Hallowed

The cave was warm. Jimmy and Chris had gathered a bunch of wood from the woods nearby, and Jimmy did his voodoo to spark it. I’m not entirely sure what else to call it. This whole situation was getting ridiculous. I was supposed to be on a date tonight, but instead I was in a cave, and my date was out helping another girl with her strange talent of killing with a touch. I’d had better nights.

I was waiting on Ulrich and Abby to return, so we could see if they want to help me, Helen, and Chris get some supplies from the village while the sun was still down. We were still dressed in our party clothes meant for spring time in Florida. Needless to say, shorts and a halter top don’t protect from Norwegian winters.

“They’re taking awhile,” Chris said into the silence.

“Maybe they took a detour,” Jimmy joked. He remembered I was there as soon as he said it. “Sorry, Cass.”

I sighed, “It’s fine. It’s not like I’m dating Ulrich.”

“You should be,” Helen said.

“Does that really seem important right now?” I replied rudely.

I’ll admit. I was looking forward to going out with Ulrich. Helen had told me a lot about him. She also told me he had the bad habit of losing track of himself when he works, and most girls can’t deal with that, but I was ready to try. Now I don’t know if he is even thinking about me. I wouldn’t be. The Vikings we just killed were very distracting.

Another few minutes later, Ulrich walked into the cave with Abby asleep in his arms. Ulrich set the passed out girl down near the fire gently and draped his button up shirt over her.

“Why so glum?” he asked as he looked around.

I shot him a look, but he just smiled his brilliant smile. His hazel eyes shined in the fire. His muscles glistened. I suddenly wanted to date him even more. Well less date, more pounce. Shaking out my thoughts, I stood up.

“Well we should go,” I said to Chris and Helen.

“Where to?” Ulrich asked.

Chris rose with Helen and answered, “Village. We need things. Clothes, food, drink. You know? The trivial stuff.”

“Right,” Ulrich smirked and saw Helen still shaking, “Why don’t you two stay with Jimmy and Abby? Me and Cass can get the stuff.”

Helen wasn’t going to admit it, but the smile she gave Ulrich was the greatest thanks I’d ever seen. Chris smiled too. He was thinking the same thing. Smirking, Ulrich walked to me and offered his hand.

“Shall we?” he asked with as much charm as he could muster, which was a lot.

I couldn’t keep my smile hidden as I took his hand and got up. Together with Ulrich, I walked out the cave and down the mountain side to the wooded area. It was quiet until we got to the woods, and then the creatures broke the silence. It was actually very peaceful.

Ulrich seemed distracted. As we walked, he touched a hand to each tree he passed, as if to check if it was actually real or not. He had been different than Helen described. She told me he went to thought a lot, but this was something else. Something was wrong.

“Hell of a first date,” I said into the silence, trying to break into his mind, “We could just went to the movies.”

Ulrich stopped and smiled at me, “I didn’t want to be too cliché.”

“Yeah. I can see that. You really went all out. This night has everything. Time travel, murder, mayhem, and magic.”

Ulrich laughed a bit, though I could tell he was still out of it. Smirking, Ulrich offered his hand to me. I smiled and laced my fingers with his. Together we continued on towards the village. Hand in hand. Now I was actually happy. I actually got the date I wanted.

When we got closer to the village, I started talking again. “Do you think the people will recognize us?” I asked Ulrich, who I assumed was thinking the same thing.

“If they do, we will be able to go anything we want,” Ulrich muttered.

“What do you mean? How?” I asked, but got no answer.

Ulrich led me in the village in silence. The sun had fallen completely by now, making the only seeable thing a large group of fires near the shore. I followed Ulrich to the fires and saw the entirety of the village staring at the flames. I was wondering why until I actually looked into the fire.

“It’s a funeral,” I whispered.

Ulrich nodded. “Funeral pyres. Many cultures practiced this form of passing the spirit on. Norse did so with ships as well.” When Ulrich said that, he pointed out into the ocean. I didn’t notice before, but the Viking ships that were left at the shore when they ran were now in the water and on fire. “All those who remain here are from the village.”

I looked into the fires again. Dozens of bodies were burning. Some were small. Like children. “So many. We should’ve stayed. We could’ve stopped the Vikings,” I said under my breath.

“We did,” Ulrich replied.

I was tempted to ask what he meant, but I couldn’t bear it.

“You two,” I heard someone say from nearby. “You two fought them.” An old lady morphed from the crowd after a second. She was pointing her scrawny finger at us.

I looked at Ulrich to speak to her, but he was staring into the pyres. His eyes faded in shadow, even though light was striking them. Knowing he wasn’t going to talk, I did. “Yes. We did. We are sorry.”

“For what, my dear?” the old lady replied. She was nice.

“For everyone who died. We couldn’t protect them.”

The old lady smiled, which seemed odd at a funeral, “You saved more than was lost, child.”

The rest of crowd was gathering behind the old lady by now. They were muttering something about gods and guardians. I couldn’t make anything out.

“We came for supplies,” I said suddenly. I noticed just how rude it sounded immediately after I said it, but didn’t stop. “Clothes, food, something to make beds from. Anything that can be spared.”

The old lady smiled and turned to some of the people behind her. A few of them ran off when she turned back to us. “They will get what you need. Do you need somewhere to stay?” she asked me.

“No,” I smiled. “We have somewhere. Thank you for everything.”

“No,” the old lady knelt. “Thank you, Lady Sif.”

I faltered. I saw Ulrich’s eyes widen slightly, but somehow I think he was expecting it. He definitely knew something. I stared at Ulrich, waiting for him to say something, but he didn’t move. He didn’t even avert his gaze from the fire.

A few minutes later, the villagers that ran off returned with supplies. They had with them a box of fruits, a linen wrap that smelled of raw meat, several animal skins filled with drink, and a large bag of what I thought was clothes. Ulrich finally turned from the fire when they showed up and reached into the bag of clothes. Digging through the top, he turned back to me and draped some fur over me, then turned around to the front of me and clasped it.

Sure I was warm, he turned back to the supplies and started heaving things onto his back. I don’t see how he managed it. It took six villagers to carry everything out here, but there he was with all of it on his back and in his arms.

Turning away, I looked back at the lady and smiled, “Thank you again. We must go.”

Everyone knelt one more time and let us leave. I turned from them smiling and noticed Ulrich was already ahead of me. I quickly caught up and matched his pace. I was determined to find out what he knew when we got back to the cave.