The tide turns

Chapter 6 / His first friend

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In the days to come, Gudrid never stopped asking questions, even as her head became clearer every day, she still wasn't perturbed by Thorfinn's harsh demeanor.

He came back every day, bringing her food and water, and on the fourth day, when she complained a little about her arm, he sat down and remade the splint so that that annoying and persistent piece of wood that had been digging into her arm wouldn't bother her any longer.

She asked questions, and she was lucky if he answered, but she was glad to have learned a few things about him.

He had let it slip that he had a sister, though she didn't know if it was a younger or older one.

He was "the son of Thors" as he had proudly and even a little defensively proclaimed shortly after she learned his name.

He was 16, so just 3 years older than she was.

And he was...

"A traveler?" Gudrid gasped excitedly. She had finally gotten around to one of the more important questions. Why was Thorfinn in England and not Iceland. His hesitant answer was that he was a traveler. "So you travel all over England?"

"Yes"

"And all alone too?" She asked, but then continued to take Thorfinn's silence as agreement. "I'm really jealous... you actually managed to do it. Look what happened to me when I tried the same..."

Just as she had learned more about him, Thorfinn had had to endure her blabbering, and so he learned more about her as well.

He knew how and why she had ended up on the beach, stealing a boat after being denied the opportunity to see the world by Leif. When Thorfinn was younger he had wanted the same out of life that Gudrid did. He had also begged Leif to go with him, and had been upset when he wouldn't allow him to, he had however never thought of the idea of stealing a boat and going on alone.

"So, where have you been? What have you seen?"

He looked at her and then looked away. "A lot of places... the world really isn't anything special. It's all the same", especially the people. No matter where he went people were always the same, greedy violent fools... most of them... it was rare to meet good people, like the woman that had brushed his hair... he did his best not to think of her; as he would do his best not to think of Gudrid after she was gone.

"No!" She shouted, he wondered if she worsened her own headache when she did that. "That just can't be true. I mean, just like at this place! The trees!"

"The trees?"

"Look how big they are"

He looked over his shoulder. The trees were... just normal trees, not even that large compared to larger oak trees Thorfinn had come across. "Are you stupid?"

"You got some nerve!" She picked up a branch like she was gonna thrown it, but then she stopped, scrunching up her nose. "Wait do you have big trees on Iceland?"

"No"

"Then..." she spread her arms out, still holding the branch in her hand. "Were you never excited to see how big trees were? I mean... they're just so big. If i fell from the top of that tree there i could die"

The tree she gestured to really wasn't that big. It would hurt, maybe she would break her other arm, but unless she unluckily landed on her neck, she wouldn't die. He gave her an unimpressed look, tempted to ask her to prove it.

"Don't just give me that look... there had to be something about this land that surprised you". Gudrid had learned that Thorfinn was different, he didnt express his thought or emotions, so much so that she wondered if he had as many emotions as a normal human. He never smiled or laughed, he only frowned or stared blankly, spoke condescendingly, monotonously or shouted, but she just refused to believe that he was unable to be amazed by the wonder of the world. "I mean, if it all means so little to you, then why do you still travel around the place?"