Page 26 of Alien Viking's Passion

The Viking put the sword back in its scabbard and walked over to her. “As you know, I don’t remember much from previous days. But your kvad speaks of a prince who acted with dishonor. Perhaps it is someone we know?”

“I don’t know much about honor and those things,” Aretha told him, getting nervous. She really shouldn’t make him angry. “I just know what happened.”

“I don’t,” he fretted. “Though when I look at you, I feel closeness. But I don’t know who you are! I don’t know what I am to you or what you are to me. But I want to know!” He pushed both hands to the sides of his head, as if he wanted to tear his hair out. His frustration was obvious.

“We were nothing to each other,” Aretha said calmly, sympathizing with him. It had to be hard to not remember. She regretted bringing it up, but now she had to keep going. “Not even friends, really. I thought you were avoiding me. But yourescued Chen and me from the vettir, so I think you must have followed us. And then at the birthday party, you chased away a warrior who was being too forward with me. You were clearly keeping me safe. We went down to the water and we… were very close, intimate in the way of a real couple. It was nice, I thought. Then, when we were done, you seemed to panic. You ran away, and I haven’t seen you since.” She phrased it as gently as she could.

Craxon looked her up and down. “In the way of a real couple, you say? You mean… the man’s sword in the woman’s sheath?Helvitidamn those trolls! They took a precious memory from me!”

“But you don’t need to worry about it,” Aretha said, not wanting to cause him any more distress. “I’m sure you’ll remember it in time. Now we should finish our hut. It could start to rain again.” She added more leaves to the teepee, which was about half done.

They worked in tense silence until the hut was finished. It was a primitive shelter, looking less like an elegant teepee and more like a huge Christmas tree gone crazy. Leaves and branches stuck out of it all over, giving it a fuzzy, ominous appearance in the darkness.

Without a word, Craxon walked into the woods.

Aretha made a circle of stones and gathered firewood from nearby, staying within sight of the hut. The sun must have set, but it was still just about enough light to see by. She’d left her headset in the house she shared with the girls, wanting to save whatever charge it had left. She really could have used it now, both to make light and to try to contact Josie.

“But how to light a fire in a forest this damp,” she muttered to herself when the fire was built, with kindling in the center. “You’d need a freaking flamethrower.”

“The bard master makes kvad in her alien tongue,” a deep voice said. “The sound is beautiful, but the words mysterious.”

Craxon walked out of the darkness, carrying a giant heap of dried grass in his arms. He dumped it all on the dirt floor of the hut.

“It’s damp, I fear,” he rumbled. “But we will be comfortable for one night. Ah, you built a fire! Wonderful.”

“Could you please—” Aretha began, but Craxon marched off again, into the darkness.

Yeah, there was a good chance she’d made him mad. Damn, it couldn’t be easy to hit your head and then be accused of some misdeed that you couldn’t even remember. She should probably have waited to bring it up. But it had been the elephant in the room and she’d had to get it out.

She got two sticks and sat down on a tree stump. She started spinning one stick between her palms, back and forth on the other, like she’d seen on survival videos. It wasn’t working.

“Probably need just the right type of wood,” she fretted. “And it should probably be dry— shit!”

She recoiled as something touched her ankle.

It was a porcupine-like creature of the same type she’d seen before.

“Okay,” she said and relaxed, but kept her legs curled close. “You guys are pretty sociable, looks like. I don’t have any food for you,though.”

The creature sniffed around on the ground, then looked up at her with three deep, round eyes. She had an urge to reach down and pet it, but while the spikes were folded back, they were so long and pointy that touching the thing could be risky. They might be poisonous, too.

“Making friends with theiglsnutr?” Craxon asked, coming quietly back from the woods. “They usually stay away from us. The old people say that when you see one, you can expect good fortune.”

“I think this one is making friends withme,” Aretha said. “What are they?”

Craxon had several big, rolled-up leaves that he carefully put on the ground. “They seem much as they appear. Small, prickly creatures. Leave them be, and they will do the same. But tread where they roam, and you might feel the sting of their spikes. Now, lady, I have gathered what little food I can find in the dark. There’s no good hunting here tonight.” He handed her one of the leaf packs.

It was surprisingly heavy, filled with berries and nuts in many colors. It had to be a pound of it, Aretha guessed.

“Thank you. I see you didn’t pick the especially delicious fruits you tried before.”

Craxon scratched his chin. “In truth, they weren’t quite as delicious as I made them appear with my exquisite acting. But I have sampled all these, and none killed me on the spot. It is to be hoped that likewise, they will not become your bane, either.”

Aretha recognized a lot of the berries from meals the Vikings had prepared for her and the girls, so she ate them without hesitation. “Delicious. Thank you. Next time we go on a journey, we should bring food of our own. And maybe some myod.”

Craxon sat down beside her, his pants creaking around his massive thighs. “It is said that where there’s life, there’s myod. But it is also said that when the myod goes in, the wisdom goes out.”

“What is said about berries?” Aretha asked, chewing happily and enjoying the sweetness.

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