Chapter Six- In Which the Nordics gain a Guide

Out of habit, Sweden was the first to wake the next morning. The tree's branches were long and low, they were not TOO high above the ground. Iceland had slept on his stomach, much like a cat. Baldur had elected to stay on the ground. Denmark had fallen asleep sitting up in the fork between the trunk and a higher branch, to keep his axe from falling he had lashed it to another branch. Finland, most comfortable at falling asleep in unusual places, had holed up high, towards the top of the tree. Sweden himself was on one of the lower, sloping branches. He sat up, removing his glasses temporarily to rub his eyes. Replacing them- they had little effect, barely improving the quality of his vision- he carefully scaled the branches to gently wake Finland.

"Hn?" Finland mumbled, slowly waking. "Ah!"

He started, but didn't fall. "Is it morning already?" the smaller male yawned. "Hyvää huomenta, Ruotsi." ((Good morning, Sweden.))

Sweden nodded, grunting lightly and leaving Finland to wake. He walked back across the branches to where he himself had slept, sitting down and watching as Iceland stirred lightly and mumbled in his sleep.

"Nh...Noregur..." Iceland shifted slightly. "Bróðir..."

Denmark stirred, and sleepily tapped Iceland on the shoulder. "Yo, Island," he said, yawning. "Wake up."

Iceland sat up, blinking sleepily. "Góðan daginn," He muttered, half-asleep. Baldur, at the base of the tree, sat up and watched the four like a dog watching for scraps of food.

"Why d'ya think he's so...doglike?" Denmark asked, reaching down from a lower branch to pet the animal, who rumbled happily.

Sweden shrugged. "M'ybe h' w's a d'g. D'd'n't kn'w 'b't t'g'rs f'r y'rs." ((Maybe he was a dog. Didn't know about tigers for years.))

"Ja, probably."

Baldur watched as they climbed out of the tree, even allowing the shorter ones to step on his back as a stair. He let out a small whuf as Iceland and Finland jumped down off of his back,

"What do we do now?" Finland asked.

"Ja," Denmark shrugged. "I s'pose the point of seeing this bit is proving that Norway isn't emotionless at all, but the only animal we've met so far's Baldur."

Said tiger licked Denmark's hand, and the tall nation smiled lightly at the gesture. Suddenly, the tiger's ears perked, then flattened. He dropped into an attacking stance, causing the Nordic four to look around in fear. Baldur growled at an approaching black streak, launching himself towards the...thing. Head over heels they rolled to a stop, a mess of growling and snarling. In their final position, Baldur pinned a black panther to the ground, snarling lightly. The panther snapped at Baldur's nose, the tiger responded by biting the panther's neck- not enough to kill it, however. Baldur then got off the panther, who attempted to attack Baldur. The tiger retaliated by biting down on the panther's tail, clawing at his opponent, and chasing the antagonist off. The nations watched this battle, fascinated.

"What was that?" Iceland asked quietly.

Baldur returned, licking a long scratch on his flank. He sat at their feet.

"Hatar," Sweden muttered.

"Huh?"

Everyone staring at Sweden caused him to blush lightly from shyness.

"H'te. Wh't's th' l'g'c'l 'pp's'te 'f l've? H'te. Th't w's th' 'th'r c't. H'te."

At this relevation, the others fell silent.

"He wouldn't have hurt you," Baldur said, licking his wound.

"Hvad?!"

Denmark jumped about six feet up onto a branch.

"Did the tiger just talk, or am I on acid?"

"I can talk!" Baldur muttered, offended. "I was saying, he wasn't going to attack you. He only attacks people he doesn't like."

"But he has every reason to dislike us!" Denmark argued.

"But he doesn't," Baldur responded. "What does that tell you about master Norway?"

"Master Norway?"

Baldur nodded. "He sent me to find you. He asked me to lead you to him. He can't come right now." Baldur flicked his tail, worried. "He's in real trouble."

"Really?" Iceland asked as Denmark extricated himself from the tree. "What is he- how is he-"

"Last time I checked, his hands were broken," Baldur said worriedly. "That's why the note was so short."

"A-And the blood-"

"Some was his," Baldur admitted. "The rest belonged to my evil twin, who just attacked me."

"We need to go!" Denmark cried. "Lillebror-!"

"Yes, yes," Baldur said. "Come on. I can see why he puts his trust in you. I can't talk too much, but I'll do what I can to clarify what you're seeing in here."

Such being clarified, the Nordics- now joined by a rather unusual guide- moved on.

A/N:

OMG I finally got it up. QAQ

I was planning to finish and upload last night but I wasn't home until after my computer had locked down for the night and.

I dunno if this is stupid but I figured that it would be pretty unlikely that Finland or Denmark or Iceland or Sweden could infer EXACTLY what's going down in Norway's mind, now and in the future. So they have Baldur to explain things!

I never put it in, but my headcanon name for hate is Laufey.

Laufey, from what I gather (correct me if I'm wrong?) was king of the jotnar, or giants, generally the antagonists of Norse Mythology.

Of course Norway names all his emotion-animals after Norse stuff asdf.

Anyway.

I don't think it's the best chapter...I'll change it if nobody likes it...but for now I wanna see what you bros think of it.

I love PewDiePie.

Review away~ QAQ

Oh, and NB: If you love my version of the Nordics, go check out BlueberryTeaLove. She wrote Ice Blue Fire with me. We share almost all the same headcanons on Nordics, she plays Iceland in the rp (she played Iceland in this one) and her specialty is generally writing stuff about Iceland. She's my bestie. Go check her out!

(I gave you a promo blue! :D)

~Toni Stark(-Bondevik)