I thought I wouldn't have time to write anything. But then I realized I already had notes for a reunion of sorts, related to a 'the gang reunites at Reynir's sister's wedding' setting. (I wrote a bunch of snippets about that in October, mostly Reynni, because why not.) So I decided to just clean those notes up, and they turned into... something. Something relatively long. That could be a first chapter for a frivolous new story. It definitely does feature some reunions, though.
***
“The whole thing makes no sense at all. Iceland is much too far to visit for just a week or two. And even if it were closer, well, don’t you hate boat trips? Also, we do not even know this woman.”
Lalli could have mentioned that he knew Reynir’s sister a little, even if Onni didn’t, but he saw no reason to prolong the conversation. Onni had made his point: he didn’t want to attend the wedding. Lalli’s own feelings on the topic were mixed, and uncomfortable to dwell on, so it felt good to have the decision made for him.
“You’re right,” he said. “It makes no sense. We won’t go.”
Still, in spite of his welcome decisiveness, Onni seemed to have further points to make. “And the invite is not even written by her, but by her annoying brother!”
“Which annoying brother?” There were at least three, of various flavours of annoyance. “And how do you know who wrote it, anyway?”
“The brother we know the most, the untrained mage. It’s in his handwriting.”
“Is it?” Lalli didn’t think he’d ever seen Reynir’s handwriting, outside of runes, which didn’t count. “I guess the invitation I got was very messy, like his hair. But that ‘please come, it will be a fun reunion!’ part was in Finnish, which he cannot speak.”
“‘A fun reunion’? Is that what yours says?”
“Yours doesn’t?” Lalli leaned over to peer at the paper in Onni’s hand, and managed to spot a full paragraph peppered with exclamation marks before Onni tilted it away, so he couldn’t see.
“A reunion, hmm,” said Onni. “That implies the others are also invited: the treacherous Dane, the captain… and your friend. Wouldn’t you like to see him again?”
Lalli shrugged. Yes, of course he wanted to see Emil again, the way he wanted water on a hot day, but he also knew that seeing Emil again might be a stupid thing to do, now that he could go whole days without thinking about him once. Not that any of that was Onni’s business, of course.
“Don’t be like that. Seeing him will do you good,” said Onni absent-mindedly, glancing down at his invitation. “It is decided, then. We will go.”
Lalli didn’t argue. He still didn’t want to think about any of it very much.
***
The sea crossing was, of course, nightmarish, and best forgotten, but the coach ride to Reynir’s hometown was comfortable enough. Lalli curled up against a window, but did not bother with the view, which brought up too many memories of his first visit to Iceland. This second visit was a mistake, he understood that now. A mistake for him, anyway: Onni seemed strangely cheerful as he attempted to engage Lalli in conversation. When Lalli did not respond, he even went so far as to exchange a few words with the other passengers.
Reynir met them at the coach stop, greeting them loudly in truly terrible Finnish. So maybe he had written the invitation, after all. Luckily, his new knowledge seemed to run out after “Good morning, how are you?” and certainly didn’t extend to understanding anything said to him, so Onni switched to Icelandic as they made their way towards the house. Lalli walked a few steps behind the others, not thinking about anything.
The walk ended at a small tent in the back garden.
“Very convenient, staying this close to the house,” Onni told Lalli. “Because of the bathroom, I mean. Anyway, Reynir says we should meet his family for some breakfast. Do you want to go?”
Lalli did feel hungry, but the thought of all those Icelanders, speaking Icelandic at each other, and maybe even at him… "No," he said.
“Right, I expect you want to get some sleep. I’m sure Reynir will understand, once I explain.”
And then, just like that, Lalli was alone.
He kicked his bag into the tent and spent some time looking around. The local trees were just as pathetic as he remembered, but the nearby mountains made great scouting-points. As he also remembered. He might go up one later, if he could keep the memories under control. For now, he decided he might as well take Onni’s advice, and try to sleep through his hunger. He crawled in after his luggage.
Strangely, sleep proved elusive. Maybe it was because he was worried that, now that Emil was closer, their shared dreams would resume? But such worries made no sense, as meeting in a private dream would be far preferable to meeting in a crowd of Icelanders.
Also, there were weird noises outside the tent. A sort of rustling, as if something were bumping up against the fabric. Almost certainly a sheep, Lalli decided as he moved towards the tent-flap to scare the beast away.
“AAAAAAAH!”
Lalli blinked at the light, and then at Emil, who was laying sprawled on the grass, his face a picture of shock. The familiar sight made him feel better about the whole trip, and also worse.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Tripping and falling over in surprise, I guess? Sorry, you popped out very suddenly.” Emil sat up, and waved his hand, which was clutching a piece of paper. “But before I fell, I was leaving you a note.”
Lalli’s brain felt slow. “A note?”
“To tell you where to find me… and Sigrun, and Mikkel, of course. It might be tricky otherwise, what with all the other guests.” He smoothed down his hair, which was surprisingly long. But still very shiny. “Anyway, we’re in the big barn.”
“Aha.”
“It’s very crowded there. You would hate it. All that snoring, and– But, wait.” Emil grinned. “That’s not how I wanted this meeting to go, at all. I really wanted to start by thanking you for your letters. They were great!” He looked at Lalli expectantly. Receiving no response, he continued. “All those descriptions of nature. Of course, some of the vocabulary was a bit… specialized for my dictionary, so I ended up taking them to the Finnish Cultural Center. And they really loved them too! One woman cried. She said your words took her right back to her childhood in the woods.”
“You…” Lalli sat down in the tent’s entrance. “You showed my letters… to strangers?”
“Was that wrong?” Emil’s grin faded. “I mean, you never wrote anything personal at all. I could understand that clearly, even with my limited vocabulary.”
“Hmm.”
Emil was right: Lalli had definitely kept all his letters job-related. He was very glad of it, now. To think that he had come so close to taking them in a different direction! One time, he had actually considered closing with, ‘I miss you,’ but it had seemed like both too much and too little.
When he had thought about writing what he really felt, it just sounded stupid. ‘Remember that day you tried to kiss me, and I pushed you off the fishing pier? Well, at the time I was pleased with my reaction, and you seemed to accept it too. You even laughed when describing your sudden clumsiness to the others. But as the surprise faded I became confused, and now, many months later, when we’re no longer even in the same country, I somehow can’t stop thinking about that moment and regretting that I have ruined things forever.’ Nobody would write something like that, not even Emil, whose letters were full of personal opinions and questions.
Emil, who was now frowning. “You seem upset. Look, I really thought that–”
“I am not upset.”
“Are you just tired, then? You were sleeping. Here, take my note, and–”
“No, I couldn’t sleep.'
“So maybe you’re hungry? There’s breakfast out by the barn. I could take you there.”
Lalli shook his head. “Too many Icelanders.”
“I see.” Emil sighed, then brightened. “You know what? I think the bakery is opening soon. We could go there. You remember their buns, right?”
Lalli did remember, very well. As ideas went, visiting the bakery was not a bad one. But it would involve spending more time with Emil, and more good-bad feelings. “I was thinking about walking up a mountain,” he said.
“Oh! Like the last time! Can I join? You know, Norway is full of mountains. After living there for a while, I am so much fitter, you'll be so surprised.”
Lalli considered this. He had already noticed that Emil did look a bit more muscular than he remembered, but then muscles did not really guarantee stamina.
“And we could visit the bakery on the way there,” Emil added.
Lalli's stomach growled. It was all too much to resist. "Okay then," he said, and prepared to be surprised.
