Translator's note: we have reached 200 reviews so I will make other marathon... 5 chapters in five days… Day 1

Chapter 24

The children told us all they had seen during the journey and what they did in Black Harbor while we were eating cookies.

"What happened to the door?" Leif asked after a while, leaving the snack.

"Oh, well..."

"Have we been attacked?" he asked in a sharp voice, full of anguish.

"Yes? Wow! I always miss everything" Erik said.

"Where were you?" Leif asked.

"I was safe" I lied "Besides, your father came quickly and... you cannot imagine how he fought!" Erik looked at his father and his eyes shining.

"Have you been attacked Sookie?" Leif asked.

"No way!"

"That's not true. And that wound in your hand?"

"I did it while killing a rabbit."

"I don't believe you."

"No more okay, Leif" warned his father "Don't question the elders"

"But why have you changed the door?"

"Because I didn't like the other one."

"That's a lie!" Leif said indignantly.

"Leif..." Eric's second warning.

"I also didn't like it" Audr said "Do you remember the big thorn that I stuck on my finger Sookie?"

"Yes, sweetie" I smiled. "It was a horrible door. It's better this way."

"You have changed it because you were attacked. You're lying..." Leif lowered his chin and looked at me with narrowed eyes as he threw his accusation. Eric gave such a punch to the table that it tipped up two bowls of milk, mine and Erik's, fortunately, they were almost empty.

"Make it the last time you call Sookie a liar."

"But it's not true! You are..." Eric lifted his hand to his son, ready to slap him, but I reacted quickly. I placed a gentle hand on the back of his and got to stop him. Leif not even closed his eyes.

"No, please."

"Go to sleep" He ordered Leif. The boy got up indignantly and left sulking towards his bed "everyone to bed to sleep."

"But I want to sleep with Sookie!" Erik protested.

"Me too! Me too!" Audr said.

"Let them, please" I pleaded. Eric looked at me and swallowed, "Let Leif sleep with us" the children hurry up the stairs that went to the platform where the bed, where Eric and I slept, was. I went to Leif, who was giving us his back "Don't you come with me?" I asked. He shifted the furs and said nothing.

His mind was a continual trampling of bad thoughts about what could and hadn't happened to me, "If you don't come, I will lie here with you" I told him, and raised a wolf fur to lay down with him.

"Okay, okay..." Leif got up and went upstairs to be with his siblings. All of them fought about being by my side, but at last were Eric and Leif who won, with the excuse that they never laid down with me. Eric placed his hand on my hip and stroked me while I succumb to the magic of Morpheus, calm and warm with my children.

In the middle of the night I noticed Leif moving by my side. He slipped out of bed and left the platform. Eric took the opportunity to pull me, and wrapped his legs and arms around me. I felt like a fish in a trawl.

After a while I started to worry. I thought Leif would have gone downstairs to relieve himself, but I was beginning to think something was wrong, because I heard him down, whipping the fire. Eric tightened his bear hug on me as I tried to wriggle out of it.

"Let me go" I told him. He mumbled something but didn't let me go "Eric, Eric..." I shook him.

"What's happening?" he whispered against my ear, and tickled me.

"I want to go downstairs"

"What for?" He hugged me even more.

"Hey, let me go, you seem like an eel!" I pinched him a testicle and he released me reluctantly. I wear something over while Eric grumbled quietly in bed, watching me. I saw Leif stood still in front of the embers of the fire "Leif, honey, are you okay?" I asked once I was downstairs. The boy looked at me with bright eyes and turned his attention to the fire "Have you had a bad dream?" I asked noticing his tumultuous mind "my life..." I put my hand on his shoulder and he turned away "What would you like to know?"

"What happened? Tell me the truth."

"We were attacked" I sigh "One of Harald's men realized that I was in the house and tried to come in."

"Did he hurt your hand?"

"No, this was my clumsiness. I tried to attack him with the sword through a hole and I ended up cutting myself."

"I could have defended you. I could have defended the house" he said. I knew that Eric was listening to us.

"I know."

"I beat Olaf. I bested him! And he is much bigger than me… and you. I wanted to stay here and fight."

"And I wanted you to be safe."

"And I also wanted you to be safe."

"But I'm older and I have to protect and take care of you."

"You're not my mother!" Leif soon regretted saying it like that.

"I wouldn't love you more if I was"

"I didn't mean that" he apologized. I smiled.

"I know."

"No, really... I..." I knelt in front of him and let the kid nailed his look in his knees.

"Don't think because I'm not..." Leif came at me and hugged me. I returned the hug.

"I don't want anything happen to you" I kissed him on the cheek "soon I will be a man and I won't let anything happen to you."

"Sounds good. But until you grow up and be a man, I'll take care of you. O.K.? Come on, let's go to bed" We went up and Eric was kind enough to pretend to be asleep. He made room for us and hugged us both as we had laid down.

"Starting tomorrow I won't sleep with you" Leif said "I won't sleep with you again. I won't lie down next to a woman like a child anymore. When I go back to sleep with a woman, I'll do it as men lie with women. Do you understand?" I nodded excitedly.

"But tonight you can still sleep beside me, hugging me. Right?"

"Just tonight"

And like that we slept.

A few hours later Eric shifted from my side and stood, and it wasn't even dawn when he came to the bed and shook Leif, urging him to get up. The boy protested and snuggled against me for warmth and protection.

"Come on, Leif" Eric shook his son and I opened my eyes.

"What's happening?"

"Nothing happens, sleep, love. Leif..."

"A little longer..."

"Come on, it's time to get up."

"I'm sleepy...

"You said you wanted to be a man, then come" Eric whispered "You begin today."

"What is it?" I questioned.

"Come, boy, dress warm." Leif, to whom the words his father had alerted, rose from the bed and was doing what Eric told him, sat down to put on some furry boots "We go to the forest."

"¿To the forest?" we both asked.

"Men's stuff. You want to come or not?"

"Yes!"

"Well hurry" I didn't say anything but stroked his arm, which rested on the bed "We will be out all day" he said softly, turning half of his body to look at me while stroking me over the furs.

"All day? But if it's freezing!"

"We'll be covered with warm furs."

"Eric, Could you leave this father and son trip for later, when it's not freezing?" he just smiled.

"This is not just a trip. We're going hunting. Go back sleep is very early."

"Did you get food?"

"Yes."

"What?" I wanted to know. He broadened his smile.

"I took bread, a piece of smoked cod and smoked bacon."

"Just that? I'll wake up and I'll make you something decent."

"No way" he knocked my attempt to get up and kissed me on the forehead "Ye, you stay here. I have to take care of you" he looked at me with such tenderness that I thought my heart would explode.

"Don't be too strict with him."

"I'm ready" Leif said.

"Let's go" He got up and took one last look to us. I heard them closing the house and talk by the door. Then I heard the horse's hooves crunching the snow as they walked away.

Erik and Audr slept until noon and only awakened because of the aroma of freshly baked cake. I found some slate stones, sized like a kid's notebook page and as thick as two fingers on the wood table. Eric had left them to me, as I asked him so I could teach children to read and write.

"Why did they leave without me!?"

"They've gone hunting, Erik, and you are very young" I said for the umpteenth time.

"And to the top I have to learn how to read these strange things" he said. Helga, who had arrived after lunch, and was sitting next to him, hit him on the neck. The kids had vague knowledge of runic writing, and when I explained Helga that I wanted them to learn better, it seemed a great idea. So I'll teach them the Latin alphabet and she'll teach them the runic alphabet. And now I had realized that they would also have to learn math and calculus. A child cannot spend all day playing, chasing frogs and butterflies, they have to study and learn "if they had brought me with them I would be learning a lot more important things."

"You'd be bothering" I answered openly "Your father and your brother haven't gone to play and climb all the trees and rocks, but to work. And your work here, in addition to taking care of animals when Leif is not here, is to help me at home and do what I command you. See, what a pretty a Audr has written" I smiled at the girl, who continued to refine her writing of the letter A "come on, make an effort and I'll give you a large piece of cake."

"It amazes me that Eric has wanted to go hunting" Helga said "Not that he doesn't like..."

"He loves it."

"Yes, he loves it, but it's not time to go into the woods with the kid."

"I think he has done it because what Leif said yesterday"

"It's difficult when they start growing."

"I think it's always difficult."

After they had reviewed the vowels one by one and copied them several times, it was time to learn the numbers. The Vikings, like many other people, used other algorithms. That evening, Helga also learned, along with Audr and Erik, some of the first Arabic numerals to which we are so accustomed.

"Well, I must go now, Halvar would resemble a caged lion" said the chief's wife while wrapping up herself with a thick cape throwing the hood over her head "Remember to tell Eric that within four days, when the injured men had got better and the most urgent damage had been repaired, we'll celebrate the victory at my home."

"Do you think it's a good idea?"

"No, but Halvar does. And it is true that it is always good to offer some food to the village, some women and children eat well at least once during the fall" She lamented.