Aasif's Quest for Love

The waves were rough, and I was in the perfect mood to enjoy them. The sky was overcast with dark, ominous clouds that danced among themselves while they threatened to rain upon us all. While some of my brothers huddled together for warmth and shelter, I laid prostrate on the highest point of our boat.

I didn't care about the cold, nor did I notice it. The only thing that was real to me was the power of the ocean before me. Watching thousands of cubic feet of water rush past me at a hundred miles an hour was as exhilarating as it was terrifying.

The cold wind whipped past my face as I watched the water churn from the force of my tribe's boats. We had come from Norway, near what is now Sweden, and we were heading south ahead of the winter. It was just after lunch today when we began to see dark clouds gathering above us, and they hadn't moved since.

No one spoke; no one dared disturb the tranquility of nature's fury surrounding us. All we could do was watch in awe as the sea transformed itself into a deadly monster. Higher waves crashed down upon us again and again, but we stayed strong against their might. We were not afraid of them; after all, we were reapers sent from the gods to harvest crops from land that most would deem worthless or barren rocks in an endless ocean.

We were fearless in our explorations because nothing could stop us once we set sail, nothing could deter us once we decided where to go and what to do when we arrived there, and certainly nothing could make us turn back home once we started on a journey north or south or east or west across this boundless expanse of water that surrounded our tiny island home.

Even so, I found myself reminiscing more than ever today. As a child, I learned to fish with my father and grandfather; I helped them gather seaweed and clams along the coast while they taught me what they knew about our people's history as well as how to live off the land when fishing became too difficult or dangerous, or circumstances required us to move inland for a time rather than remain near the shoreline where my forefathers first landed all those generations ago.

I remembered my father talking about how life was hard before he met my mother, how he spent his days sailing out into the ocean searching for food not only for himself but also for his tribe, who had little else to eat besides fish and whatever plants could be harvested from around the island during different seasons. He told me how he loved being out on his boat alone with only his thoughts for company, how he loved having time to think about all sorts of things without interruption from anyone else, and how he would use that time to chat with the gods and ponder why they created such an enormous body of water filled with fish instead of just flooding everything with land so that his tribe wouldn't have had to spend so many years trying to survive by eating sea creatures while living on their small island.

My father stopped talking at this point in our story sessions because I always put up a big fuss whenever he tried telling me more than that last part about family not caring about feelings when someone like him wasn't around anymore. And now, I'm stuck dealing with his widow who doesn't want anything more to do with me, especially now that she has someone new moving into her house.

* * * * *

"What are those?" asked Aasif's young brother Tumir as he pointed towards something odd floating within viewing distance beyond one end of their boat's deck. Aasif looked up from where he lay earlier, watching waves crash upon each other as far as he could see both ahead and behind him before finally settling upon what Tumir pointed towards: two large objects bobbing gently atop the current high above them. Unlike most floating objects, these larger bits bobbed gently up and down almost rhythmically, never seeming quite close enough together for either object to touch another yet always maintaining their distance apart without stopping along their journey through the water around them toward wherever they were headed next.

"They look like eggs," said Hjorvardr, another younger brother-at-arms alongside Tumir who stood beside him, staring at the strange pair floating above them. "But what kind?" Hjorvardr continued after noticing Aasif shaking his head, clearly puzzled by their mysterious nature. Neither of them had seen any objects of this type before, leaving them wondering if these were normal or abnormal materials shaped like eggs.

Some eggs can be hard, others can be soft, but these were something entirely different, unlike any they had encountered during their sea travels. They pondered if these floating objects were worth examining further, potentially providing valuable insights and discoveries for their tribe. Regardless, the two large objects continued to float on, drifting further away just like the myriad thoughts that filled the minds of those aboard the boat.