Fenrik’s Fate (Abandoned on Niflheim)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

TRACY

I ’d never seen or heard of anything like whatever Fenrik said he was. An orc? He looked like the Incredible Hulk, but less cartoony. And hotter. He was enormous. I could tell even as he sat that he’d tower over me. He had big white tusks jutting from either side of his lower lip and long black hair that gave off a Fabio vibe. I didn’t hate it. The sclera of his eyes was light gold, and the irises a nice shade of hazel. From the expression on his face, I gathered he was very concerned. I waited for him to say something. Eventually, the silence got to be too much.

“Let’s get this straight. You’re on the run from your tribe for refusing to marry the chief’s daughter. I’ve been dumped here by some high-tech aliens for being drunk and I have no way home because you don’t even have MTV here. So, we’re basically stuck together?” I asked.

“I think that covers everything.” His face grew even more concerned.

“You didn’t have a plan when you fled from your tribe?” He must be insane. Who runs with no backup plan?

“Other than not marrying the chief’s daughter, no plan. I can’t go to the other tribes on Niflheim because my tribe doesn’t have the best reputation, so I fled with nowhere to go. I was backed into a corner.”

I couldn’t really blame him. I'd also fled, but I at least had the basics of a plan: taking an Amtrak, paying in cash I’d slowly secreted away. But I understood the need to run. All things considered, even here on an alien planet I was in a better situation than I was the year before.

At first, the marriage had been tolerable. Gabe was nice enough to look at, in the boring white kid way most of us in my small town were. His parents were friends with my parents. We all grew up in the same church. We all were the epitome of corn-fed, white America. Our parents put the down payment on a small house a few neighborhoods over from theirs. Gabe worked at his dad’s construction company, and I was supposed to be a homemaker.

Only, I didn’t want any kids. Or—I didn’t want kids with a man I was completely apathetic about. I was on the fence about the whole Christianity thing. The church was insistent that all children were a blessing. I was never outwardly disobedient, but I wasn’t going to bring a child into a world I was miserable in. That was a step too far. I was forward-thinking enough to tell Gabe I needed to see the doctor before we were married to make sure everything was in working order. I drove two towns away and went to Planned Parenthood and gave them a fake name. I got a prescription for birth control and a six-month supply.

That worked fine for the first six months. The sex was fine and consensual but incredibly dull. It was when I went to get another six-month supply that things went south. I’d told Gabe that I’d wanted to go to the thrift store two towns over and that was why I needed our shared car, but he seemed skeptical. His skepticism grew when I came home with no clothes. He snatched my purse from me and fished out the birth control. To say he was livid would be an understatement.

I never would have guessed he was capable of violence, but when I packed a small bag that night while he slept, I had a black eye to prove it. I took our car to the Amtrak station, bought a ticket to someplace that sounded warm, and left the car in the parking lot. That’s how I ended up working at a shitty diner in San Diego. At least I was free—one of the lucky ones who got out at the first sign of real trouble. From my new home, I could see the ocean every day and come and go as I pleased. When I was in San Diego, there was a small voice in the back of my head that still worried about Gabe finding me. I guess that was one less thing to worry about now.

I looked at Fenrik with my head cocked to the side. “You know, I was on the run, too, when I was abducted.”

“From who?”

“My husband.”

“What’s a husband?”

“Like a partner? Someone you live with? Have babies with?”

“Ah, a mate,” he said, like I had any idea what that was. “Why were you running from your mate? Were you fated?”

I didn’t have a clue what “fated” meant, but I definitely didn’t think I was anything like that to Gabe.

“We don’t have fated mates where I’m from—just marriage. I never wanted to marry him. My parents picked him for me. It was fine for a while, but when he found out I was taking birth control because I didn’t want to have babies with him, he hit me,” I explained flatly. It hurt less the faster I got it out.

“He hit you?” Fenrik looked outraged, his fists clenching in anger.

“Yep. Right in my left eye. I packed a bag and left that night.”

“Is he still looking for you?”

“I have no idea. I guess it doesn’t matter now. He isn’t going to find me here.” I gave him a sad smile.

“So we were both running from mates we didn’t want,” he said, brows raised high into his hairline.

“I guess we have that in common, though I’m still trying to understand how mates work for you guys. Like, how do you know you’ve found the right one?” I scrunched up my face, trying to figure out how that would work.

“Here, it is someone you are bonded to for life—they can be chosen by each other or the fates. Fated mates are called Elska mates. Matching mate marks appear on your back signaling you’ve found your fated mate. I’d always wanted to find my Elska…” He trailed off and shook himself as if realizing he’d shared more than he’d intended.

Fenrik sat quietly in thought for a long time—so long that I started to feel awkward. “Can I ask what you are thinking?”

Fenrik stood and started pacing around the small space, filling it with nervous energy. “I am trying to decide what to do to help you, but I don’t know that my returning to my tribe with you is a good idea.” He paused. “Actually, I know it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to return at this point. Do you want to go to my tribe on your own and see if they will take you in?” He asked.

“Are you crazy? Hell no. If they were ready to kill you over not marrying someone, they don’t seem like my kind of people—er, orcs.”

“Well, I don’t want to return, but I don’t want you stuck here with me.” He threw up his hands in exasperation and stopped his pacing.

I was putting my foot down. After a life of being forced into things I didn’t want to do, I wasn’t going to his tribe. It sounded like a very similar life to the one I’d already run from. “I’m not leaving.” I crossed my arms over my chest, decision made.

“So you’re just going to stay here with me. A stranger that is a different species? How do you know I am not secretly plotting to kill you and eat you?”

He did have a point. I strummed my fingers against my lips. “I think if you were going to murder me, you would have done it by now. It would make the most sense to do it when I was unconscious.” Truthfully, he seemed trustworthy up to this point, and it wasn’t like I had other options. It was him—or braving the wilderness.

“Do you know how to hunt?”

“That would be a no.” But I added pathetically, “I know how to cook, though.”

“That should be enough. I can cook basic meals, but if I am doing the hunting, having you help with the cooking would be good. My mother is the tribe’s herbalist, so I know all the edible plants. It sounds like we have what it takes to survive while we figure out a long-term plan.”

“Well, what now?” I asked.

“I am going to hunt. There’s no food in this cabin. Meat is most important. If I can bring down something large, it could feed us for quite a while.”

“Can I come with you?” I didn’t like the idea of being left alone in the cabin.

“You aren’t quite dressed for hunting,” he said, giving my neon dress a once over.

“Well, I should do something useful while you are off getting us food.” I wasn’t going to let this man—er—orc be in charge of me. Been there, done that.

“What do you think you could do that would be helpful to us staying here for a while?”

I wasn’t used to being given this kind of agency. I had to think. Though I loathed the idea of domestic chores because it reminded me of my former life, it was probably the most useful thing I could do.

“I could clean the place. If we are going to stay here, we don’t need to stay in dust.”

“Is that what you want to do?” he asked, looking at me doubtfully.

“No. But it needs doing. I’d like to learn how to forage for food with you so I can take that on, but it can wait until after you’ve gone hunting. Plus some time alone might be good for me to clear my head. See if I can remember anything else that happened between the bathroom at the club and now. I like that you are giving me a choice of what to do, though.That’s new.” As I said it out loud, I knew it was exactly what I needed—some time to gather my thoughts. I’d thought fleeing to San Diego was a huge change and now I was apparently on an entirely different planet? My brain was whirring with all the incoming information. Quiet time to process would be good. I nodded to myself, decision made, but I realized Fenrik was still staring at me.

“Your husband ordered you to do things, and you’d do them?”

“Oh, yeah.” It took me a minute to remember where the conversation had stopped. “He was the head of the house. I was to be wife and mother.”

Fenrik’s look was so pitying I wanted to curl up into a ball.

“It’s over now. I’m free. Really free. Go, hunt. I’ll make this place livable like a good homemaker.” I grimaced.

“Promise you won’t wander far if you go outside. I don’t want you getting lost.” He stood and pulled on his boots. Wow, he was really tall. And muscular.

“I won’t travel far. I promise. I need the space to think, and we need food. This is the best plan for the day.”

He raised his brows knowingly. “You’ve already proven you’re a runner.”

I guess I had just explained to him how I fled from Gabe. “I won’t run. You haven’t given me any reason to. I also could use the time to decide if I actually believe you aren’t going to murder and eat me. You seem pretty normal but also look like the Hulk, so I haven’t decided yet.”

“The what?” he asked, as he walked around the cabin gathering hunting supplies.

“Never mind, just go hunt. Let me clean house while I sort out that my life just got turned upside down for a second time.” I was moments away from telling him to shoo when he headed out the door.

I needed space. Fenrik gave me one last concerned look before shutting the door behind him. Once I was sure he was gone, I wandered around the cabin, gaining my bearings. It hadn’t been used in a long time. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of cleaning supplies they had. I looked through the kitchen area and was surprised to find a relatively solid-looking broom. It was a start.

I started in the living area and attacked it with vigor while I thought about what had happened to me in the last… twenty-four hours? I had no way of knowing how long I was unconscious or even what day it was. I checked my armpits. Still pretty freshly shaved, so it couldn’t have been more than a day. Did I believe I had been abducted and was now on an alien planet?

I tried repeatedly to remember anything after the club bathroom. And there was nothing. It was blank. I knew very little about Fenrik, but if this was the level of technology this planet had, I knew he didn’t abduct me. I was surprised they had running water—no electricity, but running water.

I continued cleaning, finding cloths folded neatly in one of the cupboards that I could use to wipe down the surfaces. The couch was dusty, but I couldn’t do much more than try removing the worst part. Then I moved to the bedroom. The bedding was a twisted mess from where I had rolled around at night, trying to stay warm. Not having a washing machine, I decided the best would be to shake it outside to remove the dust and musty smell. I cleaned off a small porch railing, then hung the bedding over it so it could at least get some fresh air. It was cold outside—it felt like early fall in Colorado. My bare feet were freezing on the porch. I hopped back and forth as I hung the blankets out. They would be chilly when I brought them back in, but at least they wouldn’t be musty. I worked quickly. I was still in nothing but my borrowed pink dress. I couldn’t run even if I wanted to.

I went back inside and realized I’d run out of work to do. The cabin was as clean as I would get it without better cleaning supplies. It was probably mid-afternoon, and I didn’t know the last time I had eaten. My stomach was starting to protest, but there wasn’t anything I could do but wait for Fenrik to return.

I wandered around the cabin, aimlessly picking up things and putting them down. I tried to find anything else to clean, but there was nothing.

That’s fine . I can sit and wait .

I sat on the freshly cleaned couch with my hands in my lap. I was used to being useful, sitting with nothing to do was outside my comfort zone. I managed a whole fifteen minutes of just sitting before I started to spiral. I didn’t know Fenrik. The rational part of my brain was telling me to just be patient and wait for him to return as he promised he would, but the small voice in the back of my mind saying that he’d just left me in the cabin and moved on was getting louder and louder.

What if he went back to his tribe and never returned for me? What if he was lying and left me here so he could figure out his own problems?

I was more of a burden than anything else. He was at least capable. He could make his way on this planet without worrying about me. Maybe he left me here because it was the easiest option, and he would try to find another tribe to live with or see if his tribe would take him back. I wavered back and forth. He’d only helped me thus far and had given me no reason not to trust him. But then again, ever since I left home, who could I trust?