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Gulping huge amounts of air, her chest heaved from her uncontrolled, panicked flight. Pull yourself together. They will not find you again; they are . . . She couldn't finish the thought as bile rose into the back of her throat. Having no idea where she was or what direction she was heading as she stumbled through the darkness, Ingrid kept moving. No plan--other than to put as much distance as she could between her and the trolls--spurred her forward. When she tripped for the third time, landing again on her battered knees, she stopped. I need to wash and I can't think with this troll stench.
While she tried to breathe through her mouth and come up with a plan, a sound echoed through the brush behind her. Still as a deer, she sat and listened. It came again, distinct and deliberate. Something was getting closer to her, whether animal or another troll, she wouldn't wait to find out. Having the rest and time to gather her wits, she kept the moon behind her left shoulder and headed, she hoped, west. Her mother had taught her how to use the stars as a guide at night, showing her how to find the North Star and several constellations to mark positions. It occurred to Ingrid that she didn't know how her mother came to know such things. For that matter, she didn't know much about her mother at all, never taking the time to see her as anything other than the woman who loved and took care of her. A sudden tightness gripped her chest.
Curling one arm around her middle, she pushed away thoughts of home and hurried her pace. A break in the undergrowth allowed her to see her surroundings more and move faster without the scratches from broken branches and thorns. Peeking out from a cloud where it had been playing hide-and-seek, the moon illuminated the open ground, giving Ingrid a chance to stop and get her bearings. There wasn't any sound of running water so she figured she must be too far from the river to make it there in the darkness, and she couldn't smell anything familiar past the rotten-egg scent of troll. Deciding to continue on her original path, she walked only a few steps before she heard movement inside the brush from where she had emerged. As fast as she could, she ran ahead through the clearing, diving into a thick clump of brush and scampering on her hands and knees until she found a place to get on her feet. Before she could take a full step, however, a body slammed into her from behind, knocking her to the ground. Screaming, she wiggled and punched out at her attacker, connecting once causing a loud grunt and an increase in the pressure against her.
"Get off of me!" she yelled, getting herself turned sideways so she could lash out with one leg and fist again.
"Ingrid?" a familiar voice asked and rolled away from her. "Ouch. Stop kicking."
When the pressure on top of her lifted, Ingrid pushed off the ground and rushed forward on her hands and feet like a bear. Hearing her name called out didn't register at first and when it did she stumbled and lost her balance, falling on her elbow against a rock. Standing, she turned around to face whoever it was. The light was dim inside the undergrowth and she could only make out the shape of a person, human she hoped, heading toward her. A second one emerged and bolted toward her. Ingrid lowered herself into a fighting position despite the pain in her elbow.
"Ingrid, we found you!" Selby's voice rang out and Ingrid wilted, scooped into a hearty hug by her best friend. Almost as quick, she was pushed away as Selby groaned.
"I know, I smell like a midden heap," Ingrid said with a scrunched face.
"You walk with trolls, you smell like trolls," Hagen said laughing as he and Jorg stood behind Selby.
Ingrid grunted. "Not something I intended to do, I assure you. Nor do I ever want to see one again, thank you very much."
"I can't believe trolls are here. I've heard stories of them, but never heard of anyone seeing any in recent times," Jorg said.
"They haven't been around. They told me they had been away and I was the first human they had seen in a long time."
"You spoke with them?" Jorg asked, a curious expression on his face.
"Yes. Only one spoke so I could understand him; the others used their 'old language,' he said."
"Why don't we go back to the clearing where we can see better and there's more space," Selby suggested, giving Ingrid a sheepish grin.
"Where I can stand downwind, you mean."
"I was trying to be nice about it, but ugh, you stink. I want to hear how you ended up with those disgusting things in the first place."
They fought their way back through the thickets to open ground and Ingrid moved so she stood against the breeze. "How's this? Am I more tolerable if I stand over here?"
"That's fine. We should get a fire started and get warm before you start to tell of your adventure. This looks like a good spot to spend the rest of the night anyway," Hagen said.
Always in charge, of course. "Are we far enough away from the other one do you think? There was one that ran away," Ingrid asked, unsure if she felt comfortable stopping until daylight.
"It ran in the other direction, so we'll be safe here," Jorg assured her. She gave him a weak smile and nodded acceptance.
After they gathered wood and got a good fire going, Ingrid sat on the downwind side, continually waving smoke out of her face. The others sat huddled on the other side as far away from her as they could get.
"Are we anywhere near the river?" Ingrid asked. "I would rather plunge myself into the cold water right now than keep smelling like this or fighting this smoke."
"I'm afraid not. We'll have to work our way closer to it in the morning," Hagen told her.
"Alright, I don't suppose you have a flask of water or anything so that I could at least wipe some of this off?" Even to her own ears she sounded whiny, but fatigue had caught up to her.
"Here, you can use my hangerook, it's still damp from being in the water earlier," Selby said and unpinned her apron, handing it around the fire to Ingrid.
Wiping her face and neck, her mood was instantly relieved without the stinging smell of rotten eggs assaulting her nose and the breeze cooling her cleaned, damp skin. "That feels better at least," she said while she worked at getting more goo out of her hair.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Hagen asked.
"Well, let's see. I was on board the boat and then I was fighting to keep my head out of the water."
"We think the boat was sabotaged from those men you saw, but it was checked before putting into the river so that's just our guess. We came after you right away so we don't really know," Hagen said.
"Oh."
"It was worth it, don't worry about us. Just tell us what happened," Selby said and gave Hagen a disapproving glance with a quick slap on his shoulder.
Taking a couple slow breaths and waving the smoke away, she told them what happened. "The trolls found me along the shore almost as soon as I crawled out of the water. I didn't know what they were and couldn't see since their smell made my eyes water so bad."
"They didn't hurt you, did they?" Jorg interrupted with a look on his face that pleaded for the answer to be no.
Ingrid smiled at him. "No. They carried me for a while and then crowded me between them while we walked. I couldn't help getting their muck on me, even before the end. I kept thinking of how to escape, then while we were eating"--Ingrid shuddered at the memory of the slime-soaked rabbit she'd devoured in her hunger--"I remembered the time you teased Selby and me about having magical bread. How you made us do all kinds of stupid stuff to 'earn' ours." A smile broke across her face, squishing her cheeks into her eyes. "I convinced them I had magical mead and they could share it with me if they earned it. I thought maybe if I won, they would let me go. After some debate at what a good test would be, I suggested that we could play a game and I would tell them their names. They'd laughed at me for telling them mine right away when they first grabbed me so I'd listened to them talk among themselves enough I thought I had figured out two of theirs. They were eager to let me try because they were sure I didn't know. I never knew it would destroy them." Staring blankly into the fire, she let silence take over the conversation.
"We heard some
thing loud, almost like thunder," Selby said in a low voice.
"Yes, it was. My ears rang and I couldn't hear anything for awhile, not until just before you caught up to me, actually. Their bodies shook, they roared and then . . . " She opened her hands and swept them into a wide arc.
"That sounds horrible." Selby put her hands over her mouth and wrinkled her nose.
"We saw one run away. How many were there in total?" Jorg asked.
"Just the three of them." Ingrid fidgeted with Selby's apron, still trying to wipe more sludge from herself. "How long do you think it will take to get to the river in the morning?"
"Not too long. We can head there first thing before we start for home," Jorg said.
"Can we follow the river and meet up with the boats again?" Selby asked and Ingrid was grateful for the change in subject.
"The other boats would be too far away by now to reach on foot and I think we should get away from the river. We would do better to pick our way through the forest and the moors than run into any more slime monsters," Hagen said.
"Do you think anyone from home might be searching for us? Maybe we should stay by the water so they can find us," Ingrid said.
"They'll search around where the boat went down, but you were washed too far away for them to find us," Hagen answered.
"I agree. If we head north and turn west in about three days, we should come to the village about three more days after that. I traveled through this area once with my father," Jorg said.
"So tomorrow, we wash and then we walk," Selby shook her head in agreement with the plan. "For now though, I don't know about you guys, but I want to keep the fire bright and make sure that other troll doesn't come back around."
"Little Ugly wasn't the bravest of them," Ingrid said. Watching the flames of the fire dance, she said it without emotion.
"Little Ugly?" Selby asked with a snort.
Ingrid looked up at her and grinned. "That's the one that ran away." She let the smile grow on her face and bit her bottom lip before she added, "He was also the most disgusting. He farted more than Hagen." Laughing at her own joke, Selby joined her when Hagen threw a small clump of mud at Ingrid. Hearing the laughter of her friends made her believe everything would work out and they would make it back home.
* * *
The night was clear and millions of stars blinked over the camp like a sparkling blanket. Ingrid lay on her back watching them. She should sleep, she knew, because she would need rest for the walk home, but she couldn't. When she closed her eyes she either saw trolls or the images from her vision on the river. As hard as she tried, she couldn't tell anymore if it was real or something she dreamed while nearly drowning. Something small hit her in the arm and she brushed at it thinking it was a bug. Another something hit her under the chin which she grabbed and realized it was a piece of twig and not the spider she feared. Sitting up she saw Jorg smiling at her.
"You're supposed to be asleep," he said.
"How do you know I wasn't, and you just woke me up?"
"I guess I don't. Do you normally sleep with your eyes open? Because that would be strange."
She narrowed her eyes at him in mock annoyance, then scooted closer so their voices wouldn't wake the others. "I can't sleep."
"You've been through a lot."
"I can take watch if you want to rest," she said. Please stay awake and talk with me.
"Nah, I'm not able to sleep either."
They sat in silence for a while, each content as they kept the fire stoked. The worries and fears that had plagued Ingrid earlier slipped away. "Do you know much of the nine realms?" she asked, twiddling a small stone in her hands.
"I don't know. As much as anyone, I suppose. Why do you ask?"
"Hagen knows more about them than me. Papa tells the stories of all the gods and their worlds and he's paid more attention than I have. I know who the gods are of course, but not much about the realms themselves. Do you think a human can go to any of them?"
"I don't know, probably not. Some of them wouldn't be possible for sure. Like Muspelheim or Niflheim, they are all fire or mist, and the others, I don't know if a human could travel there."
"What about Asgard--there's the Bifrost that connects it to our realm, right? Isn't that why it was made."
"First, Heimdall controls the Bifrost and he wouldn't open it to humans, I'm sure of that, it's a road only the gods travel. Second, and most important, no god or goddess would allow a human to enter their world. What's this all about, anyway?" He glanced sideways at Ingrid, then back to the fire.
"I don't know, it's nothing I guess." It had to be a dream.
"Do you think that's what's bringing the old things back here? Because I've been trying to figure that out, too."
"Yes, that's partly it."
They continued in silence again, then Jorg reached over and took Ingrid's hand, the one without the gauntlet, and rubbed it between his large hands. "Did you lose this one?" he asked. "I can't believe how cold your hands get."
"I don't know if I lost it in the water or after," she answered, distracted while she watched his hands caress hers.
"Maybe we should tear off the bottom of your apron and wrap it around--would that help, do you think?"
Jolted from her dreamy stare, she flashed a quick grin. "Probably, I didn't think of that." Reaching into her purse attached to the belt around her waist, she found her scissors and cut a wide strip from her apron. "I forgot I had these. The trolls wanted me to prepare the rabbits they caught for dinner but I didn't have a knife so they made the smallest one do it." She chuckled, "I'm glad they didn't make me empty my bag."
"You don't have a knife?"
"No, I know I lost that in the river."
Pulling a knife from his boot, Jorg handed it to Ingrid. "Take this one. You should never be without something to defend yourself."
"What will you do if I take this one?" She took it from him even as she asked the question.
Smiling, he shook his head. "Don't worry, I have more."
"Oh." She turned the knife over in her hands. The handle had beautiful carvings in the bone and a blade about as long as Ingrid's hand stuck from it. "Did your father make this? The carvings are so intricate." Swirls of vines and leaves twisted into a delicate lace pattern on both sides of the handle.
"No, I made that one. I used to get into a lot of trouble when I was younger for wasting time, dulling blades making shapes and designs onto many things. Now, my father uses my creations to get a better price for his ironwork. It's funny because he's always tried to teach me to forge, but I've never got the hang of it. Making the handles and doing the carvings, that comes natural."
Ingrid watched his face as he spoke, seeing the sadness that crossed his features as he talked about his father. She'd heard his story from Hagen once. Orphaned, Jorg had been found as a baby in the forest by the woman he knew as his mother. With no children of her own, she brought him home and convinced her husband to keep him, even though he believed Jorg was a changeling left by the faeries. They later bore several daughters, but no sons, and his father reluctantly accepted a relationship with him.
"It's beautiful, thank you." She gave him a smile before tucking the knife into her belt.
"Here, let me help with that." Jorg took the strip of fabric from Ingrid and gently wrapped it around her wrist and up over her hand, tucking it at the end to keep it in place. "That should hold for a while," he said but didn't let go of her hand, and she didn't pull it away. Never had her heart beat so fast while she had a smile on her face and an involuntary shiver rattled through her limbs.
"Are you cold?" Jorg asked. Not waiting for an answer he scooted around to Ingrid's side and tucked her under his arm. Instant heat flushed her face and she enjoyed the sensation of his strong arm around her shoulders. Unsure of how to respond, she sat very still until Jorg tightened her closer to him and she let herself sink into his side. Watching the flames dance in the dark night, Ingrid closed her eyes, her heartbeat ca
lm and steady, all thoughts of their situation or what lay ahead of them lost in the peaceful moment.
* * *
Twittering birds in the still, gray, early morning dawn teased Ingrid awake. Stretching she yawned, thankful for the sleep, but stiff from lying on the hard ground. The birds were the only sound, as the rest of the group had not yet started to stir; even Jorg had found sleep at last over on his own cloak.
When did you go back over there? A smile spread across her face as she remembered the feeling of being close to him.
Eager to find a place along the river to wash, the odor coming off of her body burned her eyes like skunk vapor and she felt sticky all over. Reaching out her foot, she nudged Jorg's boot.
"Ingrid, it is not nice to wake a man who only just fell asleep."
"Well, it's not nice to tell a girl there's a place to take a bath and not show it to her, either."
He smiled before opening his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he sat up and stretched. "Are you going to let those logs continue to be useless or is it only me that has to take this abuse?"
She looked over to the other sleeping forms, then pumped her eyebrows with a wicked little grin. Using Selby's soiled apron she tossed it over Hagen's face and then dropped to her knees next to Selby giving her a hug. "Good morning," she said in a singsong voice.
Ingrid, The Viking Maiden (Viking Maiden Series Book 1) Page 11