Page 12 of Alien Viking's Plunder

The words felt more and more familiar to Josie. That was another side of her enhancement, one she had only tried once before. Soon she would understand the meaning of a sentence he spoke, then she would understand single words, and then she would be able to speak them herself. Finally she would be fluent. This was all placing immense demands on her brain, and she would need to compensate for it.

“Food,” she said, pointing to her mouth. “Sugar. Water. Now.”

Bragr straightened, looking down on her. “Ruverdo blik vitma?”

Josie shrugged. “It’s just common courtesy for an abductor to keep his victim fed. Come on, Horns.”

He gave her a lopsided smile as if he knew what she said. Then he opened the door and yelled something into the dark hallway.

I should have thought of this before,Josie thought. If she’d waited and thrown that first piece of wood now, she might have been able to run past him while he recovered. But her muscles were overworked.

Bragr closed the door and went over to the shield, hanging it back on the wall. He re-stacked the pieces of firewood and put the room back in order.

It gave Josie time to get a better look at him. He had to be nearly eight feet tall. He was wearing suede pants that ended right above the ankle and were tight around his massive thighs. His belt was wide and thick, which it probably had to be to hold up that giant sword. A small bronze buckle drew attention to his general crotch area. That was unnecessary — that twitching bulge drew her gaze to it all by itself and made her wonder what he had in mind.

His torso was bare, showing thick, hard muscles all over. The shoulders were covered in furs, like some kind of primitive armor. His golden tattoos were extremely intricate and looked like they were inlaid with purple optic fibers, giving them an inner light.

His neck was so thick it was hard to tell where it ended and the head began. His face was not human, but it was hard to say exactly why — it had to be the proportions. The eyes were bigger than on Earth men, and wider set. His beard was thick and long, darker than the hair and still shining like gold in the dim room.

His most alien feature was the horns that stuck out of his mass of curly hair, curved and pointy, with a silvery sheen to them.

He was far too unconventional to ever be a model on Earth, despite the muscles. And yet, Josie reflected, he was strikingly beautiful, in the way of a deadly predator, like a panther or a wolf. Or a fighter jet.

He did look a lot like a Viking, just like Aretha said. These ships were like Viking ships, too. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Maybe these aliens had visited Earth before and made such an impression that whole peoples had wanted to be like them.

There was a knock on the door and Bragr opened, then brought in a tray that he set on the floor out of reach for Josie.

“Stoleh rikehelt podah,”he said as he took a metal jug from the tray and poured a liquid into two glasses. “Vilike atvik nooser noh.”He held both out to her, making her choose.

“I don’t think you’d poison me,” Josie said as she picked one. “It doesn’t seem necessary. But I appreciate the gesture.”

She sniffed the liquid. It didn’t contain anything that weird, she was sure. But she waited until Bragr had drained his own glass before she took a sip. It was fruit juice, slightly fermented and with added spices. It reminded her of mulled wine.

“Pretty good,” she admitted as she held the empty glass out for a refill. “And there’s sugar in it, which I really need right now.”

Bragr gave her a little smile and filled her glass. “Ikesov ersva?”

She drained the glass and held it out again. “I’m just hoping it’s not going to get me drunk. It wouldn’t help you, though. You’re not my type. Like, at all. I was never into kidnappers.”

Having refilled her glass again, Bragr took a plate from the tray and held it out. “Pruvd eteh.”

Josie wasn’t sure if it was the situation or if her enhancement had already partly decoded his language, but she knew exactly what he said:Try this.

She didn’t have to ask what it was. The pieces of chocolate-covered marzipan were still wrapped in their pink foil, revealing them as expensive items from the commissary store onUnity.

“You’re offering me candy you just stole from my station, you fucking jerk,” she said as she grabbed a handful. Still, she unwrapped them and quickly ate them, one after the other. The sugar in them would go a long way towards restoring her energy after the fighting.

She balled up the wrappers and threw them at his chest.

He shrugged, picking them up from the floor. “Mohva resiker pohatdo nytdeh.”

Had to be sure something something,he was saying. From his demeanor she could fill in the blanks: he didn’t want to risk giving her his own food, because it might not be good for her.

“Fair enough,” she conceded, nearly regretting having thrown the trash at him. “But you’re still a jerk. What the hell do you think you’ll get out of this, anyway?”

He gave her a thoughtful look as he took a sip from his glass. “I understand something something.”

“You do? Understand this, then: take me back to the station right now and give back the stuff you stole.” She looked him right in the eye, not an easy feat with the intensity of his gaze.

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