Page 37 of Rescued By the Alien Vhar'Khyng

Then again, Homo habilis hadn’t been theorized to have lived in this area until I made my discovery in the cave.

It was strange, but I was happy with the way my life had turned out. Did I miss the conveniences and safety of the modern world? Absolutely. The slightest cut could turn into a life-threatening infection, the thought of which still terrified me. Women dying in childbirth was also a strong possibility. Even a slight headache became a major nuisance without any available Tylenol or aspirin.

But if my ordeal had taught me one thing, it was that nothing in life was safe. In my old life, I could have been mugged, been in an accident, killed in a car or plane crash—or sucked up by a giant vacuum cleaner... I could have died of a variety of diseases, just like here, some of which had actually diminished.

For example, with fresh air, food, and water all around me, I wasn’t as worried about cancer any longer. I craved coffee, soda, and junk food, and I would have killed for a piece of chocolate, but the truth was that I felt better than I ever had in my desk-bound life. I felt strong and capable, ready to tackle this strange new world.

And most of all, there was Thor. My Thor, whom I would have never traded in for anything—not in a million years and not for a ticket back home. He was my everything. He made me feel safe and loved in a way I never had before.

“Here you go, beautiful.” he handed me a thick leaf filled with delicious crepes.

“Thank you.” I beamed up at him. “I love you.”

“I love you too, szaria, always.”

EPILOGUE 1

Two years later.

We had found some very fertile land close to the coast in what is now called Norway. By the time we arrived, our group had swelled to ninety-eight people after we had run into another small group of ex-prisoners with human females who had similar ideas to us. They also planned on getting as far away as possible from the original crash site. They gladly joined us, and since one of the women was even an emergency doctor, we counted ourselves especially lucky.

The land we called Jahrle in memory of the Vhar’Khyngs’ lost home world, was mostly cold, but having a hot-blooded Vhar’Khyng by my side kept me plenty warm. The upside was there were no hostile indigenous people and plenty of wildlife. It only took a couple of months to find this place and another threeto build the first famous longhouse—and yes, a sauna, which I dearly enjoyed.

Living there was as close to paradise as I could possibly imagine, and I couldn’t think of one reason why we would ever move away from there, which brought up the question of how in the world Thor’s skull ever ended up in the cave. But I gave up mulling it over, like all the other things we might never have an explanation for.

What was even stranger was that none of us women wanted to go back, ever. Each of us had found something here that had been missing in our old lives, and I was beginning to truly believe in fate. It was one of the reasons I supported Thor building a shrine for his gods, among them the Norns, the weavers of fate in the old Viking legends. Had they truly woven a yarn for Thor and me, spanning millions of years and even more light-years? Had they been responsible for Thor’s ship crashing? There was not one among us who believed otherwise.

“You look as if you are a million miles away,” Thor said, pulling me close as I stared out into the night.

The moon was bright, and the stars twinkled, some brighter, some less, and I thought I could even make out Venus. The ocean ahead of us was dark, and waves crashed against the shore, which was one of my favorite sounds in the whole wide world.

“Just thinking about the Norns and fate and all that,” I said, leaning back against Thor’s strong chest and listening to the steady beat of his heart.

“They do work in mysterious ways,” Thor agreed, and his warm breath tickled my ear. “Are you happy?” he asked, like he had done many times before. I knew he feared I would wish to be back in my time.

“More than I have ever been in my life,” I answered honestly the same way I always did.

“Good.”

“Are you?” I asked him.

“You know I am.” He sighed against my ear. “Finding you has been worth all the misery and pain in the world.”

“Hmm.” I closed my eyes for a few seconds, relishing in thenow. Which was something else I had never been able to do before. Now my life was filled with moments like this where I paused and simply enjoyed being alive and happy. “I love you, Thor.”

“I love you too, szaria.”

EPILOGUE 2

EPILOGUE 2

Many hundreds of yearslater

Ohlaf and Rahgnor, true descendants of Thor and Holly, were curious young men who needed more than their village offered. They had grown up on the legends of their great forefather, Thor, and his mate, Holly, who had come from a land far, far away.

They didn’t know if all the stories were true or not, but they did have a map Holly had drawn on leather that claimed to lead them straight to the cave where their ancestors were believed to have lived for a short while. The place that had played such an important role in their lives.

Hoping to find more adventures there than they had in their isolated village, the two youths appropriated one of Rahgnor’s father’s ships.

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