"I see today is a cold one, This is our first time here." I said to this tall blonde woman at the ticket counter. She didn't pay us any attention as she typed away on her old computer. My brother and I are on our way to see an old settlement. The settlement was an old Viking trading port from the era of knights and iron. We are on vacation from our normal lives as Lumbermen and construction workers. I am the lumberman and my brother is a builder by trade. We saved up enough money to travel around the world for a couple of months. So we chose to see old Viking settlements from Iceland to the Norwegian coast."
"When I was in school (COLLEGE) I chose to take a few classes about vikings and their languages you know A history class." I told to this woman at the counter but she just rolled her eyes. I guess, She didn't want to hear my life story. She handed me my passport back then she yelled and broken English, "next."
We've moved on and then we caught a ride to the coast. When we reached the site we saw not many people were. There was only one woman here, She was looking at 1 of the last standing Viking huts. She was a bit taller than the women that I've seen here before and she was dressed in a white almost see through Dress.
Her hair was almost blood red and her skin was pure white. She looked at us and then she smiled. " Oh, You both look so young but I can see that you're strong." She said to us as she looked back at the building. We looked at the old building 2 and we got closer to it.
We checked out the area then we stepped in. The woman who was behind us now began to smirk at us. As we went further Into the building it began to shake and rumble. Bradley and I then fell for what felt like forever. When we hit what felt like the ground we woke up to a strange smell and a horde of people looking at us.
I looked up to the sky and saw a white portal or a light slowly Vanish. I sat up and I checked my head, Then I saw Bradley was just sitting up too. As we sat there For a moment I heard shuffling around us and saw a woman coming right for us. As she got to us she asked us in an old nordic tongue I haven't heard in a long time.
" Who are you and why did the gods send you here?" I took a look around and saw what look like a Viking village in its prime. " I don't know anything about God but we were just looking at an old norse building and bam we were here. My name is Jacob Wellings miss." I said as she picked me up by my collar. "If you weren't sent by the gods you must be a demon then." She said drawing her sword on me.
Bradley jumped to her feet and pleaded with the woman. " He's telling you the truth Miss, we are just as confused as you are. Please let my idiot brother go!" He said looking into her eyes and she took a moment to study Bradley. She let me go after she saw Bradley was being honest with pleading. "where do you both hail from, you don't seem like the English?" She asked us I told her of our families, "My Father's family is from Poland and our mother's famly is from Norway."
I watched her study me next and she turned to a second woman who looked like a younger version of her come through the crowd. The second woman looked me up and down as she gave us a weird look. I was wearing strange clothing to their own, she then asked the first woman. "Mother who are these two men?" The first woman looked at me and said, "Ursa my daughter, these two say they might be from the distant future." This made me pay attention for a moment, I never told her I was from the future or anything like that.
I looked up to the Portal was gone fully and I sighed a bit. As the Women talked for a moment we were then asked. "How old are you two and what do you both do for work also do you have any worthy skills to speak of?" I smiled as I looked down then up at them when we stood up fully. "I'm 25 and Bradley here is 21 years old. I am a heavy laborer and I can fight pretty well with my hands. My brother is a wood worker and hunter by trade."
I said to them and they looked happy to hear we were useful. "You both are coming with us as Raven's Beak slaves as of now." The older woman said to us and I then was told to follow her to a boat near the water. We are no ones slaves!" My brother yelled just as we came to the large boat. I stopped him from yelling more as I realised this woman was a Viking cheiftain. "You both are going to be my servants for the year. You'll be free technically, you also don't have any other option at teh moment"
She told us and I let my brother go, and thought about why she was taking us in the first place. Bradley was going to yell once more but I sat him down on a bench. "Stop brother, you should realise she's trying to help us from being real slaves. She is also right, we can't return to our time and we may never get to." He looked confused then I told him that I saw we fell through a portal of some kind and it's closed now. "So we can't return home, we are trapped here?"
He asked me and I shook my head "yes" then we talk to eachother in english for a bit. The Daughter of the woman asked us after listening to us. "Why do you both speak English?" I looked over to her and I told her, "Where we come from the dominant tongue is English, I though can speak Norse and old Nordic somewhat." She was a bit conserned that I could speak both, "I could have us speak your language from now on if you want us too?"
I asked her and she thought that would be smart so I wouldn't get myself in trouble. Then she said to me, "My name is Ursa and my Mother is called Helga, She's the current cheiftain of my village." She then told me that and I held out my hand to shake. "Like before My name is Jacob and my younger brother over there is Bradley. It's a pleasure to meet you and your mother, also thank you for heling us."
I said to her and she returned my hand, she for a reason tested my grip for a moment. When she shook my hand she squeezed as hard as she could. To a normal person her grip would of broke a man's hand. I just smiled at her my to her felt like a solid iron bar in her hands. After that small conversation I sat with Helga as she yelled out orders. As I sat I saw she had a all female crew on this boat.
This crew all sat for a while rowing till we came to the open ocean. They let the sail down and everyone got a chance to rest for a moment. Helga sat back down with me and told me how long the journey was going to be. "We will on the water for a few weeks, so find a job and keep everyone safe as you can. We will be stopping at a port here and there to resupply for fresh water." She then handed me new clothes.
"Change into these so you will be warmer and not stick out so much at ports." I looked at the clothing and saw they were going to be tight on me. So I made some changes and put the clothes on, She had given me a new pair of boots but mine were better. For the gear I had on me were a kerosene lighter and a pocket knife that I made years ago. I was putting my boots on and I noticed my face in the water. My dark brown hair, tanish skin and crystal blue eyes seem to make the water still.
"Yeah not standing out is going to be a hard one, not many people in this time look like me." I said to myself, Helga came to see I was dressed and brought me to check out the rest of the ship. There is about 8 women on this boat and no men besides my brother and I. They all were working hard as we flowed over the water heading east, I watched them for a moment to see how things worked.
Then my brother asked the question on both our minds to Helga. "Why is there a lack men on this boat what happened?" Everyone turned to him and glared at him for a moment. "They were all killed in battle many years ago. Our people were fighting over lands and every able body went to help." Helga said looking sad about her lose, I slapped Bradley over the head.
"Oh I am so sorry for your lose, that must of been a difficult time for everyone here. We lost our cousin in a simular way about 5 years ago as well." Bradley said apologizing for his question. All the women around us stopped glaring but now stared at us. Then out of no where the wind picked up and a rope got loose. The smaller of the women ran to grab the rope but was pulled off the ground with it.
In a quick second decision I ran over and I brought her down to the boat before she completely left the deck. I then took the rope and I retied it to the tie off point. When I turned around from saving the woman I saw everyone's jaw was open, even Bradley's. I was a thicker man than most so moving across the boat at that speed shocked eveyone. "you're now on sail duty till the trip is done."
Helga said to me, everyone got back to work after that scare. The Small woman I saved who was next to me stared at me for a while. Then she tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Thank you for saving me, I thought my life was over for a moment." She then went under deck to take a break and our journey took off from that moment. For days we sailed without seeing land, which was ample time for me to be friend everyone.
There was ingrid the fisherwoman, Aldi the small woman I saved, and Fray who steered the boat most of the time. The other's stayed away from me for the most part. Helga and Ursa would ask me questions about my old life and would ask why was I deceptively strong. "What Kind of life did you have where you can remain a man like this, what kind of things did you do in the future?"
I didn't have a clear anwser for her so I told her a story. "When I was a young hyper kid, we had this cousin we spent every waking moment with. We'd get lost in the forest behind our home, there we learned to become strong. On winter days we all would curl up by the fire and drink a chocolate drink. We'd tell stories about talk about the days coming for us. Life was good for the most part but when we got older we all kind of split up. Cousin went into the military, he went to the east because of a war."
I froze for a moment as a tear rolled down my face. "We haven't seen our other family much after he was gone. We though found good work and we earned alot of coin along the way." Bradley said adding the part of when I was in school and when we decided to check out the old Viking port. Helga stood up while we all sat around a glowing lantern talking about the old days.
She walked over to a chest and brought out a couple weapons. She then came back and handed them to us. An Axe for me and a short sword for my brother, as she said. "I'll need your help when we reach this first port, taking these weapons and putting them on your side might help stop other Norsemen from messing with you." She then jestered for us to follow her up out of the boat and on to the deck.
We saw we were coming up that said port, The crew but two came with carrying all we could to the a man behind a trading post. The man saw who had come to visit him at his shop and loudly greeted her. "Oh the Mighty Helga of the Ravens Beak to what do I oh this grand meeting?" He said to her as he looked right behind her to see me and my brother holding to large wooden crates.
"Did you find yourself a couple of strong slaves on your journey?" He asked her and she slammed her hand on the table hard, almost cracking it. The man back down from his question and Helga ordered the supplies from him. "Oh and those two men are our new workers for the village." She added as I grabbed the water jogs and Brother grabbed the food. The man gave her a weird look then he looked at me.
"We got picked up in Iceland, we've been looking for work back east. So Helga offered us a place and we took it without a second thought." Bradley said to the man, the man smiled for a moment then he waved off his suspicions about us. Ok, ok no more questioning from me, Helga that water and food will be the same price as last time." The man said to helga as I heard a man from behind pestering Aldi.
She was getting teased by a drunk about her small stature. The man was about foot taller than she was and about an inch smaller than me. "Oh you look so cute, you also would cute as my slave wife." He said to Aldi grabbing at her like she was some piece of meat. Before anyone of our crew moved to help her, I was already behind the man in two steps. I grabbed the man by the back of his shirt lifting him up and I threw him over me into the steet.
The man hit the ground hard and rolled a bit before getting up. He was confused on who grabbed him till he saw me standing infront of Aldi. "Just try it again and I'll take your hand scum." I said to him in a calm but threating tone. The guy grabbed for his axe but saw it was at my feet, the man thought about attacking me but then backed down. You could see Helga smiling for a moment as she grabbed the last of the supplies.
We all headed back to the boat, "You didn't have to do that you know, she can handle herself." Helga said when we reached the boat. I brought what I had to the bottom of the ship when I heard Helga call for me. Ursa was behind me when I reached the deck as we saw the guy I threw was raging at the boats side for me to come out. "Look little man is made he got thrown like a sack of flour."
I said out loud and everyone laughed at my joke. "This man wants to challenge you to a dual, will you accept Jacob?" Helga asked me and I sighed then I asked her, "Do I have your permission to accept it?" She smiled and shook her heaed, "Yes, it's a formal challenge I have no say in this one." She said back to me, I then cracked my knuckles when he charged at me with his sword.
I dodged his attack and I dropped my elbow right on his hands breaking his grip from the sword. I Then when he went to punch me in the head I caught him in the chest with a hard kick. You could here his ribs crack from ten yards away. The man looked at me with rage as he threw sand at me. I closed my eyes right before I got hit with the sand, I then punched straight right before he got close. When I felt a face I opened my eyes and saw him layed out on the ground.
The guy didn't even move for a good minute, all of the on lookers stared at me with amazement. The fight was then called and everyone wondered if I was going to kill the man. "I will only kill if my life is in danger. Plus this man won't learn a lesson from being killed, men can only grew through mistakes. I looked at Helga and she looked disappointed but she told me to get on the boat.
I watched as Aldi took the man's clothes and she gave them to me. "Here you can have better fitting clothes for the journey home." She said to me, watching me make a weird face. I took the clothes and put some of them on. The shirt and coat was much needed but everything I ripped up and turned them into rags. I sat on my spot as everyone began to row out to the ocean. An hour later we were coasting among the wales cruising at a steady flow.
From day in and day out for weeks I did nothing but made sure the sails were ok or read the stars at night. The whole crew now accpeted me after the second week of sailing and guarding them at the other ports. Some even slept near me at night while I just watched the sky. Aldi, when we were doing our duties would talk my ear off. Helga never really checked on me but she did give me water when I started to slow down.
Then around the third week we reached the coast of the Raven's Beak Village cove. The cove was warm and beautiful with the trees hiding the village in a perfect spot. Behind the Village was a huge mountain with snow at the top of it. We started to slow the boat down and I brought up the sail. For the rest of the way to the dock we rowed till we almost hit it. I went to the cargo bay of the boat where Bradley and I brought everything out before the crowd came.
When I stepped off the boat I was greeted by half the village. They were hoping and laughing that Helga and the girls were home after being gone for so long. Then though, they saw me and Bradley stepping off of the boat. We had grown a couple of beards and I got more thinner from the weeks one the water. To them we looked scary to some of them, especially for the kids that came up to see us.
From what I could see was glares for a moment then I felt Aldi's hand on my back. "Give them time, it's been a while since they saw a man or men." She said smiling at me, Her bright face, green eyes and orange hair looked brighter when she said that to me. I smiled back, "Yes, I won't hold anything against them Aldi." I said back to her, when I looked up I saw there were about 200 people looking at me.
The only males among the village were young kids or an old man who glared at me. I grabbed what ever I could and gave the cargo to Helga's helpers, which there were 12 of them in total. When they saw that I was a man they glared at me for a bit till Aldi got my attention. She had me and Bradley follow her to an old metal working hut near the Chieftains hut. I could see it was cleaned out a while ago and the only thing left were books and scrolls.
When we came into the living part of the shop where we would be sleeping Helga told us. "This was our metal workers old shop, he was many that went to fight in that war I told you about. Take good care of this place for me." Bradley and I looked at eachother and we smiled at one another. For the next few hours we found spare wood and nails that were still good. We built our own beds, some chairs and tables.
Then when the night began to fall I saw everyone was heading to the Chieftian building for food and drinks. I wrapped up my bed and then I headed to eat with everyone. Bradley was already there and he looked nervous. When I walked into the front door with him everyone turned to see who was coming in. Most of the newer faces glared at us but the boat crew who we sailed with for almost a month raised their cups to us.
Aldi was with them and so was Helga and Ursa, she was half in the bag with wine when I sat across from her. I was given a cup of beer and a plate of food, real food for the first time in weeks. I slammed the beer with in a second then I asked for another cup. Helga smiled at me then at Ursa, "This future man can really threw down ale like a warrior." She said pouring me another cup of beer. This time I drank is softer and I began to smile for real.
Everything was good, no one was glaring at me anymore. Well till when Helga's youngest daughter came into the building. She slammed open the doors and put her sights right on me an my brother. "Mother why have you brought men to our home after all these years at sea?" She asked Helga, Helga took a slow sip of wine then she said to her loud daughter.
"I picked these two up in Iceland on my way back home, they are our new workers for now." Helga said in a calm tone, The loud daugher laughed. "So you bought a couple of slave men for us?" She asked Helga, I got up from the table and I gave her my two cents. "We are not slaves, we are hunters, builders working for food and shelter, know the difference!" I was louder than I was trying to be with the young girl.
The girl began to yell at me about scamming her mother for food. After a minute of hearing her bitch Helga finally stood up. She slapped her daughter hard in the face and scolded her like she was a child. "Astrid, you need to show you're elders and these two some respect. Jacob and Bradley here have done so much for us since join our journey home. Jacob even saved little Aldi from certain death during a sail accident. They've more then proven to be a great addition of my crew."
Helga stopped as she got teary eyed for a moment, "He's a good person, he's fought for us and carried the heavy stuff, just give him a chance." Astrid looked at me as she took a second look at me. She smiled then she sat down next to her sister, Ursa. As we sat there for the night, One of the girls said something about me being from the future. Astrid overheard that and she went go grab something after she gave me a weird look.
She came back about a minute later with an old book that looked centuries old. It was a journal of a scholar who was with the King of the Vikings during an event. She then turned to a page and read from it for me to hear. "A man of a foreign face fell in front of our crew from the sky. He was wearing weird clothing and looked well groomed, The man spoke English and had a fireless tourch with him. All we could make out is that he was from some distant land. Our leader was cautions of him so he was kill on the spot."
Astrid looked at me and asked after she finished the last line on the page. "Tell me, are you from where that man in the story was from from, or can you tell me when you're from?" She aked me and I told her about everything. I also brought out my lighter from in my pocket before saying to her. "This is my Grandfathers lighter, When he was in a large war, this saved his life more than once. I'm hoping you'll not see me as a threat like in that page."
I looked at my old lighter as Astrid got up from the table. "Do you know what happens to us in the future?" She asked me and I couldn't answer since I've never heard of her tribe till know. She sighed for a mement before she yawned. "Thats disheartening but that to be expected since we are a small Village." Bradley was getting tired as well when he motioned for the door, I said my goodnites to everyone and we headed off to bed.
That night in my new real bed, I fell asleep super quick to the sounds of the cool air hitting the building. When the sun rose over the mountain I was already up full charged from the good night sleep. Ready for the new day I started to make breakfest for me and Bradley. He had gone out hours before I woke up and went hunting. I washed my face in the cold water tub in the smithing area as I started the old fire pit up for the first time in years.
I then went inside the hut to see if there was any pans left over from the old guy. I searched for a bit and found a couple cleanish pans hanging in the back. As I was getting the fire nice and hot I saw Helga was up and she had eggs and bread in a basket for me. When she was leaving after she dropped that stuff off Bradley came through the door with a huge boar. Helga was suprised he was even up let alone already done hunting for the day.
Bradley put the boar out on the table by the fire bit and then began to cut up the beast by hand. After about an hour getting the right cuts and drying out the pelt I finished breakfest. As we ate our meal for the morning Ursa came by to see if we'd fix a couple things around the Village. when we got to a home of one of the boat crew Ursa told me that a animal got into the house while she was gone. I took a look in the home and saw I could fix most of the things there.
We left the woman to her home to prep the things we needed to fix her home. We cut down a large tree and I used my old world skills and made everything she needed replaced or made new stuff. I put up new doors and gave her new furniture . After that job was done after three hours I sat at home for the afternoon. I was trying to think of a way to bring perpose back to my life.
I sat in my chair for hours looking at the chairs I made with Bradley and the old fire pit still burning in front of me. "Maybe I can pick up where this old smith left off at and become a smither too. Then I can spend all day working on crafting instead of waiting for something to happen." I said to myself, I then got up and I went to the dry storage area and I found the old scrolls and books from the old smither.
He had writen and drawn all the details of his iron work all down on paper. You could say my luck had not run out yet in this old world. I began to read every page and detail about working with iron. For what was going on with Helga and Astrid can only be told through their eyes. As I could hear them talking or arguing about me from my home.
(Helga's Pov)
"Mother, what are you going to do with the Brothers?" Astrid asked me looking angry with my choice on taking the boys with me back home. "Oh, let them be for now, they are not hurting anyone. Plus they came here on their own free will with my kind offer." I said to her and she scuffed at my response to her with, "But mother, what are you going to do when the King comes for his visit in the coming month or when our allies visit?"
She asked me making a good point, what am I going to tell the King or our Allies about them. "Will you lie about them or will you tell them the far fetched truth?" Astrid said making her point even more clearer. Right as I was going to answer her Jacob came through the door with a solution.
(Jacob's Pov)
"You could say, we are your replacement builders and iron workers for the village." I said to the girls who were now looking at me, Helga thought my idea was cleaver but Astrid thought it would fail. She then looked at the clothes I was wearing. Except from the coat I was wearing women clothing from the journey. "Can we alteast gett them some new clothes for them instead of those old rags?"
Astrid asked Helga when Ursa came into the room, she had the pelt from Bradley when she heard the question. "I can make them new clothes from the boar and other pelts we have." Ursa said trying to get her sister to stop complaining about stuff. She then was asked if we really had the material to be making new stuff?" I asked her and she laughed, "Bradley caught more than just a boar, after you ate he went out to get more animals."
She told me and everyone smiled, "Kid can really hunt." Helga said breaking the focus back to the now. Astrid sighed once more and let everyone know what might happen. "You might trust Jacob and his brother right now, but will the King care if he see them as threats?" I was concerned by her question to her Helga but Helga wasn't concerned. "He'll see how much of an Raven's Beak these two are, when the time comes it will come."
Helga said and stopped for a second to add. "The King trusts my judgement and my word, plus Jacob won't fight him or his people without my say." I looked at Astrid and I held up my fist to her, "I will not fight or harm anyone with out permission. Though I will defend my new home from anyone who might hurt it." I loud with that promiss to were everyone could hear me from outside.
Astrid gave up trying to fight but said to us. "I hope this doesn't back fire on us mother, losing father and brother was hard enough. Losing this alliance would kill us." She then stormed off and I stood there wondering what she meant by that. I returned home and began to practice while the days went by.