The nature was barely wrapping itself in a spring coat, when Maddie stepped once again on Norwegian land, accompanied by Jörmun. She eventually agreed to join him in his boat searching quest. She felt guilty to the core of her soul for Eloise’s disappearance and for the excuses she made up with the trickster to cover her friend while she was gone. Being able to contribute to the slightest chance of bringing Eloise back was the most she could do. She was not going to let the opportunity pass by.

Jörmungandr was not exactly what one would call trustworthy, but he was the only shot she had. However, building a Skuldelev before the Midwinter Solstice was something even less believable than whatever else he came up with so far. They had a bit more than half a year to both locate the parts and put them together.

“Please promise me that you won’t pull any shenanigans and snatch the boat from the museum,” Maddie asked for what was likely the tenth time. She somehow found herself in the worst case scenario she pictured for themselves and the vessel.

“I am not stealing anything. We are here today only to view it.”

“We are here today only to view it,” Maddie repeated in a barely audible tone. She did not like the insinuation of that sentence. “What if parts of the boat you’re looking for are in there? Do you actually plan on coming back to retrieve them?”

“I will have to,” he answered plainly, as if it was the easiest and most normal thing one could’ve done. All despite Maddie’s scandalised self.

“Then I will not take you in,” she protested, stepping outside from the queue to the surprise of those around them.

“Please, Maddie,” he grabbed her hand and pulled her back at his side. “Trust me.”

“You have such a bad history to be considered trustworthy,” Maddie shook her head.

“But I was honest, wasn’t I? You asked me if I would take anything, and I said no.”

“You didn’t say no, you said not today.”

“You’re twisting my words.”

“I am only repeating what I’ve heard. They’re twisted enough on their own,” she reiterated before stepping forth to finally buy the tickets.

---

As they walked through the museum, Maddie couldn’t help herself but snap a picture of everything she caught in sight. She was actually enjoying the visit and found it extremely useful as a source of documentation for her diploma.

“That is it!” Jörmun exclaimed and left the girl’s side. He made his way through the gathered crowd around a well preserved viking longship and reached out to touch its wooden surface. Although, reaching was the furthest he got before being abruptly pulled back by a security guard.

The man pointed at a sign that said “Do not touch!” and gave Jörmun nothing more than a warning glare.

“What happened? What did you do?!” Maddie asked in a hushed voice as soon as she stopped by Jörmun’s side. She caught glimpse of him being dragged out of the visitors crowd, but she missed the reason for which it happened.

“The audacity,” he fixed his clothes while still staring after the security guard who was now taking a stroll around the vessel.

Maddie followed his gaze and spotted the man as well. Her mind immediately recalled the moment she annoyed Jörmun and found herself turned into a guinea pig. She didn’t want for history to repeat itself.

Without a second thought she reached out for Jörmun’s hands and swung away with him, outside the large hall. She dragged him into a dark room nearby, where a documentary was projected. To her relief, there was nobody there; most of the people were mesmerized by the sight they left behind.

“What are you doing, Maddie?” he protested, snatching his hands from her grip.

“Holding you off from casting any spells. This place has security cameras. Do you want us to get into trouble before we even achieve anything?”

Through the dim light of the room, she watched the other roll his eyes.

“I wasn’t going to do that.”

“I came to know the look on your face when you plot immediate trouble.”

“Do you, really?” Jörmun chuckled. It made him wonder what sort of grimace was he pulling off that it was so easily noticeable.

“Please. Hold yourself back from such,” she let out a long sigh and her mind circled back to the very unknown reason of why the guard had been involved into all of this. “What did you do to annoy him?”

“I wanted to touch the ship.”

“But why would you- Ugh…” Maddie covered her face with her palms. She inhaled heavily through her fingers as she stared through the darkness at the other. He seemed to not perceive any trouble in touching what was not supposed to be touched, or claim whatever he was not ought to.

“Because that’s the boat we’re looking for.”

“The one right outside this room?” her rhetorical question came accompanied by a gasp of disbelief. One could’ve been shocked to learn of it, but Maddie somewhat expected it. However, if that was truly the case, then what was with all the searching he deemed as being necessary? Surely the vessel in the museum was not going to float; not without proper woodwork and restoration. But even with this last fact considered, it didn’t add up.

“I would like to take a better look at it,” Jörmun said and turned on his heels.

“Please don’t try again to touch it, or they will kick us out for good.”

“I will keep my hands in my pockets if that makes you feel better about it.”

“Sounds like a fair deal,” she concluded before the walked outside the projection room.

---

Jörmun did keep his word and, thankfully for Maddie peace of mind, no other event followed the initial one; the boat was left untainted and the security guard did not grow any tail, fluffy ears or pointy teeth. She was pleased with his promise, but dissatisfied with the lack of additional information. She expected him to give away more details now that the longship had been found.

The curiosity had to eventually surface off Maddie’s lips in order for things to be addressed.

“Now that you found the Skuldelev you sought for, what’s next?” she asked when they retreated in the hotel room, later in the evening.

“That’s merely the base of it.”

“I had a feeling you’d say that… Otherwise, it’d make no sense for me to be here nor for us to have a journey ahead to plan.”

“We need to find the stempost, the mast and the sail,” Jörmun started counting on his fingers. “Then we would need some good wood to make the repairs and some rope. Potentially a few other things I can’t think of at the moment, but we’ll see how it goes.”

“We’ll see how it goes,” echoed for a couple of times in Maddie’s head. He took it all so light heartedly, as if fixing a hundreds years old vessel was a weekend activity anyone could pick and do.

“I have a feeling you don’t realize the amplitude of the work that has to be done on that boat in order to float again, not mentioning that it’s in a museum and there’s no way we can take it out, just because you want to or need to.”

“Leave that to me. They won’t even figure that it’s gone.”

“Let me guess, an illusion?”

“You’re starting to understand my ways,” he grinned pleased. At the beginning he had been a bit sceptical about Maddie being too nosey in his business, but given that they had to work together for the plan to come to fruition, he was actually starting to like it.

“I am not sure if I should feel proud about it or not,” her eyebrows twitched at the thought that she may not only start to figure how his mind worked, but actually begin to think like him; not to cause mischief herself, but to rather prevent him from doing it, by being one step ahead.

“I would consider it a personal achievement if I were you,” he crossed his arms and looked down at Maddie who was seated in the armchair by the window. “Is the library our next stop?”

“It is. I have already made myself a list and some of the books are available here, in Oslo, and no place else. I hope that by showcasing the subject of my studies and the intention of my diploma, I will manage to indulge them into letting us have a look.”

“If not, we’ll find a way,” he winked.

A wink couldn’t mean anything good, especially since it came from Jörmun. Of that Maddie was sure. She could only hope that they wouldn’t need to make use of his skillset to get their hands on the historical materials they wanted to examine.