Shades of Valhalla - Inner Origins Book One

by Ellis Logan

  Chapter 8

  When I pulled into the driveway there was a silver Prius sitting in one of our parking spots. I really hoped that wasn’t Rowan’s car, I was so not ready yet. I jogged up the steps and went inside.

  “Mom? You home?” I’d taken the Subaru, but she could have gone running or hiking.

  “Yeah, Siri, in here,” she called from the kitchen.

  I went in and saw her sitting at the counter eating pita chips and hummus. “Someone’s parked in one of our spaces. I thought maybe you had someone over?”

  “Ah, no. But there is something I wanted to talk to you about…” She leveled me with a serious gaze.

  “There is?” I worried for a moment, wondering what I’d done. I couldn’t think of anything, so I wasn’t sure what this was going to be about.

  She burst out laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry! I can’t do this. You are just too easy. You should see the look on your face!” She got up and went over to a pile of papers, came over and waved them in my face, “I got a new car!”

  “What!?”

  “I know you are planning on going snowboarding every day this winter, and there’s not really any good transit in the area, so I thought it was time you had your own.”

  “You got me a Prius!”

  “Ha!” she guffawed. “As if! No, I got me a Prius, and you get to call the Forester your very own. Now, who’s the best mom in the world?” She spread her arms wide and beckoned me in for a hug.

  “Ha, yeah, you are, definitely. Thanks mom!” I gave her a big long hug. “You are the best, I mean it.”

  “Alright, gratitude session over. Don’t you have a date to get ready for?”

  “Oh, right, I almost forgot! And it’s not a date, Mom, a bunch of people are going swimming, that’s all.”

  “Whatever you say, Siri.” She winked at me and sat down with her chips again.

  I shook my head and went to take a quick shower. After I got out, I threw on my bathing suit, assuming there wouldn’t be anywhere to change when we got there, some cutoff shorts and a faded Chemical Brothers concert tee. I grabbed my backpack, packing a towel and some sunglasses, along with my phone, wallet and a sweatshirt. I came out of my room just as my mom was opening the door.

  “Hi Rowan, come on in.”

  “Hi Mrs. Alvarsson. How are you today?”

  “I’m wonderful Rowan, thank you for asking. I’m actually just about to head out myself.” My mom turned to me. “Siri, there are some cookies and sodas in the kitchen if you guys want to take them with you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Thanks Mom, but I think we’re good.”

  Rowan cleared his throat and I looked over at him. “Actually, Mrs. Alvarsson, I think that would be great. Thanks!”

  My mom laughed, grabbed her keys off the table and headed out the open door. “Alright, well help yourself you two. Take whatever you want. I won’t be back until late, Siri, Frank wants to take me out for a game of golf and then dinner with some of the team. Rowan, you make sure my daughter’s home before I am!”

  I groaned. “Mom, you are so embarrassing!”

  “I know, isn’t it great?” She tossed her hair and jogged down the steps to her car. “Back by nine -- I mean it, it’s a school night!”

  Rowan turned back to me. He looked sympathetic, but I could tell by the muscle jumping in his jaw that he was trying really hard not to laugh.

  “Alright, come on, let’s get your grub, hungry man.” I led the way into the kitchen. I grabbed a couple water bottles and decided to stuff the whole bag of chocolate chip cookies in my bag, too. Served her right if there weren’t any left later. I looked around the room, then back at Rowan. “Anything else you want?” I smirked at him, daring him.

  He took a couple strides right toward me and looked down at me. He was standing near enough that I could actually feel his body heat. I could see tiny flecks of blue and silver in the deep dark indigo of his eyes. “How about this? He reached around me, and I froze. He was so close for a moment that my lips were practically on his collarbone. I inhaled, and smelled an intoxicating musky scent with citrus undertones. He leaned back and held an apple between us.

  I felt dazed. “Um, what? Oh,” I blushed, embarrassed that he’d caught me off-guard. “Yeah, sure, you can have that.”

  “Cool.” He grinned. “Alright then, Serious, I’m all set. You?”

  “Serious?”

  “Yeah,” he was totally laughing at me now. “Serious Siri. Come on, let’s head out.”

  We headed out to his truck, a beat-up two-toned red and black pickup. He followed me around to the passenger side and reached around me again to open the door. “Your chariot, milady.”

  I laughed, glad for something to distract me and climbed in. He shut the door behind me, got in on his side and turned the key. The engine roared to life, along with some old-school rock music coming from the radio.

  “You listen to Rush?”

  “Yeah, you want me to turn it off?”

  “Nah, I’m good. My mom and I work out to Rush all the time. I like Queen better, though.”

  “Really? That’s cool. I don’t think I know too many girls who do their yoga to Rush.”

  “Yoga?! Boooring. My mom and I both do martial arts, she’s been training me since I was a kid.”

  “Wow, seriously? That’s really cool. I did Karate for years with the local park and rec program, got up to a red belt before I got tired of it. How about you?”

  “I’m a third degree black belt in Tang Soo Do.” I waited for his face to change, like so many guys’ did when they heard I could probably beat them up. Instead of looking annoyed or disappointed, though, he just looked intrigued.

  “That is so totally cool! Wow. So if I ever need help, I know who to call,” he laughed good-naturedly. I decided I might as well change the subject while I was ahead, before he found out about the Krav Maga and Capoeira.

  “So, um, what else do you do? Do you snowboard?”

  “Oh yeah, of course, you pretty much have to if you grow up around here. I also ski. My dad likes to take us in during deep-snow season and hunt for bear, so I snowshoe, too.”

  “You can hunt bear? Aren’t they endangered or something?”

  “Not around here. Hunters can get a special license to get one or two bear a year. It helps keep the population from getting out of control. One bear provides most of our meat and baking grease for the whole year.”

  “Oh.” I felt a little ill. I wasn’t vegetarian, but my mom and I stuck mostly to fish and the occasional ham sandwich, and even then only a few times a week. We got the bulk of our protein from beans and nuts the rest of the time.

  “Hey, don’t worry. I won’t make you eat any,” he teased. “Though I can’t speak for my mom if you ever come over for dinner.”

  He glanced at me, and I heated up under his gaze again. He was talking about meeting his parents, already?

  “That’s fine,” I rushed to reassure him, “I’ll try anything once.”

  “Oh, really?” he drawled suggestively. I blushed, realizing what he was implying. “Hold on.”

  We pulled into a dirt lane and stopped. My heart started hammering. “What are you doing?” I asked him, trying to keep any nervousness out of my voice.

  “We’re here.”

  “We are?” I asked. I looked around, and noticed he had parked next to a couple of other cars. “Oh! We are!” I opened the door and scrambled out of the truck. Rowan came around and pulled our backpacks out of the truck bed. He put his on and swung mine up over one shoulder, and looked at me.

  “Yeah, we are. What did you think I was doing, Siri?” He asked. Now he was the serious one.

  “Um, I don’t know. You kind of took me off guard, I guess. You know, city girl in the woods,” I shrugged and tried to smile.

  He took a step toward me and leaned in. He looked into my eyes for a minute and took a deep breath. “Okay. I get it. Look, when I want to kiss someone, I don’t take them into the woods
and molest them.”

  “You don’t?” I squeaked.

  “No, I don’t.” He looked a little angry. “I take them on a date. I take them home. And then, if they seem interested…then, I kiss them.”

  “Oh.” I exhaled.

  He stood up and took a step back. “The trail to the falls starts over here, you ready?” He pointed behind him to his left and quirked an eyebrow.

  “As ever,” I quipped.

  “Ladies first.” He swept his hand before him and I walked past, heading into the warm autumn woods.

  “And Siri?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Just so we are clear…” He paused. “This is a date.”

  I almost missed a step and coughed to try and hide it. Just follow the trail, Siri, one foot in front of the other. Follow the trail. And breathe. “Good to know.”

  After that we walked in silence for a few minutes. The further we walked, the more beautiful the forest became. It was full of hundred year old pines supported by two foot wide trunks. The ground was piled deep with pine needles and lacked undergrowth, making it really easy to follow the springy trail as it picked its way between stones and felled trees. Amid the beauty, I started to feel melancholy the deeper in we went. A strange, underlying sadness, making me feel a little homesick. Just as I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed, we stepped around some large boulders, following the trail to come out by an old train trestle overlooking a wide river. The river was gorgeous, filled with lots of little swimming holes created by worn boulders and rock ledges.

  I gasped. It was so beautiful. Right on the heels of that sentiment I was hit with a huge wave of sadness. “What is this place?” I asked, feeling short of breath. Tears pricked behind my eyes, and I had to fight not to let them out.

  “These are the falls.” Rowan answered, watching me closely. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I smiled at him, shaking off the weird sadness I’d felt coming from the scenic view. “But…Where are the falls? I don’t see any waterfall.”

  Rowan’s voice took on a hint of regret. “They’re gone. About one hundred and forty years ago the train lines decided this was a good route to take around the mountains. The falls were over a hundred feet high, and considered a holy power place by the local indigenous tribes. The train company didn’t care. They blasted the falls down so that they could save distance on their line, because distance equaled time, and time was money. What you see here is all that is left of the falls. That, and the town name.”

  “Falls Depot. It was a train depot?”

  “Yeah. It was a busy trading station for timber, fur and wool, at least until the industrial age took over and everyone started moving to the cities.” He shook his head and took my hand, smiling down at me. My heart thumped in my chest and I heard some screaming and laughter from down below. “Come on. Enough town history. Let’s introduce you to the gang.”

  He pulled me down the trail. Below the old bridge, there was a huge, dark pool of water. Several rope swings hung down from the trestles, some in better condition than others. Rowan must have seen where I was looking, because suddenly I felt his breath on my ear as he murmured, “Stay off all the ropes except the red and white one, Serious. The rest are all rotted through. Come on.” He took me a couple of steps further past some bushes, and I finally saw where the laughter had come from. Two girls and a guy were sitting on the rocks in the sun, drinking beer. The guy had light brown hair and leaned close to the water’s edge. Every few seconds he’d splash a bit of water at the girls.

  “Cooper, quit it!” The thin brunette in a pink bikini laughed. “Next time I am throwing you in there with the fish!”

  “Hey, if that means you’re touching me…”He wiggled his eyebrows and flashed his teeth, and scooped up a handful of water.

  “Cooper…” she warned.

  “Ooops!” He flicked his wrist and got her right in the face with a healthy dose of water.

  “That’s it!” the brunette shrieked and launched herself at the boy named Cooper, taking him over the ledge and into the pool. The resulting splash sloshed over the stones and soaked the blonde girl who had been watching the whole scene play out with a bored look on her face.

  “Ugh.” She reached for a towel and started drying herself off. “You guys! How could you! You totally got my hair wet! You are both, like, so juvenile.”

  Rowan burst out laughing, and the blond looked up, instantly transforming her harpy face into a sweet adoring smile. “Rowan, you’re here! I was hoping you would come by.”

  “Yep, here we are.” Rowan pulled me forward with him, setting off a fresh wave of nerves, then let go of my hand. “Emelie, this is Siri. She just moved to the Depot.”

  The girl looked me up and down, coldly assessing my clothes and hair. “Charmed, I’m sure,” she said with about zero interest. She picked up her beer and took a swig, looking back out over the water.

  “Hey Cooper, Holly. Come meet Rowan’s new friend.” Emelie said the last word like it was dripped in acid, and the temperature seemed to drop a couple degrees.