Pre-Kalmar Union, ca. 1350

(( I'm guessing Ice looks about six or seven here ;w;" ))

Sindri found himself standing inside the door of Sweden's house, after Norway and Sweden left for a meeting. How it was that different than normally going to see the man, which he had done before with Iceland trailing behind, the white-haired boy wasn't quite sure. Norway was never very talkative, and just told him to "be good to Finland."

Whomever that even was. Sindri had heard the name, but hadn't actually seen this "Finnland" before. In fact, he really hadn't seen much of Europe before, come to think of it. A hundred years since Norway had taken him in, and he'd only seen Sweden a few times before today, and he'd never seen another person with the scary man anywhere. Perhaps Sweden was a bad guardian; Norway always insisted on taking Iceland with him because he was being "responsible."

Well, if Finland was a colony like Sindri himself, that is. Norway always said that he and Sweden and Denmark had been vikings at some point, and vikings were the ones who came and found him in the first place, so it would make sense, anyway. It'd be nice to have someone to play with, Iceland supposed, if Norway was going to make a habit of this. As long as Finland wasn't like Faroes. She was no fun to play with.

Sindri brushed off his newly-clean, brown tunic (more out of habit than anything, since Norway had insisted he be neat and presentable today) and looked around the room curiously, coughing a bit. He wished Norway hadn't insisted his beloved puffin stay outside. The boy folded his arms awkwardly, having no bird to hug close, and wondered how long his guardian would be gone for.

A small Tino was nervously sitting in the corner by the little table he'd helped Sweden build a few years ago. Not that he'd been of much help, he supposed. He'd already spent centuries in this house, centuries of feeling completely useless. Sometimes he wondered why Sweden wanted him here and if it wasn't for the forests of Sweden being so alike his own at home he thought he would have gone crazy by now.

Despite being so insanley scary at times, Sweden was a nice man. In the long run it was probably a good thing for them both they had become this country together. Tino was lucky. Otherwise he would most likely have been a part of Novgorod, the scary man in the south east. And that scared Tino even more than Berwald did.

But now they finally had an official eastern border. Something that man wasn't allowed to cross. And that really made him feel safe. So, he had decided he would follow Berwald no matter what. It was the two of them together, a western and an eastern half of the Kingdom of Sweden, together. Tino was sure they'd make it just fine like that.

But lately it had started to seem like there was something that kept Berwald worried. He'd been seeing Denmark and Norway an awful lot lately, never telling Tino anything about what it was all about. It made Tino quite uncomfortable and worried. He wished there was something he could do, whatever was going on. Even if it wasn't anything bad, he just wanted to be allowed to be a part of it. But he stayed at home like a good boy, making sure there was no excessive dust anywhere in their little house.

This time he wasn't left alone though. Norway had brought his little colony here. A boy named Ísland, he'd heard. He supposed it must be a fitting name, considering how far away Berwald had explained the island was. To think that Tino sometimes felt cold here... It must be nothing compared to what this boy was experiencing!

Berwald had told him to take care of the smaller boy while he and Norway were gone off to Denmark's place, and what else could Tino do than comply? Even though he'd never met the boy before, and he was so awfully shy around new people. But he'd promised, so here he was, awkwardly looking at the boy inside of the door.

After a little while he got up without a word and poured some water fro a bucket into a pot and placed it over the fire in the little fireplace. Then he stood there watching it until it started forming small bubbles, which is when he used a stick to take it back out and mix the hot water with some of the berry juice he and Berwald had made a few days ago. If you kept them outside in the cold the juice could last all winter, it was really useful.

He poured the drink into two of Berwald's handmade tree cups and walked over to the younger boy with one cup in each hand. As he got to the other side of the little room he held out one of the cups to the slightly shorter little boy and decided it was worth a smile. "Here you are."

Sindri turned and saw a boy about his age, perhaps older (who knew, when it came to them anyway?) who had gotten up from across the room and was offering him warm juice. He took it from him, the cup very warm against his hands through the smooth wood.

"Thankyou," Sindri replied, and was again rather lost on what to say. He wished Norway was there, who was always so good at dealing with these sorts of situations. He smiled nervously back at the other boy.

"Finland... right? Nice to meet you." he said, a bit unsure of what to say to the boy. He wanted to be polite, at least, and that was better than the uncomfortable silence. And 'Hello, I was dropped off here I'm not really sure why' didn't seem like the best thing to say either. He sipped some of the juice, which tasted for the most part like Norway's. It was a comfort.

The smile on Finland's lips grew a little as the younger boy greeted him and tried the juice. Hopefully he liked it, there had been so much work in picking all the berries. Many hours out in the forest.

"Yes, that's me... you can call me just Fin." The last part came out a little mumbled, as he ended up finding it awkward while he was already saying it. He quickly lifted his own treemug and took a sip. There was really no point in making it awkward and being shy but Finland just couldn't really help it. He'd spent so many years alone before coming here all these new people still felt strange, even after centuries.

"...And you're Ísland, right...?"

Tino turned around a little, hinting for the boy to follow him back to the table and sat down, placing his cup in front of him but keeping both his hands wrapped around it, letting it keep his hands warm.

Sindri gave him a smile. Somehow, it was comforting to the boy to know he wasn't the only shy one. "The juice is good," he said truthfully. He really did love berries and the juice; not that they drank much of it back home-- they didn't have the same sort of berries-- but it was delicious all the same.

"Fin? Alright, Fin it is then." He said, trying to be friendly. He didn't do anything wrong, did he? If he did, he didn't mean to. He didn't really understand people from the mainland too well himself, or at least they seemed unpredictable to him. He wished his puffin was here with him instead of outside.

"Mhm," Sindri responded. He wrapped both hands around the warm tree mug and followed Finland to the table, copying him and still warming his hands up. There was a bit of an awkward silence while Iceland thought of something to say.

"Do you know what they're talking about?" He asked the other boy, meaning the older Nordic nations who'd left them here, of course. Just the fact that it was being kept so secret from him made Iceland extremely curious. Not that being tight-lipped was any different than life with Norway in general, but this seemed more important than normal seeing as he wasn't even brought along.

The short silence and staring into the warm cup was cut short by Iceland's question. He glanced up for a little while before looking back down at the steam rising from the mug in his hands and shaking his head a little.

"I have no idea... Berwald wouldn't tell me anything..."

But Finland was sure something out of the ordinary was going on. Never had Sweden left him alone like this without a word of explanation. Most of the times he at least tried to cover it up with some mumbled lies that always failed. But all these times lately... He knew they'd gone to Denmark's place. Every single time.

"...But... I'm sure it's nothing bad at least." He looked up and smiled again. Despite not being entirely sure of this he wanted to be. So he smiled. And whatever Sweden considered neccessary probably was... So Finland would take care of the house when he was gone.

How strange indeed. "Oh. Norway wouldn't say anything either.."

It only made Iceland's imagination wander farther in knowing absolutely nothing about it. He sipped the berry juice, and pondered. It must have been extremely important or dangerous; Norway left him with Denmark, once, but then afterward, said he wasn't keen on doing that again. Wonder why, Denmark had been much more fun to play hide-and-seek with too, since he was so bad at it.

"Mm.. I hope so too," he replied, and smiled back at Fin. He seemed a bit unsure, though Iceland was pretty sure they were all on okay terms. Maybe. He didn't like to concern himself with that, usually. He was only in Norway's house because he made a little mistake-- a bit of fighting broke out-- okay, when he got horribly sick because of the civil wars, so Norway adopted him back. Still.

"Maybe... they're battling a troll." He had an enthralled look on his face as he suggested the idea. Most likely they were just discussing politics and stuff over food, but trolls were entirely plausible.

Finland couldn't help but laugh out softly at that comment. Not because of it being about trolls, no Finland knew they existed as much as Iceland did, but the way he said it was somehow so... filled with excitement.
He put down his cup of juice and gesticulated with his hands in the air, illustrating what he meant while saying;

"Maybe yes! A really big and hairy one!"

Trolls were one thing he hadn't been used to from home. At home he had giants and small nissar just like here, but trolls weren't as frequent sights. Not that Fin had ever seen one himself here either. But no one had to, the nature told it's tale.The forest was and had always been magical.

It was funny though, how a simple troll could make any worries about political changes or anything get smaller. Finland kept describing how he imagined the troll, with greasy hair, greenish skin and bulging eyes, hands still moving in the air and eyes locked on Iceland as he fantazised out loud.

Iceland had only heard stories of these gruesome, man-eating trolls. His trolls back home were few and far between, and mostly lived solitary lives. Quite different than the Húldufólk, with whom he lived side by side. It was just part of life to share the land with the Húldufólk, who lived in bluffs, hills, rocks, everywhere except inside the lava, really. One had to be careful not to intrude upon places where they lived. Though, on Christmas, the Húldufólk would occasionally storm the house, or come and eat the food left for them, per tradition. But life seemed very different on the mainland.

And Finland must have seen many of these mainland trolls, by the way he was describing them. Iceland hung onto his every word, nodding occasionally and sipping his berry juice.

"It must be an especially horrible troll," Iceland added, Finland's vivid description adding to his excitement. "And that's why they all went out together!"

It did make their worries seem farther away, and distract Iceland, at least, from pondering listlessly about what it all meant.