The Eternal Valkyrie: War of the Realms (HTTYD fic)

Part 28

Chapter 27

The gang blinked at Loki, while Loki blinked back without saying a word. "Well..... Uhm.... this is a surprise," Loki finally mumbled while looking around as he took a seat. "You didn't tell me you were bringing friends."

"Would you have really been here if I said I was?" Jerry asked with an eyeroll, not at all affected by the glare his father shot at him.

Loki let out a sigh as he ran his fingers through his short black hair. "We'll talk about this later. First I have to talk to Mrs. Dower about her collection." With that said he pulled out an ornate wooden box from the messenger bag that he had deposited next to the chair.

"Dearie didn't I tell you to call me Agnes," The old lady admonished. "So was there anything of value in there?"

"There was and there was not." Loki smirked as he handed the coin collection back to the woman. "Most of those coins were priced at around seventy dollars."

"You said most?" Astrid now asked as she had become quite curious. She couldn't understand how old coins could increase in value.

"Yes most. However there happen to be quite a few Thalers in there."

"I'm confused," Snotlout said. "What is a Thaler?"

"Don't you know your own history?" Loki frowned as he crossed his legs.

Dagur spoke up before Snotlout could open his mouth to start an argument "The Thaler, or sometimes also called a Daalder in Dutch, is the original word from which the Dollar is derived from. It started with the Dutch, right here in this very city." Dagur now went into lecture mode. "This area was a Dutch trading colony in the 17th century. It was called the New Netherland settlement and the capital was right here where Manhattan now stands. Though then, Manhattan was called New Amsterdam."

"Wait, I'm still confused." Snotlout mumbled. "How do we get the dollar from there?"

"I'm getting to that pipsqueak," Dagur grumbled as he flicked Snotlout on the forehead. Snotlout shouted at the flick and rubbed his forehead while muttering that he wasn't small.

"It was a fur trading colony belonging to the Dutch West India Company. How do you suppose they did business?" Dagur raised a brow when he asked that rhetorical question. "They introduced European currency, then called a Thaler in English or Daalder in Dutch. The area stayed in Dutch hands for about...... forty years." Dagur thought for a moment. "Then the British conquered it and renamed it New York after the Duke of York. A lot of things happened," Dagur went on saying. "At one time the Dutch conquered the area again and renamed New York 'New Orange'. Then it was ceded back to the English and gained its old name." At this point Snotlout sniggered.

"Why are you laughing?" Dagur asked with a frown.

"Because the people from then had to be pretty crazy to name a city after a fruit." Snotlout answered as if it was obvious. This however earned him another flick from Dagur.

"New Orange was named after William the 2nd, Prince of Orange." Dagur nearly rolled his eyes as he explained this. "As in a member of the Dutch royal family."

"Ooooooh!" Snotlout said. "So we got the Dollar from the Dutch!"

"Nooooo...." Dagur bit his lips as his arms waved a bit erratically around. "Linguistically the Dollar is derived from the Thaler. But we have the Spanish to thank for the original monetary definition."

"Now I'm confused." Snotlout mumbled.

"Currency comes and currency goes," Dagur stated with a flourish. "The Dutch dollars were later replaced with the Spanish pesos or Spanish dollars around the time of the American Revolution. The Spanish dollars had a precise amount of silver in them and that was the unit used to define the current US currency. Heck, even the dollar sign we all use stands for an abbreviation of 'Spanish peso'." Dagur shrugged nonchalantly and then looked around. Jerry had a bemused smile on his face while he took another biscuit, Sigyn was soaking up all the information, Loki gave him a small clap while Snotlout and Astrid looked at him like he had gone crazy. Hiccup seemed to have been the only one not fazed by his lecture.

"How...... How did you know all that?" Snotlout asked and received a cuff on the head from Dagur who rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time.

"Did you forget I used to work in a museum?!" Dagur grumbled. "While my field is Greek history I do like to read other books."

"Well....." Snotlout mumbled. "You did raise a mummy from the dead."

"I apologized for that!" Dagur exclaimed. "And Hiccup ain't grumbling about it. He has a girlfriend now!" Both Hiccup and Astrid blushed at that. "I mean just look at the two! So lovey-dovey!"

"I think we are getting off topic here," Hiccup let out a fake-cough to hide some of his embarrassment.

"Dude, there is nothing to be ashamed of about seducing an old mumm-OUCH!" Dagur shouted as Astrid planted the heel of her boot on his toes. "I mean..... I mean...... seducing a valiant and beautiful Viking war goddes!!" Dagur crooned out, immediately changing his tune, as he bent down to rub his injured foot. Astrid seemed mighty pleased with that and no one bothered to say anything else.

"Such a wonderful history lesson," Mrs. Dower said as she plied them all with more baked goods. She also proceeded to hand Loki a tin while saying "For your troubles dearie."

Jerry, who was sitting next to Sigyn, bent down a bit to whisper to her "Don't touch that tin. Dad gets very territorial about his baked goods." Sigyn merely raised a brow as she played the silent observer.

Loki handed Jerry a set of keys and said to the group "Why don't you all head on upstairs while I finish a quick discussion with Agnes. We can discuss whatever brought you all here in a few minutes."

The group nodded and said their goodbyes to the old lady before heading outside. "Well that went well so far," Astrid said as the wind whipped her bangs about. Jerry however was frowning.

"What's the matter Jerry?" Astrid asked confused.

"When my dad says we'll discuss things it usually means a big fat no." He groaned and threw his head back. "Every time!"

"Dude, it can't be that bad." Snotlout stated.

"I sincerely doubt that," Toothless who had been silent for the journey suddenly spoke up within Hiccup's mind. He couldn't come out in brought daylight right now but the dragon could make his opinion known.

"What were you doing?" Hiccup thought back at the dragon. He had been wondering since it had been far too quiet in his head.

"Napping," The Nightfury stated casually causing Hiccup to roll his eyes.

"Dad can I get a pet snake? We'll discuss it later," Jerry groaned as he started to sum some events up. "Dad can Hella and I go catch piranhas? We'll discuss it later. Dad can I eat the giant spider now? We'll discuss it later."

"Giant spider?" Dagur frowned and raised a brow out of curiosity.

"To be fair, that event wasn't my fault." Jerry stated. "Hella just had to raise a giant spider that preyed on livestock and to be fair they are delicacies on Vanaheim!"

"Eeeeeeuw!" Dagur actually cringed.

"They taste like chicken," Jerry shrugged.

"Don't let Tuffnut hear you say that."

"He'd be offended that I eat chickens?" Jerry asked perplexed.

"No. He'd want a giant spider too." Hiccup sighed. As crazy as the twins were he didn't think it was a good idea to introduce them to giant spiders yet.

Meanwhile, back on Niflheim, Ymir was growing impatient. "Where are those fools!"

AN: I know, I know. The update is late. I was hit by a serious writers block on the weekend. So here I am at 6AM finally finishing this chapter. On another note: I WENT TO SEE HTTYD3 AND IT WAS GREAT!!! (insert long fangirl scream here cause author is too lazy)