Her Viking Wolves(109)
The sky he sits under is an angry gray with little sun poking through. It is the same color as their new swords. The perfect heaven for the morn before a great battle.
“You dreamt of her again.” It is not a question, but a statement.
He sees his brother also sitting up on his pallet. His new steel sword lying without scabbard by his side. Over the months, they’ve trained from sun up until sun down with these swords bearing the name of Uthbert upon their surface. Olafr could no longer turn to his wolf and FJ desired to give him the best chance possible of surviving the coming battle.#p#分页标题#e#
But now it is not of his brother’s battle worthiness on which he thinks, but of the mate they left behind. Behind in the rooms where she gave them so much pleasure and where she pled for them not to say the separation spell. The other spell they’d been given by their aunt, perhaps, as FJ can plainly see now, not as a fail safe but in a moment of portent.
“We could not take her with us,” Olafr says inside his head, his voice dull. “The honored past Detroit fenrir did explain it true. It would be too dangerous for her here. Dangerous for her and for our babe. Her mother died in childbirth, and his mother, and our own grandmother the same. We would never forgive ourselves if she met the same fate in our land.”
“I know,” FJ snaps, unable to keep the irritation from his inner voice.
And Olafr looks at him, his glowing eyes filled with woe. “I know you have knowledge already of these things, Brother. These are but the words I tell myself. The words I must tell myself every night so I might sleep, and the words I tell myself every morn so I might wake and start the day anew.”
They watch the gray waves below as the boat carries them closer to the battle. Brothers truly bonded. Together here and in their misery.
When the sun is but a little higher in the sky, they see the shoreline of the village where all the North Wolves have gathered, called forth by their fenrir to battle the serpent enemy. The flags upon their tents whip and snap in the fierce wind. Their father has gathered over a hundred North Wolves as well as wolves from other tribes to join them in this great battle. It was not a difficult task. For in the few weeks since FJ and Olafr departed, a few important villages—including the Gotar gate village—have fallen to the serpent scourge.
As for those in their own village, some made it out alive but many did not. After much frantic searching, he and Olafr found the remaining villagers near starved and hidden deep in the mountain. They had been unable to hunt anything beyond small birds and rabbits for fear of the blood red serpent left behind to guard the village below.
Every day did the serpent take wing to search the mountain, often forcing the villagers to break camp quickly and relocate to another thick canopy of trees.
“I think they search for the time gate, but they do not sense it as we do and so it has remained hidden thus far,” Randulfrson, the son of their father’s beta said when they did arrive at yet another hastily constructed camp. “Four times have I watched from afar as the large serpent walked past it. You and your brother should count yourselves lucky you arrived at a time when he was not upon the mountain.”
Thus with great anger and purpose did FJ lead his remaining warriors, along with their wooden crates of Uthbert swords, down the mountain to confront the serpent guard.
Killing the red serpent had been one of the most satisfying moments of his life. And watching Randulfrson, along with the rest of their warriors, run their new swords through the serpent’s body was all the proof he needed that their efforts to bring custom-made swords back to his homeland was well worth it. He and the remainder of his much-reduced force gave triumphant cheer as the demon beast fell to the ground, shifting back into its human form.
Only a few days after taking back their village, they received word that their father was gathering a great army in the south. And so did they make the trip over land to the thawed waters and then sail by ship to meet with their father’s new force.
“Look there,” his brother says to him now in the wake of FJ’s terrible dream. “Father and Mother wait for us upon the shore!”
Seeing his parents for first time in many moons is the only true joy FJ has felt since his return. He peers at them through the grim haze of the gray dawn, one figure looming huge, the other dark and small. And though he cannot see his mother’s face, he can well imagine her expression. The same one she wore when their father returned from a long or perilous journey.#p#分页标题#e#
“Do you think she will know me in this form?” Olafr asks beside him. FJ skims his eyes over his brother’s form, nearly as tall as FJ and very human. Not the same wolf he had been when their mother last set eyes upon him.