Chapter 38
Giantess meets a Warrior
Several weeks ago Anna Karlsen had returned to Los Angeles to take care of some loose ends before returning to Portland, Oregon to supervise the work on her old house.
In the meantime, Roger and Freya had cleared enough of the long driveway that he could now drive his van nearly up to the house and bring up ladders and larger tools for cutting away more of the vegetation obscuring the rambling structure.
So far, they had cleared away the doors and some of the larger windows to let in more light and were deciding on which of the Rowan trees surrounding the house would be removed.
He had also made up a gate in the fence between their houses so that Sasha and Dena could go up to the house and remain unseen by the neighbors.
Before long, a narrow foot path had developed between the houses from the comings and goings of Roger, Freya, Anita Larsen and the wolf/wood wife pair.
Roger had also photographed their progress and had sent copies to Anna and his boss Rachel Thompson to keep them abreast of their efforts.
Anna expressed her delight at seeing Anita working so hard while Rachel merely commented that Freya had grown quite a bit since she had last seen her, when she saw the group photo of them standing outside the house.
Gradually, Freya's other friends had been introduced to Dena and Sasha and sworn to secrecy about them.
Ingrid Hansen, the women's volleyball team captain and ardent wolf fancier, gasped at seeing Sasha for the first time and Roger chuckled at the sight of Ingrid Hansen, now twenty three years old and preparing to graduate in the fall, gushing over Sasha like she was a newborn puppy or a kitten.
Lorna Yamada got a real kick out of meeting Sasha, her family had an Akita and Lorna, after her initial shock at Sasha's size, quickly found herself laughing as she dug her strong hands into Sasha's dense fur.
Tamara Johnson was a bit more reserved, her family had a small Pomeranian and a wolf the size of a pony, was almost too much for her.
Deirdre Shannon immediately took a strong liking to Sasha and stoutly declared, "I've finally met a dog bigger than my own Cormac!"
Cormac being the name of her family's Irish Wolfhound.
When it was pointed out that Sasha was a wolf, Deirdre argued that wolves are canids and therefore, doggies!
They all fell in love with little Dena the woodwife and couldn't get over just how cute she was.
In the weeks prior to Anna's return, they had cleaned up a few of the rooms on the ground floor and most of the basement and kitchen areas.
Roger had looked the plumbing and electrical over and decided it was way beyond his abilities to deal with, he decided he would, after consulting Anna, hand the job over to the same contractors who had refurbished the electrical in his own house as they were able to install new conduit in the walls with minimal damage.
Four days to go and Anna called, Roger answered it upon hearing her special ring tone.
"Anna!" he answered, "We're getting things ready for you and the friend you mentioned earlier. You'll have to stay with us for the time being, as there is no power or running water in the house."
Anna's soothing voice replied, "It's not a problem, you've got that big house as I recall, so two more will hardly strain your resources!"
"So when can we expect you?" asked Roger.
"Saturday afternoon, the 4:30 P.M. Flight. Oh, I've sent a couple of large boxes of my things as I plan on being in Portland on a fairly regular basis. They should be arriving about tomorrow."
Roger jotted that down and replied, "Watch out for large boxes...Any special instructions pertaining to them?"
"Nah, just set them aside and I'll deal with them when I get there."
Roger said, "So we'll be seeing you in a couple of days then. Anita will be delighted you know."
Anna chuckled and remarked, " So will I, I like her, she has so much potential as a writer. She doesn't know it yet but, I want to do a collaboration with her in a few more years."
Saturday afternoon and the people waiting for their loved ones were treated to the sight of a seven-foot-six-inch tall girl with red-gold hair in two thick braids hanging almost to her waist, standing next to a five foot tall Goth girl with jet black hair, who was holding a "WELCOME BACK ANNA!" sign in her hands.
The lean, six foot tall, sandy haired man standing with them hardly rated a second glance. The jet from Los Angeles had arrived on time and was gently easing into the docking port allotted for it.
Minutes later, the arriving passengers began flowing out of the portal. The crowd had thinned somewhat when Anna appeared first, she was wearing her usual sun blocking clothing.
Coming right behind her was a much taller woman with flaxen hair and silvery gray eyes, she moved with a lithe grace that told of superb physical conditioning and great strength.
She loomed over Anna by slightly over a foot and was attracting her own level of attention by virtue of her looks alone.
Anna broke into a big grin and cried, "It is sooo good to see you guys again!" as she glommed onto Anita first, then Freya and Roger in rapid succession.
"Guys, I want you to meet Sheila, Sheila Ericcson. Sheila, these are my friends, Anita, the young writer I told you about, Freya, well you can see for yourself and Roger, a most interesting man and Freya's companion."
Sheila smiled at them all and then said to Freya, "I haven't seen anyone your size in a very, very long time!"
Freya grinned at her and replied, "An' Ah dinnae think Ah'd be meetin' th' Sheila frae th' stories ay auld!"
Anna smiled at Roger and asked, "Did our boxes arrive?"
"Yes, they arrived yesterday."
"Great, then there's no reason for us to hang around here then!"
Moments later, the small group of eye catching ladies and one lean, rangy man with sandy hair and sunburnt features, made their way out of the busy airport.
Roger opened the door to the van and held it while Anna and Sheila slipped inside and settled into their seats.
Anita hopped in next and Freya settled into her usual spot alongside Roger.
The drive from the airport to the house was easily forgettable and soon, the van was parked in the driveway and everyone was piling out.
Sheila stood for a moment admiring the large craftsman home Roger and Freya lived in. Then she commented, "It's going to to feel a bit strange staying in a house where I will feel small inside of it... Who built this place?"
"It was built for a retired circus giant couple, they were both over eight feet tall and the house was built to their requirements." answered Anita with a smile.
Once inside the house, Anita took it upon herself to show Sheila around the house while Anna went into the room she would be staying in, there stood the tall wooden crate with her name on it.
Roger helped her open the crate up to reveal a large portmanteau filled with her travel necessities.
Roger dismantled the rest of the crate and carried the pieces out to the carriage house for safe keeping.
When he returned, Anna had already eased the portmanteau alongside the armoire already in her room and was sitting in the winged chair looking quite pleased with herself.
Roger grinned at her while she rose from her chair and slipped into his arms for a nice hug and a brief kiss.
Their brief moment was interrupted by Sheila when she came into Anna's room and asked for a screwdriver so she could open her own tall crate.
Roger smiled and replied, "Will this do?" as he offered her a cordless screwdriver.
She smiled and took the tool back to her own room.
Watching her towering form walking away, Roger asked Anna, "So what exactly, will she be doing here?"
Anna smiled at him and replied, "She lived here some sixty years ago and still knows the town fairly well, she'll be helping me out with getting a reliable blood supply so I won't have to hunt for food."
A few minutes later, Anita's voice was heard to say, "Is that for real?"
Anna smirked, rolled her eyes and remarked, "She brought her sword!"
"Her sword? What do you mean, her sword?" asked Roger.
Anna smiled at him and replied playfully, "Sheila always takes her sword with her when she travels... It's a claymore thing!"
"So she really is a claymore then?" queried Roger.
"Very much so, even the queen's bodyguards respect their fighting skills and regard them as living weapons."
Roger sighed and muttered,"I just hope she isn't as wild as Helen was."
Anna laughed and retorted, "Not hardly! She is not one for drawing attention to herself, her size alone makes her stand out, so she compensates by being fairly sedate. Her friend Susana is always teasing her about being a 'stick in the mud'."
Roger chuckled and remarked, "She doesn't stand out THAT much, not like Freya does!"
Saturday evening was spent getting acquainted with Sheila, Freya brought out one of the few books she had brought with her from Induna's extensive library.
Freya handed it to Sheila and she looked at it for a few moments, then she began to read from it aloud.
Both Freya and Anita sat quietly while Sheila read aloud in an almost forgotten tongue.
Handing the book back to Freya, she remarked quietly, "It took me a minute to recall this tongue, I haven't spoken it in a very long time."
Sighing, she murmured, "Thorfinn was his name, Thorfinn Redbeard. I was traveling through the northlands as they reminded me of my own people. I met him after I had fought an awakened being and killed her."
Sheila smiled and said wistfully, "He was so handsome, big and strong and gentle, all at once. How could I not fall for him! We married and I lived with him for the rest of his life. We had no children because I cannot become a mother, yet he married me anyway. I left the northlands after he died. I personally laid his corpse out for the bears to find."
She smiled at Freya and commented, "When the news of 'frost giants' began coming out, I had my doubts. Some of the scandis I had encountered were nearly as tall as me and I wondered if something hadn't been lost in the translation when frost giants were mentioned. Then I saw a video of a WNBA star getting seriously challenged in a game of one-on-one by a girl with red-gold hair in long braids, a girl barely twelve years old and already standing well over seven feet tall. When Anastasia here told me she knew that girl and asked me to come up to Portland to help out, how could I resist?"
Anita sat wide eyed with amazement after Sheila had recounted her tale of love won and lost, clearing her throat she asked, "How long ago did all this happen? If I may be so bold."
Without batting a lash, Sheila replied, "It was just before their great migration, so I'd have to say about nineteen hundred, maybe two thousand years ago."
The girl gulped and in a small voice asked, "Just how old, are you?"
Sheila laughed and replied gaily, " There are some things you just don't ask a lady, and her age is one of them."
She winked at Anita and added, "I stopped keeping track a very long time ago, although I and my sisters have witnessed the rise and fall of several civilizations, if that helps any."
Anita whistled and said softly, "You don't look a day over twenty-five, yet you're older than civilization it sounds like."
Sheila guffawed and said cheerfully, "Hey now, I'm not THAT old!"
The great grandfather clock's chiming of the nine o'clock hour interrupted and Anita muttered, "Dang! I promised mom I'd be home by now."
Her phone chimed and she hesitated a moment before answering it, "Hi mom! Sorry I'm not home yet like I'd promised."
She listened a moment and said, "Anna's here and she brought a friend of hers. We've just been talking and getting to know each other and I completely lost track of the time."
A few moments later Anita exclaimed in surprise, "You're coming to get me? Really? Thanks mom!"
Anita closed up her phone and happily declared, "Mom's on her way to get me."
There was a soft scratching sound at the kitchen door and Roger got up to let Sasha and Dena in, they had been up at Anna's old house busily cleaning most of the day and were coming home for the evening.
Sasha's voluminous tail wagged happily as she was joyfully greeted by Anna who quickly glommed onto her and exclaimed, "I have missed you!" as she began digging into Sasha's dense fur.
Roger said, "Dena, this is Sheila, she is a friend of Anna's. Sheila, this is Dena our resident wood wife and the wolf is Sasha, her companion." then he went into the kitchen to help Dena get Sasha's food ready.
Sheila gazed down at the tiny woodwife and said quietly, "I haven't seen a wood wife and a great guardian wolf in ages!"
Dena stood as tall as her two foot height would allow and said, "Ain fa ur ye? Yoo're nae loch th' others, Ah sense a stoatin age abit ye. Thocht ye swatch yoothful, ye ur far aulder than me."
Sheila smiled at the tiny woodwife and replied, "Mah nam is Sheila Ericcson, lang, lang ago, Ah lived amang th' Jotuns after Ah hud slain th' monster 'at was killin' them."
She grinned at Anna and remarked, "I had to think about what I was going to say, I haven't spoken that language in a very long time."
Dena looked thoughtful then she said, "Ye main be th' hen 'at killed Grendel an' burned 'er corpse jist tae make sure she was truly deid."
Sheila smiled and nodded a 'yes'.
Dena grinned and remarked, "Mah stoatin grandmother tauld me abit ye, she remembered ye frae when she was a lassie."
Dena looked the six foot six inches tall, flaxen haired, silvery gray eyed beauty up and down and said, "An' Ah didnae ken onie ay ye claymores still lived!"
Sheila smiled wistfully and replied, "There's a few of us left and we try to keep in touch with each other. Some of us have been getting together and working out to keep in shape, it's pretty good therapy for us. Being able to flex our muscles and train the way we did in the old days without being stared at."
Anita smiled and said, "I can't believe you're being so open about this. I mean wouldn't you want it kept a secret? I sure would!"
Anna smiled at the young girl, and with a wave of her hand, uttered a soft, soothing, "Go to sleep!"
Anita's eyes went blank and she slumped in her chair.
Anna leaned close and murmured softly in Anita's ear for a few moments.
Returning to her seat, Anna sat smiling and sipping her tea as if waiting for Anita to wake up.
Ten minutes later, Anita's eyes fluttered open and she sat up again with a remark to Sheila, "That's funny how you're named after a legendary warrior woman from two thousand years ago, actually, it's pretty cool and considering that you're into that live steel sword fighting thing, it's very appropriate!"
Headlights from a car coming up the driveway briefly flashed across the ceiling and Anita commented, "Welp, my mom's here so I gotta run..."
Roger chuckled and remarked, "Don't you think your mom would like to say hi, to Anna?"
Anita stopped in mid sentence and flushed a light scarlet, "I'm sorry!" she cried and dashed to the door.
A few moments later, she all but dragged her mother under mild protest into the house.
Helen Larsen smiled at Anna and said cheerfully, "She insisted I come in and I thought maybe you would be tired after your flight, but impetuous child overruled sensible parent and here I am... Hi!"
Anna laughed and replied, "It's quite alright actually, we've all been catching up on things and Anita is getting to know my friend Sheila here."
She gestured at Sheila who was standing next to Freya.
Sheila smiled and nodded in reply to her gesture.
Helen stepped forward and she clasped hands with Sheila in greeting.
As they shook hands, Helen remarked, "It's a pleasure to meet you Sheila."
She looked at Sheila's eyes closely and said, "What interesting eyes you have, I've never seen eyes of that color before."
Sheila smiled and replied, "It runs in the family apparently, I have several cousins with similarly colored eyes."
Helen grinned at her and remarked, "You're pretty tall, maybe you can play a little basket ball with Freya here."
Anita rolled her pale blue eyes and groaned, "Mom! Just 'cause she's tall doesn't mean she likes to play basketball!"
Sheila chuckled and remarked, "I get that a lot, I can play, I'm just not very good at it. My sport of choice is live steel sword fighting."