Chapter 20

I stood there, frosting, shivering with cold and fear that kept me from moving. I was ashore safely, behind the village fence and accompanied by nearly a couple of hundred brave Vikings. But the love of my life and his children, whom I loved as they were my own, were in danger of death. The air rushed stumbling on my lungs. My heart was frozen to think about my situation. What if my presence changed everything? I was Sookie Stackhouse, a native of Bon Temps, Louisiana, and waitress by profession; although lately I had forgotten a bit. As much as I wanted to believe I was the mother of Eric's sons, as much as I thought I was a neighbor in a small Viking town, however much I played to be the lady of the house, I wasn't; I didn't belong to this time, and this place. I don't know how far my presence can alter things. What if Eric's three children who survived don't survive now because of me? What if my Eric dies because I change things and don't ever meet Ocella? What if he doesn't live a thousand years to get to me? I shivered and decided to return home.

I tried to do house chores; mine and those of others. I didn't want to think, but occasionally I began sobbing and felt a very strong chest pressure that prevented the entrance of air, made my knees waver, and caused me cold sweats and tremors. Finally chose to sit. I left home and went to the port in the evening, maybe two hours before the sunset. The sea was twitching and wind raging. The only bad thing that has not happened yet. I imagined the children being attacked in the ship at sea, my Audr and my Eric trying to hold to the deck that was shaking while Leif was trying to protect them from enemy arrows. Then I began thinking of worse scenarios and began to mourn. I should have insisted. I should have gone with Eric.

I got sick of being waiting: I throw out several times, my back and my neck hurt and I had a headache. Shortly after nightfall I began to notice the cold bones and chest tightness grew older. I stood by the fire and went into a state of panic that I thought I was dying. I tried to move, wanted to do things to help, but the cold weather only accentuated the shivering. I've never been so scared.

The night fully darkened when I heard the horn announcing the sighting of ships.

"Ship ahoy!" I heard someone scream "Ship ahoy!" I ran to the port site and I made site among the other warriors with my elbows, who were preparing if those who were coming victorious from the sea were not ours.

"Go home, woman!" Ulf, the blacksmith, shouted me. I stayed where I was standing "Those could be our enemies... run and refuge in your home!"

"If they are our enemies, and I don't care all" I said.

"But if it's Eric and you are here, in the line of danger, he will be very mad with us because of you" Ulf told me, his hand on my shoulder.

"Sookie" Ivar grabbed me by the arm "Please go home."

"No."

"If it's Eric, he will be angry. If he is, I promise to tell him to go and see you right away. But if isn't him..." I pouted and he stroked my chin and lips "if it isn't him and you stay here, you'll make me get killed because I won't be able to see anything else."

I went to the village at a good pace, I got up there breathless and I stood up, frozen, by the road that went down to the beach. If Eric had been defeated, if they had killed my children and my love, what was left for me? Tears spilled down my cheeks and I began imagining myself the next day on the beach, waiting for the sea to reject the bodies of my loved ones to the shore. I saw torches lights from the ships approaching port, but still didn't distinguish anything. A horn sounded and down was a stir of joy contained: if the sea didn't confuse us, that horn was ours. Another fifteen minutes went by and then a great cheer was heard. I went jogging the steep slope a hundred yards that separated the town up, easily defensible and hardly attacked by sea, the port and the beach. The four boats, one of which didn't belonged to our town, docked at the pier. The cheer was transformed into concern one because... there were many wounded and injured. The women had armed two of the boats in which they had gone to Black Harbor and after the alarming black smoke signal on the horizon, they had decided to sail to sea. I saw Eric on deck and my tears turned into tears of joy. Halvar was a board another boat.

"Leif, Leif, Erik!" I called. Eric and Wulfric down a wounded man between the two.

"Jora!" cried Helgi.

"She has been wounded in the arm" Eric said "she will recover."

"What were you thinking, woman?"

"She had killed a fat man" laughed Wulfric "She had removed the arrow from her arm and stabbed him in the face" The three: Eric, Wulfric and the injured woman, laughed. Helgi stroked her forehead and picked her up. When I saw Eric laughing, I knew that nothing could have happened to any of my children. Eric wouldn't laugh if his children had been injured or killed.

"And the children, Eric?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I have come to wait for you."

"You should be safe at home. Is it that no one told you that you had to go and get safe?"

"I came down right now, running, when I saw it was you" I reassured "Where are they?"

"Take the injured to the palace!" Halvar shouted from the deck.

"They are still at the shelter. My mother is with them" He said as he watched his neighbors take down the wounded and began to take care of them "They saw your signal, Sookie. My father thought that something was wrong and only two boats sail to the sea: the fiercest women, young ones who are older and the stronger elders.

"What happened?" Helgi asked while he bandaged his wife arm.

"First we take care and take to the heat of the fireplaces, to the injured ones."

We carry all the people to the palace. Eric used a flint to light a big fire in the fireplace and a smaller one in the hearth. The house warmed quickly by the heat of the flames and the people. Ulf the Blacksmith, Wulfric and old Gunnar were caring for the wounded. Most had minor injuries, but there were a couple of serious injuries: an arrow in the groin of a woman and a sword injured Orn near the liver, the one whom I had served goose soup night the village was attacked. It looked serious but Leiva, Gunnar's old woman Gunnar, who knew a lot about herbs, told us that she had seen some that were much worse. Everything depended on whether the iron of the arrow had hit the bone marrow. I saw her make a poultice with a black soil she took from a bag and with the water she got by squeezing a greenish-colored pond moss. She applied it to the wounds of each and bandaged some wounds while some others she preferred to leave to air. I saw that she drew out an arrow to a young one from his calf, wasn't very serious, but it looked very painful.

"You should go change" I told Eric that was soaked, trying to focus my attention elsewhere.

"I'll go in a minute. Go away, do not see this" I was about to say that the stakes were much worse than the arrows, but I kept quiet.

"I'll light the fire in the house, it must be very cold" I left and he watched me from the palace, controlling me I closed the door and I started to organize thing at my home. Eric arrived shortly afterwards.

"Help me to undress. My arms feel heavy" He said. The gray wolf fur he was wearing over him weighed a lot, it was hard to take it from his shoulders. It seemed as if was glued to his back. It just hit the ground with a "plop" I saw Eric raise his shoulders, rested at last. But there were still many more clothes. He kissed me when I remove the chain mail and I hung onto his neck.

"I've been very afraid" I said.

"Me too" he admitted against my temple. He turned away from me and took out from his clothes a fabric bag in which he had some herbs "Soothes the pains, maybe they need it. We shall go back."

"Change your clothes."

"I'm dry, be calm"

When they had took care of all the people, several men asked Halvar and Eric what had happened. Helgi was very interested in why his concubine ended with an arrow wound in the arm. Although he was very proud of her, it was his right to know why one of his wives had ended in the middle of a sea battle.

Halvar told us they were ready to sail on the boats and came back to town when Sigrir, Helgi's first wife, saw on the horizon the two black columns. Helga and Halvar soon deduced that something must happen in the town so we had decided to change the signal, and if we had done from the clean white meant "can return" to the black dirty it was because we were indicating them that they shouldn't come back. He congratulated me and continued with his story. Apparently, Harald knew about Black Harbor shelter, he didn't know it exact location so he couldn't venture to look near the coast and risk crashing his boats against the rocks or aground on beaches. So he played it safe, to interrupt the way back to the village. He had planned to distract us attacking the village with infantry then kill Halvar and give us a good blow killing some important women and abducting others.

Eric said they battled at sea. He told they were surrounded by Harald's boats and they still managed to sink one of them. The other warriors were prepared to assault ships crewed by women, children and elders, so they were armed with swords and axes, and didn't have as many arrows as ours. Eric said that it was fine as long as they had the arrows and manage to keep the battle at long and medium range, but the problem came when Harald's men boarded the drakkars (eleven of ours had fallen) because Eric and the others had sailed with the least possible weight, and that included the long swords. And that, at the end, according to Wulfric, has been fortunate. Because the long swords would be very hard to handle in decks as crowded as ours. They faced during those minutes Harald's men swords with daggers and knives and to make things worse a blow of sea broke one of the boats and it began flooding. Luckily, at that time the two other ships appeared; in they traveled the very own Halvar and some elderly, skilled warriors and marine veterans, who were strong enough to fight. Some young men like Olaf and other around fifteen and fourteen years who could hustle with an adult were also on boats and with them the stronger and more skilled with knives women. Halvar was very proud of his clan.

"You should have seen the face that they put when they began to be boarded by a handful of kids and women" Eric laughed. They were joking for a little time and then returned to talk about serious things.

"We should go to pick up the women and children" Halvar said at the end.

"We leave tonight" Wulfric said "They must be very worried."

"Being worried won't kill them" Halvar said "It's foolish to risk a ship sailing at night when there is no need. We'll go to pick them up tomorrow."

"Tonight we'll take care of the wounded and celebrate the victory" Wulfric said.

"Celebrate?" asked Rolf "Without women?"

"There is no party without women. They are the party!" said another. I rolled my eyes.

"Understand, Wulfric" Rolf continued "Maybe you fight like a woman, but you're not a woman" and everyone started laughing. Halvar didn't let them celebrate and I don't think they had really wanted, especially because they would have to work the next day and didn't want to go to drunk or hangover rowing. We had several days of continuous fighting: in the forest, in the village, in the sea. All the time going to and fro, bad eating and sleeping poorly. Gunnar and his wife rested in the palace, with the injured, if any of them got worse and they had to intervene. Also, there was wounds that needed to be washed constantly to prevent infection.

We began leaving the palace and going to our homes, Eric was thinking he would have to get up early if he wanted to go on boats and he wanted to, but he wasn't sure they would let him because the reasonable thing was to send rowers with fresh forces. Of course he didn't trust that Harald hadn't prepared a new trick and wouldn't leave his Audr alone in the sea.

"I want to go on the boat" I told him "Can I?"

"Just enough rowers will go, Sookie" he said as he lit the fire "I'll get firewood."

"I'll go. You rest. Do you want me to get a bath ready for you?"

"No, no" He said. He took out the robe covering him and I helped with the rest. I took out everything but his pants, and suddenly, the memory of what had happened the day before struck us both. We were alone and had all the time in the world. But my Eric was human, and he was exhausted. He climbed heavily up the stairs to his bed, each step as heavy as lead. I went out for logs and put a couple of logs in the hearth to make the heat last. I was going to get ready to go to sleep when he called.

"Sookie. Come up" I climbed the steps and stood watching him. He was lying on the bed, one arm behind his head, looking at me "Lie with me, by my side" he clarified. I smiled and I went to bed "Naked."

He was very serious and I also got serious. I just kept looking into his eyes, and he didn't look away as I removed the clip holding my wool tunic. The gown fell to the ground and remained made a wrinkle at my feet. Eric finally decided to change his target.

He glared at me his eyes and licked his lips and I swear I felt my knees were shaking and I turned to jelly. Eric pulled the skin over him. He was also naked.

"Come" He said. And I lay down beside him. He had his arm extended in order to me lay my head on it, so it was easy for me to accommodate. I curled up next to him and Eric flexed the same arm to stroke my hair. This position resembled one that we used to take when my vampire and I had just made love and we wanted to cuddle and stroke each other "This has taken too long. No more. Tomorrow, Sookie, I swear that no man, woman, beast or god will stop me from making love to you" I sighed "I'm going to do it slowly, because you deserve to be enjoyed slowly" his stubble tickled my chin, his lips near mine "And because there is nothing I want more than to make you enjoy it."