Thrown Through Time

Chapter 8

Sophie stood there panting. Her arms hung down at her sides as she barely held onto her sword and dagger. Blood covered both blades and bodies were strewn about the glade, but this time, she was calm. It hadn't been easy, but when she had seen the men sneaking up on Eirik, she had gone on the offensive. They had found him alone and decided that twelve against one was pretty good odds in their favor. They had been wrong.

Eirik had killed half of them. He'd also taken a dagger to the arm. He stood across the clearing, also spent, staring at her as he tried to catch his breath.

She saw the way he was looking at her from where he stood and it scared her. What if the blue swirling vortex returned? What if she was suddenly sent back home. The last thing she wanted was to fall for him just to disappear with no explanation. She had thought about telling him where and when she'd come from, but how exactly does one explain technology to someone who's never seen such a thing?

"We need to make sure there aren't any more!" she said, turning and walking away from the clearing. As much as she couldn't stand Ulriech, she was rather fond of Eirik. He was calm, kind, and had a sense of humor. Besides that, he was a beautiful man to look at. The last thing she would ever want to do was hurt him.

Looking for more soldiers to battle hadn't been high on his list of things to do right then, but there was no way he was just going to let her wander off alone and he sprinted after her. "Sophie!" He ignored the pain in his left arm as he chased her down. She was small, but she moved fast and it took more effort to catch up to her than he expected. 

"We have to protect the city," she said when he finally reached her.

"I understand that," he said. "Remember, I'm the one that taught you that! But we have to make sure we're not sitting ducks ourselves!" She kept walking and he finally had to grab her by the arm. "Sophie, stop!"

She turned to face him, but refused to look up into his eyes.

"We need to give the others a chance to catch up. Those probably aren't the only scouts out here and if we're not careful, we could find ourselves in the middle of an actual army. I'm good. You're good. And we're great together, but I don't think either of us could survive that."

She knew he was right. The only reason she was going off in such a hurry was because she wasn't ready to face the reason behind the look he'd given her. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't be sorry. I know you just want to protect the city. But we have to protect ourselves, too."

She nodded.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"Then why won't you look at me?"

She briefly glanced up at him. "I'm fine."

He wasn't so sure. "Let's get back to the rest of the men and we'll scout the area together. I don't want to get caught off guard and alone."

She agreed and let him lead her back to the others.

Ulriech was leading the charge and seemed a little disappointed that he had missed out on the first fight. By this time, Sophie had caught her breath and wasn't about to take any abuse from him. In fact, in the mood she was currently in, she was more likely to stick him with his own dagger again.

In her attempt to put as much space between her and Ulriech as possible, she moved to the very back of the group. She was in no mood to listen to the sound of his voice. What she didn't realize was that another group of enemy scouts had circled around behind them. Eirik was busy reporting their findings to his brother. The other men were mindlessly marching and not paying attention to much of anything.