I were sleeping in a great chamber with ten other beds and next to me were a young lad who smiled and says, “What’s you then, friend?”
“Kjeld,” I says, not understanding.
“No,” he laughs. “Your Change? I’m a bear, like our great lord. What about you?”
“Walrus,” I says, all proud.
He sniggers a bit, as if them walrus ain’t so beautiful as a bear, but I don’t take offence. Far as I sees it, a walrus be the most gorgeous creature on Odin’s great earth. So this lad, he says, “Then come down to the sea with me, Kjeld, and we can Change together and then swim together.”
“I ain’t practised yet,” I warn him.
“No matter,” he tells me. “We’ll go slow.”
Well, I reckon I made a great mess of the Change without Thoddun to guide me, but I managed it in the end with a great blow and snuffle and went flopping into the water alongside my new friend the bear. We swims together – far out to that long flat horizon.
Tis autumn and winter is close, so there ain’t much light and there ain’t no sun and tis as cold as a walrus needs. There is the rippling dark with the deep water like ice – all thrilling and energising – and we swims and swims, turning circles in the water, me bigger’n him but not much – and happy as little birds, we was,
I didn’t want to come back, but when this lad Changed back, so did I, remembering what Thoddun advised. I ain’t gonna mess things up, no way. I’s his man now, and I’s his walrus too. What Lord Thoddun says will always be what I does, hard or easy don’t matter. I’s his friend.
There bin a lot happen since then. And I ain’t gonna lie and say tis all bin easy cos it ain’t. Not all Transanima is good folks. There be Orm. Now he’s Thoddun’s Second – his most trusted. But the bugger ain’t an easy one – not as man nor when Changed. A great sea serpent, he is. There ain’t none other, and Orm likes that. Special he says. Well, I reckon we’s all special. But tis true that Orm is the only serpent and when he’s changed, then he’s the size of three whales all together, and there ain’t no one who’d risk getting the bugger angry.
But Thoddun is out lord and he’s the most special of all. He flies as the great eagle and he swims too, calls hisself orca when goes to the ocean, he does. The bear, tis the most beautiful I reckon, but I loves me walrus best o’course. I ain’t never felt no other love like it, no other thrill, no other excitement, no other joy. And Thoddun – well mayhaps tis the man part of him is kindest and bravest. But a Transanima man – well, I ain’t got no words to describe.
Like I says, I don’t read nor write. Tis another Transanima has writ all this for me. Now you – you would never be reading this if’n you couldn’t read. So that’s it then. You can read and I’ll wager you can write too. But what I can do is birth my walrus from deep inside the heart of me, and I reckon that’s sommint you can’t do…
The End
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.
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Also By
Barabara Gaskell Denvil
Historical Fiction
Sumerford’s Autumn
Blessop’s Wife
Satin Cinnabar
The Flame Eater
The Deception of Consequences
Crime Mystery
Between
If When (Coming soon)
Historical Fantasy
Fair Weather
Future Tense
Children’s Historical Fantasy
Bannister’s Muster Book One: Snap
Bannister’s Muster Book Two: Snakes & Ladders
Bannister’s Muster Book Three: Blind Man’s Buff (coming soon)
About the Author
My passion is for late English medieval history and this forms the background for my historical fiction. I also have a love of fantasy and the wild freedom of the imagination, with its haunting threads of sadness and the exploration of evil. Although all my books have romantic undertones, I would not class them purely as romances. We all wish to enjoy some romance in our lives, there is also a yearning for adventure, mystery, suspense, friendship and spontaneous experience. My books include all of this and more, but my greatest loves are the beauty of the written word, and the utter fascination of good characterisation. Bringing my characters to life is my principal aim.
For more information on this and other books, or to subscribe to my newsletter, please visit barbaragaskelldenvil.com
Between
This is a unique suspense novel, and the twists are not as you would expect. Many crimes go misunderstood and unpunished. But not forever.
The young Primo is not sure how he died. Nor is he sure who to blame. But he is most certainly dead and not enjoying it, and so blames himself. He won’t allow those wretched shiny do-gooders to tell him what he should be doing, but the flying gangs from the lower planes are no longer his friends either. Heaven is not the paradise he expected, and now Primo simply wants to be left alone. After all, once dead, recrimination seem to promise small benefit.
There are many other blundering souls and they all have their hopes, their histories and their failings to overcome. There is a great deal to see and the freedom to see it, but Primo chooses a life with the birds and shuns humanity. Until he meets Daisy.
Yet once comfortable with Daisy, Wilmot arrives and unravels his composure all over again. Primo must, after all, face the circumstances of his death and the surprising truth of his life, leading to the final twist.
Lose yourself in this gripping story of Primo and the crimes he thought he had committed.
Stars and a Wind- The Complete Trilogy Page 88