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“One scary shield-maiden,” Git added, before snickering. “What? I watchedVikings, so sue me.”
We all laughed. It was one of those,I’m glad to be alivebut scared to deathlaughs, teetering on hysterical, but it felt good. We were alive after all.
One Homo habilis wasdiscovered who was still alive, and after some interrogation, he confided that they had planned to take the three women to a location he wouldn’t disclose—to be sacrificed.
After we intercepted their party, they banded together with other tribes to retrieve the women because they were so different and would have bought them special favor with their gods.
That turned our discussion about leaving for the north into a more burning subject. It wasn’t just that we worried that the surviving Homo habilis would spread the word about us women, but Thor was concerned what other clans formed by the ex-prisoners would think about us once they found out. As far as the Vhar’Khyngs knew, the other clans were in the same predicament as they had been—womenless.
“We can’t keep them confined to the cave,” Thor argued, and I showed him my appreciation later when we were alone.
“It’s true,” he said, spent and happy, and I agreed with him. Still, it was within the Vhar’Khyngs' power to hold us women confined to the cave, and there would have been nothing wecould have done about it other than leave, which none of us wanted, knowing what was out there.
In the end, though, even the three other women agreed that our best chance would be to get away from the sometimes-warring ex-prisoner clans and the Homo habilis who knew we were here.
It was a bad time of the year to travel, so we stayed for the winter season and prepared to depart at the first signs of spring. That plan left us all somewhat antsy and vigilant.
Thor sent more scouting parties into the forest, and they picked up five more women, making us wonder why it seemed only females had been sucked through the wormhole.
And so, as the air warmed, we made our way to the Loire river which would eventually lead to the Atlantic Ocean, which would lead us to the North Sea.
“We’ll make camp here,” Thor decided after we walked down the side of the river for a few days and reached an especially wooded area. From the tone of his voice, I gathered he didn’t mean a camp for the night. We had talked about it, and here seemed as good a place as any to start building his ship.
“Don’t even think about it,” Thor whispered next to my ear the following morning as I stepped out of our tent. I giggled because he knew damn well that my eyes had turned to Giselle, one of the new women, and her three mates as they emerged from their tent. “I'm not one to share, contrary to those three,” he growled.
I leaned into him. “No worries, you’re all the man I need,” I assured him, meaning it. But there were roughly seven men per woman, and certain arrangements seemed to work for some of them.
“Not everybody is as lucky as you,” I pointed out, turning so I could look into his eyes.
“Don’t I know it,” he agreed, kissing me deeply. “I have half a mind to drag you back to my furs to prove it.”
“You already did, just a few minutes ago.” I laughed, snuggling into his wide chest.
“And I’ll do so over and over again.”
“And I’ll gladly let you,” I enticed.
“Female,” he rasped, “I have work to do, quit distracting me.”
I wound my fingers through his long hair and rose on my tiptoes to blow slightly against his ear. “But it’s so easy.”
He laughed and slapped my ass. “Behave.”
Sel-Gor was preparing breakfast by the large fire pit we had built, and Cara helped him make crepes. My mouth watered at the sight and smell. Cara had been a pastry chef in her former life, one who had prided herself on making everything from scratch, starting with churning butter and even making her own flour, something that came in handy now.
Not that we had cows for butter or milk, but even using water and honey instead of sugar, her crepes were to die for. Wild wheat seemed to grow everywhere, and once Cara showed us how to prepare it, we had plenty of flour for bread, her crepes, and whatever else she managed to bake.
Sel-Gor was so fascinated by her, that the two of them had become a couple even though he had sworn never to take a mate since he was the last of his species. But Cara had confided that due to ovarian cancer a few years back, she would never be able to have children. So the two of them made perfect sense, especially with their love of cooking.
Another one of the newcomers, Helga, who was also German, had worked part-time as an artist in a tourist town that had been constructed like a Bronze Age museum with people reenacting the Bronze Age trades. She had been a basket weaver, and she weaved baskets so tight we were able to transport water in them. Her techniques had turned into making strong ropes as well, which were used on the ship we were building. A real-life Viking ship.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought my life would come to this, but here I was, and I had to pinch myself a few times to remind myself that this wasn’t a dream.
Instead of helping in the traditional ways like I thought I would have, I found myself on the training grounds with the men more often. I had wrangled permission from Thor to become the first female warrior in our group. I might have been the first, but I wasn’t the only one. Unsurprisingly, Git joined me as well as two others.
I promised Thor I would stay away from actual fighting, but I had been the helpless damsel in distress once, and I didn’t intend to be that again, ever. And about real fighting… well, time would tell.
My hope was that most natives would have moved into the warmer climates and besides a few predators, we wouldn’t encounter any real danger when we reached the north. But that remained to be seen. Artifacts had been found in those areas, of course, but nothing dating back this early.
