The Prophetess *COMPLETED*

Chapter 11

I woke up with Thora shaking me gently. I looked around me wildly. "Where is he?" She withdrew my sweaty hair off my face and looked at me sadly. "He did not want to say goodbye. He left already." My heart seized and stuttered for a long moment. "Is there time?" Can I still see him, my heart wanted o demand.

"If you hurry, there might be." I jumped up, wincing at the excruciatingly sore muscles. I quickly washed myself and dressed up in a green tunic, pants and boots. I saddled a horse, and two men flanking me, quickly explaining they were my guards, Throst's orders, I rode as fast as I could to our village harbour. Throst was boarding the boat when he heard the sound of people jumping away from my running horse. I stopped near him and dismounted swiftly. I looked at him without speaking. He had wanted to leave without a word, l would let him, but I'd stay here and watch.

He walked towards me in a blur, and held me to his chest. "Forgive me. I don't like saying goodbye."

"Then do not, my lord. Just promise to return quickly."

"I do not make promises I am not sure I cannot keep. But I promise to try. I want to be here to see our child enter this world."

I held him tight to me and remembering, I withdrew my gift. "Thora said your natal day is this month. I have been working on something for you." I withdrew a necklace from my pocket, a piece of wood I had been working on in secret. It was a hammer, like all men carried, but I refined it a bit more, crafting the edges lovingly, and on the side of the hammer facing the skin, there were Thora's name, Thorin's and mine. He read the minute script and for a moment, I thought I saw a tear in his eye. He knelt on the floor, and we stood almost face to face. He withdrew from his neck the Mjolnir he was using and changed it for mine. He then put his one on my neck lovingly. "So you can have another part of me with you while I am gone." He kissed me hard and walked to the boat without turning back. Throst gave the orders and the veil unfolded. I wanted to scream, to beg him to stay, but I held myself tightly in control, lest his last image of me would be of a crying, weak woman. When the ship sailed from view, the men's children cried, and the wifes joked and laughed about a moment without men. Several around me started inviting each other to dinners and walks, but underneath the jokes and laughter, they were nervous, moved stiffly and and were pale. I walk towards the horse, but my vision started fading and I fell down into darkness.

"Little sister, you have to take better care of yourself." I heard. A cup of ale touched my lips and I drank thirstily. I opened my swollen eyes to see I was back in the house, in the same furs I had woken up that same morning.

"How are you feeling?" She held her hand against my head and murmured to herself about pregnant women, hormones and stupid men's wars.

"Hungry." My stomach growled and she laughed. Thora served me lamb from yesterday, with peas, gravy and greens. I ate it all but still felt hungry. Feeling better, I served myself, this time with fish stuffed with mushrooms, spinach and herbs, another gobled of ale and more gravy. Thora just watched me eat with a smile on her lips.

"You used to eat almost nothing. It is good to see you with good appetite, sister."

"It's the babe. It's making me ravenous. I do not even desire food, so worried I am with Throst." I answered while stuffing my face. When I felt satisfied, I washed my face and hands, then sat down in the dorstep. The women looked at me and a thought struck me, hard.

"Thora, who will lead the village while the men are gone?"

"You, of course. You're the chief's wife, you lead."

"Me? I am naught but a foreigner." I panicked.

"And yet, you've saved Brye, you helped when the homes were destroyed, you helped the women with potions, and healing their young. Trust me, Tyra, you are well suited to the task. Is it not like being a wife in a large estate on your native land?" At her honest assessment, I felt the panic fade. It was exactly the same. I walked towards the other houses and the women treat me as always. With the men gone, we had to plant the fields on our own, and we spent the rest of the day deciding who was suited to each task. I tried to include myself on several tasks, but I was gently but firmly put aside, with the argument that while they knew and praised me for being a hard worker, I was now three months along, and I had to conserve energy for the babe. Protests were quickly shushed with the reminder of the morning's fainting in the harbour.