Siren
"What do you mean I'm responsible for all these people?!" Dad lamented as Al remained calm about the situation. "How does this happen? How?"
"Siren killed Drago, and his men had nowhere to go, and none of the older Meatheads returned from the war, so we had to settle them somewhere, and Berk's lands were the best option we had," Al said, his face stoic and expressionless.
Dad sat down. "Get me some mead. NOW! We'll discuss this tomorrow."
He was clearly not in a good mood.
I sat down in the Meathead Hall, with chopsticks in my hand and rice right in front of me, with fish, corn, and beans. I picked at my food as Dad came and sat down in front of me.
"Al told me you wanted to pass a new law. This law means you are not a citizen unless you know Nordic and one other language. Is this true?" he asked.
Dad looked a lot older. His hair was thinning and growing grey, and he had deep wrinkles, even though he was no older than thirty-seven at the time. His lips were dry, and his hands were gnarly, like that of an eighty year old man.
It was hard to believe seven years ago, he looked a lot more like an actual thirty year old. I immediately felt even more guilt for leaving him.
Remember how he neglected you at times?
Then again, he wasn't the best father. He could've been better.
"Yes. There are all these different groups of people with different cultures, and some don't know Nordic, so we need to get them to fit in better. It was Al's idea to include the two languages part." I took a huge breath in and waited for Dad's response.
He was silent for a little while. Then he spoke:
"You do realize underneath that rule, the king, which is me, would not be a citizen of his own country?"
That actually hit me really hard. I didn't really think through a lot of the rules I set up, now did I?
"What have you been doing in these past seven years?" Dad asked, after a long silence.
I took a deep breath and began to speak.