Capturing the Cavedweller's Heart Page 6

  Her mouth went dry as she held the shorts out to him. He studied them then glanced at her and got out of the Jeep. When he stood, his hide covering fell to the ground. Hannah sucked in a gasp and turned away.

  Apparently, cavedwellers went commando.

  She thought she heard him chuckle but refused to look at him until he sat back down on the passenger seat and shut the door.

  “These garments are not comfortable.” He fingered the collar of his shirt and tugged at the hem of the shorts.

  “They’ll be fine for a little while,” she said, realizing the shorts were also tight on him. At least he wouldn’t draw undue attention because of his clothes. She cast another quick glance at him, taking in the way the T-shirt clung to his form. Then again… Women might not be able to take their eyes off him even with his hair and beard.

  Hannah drove to the county library and parked outside.

  “This is a library,” she said to Thor as they got out and walked along the sidewalk. “It’s a place where books are kept that anyone can enjoy. You must, must be quiet inside. No loud talking. It’s a place people go to read in peace.”

  He nodded and solemnly followed her as she opened the door and stepped inside. She’d spent many happy hours at the library as a child and then as a teen when she knew she wanted to be an archaeologist. Thor hesitated in the foyer, his eyes wide and curious as he took in his surroundings.

  “Come on, Thor. I have something I want you to see,” she said, looping her arm around his and leading him toward the children’s section of books.

  Chapter Five

  On sensory overload, Thor stood inside the strange building. The smell of something old filled his nose, but not in a bad way.

  Hannah had told him people lived in houses and worked in buildings. She’d tried to explain how buildings were constructed with steel, wood, and brick, but at the moment it was beyond his ability to grasp.

  Sunlight streamed through the windows, as he’d learned the glass surface was called, and made dust motes dance in its beams.

  Shelves and shelves filled with objects Hannah had explained were books loomed on every side, no matter which way he turned. He could hardly fathom such a thing as words and pictures being printed on paper and bound between covers. Yet, hundreds and hundreds of books surrounded him.

  “Come on, Thor. I have something I want you to see,” Hannah said then pulled him across the floor. Unsettled by her touch and the way it made his blood warm, he tamped down the urge to jerk away from her. When they stepped from the shiny squares of flooring onto a padded floor, Thor stopped and looked down. He rocked from the balls of his feet to his heels, feeling the softness give beneath his feet.

  “Carpet,” Hannah whispered and continued toward a colorful area that held miniature chairs and tables.

  She looked through one shelf and grabbed several books then led him to a large table with four chairs in a quiet corner.

  “Have a seat,” she said in a quiet voice as she motioned to the chair beside her. Thor sat down and wiggled in the chair, testing its strength and comfort. He liked the wood rising from the seat that supported his back.

  Hannah set her pack on the floor beside her, and Thor wondered if she’d brought the magic box that held people inside. He’d watched a warrior named Thor as he battled mighty beasts. He’d like to see more of it. Perhaps that Thor had won the battle and was now eating a feast.

  Thor shifted his attention back to Hannah when she slid a book toward him. “Does this look familiar?” she asked.

  Carefully studying the images on the page, he looked at color-filled drawings of mammoths walking across a steppe covered in dried grass. He turned the page and stared at images of cave lions and bears. Another page showed lush forests full of small animals.

  Hannah pushed another book his direction. Wall drawings like many he’d seen, although not as detailed as his, made him nod his head in recognition.

  “How about this one?” she asked, holding up a book with images of people inside a cave wearing furs.

  “The furs are worn in the winter, for warmth, and we only live in caves if necessary,” he said, his gaze focused on the images he held. Paper was a wondrous thing. He liked the feel of it beneath his rough fingers, the smell of the pages, the variety of hues caught on the surface.

  Hannah opened several more books and left them open for him to look at. “I’ll be back in a moment,” she said then disappeared between two rows of books.

  Thor hardly noticed she’d left as he looked through the books, wishing he knew what the black squiggles on the page meant. Hannah had said they were words.

  A written language. Thor could hardly believe it. His clan had an elaborate language made with signs of their hands. It was vital when they were hunting, or being hunted, to remain silent as they communicated. But to have a written language seemed almost unbelievable.

  Perhaps no more unbelievable than anything else he’d experienced since the sun rose the previous day. He’d gone from returning from a victorious hunt to waking up in a dark cave in a land he no longer recognized. He was beginning to think he was no longer in the same time, even if it was the same place. A few of the hilltops seemed familiar as Hannah drove from the camp to this place she called a town.

  Thor looked up and noticed a few other people in the library. Although they weren’t dressed exactly like Hannah, they wore clothing with enough similarities that he knew she and her friends at the camp must belong to the same clan.

  A woman walked by wearing a long, flowing garment with flowers on it. Thor was tempted to touch it, to see if the flowers felt real, but he left his hands on the table in front of him.

  With so many new words, new everything, his head began to swim as he tried to grasp it all.

  “Here, look at this,” Hannah said, sitting beside him again.

  Thor felt his shoulders relax, realizing he’d missed her presence. She smiled, making the hole pop out in her cheek again. Without thinking, he touched it.

  “What is this called?” he asked, gently rubbing his finger over her cheek.

  “A dimple.” She gave him a wary glance. “It’s a hereditary trait. My father had one.”

  “Where is your father now?” he asked, holding her gaze.

  Moisture gathered in her eyes, and for reasons he couldn’t fathom, his heart ached for her.

  “He died when I was fifteen. His heart failed him.”

  “That is sorrowful.” Thor had the most irrational urge to wrap his arms around this woman and offer her comfort. But that was unheard of. The chief of a clan did not demonstrate emotion, especially not to an unknown woman in a strange place.

  He shifted his focus from her to the book. He stared at a horizontal line that stretched across two pages with little vertical marks through it. By each vertical mark there was a drawing representing animals, humans, and plants.

  Hannah took a blank piece of paper from her pack and something she called a pen then drew a continuation of the line. She drew two figures that looked like sticks with round blobs for heads then pointed to one of them. “This is you,” she said, tapping the paper and then him. “And this is me,” she said, motioning to the second figure.

  Thor scoffed and took the pen from her. He studied it, made Hannah take it apart and show him how it worked, and then he drew a picture of her and him. The pen on paper was so easy to use compared to the sharp stone he used to carve images into rock. In no time, he’d created images that actually resembled him and Hannah next to her stick figures.

  She gasped and then smiled. “You are an artist, Thor. That’s wonderful.”

  He almost smiled but caught himself. After all, she was the witch who’d turned his world on its head. He wanted answers and to get back to his people.

  “What is this?” he asked, tracing his finger along the line.

  “This represents today,” she said, pointing to where they’d both drawn on the paper. Then she leaned close as she reached for the book and
turned it back several pages. There were lines and drawings on each page. She explained the age of the earth and covered the various periods of time until they got back to the page she’d originally shown him.

  “This is twelve thousand years ago, near the end of the time of mammoths.” She explained what each vertical line represented until they got back to the present day. “You’re certain there are still mammoths in your time?”

  Thor nodded, hiding his anxiety as she spoke about his time. The woman really had drawn him from his home and people to a place thousands of years in the future. No wonder everything looked different and unfamiliar.

  He hated to think of their beautiful, beloved lake drying up to a sea of dirt and sagebrush, as he’d heard Hannah call the plant. What happened to the animals he’d hunted?

  “Are there still bison?” he asked, pointing to a picture in one of the books.

  Hannah shook her head. “Not the Bison latifrons. We do have bison, but they are about half the size, and their horns are much, much shorter.” She got up and went to the children’s section then returned with another book. “This has pictures of modern-day wildlife.”

  Thor looked through the book.

  “The animals are separated by regions,” Hannah explained, showing him the various continents.

  “What is this Africa and Asia?” he asked.

  Hannah motioned for him to get up and took him to where a blue round object was mounted on a stand that allowed it to spin around. She placed her hands on it and turned it around then pointed to a spot.

  “This is where we are, in Prineville, Oregon. That’s part of the United States of America in North America.” Slowly she turned the globe, as she called it, and pointed to a large area. “This is Africa. See, everything that is blue is water.” She moved the globe again. “And this is Asia.”

  Dumbfounded, he stared at the globe. The earth was round? And water surrounded every land mass? He wanted to ask her what kept people from falling off but held his comments as he turned the globe around and around then came back to where she started. It appeared they were in the center of the place she called Oregon.

  “At one time, this whole area was underwater, then glaciers melted, the landscape shifted, and here we are.”

  Thor knew there was a lot more to it than that but merely nodded. Much to his surprise, Hannah placed her hand on his arm. “I’m sure this has to be hard to grasp. Are you doing okay?”

  He nodded again, more unsettled by what her touch did to him than the fact he’d been pulled out of his past and into her present day.

  “Do you want to see anything else right now?” she asked.

  “No. Not now.” In truth, Thor just wanted a quiet place alone to sort out his tangled thoughts. If he were in his own time, he would have walked along the lake to set his mind in order.

  Hannah went back to the table, put the books away, and then led the way outside to the Jeep.

  The sun beat down on them and made the air inside the car stifling.

  “Where is the air?” Thor asked, holding his hands in front of the vents.

  “It’ll cool off in a moment,” Hannah said, grinning at him. He knew he shouldn’t allow it, but something about the woman fascinated him. It might have been her smile with the… dimple, that’s what she’d called it. Or the way her eyes sparkled with kindness and intelligence. Or the shape of her.

  Women of his clan did not look like Hannah. Even if she wasn’t so much taller, she was different. Her features were more delicate. Her shape held more curves. And her skin looked so soft and was not covered in hair. Even her legs were smooth.

  He battled the desire to run his hand over the one closest to him but refrained. She’d no doubt wound him with her stinging weapon again if he tried.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  She glanced over at him and continued driving down what she called a street. “We’re going to run by a store, and then we’ll go to the ranch.”

  Thor had no idea what a store or ranch was and remained silent as he stared out the window. Hannah stopped in front of a large building with doors that slid back and forth when people stood in front of them.

  Intrigued, Thor insisted she show him how it worked then proceeded to go in and out multiple times before she yanked on his arm and made him follow her inside. She pulled a metal basket on wheels from a stack and started pushing it.

  “What is this called?” he asked, touching the side of the basket as she set her pack inside it.

  “A shopping cart,” she said then proceeded to add items to it. She stopped in a section full of clothes and eyed him then items hanging on metal rods. Her cheeks flushed as she added something to the cart he couldn’t see. Her steps were hurried as she guided the cart to where a woman pushed each item over a surface that beeped before she placed them in a bag.

  “That’s a plastic bag,” Hannah said as Thor picked one up, rubbing the material between his fingers.

  “Plastic. What is it made of?”

  Hannah gave him a quick explanation as she pushed a small piece of plastic into a plastic machine that beeped.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Paying for the items.”

  Thor took the small plastic piece from her and looked at it before handing it back. “How does it work?”

  She began explaining about banks and money, transactions, and credit cards. Thor didn’t pay much attention to what she said. He was too entranced as he listened to the cadence of her voice.

  “Are you thirsty? Hungry?” she asked when they were once again in her Jeep driving down the road.

  “Yes,” Thor said, curious how she would produce food or water. He’d seen so many marvels beyond his ability to comprehend he considered how she’d make something magically appear.

  She pulled up next to a building, rolled down the window, and spoke into what Thor now knew was a machine. She drove around the building, held out her plastic card to a person through an open window in the building, and accepted two cups. She handed one to him and set the other in the holder beside her on the seat.

  “What is this?” Thor asked, staring at the white and red striped stick in the cup.

  “That is a straw. Stick it in your mouth and suck on it.” She picked up her cup and demonstrated.

  Thor sucked on the straw then laughed in delight. A bubbly, sweet liquid tickled his tongue. “It is good.”

  “That’s Dr Pepper. I probably shouldn’t give you anything that will rot your teeth, but you have to at least try it.”

  “I like Dr Pepper,” he said, taking another long drink.

  Hannah drove out of town and turned onto a road lined with grassy fields full of animals that were unfamiliar. “Those are cattle.” She pointed out the window. “And those are horses,” she said, motioning to long-legged animals running near a big, red building.

  “Horses? We have horses. They are good for meat and milk.”

  Hannah’s head whipped around, and she glared at him. “Don’t get any ideas. My brother-in-law will string you up by your toes if you lay a hand on his horses, and I’ll help him. Horses are not food. They are ridden.”

  “You ride horses?” Thor gave her a disbelieving look. “Your world is a crazy place.”

  Hannah shrugged. “Perhaps, but we have plenty of good things to eat without resorting to horsemeat.”

  Before Thor could utter a response, she pulled up in front of a big house and stopped. “Welcome to the ranch.”

  “What is this place?” Thor asked. He watched a woman step outside holding a baby with hair the same color as Hannah’s.

  “This is where I grew up.” Hannah grabbed two bags from behind her and opened her door.

  Curious, Thor got out of the Jeep and followed her. He wanted to know more about ranches and the animals that lived there. Hannah had tried to explain the differences between farms and ranches on their drive earlier, but he hadn’t been able to fully grasp the variation.

  “Hey, H
annah, it’s so good to see you.” The woman in front of the house smiled. He could see a resemblance to Hannah.

  Hannah dropped her bags and hugged the woman then took the baby and cuddled it. The baby gurgled and smiled, flapping her hands excitedly.

  “Oh, she’s grown so much this month,” Hannah said, pressing her lips over and over to the baby’s cheeks in what he recognized as a kiss of affection. He’d often seen Tilia do the same with her daughters and Ilee. In fact, seeing Hannah with the baby made him long to see his child. Was Ilee well? Was she safe? Even if he left her with Tilia, he cared for his daughter.

  Suddenly, he felt as though he was being studied. The woman standing beside Hannah openly stared at him.

  “You weren’t kidding,” the woman said to Hannah and shook her head in disbelief. She offered him a welcoming smile. “You must be Thor.”

  Unsure what was proper custom with these strange women, he nodded his head and moved up the steps until he stood on the other side of Hannah. Hesitant, yet intrigued, he reached out and stroked a finger across the baby’s pale arm.

  She looked at him, eyes curious but not frightened, and then chortled. Four milky white teeth gleamed as she cooed at him. Thor felt something tug at his heart and resisted the pull. He was a hunter, not an old woman meant to coddle babies. Yet, something about this child made him want to hold her as Hannah did. Made him long to hold his own daughter in such a tender manner.

  “This is Rachel,” Hannah said, smiling at the baby. “She’s almost nine months.”

  Months meant moons, so this child was four moons older than Ilee.

  When he didn’t say anything, Hannah tipped her head toward the other woman. “This is Jill, my sister. Jill, meet Thor.”

  The woman held out a hand toward him, so he took it between both his, although he wasn’t sure what to do with it. She shook his right hand then drew hers back. “Welcome to our home. Hannah said you’ll be here all weekend.”

  Thor had no idea of Hannah’s plans or when he’d return to his own time, but he appreciated the look of welcome on her sister’s face. Jill bore a strong resemblance to Hannah, but she was much smaller, shorter, and her hair was darker.