The Island Pt. 02

They did and got up. Sunny lead the way behind the caravan.

Another large patch had been cleared and a group of women lay on their knees and brushed and scraped the ground with trowels and small brooms.

"You see it was not just the coins that were Roman. We think we have actually found a small temple."

Trawler lit up and started walking round the outer circle of a mosaic floor that was partially uncovered.

It showed young women in light, white attire dancing barefoot all around a centre.

Sunniva pointed: "As you can see something has been in the middle as well as a circle of columns around the edge of it. We suspect it has been stripped and chopped off and if you look around the village, you will probably find remnants of Roman pillars and marble here and there!"

Trawler nodded: "You don't have to go further than the garden behind the Inn. It has a very nice marble table and some pillars supporting a couple of birdbaths. I suppose they came from here?"

Sunny shrugged: "Probably. We'll preserve what's left though. Might be a bit of an attraction in time."

The topsoil had been scraped off by machines, and now the kneeling women were carefully exposing the mosaic. Gradually uncovering it as they worked.

Suddenly a cry from one of the women at the edge of the field caught everyone's

attention.

They walked over. One of the archaeologists was all red faced and excited: "Look here. The difference in the earth colour, and it is square not round like the huts."

The woman knelt down and scraped energetically along the border of the square.

She looked up: "See. A marble slab. I bet it is the top of a stairway. We have found some underground structure!"

Sunny's face shone with excitement once more: "Well. "Festina Lente" - as the old Romans said. Do a proper job, and we will see, but not tonight. It's almost sunset, so let's call it a day, but well done. Very well done!"

Bryn shook her head at Sunny's enthusiasm. Then gave her a big smile.

They returned to the caravan and Trawler found an excuse to leave. They followed him to the beach and pushed his boat out. Waving as he chugged away.

They were sure he would spread the news to the village and there would be a lot to talk about for the next couple of days.

--

Sun set and a hazy fog drifted in over the island. Dampening all sounds. The hammer at the docks had long since stopped and the workmen sailed back to the village.

Sunny and Bryn sat outside their caravan and listened to the Navers singing in the distance. The archaeologists had left with the last of the workmen.

So, peace and quiet and frogs and owls once again made up the soundtrack of the island.

"I swear I will go over in the morning and tune that guitar," Bryn said with a smile. "It hurts my ears!"

"Sunny leaned over and kissed her gently: "I am sure you will my love....!"

"I'm glad we did not show Trawler the "Memorial Park" we are constructing between here and the beach!"

"Me too," Sunny said, "but it seems like the right thing to do. Give Baby Nea and the poor sacrificed girl a permanent resting place."

They had ordered a couple of simple headstones from a supplier situated well inland from the village, and made it a requirement that they would be delivered in anonymous crates to the harbour front. Not to give further reasons for gossip and rumours.

There was absolutely no need to create more 'myths' than was already circulating, although they were sure Trawler would mention the skeletons they had found, and that would soon develop into some horrid story of their island.

They sat in silence while the evening mist drifted in.

Then Sunny got a concentrated look on her face, rose, and looked round.

"What's up my love?"

"Well I am not sure and maybe I am just going absolutely mad, but bear with me. Now look up at the top of the cliff over there. It is like the fog is 'dancing' up there, and the fog looks somehow different?"

Bryn pressed her eyes into two tiny slits: "Yes I see what you mean, but that could just be the wind!"

"What wind? The haze would dissolve if we had any kind of wind and I have been watching that for a few nights now. Now turn and look over the archaeological site. Tell me what you see?"

"More fog?"

"Look closer. I have noticed the last couple of days, but today it is stronger. It looks like the same kind of 'fog-pillar' as on top of the cliff. Except this comes from the square they uncovered today. It was there all the time, but I did not want you to think I am in the need of another straitjacket. Except after they cleared the top soil over there it is more distinct than ever!"

Sunny scratched her crew cut as she always did when thinking deeply. A move Bryn loved: "I trust you, Sunny as you know, even though it sounds totally crazy. One way to find out: Tomorrow morn you tell the archaeologists to concentrate on the square. We will find out what it is and what it hides. Then let's see if we can get the clearance company to lend us a lift and we will go up to the top of the cliff and investigate. It might just be a volcanic vent that has not quite closed down. In any case we will find out. Now come to bed and be my personal little ghost." Bryn giggled, got up, poured the residue out of her coffee cup, and walked to the caravan.

--

That night Sunniva had a nightmare.

At first, she just saw a grey fog. Then there was a tunnel in the middle. A dark tunnel.

It became more and more distinct, and she proceeded down the tunnel.

It seemed to go on for ever and ever.

Slowly the tunnel dissolved and the grey mist returned.

Then she thought she could see figures in the fog.

Young women were dancing happily in a circle. All barefoot and all in floating, white dresses.

Round and round they went.

She was almost sure it was the temple they had just uncovered and the girls were

circling around the centre.

It was all in slow-motion and silent.

The mist seemed to concentrate somewhere in the middle of her view.

Slowly a dark spot appeared, getting bigger and bigger.

Suddenly it became a face. A woman's face. Dark haired and two round, black holes where the eyes should have been.

The mouth was wide open and just one, big, black opening.

It kept growing and moved closer and closer till it filled her whole field of vision.

Sunny felt like she was looking through the eyes into some dark and ominous abyss.

The murmur, she had heard all the time became more and more distinct.

Till it was an ear-shattering scream...

".....save...save us....please...Save Us...PLEASE SAVE US!"

"Sunny, Sunny wake up! You're having a nightmare!"

It was Bryn shaking her and she opened her eyes. Realizing it was her own screams.

She had cold sweat all over and tears were running down her cheeks. She sniffled.

"..sorry..yes...I think..so. It was awful!"

"You OK, my love?"

"Yes - just a bad dream. Go back to sleep."

She did not want to be questioned by Bryn, so she got up, slung a blanket around her body and walked outside.

On the way she grabbed a milk carton from the fridge.

It was chilly and hazy outside and she sat down in one of the camping chairs under the tarpaulin.

This place was definitely something else.

She had had nightmares before but not as vivid and scary as this one.

She sat for a while looking at the dancing mist, but nothing unusual seemed to be going on and all was quiet.

Finally, she walked back in and crawled under the duvet.

She nuzzled very close to Bryn and held a leg and an arm over her body.

It took quite a while for her to calm down and finally fall asleep.

This time mercifully without any dreams.

--

When Bryn woke the next morning, Sunny had already gone.

She got up and stepped outside only to see Sunny high up in the air in a steel basket at the end of a sky lift, looming over the top of the high cliff.

Bryn dressed quickly and walked over to the lift. By then Sunny had jumped out of the basket and was kneeling at the top.

Although impatient, Bryn had to spend a couple of hours inspecting the other activities going on.

Around lunchtime Sunny used the hydraulics to lower herself to the ground again.

Bryn was waiting for her.

"Now. Surprise, surprise. I found another skeleton! This one definitely Roman!"

Bryn shook her head: "The old saying about skeletons falling out of the closet seems to come more than true here. Now, what's the story of this one?"

"It's another woman, and also a young one. I photographed everything, then got her into this aluminium box. Help me get it out of this birdcage thing and me that is afraid of heights. It was gruelling but worth it. Nothing volcanic going on up there. Cold and quiet, so that's a relief."

Together they lifted the box out and onto the ground.

"See! Once again: Hip bone. Definitely a woman, again a young one. No significant teeth wear and nice bones. It was partly hidden and overgrown, so I think the birds left it alone after having picked the meat off."

I see and believe you," Bryn said. "..but what's that?" She pointed at some flaky and faded stuff here and there on the bone fragments.

"It seems to be silk and probably the dress she was wearing. Fits nicely with the mosaic pictures. She was probably connected to the temple somehow and the reason I believe she is contemporary with Rome and the temple."

"OK, but why the.......did she end up on top of the cliff?"

"No idea, but one last thing," Sunny bend down over the bundle of bones.

"She was wearing a ring, see? Around that finger bone." Sunny pryed the ring free and held it up into the light.

"Never seen anything like it. Very simple, definitely silver and with the letters "A" and "L" entwined as the only decoration. Another conundrum."

Bryn had also leaned over and now carefully picked a fragment of the material up: "I can solve some of it for you, look here." She spread the fragment out on the lid of the box, very slowly.

"It is not very clear, but I am almost certain it has "Athen" or "Athena" embroidered across. So, the "A" in the ring. Now we just need to find the "L" my love", Bryn smiled.

"This one might even be the woman giving this place its name."

They carried the box back to the caravan and Sunny gently pushed packing material in between the fragments.

They got another piece of the puzzle two days later, when the archaeologists had dug out the square which seemed to have been an underground cellar.

Apart from a lot of Roman pottery shards and some more or less decayed and collapsed wood shelves they found two more skeletons. Both female, a small one that seemed

intact, and a larger one that had its head lying about a meter away from the body. The very smooth break surface through a cervical vertebra was clear evidence that the head had been chopped off.

The 'clue' was that one of the archaeologists had called to show them a silver ring that was lying in the middle of the larger skeleton, and that ring was an exact match to the one they had found on the skeleton from the cliff.

"I think we have found the "L" here," Bryn said in a sad voice.

"Yes, I am afraid so. Let's put their boxes next to each other and we will bury them together, when we are done examining them."

That night the mist seemed to 'behave normally', and even though not one of them believed in omens or superstition, they went to bed convinced that they had brought two lovers together. Even if it was in death.

--

That night Sunniva dreamed again. It started with the same mist as the night before, but this time it turned into two figures. Two women figures.

The mist made it look like they were intertwined.

They danced together in slow-motion but somehow it did not feel at all frightening.Sunny had a warm feeling rise in her body.

The ghost's heads and hair were clearly visible and most of the white-dressed top of the bodies, but then they dissolved into something that looked like a joint corkscrew.

It was pointed at the bottom and they moved like a snake-charmer was controlling their bodies.

Suddenly it was like the two ghosts turned their heads towards her and smiled.

Then everything dissolved and Sunny fell and fell. Into a deep, deep dreamless sleep.

In the morning she was more tired than she had been for a very long time. Her limbs and head was heavy and it took more than a few cups of coffee to get upright and functioning.

She decided not to tell Bryn, but speculated all day about it. Was it a coincidence or what?

Chapter Twenty - 1132 AD Shield Maidens

by o_girl © 2024

A couple of hundred years passed and the island regained its vegetation and trees.

The remains of the temple disappeared in moss and grass and was soon indistinguishable from the normal undergrowth.

Then, on one sunny afternoon a sail once more appeared in the distance. Bearing right down on the island.

The ship was the perfect sailing machine. Although only about an arm's length from the railing to the water's surface, it was long and elegant and cut through the waves like a knife in butter.

The sail was brownish-red and looked well used, torn, and repaired. There were large tears here and there, but it was full and round in the wind.

Along both sides there were an uneven row of round, battered shields. Smaller and larger gaps between them indicated that some were missing.

It was an old ship, but one that had served them all well. Named after Gudrid, the ship had lived up to the name of the famous female explorer. It bore the signs of many repairs, but still held together and was definitely seaworthy. The ship was their home and their shelter and they had travelled for many years in her.

Ragnhild stood at the steering oar and kept her gaze fixed on the island.

Only now and then casting a quick glance down the length of the ship.

In the tent in the middle an unorganized heap of shields, swords and spears was piled up and the crew was lying all around moaning or half asleep.

They had taken a thorough beating.

Two long ships out for easy prey and honour had caught up with them.

They had given as good as they got and had won the day.

The pile of weapons in the tent was what useful weapons, shields, armour and helmets they had taken from the enemy after the battle.

Ragnihild was proud of her Shield Maidens. They had fought a ship on each side and won.

Both attacking ships were now just a pillar of smoke in the distance and the crews were feeding the fish.

However, they needed a place to rest and recuperate and the island they had spotted in the distance seemed to be the right place.

Ragnhild hoped it was not inhabited, or if it was that the inhabitants would turn out to be friendly.

All of her crew were more or less wounded and all were exhausted.

Ragnhild herself had a bloody bandage round the top of her right arm and was happy to support herself on the steering oar as her right leg was swollen. Probably nothing broken, but she had taken quite a blow to it.

She called out: "Frida and Gro. Go forward. Take the head down. We don't want to scare the Land Trolls! Be quick about it. We will be making landfall soon."

Although they were a miserable lot, Ragnhild wanted to follow the usual custom and definitely did not want to unfriend the spirits of the land by running ashore with the impressive dragon head mounted.

Frida and Gro got up and limped to the front. Managed with some difficulty to unmount the dragon head and put it down and roll it into its blanket. Then stumbled back and fell over again.

For a brief moment Ragnhild thought of lowering the sail. Then gave up the idea. There were not enough able hands to do it and they had a long day's work ahead of them.

She made the ship swing around a small cliff sticking out of the sea and then aimed and hit a sandy beach right on.

The ship made a loud bump followed by a scraping sound as it ran up on the shore. A collective, loud moan came from the wounded crew as they were bumped around.

Ragnhild limbed across the bodies to the front and jumped down on the sand.

The pain in her swollen leg sent a lightning ray into the centre of her brain as she hit the ground.

She closed her eyes for a second and held on to the ship. Then turned and began barking out commands.

Two spears and some tarpaulin made an excellent stretcher and she got the most alert to carry the dead and wounded ashore.

The ones that were not in too bad a state made their own way across the railing and collapsed on the sand.

She called upon Berghild and Gunnlaug to follow her and with their swords drawn they walked inland on what seemed to be the remnants of a path.

They found a kind of clearing. At least no trees, and the vegetation was low.

Ragnhild recognized the broken marble pillars surrounding the clearing even though the ivy had climbed all over them.

For a minute she paused, and remembered her youth.

She had taken her first crew of Shield Maidens down the rivers of "Rus" and to the grand city of Constantinople.

First, they had travelled against the stream down a very long river. When the river finally became too narrow to navigate they had used round log 'rollers' that other travellers had left on the brink to roll 'Gudrid' across a vast piece of land to another river, where they had travelled with the stream to a wonderful, big city.

Here they had become the first all-female life guard company to the emperor.

They had won honour and riches before their term ran out and then they had travelled the long way back home.

She had seen plenty of marble in this glorious city.

This was nothing like it. Frost had broken some of the pillars. Scavengers had cut other parts of and most of the connecting circle between the pillars overhead had fallen down.

However, it would make good supports for their tarpaulins and give them shelter.

Satisfied with the scouting and having not met any persons or dangerous animals they went back to the ship.

Ragnhild was impressed with the discipline her Maidens showed in spite of the general miserable condition they were all in.

Soon they had a tarpaulin strung out between the pillars, the row of dead lying at the edge of the clearing. The ship had had its mast taken down, oars, shield and loot had been brought to the clearing, and everybody that was able to stand on their feet now stood with their backs leaning on the ship.

On her rhythmical counting they lifted together and each time moved the ship slightly inland.

It was no match for the crew. Even though they were in poor shape. They only had to move the ship a short distance. Not like between the two rivers they had traversed in their youth.

An hour later Gudrid had been moved so far in along the path that some branch cuttings could hide the rear end of it from the sea.

Two other Maidens cut off a good sized branch each and used those to wipe the keel tracks off the sand.

They were relatively safe.

Ragnhild covered the dead herself, muttering a few words to the Gods quietly at each one and stating their names: Ulfhild, Randi, Sigrid, and Tora. All brave Maidens that had fought like lionesses.

Tomorrow they would find a suitable resting place and have a ceremony to send them on their way Then they would start making a small mound in their honour.

She would also ask their 'Learned Maiden': Vigdis to find a suitable stone and cut the necessary Runes for them. She made a very deep sigh and covered the bodies with the tent tarpaulin from the ship.

Alrun was busy with the wounded.

She knew healing and talked directly with the Gods. She also was a formidable berserk.

Ragnhild had often wondered if Alrun used some of her herbs before a battle, because she fought like five men and seemed oblivious to danger.