As the days went by, Bojana filled Jovan in on the aspects of his apparent new reality. From what he could determine, he had somehow woken up in the 14th Century. He was in his grandmother's family home which was occupied by an ancestor who bore an uncanny resemblance to his dear late grandmother, Bojana. Somehow, he was revered as Jovan the Valiant, the brave man he looked up to and had dreamed of becoming for the better part of his childhood. And THAT, aside from everything else, was the part he had the most trouble accepting.
"I assure You, I am no hero," Jovan mumbled to Bojana in the old Albanian dialect as he leaned back against the side of the stone fireplace one evening.
"We are all born heroes to someone in Our life, my dear boy. Most understand it, but some need to discover it for themselves before they can accept this universal truth." Bojana spoke calmly in the old Albanian dialect as she finished tailoring the clothes in her hands.
"I may have believed that at some point in my life, but reality stripped that notion from my imagination," Jovan replied as he watched and admired Bojana's skillful hands.
"Reality did not strip it from You; it set it loose. What remains in Your heart is the desire for truth and righteousness. Those values matter... more than You realize." Bojana spoke without taking her eyes off of the needle and thread she was using and paid keen attention to the changes in Jovan's tone of voice.
"Not where I come from," Jovan sighed heavily and looked into the flames of the fire flickering in the fireplace.
"Then all the better that You showed up where and when You are needed." Saying so, Bojana bit off the thread at the seam she had just finished. She set the needle and thread aside on the kitchen table and handed a topcoat kaftan, intricately embroidered with plain black thread and leather beading, to Jovan. "Now, try this on."
"Looks like next Spring's fashion staple," Jovan announced with amusement. Once he put it on, though, he had to admit that Bojana's alterations caused the knee-length coat to feel as if it were sown just for him.
"What is a fashion staple?" Bojana asked, baffled.
"It serves me right to bring it up. Fashion is the style of clothes You wear together. A fashion staple is sort of like the main part of the clothes You put together," Jovan explained as he tried to stretch his shoulders back and forth to gauge the way he would be able to move while wearing the coat.
"Why on earth would anyone care what clothes go together? You wear what keeps You warm and covered," Bojana shook her head in a mocking way.
"You have no idea how happy it makes me feel to hear You say that." Jovan laughed. It truly felt great to speak with someone who cared even less about clothes than he did.
Their conversation was cut short by a sudden sound coming from outside. Jovan narrowed his eyebrows as his gut turned, guided by his instinct. However, Bojana did not seem too alarmed.
"Would You mind going out there and seeing if Anil brought everything I asked him for? I am a bit beat on my feet." Bojana pointed toward the door and asked Jovan politely yet with the expectation of her request being followed.
"Sure thing. I will." He adjusted the coat he was still wearing and walked out the door.
He took one step over the threshold into the cold air and paused. The scene he saw unfolding before him both boiled and froze his blood. His gut was right a moment ago and he realized it immediately.
He saw three horsemen, tall, robust, and armed to their teeth. They surrounded the figure of a man who stood between the horsemen. The man was outnumbered, defenseless, and about to be attacked. Just like Jovan himself had been when he faced his superiors back at the Navy Seals Headquarters. And if there was one thing Jovan hated more than being betrayed, it was witnessing attacks on defenseless people.
Without a heartbeat of hesitation, Jovan walked right up to the horsemen and stood in their path, protecting the frightened and trembling man standing in between them. Fully aware that the horsemen did not speak a cup of English, Jovan spoke up in the old Albanian dialect with a one-word command and a wave of his hand told the horsemen to dismount. Two horsemen listened, but one did not. Just as well, Jovan thought to himself. Cowards always hid behind foolish frontmen.
Jovan narrowed his eyes and calculated which man to take out first, nodding to himself. He launched at the horsemen with such force and precision that they did not know where his fists had come from. He crouched down and knocked both of them off of their feet in one swift move. It took less than a dozen precise punches after that and men were down and out in the blink of an eye. He turned his gaze toward the last horseman who had moved out of the way and off to the side, still atop his horse. The horseman did not look at him once though. He kept his eyes on the scared figure of the man standing behind Jovan.
"My quarrel is not with You, traveler. It is with her," said the horseman, pointing his sword at the person standing behind Jovan.
"Her?!?" Jovan exclaimed, shocked. He turned and looked back. His gut twisted in a million little knots the moment he saw the most breathtaking set of brown eyes he had ever seen in his life, hidden under thick eyebrow-length bangs.
"Move aside, fool! Or I'll end both of You!" The horseman shouted in a thunderous tone booming through the trees surrounding Bojana's hut.
"The only thing that will end is Your foolish assumption that I am someone You can order around, along with Your assumption that I am a traveler," Jovan replied in a stoic voice he always reverted to when facing an enemy. He moved one arm behind him to shield the woman he had suddenly chosen to defend at all cost.
"As You wish, fool. It will be my pleasure to end Your puny existence." The horseman reached behind his back, pulled out an arrow, and shot it in their direction. The arrow pierced through Jovan's shoulder and hit the woman's chest. She fell down unconscious on the white snow.
"Big mistake, dude! Big mistake!" Jovan snarled at the horseman, both from pain and the sudden fury that filled his gut for what the horseman had just done.
The horseman dismounted from his horse and launched himself at Jovan saying, "I warned You, traveler! Now I'll end You as well!"
Jovan tipped his head to the side, gauging the most favorable approach, and hurled himself at the man. They fought fiercely and breathlessly. Jovan had to admit that the man he faced was skilled, strong and fought in a way hard to predict to the point where his mouth began to bleed, his shoulder hurt. And his opponent knew that.
The moment Jovan was about to launch his final attempt at the horseman, something stirred in the bushes causing him to lose his concentration. The horseman attacked at once, piercing Jovan's side with his sword, and Jovan went down right on top of the unconscious woman. The horseman laughed and snarled out in victory. He laughed even harder when a defenseless forest rabbit hopped out of the bushes.
The horseman wiped the blood off his sword, mounted his horse, and spat into the snow beside Jovan which had begun to turn into vivid shades of red. He rode away basking in his victory. Unaware that he had not won, he had only prolonged his own misery...
YOU ARE READING
THE TIDES OF TIME
Romance⚔️ "Being born and raised to respect life and its rules, Jovan Galanis made something of himself. He was ambitious, outgoing, disciplined, and righteous to his very core. His parents died when he was a young boy, and having been raised by his Macedo...
