Scoff not at guests

Scoff not at guests nor to the gate chase them, but relieve the lonely and wretched.

-Old Norse proverb

Frida's husband was away in town when she heard a knock on the door. When she went to open the door she expected to see her Vebrandr back early, so what she saw shocked her.

There were two tall men, both in stark white armour, one of them wearing a strange-looking helmet and the other had close-cropped hair. Thralls?[1] But they didn't look like thralls, and she'd seen a few warriors with short hair as well. And these two at her door were obviously warriors, even if she'd never seen anything quite like them. Are they warriors from Asgard? Does this have anything to do with the falling star two days ago?

One of them, the one without the helmet, asked something.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand." Odd, there hadn't been any news of any foreigners nearby, and in this small corner of the land news travelled fast. The strangers looked just as confused as she was. (Well, at least one of them did - she couldn't see the other's face behind that helmet.)

The man gestured to the other, who took his helmet off and said something, obviously trying a different language, but no matter what they said, she just smiled blankly and shook her head.

She then gestured to them and the house, asking whether they'd like to come in. Even though she was wary of strangers, she had always been taught to be hospitable towards everyone. Besides, if they were warriors from Asgard, or elves (though she'd never heard any stories describe elves like this), then it would be very foolish indeed to turn them away.

Disa, her sister-in-law, upon hearing the strange language, called, "Who is it?" but stopped midway between the hearth and the door when she saw the men. They did look rather scary, Frida admitted to herself, and with the two women being the only ones in the house...

As they stepped inside, Frida quietly reminded Disa to close her mouth. "It isn't polite to stare."

Her sister-in-law cleared her throat. "Welcome, travellers. I am Disa, and this is my sister Frida. I'm afraid the master of the house isn't here at the moment..." Seeing their puzzled looks, she turned to Frida.

"They don't seem to speak a word of our language." Trying simpler approach, she gestured to herself, "I'm Frida," and then to her sister-in-law, "She's Disa."

One of them (only now did she notice that she couldn't tell them apart if it wasn't for a symbol tattooed on one's head) nodded in understanding and said "Frida, Disa," and pointed to each of them, as if asking confirmation. They nodded.

The other one pointed to himself and said something that sounded vaguely like "Ekko" and his companion, the one with the tattoo, introduced himself as "Faivs."

Disa looked around nervously. "I think I should go and tell Leiknir. Could you keep an eye on the dinner?" She then quickly disappeared out of the door.

Frida sighed. She also had to keep an eye on the two strangers. It felt very awkward, not being able to talk to them. Glancing towards them, she noticed that they were still standing there, looking rather bewildered.

"You can sit down." She pointed at the bench running along the side of the longhouse. They did, and started talking in that strange language of theirs. Whatever they were saying, it looked like they were having an argument.

"Happy now?"

"How should I have known we landed in the only place in the galaxy where they don't speak Basic?"

Echo sighed. "I told you we should have stayed near the ship. The regs say-"

"That our ship is completely shuk'yc, there is no way we can repair it on our own, and we can't send a distress call either, because there's no signal. Maybe those people can help us."

"And how are they going to do that if we don't understand them and they don't understand us?" Echo asked, still sceptical.

"I'm sure we'll work something out. There must be someone here who can understand Basic..." (Fives still couldn't believe that the people here didn't speak Basic. Surely this was an isolated case...)

"What's this I hear about strangers who don't speak our language?" Leiknir, Disa's husband, stepped inside. Frida motioned to the pair, who had stood up when they heard the door opening. Leiknir froze. Frida, ever the well-mannered one, decided to introduce them.

"Leiknir, these are..." Damn. She had forgotten which one was which. Looking somewhat amused, the two warriors (quite obviously used to this) decided to take things into their own hands.

"Echo," said the one with a hand-print on his armour, and the other, the one with the tattoo, said, "Fives."

Frida made a mental note about them and continued, "Ekko, Faivs," (Fives flinched at the horrible accent), "this is Leiknir."

"Strange names," said Leiknir. "So what language do you speak?" And he went through every language and dialect he knew, even the fragments of Latin he'd once heard, but to no avail. They looked just as confused as he was when they tried their language. One of them muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a string of curses. Leiknir replied with something similar. "What are we going to do with you?"

"First of all, we need to feed them," called Frida from the hearth, "Remember what we were taught about being nice to travellers? For all we know, they might have come from over the shimmering path [2]. So make yourself useful and help me with the dinner."

"I still haven't finished repairing the fence..." Leiknir couldn't get out fast enough.

Frida and Disa laughed at the sudden departure and laughed even more seeing the travellers' baffled expressions.

"Leiknir," Disa nodded at the door, "Couldn't cook to save his life." She pointed at the pot simmering over the hearth, mimed stirring, lifted an imaginary spoon as if to taste the food and made a face. They looked confused at first, but then it dawned on Echo and he quickly explained it to Fives. Soon they, too, were chuckling.

Echo set his bucket down on the table they'd helped unfold (pure genius, these folding tables!) and walked over to the fire where the women were busy preparing a meal. It smelled delicious. Frida, who was stirring some sort of soup, smiled at him and then exchanged a few words with Disa, who went to fetch something or another. Frida then set him to stir the soup (she had to show him how) and continued chopping the vegetables Disa had left on the table.

"Echo, since when do you know how to cook?"

"I don't," he replied, much to Fives' amusement, "She's teaching me."

Disa reappeared with a bowl and a large loaf of bread under one arm and a jug in her hand. She set the jug on the table and shooed Fives away. He looked around, trying to find a place where he could put his and Echo's buckets. Frida pointed at a chest standing in a corner and he put both helmets on top of it.

The women looked like they might get him to do some cooking as well, so he suddenly decided he needed some fresh air.

Using simple gestures he asked permission to go outside and left as soon as Frida nodded, but not before catching a snigger and something sounding like "Just like Leiknir," from one of the women. And Echo as well.

"Fasti! Seems like one of our guests has decided to join us," called Leiknir. Vefastr, Frida's 9-year-old son, looked up from his work of removing leaves from branches and cutting them to length to see a tall man in white armour.

"He really doesn't speak our language?"

"Doesn't seem like it." Leiknir walked over to the boy. Vefastr looked a bit frightened, but also curious.

"What's his name?"

"Erm... Faivs, I think. I'm not sure, they're so similar one cannot tell them apart."

Vefastr looked even more curious. "Are they twins?"

"They must be. Frida thinks they're not from our world." Leiknir looked sceptical, but Vefastr's eyes became as big as saucers and he stared at the man.

As if feeling his gaze, Fives looked at him. Vefastr quickly looked down and continued his work. Leiknir took the branches he'd already cut to length and went to hammer them into the ground where the fence was broken. Fives walked over, looking like he'd never seen someone build a wattle fence before. Odd, thought Leiknir. No matter where he's from, they must have fences.

Fives observed for a bit, and then picked up one of the still-green branches and wove it between the posts like he'd seen Leiknir do. Leiknir nodded, for someone who looks like he'd never seen a fence before, he sure knows how to build one.

Together, the work went much faster and soon they were finished.

"Thank you." Only then did Leiknir notice both Vefastr and his little sister, Vefridr, staring at them from near the barn. Fives followed his gaze and smiled at the two children, who promptly fled.

"Vefridr! Vefastr! Get back here!" bellowed Leiknir. Slowly, they reappeared from around the corner. "Now, how do you welcome a guest?"

Little-Frida, as she was called by her family, squeaked a "Hello!" from behind her brother's back, but Fasti, the bolder one, said, "Hello, my name is Vefastr Vebrandsson."

Fives, guessing what the boy said, replied, "I am Fives. CT-27-5555."

Vefridr giggled. Vefastr tried to say it. He didn't quite manage. Fives rolled his eyes.

He drew five short lines on the ground. "Fives." The children looked puzzled. He touched each line as if counting them. "Fives," he said again.

Vefridr replied, "Fimm." At Leiknir's raised eyebrows, she counted the lines: "Ein, tveir, thrir, fjórir, fimm."

"Five?" laughed Vefastr. "He's called 'Five'? Does he have four brothers then?"

"Brothers?" asked Fives. He wasn't sure what they were saying, but the word 'bródir' sounded an awful lot like 'brother'.

"Brothers. I am Vefridr's brother," explained Vefastr.

"I have hundreds of brothers." said Fives, shaking his head.

"Did he... just say he has a hundred brothers?" Leiknir couldn't believe his ears.

"A hundred?" asked Vefridr. "That's many, many, many brothers. Do you really have a hundred brothers?" Fives seemed very confused about the long sentence, so she explained. "You," she pointed at him, "have one hundred-" and she looked around to see what she could use to represent a hundred, finally settling on pretending to count the blades of grass, "-brothers?" she pointed at her own brother and tilted her head quizzically. Fives nodded.

"How is that possible?" asked Leiknir.

"Is he..." Vefastr gestured at the house, indicating Echo, "...your brother?"

After a moment of confusion, Fives nodded. "Yes, Echo is my brother."

At that moment, Frida called "Dinner's ready!" from the door. Vefridr ran to her, chattering excitedly about how their guest is called 'Five' and that he has a hundred brothers and how can he manage because she thinks her one brother is annoying.

Notes:

1. In the Old Norse culture, free men wore their hair long (except maybe warriors who cut their hair shorter than normal for practical reasons).

2. Shimmering path: Bifröst, the rainbow bridge that connects our world to the world of the gods