The Island Pt. 02

Chapter Eighteen - 525 AD - Tragedy

by o_girl © 2024

Of course, the barbarians came!

It was at daybreak and the girls had a very short warning, as Drusilla had not seen the black sails from her post at the top of the cliff till they were almost there.

They could not do anything for the few sick people in lying in the huts, nor could they help the Oracle.

The girls panicked and ran into the undergrowth away from the temple and tried to hide.

Athena and Letitia lost each other in the panic. Everybody tried to save themselves by running as far away as possible.

After trying to call out for Letitia a few times she dived into the cellar.

She knew what she was looking for: A small, decorative knife that she had noticed and hidden behind a shelf.

Finding it, she used a piece of leather cord tying it firmly to the inside of her left leg.

Then she ran up the steps and made for the cliff.

She looked up the rickety ladder, lifted her dress and pulled the knife out.

Then started ascending.

She used the knife to loosen the planks. The point broke off almost at once, but the remaining blade was excellent to pry the boards apart. Then she was able to pull them out. Nails and everything.

Her fingers bled and her knuckles were raw almost at once, but she ignored the pain and worked as fast as she could.

A small smile spread on her face as a whole section of the stairs loosened and crashed to the ground.

She held her breath for a few minutes, but the barbarians made so much noise getting out of their ship and advancing on the path to the temple.

She hoped none of them would look up and see her white-dressed figure hanging on the side of the cliff and a huge sigh of relief escaped her when she finally rolled on to the top and into a small hollow in the rock.

From there she had a good view of everything. Only the side of the temple towards her were hidden by the trees.

Daylight came quickly and for the rest of the day, she stayed perfectly still and watched horrified as the Barbarians ravaged everything.

There were 12 of them. Big, bearded men with pointed helmets and huge swords.

They started by going from hut to hut and drag the ill and sick people out. Stabbing them to death, and began throwing them in a heap just outside the ring of the temple.

She could hear the Oracle scream and curse until her head rolled away from her body on the ground.

Then they pulled most of the huts apart and piled the wood and straw from them on top of the corpses.

Soon a choking, sweet smell reached her nostrils as they had ignited the huge pile of wood and corpses.

Her stomach turned by the nauseating stench and smoke from the fire. She rolled on her side and threw up.

It did not take long for them to find the earth cellar and some of them began carrying amphora pots, jewellery, boxes, and fine cloth back to their ship.

Others went in different directions into the undergrowth.

Shortly after a group came back with one of the girls.

The bonfire of wood and corpses lit up the scene in the grey daylight.

From her vantage point she easily identified Amara by her dark skin.

One of the barbarians dragged her along by a firm grip in her dark, curly hair.

She was naked and had several blue and black bruises on her body.

As Amara was thrown on the mosaic floor Athena strained her eyes to focus.

Amara's nose was bleeding and swollen and she looked up at the leader with terror in her eyes.

She could not hear what was said from the distance but the leader hit Amara in the face several times.

Hopefully she had not revealed that there were others on the island, but Athena knew it was a vain hope.

Having found Amara, they were now certain to look for more people hiding.

It would only be a matter of time.

She pressed herself into the hollow and hoped they would not see her and be able to repair the staircase and come up and get her.

During the rest of the night and the next day all the girls were caught and brought before the leader.

Those that still wore ripped pieces of clothing had the rags pulled off before they were thrown into the earth cellar naked.

Athena could not help herself making a small outcry and her heart jumped up in her throat, when they dragged Letitia in. She was no better off than the rest. In fact, it looked like she had resisted more than most. Her body was bruised all over and her face full of blood.

She even tried to kick out at one of her captors with a naked foot, but that just made them all laugh. Not only could she see them laugh out loud, but that sound travelled across to her. She shivered and her heart stopped for a moment.

--

The barbarians stayed for three days.

Each day a group of them spend the day carrying the contents of the cellar to their ship, and each day when they woke up they started drinking the wine contained in some of the amphoras.

When they had emptied one they crushed it on the mosaic floor and thus created quite a heap of pottery shards.

They constantly had a fire going and were eating their way through the food from the cellar.

As each day progressed they got more and more drunk. By nightfall they were singing in their guttural voices and staggering around.

Some even got up and stumbled into the undergrowth and threw up.

After a few hours of heavy drinking on each of the three days, they dragged one of the girls up from the cellar.

They had wrung the bronze cauldron off the main, square block of marble. Across this they forced the unfortunate girl. Face down and her stomach on the top.

Four of them held her arms and legs and they always started by whipping her buttocks and the back of her legs with a very long and very nasty looking whip.

Of course, the screams of the girls reached Athena up on the cliff.

She pressed her hands tightly to her ears to avoid hearing it, but it did not help much.

After the initial whipping, they took turns. Each one grabbing the helpless girl by the hips and then slamming his erected member deep inside her.

When the first one had finished, the next one took over.

They seemed to enjoy the struggling and screaming, because every time the girl became limb and slack in their grips, they dragged her back and threw her down the stairs into the cellar. Then went down and fetched a new victim.

It was of course worse for Athena to watch Letitia. She was still the one fighting the hardest, and got her full share of beatings and whippings, and of course she did not avoid the raping.

What Athena did not know or could see was that Letitia had swallowed her ring. Letitia was the only one wearing any kind of jewellery and had been clever enough to swallow it. Thinking it would be the best way to keep it safe and that it would eventually come to light if she somehow survived.

--

It was very late before the barbarian camp below finally went quiet.

Only the guard they had posted at the top of the cellar stayed awake, but most nights it looked like he was leaning on his spear and dozing.

Athena drank rain water from the hollows at the top of the cliff, and late at night she climbed down on the outside. Away from the island and camp, and found eggs in the nests on the ledges.

She swallowed them raw, when she had returned to her place on the top.

Sometimes she dozed even though the noise from below made it hard for her to close her eyes during daytime. She felt a strange companionship with the birds. It was as she also were in a nest on the cliff.

--

On the fourth day the barbarians broke camp.

They pulled all the girls out of the cellar and tied their hands on their backs. Then connected them to each other with a rope around each one's neck. Although the girls seemed to stagger and sway like sleepwalkers, the barbarians used their whips

frequently and with force to control them and get them in line.

They drove them like cattle with the aid of their whips down to the shore and on board their ship.

The last couple of barbarians went around the edge of the clearing where the temple stood and a put a torch to everything.

Soon the whole island was in flames.

Athena had been watching the row of naked and desecrated girls being led to the ship with horror.

She had looked for Letitia but had not seen her in the row.

Amara was also missing. So, only four girls were dragged away and loaded on the ship.

Athena felt cold all over. Either Letitia had died from the treatment, or they had decided she was too beaten up to take along, and then killed her.

In any case, she was sure the love of her life had died, and her heart cramped into a small, black hole. She cried as the barbarians sailed away and the island was engulfed in flames.

Athena lasted for two more days. Feeling her brain and body fall into a deeper and deeper and darker and darker hole.

She could not descend from the cliff as she had demolished the stairs, and if she just jumped off, she would be killed landing on the ground, and not be with Laetitia again.

She began to realize that she would never be with her beloved Letitia again, not in life or death.

Finally, she laid down on her back and used the knife to slide over her wrists.

She felt the warm blood run out and into a pool under each hand.

She looked up and there were two seabirds high above. Circling together.

She imagined it was Letitia and her souls soaring into the skies.

The fire burned out and the island was once again quiet apart from the birds.

Chapter Nineteen - Present Day - Some Answers and Some Omens

by o_girl © 2024

A month had passed, and once more the island bustling with activity.

This morning Brynhild and Sunniva were down by the sandy beach when Trawler's old skate landed on the beach.

They greeted him and he was almost exploding with curiosity as to what was going on.

During the past month they had waved at each other across the harbour, when the girls had come and gone. Transporting their personal belongings from the cottage, they had rented inland after selling the summerhouse.

They had not had any meaningful conversation with each other at all.

The Inn on the mainland was fully booked and there were no more "Bed and Breakfast" places available in the village.

All sleeping accommodations were occupied by people working on the island in different capacities.

Strange looking ships had also visited the harbour before leaving for the island and the villagers had had a lot to gossip about.

Trawler had a hard time concealing his curiosity as he rolled over the edge of his boat and dumped on to the sand.

They were more than happy to give him a tour.

First, they took him inside the cave where Aino, the archaeologist Sunniva had found was registering and conserving the paintings on the wall.

Aino was petite and had high cheekbones that was framed by a full head of wild, curly platinum blonde hair. The glasses, she wore on the tip of her pointed nose and through which her water blue eyes held a piercing gaze, gave her a very 'academic' look.

She was more than happy explaining her findings till now, and her excitement almost made her jump up and down while she regularly scratched her head. The latter not doing much good or controlling her curls.

She explained that the paintings at the very end were definitely prehistoric, and she mentioned the baby skeleton they had found: "Nea" as being a unique and excellent example of a Neanderthal.

As for the interpretation of the paintings she was not very certain.

The other paintings closer to the opening of the cave were later and probably Iron Age. Here she was quite convinced they depicted some kind of human sacrifice.

This aligned with the forensic analysis of the skeleton still in situ that Sunny had been sent from the forensic laboratory.

Aino pointed to the wall paintings: "See here's a woman definitely hanging upside down."

They all leaned over at the figure in the lower right corner. It showed a matchstick person. A woman judging from the two circles painted on top of her chest. She had a thin line connecting her feet to an upside down "U".

"She's the only woman in the whole painting apart from the one that seems to fly up towards the big circle at the top."

They let their eyes follow Aino's pointing finger.

"All the other figures have no indication of breasts, but they do have a tiny 'willy' sticking down between their legs. So, men!" She smiled.

She moved her finger along the line of almost identical figures with their arms outstretched towards the sun circle above.

She turned and pointed at the skeleton in the middle of the floor: "As for the body position, it could very well have been hanging upside down and as she decomposed, her bones have fallen to the ground. There were no visible fractures on any part of her."

They also turned and looked at the bundle of bones.

"I have been sifting through a lot of the sand around and near her and found minute wood fragments. None of which were under the body. I think we may assume there was some kind of wood gallows from which she has been hanging."

They quietly looked on.

"The final proof is the granulates around the lower part of her legs. They consist of a combination of vegetable and animal. Probably a strong rope made by braiding animal and plant fibres together."

A strange chilling feeling came over all of them.

"The conclusion is that this young, female body has been hung by her ankles in some kind of wood gallows or construction and killed as an offering. I rest my case." Aino smiled and looked from one to the other.

"Poor girl," A tear ran down Sunny's cheek. "I do hope the Gods listened and appreciated it, and that they got what they were praying for!"

"I'm sure," Bryn said. "..and we will keep her here on the island.

To be our guardian angel. Treat her with the respect, she deserves."

Trawler shook his head and uttered remarks about how amazed he was that the girls had revealed so many of the island's secrets.

They did not stay inside the cave or on the beach for long because of the noise.

A flat barge was anchored just outside.

It had a huge crane-like thing in the middle, and pulled a heavy weight up and let it fall on a profiled steel plank. Hammering it down into the underground and making a steel sheet wall parallel to the coast.

They explained to Trawler that the machinery made a steel wall within which they were having a proper dock made.

Sunny then showed him some of the coins that Bryn had found on her initial dive along the edge of the cliff.

She had had them dated by yet another specialist and they were all minted with the Roman Emperor Anthemius's portrait.

Sunniva explained that a Roman dock had probably been in place there and the coins had been issued somewhere between 467 and 472 AD.

Sunny also told him that as soon as the 'steel casing' was in place and pumped dry, she would venture into it and do a proper search of the bottom before concrete was poured in.

They walked up the path that was now widened and had large steel plates laid in a line in order for heavy machinery to drive into the heart of the island.

They passed the spacious camping van that Bryn and Sunny used as a temporary home, and he admired the generator and the mulch toilet.

Then they turned with the road and went to the North side of the island.

Here a large area beside the cliff had been cleared, and heavy machinery was cutting down trees and pulling out roots. The upturned roots already forming a line and creating a natural fence to one side of the site.

The machines were like large insects from a futuristic movie. They each had several men in a steering cabin. The machines had tools and arms that pulled and cut the trees, and processed them into long, square posts and placed them in an orderly pile beside the working area in one sequence.

Another machine was turning more trees into flat planks, and stacking them in another pile beside it.

It was a proper portable sawmill in action.

By the shore and out into the water, stones had been shipped in and put in 'fingers' pointing outwards at regular intervals.

A rather large and impressive ship was blowing its cargo of sand in between two of these fingers. Creating an artificial, wide beach.

By the East side of the clearing a large, square concrete platform had been cast.

All over the place there were persons hard at work.

They were greeted by a woman in a strange attire: Black bell-bottom trousers, black jacket and vest with silver buttons and a wide-brimmed, black hat.

"Hello, Suzanne. How's it going, and meet a good friend of ours: Trawler Jones."

Bryn smiled and stretched an arm out towards Trawler, who blushed behind his weather-beaten face.

He did manage to mumble a polite hello and got a handshake that definitely competed with his own crushing one: "Glad to meet you, Trawler, and welcome to the building site."

Suzanne and the girls exchanged the updates of the day, while Trawler looked round.

There seemed to be a lot of women working with hand tools all over the place and all of them dressed like Suzanne.

They were erecting heavy constructions made of the solid, square wood beams that were joined together in a perfect fit. They used the basic beams that were produced by the giant, futuristic machines.

On the platform and on a long structure almost back to back with the cliff at one side, finished sections of heavy frames were either upright or getting the last touch by the women in black..

Suzanne walked off and joined the others. Trawler whispered to the girls: "What is this. Who are these girls?"

Both Bryn and Sunny laughed out loud: "They are "Naver's", Trawler. Skilled craftswomen following the old tradition of going on the road." Bryn finally managed to say between laughs.

"Eh....? "Naver's" I'm still at loss here?"

"Yes. When they have finished their apprenticeship, they go on the road for exactly three years and one day. They travel light.

Basically, just with their tools, and they are not allowed to beg, but work for food and board. They cannot stay more than six months in one place. Then they must go on. And they don't use nails or iron fasteners. They follow the old traditions. Look at the way they make the walls out of square posts. They make them fit perfectly and then hammer a round, wood peg in a hole all the way through the connection. It is very solid.

- and oh yes: They always wear their traditional old uniform. It's a custom that dates back many, many years."

Trawler shook his head: "Never heard of them, sorry!"

"No problem. Not many have, but they still exist as you can see and we have been lucky to get a whole group of them. I am sure we will have an excellent home, and the long building you see to that side are going to be our stable, storage and brewery. We plan to have a few cows, some sheep and chickens of course."

"Self-sufficiency? You constantly amaze me, ladies! But one more question: "Naver" - what does that mean?"

Bryn smiled again: "Not certain and don't think they are either, but two interpretations are the most common ones: A "Naver" is a hand wood drill or "Naver" might be short for "Scandinaver". Take your pick".

They stood and looked on for a while, then invited Trawler back to the caravan for coffee.

They sat down under the overhead tarpaulin that stretched out from the caravan and had very strong and hot coffee to comfort them. The rhythmic hammering from the beach and the machinery on the North side being a distant accompaniment to their conversation.

"I must say you are really something else", Trawler said.

They both smiled and blushed slightly.

"Well, we still have one more secret to reveal to you, but I had better let Sunny show you this one. Finish your coffee and we can go take a look."