AN: Thank you all for your comments it really helps with motivating me to write the next chapter and the next. Elena and the others are finally on their way back to the village. The full moon is approaching can they all get back in time? Where did the myth of silver weapons against werewolves originate? Elena makes some new friends on the way back and she unfortunately picks up a unwanted suitor. Can she make it back with no problems? Also can any one find Easter Eggs in the this chapter? Let me know
In the next chapter she will meet a person she knows well from her time. First impressions are important.
Day 8 of Trip
October 5, 998
Three days till the full moon
Her feet were already killing her, and they still hadn't yet reached their final campsite on their round trip back to the village on what Ayana had described as a more of a direct route. She'd considered asking Ayana why hadn't they taken this route instead, but ever since they had departed the outpost, Ayana had been busy coordinating their daily progress with the patriarchs of the four families that had been waiting for them.
She had to be careful in how familiar she acted around Ayana and Tatia. Thanks to the spell laced potion everyone had consumed three days earlier, everyone in their extended group now acted as if Elena had been with them for the entirety of their journey. It felt as if she had an extra set of memories and she found it strange to be familiar with several colonists, considering now was the first time she'd ever met any one of them. Every night she had a new set of memories from her dreams. It was as if either her mind, or the spell work, was slowly fleshing out a believable narrative of her fictional voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
Walking ahead of her, she noticed an all too familiar young man catching the eye of the beautiful blond woman walking with a stern-looking man. Elena had to hide her blush as she recalled how she had officially encountered Rom and Leila for the first and hopefully last time.
She hid a smile when she chanced a furtive glance over her shoulder and watched as Tatia and her husband-to-be walked together, their hands briefly touching far too often to be accidental. Technically, either Ayana or Elena were supposed to be chaperoning the would-be couple, but Ayana was busy and Elena, at her heart, was still a twenty-first century woman. Deep down she knew that she'd need to step in to break things up, but for now she was content to let nature take its course. Her thoughts were interrupted by a pleasant yet teasing voice to her other side.
"Hey Elena! I'd wager you're overjoyed that we're finally walking on dry land again? I swear you were almost seasick for the entire voyage to this new world," Romana asked. It was strange, Elena reflected, to have memories of the preteen age girl she only in reality met just a few short days ago. Elena smiled at the almost twelve-year-old as she continued to tease her. Apparently they had developed a friendship on the journey, although there were still holes in her bootstrapped memories.
"Well… I seem to recall catching glimpses of a certain young lady turning shades of green on more than one occasion herself," Elena chided. Despite her spell implanted memories, she actually liked the good-natured girl. She reminded Elena of Pastor Young's daughter, April, who she'd used to babysit before April's mother died from cancer.
"Only during our passage across the great sea." Romana said defensively but then she smiled mischievously when another thought passed behind her half hooded eyes. "Well… At least I stopped throwing up long before we started down that waterway which empties itself into the great sea."
It still took Elena a moment to understand that Romana was describing the James River and the waterway entry was none other than the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton Roads.
"Very funny you little wood nymph!" Elena retorted as she mimed clapping her hands together, which only caused the younger girl to giggle. Apparently, since Romana's mother passed away during child labor with whom would've been her younger sister, she'd been trying to encourage Elena to marry her father Adric. Fortunately for Elena, Romana's father was still in mourning over the recent loss of his beloved wife.
Adric was nearly eight years her senior and, while he was attractive, she didn't feel anything other than admiration of the man. He had lost his wife and yet he still was taking care of his child and being the best father he could considering their circumstances. As if on cue, he pushed through the throng of moving bodies towards them. Elena cleared her throat, drawing Romana's attention, and nodded towards her rapidly approaching parental figure. The concerned look on his face gave Elena pause. Had she done something wrong?
"Romana! Thank the Gods. I've been looking everywhere for you. One second you're walking next to me and the next you're not," Adric breathed. His worried expression melted into relief before morphing into one of admonishment.
"Father I just stopped to pick some wild mint leaves and then afterwards I'd noticed Elena walking all alone and came to join her for a time." Romana spoke softly but with a hint of defiance underlining the surface. In retrospect as Elena had done the same thing when her teenage hormones started up. So she didn't fault the budding teenager, but this wild, untamed world was too dangerous to be careless.
"Romana, I know you don't want to hear this, but your father is right," Elena held up a hand, preventing a meltdown on her friend's part. "You have plenty of time to explore once we arrive at the village. Ayana and Tatia have already told us that it's safer there than out here. We'll be fine. So long as we are mindful of the phase of the moon."
"Elena, we'll be more than fine. Father is one of the most skilled weapon smiths our former village had employed. His work is one of the reasons we were commissioned by the four patriarchs to travel to this new world. Almost everyone has at least one of his silver inlaid daggers or assorted weaponry. We will meet these beasts with our sharp man made teeth of our own!" Romana announced proudly but she didn't notice the worried glance he made to the two sheathed daggers tucked into his leather belt.
Elena couldn't help feeling sympathy for the man. But to be fair there were at least a half a dozen more weapon smiths, each with their own apprentices who are probably dealing with this latest turn of events.
Apparently, the myth about werewolves being vulnerable to silver must have originated in Europe. Based on what Ayana had explained, the werewolves that existed there now had to have either immigrated or had been born there in the last decade, Elena reflected. No wonder some of the outpost garrison warriors hadn't appeared to be all that impressed with their new silver inlaid weaponry.
On the first day they were starting their journey back, Tatia and Ayana tried their best to spread the truth about how ineffective silver was compared to wolfsbane, but they were ignored outright or rebuffed by all the patriarchs of the four families. Romana around the same time had proudly informed her that two of the patriarchs had commissioned Adric to forge them, each a bastard sword inlaid with silver they had acquired on their profitable raids into lands held by the Saxons.
Tragically, the second night they made camp. Two brothers Tholm and Aric, who had been assigned guard duty, had blatantly ignored Ayana's entreaty not to stray past the wolfsbane perimeter. Especially with the full moon only days away, the literal wolves on their doorstep will be far more aggressive. However, the next morning they found both of them torn to bloody shreds and while their modified weapons were sheathed in blood, not a single slain werewolf could be located.
While that fact didn't really prove anything since many of the silver diehards still believed they held the ultimate werewolf trump card, another group of colonists were shifting their beliefs. Elena already knowing the truth was doing her utmost to promote the truth and by his concerned expression perhaps so was Romana's father.
"Perhaps Romana, but as your father I'll always be concerned about your well being." Adric answered.
"Father-" Romana started, but stopped when Elena turned slightly, catching Tatia and her betrothed walking slowly, holding hands. Hating to take advantage of them, but silently thankful for the excuse, she sighed reluctantly.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I believe I need to go keep an eye on them."
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"Sorry… Lodur, Tatia, I really don't want to do this but what kind of chaperon would I be if I didn't at least try to make a show of keeping my little cousin's virtue intact," Elena apologized profusely to the young couple. For the first time, Elena witnessed the Petrova fire ignite behind her predecessor's eyes.
"Tatia, I promised Ayana." Elena added, trying to defuse the situation.
"My Kærr, unfortunately, your cousin is only doing what is proper. I swear to you we will be man and wife before the next full moon," Lodur promised. He stopped them both before lifting Tatia's chin up so he could peer into her warm brown eyes.
"You promise?" Tatia breathed, not caring that the three of them had come to a halt in the middle of the road. Elena gave them a minute and cleared her throat, drawing their attention back to her.
"Come on Tatia, let's not keep your lovely cousin. I didn't quite believe Elena on the journey here, but when she hinted at the fact that all the women in your family share similarities, I thought she had exaggerated. Now that I saw you together other than the obvious age difference you could almost pass for identical twin sisters," Lodur started. Elena reluctantly slipped in between them as they started off once more. It gave her time to consider his last statement.
Elena blinked, shaking her head slightly, feeling an odd sense of deja vu with the secondary set of spell induced memories. She didn't quite know how she was going to cope with them. Ayana said that she'd adapt, but if it became too bothersome, she could suppress her genuine memories. Going that route just felt wrong to her and Elena for the time being was content to wait and see. Aware of the sudden awkwardness, she gave him a knowing grin.
"I told you about the women in my family. We all have very similar features and traits. If our family lore is to believe every twenty generations almost an exact copy will be born, but you still didn't believe me, Lodur, when I told you," Elena poked him in the shoulder.
"Yes, you did, but seeing is believing." The three of them lapsed into silence before Lodur's smirk grew into a mischievous grin. Elena knew she would not like what he said, and he didn't seem willing to disappoint her.
"So does that mean that I should avoid taking Tatia out on the water, then? I don't think she'd enjoy the experience," he teased.
"Lodur!" they both hissed, which only earned them a few odd looks from the others nearby. Elena had never been out on the ocean, but she had paddled in a canoe at her family's lake house enough to know that despite the deceptive calm of the lake she did occasionally feel a slight queasiness. How the magic morphed that into full blown seasickness she didn't have the faintest clue.
They passed the time teasing each other and Elena, intent on keeping up with the story Tatia, Ayana and she had come up with, asked her supposed cousin about the people living in the village. So it was a rather pleasant surprise when Ayana suddenly announced that they'd be stopping for the night. Just how much time had passed while they talked? Shielding her eyes from the sun, Elena guesstimated they still had at least four or maybe five hours of visible daylight left.
"Well, this is a surprise. We must have made better time than I thought," Elena stated once her little group made it to the center of the clearing. She had to smile as she watched the new colonists filing through the wolfsbane perimeter. Literally on the first night they'd stopped at a similar clearing, Ayana had resorted to using her magic to keep everyone from trampling the wolfsbane instead of following a narrow path through it.
The petulant child in her wanted to rebel. She just wanted to sit down and get off her feet for a minute, but by now Elena knew better than to listen to that inner voice. Instead once she found a free spot next to her friend's belongings with a sigh of relief, she dropped her burden. Still, she did take a moment to work the kinks out before digging out her knife and the wood hatchet.
"Well I'm ready if you guys are too. Let's go before someone tells us too," Elena sighed.
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It was by a stroke of luck Elena's small group stumbled across a fallen tree of respectable size that, if she had to guess, must've been knocked over in an intense windstorm sometime ago in the recent past. It still took the three of them a while to harvest their share of the firewood, but at least they didn't need to stray too far from the campsite.
"Tatia, you and Lodur can start heading back. I'm almost done here," Elena suggested. They had in the last couple of days discovered that they could work together. Granted, most of time had either been collecting firewood or standing vigil over the fire. With so many people traveling in their group, Elena could have declined, but that didn't feel right. Fortunately, if anyone asked, she could point out that she was technically supposed to be chaperoning her younger cousin when Tatia and her betrothed stood watch together. It did give them a chance to talk so long as they didn't disturb anyone.
"Are you sure?" Tatia asked, and even Elena could hear the degree of hopefulness in her duplicate's question to her. Who was she to stop them from trying to catch a moment of privacy?
"Go, you two, just don't do anything that gets me in hot water with Ayana," she chided them.
"Wouldn't dream of it, cousin." Tatia grinned back at her and bent to collect the firewood she'd collected, but Lodur moved to stop her.
"Please Tatia, allow me to carry your load," he said briskly. Not waiting for a response, he knelt down and added her wood to his own.
"Lodur, you don't need to do that. I can manage-" Tatia started but stopped abruptly. Elena, who'd only been half listening, paused and looked up from work. Only then did she see the reason why Tatia hadn't finished her sentence. Adric was moving quickly towards them and his eyes, while they were focused primarily on her, were questing about as if in search of something. Or someone, her thoughts finished for her and, hoping she was wrong, she stood and greeted her new acquaintance.
"Elena, have any of you seen my daughter Romana?" he pleaded.
"Earlier, but that was when she was still with you, Adric. When was the last time you saw her and where?" Elena asked.
"We were collecting some firewood just as you three are doing. She found a blueberry bush with some still edible berries. She wanted to pick some for her and I didn't see a problem with that after all. The bush was close to where we'd been collecting wood. She was picking them when I left to bring what we had collected so far, but-" Adric's voice faltered. "But when I returned to help, I couldn't find her."
"Are you sure that you'd returned to the same location, or maybe she moved on to another bush?" Elena asked, hoping that was the case. The look he was giving made her almost regret asking it, but she pushed that concern away. She could apologize later, after they located his wayward daughter.
"No, I made sure I returned to the same spot, and the bush she was picking from still has plenty of berries remaining. I… I can't lose my only daughter, not after-" he choked off, and Elena's heart hurt from the compassion she felt for him. She didn't hesitate. She moved towards him and glanced at her would-be cousin and her future husband.
"I'm going to help him look around. Please go tell Ayana and anyone else you find on your way. It's going to get dark soon and we don't want to be wandering around out here," she ordered. Time being short, they separated into their groups, and Elena followed behind Adric as he retraced his steps to the last location he had seen his daughter. If she had privately been praying that Romana had somehow returned, those fervent prayers were quickly dashed once they finally arrived.
Maybe it was her previous experiences with the supernatural or her training with Alric, but she didn't rush up into the bush like Adric did. He shifted about and acting on instinct Elena grabbed his arm to both calm and cease his movements. It only partially worked. He stopped moving, but now she was facing an irate father.
"We need to find her Elena, not stand here staring at a stupid bush!" he hissed. Schooling her response, she looked him calmly in the eye before speaking.
"Adric, we'll find her I'm just looking for something." Elena spoke soothingly to him before switching her attention back to the bush. It wasn't too surprising to find that there were still some accessible berries that hadn't been picked yet, but that wasn't what she was looking for and when she found it, she looked grimly at Adric's feet.
"What? Elena, why does the ground fascinate you so much over the whereabouts of my little girl?"
Elena resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Instead she pointed a hand towards the ground in front of the bush.
"That!" she blew out. Adric furrowed his brow but did as she indicated, leaving her to her one troubled thoughts.
"Oh!"
She didn't want to look again, but taking it all in might ultimately lead them to Romana. She just prayed that they weren't already too late. Adric must have finally understood why Elena had stopped as she had and the look he was giving her she really didn't want to explain how or why she noticed the three distinct sets of footprints in the damp soil. The first one being that of his daughter, the smaller foot a dead giveaway. The other prints would have been overlooked if two small details hadn't caught Elena's eye. The hard leather sole she'd only just confirmed belonged to him but the other was made from what she could only describe as being very similar to Indian moccasins were located directly behind Romana's foot prints. Bending closer, she finally noticed that whatever had occurred here, his daughter must have been unaware of another person standing behind her till it was too late. The ground was littered with blue berries, some of them fairly recently picked.
"It looks like someone came up behind her and must have grabbed her then carried her off in that direction," Elena breathed out. Crap, this had to have happened now, this was supposed to be their last night out and the following evening they would have reached their destination.
"What are we going to do?"
His question made her pause in confusion then realize, and thanks to her implanted memories she realized why he had asked that question. Unlike most of the men in their group, there were several dozen of them that were, as best as she could describe, non combatants. Adric made weapons. He didn't really know how to use them. Without realizing it, Elena had taken control, and he was looking towards her as if she was the authority. It was both terrifying and humbling at the same time. Mustering what false bravado she could, she unsheathed her dagger and pointed at the retreating tracks.
"We need to follow them." Elena paused to see the setting sun through the trees. "before it becomes too dark to see them."
They followed the scant trail, occasionally losing it only to pick it up a few paces ahead, but based on the direction of the prints, whoever had Romana was moving deeper into the woods. Along the way, they both heard voices calling their names from the direction of the camp. By unspoken consent they remained silent just in case they might have inadvertently alerted whoever they were tracking to their presence.
It was getting darker, and the temperature was dropping, and yet they still continued searching but eventually they had to stop when faced with a troubling dilemma at one point. They both thought they had lost the trail but then they picked it right back up again, but now they had a problem.
"What should we do now?" Adric asked, his tone now boarding into desperation. He was standing several paces away from her pointing to a clear set of prints leading off in one direction, while Elena stood beside a set she only just found leading in the near opposite direction.
"Adric, listen to me we are going to find her but-" she paused, gathering up her courage. "But we need to split up now. You follow your trail and I'll do the same with mine. Please be careful and shout if you find anything or need help. Understood?"
"I understand and take care as well may God protect you."
Elena nodded, and they went their separate ways. It wasn't long before she couldn't see or hear him, so it was alarming when a new voice spoke from behind her.
"Well, it seems that my potential mate is quite the little tracker herself. What a pleasant surprise," a deep voice said. Every syllable felt like tiny daggers being thrust into her rapidly beating heart.
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Elena raised her dagger and slowly turned around, taking up a defensive stance once she had him and his bound captive fully in view. Romana looked utterly terrified. Her face was covered with tear tracks streaked through dirt that marred her once adorable face. Her right eye was swollen shut, and it took Elena a moment to realize that she had been gagged with some sort of leather strap. Her blood boiled at the treatment of a child by an adult male. A dark part of her wanted to slide her blade deep into his rib cage, seeking his still beating heart, but she knew better than to act without care. Taking a calming breath, she looked directly into Ansel's beta and gave him a sickly sweet smile.
"The pleasure is all yours. You must be Ansel's beta Jade."
Something flickered behind the werewolf's eyes, shock. In annoyance Elena could help thinking. Regardless, she remained in her stance, her eyes shifting to Romana to offer what support she could with just her eyes. It seemed to work because, while tense, the young girl seemed slightly better. Maybe it was just having a familiar face with her through this ordeal.
"I see Ansel has already told you about me. Alpha prerogative, I guess, but still he should mind what's his. Don't you think?" Jade grated.
"I don't know what you mean, Jade, and would you do me a slight favor by easing up on the poor girl? She didn't do anything to you, so there should be no reason for you to treat a child as you are," Elena spoke evenly, trying to ignore the fact her stomach was busy turning itself into knots.
"Of course I can do that for my future mate. Child, I must say you do have some nice child bearing hips. It's a pity you're wearing too much clothing to know for sure."
His gaze lingered over her body, spending entirely too much time on her fore mentioned hips before slowly slithering up to peer into her narrowed brown eyes. Just the knowledge of his eyes roaming about her body made her feel violated and bile churched in the back of her throat. That it been several days since her bath with Tatia and her dress now reeked from body odor and marred from sweat stains did seem to bother him. It was a miracle she somehow kept her growing temper in check. Just barely.
"Jade, if you think I will ever let you touch me in such a manner. Mark my words I will do my utmost to see if the myths about your people are indeed true." She seethed. Part of her just wanted to rush him and see, but she needed to remain calm. For Romana's sake.
"Oh!? Is that so? Then how about I let you test your silvered dagger on me then?" he laughed, but halted when he saw the evil smirk form on Elena's olive toned face.
"Sorry, I don't believe in that whole sliver nonsense, Jade. I'm referring to the unique healing abilities of your proud people," Elena said acidly. She once had asked Ric what he did to prepare himself to face down vampires and his answer at first shocked her, but it made a perverse sort of sense thinking back on it now, and that mindset was actually helping out now.
"Elena, the very few times I faced a vampire, and this is before I actually knew what the Gilbert Ring my wife Isobel had given me did, I would mentally prepare myself to accept that I was already dead; but my last act on this earth would be to strike back at whoever had killed me," Ric had said one day they'd been training with knives no less, so perhaps it was fitting things finished this way. It took Elena a moment to note the peculiar look Jade was giving her.
"Sorry, did you say something?" Elena asked sweetly, as if they were having a normal pleasant conversation. That only seemed to make the werewolf frown.
"I said, what do you mean healing abilities?" Jade asked again, shifting on his feet. It took Elena a second to come to the realization that Jade expected her to submit. That helped to fuel her resolve, and she prayed she could see it through for both her and Romana.
"Oh, it's nothing really," she paused, giving him another evil grin for added effect. She tried to channel her nemesis Katherine Pierce. "Actually it's not, but if you so much as even touch me I will do everything I can to remove your man bits. If not with this dagger then perhaps my own teeth," Elena snarled. As if to add emphasis to her words, she flashed her teeth at him. But maybe it was the ever so slight tilting of her dagger's tip to his nether regions that actually caused his tanned complexion to blanch white. Remarkably, she didn't even smile when she delivered her threat, nor did she react when she noted Romana's wide-eyed stare of her supposed savior. Thankfully her threat, or bluff, she wasn't sure in either circumstance, was forestalled by a familiar voice that intruded into their little confrontation.
"Jade, what did I tell you regarding interfering with a Child of Destiny?" Ansel growled. His voice boomed, its reverberations rebounding off the nearby trees and rock formations. Elana spared him a quick glance, noting that he was not alone. Two others flanked either side of him one was a man with a stocky build, the other was a petite blond.
