The way we used to be

Chapter 1 / Take Thorfinn with you

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After losing his father Thorfinn hadn't been sure what to do. He felt terrible. While his father was fighting and getting killed, Thorfinn was at home, still grumbling about what a liar his father was. He had been worried, of course, but not as much as he had been upset. He hadn't even said goodbye to him the morning that he left; he had hid, and he regretted it so much.

If he could have changed it he would have gone with him, stowed away in a barrel on the ship. He would have told him he was sorry for yelling at him, and telling him that he loved him. But he never got the chance to do any of that.

He had yelled at Leif and the other men when they brought his family the news. At first, he hadn't believed them, but when nobody admitted it was a joke, he began to blame them, saying that they should have done more. Thorfinn didn't really mean it, and they all knew that, but they still felt it. Thorfinn had just needed to put a face on someone to blame.

After that, Thorfinn barely ate, and he didn't play with the other children anymore, and even when the adults would encourage the other children to invite him to play more, they would refuse and say that Thorfinn was too mean and too rough, and nobody could blame them for saying that. One of the kids' arms was still broken at this point, which had been Thorfinn's doing.

He was not the same little boy he had been when his father left.

Leif had left Iceland after a while, hoping that the boy would be alright. He promised to return very soon to see how the family was doing; after all, Thors had been such a dear friend, so he would make sure that his family was taken care of the best that he could, and so he did.

Leif visited Iceland more often than ever. Thorfinn was still not the same happy boy who would listen to his stories with wide eyes, and to support their family, young Ylva was getting married to Ari, who was of course secretly excited to marry his crush, and they quickly had a child, a son with jet black hair like his father and grandfather on his mother's side.

It was so strange to see the family change so drastically, and every time he remembered how they used to be, it nearly brought tears to his eyes.

He wanted to help. He would do anything just to see them be the way that they used to be, and just to see that boy smile again.

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"Leif" Helga approached Leif slowly one day as he carried boxes of goods onto his ship. He had stayed for over a week, and it was time for him to leave again.

"Oh, Helga." Leif set the box down and smiled at the woman. She looked sad, as she often did nowadays, but something seemed to weigh heavily on her as she stood with her hands folded in front of her next to Leif's ship. "Is something wrong?"

Instead of answering him, she asked a question. "You are leaving tomorrow, are you not?"

He sobbed and nodded slowly as he stepped closer to her. "Yes, I am. I wish I could stay longer, but we need to leave before the ice traps us."

It was always a race against time during the winter, when the ocean around Iceland and Greenland would freeze over.

"No, it might be for the better," she said, shaking her head. "Leif, I have a favor to ask of you."

He always wanted to help, and she knew that, but it was very rare that Helga asked for anything, and she was beginning to get a bit worried.

"Please take Thorfinn with you on your travels."

He gasped at her and her request. It had been a few years since Leif promised Thorfinn that he could one day sail on his ship, but Thorfinn had only just turned ten years old, and he was still grieving the loss of his father. Did he really need adventure more than he needed his family by his side and to be by theirs?