going to be like?" I asked.

"I really don't know," Annette said. "They might not be nice, that's something you keep in mind."

I nodded. "You have a point."

We were silent for a couple of minutes. Now, the land was only five minutes away at top speed, and ten at the speed we were currently at.

"I can't wait to finish learning Korean and start Arabic," I said, throwing my arms out.

"I heard many of the Arabian books have stuff on medicine. Rupac told me," Annette said, moving around to face me, with her bright pinks and brown irises. "Some of them have Arabian stories as well, and an Arabian religious book, amongst other stuff."

"Yeah," I scratched Toothless; he purred, and started to go more slowly. It would be another five minutes before going on the island.

"Are you sure you want to learn Arabic?" Annette asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Why? You doubt me?"

"It's just that you might not become a healer or anything. If you do, then you should learn Arabic, but you don't have to if you're not. Besides, wouldn't it be practical to learn the languages of the people that are closer by?"

We'd landed now, far away from the people, right in the middle of a forest. I thought about what Annette said for a minute. I really didn't like it, but she had a point. I had no plan to become a healer, but I had students who did. Perhaps those books would be more useful to them than they were to me.

"You have a point," I said, dismounting Toothless and laying down. Annette slithered off my neck and onto the grass. Toothless purred and laid down. I could tell he was sleeping.

I yawned. "You have a really good point, Annette. You have a good point." Soon, my eyes closed, and I fell fast asleep.