Chapter 32: Through Time

Björn twirls the blood-soaked dagger skillfully in his hand, reminding me of a certain trickster god made famous in movies. His whole presence looks lighter, no longer burdened by the predator sharing his form. Standing in the cemetery where the bones of his brethren turned to dust long ago, he looks over the domains that used to be his, now dotted with colorful houses and smattering motor boats. With the wind tousling his messy shoulder-length hair--where no treatment of shampoo has straightened the natural wave--he bears an aura of magnificence. A wild and free man walked out of a long-gone era.

The fact that he's buck-naked may also add to the wild and free image. The white fur coverings Björn usually wears around his shoulders and waist have disappeared along with his predator self. I turn my gaze away not to blush as certain... parts dangle freely in the polar wind.

While averting my eyes from the shameless Viking--who appears completely unbothered by his lack of clothes as he climbs atop one of the surrounding rocks--I rise from where I fell during my escape and brush grass off my knees. My entire body feels discombobulated from being chased by a ferocious predator. I sincerely hope I never have to go through that again.

"Are you alright?" Mikk asks, reaching out a hand to help me get on my feet.

I hesitate before answering, trying to sense every limb of my body. Perhaps the still-pumping adrenaline hides pain. Remembering the swat from the giant bear paw, I look toward my pant leg and find frayed fabric from claws. But underneath are no bleeding gashes. All I see are blue glowing lines, like the symbols that are now gone from my face.

"I'm good," I mumble as if I'm trying to convince myself of this as well. "Gudrun must have healed me."

Like a dog hearing its name, Björn--who has crouched atop a fallen rock to gaze upon the still-shaded sun--snaps his head toward me. "Gudrun? Hvat?" he asks, apparently now speaking Old Norse. Or I guess he was speaking his native tongue the whole time I've known him but now whatever magic translated his words to my ears is moot. So that's... not very handy.

Björn throws out another long harangue of indecipherable syllables while looking around the field, probably in search of his love. He may be free but he's still alone. And now mostly unintelligible to non-Old Norse speakers.

I listen for Gudrun's voice in the wind, to hopefully be able to help Björn find her, but it appears to be gone from my head along with the magical telepathic translation.

"I don't know where she is," I tell Björn in my native language, hoping that the common origin of Old Norse and Swedish will aid him in understanding my words. "I can't hear her and she didn't give me more instructions."

Knowing Gudrun, which I think I do by now, her guidance probably would have been infuriatingly incomprehensible anyway.

With a worried look, Björn gazes toward the obscured sun. A sliver of light peaks through behind the dark moon. I know what he's thinking: she has to come soon, or it'll be too late. The fate of being stuck in the wrong time without his love may be dawning on him.

I look toward Mikk, whose eyes are filled with concern. We thought Gudrun would come after the curse was broken, riding on a magical wave or something, but now, neither of us is sure how to proceed. If Björn is still here once the eclipse has passed, we may very well be co-parenting an unruly Viking lost in time.

"GUDRUN! GUDRUN!" A desperate call fills the old graveyard. I look back toward Björn and find him standing atop the fallen boulder, expelling a cry at the top of his lungs.

I sincerely hope no eclipse-sightseeing tourists are about to stumble upon us, as a naked man with wild eyes stands yelling atop a rock.

But the cadence of Björn's cry for a lost beloved strikes a chord in my memory. I've heard someone cry out a name with such fervor before; when I just arrived on this island.

Gudrun.

I saw her in the water. She called for Björn. She told me to bring him there.

Perhaps now is the time. Perhaps she knew all along. Perhaps everything will end right where it began.

"We need to go!" I gesture toward Mikk and Björn to follow. "I think Gudrun's in the water, where I found the beartooth that first day."

Mikk looks toward the charcoal gray sky, where a glimmer of sunlight is starting to break through. "We need to hurry then. That's about ten minutes away, even if we take my truck down from here to the shoreline."

Björn seems to have understood my words, or at least the meaning of them because he jumps down from his rock and starts running toward the truck, which is parked below the hill. Despite never having been in such a vehicle before, as giant polar bears and trucks don't go together, he must realize it's the fastest way for us to transport ourselves to the shore.

"I also have some clothes in the truck that he can put on during the drive," Mikk informs me as we jog behind Björn. "So he' won't shock people in the parking lot."

Despite the time crunch we're in, I can't help but snicker at the idea of Björn trying to figure out how to work a zipper.

I snicker even more when Björn gets out of the truck about eight minutes later--because Mikk speed down the mountain at impressive speed, assuring me that his cousin Ina would help him out if he incurred any speeding tickets--dressed in an oversized gray hoodie and matching sweat pants. With the messy hair dancing around his shoulders, he looks like the mischievous fratboy he could have been if he was born in another era.

Before Mikk even has time to lock the truck, Björn sets off running. It's as if he can sense where Gudrun is, even after all this time apart.

"Come on!" I signal to Mikk to hurry, so we don't lose track of our Viking friend. As he locks up the car--because even on Greenland, which is quite low on crime, that may be an advisable thing to do--I follow Björn toward the shoreline. The rugged cliffs are a challenge to my city feet but Björn doesn't hesitate as he jumps between rocks and slides down steep inclines. I can barely keep up with his speed. Perhaps rock-running is a popular Viking pastime. Or maybe he's part mountain goat.

I guess were-goat is better than were-bear?

Björn disappears over a hill made of jagged rocks just as a ray of sunshine peeks through the clouds above. Like a beacon of light guiding our way, it points down toward the dark waters.

Hopefully, this doesn't mean it's too late. After six hundred years, missing out on a reunion with his love in only a few seconds would be cruel.

Making my way over the last hurdle, I find Björn staring at the calm waters, where the muted sky is reflected. The whole world appears just like in the first shy moments of twilight in the morning. The sky is deep violet, so dark it's almost black, and the hue spills over the cliffs and the sea. It's like being in a thunderstorm, without the precipitation or roaring sound.

"Gudrun," Björn says, followed by a long row of syllables I can't decipher. Maybe if he talked slower, I would understand him.

Gudrun isn't here? Or is she?

Peering curiously at the swaying reflection in the water, I realize it's not the same as the world where we stand. The place is the same, but not the year. The cliffs are there, consistent and never-changing, but the colorful houses that dot them are replaced by straw-roofed buildings. Snow is gathered in piles on the ground, not even touched by the summer sun in this colder era of the past.

Through the ripples, I see her again. Gudrun. Her hair billows like swaying flames in the wind and the mystical runes on her face glow like they're made of frost. She's fire and ice. She's time and space. She's everything in between.

Behind her on the shore, I can make out a small bundle from which small hands are grabbing at nothing. Signy is with her. This means it must be the night of the eclipse in their time, right after Gudrun kissed Björn goodbye and left him on the cliff. The charcoal-colored sky behind her confirms my theory. The eclipse connects us through time.

For him it's been centuries since that moment, for her it's only been moments. But what do measurements of time matter when you're longing for the one you love?

With no concern for keeping my clothes dry, I step into the water to face her. Two daughters of time meeting at the precipice of it. This is where time ends, at the island at the end of the world.

Behind me, Björn looks at her with a bewildered expression. The woman he thought could never be his is suddenly within reach. "Ást Mín," he whispers, seemingly taken by the moment. "Ást Mín."

My love. Without knowing his language, I still understand the sentiment.

"Ást Mín, Björn," Gudrun echoes reaching out her hand toward us. "Kom." A string of words follows that I don't understand but I know she's asking him to come with her, back to their own time.

Gudrun knew. She always knew. She knew we would help her love when the trustworthy moon shaded the lingering sun once again.

Without a moment of doubt, Björn wades out in the water as well, soaking Mikk's sweatpants in the process. But let's face it, he's probably not getting those back anyway.

Gudrun's hand penetrates the threshold between times just as Björn reaches her sparkling reflection. Glowing runes flicker around her fingers when I see them appear on our side of the barrier. She's reaching through time for her love. She's breaking the very fabric of it for him.

Before taking her hand, Björn nods at me. A small token of gratitude from a man who's waited six hundred years to finally leave. "Þökk, Saga," he says, and I understand the words despite their foreign cadence. He's thanking me for helping him.

"Go," I urge him, worried that waiting another moment will make the sun reappear in the sky and break the link to the past. If Gudrun disappears now, it will be too late. There won't be another chance. "Go to her."

When Björn reaches his hand out to meet Gudrun's, the runes transfer from her skin to his. Around their entangled limbs a whirlwind of shimmering symbols dance, blue and sparkling like the glaciers covering this island. As if powered by the magical sheen, Gudrun pulls Björn with her into the dark sea. She pulls Björn through time and space. She pulls him home.

One moment, Björn the Bearslayer, the man who waited six-hundred years to be with his love, is there beside me, the next he's gone, transported back to where he belongs. Soon, I see him on the other side of time, embracing the woman he never thought would be his. Gudrun kisses him on a scruffy cheek, whispering words that he's waited so long to hear. He lifts the bundled child on the shoreline into his arms, vowing to never let go.

The last thing I see of them is Gudrun pointing toward the sea, gesturing that they have to hurry toward the ships. They have to leave before the furious bear on the cliff above hunts them down. That's when a flurry of golden light cascades over the water once again, breaking the connection with their time.

They're gone. The water only ripples with a reflection of today.

Gudrun kept her promise. Björn took a long and winding path but eventually, she came for him.

Author's Note: Couldn't leave the poor Viking guy in the wrong time :)

One more chapter and then an epilogue, then this story is finished!

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