Chapter 3: Old Man River
"You can't argue with a river – it is going to flow. You can dam it up, put it to useful purposes, you can deflect it, but you can't argue with it."
- Dean Acheson
Mississippi - 1859
Before the wolf could say anything more, the vixen seized his paw and practically dragged him into the piney woods behind them. Together they trotted down a well-worn dirt trail until they came to a dense thicket just outside of a small town. "I forgot that this is the era of King Cotton," Jude cursed and frowned when saw a group of darker-skinned humans wearing worn unbleached clothes toiling as they unloaded carts of cotton bales. A fat lighter-skinned human in a crumpled dirty dark grey suit stood on one of the carts and surveyed those toiling, a long whip was hanging from his hands. "Slaves," she snapped in anger.
"Are we in Midgard, the lands of mortals?" Fenrisúlfr asked as he looked around. "I don't recognize this land or understand most of their words. It almost sounds as if their language is related to that of the Saxons?"
"This is another version of Midgard, just a bit more human."
"Did you say that these are the lands of a king named Cotton?"
"Not a real king, the landowners here grow a plant called cotton and sell it downriver in a large city named New Orleans for huge profits. Those are the white and brown bundles that they are loading into the ship. Cotton is the king of the crops grown around here."
"Those blámenn, the dark-skinned men from beyond Serkland and even the great walls of Miklagarðr, are they thralls? Many mortals own thralls in Midgard, taken either by raids or by trade. Thialfi and Röskva were taken by Thor as compensation for Thailfi making one of his goats lame. I liked Röskva for she played fetch with me as a puppy and petted me, but like all mortals, she grew old and died."
"Iron shackles and broken bodies," the vixen bitterly replied. "Too much of history was built upon a slave's whip scarred back."
"We wolf folk do not understand the taking of thralls, all are of the pack."
"Not where my father and mother are from," Jude softly said. "The coyotes and foxes were often enslaved by the wolf folk. My father once fought a mighty wolf chieftain and saved my pack."
"Then that wolf was not mighty, but a weakling to fall to a fox!"
"My father was no more a fox at that time than I am truly a vixen!" she growled back at the wolf in anger as white flames crackled from her eyes. "He was a god, as I am now!"
"That you are and no offense was intended," the large wolf replied as he admired the vixen's courage.
"Well, we can't board that ship the way we look now. First I need to make us look human and then find us some clothing," the vixen reached over and then hesitated before she touched the large wolf. "I think I better find ourselves some clothes before I change our looks. I may cause a stir if I am caught while being a fox, but that would be better than being a naked girl."
"Wait, you can change your looks and mine too?" Fenrisúlfr said in suprise.
"Of course I can, Death taught me that simple trick!" she giggled. "Even the godling Zeus can do it. He once turned into the form of a goose to seduce Nemesis, although I would call what he did to her as being rape."
The wolf watched while the sleek vixen slipped off into the undergrowth. He hunkered down and watched as the mortals unloaded the wagon's content into the large boat. The wolf suppressed a growl of anger while he watched as the lighter-skinned human in a crumpled dirty dark grey suit bullied the others. After what seemed like forever, he became bored and rested his chin on his crossed paws as he continued waiting.
"Here!" a voice called out from behind him and he turned to find that Jude was no longer a vixen, but a pale-skinned human with long curly red hair that came down to her shoulders. She had dressed in a stolen green and pink checkered dress which was high necked, the sleeves were full and gathered at the shoulder seams.
He sniffed her before he sat back and cocked his head slightly, "What is wrong with your waist?" he finally asked.
"I'm wearing a corset and a hoop skirt," Jude said as she twirled slightly while she showed off her ill-gotten dress. "I didn't think I'd ever get all this on and I will need you to help tighten the corset I am wearing for it isn't very practical."
"You didn't get me one of those?"
"No, men don't wear these."
"Thank the gods!" he shuddered slightly when she touched him and as he felt the funny feeling of his fur seemingly melting away. He stood there no longer a wolf, but a human. "My skin is darker than yours. I am the color of those blámenn."
Jude had quickly turned her back on him as if to avoid looking at him naked in his new form. "As a single woman, it would be inappropriate for me to be seen with a male companion," she said.
"I am a male!" he objected as he leaned over and pulled on the pants she had brought. He almost fell over because he was missing the offsetting weight of his tail and when he tried to scrunch his face, he became agitated that he was missing his muzzle.
"You will be my servant."
"You mean your thrall, your slave?"
"I need you to be downstairs with the others, it is important."
The wolf turned human had pulled on the shirt she had brought and it was a little tight. He then pulled on the jacket she handed him. "Don't forget the shoes," she said.
"They don't fit," he grumbled as he tried them on.
"They will stretch."
"I don't like shoes," he snapped. "They are uncomfortable on my paws."
"Humans call them feet, not paws," she corrected him, and then she gave another little twirl. "So how do I look?"
"As ugly as any other human," he answered. "You were much prettier in your fur, but you are as pretty as Freyja's daughter Hnoss, for whom many of the Æsir and the Vanir lust."
"Thank you...I think?"
"So, how do we get aboard this boat? Will they give us free passage?"
"I have money," Jude said as she held out a few coins. "These should get us aboard."
"How did you get that money?" Fenrisúlfr asked as he towered over her with his arms crossed. "Did you steal it?"
"I'm a fox, we have our ways!" the smaller red-headed human giggled. "Now let's go!"
She led him down the muddy lane and onto a wooden dock, where the last of the bales had been loaded aboard the large white riverboat. Jude went to speak to someone in a blue and white uniform as he waited. He soon had the feeling that someone was watching him and turned to see the slaver was staring at him. The human yelled something at him in that strange language, but he just glared back causing the fool to reach for the whip he had tucked under his belt. "Lower your eyes," Jude suddenly hissed out.
"Why, I don't like the way he is acting?" Fenrisúlfr replied as he crossed his arms again. "I may not understand a word that he is saying, but I don't like his tone."
"Just do it for me please," she said as she approached the evil-looking fat man in the gray suit. They were speaking and she actually seemed to be flirting with him. Fenrisúlfr glared at the slaver, who gave him an arrogant look back. "Lower your eyes!" Jude pleaded and he did so. There was a condescending snort from the fool who had now offered his arm to her as he led her to the ship's plank. "Come on!" she called back to him and he dutifully followed.
Standing on the deck Fenrisúlfr looked around in confusion, unsure what to do. The slaver saw him and began yelling at him again, and the mortal's arrogance would have made his hackles rise if he wasn't human. He suppressed a growl only because a white-haired old man took his arm and urgently pulled him towards a stairwell. The others around him looked meekly at the deck, except for a few of the younger ones who showed a small spark of defiance which quickly withered under the slaver's gaze. It was then the wolf god realized that these humans hadn't been captured and enslaved, but had been born into their hopeless bondage. He had heard of thralls having also been born into their enslavement and the realization of the cruelty of such evil angered him even more. The anger and disgust had left a bitter taste in his mouth and he paused to spit out into the river below him in an effort to relieve himself of that taste before he followed the old man below deck. Even as he spit, he looked back up into the eyes of the fat slaver, who glared at him.
Moments later, he watched while the boat was cast off and floated into the river, black smoke was now bellowing from above and the human who was once a wolf watched in fascination when a wooden slotted wheel in the ship's stern turned and began to propel them through the water. "It's like a mill's waterwheel," he muttered to himself. The others down in the hull with him just looked at him in confusion for they did not speak his language.
As the boat churned its way up the river, he settled against a railing, around him the others talked and laughed as they relaxed from their labors. These humans, those he called blámenn, were of various hews of skin colors ranging from light mocha to a dusky brown. Most of the others around him were males, but there was a young woman with her child. They tried to speak to him, but he did not understand, and so he instead looked out across the waters. Finally, they left him to his musings.
Hours later, the old man tapped him on his arm and offered him a chuck of a strange looking bread which was yellow in color, he took it and tried to sniff it but his now human nose could only smell the honey poured upon it. He nodded his thanks to the white-haired human before he gobbled the crumbly bread up, not realizing how hungry he had been. He glanced over and saw the meager amount of food those with him had to eat, he was grateful they had shared what they could with him although he was a stranger. It was a kindness that he knew that many of the gods would never have shown.
Soon the woman with the child began to sing a soft lullaby to her daughter, the others stopped talking to listen to her voice for it had an almost magical soothing quality to it and he found himself mesmerized by her song. She reminded him of Bragi, the god of bards, and of all those pleasant nights when, as a puppy, he would lay by that god's feet and listen as he sang a song while he played his harp, told a story, or exchanged witty barbs with Loki.
The boat churned its way through the muddy brown river past old wooden shacks and even more fields of the strange white plant Jude had called cotton. A few smaller boats passed them by, but the river was quiet and although he at first warily watched around him, as if he was expecting to see dragon-headed longships around each bend, there was nothing. Finally, he spied a settlement of buildings, including one large yellow-painted hall, and the old man hobbled up next to him. There were many more dark-skinned humans dressed in tan colored undyed clothes toiling in the hot sun
Raising his thin arm, the old man pointed at the building and called it something that sounded like dew-par-c in a fearful tone. Saying the word again the human moved his hands as if he was trying to ward off something evil. Then he pointed towards the acres of grass-like plants, he gave a small sigh when he said something that sounded like shik-a-kane.
The rhythmic thumping of the engine, the sound of water splashing from the wheels, laughter from above, and the humming of the mother to her child soon lulled him to sleep. The once-mighty wolf god had not comfortably slept in decades and in his deep slumber he missed the two shadowy figures that were stalking the ship from along the shoreline.
Blámenn is what they called the Moors of North Africa in Old Norse.
Serkland or "land of the Serkir" was the Middle East.
Miklagarðr was the great wall city of Constantinople or as it is now named, Istanbul.
Duparc is the name of the family of Creoles who owned Laura Plantation on the banks of the Mississippi River and shikakane would be what the wolf god heard for sugar cane. One of the plantation's infamous owners wanted to cheaply invest in increasing the size of the enslaved workforce they owned and so she purchased thirty teenage slave girls and had them "impregnated" before she shipped them upriver. Sadly, what we know as evil today, was once praised as a good business decision back then.