Tove | A Viking Tale

Chapter Seven

Tove Age 14

The hot steam weighs heavy on my naked skin penetrating the pores and loosening my aching muscles. Low chatter and soft laughs fill the bath house as the women of Ormensthorpe discuss their husband's and the recent rumors circulating village.

Over the last several nights I've been trying to ignore a pain low in my stomach. It comes and goes but it's gotten to the point of being unable to ignore it.

This bath, I know, will help the dull aches within my stomach and hopefully vanquish my illness after a long soak.

Typically, I avoid the bath house and garner up a ripe stench before Leif physically has to lock me in here with the rest of the women. Although, this time I desperately craved the heated water from the vats to sooth my aches.

The woman bathe, using their handcrafted combs made of whale bone and wood while some others soak in the giant communal tub.

Stepping, I drop my foot inside the hot water and can't help a moan of relief sneak passed the barriers of my folded lips.

"Hello, Tove? How are you feeling?" Girdy asks me stifling a smile and watches me carefully.

"I'm fine." I bite out and step in with both feet, then wade across the bath to find a spot where I can be alone.

Girdy giggles this time and remains staring as I lower myself down into the water and moan, the tension within my belly loosening a fraction as the heated waters surround me. "Are you sure?" She adds.

Ignoring her prying I cup my hands in the water and wet my face attempting to will away the aches from my stomach with the strength of my mind alone. Unfortunately, Girdy continues. "How has your temper been, as of late?"

I shoot her a glare and grind my teeth together wanting to rip her face from her skull.

"I thought so," she leans her head back to rest it against the lip of the bath.

I haven't a clue about what she means but this hot water is the relief I've had from the pains this entire week, so I hunker down and try to relax my muscles.

But the persistent woman chimes again, "You should speak to Morta, she can give you something--."

"I'm fine." I let my eyes close shut and message my thighs that have taken on some pulsing aches.

This will pass. I've caught an affliction. Surely, I've eaten something from the woods I shouldn't have.

Recounting, for the hundredth time, what I had ate I go down the list: Mushrooms, berries, even the dried and seasoned deer meat couldn't be the cause. Everything I've consumed Leif has as well and he is as right as rain.

My brows draw upwards and I whimper as my stomach coils and the pain radiates outwards to my lower back and legs. "Faen (fuck)."

I stand from the water and rest on the lip of bath needing to find a different position to eliminate the ache.