Worldwide Secrets - The Rewrite

4: Norwegain Secrets

"You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?" Denmark asks suddenly. "I bet you knew from the start that you'd loose the child!" He accuses.

"Denmark!" Finland gasps.

"Of course I did!" Norway rages, angry now. "Of course I knew that eventually I'd loose him! I could feel it the moment I felt him! But you know what, Denmark? I don't regret having him one bit!" Norway wipes the tears from his face and storms from the cabin, pushing past the other Nordics in search of his colonies.

"Way to go, Denmark," Sweden mutters.

"You never were the same," Denmark says quietly, looking at Norway. "After what happened. You don't smile as much as you used to, lille bror."

"I had no reason to," Norway answers, voice tight. "I brought a child into this world only to send him to his death. I shouldn't be able to smile after that."

"You still had Lolan, Duncan, Angus, Garði, Frøydis, Emil, and Amâlia, to smile for," Finland reminds him softly.  But, both Norway and Iceland shake their heads.

"I had to be strong for them," Norway corrects. "If I tried to smile, I would cry, and I couldn't cry in front of them, not when they needed me."

"Aye, I remember how worried Lolan and Angus were about ye," Scotland speaks up, making Denmark wince. "Those boys kept telling me how much it would break ye to loose anyone else. And they missed ye something terrible, kept begging to go back. And it started all over again when Duncan and Garthe arrived."

A soft look comes over Norway's face, not quite a smile, but not his usual neutral face either. "You took better care of them than I could at the time," Norway admits.

Scotland falls silent, wanting to deny it, but knowing that Norway wasn't exactly in the best states of mind to be taking care of all of his colonies when Scotland obtained Isle of Man and Hebrides in 1266 and Orkney and Shetland in 1472.

The other Nordics fall silent as well, likely remembering that time. Denmark looks especially guilty, as he was part of the cause for Norway's state of mind during the Union. He and his King Christian I were also the reason behind Scotland obtaining islands Orkney and Shetland.

"Let's just... move on," Norway says finally.

Once more, the scene shifts. Norway is in the forest outside of the colony, looking for something or someone. In a last ditch effort, he sinks to his knees in the snow.

"I know you're out here, and I mean you no harm. Please, I only wish to talk!" Norway calls out, using visible tendrils of magic to reach out to the hidden personification. He waits for a few moments more before the native woman appears from the trees. She sits cross-legged in the snow across from him and speaks before he can. The woman is Native North America.

"What is it you ask from me?" She asks him, her voice regal.

"My child, my son, he's the personification of the colony my people have built. He is dying and I fear that neither my people nor I cannot remain here much longer." Norway responds, tears pricking his eyes.

"You blame me for his state." The Ancient says.

"No!" Norway argues. "It would have happened anyway. I am not strong in the same sense my brothers are, and I already have other colonies. I knew from the start that eventually, he would die. I just tried to convince myself that he wouldn't."

"Then why trouble yourself with him?" She asks, not unkindly.

"I love him," Norway admits proudly. "He is my son, and from the moment I felt him, I loved him. That's why I am here. I can perform magic and there is a spell I can do that should allow him to live after Vinland is destroyed. It will use up the magic he possess and there's no guarantee that it will work, but if it does, will you look after him?"