Translator's note: Fifth chapter of the marathon, next chapter on Friday, from now and forward I will try to update every Monday and Friday. Looking forward to see your reviews.

Hugs and Kisses.

Chapter 33

I went for the kids and we ate at Helga's home, in a small, charming room, outside the great hall, now being occupied by the banquet tables. Helga warned me of the possibility that the men didn't return that night, not when they went hunting, to which I was indignant because I hadn't given Eric enough food. With so much free time, I take the opportunity to pick up the other children and organized an essay in the palace hall and I performed Eric's role.

Certainly, Eric did not sleep that night at home. And neither arrived in the morning, which I spent helping Helga and other women. We sat in a low chair in the main room of the palace and got to peel a lot of peas' sacks. We kept the pods in a wooden casks (then we would feed them to the pigs and chickens) and we put the peas in some pans in which we will cooked them with lard. I think we peeled at least a two hundred pounds of peas. I already had green and dry fingers when Halvar silhouette, accompanied by other warriors, spread across the entrance.

"She is here, Eric!" he shouted rotating half of his body. Within seconds, his silhouette backlight also drew the door.

"Wow, what a deer!" Helga said. They brought a deer of at least three hundred pounds.

"It has been taken down by my son. We have also brought other pieces" In fact they brought a mountain goat two boars, a dozen of hares and a wounded Eric.

"Eric!" he was coming bent over his side. "What happened?"

"Nothing, nothing" but I was thinking that maybe he had a broken rib "A small accident while chasing a boar."

"Yes, but he speared the deer and it was thirty yards away!" Halvar said proudly. I raised his robe and I saw he had a bruise that took up most of the right side.

"Come on, let's go see old Leiva."

"You have assembled the tables!" A surprised Halvar said, while Eric and I went away. We stopped by our house so Eric clean up himself a little (I helped and I took advantage of it) and also we had to pick one thing that Eric had kept in safe guard for the old healer, a leather bag, slightly bloodstained. I didn't ask what it contained.

Leiva fingered her side and concluding that nothing was broken or dislocated, gave me a poultice for it to be put on the bruise and asked me to place a bandage. Eric gave her the bag and she was as happy as a lark.

"Come on, sit still. Did I harm you?" I asked as I smeared medicine, which smell like mud and moss in the bruise.

"With those hands?" he made a gesture of pain "What soft hands you have."

"Shush. You could have hurt yourself a lot. Raise your arms so I can roll the bandage around you" he obeyed and I wrapped the poultice so I wouldn't fall or stain the clothing

"What happened to you?"

"I whipped Leonidas to jump a log without realizing that there was a low branch that struck me here."

"And you fell down?"

"No, I broke it in half."

"And I imagine it wouldn't be just a twig..."

"As fat as my thigh."

"What a brute you are!"

"It was it or me" I laughed.

"That's it" I said "Going back with your mother, because although I think they have already finished with the peas, we still have ahead quite a lot of sacks of onions for grilling."

"Ok. Take the children with you, please. I'll take a nap to be rested for tonight."

"Okeydokey" I bent down after covering myself with a fur to go outside and kissed him "Rest and be careful to keep the bandage in place."

When I left I noticed that several houses were taking their tables outside and bringing them to the fires, which were about to burn and provide warmth to those who had to eat in the open sky. I found Ivar and asked please to cut some branches of one of the trees around my home. He did what I was asking for without question and he didn't even ask why Eric didn't do it. He was happy to spend some time with me, though he was beginning to grasp that Eric wouldn't let me go.

In the palace the women had already finished peeling the peas, which were being baked with pork lard chunks as big as milk cartons. It smelled great and the aroma hid the onions stink which the women were cleaning and preparing for grilling. I sat next to Helga and began to help. I've always loved the smell onions left in the hands: like kitchen and home cooking. A few seconds later, I was in floods of tears, like the rest. We toss the onions in clay pots which subsequently put under fire, and the delicious smell of roasted onion aromatized not only the palace but the whole village.

When I left the room and bonfires were burning outside and people were excited. At home I prepared hot water and we began cleaning and grooming by turns, Erik and Leif in one, and Audr and I in another. I woke my man and urged him to start dressing as people began to gather for the celebration.

"What should I wear?" he asked.

"How is it that you don't know what to wear?" I said as I was dressing Audr with a linen camisole so the wool won't itch.

"This?" he pulled a robe of a trunk and showed it to me.

"By Odin, Eric, you should wear your best finery!"

"I have several" I left Audr sat in her bed and went up to the platform "the blue or the green one?"

"The blue."

"Green suits me."

"Blue is a more expensive color suits you best."

"Everything to be contrary. I think the green..."

"Why do you ask if you do whatever you want?" I left there him there planted and went downstairs to continue dressing the children.

Eric wore the blue tunic, thank goodness.

"Hurry, Sookie, we are late!" young Erik urged me.

"Come, we will be the last ones to arrive!" Leif hurried me.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

"How slow you are!" Eric said. I threw him a lot of dirty clothing to the head because he was being a jerk. I had to bathe and dress the children, take care of him and dress myself. And then he tried to pretend that we (Audr and me) were slow.

"Come on!" Leif took my hand and pulled me, half cover, away from home. As we walk into the palace we disperse and the only one that stayed with me was the small Audr. Eric went to see how was his venison roasting, Leif and Erik went with his friends and I went to Helga, who was in the process of nerves that all women suffer when we organize a party.

"Oh, Sookie, honey. You are gorgeous" I was wearing a red wool coat with navy blue and gold threads embroidered. It was one of the best dresses that Eric had given me.

"Thank you. Hello Jora."

"Can I catch a pork rind, Sookie?" Audr asked me.

"But only one" Halvar arrived at that time.

"Began to sit the people, Helga" he informed his wife "the food is ready."

"Ok. Take a seat, people of Bay Village" she shouted, and repeated it two more times and people began to sit on those places where they believed they must sit "Children at the table" she said pointing to the table that was to the left of the principal. "Leif, get to the head, and you, Erik, on his right."

"What about me, Grandma?"

"You on Leif's left."

"Come on, sweetie" I said. I took her hand and walked her to her seat. I filled her a glass of milk and placed a wooden plate front of her "This is yours. Eat well, and Leif, watch your sister" The boy nodded and I went back beside Helga.

"No, no, Stern, sit closer to here" the head of the village's wife said. She placed Stern, one of the warriors of the town, about five years older than Eric, closer to Halvar's throne.

"What about me?"

"Sit beside Jora" Helga said. I nodded. Jora, who was placing women on their sits at the end of the table, left me room beside her.

"This table is for the important women in town" She told me "That's the men's table, and that for the children. Helga and Sigrir sit at the head, but since I'm not Helgi first wife, but a concubine, must sit at the end. Same as you. But it is not so bad, we eat the same as other women" she reassured me. I sat beside her and when I went to take a sip of my mead, felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Sookie, stand up" it was Halvar. He looked at me sorry "you cannot sit here."

"But..."

"What's happening, Halvar?" Helga came to see what happened.

"Sookie cannot sit at the table with the important women. She is a slave. The only slaves inside are those who serve the food. She has to leave."

"But..."

"But nothing. She cannot sit here with her social rank, there are free men and women eating on the street and I cannot have a slave sitting at the table of important women" when Helga bowed her head and I heard her thinking that her husband was right "Go outside" the old boss commanded. I was so upset that I left to the street alone. I looked for a place to sit and found it in one of the most remote and lopsided tables.

I felt ridiculous wearing one of the best dresses that I had, adorned with two silver clasps that held my robe, my hair done for the occasion, perfumed and covered with beautiful cinnamon wolf fur and sitting in a table where the best dressed man was wearing a robe which has no less than eight patches. The roasted and chopped deer walked past our noses toward the palace. In the first tray, a metal one, were the best parts of the deer direct to the area of the head of the village. Slaves served the meat at the tables inside the palace but no one served at tables on the street. They left the pots with peas and grilled onions and those who were there out in the open had to awake to serve ourselves.

I saw Eric, sitting to the right of his father, taking a venison piece from the metal tray and laughing out loud about something that Helgi had said. He took a bite of a piece of roast pork and looked up, I guess to see if his children were eating well. Then he turned, looked at his mother and the women around her, not seeing me between them he turned to the other side. He got up and went over the table of women. I saw him frowning and muttering to himself.

Halvar tried to force him to sit but he refused. He went back over the tables and then I saw him asking about me. Halvar tried to silence him but Eric was already unstoppable. He peered into the street and I ducked my head, trying to hide. My position was humiliating enough to mount a scandal. The only reason I had not gone home was because of the children. He approached me and other diners seated at the same table where I was stood up as a sign of respect in the presence of Eric. I was the one who remained sitting.

"Eric!" Halvar stood about six feet to the back of her son "Come back to the table."

"What is she doing outside? What are you doing out here?"

"I was told that they didn't serve peas inside" I joked, because it didn't feel well to make my Viking more angry was the best idea.

"Come in" He ordered. He pulled my arm until I was standing.

"Sit woman!" his father shouted "She cannot go inside" Helga came and went there to stand next to her husband.

"I won't let my wife eat on the street like a common servant."

"You fucking with her doesn't make her your wife" Halvar spat. Images that were happening in the head of Eric came as clearly as if watching on a TV screen. Before Eric could began to full fill his dreams, which were to punch his father on the face, I clenched his arms, strong but warmly and placed my hands on his face, stroking it reassuringly.

"Come with me" Eric told me.

"No way!" Halvar shouted.

"Eric, please" his mother told him "I'll bring a piece of deer to Sookie now and she'll eat the same as us."

"Of course she will eat deer..."

"Don't think I love it..." I lied, but everyone ignored me.

"… don't even mention she won't" Eric continued "that she doesn't v try it when I hunted for her and my children, eat it, before anyone else. And she will eat inside with me."

"Damn kid, you're getting me tired!" Halvar made by pouncing on Eric but Helga stopped him as she could "She won't came into my palace" he persisted.

"Then we both go to our home" Eric concluded.

"May Thor's hammer strike me if I allow such a thing" The chief said "You will not make me such rudeness, I am the head of this village and your father!" People began to fidget and I saw Leif and Erik poke their heads and looking in our direction.

"Eric, Eric" I tried to get his attention "Go inside like he had told you, I really don't feel like eating meat" he didn't looked at me, he was still glaring at his father with his gaze "Eric! Don't in front of the children. Don't do this to them. I go inside, do it for me" finally he stared into my eyes "You know how excited they are. Not today, please. Go inside, I'll be fine" He shook his head but I insisted. However, he remained not fairly convinced until he felt the Erik's hand taking and asking him with a worried voice what happened. I went to push him, but he wouldn't surrender. I looked at Erik and smiled fondly. Then Eric looked at his son and then kissing me, turned around. They walked to the palace and with one last look (I smiled at him) they went inside.

The murmurs disappeared and talks, laughter and toasts resumed as the others returned into the palace. The meat came to the tables outside after the people who were inside were satiated. I didn't try bite. Neither did Eric.