Through the Gate: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 1

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Through the Gate: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 1 Page 43

by L J Dalton Jr


  One of the men grumbled. “What’s your problem Kornin, we were up all night pulling guard duty. Can’t you let a man sleep?” Just then they heard the shots as Mike killed the guard on the north gate and then the guards at the fields. The men looked up confused and worried.

  “That’s the problem, those shots. Now get up and get your guns and let’s go. It’s near the west gate; we need to go. Now hurry.”

  “I don’t hear our own men firing. Those are shots alright, but they sound different and they aren't that loud. What’s going on?”

  Kornin suddenly realized that the man was right. He hadn’t heard any musket shots at all. Just the strange sounding shots and a lot of them. If they were under attack, why weren’t his men firing back? "It doesn’t matter we’ve got to get out there and see what’s going on. Let’s go.”

  Just like Kornin, Mordt heard the shots. His first thought was that his people had attacked the guards. He rushed to the south gate. There he met some of the other villagers. They told him that the guards were dead. Mordt didn’t know what to think. He went to the gate and he could see two of the guards slumped over in the wagon, and to his right another guard was on the ground in a pool of blood. He turned to the villagers. “Get everyone you can indoors and have them lie on the floor. Somebody is attacking the raiders and we don’t want anyone of our people hurt. Now GO!!”

  Mordt then cautiously headed towards the guest houses in the middle of the village. As he neared them, he could hear Kornin yelling at his men. Mordt crouched down and observed what was happening. He saw Kornin and four others run towards the west gate. He waited.

  From when Kornin heard the first shots, it took him and his men seven minutes to get to the west gate. Too much time, all the other men were already dead. As they exited the gate, they did so slowly, looking around, ready to fire their guns. They saw the guard lying by the gate. Kornin motioned to one of the men to check on him. The man felt and his hand came up bloody; he looked at Kornin and shook his head. Then Kornin spotted the guard from the north gate and cautioned them. “This way. Keep your eyes sharp, something is very wrong.” With that they started along the wall to the north.

  Mike let them get well away from the gate. He was glad that they didn't move back into the village. That would have made things much more difficult. By not doing that they had signed their death warrent. Kornin and his men were about 125 yards away. He sighted in on the man nearest to the gate and shot. Then he quickly moved up the line aiming and shooting. Two men were down before any of the others reacted. Kornin turned and saw the muzzle flash. He saw it because Mike had just fired at and hit the man just to his left. That was the last thing he saw as a round hit him in the chest. Mike was aiming center of mass and at this range it was an easier shot than the ones he’d taken before. He didn’t hit all of them that way. But four were down hard and one was severely wounded. He doubted that the guard would last long. He was right, one of the men from the corral came up and finished him off with a knife. Mike stood up and put the safety on his weapon waiting to see what would happen next.

  Alivina and the others couldn’t believe their eyes. This stranger with the strange weapon had killed all of the guards and at such distances. It was a miracle. The others approached the man slowly, all except Alivina. She ran up to him and wrapped him in a big hug. And just hugged and hugged him.

  Mike was just coming down off of the adrenalin high, when Miss Bouncy Tits of wherever this was came up and hugged him. God, she felt good. She also smelled good. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but it was very alluring. Mike didn’t know about the pheromones people on Cornu give off, especially women who were fertile. That reminded him, he must smell pretty bad. He needed a bath or a shower. Once Alivina had shown that Mike was OK, the others gathered around him talking to him excitedly. He didn’t understand a thing they said. He smiled nodded his head and spoke back to them. They quickly got the idea that he didn’t understand them.

  Mordt came out and saw Alivina hugging a strange man. He was dressed in clothing that was multi-colored. It would be very hard to see in the midst of the woods. Mordt doubted that this was just a coincidence. It wasn’t paint, but a pattern inside the cloth. Being able to do that would be very tricky. Who else killed all the raiders? He asked one of the men around the stranger.

  “Mordt, that man over there killed them all. His weapon shoots a long way. Way further than a musket and it shoots multiple times. He killed the ones down by the cows with a knife and then he shot all the others. I think our people took care of the ones by the sheep.”

  Mordt considered that for a moment. It was something he could deal with later. Right now, he needed to get things organized. It looked to him like Alivina had the stranger well in hand, he needed to get other things moving. He spoke loudly. “All right, we need to get the animals fed and the milk processed. Everyone except Alivina get back to doing that. These bodies need to be picked up and buried quickly. We don’t need scavengers and predators coming around. Get them buried on the other side of the road to the pass. The graves don’t have to be that deep, just deep enough to keep the smell down. Make sure you collect all their weapons and valuables. Put the weapons in one of the guest houses. Clean out all the guest houses, get them aired out. Make one of them available to our friend here who rid us of this scum. We need to get a messenger off to the Resting Lion. Ignacy, in the morning get provisions and head towards the Resting Lion. Go cross country using the woods not the road. It should take you three or four days. Let them know what’s happening.” He then looked at Alivina. “Alivina can you take care of helping our friend get settled.”

  She beamed and nodded her assent. Alivina was thrilled that the raiders being dead and her husband avenged. She was definitely going to show her appreciation to this man in a very basic way. Plus she was fertile.

  Mike watched the people move off to get things done. The man doing all the talking was apparently the leader. He certainly sounded like a leader, although Mike had no idea what he said. The girl started to tug on his arm directing him towards the gate. He stopped and when she looked at him, he pointed west towards the river. For a second she looked confused, then she brightened and nodded.

  When the strange man pointed towards the river, Alivina realized that he probably needed to go and retrieve other items that he’d left while he was attacking the raiders. She walked him towards the river. On the way they exchanged names. Alivina quickly got Mike’s name. He had a bit of trouble with the pronunciation of her name but had it soon enough. When they reached the river, she was just in sandals. Mike looked at her feet and realized how cold the water was. He motioned for her to wait. He smiled and squeezed her hand and then went across the ford.

  On the other side he made his way towards his camp. It wasn’t until then that it struck him that he’d killed so many people. He didn’t feel good about it, but at the same time he wasn’t particularly bothered by it either. Those raiders may have eventually killed a lot of the villagers. He got to his camp site and gathered up his pack. Before leaving he checked the camp to make sure he wasn’t leaving anything. Satisfied he headed back to the river.

  When Alivina saw him, she smiled and waved. Mike smiled and waved as he crossed the ford. Once he got to the other side, she hooked her arm through his and lead him back to the village. He could feel a nice firm breast next to his arm. It felt good and he couldn’t get over how intoxicating her scent was.

  As they passed the cows, one of the women called out. “Alivina, are you going to be milking him tonight?” That was met by raucous laughter. Being freed from the raiders put everyone in a good mood.

  She replied back. “Yes, and for the next several nights after that. I’m fertile and he looks like a strong specimen.”

  Another woman shouted out. “Are you going to share him.”

  No, I think I can keep him occupied while he’s here.” That brought more laughter.

  Mike didn’t understand what they were saying. But he remem
bered his roommate Steve telling him that he probably didn’t want to know. That was about right. Before they went through the gate, they saw a wagon being loaded with the dead bandits.

  As Mike was retrieving his pack, Mordt and the other village leaders where conferring. Who and what was the stranger who just killed all the men who’d taken over the village? Mordt’s wife Edwina had it all figured out. “He is obviously from the home world and must have stepped through a gate. The weapon he uses shoots accurately at a long distance like a rifle and it can shoot many times without reloading. That came from nowhere on Cornu. It gave him the advantage over Kornin and his men. He is a soldier, an experienced one. He didn’t kill all those men just because he had a better musket. He did it because he planned it out. According to Servrin, who was at the corral, he snuck up and killed all the guards. We should welcome him into our village and let him rest a couple of days. As much as I would like to have him, we must send him on to Nordport, to the king’s court. This one may be able to do as much for us as Doctor Jorgenson did.”

  One of the other women spoke up. “We know that Doctor Jorgenson was able to father many more children than the normal man. Alivina is fertile now and she has lost her husband. Maybe we can convince him to lie with her and get her with child.”

  Mordt laughed. “Alivina, is a young and attractive woman. She has already taken to him as the man who avenged her husband. He is young and has been traveling for several days at least, without a woman, maybe longer. It won’t take much. Let’s talk with Alivina, I’m sure she would be eager to have a child fathered by the man who avenged her. Let’s put him in the guest house and ask her to take care of him.”

  “A fate worse than death.” One of the other men chimed in “Alivina will take very good care of him.” The whole group laughed. The people where not shy about sex, it was common, and it was expected.

  When they got back to the village, which Alivina told Mike was called Vinfarm, they were met by Mordt. Alivina introduced the two. Mike found that men greeted each other by clasping forearms. He could deal with that. He had the silly thought, that he kept to himself that at least the guy’s name wasn’t Mork. Mordt told Alivina to take him to the guest house. He explained to her that he was probably from the home world. If he did, then he would be very fertile and easily be able to father many children just like the famous Doctor Jorgenson. That also meant that he would have to go on to Nordport. She understood and would be very pleased to lie with him just to thank him for avenging her husband. Once they got the paint off his face, he’d probably be very attractive. Getting with child would be a true blessing.

  Mike noticed how orderly and neat the village was. The homes were well made and the streets straight. It was also very clean, something he didn’t expect in what he took to be a 17th century farming village. It did smell like a farm, there were farm animals nearby, but it wasn’t offensive at all. Alivina led him to a round house. It had a thatched roof and a clay chimney. The walls were made of stone. The floor was raised a few inches off the ground and the floors were made of wood. Inside, it was fairly bright and there were two rooms. There was a small potbellied stove that had a flue that went into a clay chimney that extend through the roof. The first room looked like a sitting room; the second room was a bedroom. The bed was big and looked comfortable. Not a luxury Serta sleeper, but it was still good.

  When he got inside, he made motions to indicate that he wanted to wash up. Alivina smiled and left. Mike took the time to unload and break down his AR-10. He did the same with the Glock. Then both were put back in the gun case and left there. He’d just finished getting his dopp kit out of his pack when Alivina and another woman returned. They were carrying a robe, sandals and towels. He expected them to leave, but they just stood there and watched him. Finally, he got undressed with both of them looking at him. He could feel his cheeks get red.

  The other woman said to Alivina. “He’s a bit shy, you may have to tackle him tonight. But once you get him in the mood he’ll do quite nicely. If you don’t want him, I can switch with you.”

  “No need Norina, I think he’s interested and you’re right he looks quite capable. Nice muscles and his member is quite nice as well.”

  Mike wasn’t sure what was said, but he was certain that he was the topic of the conversation and it was a bawdy one. He was probably going to get laid tonight and the entire village seemed know about and thought it was a good idea.

  When Mike was ready to go, the other woman who started to collect Mike’s clothes. She picked up the Kevlar vest as well. Mike realized that she was going to have them washed. He gently took the vest from her and put it in his pack. He then took out the bag that contained all his dirty clothes showing it to her while smiling sheepishly. The woman smiled and left with his clothes. “Alivina, I’ll make sure these are clean. You need help getting him clean?”

  Alivina laughed and then she led Mike to one of the bath houses. As soon as he entered, he realized his impression concerning the nudity taboo was true. The bath house had both men and woman in it. The floor was slate and felt warm. Heated from below like a roman bath? Another question for later. There were alcoves that Mike ascertained were some sort of shower. The alcoves had a cloth that could be pulled across to give some privacy. Since everyone was dancing around stark naked, why did they need privacy? Alivina shed her clothes and signaled to Mike to do the same. His initial impression was right, she was extremely attractive. His cock signaled what he was thinking. Talk about embarrassment, thought Mike. He quickly got into one of one of the stalls to hide his obvious hard on. Alivina followed him right in. She pulled on a lever and water cascaded over both of them. The water was warm and felt wonderful. He quickly soaped up and got thoroughly clean. Alivina did the same. When they were all soaped up, she pulled the lever again and warm water washed off all the soap. This ‘navy’ shower worked really well. It was glorious. He was reminded of how good a hot shower and being clean felt after being out in the boondocks getting shot at for weeks. Alivina was happy that she elicited the reaction from Mike. She felt her hormones starting to flow. She knew that she was fertile and that the coupling would be intense as it always is when a woman is fertile and lying with a man. She was going to get nice and clean and restrain herself until she could get him in bed. The last thing she wanted was to waste any of that precious seed.

  Mike survived the shower. Alivina led him around the village and pointed things out to him. She named the villagers as they met them. Most of the names ran together for him. The names were different, but then so were the names in much of the world. They walked out of the east gate and she pointed out the sheep which she called Merino Sheep. That was simply too much of a coincidence. Mike had some idea what Merino sheep looked like. These were very close in what he remembered seeing in books. Then they walked around, and he learned the local name for vines and vineyard. He had her point out the vine and name it. It appeared that they had three different types of vines in this vineyard. Then they went around to the cows. The first one even the city boy Mike could recognize as a cow breed to give milk. He nearly fell over when Alivina told him it was a Guernsey. The obvious beef cow was Angus. These were purposed breed. Then they came to the big horses and she called them Jorgenson horses. He had a suspicion that this Jorgenson was responsible for the horses, the sheep, the cows, and maybe the Amish plows he saw.

  He noticed a windmill to the north east of the village. That explained the water pressure. They were using it to pump water from an underground spring or aquifer to provide water for the village. Pretty cool.

  Then she took him down to what he would call a barn. The entered through a regular door cut in the barn’s side. In there he saw what could only be two McCormick reapers. That wasn’t in common usage to the middle of the nineteenth century. There also appeared to be horse drawn machines to plant and to hoe the ground between crop rows. Compared to the military equipment he saw this was a couple of hundred years more advanced. His assumption was the
men who were holding the village hostage had fairly up to date equipment. Mike was pretty sure that was the case. The dichotomy was strange to say the least.

  Another barn held several large wagons. He guessed that these were used to transport things to and from markets. These people weren't totally self sufficient and they grew more wine grapes than they could use. So they probably traded those for other goods. Was this strictly a barter economy or was there currency?

  On the tour they stopped by four fresh graves. Apparently these people were killed when the bandits took over the building. He could see tears running down Alivina's face. She must have known these people. Maybe she was very close to one or more of them. Mike wasn't glad he'd killed the bandits but he felt better about it.

  After the tour she led him to a big dining hall. Apparently, meals here were communal affairs. Tonight, was apparently a celebration. Mike and Alivina were seated with Mordt and a number of other people. He took the people with Mordt to be the leaders of the village. He looked around and was once again struck by the population. There really weren’t any really unattractive people that he could see. No deformities, and just a few facial types. All of them were pleasant. As he thought about it, the men guarding the villagers didn’t look like a bunch of criminals. Maybe they weren’t. Once again something to figure out later. Mike saw that there were more women than men. He guessed that there were about forty to fifty percent more women than men. The women weren’t small, but they weren’t fat or blocky. They seemed well proportioned and if you liked big breasts you were in heaven. Why he wondered. More to think about there. He could only see one older man in the group. The number of children was so much lower than he would have expected. There were a couple of babies and only a couple of toddlers, along with a sprinkling of teenagers. Once again, more girls than boys. What is going on here? He was apparently stuck here for a bit, so he’d learn the language and he’d find out.

 

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