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“Tell us about the ocean,” I requested.
“I think I know a few spots you might like. Some are rugged, some filled with forest, some with fruitful land where you can raise animals and crops.” She explained, “The ocean can be rough, but it’s beautiful.”
“When do we go?” Oredeon demanded, and small chuckles moved across our group.
Holly turned questioningly to me. I shrugged. “How far?”
“There are several ways. The direct route would be on foot, but it will take weeks and is probably more dangerous. I don’t know for sure what kind of predators we will encounter, or what kind of tribes might be out there.” She paused. “And then there is the river, Loire. It’s only a few days’ journey from here. We could build a ship, sail down the river, and reach the ocean. From there, we can sail straight up the coast until we find a place you like.”
“Let’s go back tomorrow, then. There is no reason we should forage for animals that we can’t take with us,” Oredeon suggested.
This time, I looked questioningly at Holly, and it was she who shrugged. “I don’t know exactly what kind of boats you guys build, but I have a suspicion they are long? With dangerous-looking dragonheads at the prow? Sails and oars?”
“How do you know that?” Oredeon cried out.
A small smile played along Holly’s lips. “Because I think you guys were the forefathers of what we on Earth called a tribe named the Vikings.”
“Vhar’Khyngs. Vikings,” I mused.
“Yes.” Holly bobbed her head up and down.
“But wait.” Kharle, another male from Jahrle stopped our enthusiasm. “You found your szaria, Thor’Steyn, but we haven’t.Moving away from this area… won’t that mean we won’t find more females like Holly?”
More of the men agreed with Kharle’s point, and I didn’t blame them. Kharle’s argument was valid. Once again, everybody looked to Holly for answers.
“I don’t know,” she said with honest regret on her face. “I don’t understand what happened to me, so I have no way of knowing if this happened to other women or just me. All I know is that I was destined to be here, with you. About others?” She shook her head. “They might be out here, or they might be out there. I think the Norns have a plan for you, and I think whatever we decide, we will make the right decision.”
Her mention of the Norns—of our revered goddesses—left us speechless once again.
“How do you know of the Norns?” Oredeon demanded, interrupting the ensuing stillness after a few moments.
“Because I was a paleontologist, and my area of specialty was the Vikings—their gods, their beliefs, their way of life,” Holly stated simply.
“Alright, nothing will be decided tonight, let’s all get some rest. We’ll return home tomorrow, and we’ll bring it to a vote with the others,” I decided.
The next morning, webroke camp but decided to venture just a bit farther. Sticking to our original plan, we wanted to see if we could find any herdlike animals like cow or pig ancestors. The thought was that we wanted to weigh all our options, though I suspected the lure of the seas—both the North and the Norwegian—I had painted earlier would win at the end of the day.
The idea of moving away from the cave had come to me a few days ago as I woke there. Disoriented for the first time in a while, I sat staring at the spot where I had discovered Thor’s skull. With it came the memory of how I had found the cave in the first place—hidden for millions of years by a rockslide.
I had no way of knowing when that disaster had occurred. It could have been millions of years before my time or only hundreds, but by the way the bones and artifacts had been preserved, I suspected millions. Which made me fearful for Thor’s safety. Was that how he would die? Or had somebody, for whatever reason, brought his skull here?
Curiously, none of his other bones had been inside the cave, all the other bones I had discovered were too small to have been his. So why and how had it only been his skull?
I hated thinking about his skull, the sayingfeels like someone walked over my grave, came to me. It had never made sense to me, but now, that was exactly what I felt. Only comparable to a knife scraping against my bones or heart. I barely managed to stop myself from shuddering. It was such a strange, disturbing thing to contemplate.
Whatever had happened, I knew I would feel better to get away from the cave and the memories that came with it. My feelings for Thor had grown with each day we spent together, and my fear that he had been trapped in the cave after the rockslide was growing with it. Moving away from here and maybe helping destiny along a bit didn’t sound like a bad plan to me.
Maybe it was a bit manipulative, but I soothed my conscience with the note that the Vhar’Khyngs would be a whole lot happier living by the sea than in a cave. They needed the open space, needed to feel the wind coming off the ocean, the up and down motion of a ship as waves rocked it.
The morning air was a bit chilly as Thor took me deeper into the forest, away from the others so I could relieve myself. Afterward, I found him standing by a large tree, thrice as big in circumference as he was. “Will there be trees like this where we’re going?”
It didn’t surprise me that there was no question in him about leaving, other than when we would go to the coast.
“I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. Even though I had studied paleontology and numerous artifacts, the truth was that when it came to this many millions of years ago, scientists could only guess as to what specific details looked like. There were remnants of trees and other flora of course, but the giant trees here reminded me of the redwoods in California, whichsurprised me. I was fairly certain there would be other surprises waiting for me as well.
Thor stepped away from the large tree, and I took his spot, gliding my finger over the thick bark and inhaling the trunk’s heavy scent. A feeling of peacefulness overcame me, and I turned, leaned against the tree, and looked up at the thick canopy above me, where the first rays of light filtered through. Strange sounds of unfamiliar birds reached my ears. Leaves rustled in the wind. I felt a crisp morning breeze on my skin and inhaled the air deeply that was clearer and fresher than any air I had ever inhaled during my old life.
I closed my eyes and allowed all my other senses to take over. I think that right then, for the first time, I looked at my being sucked into the past as a blessing rather than a curse.
