Chapter 41

I do not own claymore

A few days later, Roger and Anna were showing a landscape architect the house and immediate grounds.

They had already explained the necessity of not disturbing the stately Rowans and the other non native trees planted about the house.

When the architect asked what was to be done with the house itself, Roger had explained that it was to become a library and research facility for the Museum of Cryptozoology.

He simply took a lot of notes and looked the place over with a critical eye.

Finally, the landscape architect remarked, "I've got a few ideas I'd like to work on before I show you what my thoughts are. You did mention medicinal herbs and herb lore being studied here, couldn't that concept be enlarged upon? Perhaps a hothouse or two, for the rarer varieties of herbs. Put them behind the house and have a series of attractive flowerbeds in front. Anyway, let me play with a couple of ideas and I'll give you a call."

They shook hands and escorted the man back to his BMW SUV.

As he drove away, Anna remarked, "I kinda like his ideas about the hothouses for growing rare medicinal herbs. Some of them are quite costly and if they can be grown here in limited quantities, it could be a possible source of income for this place."

Roger looked thoughtful and replied,"Not sure if enough of these herbs could be grown to make a real profit, but it wouldn't hurt to look into the idea."

He frowned slightly and remarked, "I just hope the workers don't see any of the 'neighbors' living near the house. I suppose they'll know enough to stay out of sight while the workers are here, I'll have Dena give them a little heads up just in case."

The very next day, Sheila gave Roger a brief demonstration of her skills with her massive sword.

She was out behind the house working out with her huge sword, her body glistening with sweat as she put herself through a dizzying series of sword strokes, thrusts and cuts.

Roger had drily commented, "I've got a few trees you could hack with that thing, if you'd like to give them a try."

Sheila paused in her exertions, grinned at him and said cheerfully, "You're on!"

With that said, Roger led her to some of the trees slated for removal.

He gestured grandly and said with a grin, "Here m'lady, a worthy foe for your blade!"

Sheila laughed and said ruefully, "What would my sisters say if they saw me reduced to this, cutting firewood! How the mighty have fallen."

She placed the back of her free hand against her brow and assumed a dramatic pose while she said it.

Roger cheerfully clapped and said amiably "Bravo! A great actress is among us!"

Sheila stuck her tongue out at him and motioned for him to step away.

Not one to argue with a lady carrying a very big sword.

Roger quickly complied.

Sheila sized up the tree before her and with one great sweeping motion and a 'T'chonk!' sound, her blade sheared off the tree at its base.

In a dazzling follow through, she quickly whittled the toppling tree into as she had said so dramatically, firewood.

Almost before Roger could even react, Sheila swiftly cut down and chopped up the remaining trees he had pointed out to her.

Roger guffawed and declared, "Remind me to never piss you off! That was incredible, small wonder you guys were so effective in battle, who could stand up to that?"

Sheila smiled at him and replied, "We had to be like this in order to survive, our opponents were as formidable as we were and many of us died before they had reached their first year as warriors."

She paused a few moments as if remembering past battles and comrades lost down through the centuries.

Dabbing at a tear, she said quietly," Sometimes, I envy those who will live only a few decades at most. I carry in my memories the faces of those who died so long ago, even I don't know how long ago it was. Thankfully, I can still visit with my sisters and we can share our long lives together."

She smiled and said pleasantly, "I will enjoy telling them about all of you and renewing my acquaintance with the Jotuns."

They spent much of the morning selectively cutting down more of the trees Roger had marked and having a rather pleasant conversation.

At one point Sheila grinned at Roger and said cheerfully, "Shall I tell Helen you said 'Hi!' ?" Roger smiled at her and replied, "Yeah, I'd like that. She's a terrific lady with a heart of pure gold even if she won't admit it."

Sheila chuckled and remarked,"She's always been the queen of crazy to us. I guess you saw a side of her we haven't seen."

Roger could only reply, "Well... We were lovers for a time, still would be if she hadn't called it off. She said she didn't want to watch me get old and die on her. Something all of you have seen no doubt."

Sheila smiled slightly and replied quietly, "Too many times."

When the last of the marked trees had fallen under the gleaming claymore in Sheila's hands, Roger commented, "That's the last of them, we'll leave the stumps for later so the workers will have something to do."

Sheila glanced at her huge sword and said almost apologetically, "And I have a blade to get the tree sap off of!"

Roger grinned, offered up his arm and said, "I have just the thing for that in my workshop. Come with me fair lady and I'll show you!"

Sheila cheerfully took his arm and the two of them made their way back to the house.

As they approached the house, Roger said to Sheila, "When the library is finished, would it be possible for you and your surviving sisters to come in and tell your stories? For so long you have existed only in the realm of mythology, and now that we know you are real, your stories need to be told, lest you finally do disappear into the mists of time."

She looked thoughtful and said quietly, "I can't reply for all of us, but I won't mind telling my story. I can relay your request to Captain Miria and she can pass it on to the others."

Roger grinned at her and said, "That would be fine."

He opened up his workshop and after a few minutes of rummaging around, he handed her a can of turpentine and a couple of rags, with the comment,"This is what I use when the pine tree drips on my van, it gets the sap off without messing with the finish."

Sheila thanked him and sought out a place to sit outside where she could clean her massive blade.

Two days later, a work crew arrived in tow with the landscape architect.

He smiled when he saw that the trees in question had already been cut down and removed, needing only to remove the stumps to complete that chore.

Roger had remarked to him that the firewood would be most welcome for the coming winter.

Anna swept out of the house, wearing her signature sun protective clothing and she worked closely with him and his crew.

Roger in the meantime, kept a close watch on Dena and Sasha to keep them out of trouble.

The workers had already freely gawked at Freya's size and cast overtly admiring glances at Sheila.

Roger did not want them seeing the tiny and very pretty, woodwife named Dena.

He already knew how they would react upon seeing Sasha, a pony sized wolf was not something usually seen and someone would likely freak.

His fears proved groundless as Sasha and Dena were already very experienced in staying out of sight.

In his growing familiarity with the pair, Roger had simply forgotten that a woodelf is extremely elusive and his being allowed to see them at all, was a great privilege rarely granted to non fae people.

By the end of the first week, the former polo field behind the mansion had been cleared and a series of green house foundations laid out for the trenching crew to follow.

The stables were going to be refurbished into cozy apartments for visiting researchers to stay in.

While the barn was to have its sides opened up and it would become a large potting shed for the numerous green houses being built.

Day after day, work and delivery trucks rumbled up the long driveway to the mansion to drop off a load or to disgorge workers.

Evening after evening, with the workers all gone home.

Roger, Dena and Sasha would go see what had been done that day.

They looked over the newly poured foundations for the hot houses and nodded their approval.

The hot houses were designed to be architecturally compatible with the mansion, the desired impression was to have them appear to have been there all along.

The house itself was coming along very nicely.

Each bedroom was being lined with book cases and furnished with a desk, a computron and a chair.

Two of the six bathrooms were also being converted into a printing shop equipped with a book making machine to make a softback duplicate of any of the books or the PDF's available in the online library at a nominal cost.

The grand ballroom and huge living room were being converted into display areas for the museum aspect of the facility and much of the basement was becoming a climate controlled vault for the rarer volumes.

Much of Induna's book and document collection was destined to go into the vault, her books being virtually the only known resource of lore for the Jotun people.

It was about this time when they acquired a salamander, or realized they had one living with them.

Roger had brought all the sword cut wood down from the mansion and carefully stacked it behind the house.

It was a cool evening and he felt like a small fire would be nice in the front parlour.

Roger selected a few nicely dried pieces and carefully laid them in the fireplace atop the kindling he had previously set down.

Realizing he lacked a match, Roger went to fetch some and when he returned, there was a cheery blaze already burning.

Squinting his eyes against the light of the flames, Roger could just make out a shape vaguely resembling a curled up, fat lizard lying amidst the flames.

"Hello! What have we here?" muttered Roger and he went to fetch Freya who seemed to know a lot about these sort of things.

When he returned with Freya in tow, he pointed at it and looked at her with raised eyebrows, "Well? Are you seeing it too?"

Freya merely glanced into the fireplace and said pleasantly, "Sae 'at's whaur it'd gang aff tae!"

At Roger's baffled look, Freya calmly remarked, "That's a salamander, mony Jotun hooses wull hae a salamander livin' in th' fireplace, me mammy gie me an egg fur one th' last time Ah went haem tae visit."

She smiled and said cheerfully, "Ah thooght it hud died oan me when Ah cooldnae find it. Seems 'twas merely hibernatin'"

Roger muttered, "I would appreciate it if you'd tell me when you bring something alive back from home, that way we'll both know about it."

Freya looked crestfallen and mumbled, "Sorry."

Roger smiled and said quietly, "It's fine, just let me know, Okay?"

Freya nodded in agreement and Roger hugged her to let her know he wasn't mad or anything. Hugging her was always an experience.

She was so much taller than him now that his head would snuggle between her swelling breasts.

The thought that she had at least another foot and a half to grow was a bit daunting.

"So...How do we feed this salamander?"

"Jist gie it dry firewood an' it'll dae th' rest. They'll sleep between fires, sae thaur's nae worries abit a fire startin' up while we're ootwith." Replied his towering companion.

Having gotten his questions answered, Roger could only shrug.

Their house had acquired yet another creature out of legend, a salamander.

Not an ordinary amphibian living under a rotting log salamander, but the kind that lived in fires, salamander.

How many more 'neighbors' did they have living nearby? Thought Roger Tate, field investigator for the Museum of Cryptozoology.

That evening he called Rachel Thompson, his boss.

"Well hello there!" She answered cheerfully, "How is everything coming along?"

Roger smiled to himself and replied, "Funny you should ask. At present, we are hosting Anastasia Karloff, whom you already know and her friend, one Sheila Ericcson. Towering beauty and former claymore warrior, who brought her sword with her by the way. We have a woodelf family now living up at the mansion and it turns out, we have trees that are aware and a green woman also living at the mansion. Today, I was introduced to our salamander that is now living in our front parlour's fireplace!"

Rachel laughed and replied gaily, "It sounds like you're having quite the gay old time up there in Oregon!"

"I knew you'd understand." Replied Roger in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

"So what exactly, is a claymore warrior doing at your place?"

"Aside from being scary strong, she is actually helping out Anna with the house. She is pretty good at managing money and demands an accounting for every penny spent. I did get a demonstration of a claymore's abilities with a sword."

"How?"

"Sheila was happy to cut down all the trees I had selected for removal after clearing it with the green woman.

"She just chopped them off at the base and as the tree toppled, she just cut it up into firewood like lightning.

"I can see why the werewolf body guards of Queen Henrietta Maria have such a respect for their fighting ability, a claymore in killing mode would be an incredible opponent to deal with." replied Roger.

"Sounds kinda scary, if you ask me."

"Yes, be thankful they're on our side!"

"Believe me, I am." replied Rachel.

"Oh, before I forget...Sheila has agreed to tell us her story and has agreed to ask her sisters if any of them would like to tell their stories." declared Roger.

"That would be fantastic!" gushed Rachel.

"I'll keep you posted...Talk to you soon!" Said Roger as he prepared to end the call.

"Looking forward to hearing more! Thanks for calling." said Rachel as she ended the call.

With the worst of the dust raising landscaping activity now finished, and with the warm weather still holding out.

A painting crew moved in and soon had the exterior of the house all scraped, sanded and prepped for the spraying crew to get to work.

While they were watching the tyvek suited and dust masked painters at work, busily clambering all over the scaffolding and wielding their sprayguns while giving the mansion a long over due, fresh coat of paint.

Anna quietly remarked to Roger, "It's amazing how fast they can do that kind of work these days. When this house was first painted, it took over a month to do what these guys are doing in just a few days. I think this crew spent more time just putting up the scaffolding than they're spending actually painting!"

She grinned at him, executed a pirouette and said gaily, "I may have to spend more time up here after everything is finished!"

Roger just smiled at her, to him Anastasia was a dear friend.

To the contractors and their workers, she was this eccentric woman with piercingly blue eyes who seemed to be everywhere and anywhere, all at once.

Fortunately for them, she now had a steady supply of fresh blood to whet her appetite, a connection with the Red Cross was a very handy thing for a 258 year old vampire.

Coming back down the path to the house, Roger and Anna were treated to the sight of Freya and Sheila playing a game of one on one basketball.

While Sheila at six foot six, was quite tall and very athletic.

She was not a proficient player while her opponent, Freya at seven foot six was very proficient and had all kinds of reach advantage over her shorter opponent.

Sheila however, was far stronger than the towering younger girl and could easily push her around in a clinch.

Both of them had worked up quite a sweat and had bruises to show how seriously they had played.

Their tee shirts were soaking wet and clung to their damp skin rather intimately.

Roger was quietly thankful the workers couldn't see what he and Anna were seeing, two beautiful ladies playing very hard.

They briefly paused in their game as Roger and Anna approached, Sheila grinned at them and said gaily, "Care to join us?"

Her silvery grey eyes twinkling in merriment.

Roger grinned at his towering house guest and said, "No thanks, I'm the weakest one here, I'd be getting clobbered from all sides, I know when I'm outclassed!"

Freya giggled and suddenly hugged him, smooshing his head between her swelling breasts and he reflexively hugged her back, tightening his arms around her slender waist.

They held each other briefly and then separated.

Roger smiled at his towering companion and said, "What would you guys like for dinner?"

Freya grinned at him and gleefully replied, "Ramen!"

Roger chuckled and remarked drily, "Ramen involves getting you two cleaned up and made safe for society, you have thirty minutes to get ready!"

Freya grinned and cried, "Dibs oan th' shower!" then she dashed towards the house, her incredibly long legs propelling her forward quite rapidly.

Sheila grinned and seemingly vanished as she too, put on a stunning burst of speed and easily got to the house first before gleefully disappearing through the doorway.

Roger smiled at Anna and said sarcastically, "How old is she again?"

Anna shrugged and remarked, "I have no idea, does it matter if she's having fun?"

"Not a bit." Replied Roger with a grin.

Anna smiled at him and said, "I'm going to go change myself into something more suitable for going out with a handsome man."

Roger chuckled and replied drily, "I guess I'd better get cleaned up too. Don't want to look like a schlub around you three."

A short time later, a van pulled up in the parking lot behind the Yamada Ramen House.

The doors opened and four lovely ladies exited the van.

They paused a moment while the fifth person, a lean sandy haired, sunburnt, blue eyed man locked up the van and joined hands with the tallest lady there, a towering young woman with red-gold hair and Norse goddess looks.

Standing well over seven feet tall in her bare feet, the young giantess was noticed everywhere she went.

What wasn't noticed was the slender flaxen haired woman with the bright blue eyes, the popular author Anna Karlsen, with her were two other ladies, the taller one, an athletic beauty with flaxen hair and silvery grey eyes and the shorter one, her protege Anita Larsen was a late addition.

They had stopped on impulse and picked her up on their way to the ramen shop.

It turned out that Lorna Yamada was working that night and she grinned as they came in, her shift would be more fun now.

Lorna smiled and said amiably, "Where would you guys like to sit? We have a side room we can open up for you guys if you'd like?"

Roger smiled at Freya's long time friend from school and replied, "The room sounds nice, cuts down on the stares."

Lorna smiled and said, "Sorry about that, we do get our tourists and Freya is quite the sight. Thankfully, they do ask politely before taking any pictures."

Lorna led them past the other patrons, some of them regulars who'd seen Freya before and simply smiled and the others who stopped in mid swallow to gape at her size, not having seen an over seven foot tall girl before.

Once seated in the side room, the menus were perused carefully. Roger pointed out the ones he and Freya liked the most and made a couple of suggestions.

Sheila looked around the place and said quietly, "I remember this place from when I lived here before, about sixty years ago. It's changed some over the years, decor and furnishings mostly but the food was good."

She grinned and remarked cheerfully, "Glad to see it is still here!"

Lorna cheerfully took their orders and brought them their drinks before tending to the other patrons.

When the food arrived, Freya and Anita placed their hands together with the chopsticks across their hands, they closed their eyes briefly and muttered "Itadakimasu!" Then they began eating.

Roger smiled at the looks on Sheila's and Anna's faces, "They picked that up from Lorna, I think it means "let's eat!" or something."

Freya and Anita merely ignored Roger's comment and kept slurping up their freshly made ramen.

Sheila and Anna followed suit and were soon happily slurping away.

Roger ate somewhat more sedately, preferring to enjoy the subtle flavors of his beef curry ramen and gyoza between sips of his hot, green tea.

Sheila as always, quickly filled up and asked for a container for the rest.

While the others continued eating, she sat sipping at her own hot tea.

After finishing up the ramen, mochi ice cream was ordered and while Lorna was getting it ready.

Anna remarked,"We've made some excellent progress on the library. When are we going to start getting some books in it?"

Roger looked thoughtful before replying then he said,"First, I have my own collection of books and documents to donate. Then we'll have to get some shipping containers hauled up to Canada to be packed with Induna's books.

"The easiest way to do that, I think would be to have them hauled with a big helicopter like a Sikorsky Sky crane, they can handle about ten tons of weight at a time."

Anna thought about his remarks and asked, "Would these shipping containers be flown down from Canada?"

"No, they could be flown to a nearby town and loaded onto trucks and driven down to Portland." replied Roger.

"Ten foot containers would be easiest to deal with, even filled with books they won't be too heavy for the sky crane to handle."

Freya idly remarked, "Whit abit 'at big airplane we hae, isnae 'at ready by noo?"

Roger smiled and replied, "As a matter of fact, I got an email just yesterday about that plane. It's nearly finished and we should be able to go get it in about a month."

"Airplane?"

"The one we retrieved from Brazil, what an adventure that was!" Commented Roger.

"We went down to Brazil to look it over and ended up putting it back together and flying it back just ahead of the drug lords who also wanted it. I had to send Freya home by way of the regular airlines, as we weren't sure it would make the flight. And I didn't want to go down in the Amazon jungles with her on board. It was pretty crazy that one!"

Sheila smiled and said quietly, "I can see now why you and Helen became such good friends, that's just the sort of thing she'd pull."

Roger chuckled and replied, "Yeah, that is something she would've done, especially the fighting part!"

Anna grinned and said, " Annnd that's another story you owe me Roger, I'll expect a full telling later on!"

Roger smiled at her and held up his sake cup in a salute.

"Before we got side tracked..." Remarked Anna, "When would be the best time to do this move?"

Setting down his sake cup Roger replied, "Summer break would be the best time. Freya has generally gone home for the summer. We can go up there then and empty out Induna's cottage, pack up the books and whatever else we find and haul it all back down here.

"The weather up there is nice during the summer and we won't be dealing with any snowfalls or winter storms."

He grinned evilly and said, "Besides, Freya will be turning thirteen while she's up there, we can plan a party."

Freya rolled her eyes and declared, " An' ye'd best nae be embarrassin' me wi' yer antics, Roger Tate!"

Roger merely grinned in reply.

Anna smiled and said cheerfully, "That sounds like a plan. You guys can go up to Canada and retrieve her books, while I stay down here and watch the place with Sheila, Sasha and Dena."