Here is a postcard from Valdi in Rorikstead at the dawn of the Fourth Era. It doesn’t go anywhere or do anything, it just is. ESTROGEN WARNING: There are no werewolves in this story. If you are squeamish about female bodily functions, you might just give this one a miss.
Blood MoonsThe sun went down behind the mountain before I heard his feet on the porch stairs. I could tell because the back windows had gone dark. He shouldered the door open with boots in one hand and grocery sack in the other. I felt my face get warm, and that tight feeling came into my chest.
“Hello, my love,” and he gave me that smile.
My tongue still got tied up in knots whenever we saw each other, whether it was first thing in the morning or after a time apart. Today it had only been a few hours. I’d tried not to think about him all afternoon, which made it seem like forever.
“Did you get some rest?” he asked. “It’s gonna be a late night. Pa says Jouane told him be ready for a raid. Don’t know how he knows, but he knows.” He dropped the sack on the side table and shoved his boots underneath. His axe went on the rack by the door.
Harvest time meant raiders until the crops had all been carried to market by the caravans. No matter how far he roamed, Erik liked to be home by autumn to defend his village.
Our village, I kept telling myself.
My fingers were tangled up in work, cheesecloth and string and little wads of tundra cotton all arranged at one end of our big kitchen table. I emptied my hands and climbed over the bench, my eyes full of him. I didn’t say
I missed you, or
I want you, or any of the love talk that you hear on a Loredas night at the Frostfruit Inn. I just walked into his arms and kissed every bit of skin I could reach, and then I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him some more.
He tasted like Mralki’s Autumnfest ale and smelled of woodsmoke. I ran my hands up under his tunic and he yanked my collar to get at that spot on my neck. Next thing I knew I was laid on the table with my work scattered everywhere and both of us fighting with my belt. I should have learned by then not to wear trousers around the house.
There was a thump downstairs and something rolled. We froze. Then there was a noise like someone kicking at a door frame. Which was probably exactly what was happening down there.
“Dammit,” Erik muttered. “I forgot
She was here.”
She was my friend, hadn’t been for long but we’d been through the kinds of things together that make you invite her to stay with you as long as she likes, as long as she needs. And then you remember that you should have checked first with your husband. Erik has my back in this like he has in everything else that has happened since the first day we set eyes on each other. That only makes me feel worse when my choices pain him.
Also, until recently,
She had been a vampire.
Erik put me back on my feet as easily as he’d stack a bundle of kindling. I watched him toss tufts and string back into the basket while I straightened my shirt. I had been making little pouches of cheesecloth stuffed with tundra cotton. They’re good for soaking up blood.
He picked one up by the dangling string. “You’re making moon mice already? Didn’t you just..?” His eyes rolled up as he counted days. Erik is no scholar, but I ain’t either.
“Yes,” I said, holding out the basket. “I won’t have my time again for six weeks or so. Not until Masser is waning. These aren’t for me.”
He dropped the moon mouse into my basket, face blank.
“They’re for Serana,” I told him.
“Oh gods,” said Erik.
“She hasn’t had her cycle in a thousand years, I’d wager. I don’t know what they used back then, but I’m sure she hasn’t thought about what she’ll use now.”
“Oh gods,” he said again. “What makes you think..?”
Erik has a way of not saying the lady words but still getting the message out. I can’t blame him. His Ma died when he was born, and he grew up without a sister to torment.
“Women tend to cycle close together when they’re under the same roof for long,” I explained. “I just finished mine. I guessed that hers would start back up some day. And she’s been so snippy and tense. I mean, more than usual.” Serana’s transition from vampire back to Nord had not been easy on her.
Something broke against the stone floor downstairs. Something that had been glass.
“Oh
gods,” said Erik. “Sweet Mother Mara.”
Folk always want to pin lady troubles on Mara, even though it’s Kyne who made us. The way it works with women and elven lasses I’ve always thought a male must have come up with it. The elves are lucky and don’t get theirs as often, but that means fewer elves. Some Nords say that’s also lucky. The elves seem to suffer more with it, though. At least Lildereth does. But then I don’t know a lot of elves, so maybe it’s just her. And once I think on it, it’s mostly the rest of us that she makes suffer.
“She might want a length of sheepskin instead,” I thought aloud, “with the fleece boiled clean and the hide side oiled against leaking through.”
Erik’s scars and freckles stood out like ink, his face had gone so white.
“Sorry,” I said, sort of surprised. Erik wasn’t shy about anything at all once the clothes came off, and a little moon blood had never slowed him down before. Probably because he wasn’t the one who washed the linens.
He sat down hard on one of the chairs we had drawn up to the fireplace. I don’t think he planned to. “Don’t be sorry,” he told me. “You’re the one who thinks of things and I’m the one who’s sorry. What if we have a little girl some day? We could have a pack of girls. You’ll be the best Ma there ever was, strong and kind, teaching them your way with sun-fire and a shield. And I’ll just be there to… What do I know about girls? I’ll be there to chop wood and scare the boyfriends.”
I sat down in the other chair before my knees gave out.
What kind of Ma will I be? The kind who drags her brats through hideout and cave, always ahead of the law but always looking over her shoulder? I’d grown up wild. That was all I knew. I couldn’t even tell him he was wonderful, my mind was so full of how I was nothing.
We’d never had this talk before. I was still making my teas the way Abiene showed me to keep my womb empty, still counting the days in fear when my time was due, terrified it hadn’t worked. Had he been counting days too, hoping we’d made us a child?
“Erik,” I croaked. My throat was all funny. “Love.”
He took my hand and squeezed it. I could see he remembered about my family. “We’ll figure it out,” he said. His face was strong again. “When you’re ready, when we’re ready. Or when the time comes and surprises us. We’ll figure it out together.”
I could hear Serana’s hard heels coming up the stairs. It bothered Erik that she wore boots in the house, and now it bothered me, too. But I felt awkward saying something, and I know he never would since she was my friend. She was already breaking things. Maybe this was a good time to tell her.
Serana appeared by the shield rack. Her knuckles showed white on the stair railing. I could see that lust on her face, the same as in her vampire days when she thought I wouldn’t see her blood hunger. She had left her vampire appetites behind, but she sure was hungry for something now. And her human eyes were fixed on my man.
I was standing in between them before I knew I’d moved.
What the hells is this? I drew a breath.
Serana bent her neck to look around me at Erik. First she hissed, then the words came out in a whine. “Did you go to the bakery? Did you bring back something sweet?” She paced over to the bookcase, her hands restless on her arms and lower back. “Gods, I want some iced cakes. What did you buy at the market? By Molag’s maul, I have to have something sweet!”
Erik was out the door before his chair finished tipping over. His boots still sat by the door.
“He’s going now,” I told her. “He’ll bring back something salty, too, I’ll wager.” I motioned for Serana to join me at the table so we could talk.
I wasn’t much for hugs and touching, but Serana relaxed as soon as I put my hands on her back. I wasn’t much of a smiler, either, but I couldn’t help it when I thought of Erik running barefoot down the street.
He’ll be the best Pa there ever was, strong and kind, teaching them his way with an axe and bow. When the time comes we’ll figure it out together. And we’re going to be just fine.