by M. Garnet
“Humpf. Young people have no stamina anymore. You will learn much about your family by getting out and seeing what your ancestors have done. The Fisherman’s Memorial Museum is a good place to start. I will have Mikkel bring you up some of his sister’s clothes. You will stand out like a sick walrus in those silly American things. You will feel more at home in your family’s clothes. Pass me some more of the rolls.”
Kathryn listened to the woman talk for another hour as the food was taken away. For dessert, a custard that was still warm was brought in with a beautiful tea service. This tea was like the one she had found at the bus station. Strong, but served with thick cream and a rugged lump of dark sugar.
Several times, Kathryn tried to ask a question or break in, but her aunt just rolled on with details that weren’t of her immediate family. Aunt Halla would point out that the floor needed waxing, which led to the point that they needed to go to the woods to find a good beehive buried in a tree that she thought might still be there since she was younger. They could get both wax and honey, but they would do that later. “There are the boat docks that are necessary to go to. There are lots of relics from the Vikings, of which the Marksonvens were all descendants, bless Oden and God.”
Aunt Halla finally quit talking and stood up. However, of course, she was not done. “Well, you have quite worn me out. I am so tired filling you in and answering all your questions. Look how late it is. I am going to bed because we will be up early for our trip.”
Kathryn just sat there with her mouth open as the old woman with the straight back turned slowly to walk out, leaving her alone at the dining room table.
The young girl was taking the last of the dishes out of the room so she decided that was that. Bedtime.
Chapter Three
Now here Kathryn found herself was atop a large stone monument. The morning had been a rough one, starting out with a loud lecture on the fact that she had overslept although her wristwatch said it was five in the morning local time.
He aunt sent her back up to her room with an armful of clothes from Mikkel with and instructions to hurry and change as she had already wasted so much time. Actually, she found the skirt along with the blouse that had a leather-looking belt comfortable. The jacket was a little large, with huge buttons that looked to be made from bone. The blouse was a light tan, but the skirt and jacket were dark brown.
The boots had sturdy hard leather soles without heels, but heavy thick stops that came to her knees. There were ties she could pull that would keep them up on her legs. Since they met her skirt, she was almost too warm when they started out.
They had hot rich tea and cold sandwiches made from the left over beef of the night before as Mikkel drove them. During the whole trip, Aunt Halla lectured on the history of the people they drove past. It was all very interesting, but none of it pertained to her or her parents. Her aunt seemed to have to spout words that Kathryn kept Kathryn hunting for any tidbits that might tell her anything about her parents.
She was surprised by the beauty of the site. This building was similar to a stone pointed monolith. It rose from a forest garden on the edge of a cliff overlooking the point where the channel fed into the sea. Using her dictionary, she translated enough to learn that the channel was known as Langerak Channel.
For her, it was difficult to tell the difference between the sea in the east and the channel in the south. The channel was so wide, she couldn’t see across it, and the choppy waves made the color of the water the same in both areas. Around the area, many large rocks and small monuments evidently marked objects that reflected Viking sites or items.
By the time they entered the lobby, Kathryn was again able to pick up small items of interest from the long discourse that Aunt Halla spilled out ceaselessly.
Kathryn looked at one item. It was not a weapon, but something used on fishing boats long ago. Her aunt explained that this name was one of the men lost at sea and related to them. Continuing to scan the objects, she thought, that is an actual Viking sword. Looking at a round piece of silver, she realized it was the metal band used on their heads. No, silly girl. Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets. Such a stupid idea.
The museum actually had a metal detector set up inside the second door. Aunt Halla had a couple of large metal clips in her hair along with a pocket full of loose coins. This set off the alarm as a couple of local guards took her aside.
The whole time they examined her, Aunt Halla never quit talking in English. She let her hair down and left the clips along with the coins for the guards to do with whatever they wanted. None of them spoke English, but they were polite and the pat down search was not invasive. Suddenly, the guards and everyone else was pointing at her, then one of them reached over to touch her hair. Shit, she really needed to give up and cut her hair. Now that it was loose, it reached to her waist. Bright red and curly, it was attracting way too much attention.
In Denmark, there were plenty of blonds of all shades, including many caramel or brown, left over from the ancestors of the north. Finally, she and Aunt Halla were in the elevator going to the top as she tried to tuck her hair into the back of her jacket. Evidently, there weren’t too many redheads.
She would have to look up to see if there had been any contact with the red hair colors of Scotland in Viking history. From the reaction, though, she guessed there had not been much interaction. She did know the Vikings went into Britain. The History Channel said they even went into Russia, but this had nothing to do with her learning about her parents.
Oh, but it gave a whole new topic for Aunt Halla to rant about. No redheads in the family, no matter how far back you looked at the records. It had to be on her mother’s side, tainted blood. Blah, blah, blah, all the way up her aunt mumbled in a strange elevator that someone in a separate building really was cranking it by hand.
They were about two hundred feet up when the elevator box jerked to a stop and they could exit onto a deck that allowed them a magnificent view of the entire area. It was breathtaking. To her eyes on one side, it looked like virgin forest. There was the water on two sides. Far off in the distance were boats or ships, but too far away to identify.
The sun was brilliant and warm, offsetting the chill of the wind. In the west, she could see the layout of the small city as it spread out of sight wrapping around the edge of the channel along the sandy shore. The back edge disappeared into the forest. Here, she could also see the gardens. These were well-tended plots laid out with the black rich earth showing through the dark green tops of plants growing tall in neat rows. She had expected many more. It was obvious that some were small for family use, but others were large growing items for sale in the city or for neighbors.
Kathryn had now shut out the voice of her Aunt. She just wandered the balcony, looking down at the small relics from ancient times, wondering if it was that different when others lived here.?
“Kathryn, I am going down to get Mikkel to order us lunch. He can drive into town and be back in a short time. You waste too much time. We have so much to see, but I expect it. I will try to reset my plans of where we are going for the next few days to conform to your slowness. Don’t take too long and …” Aunt Halla’s voice drifted away as the elevator door closed on her and Kathryn was alone in the quiet, grateful.
She took a few minutes to think about this trip. This far, it had not been what she had expected. Aunt Halla was a complete surprise and somewhat of a disappointment. Kathryn was tired and her mind was a jumble of sites and scenes as if everything was thrown at her in blinks. She knew there was quite a lot to learn, but she had to plan on some way to slow down the old woman and find out more about the actual family.
Well, shit, Kathryn. You came from her blood. If she was a pain the ass, you could be one, too. Time to be just as tough as Aunt Halla. Go back home and refuse to budge and make her talk about family. Yes, it was nice she had paid for the trip, but it was time she shared.
Time to face the demon. Kathryn
went to the elevator and pushed the button to let the men know she wanted to come down. It seemed to take a long time for the elevator to return to the top, but perhaps someone was using it below. Finally, the doors opened and she entered, still feeling her internal strength as she watched the doors close.
There was a jerk, but the elevator didn’t move. She felt another jerk and the elevator let go—really let go, falling rapidly. It was dropping so fast, she felt herself actually rise up off the floor of the elevator. Her last thoughts were that she was going to die without ever learning anything else about her parents.
Kathryn opened her eyes. Okay, she wasn’t dead. Maybe she would learn something about her parents after all. Where was she? She slowly moved her head. What was it she had learned when she was fourteen and in that stupid first aid class that doesn’t seem very stupid right now? Don’t move until you find out what is hurt.
Kathyrn found herself was deep in a forest, evident by from the heavy trees overhead. She did seem to have a headache. That was to be expected, but there didn’t seem to be any problem with her neck. She slowly moved her legs, but there were no sharp pains. Using her arms to sit up gave her two good answers. Her back didn’t seem to give her any problems along with her arms. Okay, the most important parts of her body were okay.
She got up, which brought to her attention her real problem, her clothes. She started to take an inventory. Her skirt had no zipper. Although her jacket seemed to be okay, her blouse was only in pieces—no buttons, no threads to hold it together. She took the jacket off and pulled the blouse pieces off, but this was when she was aware she had no bra. She also found out she had lost sight of her nylon thong. This was really weird.
Kathryn sat back down to wait for a moment. She was grateful for the knee-high leather boots. She took a moment to braid her hair into one long plait. She took one of the pieces of her blouse to tie into her hair. She also took time to tear another piece from the rough blouse material to help tie her skirt back in place. The leather belt was gone. Had it been leather, or plastic? Wait, what difference did that make? Well, she would ask whoever found her.
Now she looked around. If the elevator had exploded upward after she passed out, she might have been tossed somewhere away from the museum. If the museum exploded, there would be rescuers around the site. Either way, the best thing to do would be to head back to the channel and the people she left behind. Let’s see, two years in Girl Scouts said it shouldn’t take long to decide which way the sun was moving to let so she could decide where the salt water was.
She took enough time to check out her boots. That allowed her to see the shadows move, so she knew where east and west was were located. She started to work her way through the deep forest in a southerly direction. Kathryn decided that finding the channel would bring her in contact with more people than any other direction, since the city and farming community stretched along its shores and cliffs.
She walked for a couple of hours, then, really started to get worried. First of all, she was thirsty. She had no water with her and she was hesitant to drink from the stream she was standing next to, even though the water looked clear. She heard a splash. Turning, hoping to find a farmer, she saw a young deer with its head down drinking deeply of the fast moving water.
It raised its head to look at her with large dark eyes, but since she didn’t move, it went back to drawing liquid into its muzzle. Suddenly, it looked up over its shoulder and instantly it was gone, one long leap over the narrow waterbed that let made the deer disappear into the shrubs of the forest.
Kathryn sighed. She had really enjoyed seeing a wild animal this close. Maybe being blown away from Aunt Halla wasn’t such a bad thing. Oh, wait, she had forgotten about Aunt Halla. If there had been some type of accident, the old woman may have been hurt, or worse. She had to quit thinking about herself. She had to try to get back as soon as possible to see about her last relative.
Well, she could go a little longer without a drink as she turned and…walked into a living wall. Kathryn realized it was a large man as his arms came around her to prevent her from stepping back.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you.” Kathryn tried a smile as she looked up at the harsh features of a blond suntanned man who was frowning down at her. She tried again to step back, but he wasn’t letting go.
He said something in a foreign language that must have been a question, as he raised his heavy eyebrows over those deep blue eyes.
“Sorry, I don’t speak Danish. Could you please let me go now?” Kathryn pushed against the broad naked chest, this time with some definite effort. Unfortunately, the strength of this large man was enough that her try effort was without any results, other than except for him to say something more in the language she didn’t understand.
He was looking past her, so she twisted her head as much as she could and saw two other large men over to the side, moving along the edge of the stream. Kathryn was beginning to get frightened, because something was wrong with this whole picture.
First of all, this big guy wasn’t letting go of her. Next, these guys were dressed funny, even for Denmark. They wore a lot of furs, but on the other hand they didn’t wear a lot. They didn’t have shirts, but their chests were crossed with leather belts that held the items that were attached to their bodies. One of the items was a sword.
Well, she wasn’t sure what the costumes were about, but these big guys with the long blond hair down over their shoulders were making her uncomfortable. No one was smiling, and there seemed to be a lot of arguing or grumbling going on. Worse, the guy with his hands holding her against him was not leaving her a lot of room to breathe. She was going to give him one more try, but it would be that one trick every self-defense class taught young girls.
“Excuse me.” They ignored her and kept on arguing. Kathryn tried a little louder. “Hey, guys!” Still they ignored her, so she used her temper yell. “God dammit! Let me go!”
Well, that got some attention. First of all, everyone stopped talking. The guy holding her still gripped her tightly, but he set her back a step to get a better look at her. One of the other men said a couple of words and they all laughed.
Okay, respectable lesson from self-defense class one-oh-one. She had the room she needed. Her feet planted firmly, she knew the drill. She only had one chance—knee into crotch and run like hell.
Kathryn took a deep breath, smiled up at the blue eyes, drew back her right knee, and slammed it into a large set of genitals. It had the wanted desired results, as the face in front of her turned red, slipping downward as he instinctively bent, grabbing himself with both hands.
Released, Kathryn didn’t look. She just ran. She only had one choice. There was the big guy in front, two guys on her right and the water behind. The choice was to jerk left, not worrying about scratches, and go went for the gold. She was through the shrubs, past trees of various sizes, some giants blocking out the sun, then into a flat area that seemed to be someone’s garden.
Thank God she had finally found civilization. She had stumbled into the back of the gardens around Hals, except she staggered to a halt as her eyes took in the garden with a couple of workers seeing and the buildings beyond.
She shook her head, trying to clear her eyes. Starting with the workers, she thought she had fallen through a wormhole. They were barefoot, dressed in long one-piece garments that covered the shoulders, almost reaching their feet. There were slits on both sides. It was obvious the material was loomed or knitted. The shirts were sewn at the shoulders with thick yarn. They had dirt up to their elbows and, the soil also covered their bare feet. They were working the garden by hand. They were both young men, clean-shaven, but with long straggly light brown hair down below their shoulders.
Beyond them was a group of buildings made mostly of combinations of wood, large stones and mud. They were solid looking, with larger buildings off in the distance. She saw large horses with heavy feet covered in long hair. People with long blond hair an
d lots of fur clothing were moving with a purpose.
The shock of the view and her hesitation was her undoing. Strong arms were around her. Before she could even start to fight, she was thrown over a wide shoulder. The flinging of her chest against the substantial muscle and bone, knocked the air from her body. She hung there, fighting the pain as she tried to bring oxygen back into her lungs. Funny little noises escaped her mouth with each intake until finally, regardless of the shoulder bone punching her stomach, she was breathing.
Trying to raise her head, she found her nemesis holding her tightly. Shit, this guy was probably pretty pissed. She could see his buddies following. No one was smiling, but she did notice that the two workers bowed down. Whatever was going on, the game they were playing was. She had to behave and play real meek until she could get away from here there and back to the city, or somewhere for help.
That thought lasted until they got to an area that drew several onlookers. It was a cleared sandy area with a post set in the middle. The man dumped her down in the sand. Before she got much chance to look around, the big guy began to pull her clothes off, and not in a nice way. No, he tore her clothes from her body. She did what she thought was natural—she fought.
Kathryn grabbed her jacket as he bent down to pull her skirt down. She slammed her fist into his ear. He shook his head, but he rose. With the flat of his hand, he backhanded her, holding onto her shoulder, to keep her from falling. She saw stars and heard a ringing in her ears. By the time her head cleared, he had her clothes off except for her boots.
She was aware that she was naked in front of a lot of people who were talking quietly, looking at her with interest. It was also sure as hell that none of them was going to help her.
She raised her fist to punch him again, but he grabbed her wrist. He raised his large fist in front of her face with a threat. He said something. Of course, she didn’t understand, but she did get the threat. She spit on the ground as she quit fighting.