Two months passed now...
Then five...
Six...
A whole year...
And yet no one had returned.
It was spring once more now, and everything was green once more. The fields were one stretch of grass, and the forests were in bloom. Winter hadn't been as harsh this time to us, and we had enough food saved up to last us a while, but when seven months gone came, I started hunting deer to help us with the food supply.
It was hard times without the men, and everyone was showing it.
It was almost a month past the year mark now when I was thinking to myself that I was now twenty one. Eric had left before our birthdays, and now another had past... two of them.
Like the others, I had been keeping myself busy with making a new house for myself and, maybe, Eric. It was mainly stones, but lined with wood and moss inside that kept it warm.
Now the house was complete, and it was a pretty good job I had to admit. Simpler than Mother and Fathers longhouse, but essentially the same.
Near midday, I was sat on the hill staring out at the horizon for the sign of sails like I did everyday, but there was nothing... nothing at all.
No Eric.
Most people thought them all dead by now, and I was trying not to listen to their theories on the ship sinking, fire that had destroyed them all... that they'd lost and been slayed.
But Eric had promised me he would be back, and I trusted him. Trusted him with my life. To others, he was more or less a spoilt brat that got everything as soon as he wanted it. That being a prince of sorts to our father made him invincible... that he was rather arrogant and hardheaded.
Well, they were mostly right. But they just didn't know his good and sweet side. Even the most bloodthirsty of men had a softer side... this I knew for sure from experience with Eric.
A total bastard when you first met him, but chip away the hard surface and he could be a rather nice man. Man. When he came back, he was going to be twenty one too. Would he have changed-? Probably... that hair of his grew like a girls I liked to joke. I'd plaited it once when he was fast asleep, drunk out his face.
I had to leg it when he found out what I'd done the next morning.
I'd have given anything to see that stupid, arrogant face of his again at this moment...
It was later that night when I was lying in bed that that damned dog of Erics started barking, and I picked up my blade, ready and poised to ram it into an intruder.
As I got up and went outside, the dog shut up and I grabbed the stick with a cloth around and put it into the dying embers of the fire and it set alight.
The forest was dark as I walked through, light in one hand and blade in the other.
Not a single bird or animal was making a sound as I passed through the clearing and made my way towards the hill. Yes, it was dangerous at night... but if Eric was dead... who cared to be honest.
A sound did reach my ears now, and it was voices. Male voices.
I froze and flaming torches like my own met my eyes. Then I heard the ocean... the sound of a sail.
Could it be-?
As I ran to the top of the hill, I was proven correct- the longboats were there. Only one or two missing... and one one them floating there was Fathers bigger one.
The crowd headed up the beach now towards the settlement, and I couldn't help myself as I yelled. "Eric!"
There was no reply, and I sped down the side of the hill, my torch losing its heat and light as I dropped it. I was plunged into darkness, but I was following the light of the other fires.
There were men missing, and Daren was one of the survivors... but his father wasn't by the looks of it. I watched them go by now, grinning at me the ones I knew well, but none of them stopped. Father did stop however to embrace me for a moment, but then left.
He hadn't mentioned his son... where was Eric-?
Was he dead? No... that couldn't be true.
Tears sprang to my eyes now as the cold wind wafted over me. All this waiting...
There was a bang now back at the boats, and I saw a figure jumping down, throwing something back inside. The figure was very tall, and as he walked towards me, I recognized him.
I didn't move or say a word as he walked up to me, taller than ever now as he stopped and said quietly. "Didn't I tell you not to worry?"
There was so many things I wanted to do him at that second- kiss him, slap him, hug him. Push him onto the ground and do them all to him sounded pretty good too.
"You know how stupid I am." I said quietly, then let him pick me up so he could kiss me without bending down. It was only brief, but said so much more.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and he carried me home. Well, the new one when I told him.
The torches were all lit now, and I finally got to look at him properly... and I was shocked by what I saw. He was taller like I had first thought, and his hair was longer too, just on his shoulders in a golden wave... I was taking a knife to that in the morning. He was more adult looking, a rougher and tougher edge to him that left no traces of that young man he had left as. But his eyes were always the same ice blue that reminded me of the ice that came floating by in the ocean in winter.
"Goodness..." I had to mutter, and he frowned. "You got smaller."
"You got taller." I retorted, and he smirked. "Still our Tiny Freyr."
I nodded, then went to snap something back, but Eric put a finger over my lips to shush me, then leaned down and kissed me once more. We found ourselves in the bedroom now, clothes falling to the floor and I was noticing the cuts and bruises Eric had all over his body. Some were old, but a few were more recent.
There was a big and old one on his chest that I noticed, like he'd been hit with something heavy. Why couldn't it have been me? That would have been a sight to behold.
Before long, we were both naked on the bed, but Eric was content to just pull the fur covers over us and pull me into his arms. He was beyond exhausted no doubt, and I wasn't surprised- when was the last time he actually got enough sleep? Not in the last month anyway.
We just went sleep.
The next morning, I was thinking it all a dream that Eric and the others were back, but where I heard a light snore, I realized it wasn't, and he was fast asleep next to me, most of his face hidden by his long blonde hair.
As I got up, there was movement and he sat up, watching me in silence as I grabbed my clothes and pulled them back on. "You could have left them off." he said conversationally, and that dark smirk was back. I went to throw his own clothes at him now, but realized they were pretty much bloodstained and destroyed, so I got the other ones I had from a year ago... and they mercifully still fit him.
But one thing first...
"Sit." I told him now, setting the stool outside, waving my short but rather sharp blade at him. He groaned. "Oh, come on-!"
"Sit!"
He scowled, but sat down, giving me a good chance to see how long his hair was. I tutted at its length, then marked a place that was in the middle of his neck.
Eric wasn't at all happy when I started cutting the hair away, and I showe long the bits in my hand were- very long.
"Sit still Erica." I hissed as he fidgeted, and I yanked on the hair I was cutting. He snarled at me for that, but stayed still.
It was that or I scalp him.
When I was done, he looked much more like a man and less like a woman, but he was still scowling and pouting away, so I told him. "Good luck tonight if you keep that up, because it won't be me you're sleeping with, and we certainly won't be doing anything together."
He shut up at that. Good call.
Life kinda got back to normal now, and the next night he soon got me into bed. Oh it had been well worth waiting for, the best night of my entire life.
The years seemed to pass rather quickly now, and when we both turned twenty eight, our mother announced she was having another child, Erics baby sister when she was finally born almost a year later, it was like nothing could destroy our family by the time we were thirty...
Except maybe the thing that had destroyed my own, true family...
Dark times and clouds were rolling in.
Bring on the vampires and werewolves next chapter at last next one! Hope you like and review.