Odette: Path A

"She doesn't say anything, I just...hsssst! Ohhh. I understand."

A huge older man ducked into the pavilion, followed by another huge younger man. Giants. I stared.

"Cailleach?" the older one asked as I stared.

The younger one wore buckskin pants and a vest, his hair long, his beard shorter than the older mans. The older man had long white hair and a beard. They were father and son, obviously.

"Olc's here," the woman tending me said. "Hurt this girl good. Been hurtin' her a while," she said, touching my jaw and cheek where Hass had hit and bit me."

Both men looked at me and my wounds. I tried to cover my chest, but the woman pushed my hand away with a tsk.

"Which one?" the older one demanded.

The younger one stared at me, his huge brown eyes gentle. I felt drawn to him, this gentle giant standing there. I didn't know him, but I felt I did.

"Hasslin Olc."

The younger man's face went grim. "They bonded?" he asked the old woman.

"No!" I said quickly. "No, he stole me from below. Kidnapped me."

"She has an tiodhlac," Lukel volunteered. "Like my màthair."

The young man was staring at me again, our eyes locked. Why did I feel like I knew him? Why did it feel like he knew me too?

"He intend to send her on? New blood?" the young giant asked.

"I don't think so," Lukel said. "He has become... possessive of her. He won't bond her, he doesn't understand his own feelings for her, but I think if he keeps her he will kill her. Not on purpose, his temper," he said, as if they understood that. From their looks, they did. "I wanted to ask you, Cailleach Willa, she needs to be apprenticed. Will you take her on? I dare not, not with him so close. Here she can be safe from him. If you claim her as an apprentice, he cannot say no."

"He kin," she spat. "Ha' th'words still," she said, nodding. "Feen, Gun. S'close?"

"Yeah," the old one said.

The young one nodded and looked at me again. I stared back until the woman tending me made me flinch again and I looked to see what she was doing.

A tall girl with white blonde hair came in and she had a bag with her. She sat next to me on the other side and began cleaning my cut cheek. The younger giant sidled closer.

"You need some'n, Col?" she asked, smiling up at him.

"No," he said, his voice a deep rumble.

"Heard Hasslin's been at her," she said, dabbing something that stung on my cheek.

"Mm," he agreed.

"Heard he means to take Lorna."

The big man rolled his shoulders. "Korrel won't stop him," he said with a scowl.

Hass pushed back in and both of the giants stepped forward. "How much longer?" he demanded. "I drew first and I want her on my cock before it starts. She's mine to use."

The younger one moved closer to Hass, but Hass ignored him, staring back at me, his nostrils flaring.

"A bheil thu airson a dhol air ais leis a 'bheathach seo?" the old woman asked me.

"No!" I answered quickly. I definitely did not want to leave with Hass, though she had called him an animal.

"How much for the girl?" the young giant asked Hass.

Hass sneered up at him. "Feen Mor, I will see her dead before I see her with you. No price. None."

"You have no care for her," the giant, Feen?, countered.

"No. None. But she is mine to use and mine to keep from you. Get up girl, come suck my cock."

I started to move, but the two women tending me held my shoulders and shook their heads.

"Sh'ain't ready yet," the ancient woman said.

"We will send for you," the old woman tending me said.

"I don't care about her wounds, let her up. She's coming with me," he said, starting to push past Feen and his father. The two men closed ranks, making a wall. "She is my property!"

"We will send for you," the woman repeated, slathering the bite with something that smelled awful and numbed the bite.

I couldn't see Hass anymore, but I heard him growl and apparently he left because the two giants relaxed and turned. Feen looked at me again. The girl tipped a cup to my mouth and I drank the sour liquid with a grimace. She gave me water after and I drank gratefully. The woman worked on my breast for another twenty minutes as I got drowsy and the pain abated completely.

Once they were both done, they stood and went around in front of the old woman. "She is patched up, but I fear it will be for naught if he gets his hands on her again." the woman said.

"Send for'm. Say not'n yet, wait for the win," the ancient one said.

Feen looked visibly upset when Hass came in and picked me up, carrying me out and down the side of the field. Feen followed at a distance and Hass smirked at him. When he got to Bayn and the others, he dropped me on the table they were sitting at and turned me, holding me face down on it as he pulled my skirts up to pile on my back.

"No!" I whimpered. It was broad daylight and everyone was watching, hundreds of people all around the field. He spit on my pussy, then lifted his kilt and shoved into me roughly, making me cry out.

The giant was there suddenly, jerking Hass back and out of me. I was horrified, but I didn't dare move off the table where Hass had shoved me. I was only grateful the skirts of my dress had slid down when he was pulled away.

"There will be no harm here this day. You say you are first, your time is fast coming. You do this now and you won't be able to do what you must to the banrigh," Feen rumbled angrily.

"You do not get to tell me what to do with her. Girl! What are you?"

"Nothing!" I whispered fearfully. "Your nothing!"

"You are nothing. She is nothing. She is my nothing."

"If she is nothing then you will trade her to me."

"You have nothing I want. It would please me more to slit her throat and make you watch, that would be worth more than anything you have! You want her? Challenge me, Feen Mor."

"You wish to die?" Feen asked darkly.

Hass laughed, his brethren as well.

Whatever was going to be said next was interrupted as silence fell over the crowd and the ancient woman began talking. I didn't dare look, or move. I stayed against the table, watching Hass and Feen stare at each other, murder in their eyes. Their hate for each other was as old as they were.

Finally, Feen stepped back and seconds later, a bell rang. Hass walked out of my line of sight as the crowd cheered.

"Get up girl," the giant said softly.

"She stays," Bayn said, his hand going to the back of my neck to hold me down. I felt him move behind me, his cock pressed against me. He began gathering my skirts and I broke down crying. He shoved a finger into me roughly, then licked his finger and shoved it in again before undoing his pants.

"No!" I begged.

There was a loud yell and a scream, then a collective crowd gasp.

"Take your hands off or you will lose them," Feen said, moving closer to Bayn. "He is claiming the banrigh as we speak, that means he just lost his claim to this one. I am taking her, or will you challenge me?"

Bayn backed up, letting my skirts fall. Feen took my arm, pulling until I stood, then led me back to the pavilion.

"Hass!" Bayn yelled, following us. "They are taking her!"

I saw Hass then, on top of the tall stairs. He had the naked girl bent over the nest, his hands on her hips as he shoved into her. When Bayn spoke, Hass's head whipped to us and he stood, bounding down the stairs.

"Take your hands off of her!" he yelled as Feen pushed me into the pavilion and blocked Hass's path.

"You claimed another. You cannot claim two."

"Banrigh on Mabon does not count! I do not want her, this one is mine by rights! I challenge for her!"

"Me, boy?" the ancient woman asked, standing with the staff.

"Cailleach Willa is claiming the girl as an apprentice," the woman in white who had tended my wounds said, stepping up to stand with the old woman. Willa?

"I do not give permission!" Hass yelled. "Girl, come here, now!"

"She ain't yours to order anymore," Feen said darkly. "She is prenticed to be a cailleach. You have another, one you are bound by law to not hurt."

"No. No! You cain't take her if she is bound. I will bind her. Now. I want the bind'n done now!"

"T'late nah, boy," Willa said, waving Hass back. "Go on."

"She is mine. Girl, tell them. We will bind, now. Tell them!"

I refused to look at him and the girl with the white blonde hair came and put a hand on my shoulder, hugging me against her.

"She doesn't want you," the girl said to Hass. "Leave here, leave her behind. She is lost to you."

"Girl, tell them!" Hass demanded.

"My name is Odette!" I screamed at him, then broke down sobbing.

"She is mine!" Hass roared.

I looked back when I heard a scuffle and Feen and his father were trying to hold Hass pinned to the ground.

"You go on quiet and peaceful," the mender said to Hass. "Or we put you in the cage and you lose the banrigh you just claimed. Your clan is banned and you are banished. Any who offer violence to a High Cailleach forfeit their life. Make your choice, Olc."

"This isn't over!" he yelled. "Let me up, I am leaving!"

I hid my face as he left, unable to look at him. If I saw his face, his anger, I would feel the need to obey him.

"He's gone," the girl said gently. "He ain't hurtin you no more."

I knew he wasn't going to give up that easily though.

"Feen," his father said. "Follow them, make sure they leave."

"Tell off another," Feen said, crossing his arms and moving closer to me.

His father snorted. "Layla, go get Levi. Tell him to follow the Olc's, make sure they leave."

A younger woman in white left at a trot. I peeked again at Feen and he was watching me again. His eyes were so intense as he looked down at me. The girl hugging me chuckled. "You want to comfort her, Col?" she asked him.

He turned his gaze away, looking out at the field as if she hadn't spoken. The girl's laugh was musical and would have been contagious if I wasn't so terrified.

"You are safe here with us," she said soothingly, patting my shoulder. "Sit," she said, urging me to the low reclining seat I had been in earlier. She looked at the bite and covered it with more salve, then but more ointment on my cheek as I sat there numbly.

"Thanks," I managed.

"Don't worry," she repeated.

I blinked up at her. "He isn't going to let it go, you don't know him."

"We know him," she said softly. "We are watching him. If he comes back, he won't get near you. Feen won't let him, will you, Col?"

"No," he rumbled, his face turning red. "Still hurt?" he asked me.

"Some, not so bad as it was. Thanks for stopping him."

He shrugged, still looking out at the field. The tower was being taken down and everyone was moving into the field with tables, food and music, celebrating. The more people who got close, the more nervous I felt. He could hide anywhere among so many! He was small, hard to spot.

"Is there somewhere inside I could be?" I asked, looking around in a panic.

Feen moved closer, standing at the top of my chair, right above me. I immediately felt safer. I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding and let my head lay back. Exhaustion was starting to win out over my fear, along with whatever they had given me for the pain. The noise, loud and raucous, was turning into white noise as I laid there. I yawned and curled up, shivering slightly.

Feen pulled off his fur cape and laid it over me and I looked up at him. I meant to say thank you, but I froze when our eyes met again. He knelt there, his hands on the cape and his eyes on me and we stared at each other from a foot away. "Sleep," he said softly. "I will stay."

I nodded, still unable to speak or look away. It was him, I realized. He was the other reason I was here. The reason besides the mountain. He was why I had been called, who I was meant to be with.

He moved closer, his hand sliding up to my jaw as he pressed his head to mine, staring into my eyes.

I don't know how long we stayed there like that, locked into each other's souls, but it was getting dark when Willa spoke to us, interrupting. "Feen Mor?" she asked.

He blinked and dragged his eyes from mine to look at her. She said nothing else, but he looked at her a moment, then nodded. "Yes," he answered as if she had asked him a question.

She nodded as if she had expected that response, then made a motion to the girl with the white blonde hair. The girl grinned and took off at a sprint as Feen looked back down at me.

"Willin?" he asked, his voice shaky.

I wasn't sure what he was asking, but I couldn't imagine saying no to whatever it was. I was willing to do almost anything he asked. I nodded.

He looked relieved as he stood up. The other ladies in white began untying the curtains and pulling them closed as Feen left. I was alarmed, where was he going?!?

I saw his father and several other men surround the tent as the curtains were being closed. The mender helped me stand and began pulling my dress off, looking pleased. The girl came back still smiling, a white gown in her arms. She helped me into it, giddy with excitement. I looked down at the white dress and when Feen showed back up, also in white, I knew what was about to happen.

I looked up at him, both terrified and a little in awe. That fast. No questions, no expectations. The mountain said it was right, so it was. I did not argue, I looked up at him and knew it was right. He was everything Hasslin Olc would never be.

He moved closer and touched my hair, moving it off my face and running a finger lightly over the cut on my cheek. He looked sad and hurt, like my pain was his pain. I pressed my cheek to his giant hand and his eyes moved to mine. Those beautiful, soulful, gentle, brown eyes.

When the curtains were opened and Willa stood and called for silence, then announced there would be a binding, the crowd erupted in cheering and yells. I didn't look around, I stared up at him.

I was no longer nothing. I was his, and he treasured me.