As always, the celebration ran long into the night. And, Tor had so many stories to relate. The villagers gathered around him and kept asking for more. Finally, Tor discovered that he was very tired and told them, "I will be staying here for some time. There will be plenty of time to tell my tales."

Lucius had gone to sleep but told Tor and Shea of an abandoned hut that they could use while they were there. Bidding the late revelers "Good Night," they walked by moon and firelight to the place where they had left their things earlier in the day. 

As they were walking, a woman approached them from behind and touched Tor on the shoulder as she came alongside him. "Do you remember me?"

Tor could not quite discern her in the shadows in what there was of a half-moon light that was steadier than the flickering fires. "You sound familiar, but I can't see you in this light. Is it you, Rena?"

She took his hand and placed it on one of her bare breasts. It was brash, especially since he was with his wife, but she had to talk to him. "Yes, you remember me now?"

"Maybe, but your breasts were smaller, as I recall."

By this time, Shea became uncharacteristically jealous and blurted, "What is going on, who is this girl. Why is she doing that?" From what she could see in the dark.

Tor put his arm around Rena and brought her around in front of him. He also put his arm around Shea at the same time until they were face-to-face with what little light there was.

"Shea, this is Rena. Do you recall me telling you about the two girls I saved and brought back here to their village? The other one, Gael was my first love, but she died from pestilence. That's why I left, and was looking for my mother, leaving Rena behind here. And that's why I eventually found you. Do you understand?"

"I'm beginning to, but that was a long time ago. What is it? Rena?”

"I've been hoping for Tor to return for very long time. But I couldn't wait, so I married Darius instead. We have two children, a boy and a girl, but he died last winter when he fell through thin ice. He was always taking risks, trying to be like Tor. Your husband is the greatest man I ever knew. He saved me from being raped and traded off to be further abused. I owe him everything."

"I'm beginning to understand. Please join us in our hut where we can talk." And there will be probably a lot more than talk, she thought, but didn't say.

Once they were in the hut, even in the cool of the night, it was quite warm. There was a little stone fireplace in the corner for heat and light, but instead, they lit an oil lamp from an ember that Tor gathered from a nearby campfire. In that dim, flickering light, they were able to see each other a little bit better as they sat crosslegged next to each other, the women on either side of Tor but still facing each other.

Tor noted that while Rena had filled out from being that cantankerous teen that he knew, her breasts were sagging a bit, her teeth were worn from chewing food for her babies and she had marks from having them in her abdomen. Her face showed the signs of great grief and stress and she told them why.

"When my husband died I had my two babies in midwinter with no one to turn to but my sisters. They have been helping me, but I need a man and there are no men here that will have me, except, maybe some old toothless ones that I am not ready for yet." They all chuckled a bit at that comment.

"I see your dilemma. How to care for your children. I'm sure that Tor and I can make sure that you have enough to eat in the coming winter. But I will be having a child myself that will need care."

"My sisters will be open to helping us. But as long as Lucius is alive, strict rules about single and married people continues. Some of us here don't like it, because we are having fewer children, but he will be dead soon and things will change."

"Do you love my husband?"

"I've always loved Tor although I didn't show it when I was first so angry at being treated like an animal and molested by those hideous old men. But he chose Gael instead of me. I'm sure he's told you about her, hasn't he?" She took Tor's hand and again and placed it on her breast."

"I see what you want. It's okay with me. Wherever we have gone, women want my man. You are not the first and will not be the last."

"Thank you."

Tor, taking the hint, begin rubbing Rena's breasts so sensitized by having breast-fed her babies with his right hand and Shea's bulging tummy with his left. Shea slid her hand down Tor's taut stomach and under his loincloth where he was stirring.

They kept their liaison secret from Lucius. And Rena's sisters kept the secret, too. On nights when she felt she could go to the hut where Tor and Shea were without being seen, she did. She also left the hut well before dawn and back with her children. But she told them that her fondest wish was to have Tor's son or daughter. Shea understood that, being barren until now.

Immediately, both Tor and Shea took an active role in bringing the skills they had learned to the village to make it more productive and prosperous. The summer passed quickly and soon, the leaves on the trees turned to color and begin falling while the nights became cooler. Sometimes requiring a fire in the fireplace.

As a result, the couple's efforts to bring in the village harvest was much greater than it would have been without them. Lucius was so happy to have them there and told them so almost every night around the campfire where Tor told his tales and everyone listened in rapt attention. Lucius confided one night.

"I'm so glad you have returned. I know you're not of our clan, but you have enhanced us so much by your knowledge that you gathered from so many places, I want you to lead the village after I'm gone. I have already told everyone who feels they might wish to lead to heed my wishes. They agreed with me, knowing you are much stronger than any of them. They will follow you. You have my word."

"It is a real honor. And I will do as much as I can. But there may come the day when Shea and I may wish to leave. Maybe, go downriver to see what that great Mediterranean Sea is all about that we hear tales of. But if we do, I will make sure that the strongest man in the village will be given charge over everyone like you have done."

"That's fair. But I sense you want to settle down and have children. Here you can do that."

A few days later, a cold front came through in the night with cold rain followed by snow. Very early for this season. In the morning, the third wife of Lucius came out of their hut and to the couple who were already around a cooking pot eating before going off and hunting with the first animal tracks of winter to follow.

"Lucius passed to the gods in his sleep last night. We must prepare the ceremonies."

Tor, having experienced that terrible winter before he left, did not know the ritual because Lucius did not die then, but so many others died that all they could do was try to get rid of the bodies before wild animals came into the camp and endangered more of them.

But with the help of the older men and women who knew, they held a great celebration and made an ark for Lucius, adorned with flowers and wreaths to float on down to the mythical Mediterranean Sea, as the gods proclaimed.

With that early warning about winter that went away quickly, Shea and Tor organized hunting parties that used the horses to go far from the village into new territory where they brought back much game to be butchered and preserved for the winter. 

By the time the snow started falling in earnest, everyone was firmly in their huts. The boats, with sails woven by the women and the men taught to hoist by Tor, became a way that they could ply the river much more easily and gather driftwood firewood along the shores. At least until the river froze over.

Before long, there was enough firewood to last the winter, but Tor realized that the surrounding area had become depleted of animal and plant resources. 

By querying some of the older residents, he found out that there was another village that they had abandoned far downriver. Around the campfire, he told the clan that they would be moving in the spring to that place where there would be more resources except grain. But they would take enough seeds to plant new fields.

Shea was showing a growing bulge and she had Tor feel the kicking strong boy inside to his delight. And Rena, no longer having to hide her relationship under rules that Tor relaxed to everyone in the clan's delight, hoped and tried, that she would have, also, a son by the man she loved.

The winter was not as harsh as Shea remembered from the north. Everyone was out and about most days except when cold fronts came through with cold, miserable rain or occasional snow. 

The winter solstice was rapidly approaching along with the birth of another child. Shea sensed that they would coincide, the gods willing, a good omen. She prepared an altar for the birth, prayed and prepared small sacrifices for the gods of fertility to grant her most fervent wish.

But as the time approached and everyone was out preparing a bonfire and decorating with evergreen boughs as well as preparing meat for the feast, the pestilence came again. This time infecting only a few of the youngsters who got over it quite quickly.

But when Shea woke up in the night with a fever, disturbing both Rena and Tor, Tor sensed that it was the same pestilence that Rena and he had years before and killed Gael in spite of his efforts.

The both of them tended to Shea day and night with hot soups and other medicines, covering her when she shivered, and wiping her dry when she sweated and cried out in the night in her feverish delusion. Often thinking she was back home in fevers she had as a child, calling out for her father and mother.

Finally on the eve of the solstice, breathing barely from congested lungs, she motioned to Tor to come by her side where she whispered weakly into his ear, "I can't go on, but save our child…"

Shea exhaled and didn't draw another breath. Tor did not know what to do. And Rena felt helpless, too. They both had seen this happen too many times. 

In spite of their efforts, Shea could be revived. But when Tor felt Shea’s extended belly he thought he felt a heartbeat although there hadn't been any kicking from the near birth through the time of her illness. He had to act fast.

Tor’s obsidian blade was never far from reach. He grabbed it, and in the dim, flickering fireplace light, began to cut carefully through her skin. Something he had done countless times to animals, but this seemed strange, cutting away at his wife, glad that she didn't scream from the pain and worried that he would cut the child.

What he saw when he opened up her belly with blood running from the cut was a sack with a baby that he could see in it. Quickly, Tor cut through the sack and fluid poured out. He knew that too, from many pregnant animals he had gutted, but it shocked Rena when she saw it and she gasped.

They both reached inside and pulled out a beautifully formed little girl. But unlike Shea's babies before, this one coughed, and then cried. They dried the little one off and Rena held her to her breast, but she was feverish like her mother and she needed more than the warm milk that Rena could provide.

Two days later, before she could be named, the little girl died. There was no solstice celebration, only mourning and a funeral pyre that was placed on the river that was now frozen except for the main channel that was still open so she could drift to the mythical Mediterranean.

Tor was so distraught he took to bed and didn't eat or sleep for days. Rena tried to comfort him, but she failed. Finally, he got up and started eating, knowing that the village needed him and he had to be strong for them to make it through the winter as the leader they trusted now that Lucius was gone.

When the thaw came signaling the end of winter, Tor told Rena first, "I cannot stay in this place. There are too many memories. It will always be the place where Gael and Shea died. it will make me half a man. I must go. But you can come with me, with your two children, if you wish."

Rena thought about what he said. And finally, later that day, told him. "I have decided that I will stay here. My children were born here and this is all I know. I cannot deal with all the danger that you deal with on the trails. I hope you pick a strong person to be the next leader. I will marry him if you wish."

Copyright 2021 © Ronald W. Hull

8/19/21