"Her brother and not her father?' The man puzzled, then exclaimed: "Signi? You seek to court the incomparable Signi? Thorn would cut your heart out if he knew you l.u.s.ted after her."

"Not if I did so within the bounds of matrimony. That would make it acceptable, even for the great Lord Thorn."

"It is risky, even the High King respects and seeks the Lord Thorn's counsel. He is no man to play for a fool."

"I agree, he is a dangerous man, but I am determined to deal with him in an open and honest fashion. It is the only possible way I can hope to win her hand and live. Signi is loyal to her family and their code of honor. You must admit, she is a beauty and well worth the effort."

"She has a dowry large enough to attract any suitor she wants, and they say her brother has promised her free choice. She will choose only a man she can love they say. Nor is the Lady Signi anyone's fool, as for the rest, I am eminently lovable but enough of this. It is time we moved on if we expect to make the next town by nightfall. I have no intention of staying in this town. The people here are too suspicious of strangers."

"They also have been informed of the raids, nor are we all that far away. I cannot blame them for their wariness."

As far as Aura was concerned, the men had long over stayed their welcome, despite their lesson in language. She was stiff from maintaining her perch in the tree, she was hungry as she had not eaten since morning, and she was beginning to feel chilled because of the setting of the sun. She could think of nothing, other than getting down so she could make herself something to eat and review what she had learned. She had a lot to think about.

To Aura, who was used to the finest of modern conveniences, the town she had seen was no better than a cl.u.s.ter of mud huts and hovels, and she was appalled at the living conditions. To her the cave was much preferable. She realized that she was going to have to be careful not to be seen.

Her clothing and manners seemed completely alien to what she had witnessed so far, and she feared what they might do to her if they found her. Primitive societies were not very understanding towards things they did not understand, and they would not know what to think about her. Nor did it help that she was female and this opened possibilities that she did not care to dwell on for too long.

She also understood that to run off from the area, without knowledge of what the true conditions were like about her, would be an act of a really ignorant person. She needed time, time to watch, time to find out where and in what time period she was in, time to decide how to adapt, and time to find a way to get back to where she belonged, because she certainly did not belong here.

CHAPTER VI.

"They are breaking up." Duke Vernon yelled at Thorn over the clash of the battling armies.

"I know," Thorn yelled back as he met yet another warrior, and dispatched him with two swift lethal blows of his sword. "That means the chase will be on soon."

"Do not remind me," Vernon answered. "You might like to run down the enemy, but that does not mean that I have to do it too."

"Admit it, you enjoy the thrill of the chase. It makes for an efficient ending."

"I do not have to admit anything, but as you are so happy about the challenge I will leave the cleaning up to you and your men. I am sure they will appreciate that every bit as much as I would."

"They know the way of battle and they will not hesitate to follow my example."

Nor would they hesitate to do all they could to make sure their Lord was safe. Vernon knew that and felt safe in teasing his friend about it. Thorn, being a strong and respected leader, attracted only the best warriors. It was a following that a weaker man would envy, though he, Vernon, only admired. As far as he was concerned: the stronger his supporting forces were, the stronger he was, and as Thorn chose to pledge his allegiance to him that made him even more powerful than most.

"Edmund, to my side." The signal was given and Thorn's elite fight guard fell into place. It was time to put the finishing touches to the battle. Thorn had found that after a battle, the less there was of the enemy to regroup, the less criminals there would be to patrol for, and the safer his people would be.

Another skirmish two miles further should have ended this particular exercise, but it did not quite work out that way. Confronted by the superior numbers and force of Thorn's men, the group split even more, and Thorn ordered his own men to do likewise, despite Edmund's objections.

"You are spreading your men too thin Thorn and thus leaving yourself open to attack. This could be just a trap to lure you away from the rest of us."

"Are you questioning my command?" Thorn snapped, though he felt no challenge from his brother.

"No, but you must admit, the possibility does exist."

"I know, but this is not the time."

"You are too well known Thorn, and too sought after. An ambush could happen at any time. I want to ride with you to protect your back."

"There are only two men brother, I need no one at my back. I send you with two men to bring down seven. Now ride, do as you are commanded, for until I move from the family estates I am still over lord." With that Thorn pulled on the reigns and spurred his horse in another direction.

Edmund tossed Thorn a frown then galloped after his own men. Thorn could understand Edmund's anxiety, they were brothers and they were a close family unit. Edmund was the worrier, Thorn the one who moved forward, albeit not recklessly. Edmond knew this and he trusted his brother's judgment, as did everyone else who knew him. He had proven himself over the years.

Feeling as if they were being pursued by the devil himself the men zigzagged through the forest that skirted the battle zone, yet each time they changed their direction, so did their pursuer. It was enough for them to pray that their over lord would soon join them, for they knew that if the Lord Thorn caught up with them before they reached help they were dead men.

"That man has a nose like a hound." One of the men complained to the other as they changed direction again.

"Save your breath in case he catches us, for the ensuing battle. He won't give us a choice of what we want. If he defeats us, he will cut out our throats. Who got us into this in the first place?"

"If you care to remember at all it was you, thought why I am not quite sure. I think you wanted to impress the over lord if I am not mistaken. Well, he isn't here. We are. Ask me if I am impressed."

"Some form of help should be forthcoming, even if it is not from our Lord. Surely we were not the only ones who ran from that h.e.l.lish battle. I am sure I saw a whole contingent of others leave with us."

"Yes, and as soon as they saw who was chasing us they all scattered like leaves in the wind. It is just our luck we ended up with the Lord Thorn on our tail, in person. He could have chased after any of the others with my blessing."

"I have fought him before, he always goes after the smallest group himself. It never fails."

"So you say," the other man puffed as he again changed direction, pa.s.sing a couple of comrades as he did.

Thorn saw the men as their comrades pa.s.sed them and pulled his sword in battle readiness. He knew the signs of an upcoming fight. He just hoped that he was not about to face the four of them together. There was only so much he could do on his own, despite his reputation. He hadn't expected this.

As luck would have it, the two that he had been chasing kept riding as he clashed with their comrades. It didn't take him long to dispatch them, for they were every bit as tired and winded as their friends had seemed to be. He thanked G.o.d for the soundness of his mount, and spurred back after the two that he had been following earlier. It was time to finish tying up all the loose ends.

He found the men three miles further into the forest, near a clearing. They were waiting for him, and they were ready.

CHAPTER VII.

It had taken Aura almost a week to figure out her approximate location, but how she had gotten there remained a mystery. From what she could see of the layout of the land she had decided she had to be in the South East end of England, not too far from where she had lived. The lack of anything familiar told her that she was no longer living in the time period she had grown up in. She had no idea what year it was, just that there was nothing here that she could relate to. She was lost in a maze of time and s.p.a.ce and all she could do was to try and survive.

The time pa.s.sed quickly for Aura. Week after week went by and she managed to avoid discovery. She was afraid of being found. She was scared of what they might do to her. It was obvious to her that she didn't belong in this time and place. She considered herself lucky, for although she had witnessed what she considered several embarra.s.sing meeting, her own presence went unnoticed. She went about her solitary way learning what she thought she needed to know to survive in her alien surroundings. It seemed as if there were never enough hours in a day to pack all she felt she needed to accomplish, and she established a pattern to try to make it easier.

The pond below the falls had become a bathing spot for her, one she used with caution and discretion. She had always preferred morning showers, now she bathed after dark or very early in the day. The first order of business for Aura continued to be food, and the ways of procuring it. Her first kill; however necessary, had been followed by tears of guilt, though her wolf had seemed pleased enough about it. She had never killed anything before, and to see the poor creature in its death throws had been more than she could handle. It was something she had learned to overcome with the pa.s.sing of time. She understood that her existence depended on gathering what she could from the land.

Both the wolf and Roger were growing, and while Roger seemed to do well on his own, it seemed as if Wolf was almost totally dependent on her. He ate as if he was starved. Aura could not hold it against him. He was such a lovable, cuddly puppy, and he was so much fun.

In the learning process she found that she had to implement many of the lessons she had been taught in her science courses, and she often wished that she had a few of her text books with her. She, however, had to be happy that she could remember as much as she could. Even then she found survival hard, and often feared she might starve to death. It took almost all of her efforts just to survive.

In the beginning she had spent a lot of time deciding how she was going to manage to make ends meet. She had made a mental list of things she was going to have to do before the winter weather set in. Though it had been months away at the time, she decided she had to begin as soon as possible for her efforts to be effective. She laid in a supply of wood, gra.s.ses, herbs, grains, and other such dry items, so she would not either freeze or starve, and although she had been unsure how she would manage to hide the continuous smoke, she had found a way. Then again, maybe n.o.body had noticed, or even cared that she was there.

Aura devised a system to keep track of the days, marking them off on the cave wall, just as her caveman ancestors had done at one time. She also used the surface to write on, as a form of journal. In her imagination she could see some future archeologist studying her writings. They would never accept the truth of them. The memories she wrote on the wall would make no sense, not to a mind unable to deal with the reality she was living. She could barely believe it herself.

No one, in the era that Aura had come from, would believe the stories she wrote. She told how she had woken one morning soon after she arrived to find a rat in the cave. She had screamed and screamed. The rat had run for the exit, but it had not been fast enough to evade the coils of the snake its movement had attracted. Aura had declared her undying grat.i.tude to Roger.

A whole new world opened up for Aura as she worked to fit into her new world. She had never had much to do with nature before, and it was an alien country outside. Chipmunks might be cute, she thought, but they were destructive. The light of her fires at night kept most of the predators at bay, but she could feel them watching her as she sat and shook by the flames. She had to work to get past her fears and prejudices, as there was no room for them. It was time to toughen up or she would never survive. A rabbit was food, sometimes, even squirrels. It no longer mattered if they were cute. She also needed to find things to keep her warm during the winter. She only had herself to depend on, and in this world it was the survival of the fittest.

The winter of the first year had been spent making new clothing and bedding from the furs she had acc.u.mulated from animals she had killed for food. She made weapons for hunting and protection. The items she created looked crude, but they improved with practice, and they were functional. Roger continued to plague Wolf, but that didn't last long for as the snake slept, the wolf grew. He lost his puppy fur, and gained a full healthy coat for the winter. This he shed as spring approached, and the warmer weather returned.

Aura had to admit, by spring, she was very lonely. Even if she had never been the social type she had never been totally on her own as she had been during the past year. She needed the company of other people. She needed the sound of voices and movement about her, and needed to escape the cave, which had become as much of a prison to her as it had been a home. She decided, she would leave for a time, to check out the land about her more thoroughly.

During her travels Aura discovered a way she could make money and to keep her makeshift family fed. She had taken skills she had learned in the kitchens, the cla.s.srooms, and the hospital, and found a use for them as she practiced a form of medicine. It seemed that everyone was in need of some form of treatment.

Those who had not been able to pay her in coin did so by giving her a meal, or something to travel with before she moved on. She understood, they gave no money because they had none. Some she had insisted she treat for free, although she had found it harder to refuse payment from them, for they often were the ones most insistent on giving what they could not afford to part with. It was their way of salvaging what they considered their most valuable a.s.set, their pride. She had found, in her new world, that those about her who had nothing of value, valued their pride above all else.

It did not take much imagination for Aura to understand these people for there had been times in her own past that she had felt that she had nothing beyond her pride to hold her together. She had given the matter some thought and had offered them a face saving option. If they could not pay, she would accept something else from them, something that would cost them nothing. Advise, directions, company, a place to sleep, and often just a little knowledge and understanding. She soon discovered that she was being guarded, and she was never in danger as most others who travelled were. She never got to see who her guardians were, but she knew they were there. She could feel them all about her.

Towards fall she decided to quit traveling, and returned to her cave, for despite being amongst people, the loneliness that had driven her from her abode in the first place had lingered. She knew that she would soon have to return, so she would have time to get ready for the approaching winter season. For Aura it was a matter of survival. She either saw to her own chances of preparing for the season, or she would either starve or freeze to death.

This time she found preparing for the winter season easier. She was more experienced, and knew what was involved. She had also brought some things with her that she knew would make her life better, if not easier. She had brought along some spices, and even more important, salt.

It was late fall before Aura looked beyond the preparation of her living quarters. She would section off a part of the cave to work as a cold area. She was sure the temperatures were low enough that she could make it work. That meant that it was time for her to go hunting for meat. Winter was long and supplies were low. They would desperately need fresh meat. She whistled for Wolf and they started off, with her carrying a bow in her hand, and a quiver of arrows slung from her shoulder. A knife, given to her by a blacksmith with whom she had treated for burns, hung from her hip, and her step was quick and eager.

By late in the afternoon she took stock of her catch and gave a self-satisfied smile. The hunt had gone well. She had brought down two birds, and Wolf had caught three rabbits. He was in the process of running down a fourth when Aura heard the crashing of horses as they sped through the nearby forest. She gave Wolf a soft whistle, just as he caught his quarry, and he rejoined her looking very pleased with himself as the rabbit drooped from his jaws.

They were going to need some place to hide from whomever was coming in their direction. She was still too uncertain of the world around her and one of the first lessons she had learned from the people was that those who were wealthy enough to afford horses were often dangerous. She was not going to take chances when she was alone and vulnerable. Her first thought was to climb a tree. It was an evasive tactic that she found worked more often than not. The chances of anyone even noticing her, up in the highest branches, was remote, unless they were looking for something, they would not even bother to look up. She shimmied up the tree, and had no sooner settled in her perch, when three men entered a nearby clearing. Their horses had been unmanned and moved about restlessly, puffing great clouds of steam from their nostrils as they tried to avoid the swinging swords that whistled through the air and sang as they clashed against one another.

"d.a.m.n," Aura thought to herself, unimpressed by the show below her. They could have taken their skirmish somewhere else or at least have waited another half an hour for her to be gone. But, as they had not, she climbed down a bit, so she would be able to see the battle better. She had never seen a real sword fight before, nor were these men interested in her, so she felt safe, as long as she remained unseen.

There were four men in all, one who fell quickly, pierced by a clean thrust through the heart. This left three, two against one, and having known the feeling of being the odd one out all of her life, Aura decided to side with the underdog. She noted, with satisfaction, that he was holding his own quite well, until another mounted man, entered the arena, the lone warrior was quickly overpowered. When the men thought they had killed him, they mounted their horses and left.

Aura watched the trio leave, and when she was sure that they were gone, she made her way down from her perch, and to the side of the stranger on the ground. She checked him first for a pulse, which, when she found it, was weak but steady. Satisfied, she left him, to catch his horse, feeling that she just might need it.

The horse, as it turned out, was a troublesome brute. It refused to budge for her in the beginning. She pulled on the reigns, and tried to mount it, but it only snorted at her and sidestepped her attempts to get up on top of him. After a few futile attempts she tried another method, after all, there was more than one way to skin a cat, or in this case, to ride a horse. She talked to the huge animal, as she stroked his nose and petted him, telling him how strong and important he was, and how his master needed him. The horse, after a time, gave another snort then followed her lead.

Aura gave a sign of relief as the horse moved beside her to his master's side, then lowered his head to nudge the comatose man. She understood, he wished to make contact with the man himself. She took the man's blanket from out of the sacks slung over the horse's back then knelt to tend to his injuries.

The first thing she did, as she believed that he was probably in shock, was to cover him, to give him warmth. The man was still bleeding, though not as much as he had before, and he was still unconscious, so she could gain no insight into his condition by questioning him.

Working with a swiftness she had witnessed first hand at the hospital in the convent, she checked his exposed limbs for breaks. She was relieved to find none, although she needed to remove his chain mail to be sure. After the chain mail there would be the thick leather undershirt to deal with before she could be able to make sure of his condition. It was not going to be easy undressing this man, not without his or anyone's help. To Aura he was ma.s.sive, and even with her training, she knew she was going to have trouble accomplishing what she needed to in order to help him.

It took a while but eventually she succeeded in ridding him of his first two layers of clothing. She then tended to the rest of her examination. He had a deep gash across his upper arm one that she decided would need careful tending, as well as st.i.tching. She felt for broken bones on his upper torso, and found none, so she removed his helmet. There was a tear in the headgear, and beneath it she found another gash, on the upper part of his skull. She hoped it was not a sign of a fracture, for that was something she had no skill with.

Deciding to leave the head injury for last, she removed a light tunic, to see if there were other injuries. It was hard to tell, as there was blood everywhere, on both the man and his clothes. She found no other gashes; however, she did notice the bruising about the curve of his shoulder, where the horse had struck him. She prodded the area for a while, looking for deeper injuries, and noted that his shoulder was slightly out of place. That, she determined, she could do something about. She had spent enough time in observation rooms, and time acting as Dr. Rorrit's sidekick, to remember how he dealt with things like this. She had found that she could learn a lot by listening to the old doctors prattle on about the old days and how things had been done. She set it by bracing her feet against his body and pulling on the displaced arm until it popped back into place. Outside of a groan the man made no sign that he was aware of what she had just done. She bound his shoulder tight with his shirt, before sitting down to rest.

A howl in the distance alerted both Wolf and Aura to other dangers. The evening was beginning to set in, and they were in the open without supplies or protection. She gave the comatose man a disgusted frown then sighed in resignation. It was not his fault he had been attacked by outlaws. Nor was it his fault that he couldn't manage to fight them all off on his own, after all, he was just some poor Joe who had ran into bad luck, not superman.

Aura was too tired to move the man at this moment. She gathered some dry moss and wood to make a fire with, in order to provide them both with a little heat and light, to keep the more aggressive wildlife away while she rested and regained a little more strength. She sat near the fire and ate a small meal. While she recuperated she sewed up the wounds that needed attention. The head wound, she decided, she would tend to when they got back to the cave. After making sure that she had tended to his worst injuries, she sat back and watched him as she made plans.

He had not moved yet, which, to Aura, was both a blessing and a curse. He had been hit on the head with that metal ball and there was a nasty b.u.mp under the untreated gash. Aura was sure that it was this injury that made him sleep. She doubted if this sleep was a healthy one, although it had given her the opportunity to set his shoulder without being challenged.

Preoccupied as Aura was by her patient's problems, Aura failed to even notice the man himself. To her he could have had three eyes, a flat nose and pox-marked complexion. That was not the case though, for even in his sleep the pride he bore was plain to see and was stenciled throughout his body. His character developed by years of responsibility and hard work.

Some might have considered his features handsome, his jaw strong, and his nose aristocratic. His cheeks and chin were beginning to show a shadow from the new growth emerging from a formerly shaven beard. His chest barreled out, framed by arms well muscled, and tapered to an equally well-developed waist and hip. There was nothing soft about this man, and even laying as he did, there was no mistaking his strength and maleness. Aura saw him only as a patient, someone in need of what few medical skills she possessed, and she was determined to not fail.

After pondering their predicament for an hour, Aura rose. She had, she hoped, come up with a workable solution, or at least something that had possibilities.

She had remembered watching a movie about how primitive peoples had made up stretchers to transport people. She decided that, as the horse was well rested, she would take advantage of his strength. She made her stretcher, finishing the last of it by the light of the fire, rolled her patient on to it then attached the apparatus to the horse. He snorted and flattened his ears back, as he rolled his eyes in objection then, sensing his master's presence, obeyed her commands, even to the point of letting her lead him by his reins.

The cave, as she had expected, was cold. The fire had gone out hours before, and needed resetting. She sighed deeply as she felt the humidity in the air. It would take a long time to dry out her home before it was fit to be occupied.

Aura made a fire, and when it was burning to her satisfaction, she returned to her patient. She untied him, and dragged him into the cave then left to tend to the horse. The animal stood still while he tolerated her touch. She removed his saddle and trappings then tied him to a tree with a long rope, before returning to his master.

The man was breathing irregularly when Aura re-examined him, taking short, shallow breaths, and although she knew it was unlikely that he would wake soon, she hesitated to touch him. She had become aware of a sense of power and danger about him, and she felt unsettled by being forced to keep him company. She couldn't justify the change in her perception but it was there. She gathered extra moss to make up a bed for him then transferred him from the stretcher to his new resting place. By the time she had him moved and felt satisfied with her efforts, the fire was almost out and needed tending. She added a small armful of wood to the fire then banked it for the night, before going outdoors to bring in some fresh wood to use in the morning. She then returned to check on her patient.

He was shaking, as if cold, yet, when Aura touched him he seemed warm enough, and he was not running a temperature. She sat back on the heels of her feet and tried to remember what she had been taught about people in his condition. There were several possibilities that sprang to mind. First and primary, was that he could be suffering from a reaction to his injuries from the battle. It was also possible that he could be having a reaction to the cold or perhaps even a combination of events.

Aura was not impressed with the solution that came to mind. It was obvious that he was going to need more heat than the fire could provide. She called Wolf to her side and ordered him to lie down beside the man, to provide him warmth from that angle. She then took all of her blankets and covered him. Then she watched to see if it was going to help.

An hour later she gave a sigh of resignation. Her efforts, while not without some merit, had not been completely successful. That left her with the one option that she had tried to avoid. She sat closer to the fire, and unbraiding her hair as she remembered the words of her teacher.

"In primitive surroundings, in cases of shock due to exposure, nothing works better to warm the patient than skin to skin contact. For one body lends its heat to the other."

Aura removed all but her thin underclothes and sat combing her hair for a few moments, while warming her feet. There could be nothing cold touching her patient if she was to be successful. She rose, when she felt warm enough, and made her way over to his side then, taking a deep breath to fortify her decision, she slipped under the blankets beside him. He felt hot to the touch; although he still shivered, and she slid her arms around him as she pressed her semi clad figure against his, taking special care not to hurt him further as she did. She sighed as she settled her head against his good shoulder then fell asleep. She was so tired that she didn't even wake when he stopped shivering, or when his arm curled about her shoulders to hold her closer.

CHAPTER VIII.

Feeling warm and comfortable the man woke with the first rays of sunlight. He squirmed then winced at the pain the slight movement caused. Where was he? How did he get here? He gave the matter thought, but could remember nothing beyond the fight that he had been involved in.

The light movement of a person at his side alerted him to another presence and he moved to view that person closer. It was a woman. One he had not even noticed when he had woken earlier. She was asleep and he was finding it almost impossible to keep his eyes off of her. This was no village wench that he had taken to his bed to warm him during the night. He noted the deep healthy shine in her hair, the clear complexion of her face and the sweet smell of her body. He gave a smiling sigh of contentment, pleased with what life had dealt for the moment. He closed his eyes and went back to sleep, pulling her body back against his to draw her closer.

Aura woke an hour later and extracted herself from her patient's side with exaggerated care, so she could dress and tend to her fire. When she had everything under control again, she turned her attention back to him. He was slightly flushed and showed traces of a fever. She frowned at this turn of events, but was not really very surprised. He had been hurt and had been chilled by his exposure to the elements. She should expect him to show some effects.

She turned her attention to his head injury and noted how it had already started to heal. The wound looked good, but she was not too pleased about the sanitary conditions surrounding it, his hair was caked with blood. She doubted if it had been washed in a long time before the incident had occurred, although she could be wrong about that. She thought about what she should do about him then decided that if he did not wake within the next hour or so, she would have to find a way to bathe him and to wash his hair on her own. He needed to be clean or he would catch an infection.

The man was awake, although he could not seem to bring himself to open his eyes or speak. He felt ill, hot and achy, too much so to bother with things about him that was in direct contrast with the way he had felt the last time he had woken. The woman he had held tended him, and he was aware of her ministrations. He felt her cool touch as she felt his forehead and a while later he felt her bathing him with warm water. She had a gentle touch, and he wished he could gather up enough energy to tell her how grateful he was for her attention.

He did not wake, so Aura heated water and sponged his body down, for he was sweating quite freely with fever. She heated more water and washed the blood out of his hair, as well as ridding him of any other unwelcome inhabitants, should he have any. When she had finished she made a broth and fed him as best as she could, when he was restless, When she had managed to feed him a full bowl of the clear fluid she left the cave to wash and clean herself. She returned to the cave to find her patient even more feverish and racked with shivers than he had been. Her patient, it seemed, was intent on testing her skills as a physician. Considering that she had none to speak of, she was not overly taken with the idea of being put in this position.

For the next seventy-two hours Aura got little to no sleep, while her patient tossed about and muttered incoherently in his fevered state. The only clear words he spoke were in Latin. Aura believed this meant that he was an educated man for she had not heard many of the people she had met using it. Only those in the higher cla.s.ses spoke Latin. She sponged him down with cool water collected from the stream outdoors and continued to pour broths and liquids into him, until the fever broke and he slept naturally. When she was sure of her patient's state of health she laid back down next to him again in a sheer state of exhaustion and she slept. She woke to find herself cradled in his arms.

Aura blinked as if to clear both mind and sight, all the while feeling that she could use more rest. It was, however, something that she knew she would be ill advised to do. The fire needed tending, as did her patient. She slipped away from his side, and moved about the cave, getting some wood to build up her fire with. When she was satisfied with the heat it was throwing out, she turned to check on her waking patient.

He was watching, studying her every move, and she felt a sudden unease. She did not like feeling like some germ under a microscope. Trying to avoid his steady gaze she took his temperature and pulse. The first was almost normal, and the second strong and steady. When she had determined that he was over the worst, she left his side, to go outside to make them both something to eat. When it was done she took the cooked food to him.

The first thing Aura noticed as she entered the cave was the empty bed that announced his absence. Her eyes flicked from the moss that had served as his mattress, to the fire, and she saw him, crouching down as he placed new dry wood on to the low flames. He was weaving slightly as he sought to be careful not to smother the coals while he tended his ch.o.r.e. Despite his obvious weakness Aura gave a swallow. She felt intimidated by his size. She placed their food on a boulder then sought out Roger, in an unconscious way of using him as an equalizing factor. The man took one look at the snake as it wound itself about her then reached for his sword, which he had gathered from his belongings during her absence. It now hung from his hip as if it was a part of him.

Aura took one look at the weapon as it flashed from his scabbard, and she screamed as she backed against the cave wall. "No!" He did not seem to listen as he swung the weapon at the snake and missed as she dodged. He stared at her, confused by her attempts to protect the creature, along with the docility of the snake itself, and she suddenly lost all fear of the man as she realized that he was no different than anyone else. She took Roger to the mouth of the cave, where he uncoiled himself from about her, and slithered off to go hunting. She returned to the interior of the cave to face his questions.

"Who are you?" His tone of voice and accent echoed his wonder, as well as his educational and social status.

Aura, not understanding his language very well, replied in Latin, as she remembered him using it during his moments of delirium. "I am a woman. I have raised Roger since he was little more than two feet long. He trusts me, and we are used to each other, nothing more, or out of the ordinary."

"You tamed the wolf in the same way?" He replied, also in Latin.

She nodded then turned the subject away from herself. "I want to check your wounds."

He grunted and motioned at the roasted rabbit and the other oddities, which she had brought in to eat, and gave an alternative suggestion. "Perhaps we should eat first, while the food is still hot. Then we can get to know each other better at our leisure."

She nodded, taking the statement at face value then brought her homemade platter filled with food over to the side of the fire where she set it down as she sat closer to the flames, to catch some of the heat. The man tore a quarter of the rabbit from the spit and began to eat, while she sat and watched for a few moments before pouring water into a wooden cup for him. She poured another for herself, then settled down to enjoy her meal.