Fara i Viking - Chapter 8

Chapter VIII – The Trolls

Jötunheimr was actually a very nice planet. Significantly nicer than the last two they had stopped on. From the sky it was blue and green, with oceans and forested lands, high mountains and valleys with swift flowing rivers and crystal clear lakes. It was very much like Midgard, actually, similar in structure and climate, with vegetation and fertile land able to support the establishment of farms. Expectedly, it had become home to a number of large Human settlements. Humans had been occupying this planet for decades and expanded quickly across its surface. It was easy to settle in and took little effort to start up a small farming community in one of the fertile river valleys. In only a few decades Humans could have covered most of the planet, and yet they remained in their settlements, expanding only when needed. This was due to Jötunheimr's native residents.

The Jötun were not an aggressive people. So long as they were not disturbed they were happy to let the Humans go on with their lives peacefully. But if they felt that their territory was being infringed upon, they became an unstoppable force. This was something that the first colony had learned the hard way, when their expansions had moved too quickly and grew too close to the mountains the Jötun called home.

Trolls, most Humans called them. The Jötun were large and terrifying creatures, not advanced beyond stone tools and still living in caves. They had difficulty understanding and speaking Human language and so negotiation with them was extremely difficult. They kept to themselves in their mountain homes and the Humans did likewise in the lowlands and together they managed to coexist. But it did not take much to incite the Jötun to anger. Parents of children in the Human settlements warned their children away from the mountains lest they bring the wrath of the Trolls down upon them; they were told if they were naughty the Trolls would come in the night and steal them away up into those same mountains because a Troll's favorite food was Human children.

It was not long before the Trolls gained a reputation of being Godless, witless brutes that would kill a Human for the fun of it. They had transformed in the minds of the Humans from the gentle mountain creatures that they were to horrible monsters just waiting for the chance to do something heinous. It was not surprising that most of the crew of the Hofvar believed those same myths.

"Really, they aren't that bad," Aleksander argued as he brought the ship into a slow cruise over the green lands of the planet after coming through the atmosphere. "They don't like strangers, but with the way they've been treated by the Humans here it's hardly surprising."

But Mathias was still convinced that they would all be killed on sight when they tried to approach the homes of the Trolls. "What are we supposed to do, then? We're obviously strangers, and I don't feel like being crushed with a rock today."

"You're all strangers, sure, and they probably wouldn't like it if some random Humans came into their town and started asking questions," Aleksander replied. "Most Humans wouldn't even like it if some arrogant schmuck of an offworlder came walking into town like he owned the place."

"So what do we do then?" Mathias asked, completely missing the obvious insults to his person.

"Eiríkur and I will go," Aleksander replied simply, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What? No way!" Mathias argued. "I'm not letting you go in there to get killed by those things."

"They aren't things," Eiríkur argued, looking annoyed, "And we won't get killed."

"They know us," Aleksander continued where his brother left off. "We grew up here."

Mathias stared at them incredulously. "So? Isn't it the people here who warned everyone else about the Trolls? They'll probably hate you most of all."

"They're called Jötun, not Trolls," Eiríkur grumbled.

"Most of the people, sure," Aleksander stared out the window of the ship as it glided gently high over the treetops. "But they know me and Eiríkur. They won't hurt us."

"How do you know that?" Mathias asked.

"I just do," Aleksander finally snapped.

Eiríkur sighed and rolled his eyes. "When we were kids we got lost in the woods and wound up in the mountains somehow. We were really little and one of the Jötun found us."

"And they didn't eat you?" Mathias stared at him with wide eyes.

"Obviously," Eiríkur commented flatly. "Of course we thought they would at the time. But the Jötun took us back to the village and took care of us. I'd hurt my ankle at some point while we were lost and they treated it and kept us warm and fed until Aleks and I could leave, and then they showed us the way back home. They aren't dangerous, they're just very wary of strangers."

"And we used to spend a lot of time with them before we left the planet. That's probably why our parents moved, actually. So, there, you see. They won't hurt us, they're our friends," Aleksander replied. "Eiríkur and I will go in on our own and you and Tino and Berwald will stay here and wait. That's the best way. I'm fairly certain the Jötun have no use for the key, if they even really know what it is. If we ask nicely they'll probably hand it over with no trouble. They aren't using it and if they don't know what it is then they won't have any problems parting with it."

"And what if they don't recognize you?" Mathias asked. "I mean, you haven't been here since you were kids."

"I can speak their language. And no matter what you've been told they don't kill on sight," Aleksander replied. "I just need to talk to them."

Mathias still was not convinced. "Can't you at least take Tino with you?"

"No," Eiríkur shook his head. "They'll see his guns and then they really will kill us on sight. They'll think he's come to do them harm."

"What about the Swede, then?" Mathias asked. "He looks scary enough to frighten off a Troll."

"We will be fine, Mathias," Aleksander said, his voice tinged with annoyance. "We did this all the time when we were kids. I don't think it will be any harder now that we're grown up as long as we're cautious about the whole thing."

Mathias grumbled. He obviously still was not happy about this plan, but he did not voice any further complaints. He was at least smart enough to know when he had lost an argument; though it was not often that he won an argument against Aleksander.

Aleksander set them down at the base of a mountain, where the presence of their ship would not offend any Trolls and far enough from the closest Human settlement that they would probably go unnoticed by them as well. He had one more brief argument with Mathias, who attempted again to convince him not to go alone – although Aleksander was not alone, he had his brother with him, the pilot had argued – but ultimately and inevitably lost that argument as well.

And then Aleksander and Eiríkur were off. They left their ship mates behind with little more than a curt farewell and carrying nothing more than a small shoulder satchel with an old fashioned compass, a bottle of water and a hunting knife. Although Tino had attempted to press one of his smaller guns on them it had been refused.

It was not long before they disappeared from sight amidst the trees that grew on the mountain slopes and all that the remaining crew could do was wait. Mathias was impatient. He paced and grumbled and ranted and it was all Tino could do to keep him from going after them while trying to convince the captain to sit down and just try to keep calm. Berwald was oddly present on the main deck, which was actually helpful in keeping Mathias occupied, because while the captain was busy pretending not to worry about Aleksander and Eiríkur – but mostly Aleksander – he was insulting the engineer. Usually this would have upset Tino, but right now he had to let Berwald's self esteem suffer for the greater good. It was more important to keep Mathias from doing something stupid.

They waited for nearly an entire day. When the sun began to touch down on the horizon it was becoming nearly impossible to restrain Mathias. The captain would not sit down for anything, and had given Berwald a bloody nose the first and last time they had tried restraining him physically.

But just as the captain was proclaiming his final plan to go forth and rescue their two stray crew members – but mostly Aleksander – the two appeared through the trees, walking leisurely back toward the ship as though they had not a worry in the world.

Mathias, who had clearly feared that they had been captured and eaten by the Trolls, deflated immediately. But that did not stop him from running out to meet them halfway to the ship and grab them both by the shoulders and demand to know that they were unharmed, which they were. Aleksander, of course, brushed off his worry without a second thought, while Eiríkur grumbled about how annoying it was in the stubborn but flattered way that teenagers do. And they were both ushered back onto the ship quickly where they would be safe to tell everyone what had happened, as Mathias put it.

"How did it go?" Tino asked as Aleksander and Eiríkur were ushered inside by their captain, looking rather disgruntled as they let the other man herd them back onto the ship.

"It went fine," Aleksander replied as they walked down to the galley and he flopped down onto the sofa.

"Do we get to hear about it?" Mathias was the only one willing to ask directly, though Tino and Berwald were equally curious about what exactly had gone on with Aleksander, Eiríkur and the Trolls.

"There's not much to tell," Eiríkur replied, taking a seat beside his brother on the sofa, as he usually did.

The others were disappointed to say the least. They wanted to hear about the Trolls and the adventure that they had all imagined Aleksander and Eiríkur had had. "Nothing at all?" Mathias asked, pouting unhappily. "They didn't try to kill you or eat you or anything?"

"No," Aleksander sighed and shook his head. "I told you they are actually quite peaceful. All we had to do was talk to them."

"That's boring," Mathias sighed. He had wanted to hear a story of bravery and daring and, doubtlessly, have a reason to coddle Aleksander for the next few days. "Did you get the thing?" the captain asked, and that disappointment disappeared in moment as his eyes went wide with excitement now that the worry had worn off.

In response, Aleksander merely reached into the small bag they had brought with them and withdrew a small leather pouch. Mathias, Tino, and Berwald watched in anticipation as he opened it with what must have been purposeful sluggishness. Then, from within the leather pouch he withdrew, hung on the end of a long leather cord, an intricately carved diamond of that same unknown material identical to the one they had picked up on Muspellheim save the spherical gem in the center, which, in contrast to the red gem found on Muspellheim, was a deep emerald green.

"Wow," Mathias breathed, and reached out to take the artifact from Aleksander so he could look at it more closely as though to ensure that it was in fact the same thing that as the other piece. "Guess we did get the right thing on Muspellheim, huh?" he grinned and turned the artifact over in his hands.

"It would seem so," Aleksander replied.

"Awesome," Mathias turned his never failing grin on his four companions. "You know what this calls for? This calls for a celebration! How much alcohol do we have left?"

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They had a fair amount of alcohol left, enough for five men to get decently drunk on, at least. Mathias broke out their mismatched cups and three of their last bottles of vodka. He poured all of them a nearly full cup of the deceptively clear liquid and then raised his own to propose a toast. "We're halfway there, boys!" the captain announced with a triumphant grin. "Two keys down and two to go! And then we'll be rich and famous! So let's just hope that the next keys come as easily as these first did!"

That was definitely something they all hoped for, so the toast was had amidst the clinking of glasses and sloshing of overfull cups.

"And here's to Aleksander and Eiríkur," Tino raised his cup after taking a long swig, "For making this one so easy. Without you we probably would've had a lot more trouble."

"Here here!" Mathias agreed, and clinked his glass against Tino's with enough force to cause both of theirs to slosh over onto their hands. This did not seem to bother Tino, though, who merely lapped the stray drops from his fingers before taking a proper drink.

Amidst Mathias' overzealous toasting and both his and Tino's healthy appetite for alcohol causing them to run their cups empty before the toasts were through they made it through the first bottle of vodka quickly. Eiríkur was beginning to show the others that he had very little tolerance for alcohol. He slurred his speech slightly after only a few drinks and looked as though if he were to get up from the sofa he might not be able to stand up for very long. This was an endless source of amusement for Mathias, who kept trying to get the teen to turn his head quickly in order to watch him waver dizzily as he attempted to focus on a new spot. Eventually, Aleksander tired of watching this game and took the cup from his younger brother and hoisted him to his feet, practically dragging the young man back to their room to put him to bed. He returned to the galley a while later to help finish up the second bottle.

Tino had a surprisingly high tolerance for alcohol considering how small he was. He claimed it was because he was Finnish, and therefore had some sort of inherently better alcohol tolerance built into his genetics, but the others just assumed that he had much more experience drinking than most people of his stature. But even with this, he was starting to show signs of true drunkenness by the end of the second bottle. He and Mathias had undoubtedly had more to drink than any of the others.

When Mathias could no longer even sit upright in his chair and spilled more vodka than he managed to get in his cup when he tried to refill it, Aleksander decided that he had had enough and it was time for them to go to bed. Though by now he was fairly well smashed as well. So his attempts at helping Mathias were not terribly successful and together they staggered out of the galley, miraculously not running into anything on the way.

That left Tino and Berwald alone to clean up the residue of their little celebration, which included one broken bottle that had fallen onto the floor, a significant puddle on the table from various spillage throughout the night and of course their five cups and the two other empty bottles.

Tino placed his hands on the edge of the table as he pushed himself to his feet. "Woo..." He smiled a little as he wobbled in a wave of dizziness. "I'm a little drunk," he announced more to himself than to Berwald. Ignoring this, though, he picked up his empty cup and two others and began attempting to make his way to the sink to put them inside to be washed later. But halfway there he tripped over his feet and stumbled, falling against Berwald, who instantly caught him to keep him from falling. "Oops," Tino giggled softly. "Sorry."

"S' okay," Berwald assured him, and stood up, helping Tino back to his feet as well, then taking the cups from him to put in the sink.

"Berwald, are you drunk?" Tino asked, staring up at the taller man.

"'f course," Berwald replied, looking back down at him. Maybe not quite as drunk as Tino, but he was most certainly drunk. His cheeks were flushed slightly and his glasses were no longer sitting straight on his face.

"Good," Tino grinned, and grabbed onto the front of the man's shirt. "I'm really drunk," he informed the engineer.

"I c'n see," Berwald replied, with a hint of humor in his voice that Tino did not manage to catch.

Tino stared up at him for a long moment, those violet eyes boring a hole through Berwald in a way that probably would have made the engineer uncomfortable if he had been sober. Thankfully he was not sober, and neither was Tino. "You know," the sniper mumbled as he continued to stare at Berwald's face. "You're not actually that scary. You're just always glaring at everyone." Tino reached up with one hand and poked Berwald right between his eyebrows, just above where his glasses sat. "You shouldn't scowl so much. You'll get wrinkles."

Berwald stared back at him in surprise, but did not say anything. Tino was not waiting for a response though, and the smaller man just continued talking when he did not receive one. "Why're you always glaring anyway?" he asked, and let his hand drop back down to Berwald's chest. "You'd be much handsomer if you didn't look so angry all the time. Not that you're not handsome. Actually you're still really hot even when you are glaring, it's just a little off putting, you know?"

Berwald did not know, and honestly had no idea how to answer either of Tino's questions. He was not particularly aware of his constant glaring; it was just something that his face was used to doing. And anyway, he was much too flustered by the thought that Tino found him attractive.

"And you should talk more," Tino continued when he was not stopped. "Maybe if you did you wouldn't mumble so much. But, you know, I kind of like your accent even if it's really hard to understand what you're saying sometimes. And maybe if you talked more that would go away, so maybe you shouldn't talk more after all. But, anyway, if you stopped glaring at people and talked once in a while I bet they wouldn't think you're so scary. You know I used to think you were really scary until I started talking to you, and now I don't think you're scary at all."

Was that just the alcohol talking or did Tino actually think these things?

"Hey say something," Tino complained, and pouted up at Berwald, which was certainly the most adorable thing the engineer had ever seen. "I feel like I'm talking to myself here."

"Dunno what t' say," Berwald replied honestly, because he was at a complete loss. He would not have been very good at this even sober, and now his mind was muddled with alcohol.

Tino frowned. "Hey, Berwald, do you like me?" he asked.

That surprised the engineer, but he nodded. "Ja."

"Good. I like you, too," Tino told him, and stood up on his toes, pulling on Berwald's shirt both to keep himself steady and to pull the man down so he could press their lips together.

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