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“I’m dizzy,” I confessed, and he carried me to the bed, holding me tight.
“What can I do for you?”
“I think I need to lie down for a moment,” I said, staring at him and trying hard to forget the image of the skull I had found right here, in this chamber—or would find a few million years in the future—right over by the corner where his trunk stood, as a matter of fact. Come to think of it, there had been small—very small—pieces of what could have been wood with it. The pieces were still at a lab, being potassium argon dated and analyzed… or would be in a few million years and…
“Holly? Holly, stay with me,” Thor pleaded, and I realized my eyes must have rolled back.
Heavily, I leaned into him and took a few deep breaths to get my dizziness under control. My mind yearned to retreat to compartmentalizing or to go to sleep; I think either outcome would have suited it just fine, but it was time to talk. We needed to talk.
Another thought hit me: even though I hadn’t traveled back in time to meet a hot Highlander in a kilt, I had found something better. An alien in tight leather pants who might or might not be the forefather of all Vikings. I almost snickered at that thought, but thankfully, I was still too much in shock.
“I’m alright,” I promised after taking another couple of deep breaths. “But if you could hand me the tea, or better yet, if you have water, I would really appreciate it.”
“Water. Coming right up,” he said, giving me a worried glance before stepping to the tray on top of a trunk. He filled a glass with water from a pitcher, then brought the glass back to me. I inspected it in awe. It was made from glass, or something like it, but thicker and lighter. It felt cool to the touch, as if it was cooling the beverage inside. Wavy ridges made it harder to drink from, but the water tasted better than any of the expensive types I had tried before—just like the water from the creek had tasted cleaner and crisper.
I took a few sips and cleared my throat. “Well, I’m not from another planet. I’m from here. Earth.” I dove right in before I got dizzy again, or lost my nerve, or went poof—vanished into another time period. Because hey, it had happened once, right? “But I’m from a different time.”
“Different time?”
I nodded, hoping he would hear me out and accept my explanation like I did his when he said he was an alien, which I guess, given the circumstances and the things like the light, kind of made sense. At least more sense than time travel.
A thought occurred to me. “Did you bring my bag by any chance?”
“This thing?” He fished my bag out from underneath the bed.
“Oh, thank you,” I gushed, taking it to rummage through until I found what I was looking for. A small pocket calendar, given to me by my dentist to remember an appointment. The calendar was from 2021, and I remembered that I had missed that appointment. I handed it to him—on the front was a picture of the Jura Mountains and the dentist’s logo.
When Thor opened it, he looked at more pictures of Geneva for each month—a shot of Old Town, St Pierre Cathedral, the Rolex building of all things—but what mattered was that it kind of portrayed a bit of history. Old buildings and modern buildings stood side by side, one image even showed a plane in the background. Definitely things you didn’t see here, now. But the Jura Mountains in the background of some of the pictures validated my claim.
“Your people know how to time travel?” he asked, awed.
I nearly quipped,you have space travel but can’t time travel? But I resisted. This wasn’t the right moment for my quippishness—was that even a word?, despite the hysterical giggle that was lodged in my throat.
I shook my head. “Not that I know of. I honestly don’t know what happened. One minute I was standing at my hotel door, and the next I was here.” I waved my hand. “Well, notherehere. Somewhere by the forest, and this giant bird—no, sorry,flying reptile—came out of the sky and tried to eat me.”
“You survived a dragon attack?” he asked awed.
At that, I did snicker, a little, because when put that way, it did sound more heroic. Plus,dragonsounded a lot better thanflying reptile.
“Barely. That’s where I lost my shoes,” I confessed.
“How long… How long ago was that?”
I shrugged. “I kind of lost track of time after five days, but I think maybe two weeks?”
“I don’t know what weeks are,” he said.
“A week has seven days,” I explained. “So maybe fourteen days, give or take some?”
“You are amazing, Holly.” He took my hand and held it. His eyes were so sincere, I believed him, and more than that, his words sank in.Amazingmight not have been the word I would have described myself as, but he was right. I had survived fourteen days—give or take—on my own, in the Paleolithic age, and that was something to be proud of.
“I’m not sure I would have made it much longer if you hadn’t shown up,” I confessed. “That saber-toothed—oh sorry, daggerbeast”—I smiled at him—“was about to eat me.”
“You were brandishing a fearsome weapon,” he reminded me.
I shook my head. “It wouldn’t have mattered. He would have gotten me, and you know it. So, thank you. Thank you for saving my life and everything.”
“I’m glad I heard you scream and came when I did. The thought of something happening to you, and I would have never known…” He shook his head as if he couldn’t bear the thought. And not only because everybody’s death was a hardhit, especially when somebody could have done something to prevent it, but he looked as if it was specificallymehe cared about. And that thought pleased me.
