Cave Geeks II, Chapter 12
Title: Clan of the Cave Geeks Book II: The Warrior of Honor
Author: Taylor Dancinghands -taylor@willendorphians.com
Characters/Pairings: Zelenka/McKay, Beckett/Lorne, Teyla/Ronon, and eventually Sheppard/Weir
Category: slash, h/c, AU
Warnings: Sloppy Paleolithic history, anachronistic technological leaps and funnied up names.
Rating: NC-17, explicit M/M and eventually M/F sex depictions
Summary: So what does a bonafide genius do in an era of stone knives and bear skins?
Spoilers/Season: none
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, never will, not claiming to. Just wanna play with 'em a little. Can't I, can't I, huh?
Beta:Many thanks to my most worthy betareader
smingus for her encouragement and feedback. We loves our betareaders we does.
Chapter 12
The crack of thunder, close and nearly deafening, woke Rodne abruptly. He was sitting upright in the bed even as he was waking, blinking the sleep out of his wide, startled eyes, when the second sound cut through his awareness. It was a scream, high and piercing and terrified, and it was R'dek's voice.
"R'dek!" he cried in alarm, dashing from the bed out the door to receive yet another shock, as he was instantly drenched in an icy cold deluge of rain. The skies had opened, it seemed, and rain was pouring down in torrents over the village, the occasional flash of lighting painting the falling water silver as it fell. The lightning also revealed the wingseed tree, standing unharmed and this set Rodne's heart at ease from his first fear, that R'dek, or the tree beneath which he slept had been struck by lightning.
Standing under the deluge in only his loincloth, Rodne was already beginning to feel chilled, and hesitated, wondering if he should grab more clothing or something to keep the rain off before going to find R'dek, though he also felt some sense of urgency about getting to R'dek right now.
"Go on ahead!" Caresn's voice, as welcome as it had ever been, called out to Rodne. "I'll bring furs and something to keep the rain off and I'll be there in a heartbeat."
Rodne needed no more encouragement, dashing out into the pouring rain, slipping on mud and wet grass as he went, and not caring at all. He skidded to his knees at the place where the occasional flashes of lightning revealed his lover to be, huddled at the foot of the tree, shaking and drenched with rain.
"R'dek, oh gods, R'dek..." Rodne cried, gathering the man into his arms. "I'm here, I'm here; you're okay, I've got you..."
The nagging worry that R'dek would still be angry and refuse him vanished the instant Rodne felt R'dek wrap his arms around Rodne and cling to him with desperate strength. His whole body was wracked with sobs and shook with cold and shock and Rodne pulled him as close as he could, rocking him in his arms and speaking broken, soothing words even as R'dek continued to babble in a terrified stream of his native language in between his sobs.
Caresn's arrival was heralded by a sudden and unexpected cessation of the rain, as the healer draped them with a large piece of stiffened hide which served to shelter all three of them when Caresn crawled under to join them. Rodne felt the warm, coarse hair of a musk-ox hide fall over his shoulders and R'dek's a moment later and then Caresn's arms came around both of them, adding his own warmth and comfort.
Rodne had some idea of what evil dream might have visited R'dek on this night, and when his lover began to speak a few words in a language he understood, Rodne felt even surer of it.
"The blood..." R'dek sobbed. "Gods, so much blood... so much... never be free of it... never..."
Rodne's heart ached, but even this was so much better than how he'd felt when he'd thought R'dek was leaving him. "It's just a dream, R'dek, just a dream," he comforted, "and I've got you. I've got you. It's gonna be okay..."
"My father..." R'dek began and then choked on the words, but Rodne was sure now that he knew the nature of the dream.
"Shhh, shhh, I know," he said, running his hand over R'dek's soaking wet hair, pulling him in to weep on Rodne's shoulder. "It's okay now, it's okay..."
"You're safe now, love," Caresn added gently, "but you'd be a bit safer, also warmer and dryer, if you could come in from the rain. D'ye think you could do that?"
Rodne felt R'dek sniffle and nod against his shoulder and a moment later he loosened his grip on Rodne a little. It was a bit of a struggle, but the three of them finally got up onto their feet and slowly moving in the direction of Caresn's hut, Caresn continuing to shelter from the pouring rain them under the large and unwieldy chunk of hide.
"You lads alright?" a voice called over the rain from a nearby hut. "Need any help?"
"Aye, we're fine, Kimma," Caresn called back. "Thank you just the same."
Rodne steered R'dek over to their bed once they made it to Caresn's hut and he collapsed there, still shivering and sobbing a little. Rodne found something to dry him with from the bed while Caresn built up the fire and then, came over to dry him -as Rodne had entirely forgotten himself and was dripping a bit- then settled an enormous fleece over both of them.
They sat in silence as the fire slowly warmed the hut and R'dek's sobs slowed, Rodne's hand moving in soothing circles over his back. After some time had passed, R'dek raised his head to meet Rodne's gaze in the dim light. "Rodne?" he murmured.
"Right here lover," Rodne said softly, placing a gentle kiss on R'dek's forehead.
"I am... I am so sorry... what I said yesterday..." R'dek's face was still wet with tears and more fell as he spoke.
"S'okay," Rodne said, brushing the tears from R'dek's face. "It was... you scared me pretty bad," he confessed finally, "but it's okay now. We're... we're okay now, right?"
For an answer R'dek hugged Rodne close, burying his face against Rodne's neck as he nodded and wept anew.
"Then it doesn't matter," Rodne said, his voice a little rough. "It doesn't matter. We're okay, we're okay... Shhh, we're all okay now."
Rodne was aware of Caresn moving a little closer now, one hand coming to rest on R'dek's back and one on Rodne's. "I know it may seem hard," he said, "but it will help if you can speak of your dream, lad."
"I know," R'dek said, lifting his head to reveal his tear streaked face again. "Can... can I get some water please?"
"Aye, of course," Caresn said, rising to comply as Rodne and R'dek resettled themselves comfortably, leaning against the wall of the hut and wrapped in Caresn's fleece.
"Rodne knows of this dream," R'dek began when he had drunk a measure of water from the flask Caresn handed him, and Rodne shook his head, murmuring with dismay. "It is from when I was a boy, when raiders came to my village and killed my family... and usually the dream is only of what truly happened."
"Which is horrible enough," Rodne interjected, pulling R'dek closer, to lay in his arms.
"It... it was," R'dek said hesitantly, "and usually the dream ends with how I saw... I saw my father murdered, and how his blood fell on me... where I was hiding."
"Gods above," Caresn said, aghast.
"But the dream did not finish there, this time," R'dek said, shaking his head, his voice growing unsteady again. "This time... after the raiders left... he spoke to me... my father, with the blood still flowing from his wounds..." R'dek was weeping again and Rodne felt a tightness in his own throat as he held his lover.
"He... he took me in his hands," R'dek said, speaking through his tears, "and he began to weep, tears... tears of blood on his face, and said to me, 'my son, my son, you are poisoned...'" R'dek's words trailed off as his weeping overwhelmed them again, and Rodne rocked him gently in his arms, waiting for R'dek to continue when he could.
"And... and I looked down and saw that my... my hands were red with blood..." R'dek choked out. "And then he... he touched my heart... and I could see it... I could see it, laying in his hands... but it was... it was black... black..." Once more wracked with sobs, R'dek shook in Rodne's arms and Rodne felt his own tears falling, unable to hold them back.
"And I could... I could feel it, when I woke," R'dek continued, though he could barely make himself understood for weeping, and he lifted his hands to claw at his chest, as if he wished to tear his own heart out. "It was black... with hatred and anger and... and vengeance... I could feel it..."
"No... no, no, no, no, no..." Rodne reached up to draw R'dek's hands down, holding them fast in his own even as he wept himself. "You have a good heart, you do! You... you have a... a kind and a gentle heart, and I... I love it... I love you... You have a good heart, R'dek, you do... I know it..."
"You want to listen to your lover's words, lad," Caresn said now, his voice soft and gentle as he laid a hand over R'dek's troubled heart. "And listen to mine as well." Caresn rose now, finding a bundle of sweetgrass by the fire, he kindled one end so that it smoked and carried the smoking bundle over to where R'dek sat in Rodne's arms.
"Ye've let the evil dream out with your words," he said, passing the sweet smelling smoke over R'dek's body, "and now we'll send it away for good..." Caresn gestured with the smoking bundle of sweetgrass , chanting for a moment in his old language and then striding over to open the ox hide flap of his doorway, seeming to send something out into the rainy night.
"But... it was my father," R'dek finally said unsteadily as Caresn returned to sit beside them. "He is not an evil spirit, is he?"
"Nay, he's not," Caresn agreed, "but there was one in you, that he came to warn you about. If you don't let the evil into you again, the next time you dream of him, it's likely you'll see that he's at peace."
R'dek nodded, his tears slowly subsiding. "I can feel it," he said softly. "Already I can feel it."
"That's a fine thing then," Caresn said with a gently smile, laying a hand on R'dek's arm, and Rodne bent his head to place kisses on his lover's face. "But it's likely you'll need to do some mending work to assure that he stays so."
R'dek nodded. "I understand," he said solemnly. "And I know what I must do. You will help me?" he asked turning to Rodne.
"Of course I will," Rodne answered, thinking how foolish it was to make such a blanket promise, and how it didn't matter because he would do anything for R'dek. "Anything."
R'dek turned himself now so that he could wrap Rodne in his arms, enclosing him in an affectionate and grateful embrace. Thus enclosed, Rodne felt the horrors of his earlier fears, of returning to a life of loneliness, diminish and fade, and felt his own measure of gratitude. After a bit, however, he also began to feel some fatigue, from a day of many labors and traumas, and a half a night of not very good sleep, and he felt R'dek's grip on him loosen as R'dek too began to succumb to his exhaustion.
Caresn helped lay more furs over them as they settled down into the bed, and then banked the fire and returned to his own bed, and Rodne paused to reflect that Caresn still carried his own burden of worry for a lover whose fate remained unknown for now. Rodne lifted his head to speak Caresn's name in the darkened hut.
"Aye, lad?" the healer replied.
"You... you'll be okay too... and if there's anything you need, you know..." he offered tentatively.
"Aye, luv, I know," Caresn answered, and Rodne could hear the smile in his voice. Sleep came quickly after that.
****
Music: Liigua, from Varttina, Ilmatar
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mzlhkj
The loud crack of thunder brought Li'bet fully awake, though the low rumbles that had preceded it had inserted themselves into her awareness even as she slept. She slept very lightly these days, naturally, but it was her usual practice to be aware of the weather, as she often left weaving projects outside her hut and sometimes they wanted bringing in or protecting from the rain. Running the usual inventory of what was where through her mind, Li'bet quickly came to recall that she, like the other villagers, had put away most everything away inside her hut, in preparation for their invasion.
She'd even taken down the large set of warps and weights that she generally kept over a large, horizontal branch of an acorn tree just behind her hut. Replacing them would be a matter of many hours of rather tedious labor, but that meant that there was definitely nothing outside to be ruined by the rain. It was a moment before she realized, just as she was beginning to fall back to sleep, that it was not something that had been left out in the rain, but someone.
It took her only a few moments to throw on a tunic and gather what she needed. A flax fiber cloth to dry him, a sheepskin with the wool still on to keep him warm, a large, stiff oxhide to keep him dry all were deftly rolled into a bundle and tucked under her arm as she donned her rain cape -made of finely stitched muskox intestine- and headed out to rescue their prisoner from the rain.
The rain was so heavy, she'd never have kept a lamp alight, but she made her way easily by memory, occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning. The hide draped lump that stood up and revealed itself to be Demery, the fisherman who'd agreed to keep watch over the prisoner for the night, greeted her politely and with a little surprise.
"Has he made any complaint about being left out in the rain?" she asked him, nodding over at the prisoner.
"Hasn't said a word, headwoman," Demery answered.
"How do you know he's still alive?" Li'bet inquired, only half kidding.
"Heard him cough a minute ago," said the guard.
"Ah," replied Li'bet. "Well, I'd like to improve his situation a bit. You can make sure he behaves himself while I do."
Demery nodded and Li'bet headed over to see to the prisoner -to see Shef'hred. The frequent flashes of lightning revealed him, curled in a tight ball, lying at the base of the pole where he'd been tied. When Li'bet dropped to one knee beside him, she could hear in his breath that he was shaking. She shook her head in shame as she unrolled her bundle, extracting the ox hide first to toss it over the top of the waist high pole above them. This made a small, rudimentary shelter, which she improved hastily with some bits of thong and rocks to weight and stabilize the corners.
Shef'hred shook himself a little, when he realized that the rain wasn't falling on him any more, then looked up in startlement when he felt her take the flax cloth to his back and shoulders, towelling the wetness away briskly. When she'd finished with that -tousling his hair into an amusing sort of disorder, she laid the sheepskin over him, making sure that he was well covered and that it wouldn't slip off by accident, as -with his hands bound behind his back- Shef'hred would not be able to set it back on himself again. "Is that better?" she asked when she had finished.
"Um... yeah," Shef'hred said with honest confusion. "Care to tell me why you're bothering? Not that I'm not grateful or anything..."
Li'bet knelt back and gave an amused smile, letting him know that she was not at all offended. "If we'd wanted you dead," she answered him frankly, "the hunters would have seen to that yesterday. Since we don't, it rather behooves us to prevent you from starving to death or dying of a chill before we decide what to do with you."
"So you haven't decided yet?" Shef'hred asked, carefully keeping his tone light, though Li'bet could hear the strain of anxiety hidden there.
"No, we haven't," Li'bet answered him honestly. "You're quite the conundrum, Shef'hred, particularly considering that we've never had a prisoner before."
"What about slaves?" Shef'hred asked, as though he were not enquiring about his own possible fate.
"I'm afraid we've never had them here either," Li'bet answered, playing along and letting herself sound a little apologetic, as though this was an admission of how backwards and unsophisticated her village was. "And I doubt we'll be selling you off to anyone else. I don't think we'd know who to ask, and I can't imagine what we'd want in trade. We do pretty well here, and don't really need much."
"Yeah, well," Shef'hred answered after a moment in which Li'bet could see him attempting to conceal his relief. "Guess I wouldn't know what to do with me either, then."
"I'm glad you can see our predicament," Li'bet said a bit sardonically as she stood. "But I'm going to go sleep on it for now, and maybe you could do the same."
"Yeah," Shef'hred said with vaguely bitter snort of humor. "Guess I will." He closed his eyes then, as though preparing to do just that and Li'bet turned to go. She was just nodding her farewell to Demery when she heard him call out.
"Headwoman," he said, a little awkwardly. "Um... thanks, for... you know..."
"You're very welcome," Li'bet said, catching an amused look from Demery. "And good dreams come to you, Shef'hred."
Demery had not lost anyone or anything in the raid, and so Li'bet knew he harboured no particular ill will against their prisoner, but she could also see that he thought she was being kinder than necessary. Maybe she was, she reflected, but she'd have never been able to sleep knowing he was lying out in the rain, cold and alone. She still didn't know what they'd do with him, but she'd seen a little of the real man in him just now, and it gave her food for thought.
She was in less of a hurry as she returned to her hut, pausing as she walked across the village green to see the few huddled groups of families who'd chosen to keep vigil over the bodies of their fallen loved ones, their small lamps flickering in the gusts of storm blown wind. There would be burials tomorrow, and they'd be burning the bodies of the fallen raiders and their horses as well, assuming the rain ended tonight, as she suspected it would. Late summer storms tended to be brief affairs, and already she could tell that the rain was diminishing, becoming less forceful and more gentle.
After tomorrow, life in Lakeside would, perforce, return to its normal routines, more or less. Late summer was a busy time, with fruits and grains to bring in to harvest, and food of all sorts to be preserved for the winter. They also had a dock to rebuild, even as the fishermen would be busily fishing and many others would be out in boats gathering the wild rice that was ready to harvest now, as well as hunting the migratory waterfowl that came to the lake each year. It was probably a good thing, Li'bet thought as she entered her hut, shedding her wet outer garments, that there was so much work for everyone, for anyone left idle would surely be haunted by violence and horror of their battle against the raiders.
Keeping everyone busy would keeps minds focused on other things, and that was good, she thought, settling in to her warm bed, but those thoughts and memories would not lie dormant forever. The people of Lakeside, Li'bet knew, would be changed forever by these events, just as she was, and she wondered, as she drifted off to sleep, how their lives would change, and what she could do to assure that those changes would be for the better, and not for the worse.
***
Next week: The hunters return
Author: Taylor Dancinghands -taylor@willendorphians.com
Characters/Pairings: Zelenka/McKay, Beckett/Lorne, Teyla/Ronon, and eventually Sheppard/Weir
Category: slash, h/c, AU
Warnings: Sloppy Paleolithic history, anachronistic technological leaps and funnied up names.
Rating: NC-17, explicit M/M and eventually M/F sex depictions
Summary: So what does a bonafide genius do in an era of stone knives and bear skins?
Spoilers/Season: none
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, never will, not claiming to. Just wanna play with 'em a little. Can't I, can't I, huh?
Beta:Many thanks to my most worthy betareader
smingus for her encouragement and feedback. We loves our betareaders we does.Chapter 12
The crack of thunder, close and nearly deafening, woke Rodne abruptly. He was sitting upright in the bed even as he was waking, blinking the sleep out of his wide, startled eyes, when the second sound cut through his awareness. It was a scream, high and piercing and terrified, and it was R'dek's voice.
"R'dek!" he cried in alarm, dashing from the bed out the door to receive yet another shock, as he was instantly drenched in an icy cold deluge of rain. The skies had opened, it seemed, and rain was pouring down in torrents over the village, the occasional flash of lighting painting the falling water silver as it fell. The lightning also revealed the wingseed tree, standing unharmed and this set Rodne's heart at ease from his first fear, that R'dek, or the tree beneath which he slept had been struck by lightning.
Standing under the deluge in only his loincloth, Rodne was already beginning to feel chilled, and hesitated, wondering if he should grab more clothing or something to keep the rain off before going to find R'dek, though he also felt some sense of urgency about getting to R'dek right now.
"Go on ahead!" Caresn's voice, as welcome as it had ever been, called out to Rodne. "I'll bring furs and something to keep the rain off and I'll be there in a heartbeat."
Rodne needed no more encouragement, dashing out into the pouring rain, slipping on mud and wet grass as he went, and not caring at all. He skidded to his knees at the place where the occasional flashes of lightning revealed his lover to be, huddled at the foot of the tree, shaking and drenched with rain.
"R'dek, oh gods, R'dek..." Rodne cried, gathering the man into his arms. "I'm here, I'm here; you're okay, I've got you..."
The nagging worry that R'dek would still be angry and refuse him vanished the instant Rodne felt R'dek wrap his arms around Rodne and cling to him with desperate strength. His whole body was wracked with sobs and shook with cold and shock and Rodne pulled him as close as he could, rocking him in his arms and speaking broken, soothing words even as R'dek continued to babble in a terrified stream of his native language in between his sobs.
Caresn's arrival was heralded by a sudden and unexpected cessation of the rain, as the healer draped them with a large piece of stiffened hide which served to shelter all three of them when Caresn crawled under to join them. Rodne felt the warm, coarse hair of a musk-ox hide fall over his shoulders and R'dek's a moment later and then Caresn's arms came around both of them, adding his own warmth and comfort.
Rodne had some idea of what evil dream might have visited R'dek on this night, and when his lover began to speak a few words in a language he understood, Rodne felt even surer of it.
"The blood..." R'dek sobbed. "Gods, so much blood... so much... never be free of it... never..."
Rodne's heart ached, but even this was so much better than how he'd felt when he'd thought R'dek was leaving him. "It's just a dream, R'dek, just a dream," he comforted, "and I've got you. I've got you. It's gonna be okay..."
"My father..." R'dek began and then choked on the words, but Rodne was sure now that he knew the nature of the dream.
"Shhh, shhh, I know," he said, running his hand over R'dek's soaking wet hair, pulling him in to weep on Rodne's shoulder. "It's okay now, it's okay..."
"You're safe now, love," Caresn added gently, "but you'd be a bit safer, also warmer and dryer, if you could come in from the rain. D'ye think you could do that?"
Rodne felt R'dek sniffle and nod against his shoulder and a moment later he loosened his grip on Rodne a little. It was a bit of a struggle, but the three of them finally got up onto their feet and slowly moving in the direction of Caresn's hut, Caresn continuing to shelter from the pouring rain them under the large and unwieldy chunk of hide.
"You lads alright?" a voice called over the rain from a nearby hut. "Need any help?"
"Aye, we're fine, Kimma," Caresn called back. "Thank you just the same."
Rodne steered R'dek over to their bed once they made it to Caresn's hut and he collapsed there, still shivering and sobbing a little. Rodne found something to dry him with from the bed while Caresn built up the fire and then, came over to dry him -as Rodne had entirely forgotten himself and was dripping a bit- then settled an enormous fleece over both of them.
They sat in silence as the fire slowly warmed the hut and R'dek's sobs slowed, Rodne's hand moving in soothing circles over his back. After some time had passed, R'dek raised his head to meet Rodne's gaze in the dim light. "Rodne?" he murmured.
"Right here lover," Rodne said softly, placing a gentle kiss on R'dek's forehead.
"I am... I am so sorry... what I said yesterday..." R'dek's face was still wet with tears and more fell as he spoke.
"S'okay," Rodne said, brushing the tears from R'dek's face. "It was... you scared me pretty bad," he confessed finally, "but it's okay now. We're... we're okay now, right?"
For an answer R'dek hugged Rodne close, burying his face against Rodne's neck as he nodded and wept anew.
"Then it doesn't matter," Rodne said, his voice a little rough. "It doesn't matter. We're okay, we're okay... Shhh, we're all okay now."
Rodne was aware of Caresn moving a little closer now, one hand coming to rest on R'dek's back and one on Rodne's. "I know it may seem hard," he said, "but it will help if you can speak of your dream, lad."
"I know," R'dek said, lifting his head to reveal his tear streaked face again. "Can... can I get some water please?"
"Aye, of course," Caresn said, rising to comply as Rodne and R'dek resettled themselves comfortably, leaning against the wall of the hut and wrapped in Caresn's fleece.
"Rodne knows of this dream," R'dek began when he had drunk a measure of water from the flask Caresn handed him, and Rodne shook his head, murmuring with dismay. "It is from when I was a boy, when raiders came to my village and killed my family... and usually the dream is only of what truly happened."
"Which is horrible enough," Rodne interjected, pulling R'dek closer, to lay in his arms.
"It... it was," R'dek said hesitantly, "and usually the dream ends with how I saw... I saw my father murdered, and how his blood fell on me... where I was hiding."
"Gods above," Caresn said, aghast.
"But the dream did not finish there, this time," R'dek said, shaking his head, his voice growing unsteady again. "This time... after the raiders left... he spoke to me... my father, with the blood still flowing from his wounds..." R'dek was weeping again and Rodne felt a tightness in his own throat as he held his lover.
"He... he took me in his hands," R'dek said, speaking through his tears, "and he began to weep, tears... tears of blood on his face, and said to me, 'my son, my son, you are poisoned...'" R'dek's words trailed off as his weeping overwhelmed them again, and Rodne rocked him gently in his arms, waiting for R'dek to continue when he could.
"And... and I looked down and saw that my... my hands were red with blood..." R'dek choked out. "And then he... he touched my heart... and I could see it... I could see it, laying in his hands... but it was... it was black... black..." Once more wracked with sobs, R'dek shook in Rodne's arms and Rodne felt his own tears falling, unable to hold them back.
"And I could... I could feel it, when I woke," R'dek continued, though he could barely make himself understood for weeping, and he lifted his hands to claw at his chest, as if he wished to tear his own heart out. "It was black... with hatred and anger and... and vengeance... I could feel it..."
"No... no, no, no, no, no..." Rodne reached up to draw R'dek's hands down, holding them fast in his own even as he wept himself. "You have a good heart, you do! You... you have a... a kind and a gentle heart, and I... I love it... I love you... You have a good heart, R'dek, you do... I know it..."
"You want to listen to your lover's words, lad," Caresn said now, his voice soft and gentle as he laid a hand over R'dek's troubled heart. "And listen to mine as well." Caresn rose now, finding a bundle of sweetgrass by the fire, he kindled one end so that it smoked and carried the smoking bundle over to where R'dek sat in Rodne's arms.
"Ye've let the evil dream out with your words," he said, passing the sweet smelling smoke over R'dek's body, "and now we'll send it away for good..." Caresn gestured with the smoking bundle of sweetgrass , chanting for a moment in his old language and then striding over to open the ox hide flap of his doorway, seeming to send something out into the rainy night.
"But... it was my father," R'dek finally said unsteadily as Caresn returned to sit beside them. "He is not an evil spirit, is he?"
"Nay, he's not," Caresn agreed, "but there was one in you, that he came to warn you about. If you don't let the evil into you again, the next time you dream of him, it's likely you'll see that he's at peace."
R'dek nodded, his tears slowly subsiding. "I can feel it," he said softly. "Already I can feel it."
"That's a fine thing then," Caresn said with a gently smile, laying a hand on R'dek's arm, and Rodne bent his head to place kisses on his lover's face. "But it's likely you'll need to do some mending work to assure that he stays so."
R'dek nodded. "I understand," he said solemnly. "And I know what I must do. You will help me?" he asked turning to Rodne.
"Of course I will," Rodne answered, thinking how foolish it was to make such a blanket promise, and how it didn't matter because he would do anything for R'dek. "Anything."
R'dek turned himself now so that he could wrap Rodne in his arms, enclosing him in an affectionate and grateful embrace. Thus enclosed, Rodne felt the horrors of his earlier fears, of returning to a life of loneliness, diminish and fade, and felt his own measure of gratitude. After a bit, however, he also began to feel some fatigue, from a day of many labors and traumas, and a half a night of not very good sleep, and he felt R'dek's grip on him loosen as R'dek too began to succumb to his exhaustion.
Caresn helped lay more furs over them as they settled down into the bed, and then banked the fire and returned to his own bed, and Rodne paused to reflect that Caresn still carried his own burden of worry for a lover whose fate remained unknown for now. Rodne lifted his head to speak Caresn's name in the darkened hut.
"Aye, lad?" the healer replied.
"You... you'll be okay too... and if there's anything you need, you know..." he offered tentatively.
"Aye, luv, I know," Caresn answered, and Rodne could hear the smile in his voice. Sleep came quickly after that.
****
Music: Liigua, from Varttina, Ilmatar
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mzlhkj
The loud crack of thunder brought Li'bet fully awake, though the low rumbles that had preceded it had inserted themselves into her awareness even as she slept. She slept very lightly these days, naturally, but it was her usual practice to be aware of the weather, as she often left weaving projects outside her hut and sometimes they wanted bringing in or protecting from the rain. Running the usual inventory of what was where through her mind, Li'bet quickly came to recall that she, like the other villagers, had put away most everything away inside her hut, in preparation for their invasion.
She'd even taken down the large set of warps and weights that she generally kept over a large, horizontal branch of an acorn tree just behind her hut. Replacing them would be a matter of many hours of rather tedious labor, but that meant that there was definitely nothing outside to be ruined by the rain. It was a moment before she realized, just as she was beginning to fall back to sleep, that it was not something that had been left out in the rain, but someone.
It took her only a few moments to throw on a tunic and gather what she needed. A flax fiber cloth to dry him, a sheepskin with the wool still on to keep him warm, a large, stiff oxhide to keep him dry all were deftly rolled into a bundle and tucked under her arm as she donned her rain cape -made of finely stitched muskox intestine- and headed out to rescue their prisoner from the rain.
The rain was so heavy, she'd never have kept a lamp alight, but she made her way easily by memory, occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning. The hide draped lump that stood up and revealed itself to be Demery, the fisherman who'd agreed to keep watch over the prisoner for the night, greeted her politely and with a little surprise.
"Has he made any complaint about being left out in the rain?" she asked him, nodding over at the prisoner.
"Hasn't said a word, headwoman," Demery answered.
"How do you know he's still alive?" Li'bet inquired, only half kidding.
"Heard him cough a minute ago," said the guard.
"Ah," replied Li'bet. "Well, I'd like to improve his situation a bit. You can make sure he behaves himself while I do."
Demery nodded and Li'bet headed over to see to the prisoner -to see Shef'hred. The frequent flashes of lightning revealed him, curled in a tight ball, lying at the base of the pole where he'd been tied. When Li'bet dropped to one knee beside him, she could hear in his breath that he was shaking. She shook her head in shame as she unrolled her bundle, extracting the ox hide first to toss it over the top of the waist high pole above them. This made a small, rudimentary shelter, which she improved hastily with some bits of thong and rocks to weight and stabilize the corners.
Shef'hred shook himself a little, when he realized that the rain wasn't falling on him any more, then looked up in startlement when he felt her take the flax cloth to his back and shoulders, towelling the wetness away briskly. When she'd finished with that -tousling his hair into an amusing sort of disorder, she laid the sheepskin over him, making sure that he was well covered and that it wouldn't slip off by accident, as -with his hands bound behind his back- Shef'hred would not be able to set it back on himself again. "Is that better?" she asked when she had finished.
"Um... yeah," Shef'hred said with honest confusion. "Care to tell me why you're bothering? Not that I'm not grateful or anything..."
Li'bet knelt back and gave an amused smile, letting him know that she was not at all offended. "If we'd wanted you dead," she answered him frankly, "the hunters would have seen to that yesterday. Since we don't, it rather behooves us to prevent you from starving to death or dying of a chill before we decide what to do with you."
"So you haven't decided yet?" Shef'hred asked, carefully keeping his tone light, though Li'bet could hear the strain of anxiety hidden there.
"No, we haven't," Li'bet answered him honestly. "You're quite the conundrum, Shef'hred, particularly considering that we've never had a prisoner before."
"What about slaves?" Shef'hred asked, as though he were not enquiring about his own possible fate.
"I'm afraid we've never had them here either," Li'bet answered, playing along and letting herself sound a little apologetic, as though this was an admission of how backwards and unsophisticated her village was. "And I doubt we'll be selling you off to anyone else. I don't think we'd know who to ask, and I can't imagine what we'd want in trade. We do pretty well here, and don't really need much."
"Yeah, well," Shef'hred answered after a moment in which Li'bet could see him attempting to conceal his relief. "Guess I wouldn't know what to do with me either, then."
"I'm glad you can see our predicament," Li'bet said a bit sardonically as she stood. "But I'm going to go sleep on it for now, and maybe you could do the same."
"Yeah," Shef'hred said with vaguely bitter snort of humor. "Guess I will." He closed his eyes then, as though preparing to do just that and Li'bet turned to go. She was just nodding her farewell to Demery when she heard him call out.
"Headwoman," he said, a little awkwardly. "Um... thanks, for... you know..."
"You're very welcome," Li'bet said, catching an amused look from Demery. "And good dreams come to you, Shef'hred."
Demery had not lost anyone or anything in the raid, and so Li'bet knew he harboured no particular ill will against their prisoner, but she could also see that he thought she was being kinder than necessary. Maybe she was, she reflected, but she'd have never been able to sleep knowing he was lying out in the rain, cold and alone. She still didn't know what they'd do with him, but she'd seen a little of the real man in him just now, and it gave her food for thought.
She was in less of a hurry as she returned to her hut, pausing as she walked across the village green to see the few huddled groups of families who'd chosen to keep vigil over the bodies of their fallen loved ones, their small lamps flickering in the gusts of storm blown wind. There would be burials tomorrow, and they'd be burning the bodies of the fallen raiders and their horses as well, assuming the rain ended tonight, as she suspected it would. Late summer storms tended to be brief affairs, and already she could tell that the rain was diminishing, becoming less forceful and more gentle.
After tomorrow, life in Lakeside would, perforce, return to its normal routines, more or less. Late summer was a busy time, with fruits and grains to bring in to harvest, and food of all sorts to be preserved for the winter. They also had a dock to rebuild, even as the fishermen would be busily fishing and many others would be out in boats gathering the wild rice that was ready to harvest now, as well as hunting the migratory waterfowl that came to the lake each year. It was probably a good thing, Li'bet thought as she entered her hut, shedding her wet outer garments, that there was so much work for everyone, for anyone left idle would surely be haunted by violence and horror of their battle against the raiders.
Keeping everyone busy would keeps minds focused on other things, and that was good, she thought, settling in to her warm bed, but those thoughts and memories would not lie dormant forever. The people of Lakeside, Li'bet knew, would be changed forever by these events, just as she was, and she wondered, as she drifted off to sleep, how their lives would change, and what she could do to assure that those changes would be for the better, and not for the worse.
***
Next week: The hunters return