Enid hit a wall after she leapt through portal. She had travelled perhaps a foot then she slammed into some form of barrier. She could not perceive anything in this weird in between place. Then space tore open around her and she was falling again, this time she was backwards. The sun was shining, and the sky was a bright blue. It the air was thin and there was a frigid crispness to it. She tried to stop herself but without a helmet she was bereft of vampiric powers. She cursed not putting it on. She fell for a few seconds then crashed hard into snow and began sliding out of control she tried desperately to find something to grab and found no purchase. A few moments later she had rolled off a sheer cliff face and was falling again. She was having less trouble breathing now.

Where are the wings? She thought. She was falling forward now, and she saw a village rapidly approaching, or rather she was rapidly approaching the ground on which the village resided. The glowing blue feathered energy wings finally popped out of the back of the armor. And began to slow her fall but she was hit by something from above and wings were useless for the last twenty feet of the fall. She had no ability to maneuver and was tangled with whatever hit she couldn’t make it out everything was happening too fast. She crashed through the roof of a long house and through a table. Lucius clattered next to her unceremoniously and she heard whatever hit her groan. Enid let out her own groan of pain. The armor had stopped most of the force, but her head was throbbing and every part of her very mortal body was aching. She shoved off the mass of armor and furs that had hit her and she could breathe again. The wings were still shimmering against the ground behind her and then she looked up to see she was surrounded by what looked like…Vikings, who were not that much different than the Gauls she had just left. Some had axes drawn. She looked over to what had hit her, she spoke one word.

“Fuck.”

She grabbed Lucius and rolled over on her front and stood. She was unsteady on her feet the fall had really knocked the wind out of her and that would not change until she was able to get out of the sun. She was surrounded by axe wielding men of various sizes now. The armor’s wings were still out and would not go back in. The men looked like they were ready to brawl. Her nineth century Germanic language skills were rusty, and she was searching for the words to try and deescalate the coming fight. The pile of fur and armor on the floor wrapped her hand around the hilt of her own shimmering blade and she groaned and pulled herself off the floor.

“Where are we mom?”

“You’re in so much trouble Hazel.”

One of the braver men charged at Enid she kicked him square in the groin and slammed the pommel of Lucius between his shoulder blades. He fell to the ground gasping for air. Enid scrambled for the words.

“We do not want to fight!”

Another two charged at them.

You sure know how to make an entrance and to make friends. I don’t think that worked dear, whatever it was you said.

Enid frowned towards her sword. She glanced back at Hazel.

“Don’t kill them we can’t fight a whole village.”

Hazel rolled her eyes and blocked the man’s axe blow with the flat of her blade then used her superior size and strength to grab him by the throat and slam him into the ground hard. He was coughing trying to catch his breath. Enid grabbed the other by the arm and using an aikido throw and his momentum to send him flying past Hazel and into another one of the men and into a table which smashed under their weight. Hazel glanced at her mother.

“How did you do that?”

“I didn’t teach you everything I know Hazel.”

The men were getting more cautious now and showed some hesitation. There was the slam of a palm on the table and a booming male voice echoed in the long house.

“That is enough of my long house smashed! Do you really believe you can best two of Odin’s Valkyries in battle?”

The words helped Enid identify what she was doing wrong when it came to 10th century Germanic dialects. She understood most of that.

“She is no Valkyrie she has a wound on her head, they are invincible.”

“She has wings and fell from the sky, what else could she be?”

“Where are the other’s wings?

“How am I to know the workings of Valhalla?”

One of the men had grown impatient and charged at Enid she sliced Lucius through his blade he was left with at most a third of a long blade attached to a hilt. He stumbled backwards. Knocking into two of his companions who laughed and shoved him back and forth. The man at the head of the long house stood up and was waving his axe.

“The next man or Valkyrie to raise blade or axe in my long house will answer to me.”

He hit his chest. The men started to back up and Enid sheathed Lucius she motioned Hazel to do the same. One of the men apparently saw this as an opportunity a lunged at Enid with his axe. While she had no supernatural abilities, she had two thousand years of combat training. She stepped aside and slammed her hand into his throat. He dropped his axe immediately and started gagging. She took the opportunity to slam his face into her knee. She heard bone break and then punched him in the side of the head then shoved him away. He lay there gaging and clawing at the ground desperately. Enid hadn’t done any permanent damage, but he would be gasping for breath for a while. Hazel blinked at man then looked at her mother her eyes wide. She had never seen anyone fight like that. Her mother had many more secrets than she imagined. Enid showed her empty hands to the man at the head of the long house.

“I didn’t use a sword or an axe.”

He looked at her for a few moments then he started to laugh. He continued to laugh for a while afterwards the rest of the men seemed to have lost the will to fight the two women. It had truly started fading the moment Enid had laid one of them flat with no weapon in hand. The leader was catching his breath now. He motioned to the unconscious men.

“Get them out of here and pour some cold water on them. And clean up this mess!”

The men began doing as asked. Enid used this opportunity to try and drag Hazel away and leave, they were about halfway to the door when the man called out.

“You cannot come in, smash a man’s long house, beat his men to a pulp and not introduce yourselves, its rude.”

Enid took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The wounds on her forehead had healed in the shadows of the long house where the roof had not been compromised. She spun around and Hazel followed her up to where the man sat. The wings had finally deactivated she was standing there in a black body suit, the plates were not out as they were not needed so her form was not concealed in the least her every curve apparent not that she should be described as curvy by any form of the word. Unlike Hazel who was hard to make out besides her face in the heavy furs and hide. He was staring at Enid’s chest as he spoke.

“Who are you? Why did you come here?”

Enid snapped her fingers by her face.

“Speaking of rude my face is up here.”

He blushed slightly Enid heard soft female laughter in the curtained area behind his seat. Hazel looked at her mother. She was not used to her mother behaving like this.

“Your…clothing is very distracting.”

“It’s armor and I will be happy to leave, hopefully through the door and not the roof.”

He laughed again he had been getting tense as had Hazel. Her joke had the desired effect, and everyone seemed a little more relaxed.

“I am sorry for my rudeness, I am Havld, King of these lands.”

Enid bowed her head slightly showing more respect.

“I am Enid, this is my daughter Hazel. We were traveling and fell down the mountain.”

He glanced at the hole in the roof.

“So, you are not Valkyries?”

“No.”

“You certainly fight like them. My men were properly beaten.”

“No, I have just been trained well by my father, and I have trained my daughter.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t believe you. You have the wings of a Valkyrie and the strength of one.”

Enid sighed heavily.

“Okay yes, I’m a Valkyrie. This is my mortal daughter.”

“Hah! I knew it. A blade like that was not forged by man.”

He looked at Hazel who were she wearing different armor could be one of his own shield maidens. Her hair style wasn’t so different.

“Does she speak?”

“I wish she didn’t.”

He laughed and held his side.

“A curse of parents is it not?”

“She doesn’t understand your language.”

“So how did you come to be in my hall, Valkyrie of Odin.”

“It is difficult to explain. I was trying to return to Valhalla but the journey is difficult more difficult when your mortal daughter will not listen to you and stay behind. So instead of Valhalla I appeared at the top of the cliff and…well you know the rest.”

He laughed again.

“You are not lost Valkyrie! Odin has sent you to us!”

“I wouldn’t put it past the old man.”

Enid was thinking of another word to describe another God but she didn’t say it. Halvd laughed again.

“Enid of the Valkyrie’s you and your daughter are welcome to my halls and to our lands as honored guests under my protection, though you don’t seem to need it.”

Enid smiled.

“Sorry about your roof King Halvd. I’ll fix it.”

He laughed again and hit the arm of his chair. He looked behind him and shouted.

“Make sure they have a place to lay their heads!”

Hazel had been looking between the two for the entire conversation. Then her eyes landed on a twelve-year-old girl who had come from behind the king. She motioned for them to follow. Enid walked past the thick curtains. The girl motioned to a pair of beds. Enid smiled at her.

“Thank you, what’s your name?”

The girl shook her head and pointed to her mouth. And shook her head. Enid nodded. The girl motioned bowed her head and left the room they had been shown. Hazel looked her mother.

“Is this not where you meant to be?”

Enid began to peel off the Atlantean armor.

“No Hazel this is not where I meant to be, and now I know why. What were you thinking? I told you mortals cannot travel where I was going!”

“I didn’t want you to leave me alone.”

“You are fifteen, almost sixteen, your grandfather was still there. You weren’t alone.”

“But I wouldn’t have my mother.”

Enid clenched her fists and screamed. The girl came rushing in and Enid smiled.

“Sorry, my daughter is just infuriating.”

The girl nodded and gave a soft giggle and ran off.

“Why is she not speaking?”

“She can’t speak didn’t you see?”

“Yet she can laugh and giggle.”

“Do not change the subject. You are in so much trouble. I don’t even know where to begin. I can’t get myself back home let alone get you back where you belong.”

“At least you are not alone here. What would those men have done to you while you weakened by the sun? You need me mom.”

Enid pulled her boots off and started pulling on one of her dresses from her time with Rolf.

“I would have been fine. I learned to defend myself with no weapon and no powers. For sixty years before you were born and more before that. You could have been lost God knows where and when. You could have ended up as dinosaur food, or in the middle of the Antarctic and frozen to death. And I would not have been able to save you! You were safe with your grandfather, now you’re as fucked as I am!”

Enid was yelling at Hazel who was shrinking away from her. She was starting to realize she had never seen her mother truly angry. She was witnessing the full strength of her mother’s aura of power now. And it was terrifying. She had never truly understood before that her mother was no mortal woman. She was now witnessing an angry goddess and she wanted to flee but she was frozen in terror. She had never been so frightened in her life. Enid realized what was happening when she looked and saw the look of abstract terror in her daughter’s face. It took conscious effort to suppress her aura of power, it was the first time she had to do it in as long as she could remember.

“I’m sorry, shh, shh. It was so dangerous to follow me. I wasn’t sure if I’d die, or just cease to exist or end up some place worse. Now you’re stuck with me here, and either I leave you here where you don’t know the language with strangers and no grandfather to watch you, or I bring you with me and risk you dying with me.”

Hazel was crying and clutching onto Enid now. Something she hadn’t done since she was girl. Enid stroked the back of her head and kissed her forehead gently over and over again.

“Shh, shh, it will be alright. I will fix this. I can fix this, I always fix things, it’s what I do. I’m sorry I’m sorry.”

Hazel was full on sobbing now. Three years of pent-up emotions she had suppressed were flooding out. Enid sat and hugged her. Halvd watched them though a crack in the curtain’s tears in his own eyes he pulled the twelve year old girl away with him to give the mother and daughter privacy. She looked up at him tears in her eyes.

“I know, I wish that you had a mother like that who could hold you and tell you everything is going to be alright.”

He picked her up and flipped her over his shoulder and spun him around and she laughed.

“You are best daughter a father could ask for.”

He spared a glance back at the room with Enid and Hazel then took his daughter to the long house with him. Hazel calmed down eventually and looked uncomfortable with her unusual show of emotions.

“Shouldn’t we start back home, it cannot be far, old Halger used to speak of a place like this, a village in the shadow of a cliff in the north where she came from. Maybe a month or two we can make it.”

Enid stuffed the last of her armor into her pack and turned to her daughter.

“The village is gone. The pack we know is gone. It’s all gone Hazel. No one you know from home is alive, they are all dead, they died like seven hundred years ago. The Roman empire is no more, it is now the Holy Roman empire.”

“The language these people speak, it’s what your language turned into. These are Norsemen, probably Vikings by the long boats I saw when I was falling.”

Hazel was blinking and held her gut. She felt like throwing up, all her brothers and sisters dead. The village gone. She leaned on a wall and began dry heaving. Enid touched her back and began helping her off with her armor and furs.

“Lets get you changed into something more guest appropriate. I can help you with the language it is similar to yours. There’s just different inflections.”

“Mom, how do you know this language?”

“I have had dealings with Germanic tribes and Vikings.”

“How? If…”

“I told you I have done this all before. I have lived through this time. Thankfully I have never graced Havld’s court or his kingdom, I’ve heard him though now that I think of it. They are Vikings, pretty damn good ones.”

“What are Vikings?”

“They are basically raiders and mercenaries, sometimes traders, they’re like us, only they sail across sea and oceans. Once you get changed, we will get on some furs and go outside, and I can figure out where we are.”

Hazel was in a tunic and leather breaches under her armor. Hardly proper for a female guest of a king. Enid pushed Hazel to sit down, she was still in a daze.

“Wait here.”

Enid left the room and looked for either the girl or Halvd. She found the together in the long house. The girl was on Halvd’s lap and he was telling her about their latest raiding adventures. The girl was paying rapt attention. Sort of reminding Enid of any number of her daughters who would listen to Rolf regale them with tales of battle. Enid waited politely for him to finish. The girl noticed her first she tugged Halvd’s ear and pointed.

“Ah Enid of Odin’s house. You clean up nice.”

Enid smiled.

“It’s nice of you to say but my hair is a mess. Since…my daughter wasn’t meant to come I have no proper clothes for her, is there perhaps something I could trade to get her a proper maiden’s dress?”

“I would accept no trade to give something as simple as a dress to an honored guest. He looked at the girl.”

“Frieda, summon Halva for me.”

The little girl nodded and scampered off picking up a fur cloak from the door and ran off into the snow. Halvd looked Enid up and down.

“Are all of Odin’s Valkyries so beautiful?”

Enid blushed slightly. The Sun was on her skin, and she couldn’t stop the normal human reactions.

“If you were a god and could pick your greatest champions, would you not ensure they are beautiful?”

“Indeed, I had not thought of that!”

“Is Hazel’s father well?”

Enid gave a slight grin. Though she was thinking that men only wanted one thing no matter which century you were in.

“He is long passed on. She was the last we had together.”

“He was mortal?”

“Yes, a great king of a southern tribe a trader of some renown.”

“Surely I have heard of such a man.”

“Have you heard of the Winter Wolf tribe? Blue banner, white wolf symbol?”

His eyes went wide.

“Yes, the terror of Rome they were called they still tell stories of how they pillaged Rome.”

“Its first king, Rolf was my husband.”

“But that was…”

Enid shrugged.

“My daughter was to lead that battle. When you get lost in the world tree, you really get lost.”

He stroked his beard.

“I know it is much to ask, but my daughter, she has not spoken since her mother was killed, we were raided while I was away, it was…brutal for her. You…could you fix her?”

Enid shrugged.

“I do not know, many things could cause it, if it is physical the mortal body is easy to repair, but if is her mind or soul, it is a harder because it means she can only speak at her own time.”

“She has not been the same, a girl needs a mother.”

Enid nodded.

“King Halvd it would be my honor to see what I can do to aid your daughter.”

“You sure know how to make a man feel special.”

Enid smiled.

“If you asked my husband, he would have said the same thing.”

It was now Halvd’s turn to blush, he was saved when Frida came in dragging an older woman behind her.

“Brother what is it now?”

“The Valkyrie’s daughter is in need of a dress, see to it.”

“Valkyrie indeed!”

“You did not see her lay four men flat with her bare hands.”

“If they were your men, all she had to do was offer them mead!”

Halvd laughed the woman shook her head and walked into the chamber behind Halvd. Enid followed her and Frida trailed closely behind. Halva looked Hazel up and down and glanced at Enid.

“She is young, yet she is bigger than some of our men.”

“Her father was a large man.”

“I know of someone who we can borrow a dress from. I will return.”

Halva left and Frida was peaking around the curtain at Hazel who smiled and waved at her. Frida popped behind the curtain. Enid hid behind the curtain on the other side and matched Frida’s peaking pattern. Frida started giggling. Enid smiled at her and got on to her knees.

“Frida your father asked me to see if I could heal you, do you mind if I look you over?”

She nodded and spun around. Enid smiled and looked her over and lifted her chin.

“Now open your mouth wide.”

Enid looked inside. Enid pouted.

“Well, you look like a normal girl. Which is no fun, your father told me you were a frost giant in disguise.”

Enid tweaked her nose. Frida giggled. Enid was limited to mortal senses so did not notice Halva and Halvd watching her with Frida. She jumped a little when she noticed them. Halva didn’t crack a smile but Halvd was grinning. Enid stood and took the dress Halva was offering.

“Thank you, I will do what I can to repay this kindness.”

Enid spun and pulled the curtain across.

“Get dressed Hazel.”

“Is she going to be alright mom? Can you help her talk?”

“I saw something in her throat, but I need to use my tablet to scan her, I’ll do it tonight. Once I know what is wrong, I may be able to help, it looks physical.”

Hazel pulled off her leathers as they talked and started unwrapping the binding for her breasts.

“How do you know so much?”

“We have been over this I have lived thirty human life-times; You pick stuff up here and there. But I studied healing under the greatest healers in the world so.”

“Can I be like you? Live forever?”

“No, it is not allowed for Wolf-born.”

“That seems like it’s not fair.”

“Oh, I could make you like me, but I would be violating a treaty that my father made long before I was born and will be in place long after I die.”

“But I should have been trained by the pack, but I was allowed to stay with you.”

“The treaty was put in place with all the greater spirits. I would need more than the Winter Wolf’s approval. But fucked if I know what this is going to do the treaty it doesn’t cover time travel, but it’s not like I brought you willingly. Maybe you are no longer bound to the treaty. You don’t want this, Hazel.”

“Live forever, stronger and faster, why would anyone turn that down?”

“You need to drink blood; The sun will burn you to ash and everything you love will grow old and die.”

“The sun does not hurt you.”

“There is an amulet in my chest that has surrounded my heart. It makes me immune to our two weaknesses, a stake through the heart and the sun. The cost is during the day I am more mortal than you are and can be hurt or killed by normal means.”

“But you said you are a goddess.”

“No, I am a vampire I drink blood to survive.”

“Wait…the pack says we kill vampires.”

Enid nodded.

“That is also true.”

“Then why does the pack not hunt you?”

“There are different types of vampires, there is my kind, we call ourselves the Imperials, there are the pugmentia, they just call themselves vampires, they don’t like to call themselves trash, and the cursed. Wolf-born hunt the pugmentia and the cursed because they are not part of the natural order, but my kind are.”

“How are you part of the natural order if you live forever.”

“We have existed since before creation existed as have the spirits and the wolf-born. We are the forces of nature, the pugmentia were created with blood stolen from my father and corrupted by Lilith. The cursed…they bring it on themselves.”

“The wolf-born exist to protect the world, why do you exist?”

“To protect the humans.”

“But you hunt them?”

“Think of us like wolves, picking off the weak. Our duty has gotten lost. Basically, we are the barrier between the humans and the supernatural. So, demons, pugmentia, anything else that would hunt them we are charged with stopping. But like I said that has been forgotten and we basically rule from on high over all the vampires.”

“Is that why you killed the demon?”

“If I am honest, not really, I killed it because it was a threat to our people. Truth be told I don’t need an excuse to fight. I love fighting. Demons are just actually challenge so it’s more fun. Let’s go look outside while it is light out. If I can see the mountains and the water, I might be able to tell where we are. I also need to figure out when we are.”

“You don’t know when we are?”

“No, I can guess based on the language. I’m no historian I can only go by what I experienced and know from living through it I am guess we are somewhere in Finland or Norway. It depends on what side of the mountains we fell. And I can guess we are somewhere between the 9th and 11th century.”

“I don’t understand.”

Enid nodded.

“You don’t need to Hazel, just let’s go look outside please.”