Outlander Reversed

Five

June, 2014

Just under two months’d passed since Jamie’d leaned back against that Stone and found himself tossed into a completely different Time period. Even without the calendar that was hung on the side of what his hostess called a refrigerator–or fridge, for short–he could tell how much Time’d passed. One glance up at the Sky, and he could see the Sun rising higher and higher in it with every passing Day.

        Soon enough, he kent it to be the Day of the Summer Solstice, the longest Day and shortest Night of the Year. He also kent that–at least, according to Ancient Scots–while doorwaysta the Fae Realm might not be open as wide as they were on his birthday, they were still open relatively wide. The only other Night of the Year they’d be open as wide as on the aforementioned birthday was that of Samhain, which he kent as All Hallow’s Eve–and kent was still roughly four months away.

        Over the course of the Time that’d already passed, the ginger man’d Begun to think that the Timing of his–well, Time Travel’d been no accident. As open as the doorwaysta other Realms were reputed to be on May Day, he suspected that much’d been true. It was just that instead of being transported to the Fae Realm or any other, he’d been transported through Time.

        That meant that–assuming it was even possible, of course–the only other Time Jamie might be able to go back to his own Time was on All Hallow’s Eve. If not then, he’d be stuck till May Day–and his birthday–rolled around again nearly a Year from now. But he kent he couldn’t wait that long to even try Returning to Lallybroch in 1742–doubtless if she’d heard of his disappearance, Jenny already thought Captain Randall and his dragoons’d something to do with it. He kent he’d to Return to reassure her that he was still alive, and far more well than he’d have been for living rough in the Woods on his own. After all, while he threw himself into helping with Summer’s farm, now that his shoulder’d Healed, he was more than well-fed.

        He just didn’t ken how he wasta Return to his own Time period since he didn’t ken how he’d wound up in 2014 in the first place. All he remembered was taking refuge in that Stone Circle since he kent those dragoons’d steer clear of it except under extreme circumstances. The next thing he remembered was leaning back against one of those Stonesta catch his breath, then naught till he’d woken up under the young woman’s care. Everything in between those two events was a complete blank, and that wasn’t something that sat well with him since that left so many unanswered questions in his mind.

        Something that sat even less well with the ginger man was what he’d been reading in books taken from Summer’s bookshelf, as well as papers she printed from something called the Internet. According to what he’d read between those sources, there was a major battle that wasta take place between the Scots and the damned English in mid-April of 1745–the Battle of Culloden, or Blàr Chùil Lodair, to use the Gaelic name. It was the final battle of what’d be known as the Jacobite Rising, which’d been started by Prince Charles Edward Stuart to reclaim the Thrones of Scotland and England for his father, King James Stuart. Judging by what he’d read in the texts, it was almost a guarantee that if he Returned to his own Time prior to that event, he’d be dragged into the battle by the maternal half of his family–Clan MacKenzie.

        Chief Collum MacKenzie and his brother Dougal–who was the Clan’s War Chief–were naught, if not stubborn, intelligent, and shrewd. They’d no doubt Wish to see a Stuart’s arse back on that Throne as much as the next Day’s Sunrise–and they’d do whatever it took to see it happen. For that reason, they’d undoubtedly use him and the circumstances of his Birth–namely the fact that they’d never approved of the union betwixt his parents–as a way of forcing him to bend to their Will and join them.