Pohjola

by Professional Horse

X: Negotiating

There was a flapping sound.

Twilight mumbled in her sleep and burrowed deeper into her warm bag.

Shouts and rumbling. The flapping became more intense.

"Mum, the sun hasn't even risen yet... I can do my homework later..."

Something poked her.

She opened her eyes and saw a floating umbrella bouncing on her, opening and closing and thus making a flapping sound. The sun hadn't risen yet, but the sky above was bright, stars hidden from sight by twilight. She felt the earth below her tremble a little.

She gasped and sat up, staring at the umbrella. It had been in her backpack yesterday, unmoving like a regular one.

It floated away from her and tilted itself, pointing at the direction of the shouts and the rumbling.

"What is it?" Twilight asked before remembering that umbrellas couldn't talk. She crawled out of her bag and followed the umbrella as it floated away from the sparkling remains of the campfire.

She climbed atop a ridge and looked down, raising an eyebrow when she saw a peculiar sight: A group of three moose retreating from something. The moose were unlike the ones she had read about in books and the ones she had seen in the Evergreen forest, for they carried crude spears, wore trinkets made of bone and flint, carried satchels and spoke to each other.

She looked at the direction they were coming from, and her eyes widened.

Two trees creaked as a huge two-legged giant composed of rock pushed them with its hands so it could fit through the gapbetween them. Its body was covered with moss and a few saplings sprouted from seams in its rocky skin. A section of its head was missing, seemingly chiseled away. It bellowed in anger and chased after the moose.

One of the moose tripped and fell. Her two companions stopped, hesitant. The giant quickly approached, and one of them leaped forward to save his fallen friend. The giant raised its rocky fist and brought it down.

It stopped mid-air, just before it hit the moose. A glowing cloud of purple magic surrounded it.

Twilight appeared in between the giant and the moose in a flash of light. "Stop!" she shouted in a voice Luna had taught her to use some years ago.

Everybody stared at her in confusion.

"There is no need to fight!" she said. "Just calm down, and I can help you sort out your disagreement!"

The moose backed away from her. "What is it?" one of them asked. "It's not a Kalevalan!"

"And why do you think that?" another moose asked.

"She has wings," he replied. "Kalevalans don't have wings."

The rock giant frowned. "He has no need to fight? Only when the moose apologize!"

"Go to hiisi, monster!" the taller male moose said. "You ate my brother!"

"He did not!" the giant bellowed and pointed an accusatory finger at them. "The moose ruined to my head!"

"Calm down!" Twilight shouted again, saplings nearby wavering from her voice.

Everyone stared at her in silence.

She turned to look at the tallest moose who towered above her. "First, you tell me what happened."

"My brother was playing in the forest with his friend, climbing on rocks, when the beast, lying on the ground and looking like a mere pile of boulders, ate him!"

Twilight turned to look at the giant who was as tall as the pines around it. "Is this true?"

It pouted. "Yes, but-"

"He admits it!" the other male moose shouted. "May his name be thrice cursed!"

"Silence," Twilight said to him before asking "Why did you do it?" from the giant.

"He slumbered peacefully, when something climbed to his mouth! He woke up and accidentally swallowed whatever creature had climbed inside. Then he saw a moose calf running away!"

"That was his friend!" the tallest one shouted before turning to look at Twilight. "Do not trust his words! Antero is known for being a devious trickster!"

"Did you chisel away a section of his head?" Twilight asked sternly.

The tallest moose glared at her while the female one nodded.

Twilight sighed. "And what, exactly, were you trying to achieve? Revenge achieves nothing but revenge!"

"We taught him a lesson," the shorter male moose said, "so he would never slay a proud Hirvenling again!"

"It was an accident!" the giant shouted. "I swear by Ukko and Äe!"

"Now he insults the gods themselves with his lies," the tallest moose muttered.

"You made him angry," Twilight said to the moose. "And if I had not interfered, he would've squished two of you. Then you would've avenged their deaths as well, which would've made the giant even more angry. See? You've started a vicious cycle of revenge."

"Then what, oh wise horse, should we do?" the tallest one asked.

His male companion nudged him with his palmate antlers. "Don't insult her! She might be a mighty spirit! Only that would explain her wings and ability to speak Cold-tongue!"

"A Kalevalan spirit, for certain" he muttered. "I do not fear them, nor do I care about their twisted words."

"Listen," Twilight said to him. "This cycle must stop right now. Nothing can bring your brother back, and I'm sorry for your loss. But the giant can apologize and do something in return to repay his death. It doesn't matter whether it was an accident or not."

The tallest moose snorted in contempt. "The giant cannot pay wergild, for he has nothing to pay with. And what could he do for us?"

"Help you," she said. "Help you build houses, protect you from predators, help you gather food... you can come up with something."

"That sounds good," the female moose said. "What do you say, Peka?"

The tallest moose said nothing.

"Sounds good to me as well," the other male moose said.

"But what about his head?" the giant shouted and pointed at the notch. "What can the moose do to redeem this?"

"In the case you're lying and intentionally ate the calf, then that should be a fitting punishment for your deed. And in the case you're not, the moose will agree to give or do anything you want, am I right?" Twilight said.

The tallest moose scowled, but the others nodded.

She knew the drill nowadays, but remembered the time when she had needed the help of a book while solving a feud between two bickering families. What were their names again? Many years had passed since then, since her youth.

She formed a faint smile and said "Then we have an agreement! No more fighting, alright?"

"Why do you care?" Peka asked.

She blinked and said nothing for a while. "Erm... I just... that's irrelevant. What matters is that you've stopped fighting."

"Of course," he said and nodded. But he wasn't looking at her.

He was looking at two moose hiding behind a tree, out of the sight of the giant. When they saw his nod, they leaped forward, long ropes hanging from their antlers. They galloped around the giant's legs, loosening rope as they went.

"What is this?" the giant asked.

The pair pulled the ropes with all their strength, and moose are nothing but weak creatures. The ropes tightened around the rocky legs of the giant, who soon lost balance and fell.

Twilight yelped and teleported out of the way. The giant crashed on the ground, flattening several saplings.

"Finish him off!" Peka shouted. "Gods will it!"

The moose took out chisels and hammers from their satchels and jumped on the giant's head. The fall had concussed him, so he didn't resist.

"No!" Twilight shouted. "What are you doing?"

"When a wergild cannot be paid," Peka, who grimly stood near, said, "the punishment for death is death. Such is the sacred law of the Hirvenlings."

"But he could've helped you!"

"'Help' is no payment. And we must respect the laws of our ancestors, lest their spirits abandon us."

"But that is pure nonsense! He doesn't deserve this!"

He glared at her. "You are a stranger, a foreigner. You can't understand our customs, so do not even try."

Soon nothing but rubble remained of the giant's head.

Twilight lowered her head, closed her eyes and sighed.

The moose gathered around her and stared at her, some with fear in their black eyes, others with distrust.

"Now it is time for you to tell who - and what - you are," Peka asked.

"I am Twilight Sparkle. Princess Twilight Sparkle. I am an alicorn from Equestria," she said quietly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Equestria? The legendary land across the Great Sea?"

"Yes," she said and raised her head. "Have you heard of it?"

"The elders have mentioned it before. What are you doing here, 'alicorn'?"

"I am on a personal quest. Can you take me to your leader? I would like to speak with them."

The moose glanced at each other. "We have no leader," Peka said, "but I can take you to our elders. I am certain they desire to speak with you."

"Aren't you some kind of leader?" Twilight asked and pointed at him.

"Yes, the leader of this party. Our mission was to avenge the death of my brother, and we have succeeded. We will hold a great feast in honour of our victory. But I do not know if you are welcome to it. That is for the elders to decide. I hope they forbid you from coming."

She ignored the insult and said "I'll go to my camp and get my things. Can you wait here?"

He glanced at her wings. "I have a feeling that it will not take long. Very well, stranger."

She turned around and flew back to her camp. The umbrella, that had waited on the ridge, followed her. She landed and packed her sleeping bag and as much firewood as she could. The umbrella jumped into her backpack.

Twilight looked at it and smiled. "So, little fellow, I think you deserve a name."

The umbrella swirled around in excitement.

She chukcled. "I think I'll call you Umbra. Umbra the umbrella. Glad to have you with me, for it's good to travel with someone else."

Good to travel with a friend...

Comments

[Elsaack]

You're far from Equestria Twilight.
This really captures how far from her civilization she is, this is alien to Twilight and I think she's going to leave disappointed.
Also, animated umbrella. Looks like Discord didn't leave her completely alone.

If I really had to find a problem....

"You tell first what happened."

This is awkwardly phrased for English, feels gruff, like it's missing words. Unlike a lot of languages you can't leave out words in 'proper' english, like Twilight would probably be speaking. "You tell me what happened first." Or " First, you tell me what happened." "You. Explain what's going on." Might fit her mood as well.

[Professional Horse]

6678564 Thanks for the feedback! That sentence is a bit weird. I'll fix it.