Author's note: In Bon Temps things are happening, of course, but I didn't plan to tell what is happening there, yet, but practically the end of the fic, because I think if not, many things would be revealed (I know it is not that I am writing a mystery novel, but I would keep a little uncertainty).

Chapter 5

I got up I was feeling fatal. I didn't feel like doing anything and it was Erik who had to wake me up. I covered up with a fur to the head and pout.

"Are you sick? Shall I call father?"

"No! I wake up, I wake up" I stood and rubbed my eyes. Lucky there were no mirrors, I felt my dark circles should reach my navel. I did the tasks like a robot and I wanted to spit Eric in his filthy face of happiness.

"Erik, Leif, You finish sewing the fish" He said. He had been sewing the smoked fish, so we could hang them and then keep them that way. I guess he haven't asked me because I said I didn't know how to sew "I need a few hours' sleep" he confessed.

"Yes, you must be so tired from working last night," I blurted. I poured some cold porridge oats and I sat down to make braids to Audr, who was immersed in her dolls. Apparently, the dragon kidnapped the prince and the princess was trying to rescue him. She was all a Viking. Eric ate his cold porridge without complaint, then climbed into bed and I saw him fall like a log on the bed.

Me and the kids went to the woods to pick raspberries and Leif found near a log a lot of mushrooms we collected and put aside, because although they were absolutely sure they were edible, I wasn't.

I roasted some onions and boiled some eggs for food. I thought about the possibility of awakening Eric to eat something, but I thought he needed to rest and also he already had enough.

I had never done cakes with flour that were not wheat, but it was all I had. I beat three eggs freshly laid and I made a mental note to track the red tail hen (it had spent five days without laying an egg), I added rye flour, and a block of butter that I had left to melt near the fire. I put a bit of yeast which I used to do the daily bread and which I elaborated myself and I added several tablespoons of honey, I knew Eric had brought sugar form sugarcane from his last trip, but I didn't want to get to rummage through the things I the cold room. I was oiling the container in which I was going to make the cake when somebody knocked at the door.

Dalla, the bitch of the geese, greeted me with a smile that I not returned. I discovered in her thoughts that she had gone to the corral with the hope of meeting with Eric but had only seen the kid.

"Is your master in the house?"

"He's resting. He could not sleep after returning from the trip because yesterday we had a lot of work smoking the fish. You'd realize" She smiled and thought that last night he didn't looked tired. I smiled nervously and I imagine I shut the door in her face of... of... she was pretty!

"The door to my house doesn't close properly. I think it's a hinge, the top one. I would fix it, but I don't have tools. Ask Eric if he wouldn't mind checking it out. I'll pay" She smiled. I can imagine how you're going to pay. To another dog with that bone. The history of clogged sink is very old, older than you, and have a few years.

I saw her carrying a basket. I heard Audr screaming and ran out of the house. Erik had just put a toad in her wool dress by the neck. I took the poor toad out from the scruff of my girl and gave Erik a slap on the ass, he walked away splitting in laughter. Leif gave him a slap on the scruff when he passed by.

"I have brought apples" Dalla shouted to the three of them "Eat them grilled, they are delicious grilled" The children were thrilled, Audr stop whining as Dalla handed the basket to her, she ran to the house and Erik followed her. Leif went to clean the barn "give me the basket back when they finish, and tell Eric that knock on my door when he gets up," she said when we were alone. I returned to the house and gave back his toad to Erik, then I beat him in the ass again because he touched food with dirty hands. The boy protested a second, but then rested his head on my arm and gave me a sad puppy look.

"Don't annoy your sister" I said "and wash your hands. You'll see what I'm preparing. Go and wash the apples" he went out and soaked the apples, sinking them and playing with them. He got them out from the water, put them in Audr's apron, to dry them, and then he washed his hands with soap. He entered and I placed the apples on a tray and put them in the oven below to where my bun was baking at a good time. I bent down, I pointed my cheek, and Erik gave me a loud kiss "Go and play, go."

Eric got up when the sun was falling. Apples and cake aromatized the house and the children did nothing but watch the oven with intensity and annoyance as if they expected that way the bun cook faster.

I took out the cake and the four Northman followed the scent like hyenas pursuing their prey.

"It can't be eaten until it is cool."

"Jo" the four of them expressed. I laughed.

"And where did the apples came from?" Eric asked.

"Dalla brought them for the children."

"Very kind of her" Eric said while ignoring my orders, pinched the cake a bit, and ate it. He was worse than the kids.

"Very kind" Helga had the happy idea of appearing before I jumped to the jugular of her child to make clear what I thought was very unseemly. She came with some brown wool yarn rolled between her elbows. She took my arm and guided me to the loom that until I had arrived, had been covered with a layer of dust. Set one of the threads on a loom and prompted me to imitate. I guess the time to learn to knit had come.

"I need to borrow your mule, mother. We have to plow next week and sow the week after or the autumn's snows won't let us."

"We need the mule too" His mother informed him "it would be better if you ask Olga the red or Freira. They won't sow this year. Olga is alone since her husband died two months ago and her children are still too young to help her with such drudgery and they would probably waste a lot of grain sowing and would end reaping just a little. But she has two oxen. Good animals, if you ask me. You could use her animals in exchange of a percentage of the crop. Would you like me to deal with her?"

"Yes, please" Helga nodded and fixed a thread that I had misplaced "do you want some of the bread that Sookie has made, mother?"

"Sure, but I hoped she would offer it to me."

"But it isn't cool enough! I was planning to tell you..." She laughed and grab up the piece Eric had offered her "And it is not bread is a cake" Eric gave me a piece too, I tore it from his hands, cranky.

"It taste great. Can I bring a piece to Halvar?" She asked. I nodded and she smiled. When she finished her piece, we started sewing lesson.

"Oh, Eric... Dalla came while you were sleep to ask a favor. She asked me to tell you that she wanted you to go to her house"

Helga looked at his son and raised an inquiring eyebrow. I wish I could do it too. However, Helga seemed pleased that he had complied with her orders and Eric, annoyed.

"Well, well... I see you have pick up very good mushrooms. They are delicious in a boiled rabbit stew. Are you okay, Sookie?"

"Yes," I replied, although her question puzzled me. I tried to delve into her mind, but she was thinking about the use she would give to the fabric I was making. Helga left and her son accompanied her out. I continued with the loom until the time I started to make dinner. I heard a hammering and I looked out to see Eric hitting something on Dalla's door a few hundred meters[1] away. It shouldn't be a lot of work because it didn't take more than two minutes to fix what had to be fixed, and Dalla invited him to go inside to "properly thank" him and two of them were lost behind the door.

[1] Few hundred yards.

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