Daughter of the Witcher Ch. 08

"I hope that I do not frighten her," Gudrun smiled, "but I love the way that she laughs." She looked at the child, who looked back.

"I love this little one so," she smiled, "Here is a surprise for you, Katy. Wait, wait, I want to do this slowly. Do not be frightened now."

The infant stared for a moment, having seen a troll one instant and some form of cat-like thing the next. Gurdrun grew worried and Chiorstan was in shock. Even Rex was surprised by it.

But then Katy squealed and laughed once more and took even longer to drift off.

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Thorvald stood stroking his beard thoughtfully until a wave crashed over the bow and then almost knocked him over. He managed to keep his footing by being ready for it and hanging on to one of the stay ropes.

"Damn this weather!" he roared as Louhi stood next to him with Cuilén,"I am faced with a quandary.

We talked of trying for a slow passage through the Limfjord to cut across Danemark. It is sheltered there, mostly, though it turns more than the snake that you keep in the hold below. "

"Why is it called a fjord if it is open at the other end??" The large Caitt asked as Louhi steadied herself against him.

"It was a fjord," Thorvald said," "but when I was a boy, there was a great storm and the sea bashed down the end and made a thin channel into the Kattegat. The water rushes out through there if there is a wind or it is a little stormy. The water stirs up the sand from the bottom and carries it out where it sinks as soon as the current eases off in the Kattegat.

The last time that I was through there, it was open out the other side into the Kattegat. It would have been a little slow sailing without this storm, but we could have cut the corner and gone clear around the Skagerrak entirely -- just sail in and through for a day or so and turn right when we got to open water.

But there are two little problems with the plan -- because of this wild sea. If we sail in, we will be driven hard by the wind and the waves, and the whole thing has many sandbars. They move around, all of them.

It is not so bad if it is calm. You can pick your way through a little carefully.

But not like this!" he yelled up at the sky. "We would be hung on a sandbar for certain, one or both ships, and even if we were not, there is the narrow outlet to think of and how quickly we would be shot out. The Kattegat is full of reefs."

He shook his head grimly. "As it is, we will need to find land and bear left so that we go north around the tip of Jutland. It brings us near to the Skagen at the very tip. That place has shifting sand as well and I have not been there in two years, so I do not know anymore just where they lie. Smaller boats can be dragged over the shallow bars, but these lumberers which we sail on cannot."

"How much time does it add to the trip?" Cuilén asked, "Do we have to do that in this storm too?"

"I cannot say," Thorvald said, "the life of the gale is in the hands of the gods, not I. We need some luck now. I would not go into the Limfjord for anything in this wind. I just hope that the others see it the way that I do, or you might land with no horses to ride at all."

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When they got back to the little enclosed space which was their sleeping area, closed off from Ren and Annikkki's, Louhi sat for a time feeling unsettled. She could do many things out of the force of her own will and ability, but smooth out waves as large as hilltops which moved before icy winds that felt as though the snow and ice pellets in them were abrading one's skin off was a little out of her league.

She wasn't one to fret over things -- at least unnecessarily -- but in this situation she was at least a little uneasy.

She looked over from where she sat to Cuilén. He sat across from her, his face impassive and relaxed as he sharpened the blade of his old sword with a stone.

"You seem so at ease in this weather, " Louhi said, "How can that be? How do you do it, Cuilén?"

He shrugged a little, not looking up, "I remember a few times when I missed the signs -- or misread them -- or even ignored them because we were hungry and the fish were running. I set out anyway and found myself in rough seas all alone.

The thing of it was that the fish were hungry and I caught many, though only enough for us to eat for a few days because we only salted the fish we sold to the traders. I was not there for that, not in my little boat on such a day. I just wanted enough to feed us both.

But I was in my open boat, Louhi; wet to the skin and more than halfway to frozen.

The first time, I was afraid. Everywhere that I looked, it all seemed the same and I had only my two hands.

But I got home and the return was all the sweeter."

He shrugged once more, "If you die, then you die, so the thing is not to give up while you still breathe. This ship can break apart, but I do not think that it will and I see that Thorvald is no fool. He keeps just enough sail showing so that we move and do not flounder."

He smiled a little, "At least here we do not have to struggle to run the boat and throw out the water at the same time."

Louhi nodded, liking Cuilén's way of looking at things.

"Set that sword down and come to me. I see the way that sharpening that keen edge is only something that you do to keep your hands busy," she said, "I can keep them busy to a much better purpose under the blankets."

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The raging seas eased off over the night and by morning it was back down to a mild gale. They saw land and made their turn, the other ship following and by nightfall, they rode at anchor not far off the Northern Jutland coast, not wanting to test their luck too much.

"We sail on in the morning at first light," Thorvald said, looking relieved and more like himself that evening.

Their trip around the Skagen was uneventful, the lighter gray of the skies helping the lookouts to find the sandbars in plenty of time and the day after, they were picking their way through the treacherous shallows and reefs of the Kattegat.

"What does the name of this sea mean?" Màiri asked the overseer on her ship.

"It's a Dutch word, Mistress," he said, "so damn me if I know exactly. I think that the first part means 'cat' and the last part means 'hole'.

The way that it was explained to me by the man who sold you these boats, it is to say that the free water passage where a ship might sail safely through this thing is so narrow that even a cat would have a time squeezing through the hole between the reefs and the shallows.

I could be wrong, though," he grinned, "maybe I heard it wrongly and it means that the passage through is as tight as a cat's arsehole. I'll be glad to get into some open water.

All we have to worry about are the pirates then, "he sighed a little heavily to himself, "all the way to where we land."

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When Katy went down for the night, and Gudrun and Rex had mated until even he needed the rest for a time, the troll came to Chiorstan. They'd gone through the gale holding each other and even setting the time of it aside, they were growing close and Gudrun asked a few times if Chiorstan wanted a little fun herself.

At last, one time, and before she could decline yet again -- while clearly wishing for it all the while, Gudrun had just taken Chiorstan in her arms.

"What is the matter?" she asked, "We three are all different but it is plain that we like each other. There is no one here who will look at us snootily for it, and you may trust in me, my friend, Rex will not object. He wishes to watch us play."

It began then, Chiorstan letting her cares and fears fall away. Eventually, she noticed that Rex was stroking himself and she crawled over to watch for a time as she sat on his thigh.

"Can I help?" she asked a little sweetly and the basilisk nodded.

He was groaning in a very short time, loving the way that she grasped the large thing that he had.

"How do you do that so tightly?" he asked in a strained voice.

Chiorstan chuckled, "I have not done it for a time now since I was wed, mostly, and after Katy came to be, I have done it not at all, but Rex, since I was old enough to reach, I have been a milkmaid."

She laughed a little, "And I have not lost my grip yet."

She looked down at what she held for a moment, "I could suck, if you'd like and allow it."

He shook his head, "No, little mother. I would give much to feel that, but it is something that we must speak of first, all three. Gudrun can take what I give and there are, ... no -- no, ... effects, but you cannot yet and ah! Ah!"

He groaned then, and though Chiorstan could remember a playful time with her husband when she'd done this for him and then heard the soft sound of his semen landing on the hard-packed earth in a barn when he'd let it go, she'd never actually heard a male ejaculate -- other than perhaps his vocalizations during the event.

She actually heard the hissing spurts as she watched the tall arcs of the serpent's seed as it flew upwards, almost to the beams overhead. What landed on the back of her hand felt very warm, to the touch and she remarked on it.

"Oh," Gudrun smiled, "I can say that it feels like no other that I have had in me."

Chiorstan smiled as she found that she liked to kiss Rex during the next moment, "Can it make me, ..."

"No," the she-troll said, "it will not take in a human. You can play with him as much as you wish and nothing will come of it as far as young go."

Chiorstan smiled even wider, "I want it then."

Rex explained things to her and she asked Gudrun, who nodded her agreement.

"Go on and become his pet, Chiorstan. I have more of him than I can take, and if we go on this way, I will give him basilisk babes. Have your fun with him as much as you both like. The way that we are between us, I do not mind sharing at all."

"It iss not as ssimple as that," Rex said, "If you are the right kind of human, little mother, you will be changed from it in sssome ways, and you will live long from it; that much is certain. You might find that you become like Gudrun and have two wayss to be sseen, though neither one will be like her.

There iss something else in it, Chiorstan," he rumbled quietly, "I may sseek to mate with another female other than you both, and Gudrun will mate only with me for a male. I do not think that it will happen, but it might, so fair is fair.

You are under no holdss at all and may have other maless as it pleasess you."

Chiorstan sat intrigued, "What is the purpose -- to change me like that?"

"The way you are, I cannot do much more than make what I have a little ssmaller sso that it might fit you well, but you will have to do all of the work -- at leasst until the changess are completed. Ssooner than that, and I could kill you by loving you.

It happened to someone that I loved once and I do not wish to ssee that ever again. Until you are changed, you will have to make all of the motionss, for I do not dare to try."

Chiorstan knew that it was a serious matter, and so she decided to sleep on it at the very least.

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"Damn and damned once more!" Thorvald hissed through his teeth as he stood adding his strength to that of the steersman as they fought to keep the ship on its course, "Have we not had enough happy times in the gale without having to accommodate the shitting habits of that thing which lives in the hold?"

Rex had come on deck and now sat with the end of his tail up in the rigging and his back end out over the water. He'd hung on during the foul weather and while they were navigating some of the shoals, but at last, ...

Well he needed to go, that was all.

It affected the balance of things and made control of the boat a little tenuous. Running straight, his leaning out over the water caused a turn, and once begun, it was very hard to counter. He guessed this and did his best not to tarry.

Almost all of the people who were on deck left at the sight of his appearance on the planking, though a few remained to watch, which annoyed him.

He looked over at a trio of women who stood together in a huddle, wanting some sea air and yet feeling the cold as well. They stared up as he stretched out his neck and brought his head closer to them.

"Like what you sssee?" he grinned, knowing that what they looked at a little spellbound was not his posterior.

"If you can find ssome courage to match the want there in your little eyess, come and ssee me later. I can promissse that you will never be the ssame."

They shivered visibly and moved off in a hurry. Rex swung his head the other way and looked at Thorvald. "I will try to fly when I am finished. My wingss feel cramped from being insside. I will sspeak to you when I return if I have sseen anything."

Thorvald stood with wide eyes at being spoken to, but he nodded, "I need to know if you see other boats up ahead of us."

A few minutes later, the basilisk turned to face the water and spread his wings. The ship lurched a little sideways with a few creaks and groans.

Thorvald spit over the side and wiped his beard with his sleeve, muttering a few quiet prayers to his gods.

Gudrun wanted some air as well but was a little shy that day for some reason. Chiorstan held Katy and encouraged the troll. "You'll never meet anyone by staying down here, "she said, "and it should help with me along so that they see that you're more like us than not, just a little larger."

People had come back on deck after the basilisk had gone and now stood looking at the human girl who led a shy she-troll by the hand out into the deck among them. Several of the other women commented that they'd wondered what had become of Chiorstan and her baby.

At first, Chiorstan held Gudrun's hand to encourage her, but after a little while and the way that the people never really came right up to talk to her, she gave up her idea to let go of that hand once they were well on deck. Instead, she held on just as tightly as Gudrun.

"I saw no place for us anywhere," she explained, "and so I found my way down into the other hold and I met Gudrun here and Rex. "They are there because they are larger and need even more room. Katy and me, we take up little space, but it is a little tight sometimes."

"You live down there with that thing?" one woman asked, and Chiorstan found herself growing a little defensive, but she held her tongue and nodded pleasantly.

"What is wrong with that?" she asked, "We like it," she looked down, "Don't we, Katy?"

The stares of the people caused Gudrun to want to back away, but Chiorstan wouldn't allow it, so Gudrun stood a little behind her friend.

"I'd wager she has her fun down there with them, eh?" a mean-spirited and sharp-tongued woman said and it began some rude whispering.

Chiorstan rolled her eyes, "Never a kind word or thought from you, is there, Gitte? How small your mean world must be that you think only the worst of others.

Why, I have heard you speak ill of nearly everyone among us all and certainly every woman here now. Sad that we are not in any woods here, so that you might crawl back under your rotting, moss-covered log -- or did they allow you to bring it with you?"

Gudrun saw Chiorstan's face then and she reached out to lift the startled and frightened woman up.

"I came in hopes of meeting people and thought of friendship," she glared down, "What I find here is the same as anywhere else, people like you who turn the hearts of others closed to me. Say another unkind thing to Chiorstan now and you will never say anything evil to anyone ever again."

She shook the woman once, almost breaking her back with her tight grasp, "If we hear more talk like that, I will then think that it must have come from you. I would not want to harm a good person ever, but you are plainly not one."

She dropped Gitte to the planking from a height of three feet or so and Gitte got to her feet and ran off to the other hold.

There was a lot of quiet tension then and some of the people thought of stepping away, but a young girl pulled free of her mother's hand and came forward.

"You have horns," she smiled, "Can I touch?"

Gudrun nodded and leaned down and before the girl's horrified mother could lean forward to pull her back, she stood with Gudrun and smiled as she ran her hands over a horn. They smiled at each other after that and it helped Gudrun in many ways. The girl reached for Gudrun's braids and laughed, "Mother ties these for me too. I like you!"

With that, she hugged Gudrun's face and the dark spell was broken. The troll found herself in the middle of ten or so women, who all had questions at once. Chiorstan stepped away a little and looked out to sea.

When the cold wind had gotten through to everyone but Gudrun, they parted with broad smiles, though the women who thought that they saw something walked off a little slower as Chiorstan came to Gudrun and they walked away holding hands once more.

"Is that what I think that I see?" a man asked his wife.

She shrugged, "Who knows? I for one do not care. I like them both and wonder why we were all so closed to Chiorstan back home. It was not right and now I feel shamed.

And if you are right, what do I care? She lost her fine man in that fight and has no one. If she is happy now, she is even better protected by that big girl."

Chiorstan stood at the rail in front of Gudrun and tried to look for Rex.

"He comes now," the troll said as she pointed, "There.

We should stand away from the doorway."

The basilisk soared in faster than was comfortable for Thorvald to watch and he stood fearing a little for the deck. But Rex flared and slowed until he was almost stationary in the air and then he dropped onto his extended legs with little fuss and no more ominous sounds.

He looked at Thorvald, "I ssaw no ships."

Thorvald nodded and said his quick thanks and then the basilisk was down in the hold, moving his long body through the hatchway with amazing speed. Thorvald and the others stared at the bloody footprints there on the deck as the rain began to wash them away.

"He must have found land, and I would think that he found him a ewe somewhere to eat something other than salted fish," Gudrun said.

Thorvald nodded but said nothing as Gudrun and Chiorstan moved to go down the steps after the basilisk.

"Your females wish to tell of something," Gudrun smiled.

"My femaless?" Rex asked.

They both nodded.

"Each of us has made a decision," Gudrun said with her expression showing her pleasure over it.

"Chiorstan wishes to be your pet, and I wish to ride on your back when you fly at least some of the time. I do not fear it and I am a fair shot with a bow, my love. How easy to hunt for our meals from the air.

As well, I have told our young mother here that when our little ones come, Katy will be older and our family can grow together."

Rex sat with what was a soft sort of smile as he thought of it.

"Was your mother a troll as well?" Chiorstan asked, "Or was she a basilisk?"

"Neither," he sighed a little sadly, "Well, I must guesss that she was a bassilissk. I hatched from an egg which had been buried in some rotting plantss, sso that I was kept warm.

We hatch from eggss sometimess. I think that my mother knew that she wass hunted and did the best that she could."

He looked away then for a moment and sighed, "Or perhapss she did not love me enough to want to raisse me. I wass alone for all of my childhood."

He brightened then as he looked at them both, "That iss why I am happy to ssee what we have among uss."

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Katy had stirred and woken up. Chiorstan changed her swaddling and nursed her. Gudrun asked for her then and held her to her breast, talking to her while Rex caused Chiorstan to squirm as he used his long tongue on her on the other side of the curtain, making sure to keep it soft and smooth for her.