Page 4 of Agnarr's Jarlin

“Piper, do you want to officially meet Brandr?” I called.

“Um, hello,” she waved awkwardly, blushing a lovely shade of pink. “I’d love to get up and give you a hug as well, but I’m afraid I’m indecent at the moment.”

Brandr barked out a laugh, “You’ll soon learn, there’s no such thing as indecent here, but I am willing to wait for a proper greeting.”

He turned to me, “So, what is next? You know Astrid will want to move quickly.”

“I know. I know. But what of the other human women? What happened while Piper and I were away?” I asked quietly.

“They are all awake. We have been keeping them separate from the tribe, awaiting your return, but they growing restless in their rooms.”

“Piper will need to speak with them immediately. Can you have Tora and Saela arrange it?”

“Yes, of course. Tora and Saela have been the ones interacting with them the most. And Odin, of course. They are all quite fond of him,” Brandr said with a grin.

“Okay, give Piper an hour?” I asked.

“As long as you don’t distract her too much. Let’s have them meet in the healer’s cabin.”

CHAPTER2

AGNARR

Ireturned to Piper, who lay in bed, hair mussed and face flushed.

“Are you ready to meet all the other human women?” I asked.

“Well, I think getting cleaned up and dressed would probably be a first step. Do you have a bathroom here?”

“You didn’t notice it before?” I questioned.

“Uh, nope, didn’t spend much time in this room. Too busy panicking.”

“Ah, understood. But it is only a sink and toilet, I think we should both have a proper wash before meeting the other women,” I said, taking her hand to guide her up.

“Where can we do that?” Piper asked.

“At the sauna,” I responded, turning my back to get her something to wear.

“Thatwhat now?” Piper asked, sounding shocked. I turned back to see her eyes wide. “You bathe in front of the people—I mean orkin?”

“Um, já?”

“Yeah, nope. I’m not down,” she said.

Piper just said two conflicting things. Yes and no?Wait, what?

“Pip, you just said yes and no. What do you mean?” I asked

“Sorry, sorry. American slang—well probably Californian slang. Not the point. I am not comfortable bathing with other people or orkin, nor will many of the women. Unless they were on some sort of team sport in high school,” Piper explained.

I was perplexed. I’d grown up bathing in our sauna. Orkin were pretty free with their nudity. But if Pip wasn’t comfortable with that, I would have to come up with a solution. I looked out the window. It was barely past dawn and unlikely that the sauna would be crowded, but I couldn’t guarantee her privacy.

“Okay, so we have two options,” I said, looking at her, “One, we can go to the sauna, and hope that there are few orkin there. There are multiple rooms, we can attempt to use one of the smaller ones and hope for privacy. The second option would be to ask to use the pools of one of the older orkin that has a sauna attached to their house.”

Piper looked thoughtful but not displeased, “Let’s take our chances at the communal sauna,” she said.

“You’re sure?”