Chapter Text
Yesterday, he was Ellen, but today, Azure was the name he would cherish from now on. He flew the village he once called home with a short-to-little baggage and spent all he had on travelling to the capital. There, a small boy was yelling the news. Nothing he atrociously shouted was very appealing at first —although he did want to make everyone and the noises they made disappear because his handmade earplugs didn’t work that much— but that wasn’t the important thing. As the kid spoke, a crowd began to form around him. Azure approached the commoners and listened carefully.
There apparently was an expedition to go cartography the famous land of the Vikings in Iceland. Rumours as it that they’re just some harmless fishermen in that place.
Azure had a itty bitty fixation on learning about new cultures. He already knew how to speak French, Spanish, Latin, Old Norse and was still learning about Russian. How did he manage to learn all that? He came from novelty. Every paper he wanted, access was granted to him. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t born a male, he convinced his parents that knowing more languages made him a greater bride with wider wedding options. They fell right into his plan, to his personal happiness.
He got the informations as to where to apply for the job and, showing off his linguistic skills and noble statue, got in the crew.
Looks like his parents didn’t put his head on a wanted poster fast enough!
1 week later, they were setting sail. A brand new chapter in his life could begin- he managed to stay alive for the 16 days of the trip. The only thing a bit interesting that happened were the storms and oh-!
He was now the captain of the mission.
The first one died due to a rather violent storm. He tripped and fell head first down the stairs to his cabin. Anyways, he was revising some Old Norse linguistic papers when a voice rose above any other one.
"LAND!"
His orders flew around and they accosted the boat. He yelled in a low, masculine tone.
It took him 2 years to get a voice that passed as a man and it was worth the while.
A group of vikings came to see what they were doing here.
"Can’t wait to see if the women are as beautiful as they say. Do you think we get to take back some of them home?"
One of the crewman joked.
Well, Azure wasn’t completely sure it was a joke, because Dagbert had a long list of quotes with sex-offending messages, thus the chances he was actually making a pun were closer to none.
He still laughed along with his peers as if it was funny, fitting perfectly into the crowd.
(Enfaite, Azure n'était pas complètement sûr qu'il s'agissait d'une blague, car Dagbert avait une longue liste d'antécédents criminels, donc les chances qu'il fasse réellement une plaisanterie étaient presque nulles. Il riait quand même avec ses collègues, s'intégrant parfaitement à la foule.)
“Crap. Do I look normal? Or am I exhaling air too loudly? Are they noticing? When do I stop. Does everybody just know when you need to stop? Ok they stopped, I’ll go back to the common expression my face contorts into to mimic other human beings.”
The boy’s thoughts were crowding the rest of his brain, he didn’t even realize the sailors were now stepping down on the land.
Before they could do anything too stupid and/or careless, Azure joined them and made his way to the front, leading the parade.
ᚹᚺᛟ -
(Who-)
The leader didn’t got to finish his sentence that Azure maladroitly cut him off.
ᚷᚱᛖᛖᛏᛁᚾᚷᛋ, ᚹᛖ ᚨᚱᛖ-
(Greetings, we are-)
Azure was having a hard time keeping his enthusiasm to himself and it showed.
The brits were looking at him weirdly, whether it was his fiddling of fingers or rocking motion that set them off.
The one who looked like the leader of the band seemed to not be able to give a single fuck about who they were.
ᚤᛟᚢ ᛋᛈᛖᚨᚴ ᛏᚺᛖ ᛗᛟᛏᚺᛖᚱ ᛏᛟᚾᚷᚢᛖ?
(You speak the mother tongue?)
Umm.. ᛁ ᚨᛗ ᚨᛒᛚᛖ, ᛒᚢᛏ ᛁ’ᛗ ᚨᚠᚱᚨᛁᛞ ᛏᚺᛖᚤ ᚲᚨᚾᚾᛟᛏ. ᚹᛖ ᚨᚱᛖ ᚲᚨᚱᛏᛟᚷᚱᚨᛈᚺᛖᚱᛋ!!
(Umm.. I am able, but I’m afraid they cannot. We are cartographers!!)
ᛋᛁ ᚡᛟᚢᛋ ᚾ’ᚨᚡᛖᛉ ᚱᛁᛖᚾ ᚨ ᚾᛟᚢᛋ ᛟᚠᚠᚱᛁᚱ, ᛃᛖ ᚡᛟᚢᛋ ᚲᛟᚾᛋᛖᛁᛚᛚᛖ ᛞᛖ ᛞᛖᚷᚨᚷᛖᚱ ᚨᚡᚨᚾᛏ ᛞᛖᛏᚱᛟᛈ ᚡᛟᚢᛋ ᚨᛗᛟᚲᚺᛖᚱ.
(Well we don’t need that here, so we’re giving you one chance to go back to where you came.)
Well. For some "impitoyable mercenaries", they were rather merciful.
"Ah.. well, so long then!"
Azure signalled his peers to go back in the boat.
"It’s no big deal, we’ll just have to start by another chunk of the island and if there are Vikings there too, we’ll cartography Iceland by outlining it."
The crew made out of unmotivated men who just wanted the money started laughing.
"Didn’t know he had a sense of humour!"
One of them joked.
Azure’s eyebrows frowned and he asked
"You didn’t know because we don’t interact often. Also, what’s funny about what I said?"
"We won’t go cartography an island filled with dangerous savages. Let’s go back to the motherland and ask for an army to go and cleanse it! Then, we can come back to cartography the territory."
"And make another trip of 16 days? Come on gentlemen, we cannot possibly let this occasion go to waste!"
"We’re not wasting it, we’re just pushing it to later."
"In case you didn’t hear, I am the one commanding the mission since Captain O’Burgh died. Let’s just go to the other end of the island and then we’ll see if coming back is the best outcome."
This is how they moved away from the shore and when the island had almost disappeared from their field of vision, they went around Iceland.
The next day at noon, they set up camp and began their task. No Vikings were seen in this area. The days passed
–7 to be more precise–
and it was necessary to realize the obvious; if they wanted to map further, they had to go deeper into the territory.
But that was a challenge for tomorrow, this evening was the last one they would enjoy being more or less safe.