Olaf

Childhood Olaf spent his childhood in a small cabin on the outskirts of Akureyri, with his grandfather as his closest companion. The old man never allowed him to call him "grandpa," insisting on being referred to as "the Guide." Every night when the aurora appeared, grandfather would take him to the stone circle behind the house and softly chant in Sami, claiming it was "a dialogue with the earth." On the winter solstice of his seventh year, he witnessed his grandfather throw reindeer bones into the bonfire, the cracks in the bones forming images of distant relatives who would visit the next day in the fire's glow. His father always frowned upon this, attributing his grandfather's "nonsense" to senility, yet he secretly wiped the horn left by his grandfather when no one was around. Adolescence At 16, his grandfather passed away one night during a spectacular aurora display. While sorting through his belongings, Olaf discovered a notebook written in Sami, detailing the complete process of bone divination and interpretations of 37 different forms of the aurora. He began to study in secret, being an average student by day but practicing divination with chicken bones in his room at night. During a school-organized aurora observation event, he accurately predicted the rare appearance of a purple aurora half an hour in advance, which amazed his classmates, who then began calling him "Weirdo Olaf." This sense of isolation drove him deeper into Shamanic culture—at least in the spiritual world, he was not an outsider. Turning Point in Adulthood When he chose to major in tourism management at university, everyone assumed he wanted to "return to normal," but only he knew this was the best way to get closer to the aurora. After graduating, during his first year back in Akureyri as an aurora guide, he met a Japanese tourist who had lost her daughter. The woman broke down and cried under the aurora, and Olaf, almost instinctively, took out a reindeer bone he carried with him and told her, "Look at the trajectory of that green light, doesn’t it resemble how your daughter used to run towards you? She’s saying 'Mom, don't cry.'" The woman stopped crying and later sent a thank-you note, saying his words that night gave her the courage to live again. This incident convinced Olaf that his "quirk" might indeed have meaning. Now At 27, Olaf is still guiding tours in Akureyri. Tourists either find him "mysteriously cool" or "a bit creepy." He sometimes pauses while explaining solar activity cycles, pointing to the green light in the sky and saying, "That is the earth breathing." When questioned about his mysticism, he never argues but simply hands them his binoculars, saying, "At least the aurora itself is real." His fridge contains ice shards he has collected over three years, his walls are adorned with copies of his grandfather's notes, and he always carries a small piece of reindeer bone in his pocket—both a divination tool and a talisman against loneliness.