Chapter 3
Gorta cautiously stepped close enough to the steep river bank to look down and see the witch near the water. Only she wasn’t there. Surprised that she wasn’t there, when she left her home with her pail in hand, he quietly made his way down to the river’s edge, looking for evidence that she’d been there. She’d only had a five or six minute lead on him by the time he’d followed her back here, and he should have either met her on the path, or found her still here. As he looked down at the prints on the edge of the river, he realized there was no way to tell the prints from earlier today, from the prints of just a few moments ago. They were all filled with water splashed across them. He stood there examining them, until he noticed one thing. A single hollowed area about an inch in diameter beside every second footprint.
Slowly a smile formed on his lips. It was the stick she carried. She was using it as a walking stick, and the small little hollows it made in the wet ground led off in a direction up river from where he stood. She hadn’t had it with her when he’d first seen her earlier in the day, so he knew he was on the right path to finding her. Careful to not progress too quickly and walk right up on her, he followed her prints, then when they disappeared up the grassy bank and into the woods, he continued in the direction he thought she’d moved in and kept a keen eye for any indication he was on the right path.
It didn’t take long for her voice to let him know where she was. Her habit of speaking to herself pinpointed for Gorta exactly which way she’d turned, and led him directly to her. He got as close as he dared before he squatted down, making himself smaller and less easily seen. He spent the better part of twenty minutes moving only inches at a time, and when he finally managed to get close enough to lay eyes on her, he watched quietly as she walked through the woods laying her hands first on one tree, then another, as she closed her eyes and whispered to them. She walked through a maze of other growth between the large, thick trees she sought, glaring at the varying brambles and trees between the larger ones she seemed to favor as she went.
“What’s happened tah ye?” she asked one of them, stroking the tree’s bark. “I thought yer clearing would still be here.” She stood back and looked up to the highest branch of the tree, towering over her. “It’s okay. I’m here now. I’ll clear all the clutter from the circle.”
The leaves of the tree seemed to flutter in response.
The female petted the tree again and moved to the next, then the next, and the next until she’d personally touched and spoken to each of the largest trees in this section of the forest. She seemed familiar with the area, and yet puzzled at its appearance. She chose a spot near one of the large trees and began to pull up the smaller saplings standing in its shadow. There were more established trees that she wasn’t able to simply pull up, but he had a feeling she’d address those soon if she was at all able. Giving up on them for the moment, she began to kick at the decaying leaves at her feet, and scrape the ground with her walking stick as she did her best to clear small swaths of ground.
Now that Gorta could see her, hear her, he was content to sit quietly and watch her. And that’s exactly what he did, until he noticed the leaves behind her begin to shift without her touching them at all. He stood slowly as the ground continued to move, the leaves seeming to slither and fall to the side. His eyes widened and he shouted a warning just as she turned toward the mound of leaves he’d been watching move of their own volition and tried to shove them away with her walking stick.
The stick made contact with the snake beneath the leaves.
The snake curled itself into the perfect strike position.
The female sucked in a breath of surprise and tried to jump back out of the reach of the striking snake, Gorta lunged forward with his battle axe in hand, instinctively raising it and letting it take flight from his hand all in the same motion, as he grabbed the female off her feet and spun her away from the snake, taking a giant leap and removing them from the danger she inadvertently stirred up by disturbing its nest.
They landed well beyond the collection of large trees she’d been speaking to and rolled a few times before coming to a stop. Gorta held her close to his body, his huge hands cradling her and protecting her from injury as they hit the ground and rolled. “Damn it, female! You have to do better than that! Pay attention to what you’re stirring up while digging about in the forest! If I’d not been here, that serpent could have ended you!” he shouted while looking over his shoulder to be sure his axe had hit its mark. The adrenaline rushed through Gorta’s body at the idea that the only female to make him feel anything since the loss of his wife could have been struck down thanks to carelessly poking around in the forest.
“Gorta,” she whispered, as she lay in his arms, looking up at his face.
He looked down at the woman in his arms. “Did you not hear me?!”
“Ye’re here,” she said, her eyes filling with tears as the reality of what was happening began to work its way through her brain.
“And a good thing I am! You could have died in the forest, no one here to even try to save you, no one to even mourn you!”
She still lay in his arms, listening to him shout at her, her tear-filled eyes looking into his, then searching his face before looking into his eyes again.
His brows came down over his eyes when he realized she’d called him by name. “You know my name?” he asked, confusion permeating his tone.
“I know everything about ye. I know yer name, I know yer heart, the way ye feel, the way ye taste. I came back for ye. I came back tah save ye, and this time, I’ll be able tah do it!” Nora’s hands rested on his cheeks as she pulled him closer and pressed her lips to his.
At first he tensed, but then gave in to the sensation and kissed her back.
“We’ll be okay this time. I’m not too late this time,” she whispered against his lips. “We’ll make it home.”
Gorta was losing himself in kissing her, but when her words registered he stopped and pulled his face away enough to look down at her. “What are you saying? It makes no sense.”
She was laughing and crying as her hands still cupped his face. “We’re alive, we’re both alive, and we have time tah get home safely. It’s all over. We’ll be together now. We’ll be happy.”
“What are you rambling on about? I don’t need saving, female. But you obviously did! And thank the fates that I was here, or you’d be dead!”
Gorta pushed himself up off of Nora and strode over to where the snake now lay in pieces. He grabbed his battle axe in one hand, and half the snake with the other. “You’d think being a witch you’d be a little more in tune with the creatures around you.”
“I was focused. I didn’t notice it.”
“It’s safe now. The nest is just eggs. I’ll destroy them so there won’t be any more of them to bite you later when I’m gone.”
“Or ye could just move them tah another location.”
“So could you,” he answered.
“Okay,” she said on a shrug. She was sitting on the ground watching him closely. He displayed none of the mannerisms of a male finally reunited with his mate after having failed time and time again, and it was killing her. She knew he didn’t know her. She’d prepared for this, but in the excitement of the moment had forgotten. “Ye don’t know me.”
“Of course, I don’t know you.”
“Then how did ye happen tah be here when I needed ye?”
“I was watch…” he started to declare that he was watching her, but caught himself. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I was. I’ll be on my way now,” he said defensively, throwing the snake back to the ground and wiping his battle axe against a tree to clear it of the bit of blood that was smeared across its blade. “Mind the head. It can inflict a bite though it’s no longer breathing.”
“Have ye wondered why ye’re drawn tah me. Why ye feel the need tah watch me, stay near me?”
He focused sharp eyes on her. “How do you know that?”
“Because I’m yers.”
“I don’t know you female, you can’t be mine.”
“Then how do ye explain it?” she asked tiredly.
“The excitement of the moment, it makes you feel closer to…”
“The excitement of the moment wouldn’t tell me yer name. It wouldn’t tell me that ye”re Chieftain of yer clan, it wouldn’t tell me that they kill ye over and over again, and it wouldn’t have me racing through time tah try tah save ye despite the fact that ye always, always die. Every time I find ye, I’m just a minute too late and ye die in me arms as ye murmur me name every single time!” she screamed at him, her voice rising near the end of her sentence with every word she spoke.
He watched her, the pain in her eyes, the tears streaming down her face, the desperation in every cell of her body. She even spoke differently from anyone he’d ever met, a strange rhythm and accent to the words. He didn’t understand why she was saying the things she did, but he understood the emotion, what she believed to be the truth behind the words she spoke. He walked over to her and squatted down before her. “Tell me what you believe is happening.”
“Ye’re Gorta. There was a time ye had a wife. She died with child. It broke yer heart and nothing else mattered to ye. Ye fought yer way up tah Chieftain of yer clan, and ye run it the best way ye know how. Yer people are fed. Yer people are safe, and ye balance them between the old ways tah keep the elders in check and the brutality of the new ways tah keep those of yer generation in check.” She looked him in the eye as she reached out and laid a hand on his forearm. “Ye keep yer own magics hidden from them.”
His expression went blank and he stood up, taking a step back from her. “I have no magics! You’re the witch!”
“I’m not a witch, I just happen tah be able tah manipulate a bit of nature around me.”
“Isn’t that what a witch is?” he asked.
Nora smiled. “I suppose. But ye”re much more powerful than I am.”
“If what you say is true, why would I need you to save me?” he asked, not admitting that he had any special powers or not.
“Because it’s yer own clan that turns on ye. They strike ye down while ye are battling against a village ye’ve been trying tah overpower. Ye fall from an injury ye’d normally recover from, but yer men take advantage of yer momentary weakness tah attack ye, and they kill ye. I always arrive just in time tah hold ye as ye leave the world. Ye look into my eyes, and ye say, ‘Nora, why didn’t you come sooner?’. And that is why I’m here. I came for ye. I always come for ye. But things are different this time, and I think it’s our last chance. If I can’t save ye this time, I don’t think I’ll get another chance.” She stopped speaking and sat for a second with her gaze on the ground at his feet, exhausted already from trying to convince him of what they meant to each other.
“Nora — it’s a fitting name for you. Soft, yet strong and gentle,” he said softly, moving closer to her and kneeling down in front of her again so that he could look into her eyes. He stared into them for what felt like forever, then he reached out and pushed her hair from her face. “I’ve seen your eyes in my dreams,” he admitted.
“Ye have?” she asked hopefully.
“I have. But they’re filled with tears and I can hear a woman screaming for me to stay with her. Then I hear my own voice saying the very words you just said… ‘Nora, why didn’t you come sooner?’”
“I can’t watch ye die again. I know ye don’t hold all the memories I do. I know that each time it’s new and bewildering and so confusing for ye. But this time, I need ye tah trust me. I need ye tah allow me tah take ye tah my home. I need ye tah trust me tah make this right.”
Gorta plopped down on his butt right where he’d been kneeling. He scooted closer to Nora. “I see you,” he said, staring into her eyes.
Her brows bunched together as she returned his gaze. “I see ye, too.”
He shook his head as if to brush away her reply.
She didn’t understand what he was trying to say.
“I need to ask you something, Nora. And I’ll be needing the absolute truth.”
Nora nodded. “Ask me.”
“You’re my wife, aren’t you? It was you that I lost, only you weren’t the same as you are now.”
Nora thought about it, not sure how to answer. Oh, she knew the answer, but what she didn’t know was the how. “I had this dream… I was living, loving, happy. I had everything. But in that dream I died. My child, the babe I’d wanted so badly died with me, and the bellows and moans of me beloved husband filled me ears as I moved tah the next life. I didn’t want tah leave him, it crippled me tah leave him, but the fates gave me no choice. I had other things I had tah prepare for, but I refused, screaming for all I’d lost. I vowed that I’d never stop searching for my love. They relented and gave me another chance. But only if I could save him this time.” She sat quietly for a few moments, remembering. “It was only ever a dream tah me, a dream that I had often. Then one morning I woke from that dream in me early twenties, and never dreamed it again, but I remember it like it was yesterday. And I feel it like it was real. I don’t remember me husband’s face from that dream, but I feel him. Me soul says it was ye. It’s always been ye. Since I was a little girl I’ve dreamed of ye in some way or another.” She fisted her hand and pounded it to her own chest. “I’ve lived lifetimes in yer arms, Gorta!” she cried. “We aren’t always the same but we’re always together. Me soul knows that in all my lives, from the first one until right now, I’ve been yers. It occurred to me a long time ago that maybe they’re not dreams, they’re memories. I don’t understand the hows of it. I don’t understand the whys, except that maybe, no matter how many times they give us tah get life right, we always, always look for each other. The dreams were gone, and the memories weren’t enough, so soon after the dreams stopped, I started trying to find ye, moving through time tah track you down. I gave up so much, and caused my family heartache they didn’t deserve. But I couldn’t stop. I had to find ye. And I did! I find ye over and over again, but I’m too late. In those last moments ye always know me! So, it can’t be just me imagination. If it was, ye wouldn’t know me, ye wouldn’t know me at all. But ye do. And maybe this is the first time I’ve ended up back in the right time, in the right life, to be able tah have a real chance at taking me place at yer side again.”
Gorta smiled and reached for her, pulling her into his arms. “What I’m hearing is yes. What I’m feeling is yes. For the first time since I lost you, I don’t feel alone anymore. The pain is gone. I feel whole.”
Nora closed her eyes and held onto him, crying softly as her tears soaked his shoulder. “It’s so hard tah understand. But I’ve been trying tah get here, tah this time, tah this life for twenty-five years. And each time that I found ye, I had tah let ye go again.”
“Not this time, my Nora. Not this time. All will be well, you’ll see.”