The Chapel or Judge Eternity - Chapter 26

Everin wandered for three days without knowing where she was going, she only knew that the heat which had taken up residence in her stomach was not leaving. It would not accept food, nor cold spring water to placate it. A bath in the icy water of the Danube would press it into withdrawing, while she was surrounded by the waters, but the heat rose steadily when she came out of the water.

Not far from where she bathed was an old hunters shelter, it was very well made, using a giant boulder as one wall and a second one as a roof. The rest had been filled with field stone. There were two open windows and a hide covered door. Everin hatched and idea.

The giant was as immortal as she and doubtless was as lonely. If she could just attract him, then nature would take its course. He was most likely the same as her, self-banished. She was sure that he would be happy to have a companion, especially a woman companion.

Everin was new to undying or she would have known that there were infinite possibilities as to why he was alone in the forest.

It was her good luck that her plan would work for almost any of the possibilities.

A month ago she had been walking in the darkest part of the forest and had happened on a bee tree. It had been a huge tree, many times the size of the average ones normally found, she would be able to trade the golden liquid for anything.

The bottom of the tree was surrounded by glacial rock and the openings further up the trunk, were too small to let in most animals. Everin was sure that she could move one of the bottom rocks and get to the hive.

She carefully scouted the bottom of the trunk and was rewarded with finding an opening, that she knew she could fit her whole body into, once she rolled a large stone out-of-the-way.

There were no small trees growing under the oaks canopy and so she searched until she found a small glade where an ancient tree had fallen. And left room for seedlings to sprout and grow to saplings as they reached for the sun. She searched and found one that was as thick as her calf then cut it down with the scramaseax that she kept in her belt.

The scramaseax was a fine tool, her father had given it to her when she was old enough to forage food from the forest. It looked like a knife but it had the weight of a small axe. It was perfect for cutting kindling and worked well with a bit of flint to start a fire. It was perfect for cutting herbs or digging truffles. And if pressed it was a good weapon.

Everin had been trained when she was ten how to cut or stab with the scramaseax. The men of her tribe had used the long seax as their primary weapon.

The pole she had cut was slightly longer than her, she placed it as deep under the blocking rock as possible and then found a smaller rock for a fulcrum. A minute later she was running to the edge of the nearby meadow and gathering dried grass until she had enough to fill both her arms.

Back at the bee tree, she dug a small hole at its base and filled it with the dried grass.

It only took a few flicks of the flint on her knife to start a thread of smoke in the dried stalks. She carefully laid it in the other grass and fanned it only enough to keep the smoke going. A limb cover with leaves fed the fire air and blew the smoke into the trunk.

Everin had never harvested honey by herself before but she had helped her father with the task several times. For this step of her plan she needed only one piece of comb. She fanned the fire pit until all the grass was gone, then gave the bees a bit more time. When the agitated buzzing from within the tree seemed to have quieted, she levered the large rock aside.

The hole between two of the large roots was larger than her head, but not as big as her chest, she hoped she could wiggle in. It would have been better if she could have worn her woolen outer dress to protect her from stings but the smoke should have done it trick. She shed the dress and kept on her chemise and shoes in case she needed to run for water.

She needn't have worried. There were curtains of comb hanging nearly to ground level. It was easy to reach in with one hand and cut the comb. She blew the bees who were tending it away and they returned to the tree.

With the rock put back in place she made her way to the nearest wealthy town, it took her three days to walk there.

She was known as soon as she was seen and while a crowd gathered to see the "Green Woman" they were all prepared to trade for the wonders she was known for.

Everin first traded some crystals and gold nuggets for several large crocks and a wheel barrel. She traded the honey comb which was almost as long as her arm and half that wide for a bolt of wool, a bolt of linen and two raw cured dear hides.

With the trades complete she loaded everything into the wheel barrow and began walking back to the hunter's cabin.