{chapter 4}
"Sigrun's here! Mikkel, come on!" Emil yelped, running out the door. He swiftly took the comatose cleanser from his captain and put them on the ground. Mikkel soon joined them. His eyes widened as he looked around.
"Is this all that was left...?" He asked Sigrun in a hushed tone, grabbing his bag and crouching down to look at the other man's wounded leg. She sighed and shrugged.
"All I could see... Emil, can you grab maybe a chair or two?" The captain groaned, rubbing her head. Mikkel nodded solemnly as he tried to stitch one of the wounds.
Meanwhile, in the tank, the female cleanser - Erika, she had told them - was explaining how the whole thing had happened in Icelandic. Reynir seemed quite bewildered, while Tuuri was wonderstruck as she listened to the tale. It was true, unlike a few of Emil's stories, you could tell by the fear in her eyes as she recalled each horrific moment in detail. Emil had crashed through the door, rudely interrupting the part where, well, he crashed in to the story with Lalli and Sigrun. His shoulders were up around his jaw as he awkwardly grabbed two chairs and sidestepped back out the door, receiving a small laugh from Erika and Tuuri.
Sigrun sat down and rested her head on her hand, staring off in to space. "Where's that little scout? Wanted to thank him." She muttered and turned her head to Emil. He just gestured to the tank silently. The captain gave a small nod, knowing Lalli was probably sleeping, she should've known. The male cleanser, who's leg had gotten nearly eaten by a team of trolls, had introduced himself as Viktor. He explained that the nest had been hidden, they hadn't found it at first until it was too late. They had just split up, half of the team heading back while a few stayed to keep the fire under control (or more likely, keep the fire out of control). The explosives had woken up many of the diseased before the fire had claimed much of the building. Furious, the mutants attacked the team of cleansers. Most of the non-immune hadn't gotten their masks on.
"And any that didn't were already being attacked. They were fast, all pushing each other out the door to be the first to get at us..." Viktor growled, crossing his arms and leaning back. The rest of the group had gathered outside to hear the story from a different view. Reynir was humming softly and practicing runes while the tale was told in Swedish gibberish. Lalli couldn't understand much of it, either, so he simply leaned on Emil and fell asleep again. "So, we fought, of course... I don't really care to talk about the details. I'm sure you can all guess, aren't you the same team as last time?" He asked, tone getting a little lighter.
"Yep!" Sigrun grinned, "We're all back together on another mission!"
"It might not be our last mission, either." Emil sighed, a slight smile tugging at his lips. "If they believed in us once, that's amazing, but twice! We're probably going to end up coming back." The captain laughed and clapped a hand on his shoulder, careful not to hit the sleeping scout between them.
"That's the spirit, little viking!" She said, not unlike a proud parent. Erika raised an eybrow and smothered a giggle.
"So you weren't lying about the nicknames?" The girl managed to say, brushing blonde curls out of her face. "That was one of the only things we found hard to believe..." She laughed as Emil huffed and crossed his arms.
"Wait," Tuuri tilted her head and looked across to Erika, "You guys know him?"
"Well, I know him. Viktor knows him a little..." Erika shrugged. "Me and Emil were stuck in training together, and we were in the same team every once and awhile." She nudged his side with her elbow as she added jokingly, "We show our friendship by trying to set each other on fire."
Sigrun put her finger tips together and a small, maniacal, laugh escaped her. "Emil, you never told us you had a girlfriend! Why didn't you tell us?" She only laughed more as his face quickly became red.
"No! You're not even going to start that!" He said, wide eyes glaring at her. Erika broke out in to laughter as well and she hit her knee. Tuuri just shook her head in amusement when Emil continued to argue, his words becoming sharp with embarrassment "That is not true! Not even close to the truth!"
"Okay, okay... So it's about as true as your giant slaying story." Sigrun reasoned with a sneer.
"Uh, no, because that was true! In fact, guess who else was there!" Emil blurted out angrily, gesturing madly to Erika. The girl just rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, it happened. He was just as surprised as the rest of us." She snorted, remembering the key fact of the event. "We asked him what he did, how he did it... Never seen a giant taken down that quick other than today... And he only replied, 'Sigrun taught me'." The captain's face grew softer with real happiness, not just amusement.
"He was only recognizing the most best troll hunter he ever met, of course!" She boasted, putting a hand to her chest and straightening up in her seat.
"Uh, where are we?" Emil and Tuuri flinched at the new voice from behind them. Lalli grumbled in protest, burying he face in his collar and falling asleep on Emil's arm again. The third cleanser had just woken up, quite confused.
"Oh, hey Ivar." Viktor mumbled. "These folks are letting us recover here for a little while... They're the ones who went on that expedition. You remember hearing about that, right?"
"Uh," Ivar shakily stood up, rubbing his head. "Maybe, I might..." Erika frowned and let her teammate take her seat. She sat on the ground on Tuuri's other side.
"Do you remember your date of birth? Your name?" Viktor inquired, raising an eyebrow. Ivar slowly nodded and mumbled something about year sixty-three, but it wasn't too convincing. "Do you remember what happened? At all?" That seemed to be it. The mask of confusion shattered and pure horror covered his face.
"Where are they? How long have I been out? Days? Weeks?! Please tell me they're okay!"
Sigrun bit her lip, brows furrowed. Erika and Viktor looked at the ground and after a pause Viktor shook his head.
"They're all gone. You've only been out for an hour or two..." Ivar made a choking sound and his head fell. Viktor just sighed and continued, "The second group is probably already at our camp, someone ran to get them as soon as we were ambushed, you know that. They probably already called for help."
"That reminds me," Mikkel remarked, trying to change the subject before someone asked what was wrong with Ivar. "How are you going to get back? We certainly cannot escort you three back to your camp, it will take too much time. We still need to get to our camp, assuming it's not burnt down." Erika glanced up at the healer, one hand holding Ivar's to calm him down.
"Well, it all depends on where you planned to set up camp."
