Epilogue
About five years later…
Violet’s yard was filled with family. All of her aunts were there, along with their spouses and children. Violet’s front door, and her back door were open and people meandered in and out of both sides of the house. A melodic, tinkling laughter caught her attention from across the yard and she turned toward it with a smile on her face, already knowing who it belonged to. Nora. Nora’s laughter always reminded her of perfectly toned wind chimes carrying on a breeze.
Violet watched as Nora’s normally melodic laughter moved to shrieks of laughter, the sound getting more and more intense as three of the kids ambushed her from all sides soaking her through with huge water guns Eileen’s husband, Billy, had brought for them. He’d brought an entire assortment of different sizes and shapes, for not only the kids, but for the adults, too. Nora ran from her nephews and niece who mercilessly watered her down with their water guns, paused beside a wading pool set up for whoever might want to cool off and grabbed up a water gun of her own. She turned on the kids and cackling dramatically began soaking them. The kids screamed and an all out battle ensued.
“I love seeing her laugh.”
Violet smiled at her Aunt Sophie who’d just walked up beside her. “Me, too. Her happiness is infectious.”
“It should be. She waited long enough for it,” Sophie said.
Violet nodded.
“And it’s because of ye that they’ve finally got it,” Sophie said.
“Not at all. It’s because Nora never stopped fighting for what she knew was hers to have,” Violet said.
Sophie smiled at Violet before she hugged her close. “Without ye, Violet, they’d have never survived.”
Violet hugged Sophie back. “Without Othana teaching me how to use the gifts I inherited from all of you…”
“From yer Da, especially,” Sophie pointedly said.
“I’d have never been able to save them. And I’m not fully convinced that Othana didn’t have something to do with it herself.”
“She might have,” Sophie said. “Regardless, though, without ye coming tah find us, making yer home here in the very same cottage it all started in, ye wouldn’t have been here when they needed ye.”
The whine and rumble of motors and taunting shouts broke into their conversation and both paused to look off in the direction of the sound.
“Here they come,” Violet said, grinning.
“I love that they’ve bonded as they have.”
“Me, too. I think they needed a piece of the past with them in the future.”
A few seconds later two ATVs came roaring into sight, both volleying for the lead as their drivers shouted curses at each other laughing raucously.
Violet laughed and clapped her hands at the sight of them. “They are two peas in a pod!” she exclaimed.
Nora stopped soaking the kids with her water gun and shoved both her hands in the air victoriously as she shouted congratulations to her love. “Wooooo! Look at that! Uncle Gorta won!” she yelled excitedly as both ATVs came to a halt on the far side of the yard, far from all the celebrations.
Gorta climbed from his ATV and shoved his own arms in the air mimicking Nora’s. “I won, Nora!” he announced as though everyone didn’t just witness it for themselves.
“It’s because ye cut me off in that last turn!” Cahl complained.
“Only because you can’t drive as well as I,” Gorta answered, snorting with laughter.
Cahl scowled at him. “And who taught ye tah drive?” he demanded.
“Nora did.”
Cahl’s face became a comedic expression of shock. “Nora?! I taught ye tah drive. Me! And what was I thinking when I did it? That’s what I’m wondering now.”
“You were thinking that you’d still be able to beat me. But you were wrong,” Gorta said, leaning closer conspiratorially. “I’m a savage! Better than you ever thought. At everything!” he laughed boisterously at his own joke.
“There’s nothing ye’re better at than me!” Cahl insisted.
“I make a better apple brandy than you do,” Gorta said with a grin. He and Cahl were both from another time where competition and battle were a part of life. They understood the need to let off some of that steam and competing with each other was a great way to do it.
“True, that is true,” Cahl said, draping an arm around Gorta’s shoulders as they approached the rest of the family who were relaxing, enjoying the warm summer day as they celebrated the success of Savage Green Apple Brandy.
“Uncle Gorta! Uncle Gorta! Hold me!” a little girl with silky straight hair and bright blue eyes cried out as they got closer.
“He always holds you. Don’t hold her, come play with us! Aunt Nora is winning, and it’s just not right!” Ozie exclaimed.
“Well, we can’t have that,” Gorta answered. He swept Corrie up in his arms and sat her on his shoulder. “Where are the weapons?” he asked her.
“In the pool,” she answered, delighted that she’d get to be part of the water gun war.
“Then I think the best thing to do is to take the pool. We have all the guns left in the water, and all the water, too. What do you say?” he asked both Corrie and Ozie.
“Yes!” they both yelled excitedly.
Gorta jogged exaggeratedly across the grass to the wading pool, pausing beside Nora to kiss her passionately before releasing her to take possession of the wading pool he hurried to stand in the middle of. “I declare that I am Chieftain of this pool! All the water is mine!”
The kids running around the yard stopped and looked his way, then a unified war cry went up among them as they all charged him, the water battle beginning in earnest.
Nora laughed watching him play with the kids, everyone did.
“Nora! Will you not even help your mate in this the most important battle to date?!” Gorta demanded, feigning dismay.
Nora shot him right between the eyes with the little bit of water left in her gun. “I think instead, I’ll have some of that barbecue Billy’s got ready.”
“Barbecue? Did you make the sausages I like?” Gorta asked, giving up pretending to be Chieftain of the water.
“I did. Did ye bring apple brandy for the rest of us?” Billy countered.
“You know I always do.”
“Well, with it being yer business now, I wasn’t sure,” Billy teased.
Gorta smiled around his prominent tusks. “It still amazes me that people want to pay me for my apples.”
“It’s not the apples they want, it’s the brandy, the liquor ye make with them.”
Gorta smiled. “It’s a good thing I paid attention when my mum taught me how to make it.”
“I still can’t believe ye put yer face on the label,” Cahl said, shaking his head.
“Why not? There are conventions around the world with people dressing up to look like creatures of all types. Some very convincing Orcs out there among them. Why shouldn’t I be able to let them think I’m dressing up to model for the label? And then if I ever choose to, I can go out pretending to be the Savage Orc on the label.”
“I think it’s brilliant! They’d believe it!” Cahl said, to everyone around them who’d gathered to make plates from the dishes placed out on the picnic tables for everyone to enjoy.
“Of course, they will. Don’t you know Orcs aren’t real? It has to be makeup and costume,” Gorta said, grinning as he took a bite of a still hot sausage with grill marks across it. “That’s good,” he said, nodding appreciatively.
“Come get something tah eat!” Cahl yelled to the kids.
“They already ate while the two of ye were pretending tah be race car drivers,” Billy said, taking the rest of the meat off the grill.
“They’re waiting on dessert now,” Sophie said.
“Nora made it. It’s in the refrigerator, I’ll get it,” Violet said. She was back momentarily carrying a huge glass punch bowl, filled with strawberries and blueberries, angel food cake torn into bite-sized pieces, vanilla pudding, and whipped cream all layered together to make a delicious treat.
“Now that looks like something I might be needing,” Gorta said.
Nora had positioned herself at the bowl and was dishing out servings to each of the kids, who lined up in front of her with their paper plates held out before them. When they were all sitting and quietly enjoying their dessert, she served up some for the adults, before taking a bowl for herself and Gorta and walking over to where he waited. He smiled at her as she approached, sitting up straighter in his chair to make room for her to sit on his lap. The desire for her flared in his eyes and she smirked as she sat on his lap. “About time you brought my dessert to me.”
She chuckled at his innuendo and handed him his bowl.
“Wasn’t quite what I meant, but I’ll take it for now,” he said. It took him about thirty seconds to finish his bowl, then set it on the ground beside his chair. When Nora was finished with hers she handed him her bowl to set it inside his on the ground. She sat back, snuggling into his chest as they watched their family enjoying the day. It had been planned to celebrate the sale of their Savage Green Apple Brandy, and the success that came with it. Nora and Gorta had established themselves over the last five years as a craft distillery, and just by chance, the product took off, first in local pubs and later in restaurants across Ireland. It had been a joke to name the liquor Savage Green Apple Brandy, with a likeness of Gorta resplendent in his natural green hued skin and tusks on the label, but it had gotten attention. People loved the quirkiness of it, as well as the product itself. The recipe was one that Gorta had learned as a small child helping his mother in their home, cooking over the hearth, when his father was away on some invasion or another, until he was old enough to accompany his father. He’d noticed the abundance of wild green apples growing around Nora’s home shortly after arriving in her time and started trying to replicate the fermented drink everyone from his village had loved so much. He’d been more successful than he thought when restaurants had come calling, wanting more and more to serve to their customers. The foodies began requesting bottles to take home, and it wasn’t long after that the larger distilleries became interested. The money they’d made from the sale of the product and the recipe would carry not only them, but their relations — all of them — for the rest of their lives and beyond, even if they chose to live lavishly. But the important part was that Gorta was filled with pride that he was able to make life a little easier for everyone in their family.
Gorta smiled as he looked around at all the people he now considered family. He loved these people, would die for these people, not that it would ever come to it in these times, but if ever it did, he would. He smiled at Violet who walked past him on her way to get another bowl of the dessert his Nora had made, winking at her as she lifted a finger to her lips to tease about not telling anybody she was having seconds. Violet held a special place in his heart, and in Nora’s, too. She’d been the one to save them both, risking her own health and that of her unborn child, Corrie, to use her magics to heal them. He would be forever grateful.
His gaze fell on the cottage, the very same cottage he’d first claimed Nora in, in another world, another time. Only it wasn’t a cottage anymore. It had been expanded and now had multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, and easily comfortably housed the family that lived there — Violet’s family. And that had him thinking of his and Nora’s home that was walking distance away. They’d expanded that as well, but it wasn’t nearly as large as Violet’s. A couple of bedrooms only, and that suited them just fine. They’d made plans to enclose the entire property with security fencing just inside the natural barriers of the forests and the river that encircled the land, and that would be happening soon. No one would ever get in that didn’t belong there. He’d be safe to live out his life there among his people without interference from the outside world.
“What are ye thinking about?” Nora asked, from her place resting against him.
“I’m thinking of all the gifts I’ve been given.”
Nora smiled against his chest.
“It’s hard to imagine the life I once led,” he admitted.
“Was it too much tah give up?” Nora asked.
“Never. I’d do it all again, day after day after day. I’m happy here. So very happy, my Nora. I had no idea what you were offering me. I wish I’d just accepted it and come with you when you first asked.”
Nora smiled at him. “We’re here now, that’s all that matters,” she said, kissing his lips quickly.
Gorta lifted a hand and traced the scar across her throat with a fingertip.
“Stop. I’m fine. Ye’re fine. Everything happens for a reason. Maybe we needed tah come close tah losing it all, tah appreciate that we got a last chance.”
“It was too close,” he said, his voice husky with emotion.
“We both made it, though. And we’ve got a life tah be envied.”
“That we do,” he agreed.
“Can I sit with you?” Corrie asked, wandering over and standing before Gorta and Nora. She’d always been drawn to the two of them, and they’d often talked about how it might be because she was still in her mother’s belly when she’d healed them, or maybe even other magics at work that placed her close enough for them to be able to love her and watch her grow.
“You want to sit with us?” Gorta teased.
“Yes,” she said, blinking her eyes furiously at them as she peeked through her lashes. “Mum said don’t bother you, but I’m not bothering,” she insisted.
“Corrie!” Violet called from her seat closer to the wading pool.
“It’s fine!” Nora said, waving Violet off.
“I don’t want her bothering you,” Violet said.
“She doesn’t!” Nora answered.
“Ye’re not ever a bother,” Nora said, picking up the little girl she and Gorta had always been partial to, and sitting her on her lap.
Gorta kissed the child’s head, then Nora’s. “I’ve got more than I ever dreamed I’d have. Thank you, Nora. You saved me, and I didn’t even know I needed saving.”
Nora kissed his cheek, looking lovingly into his eyes. “It was ye who saved me, too, don’t forget.”
“Well, I couldn’t very well be saved and end up alone. I had to save you,” he said, like she should have known that, and trying his best to hide his smug grin.
“I think I might save someone one day, too,” Corrie said dreamily.
Nora and Gorta smiled as they looked at each other, then at Corrie. “You already have, little one. You already have.”
The End
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