Berwald Oxenstierna and the Road Trip From Hell

Chapter 5

There was silence. Well, not complete silence since the cars passing by had no respect for dramatic moments, but there was mostly silence. Everyone was looking at the puffin. The puffin looked back. If Berwald hadn't known better, he would have thought that the puffin looked pretty pissed off at being discovered. Except it was a puffin. So, you know, it didn't really have expressions.

Everyone watched as the bird struggled out of the silver haired boy's jumper and perched on his head, pruning it's feathers. Then it stopped, pausing in it's beauty session and turning its head, almost as if it was inspecting the gathering of humans around it. Berwald almost missed what happened next, the bird was moving so fast, but he managed to turn his head quick enough to see the puffin cannonball towards Mathias.

Mathias' eyes widened and he tried to turn away, but he was too late. The ball of feathers hit him dead on, claws outstretched. The Dane helplessly tried to pull it off his face to no avail, and the puffin continued to attack him, pushing him over. Mathias blindly stumbled towards Lukas, one hand outstretched.

Lukas raised an eyebrow, "Go find someone else to save you."

Mathias sank to his knees, "Betrayal! Traitor!" He cried out through the flurry of feathers, before lying on the pavement. The puffin looked satisfied with its work, and flew back to the silver haired boy's head.

"So..." Asked Tino cautiously, looking at Mathias' still body, "No offence but... Where did you get a puffin from?"

"Nowhere." The boy replied, scowling.

Lukas nudged Mathias with the tip of his shoe, "Well, considering we're standing outside a zoo and the security lights have been flashing for at least two minutes now, I'd say you stole it."

Mathias jumped up off the floor, looking suddenly (and worryingly) happier by learning that they were standing in front of a criminal. "Wanna come with us?" He said, a huge grin on his face.

The boy looked like he was about to laugh, "Why would I do that?"

Berwald sighed. He really didn't have time for this, either the boy was going to come with them or not. "The zoo w'rkers h've been look' ng 't us f'r a while now. I think the p'lice 're on their w'y."

The boy's already pale skin drained of it's remaining colour. He looked behind him quickly, as if to check that there wasn't a policeman standing behind him at that very moment, before muttering "And what if I don't come with you?"

"Then we report you to the police!"
Said Mathias, putting his hands on his hips proudly.

"There are so many flaws in that pl-" Started Lukas, only to be stopped by Mathias pressing his finger to his lips.

"Hush, traitor." Whispered Mathias, before turning back to the silver haired boy, "So what is it? Join the Nordic Squad or prison?"

"Nordic Squad?" Asked Tino, and was ignored.

"I'll come..." Said the boy dejectedly.

""Great!" Grinned the Dane, fist pumping happily, "But we're gonna need your name!"

The boy sighed, probably going through every possible escape route that he could possibly think of that meant he wouldn't have to go with a bunch of strangers, before accepting his fate. "My name's Emil Steilsson."