FANTASY | FICTION | VIKINGS | STORMBORN
Journeys of Regret
Stormborn — The Legend of the Storm Maiden, Chapter 3
“Do I pay you for sleeping?”
Startled by the sudden sound, Ylva jerked and almost fell off a big barrel she was sitting on. She half turned around to look at Naihi’s amused face and kind dark-brown eyes. She had known the merchant with the onyx skin and curly grey hair for all of her life, but she had never learned to foresee when he would sneak up on her or play a friendly prank. Naihi Teira, eternally unable to hide his enigmatic smile behind his short grey beard, was as much her uncle as Fjell and Lifa were her parents. He was the counsel Ylva sought when she couldn’t talk to her parents or those few friends she hadn’t chased away. “I am sorry. I ….” “You have dreamed of places far away. I know,” the elderly merchant spoke between heavy breaths, trying to clamber up on a crate next to Ylva, “Climbing these became a burden long ago. Can’t you brood on the ground, child?”
Both laughed as the older man sat down on the crate with a big smile and a triumphant fist. They sat silently before Naihi pointed toward the fjord and the open sea. It felt like he wanted to direct Ylva back to the solitary thoughts he had interrupted.
“You know, Ylva, sometimes, it is better to regret a journey than turn regret into your journey.”
“That is easy to say for the brave merchant that has travelled the world just to settle here — for whatever ominous reason.”
Naihi chuckled heartily. He extended his right hand to point at the fjord in a strange fashion, with his entire hand extended and the palm showing toward the sky. Why not just point with one finger like everyone, Ylva thought? She never stopped wondering how many little details of Naihi’s culture might have been lost when he eventually sailed up that fjord to settle in Stolthavn.
“This ‘brave merchant’ was once a scared boy,” he said, his voice resembling that of a skald telling a story, “Like you, I wondered what the world looked like beyond the horizon. All I knew was that vibrant belt of green along the coast of my homelands. I still know it as well as every item in my shop.”
He lowered his voice and pointed toward the building behind them.
“Although I settled here after falling in love with that strange, stubborn and wonderful woman, that fertile green land tucked between a desert and the ocean will always be my home.”
“Desert? That was the sandy land, right?”
“Yes, you could call it like that,” Naihi chuckled again, “But the point is, I would rather have regretted my first journey than live my life regretting I never did. Sometimes, we have to leave our lives behind to find ourselves.”
Ylva smiled insecurely before gazing at the fjord again.
“I can’t just leave. There are my parents,” she looked around as if searching for something, “and your shop, of course. Who will carry your wares.”
“You are not made to be a shopkeeper like me or to run an inn like your parents. Like your father, before he had to decide between love and adventure, you are far too free-spirited and wild to be bound to one place. It will be a waste if you spend your life carrying an older man’s crate without ever knowing who you are. That is like spending your last water building a sand castle in the desert.”
Ylva blushed and made an awkward expression.
“I know how to build a sand castle, but I have no clue what you mean.”
“You can use your last water to build a sand castle, but the heat of the desert will quickly dry it so that it falls apart. You will have wasted your chance of survival on a fruitless endeavour without a chance to reach the next oasis.”
Naihi smiled at the young thoughtfully-looking woman.
“And now, get those crates out of my way, dear.”
He chuckled happily on his way back to his store after seeing her puzzled expression. Like always, his laughter was infectious. Before Ylva could do anything about it, she returned to carrying Naihi’s heavy crates with a smile.
Neither saw the creature watching them from its hiding place in the seagrass. Slowly, two scaly, webbed hands clawed their way along the bottom of the harbour, closing the distance to Ylva. When it reached the wooden platform of the dock, it silently emerged from the water, ready to sneak up behind Ylva.
The thunderous sound of a horn suddenly echoed through the fjord. The creature slid back into the water as citizens of Stolthavn rushed out of their houses and to the waterfront, frantically cheering and blasting horns to welcome a fleet of longships rowing up the fjord. Repelled by the deafening sound, the creature carefully retreated into the tangle of seagrass and disappeared into the deep water.
Three young women hurried past Ylva, one shouting at her manically between breaths.
“He is back! He is back! Balder has returned!”
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