KingOfNowhere

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

King saw the surprise in Annie's face when he asked her to better describe her community's breeding custom.

Rather than explain it to him, she spoke of how it was currently affecting her. "Paul wasn't my choice. Tyka chose him. She chose him, and my father approved. But ... I'd rather..."

King was expecting her to say that she had a different man in mind, and -- deep down -- he would have loved to hear her identify him as that man. He was a stranger, though, a castaway in a sense, who neither Annie, Bran, or anyone else from her community knew well enough to even consider him for participating in the breeding of the next generation in their village.

And yet, to King's surprise, Annie confessed, "I'd rather it was you."

He stared at her in silence for a long, long moment, uncertain as to whether what he'd heard had come from her mouth or from his imagination. King looked off toward the other boat, as if fearing that her father had heard Annie's words and was now sailing this direction to retrieve her, beat King, or possibly both.

Looking back to Annie, he smiled and chuckled lightly. He was unsure of how to respond, despite knowing that he, too, wanted a sexual relationship with the young beauty. Eventually, he said, "I'm honored, Annie. I really am. I, um..."

King looked to the other boat again, this time finding the girl's father looking this way. His heart leapt in his chest as he realized that the other boat was in fact turning this direction; he just knew that his time with these people -- with Annie -- was about to come to an end, possibly with Bran tossing him into the sea, pointing to the east, and telling him Iceland's that way, swim hard..

But a signal from Annie's father indicated that Bran wanted the second boat to change course, and -- to his great relief -- King realized that the alteration in direction had nothing to do with his conversation with the man's teenage daughter. King and Annie tacked the boat to the northwest, after which the former looked back to the latter to finish his response to her stunning proposition.

"You're a beautiful young woman, Annie," he began, choosing his words carefully as he was certain her father would object to the entirety of the conversation. "And ... like I said ... I'd be honored to, um ... how do I put this...? Honored to be with you."

King knew he was seriously screwing this up. The issue at hand, of course, was that Annie was speaking of breeding for the purpose of procreation, and he was thinking about fucking for the purpose of sexual gratification. Of course, Annie might have been thinking of the latter, too, but ... how did King verify that without asking her if she was horny for him?

He chuckled, embarrassed that at his age he was befuddled by a conversation with a teenage girl on the subject of sex. King glanced toward the other boat again, finding her father no longer paying him attention -- due or undue -- then looked back to Annie and said, "I don't think your father would be very happy with me screwing up the plans he and your match maker have for you."

King paused a moment, again considering his words carefully, then finished, "That being said ... I would love to be your lover."

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

King looked up at the return of Annie to the tent, smiling to her. She'd thought he was asleep when she rose this morning, and for the second time, he'd suffered an involuntary erection as she stripped down and showed him her backside. He so badly needed a bit of privacy off behind some boulder or outcropping; the image of her curves and the feeling -- the hope -- that she was being so sexually provocative for his benefit had his cock hardening yet again as she revealed the seabird eggs and announced, “Breakfast.”

It wasn't long before the gear was packed and they were loading the boats again. Annie had asked King to help her with the dishes, and with her father's direction to also carry gear to the shore, King obliged. Annie talked about Mother Nature's beauty and power, then informed King, “The Elders of our village don't talk about the world as it was before. I know there was a sickness … and a war.”

The Pox had, of course, had the largest effect on human population decrease, with war and the effects of global warming -- unknown to Annie and only a vague subject to King -- running distant second and third. The true numbers of those killed by these and other factors were unknown to King; he only knew that at one time, there had been nearly 8 billion people living on this planet and that today, there weren't.

King knew far more about history than Annie did, of course. For reasons of which he was yet to learn, her people had intentionally suppressed much of the history of Humanity prior to the present. Bran had told King this in a roundabout way, just as he'd told King not to speak of what he knew that his daughter didn't.

So, it was awkward when Annie said to him, “Papa won't tell me about what happened."

King finished scraping the frying pan with sand and salt water, slipping it into the heavy bag of dishware. He lied to her, "I don't know much about what happened way back when. I don't think anyone does."

The truth was that in every community in which he'd lived during his 42 years of life had some level of preserved knowledge about their location, their people, and their history. But how much history had been preserved and how accurate it actually was could vary greatly from one community to the next. The decline of Humanity had seen a great shift of fact to fiction, too; when he'd moved about, King had often found the people of his new location living with a version of the past that had little connection to reality at all.

He was contemplating what he could say to Annie without angering her father when Bran called from higher up the shore, "Help us with the boats you two."

King was relieved not to have to respond to the girl, turning to hurry up the incline to grab an end of one of the boats and pull it down to the shore before then returning to help with the other. In no time, they were fully loaded and ready to depart.

"Nej, ikke i dag," Bran said to King as he was helping Paul push their boat out into the surf. The man switched back to English, telling King, "You are with Annie today."

King looked to the girl for her reaction, then to Paul for his. The latter's was obviously less agreeable that the former's. Still, King was more than happy to say, "Sure, whatever you want."

A few minutes later, they were past the gentle surf, storing the oars, and lifting the sail into place. They caught the wind directly east to move away from the shore, where they could then tack back and forth to continue their course up Greenland's shore. Annie had taken the sail as she had the day before with Paul, leaving King to divide his attention between watching the other boat for directions ... and watching the young beauty work.

One subject had been nagging at him since the first time Annie's father had talked vaguely about it, and with the wind blowing their voices away from the other boat, it seemed like the best opportunity King would have to ask the girl about it. Contemplating his words in an effort not to put his foot in his mouth, King asked, "So ... can you tell me more about this ... breeding custom of yours...? I mean ... I've seen my share of customs when it comes to marriage, raising families, and the like. But this is the first time I've heard of a match maker arranging breeding ... as opposed to marriages. Can you tell me more about it ... and ... if it's not private ... personal ... can you tell me about you and Paul? I mean ... how do you feel about that?"

King knew that he was treading on what Annie might find to be a very personal subject, and if she didn't want to tell him anything more than he already knew, he'd accept it. He had a feeling she wanted to talk about it, though.

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

“I won't ask that of you,” Bran told King, adding, “My daughter seems to enjoy your company.”

That had become very obvious to King, which pleased him as much as it pleased Annie.

And…” Bran began, before ending, “It's fine.”

King couldn't help but wonder what the man had been about to say. He hoped it was something along the lines of And I want you to fuck my daughter at your earliest convenience. Bran wouldn't have put it in those words, of course, but King couldn't help but fantasize that something to that effect had been on the man's tongue.

Soon, thoughts such as those faded away, and everything was about getting off the sea and to safety on the shore. King found himself surprised at how quick and organized the trio were; it was obvious to him that they and their people had dealt with these sudden storms often in the past.

King simply followed instructions barked at him, during the frenzied dash for shore, the erection of the tent, and the preparations of the fire and bed. It quickly became obvious that they would all be sleeping under the same layers, and the earlier thoughts of bedding Annie returned.

Those thoughts resulted in a rapidly swelling cock when the girl announced “I'm tired”, and King looked up to find her standing facing away from her in nothing more than panties. He should have looked away, of course, but he found himself unable to do the right thing. Annie had a beautiful body, tight and well curved; when she leaned down to retrieve her sleeping gown, King caught a quick glimpse of a firm titty that literally caused him to casually lick his lips with hopeful anticipation.

After Annie’s perfect form was again hidden, King looked about himself with sudden guilt, wondering if his ogling of the girl had been noticed. Paul was busy tending to the kelp log fire, and King couldn't know if he, too, had witnessed the erotic display. Looking to Bran, though, King caught the man smiling wide as he tended to his pack. The father peeked up at him for just an instance before returning to his work, and King knew he'd been caught.

No words were exchanged, though, and both men returned to preparing for bed as Annie herself inquired as to who she'd be sleeping between. King didn't understand the words spoken in Danish, of course, but again he fantasized lewd options for what they might have meant.

“Take the edge nearest the fire,” Bran told King, explaining, “You're as close to a gæst … a guest … as we've ever had, so…”

“Are you sure?” King asked, thinking that maybe the lone female might want to be close to the radiant energy coming off the logs of dried seaweed. When Paul and Bran had their exchange about his possible contamination of them, King responded, “I'll try not to breathe on you, Paul.”

As he shed his boots and prepared to do the same with his wet pants, King caught Annie looking his way. Feeling playful, he told Paul, “I'll try to keep my hands to myself, too … but no promises.”

The other man vying for a place of intimacy in Annie’s life only glared back at King, before he, too, slipped under the layers of bedding.

Annie spoke her end-of-day words to each of the men from her village, then looked again to the stranger sharing the bed. “Goodnight, King.”

“Godnat, Annie,” King said in his best attempt at the girl’s first language. He added just barely loud enough to be heard over the driving wind and pounding rain, “Sleep tight.”

King watched her get comfortable, exchanged one last glare with the man lying next to him, and rolled to lie on his side, looking at the small fire. He was contemplating the strange and multiple twists his life had taken to get him here when the exhaustion of the day pushed him quickly into a deep, sound sleep.

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

“My daughter is an uskyldig,” Bran said, translating, “an innocent.”

The man's comment about his daughter didn't surprise him. King had picked up on that from his limited time with Annie. Was Bran right? Was his beautiful, flirtatious 17-year-old daughter truly as pure as the driven snow that had once covered Greenland? Neither Bran nor King could know for certain.

Bran talked about his daughter’s imminent coming-of-age, as well as the prearranged breeding. King cringed at the thought of Paul lying between Annie’s thighs, pumping his cock in and out of her until he emptied his balls inside her.

“If my daughter will consent to lie with him,” Bran continued about his daughter consenting to being impregnated by Paul, “which was questionable before your arrival … and is less likely with each passing day.”

King looked to Bran, surprised at the man's statement. King understood the man's meaning. He was unsure, however, of how he should feel about it. He felt a little guilt about screwing up Annie’s future, as it seemed to have been arranged for her.

On the other hand, he had no regret in fantasizing that it would be he who first parted Annie’s thighs, that it would be he who first intruded upon her purity, that it would be he whose hardened cock filled her with his seed, possibly putting a child inside her, possibly not; no matter.

“I didn't mean to be a problem, Bran,” King told his boatmate. He contemplated his next words before speaking them, knowing that he didn't mean them. “If you ask, I will maintain my distance from Annie. All you have to do is ask.”

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

King wasn't sure how Bran was going to react to finding his not-yet 18-year-old daughter in the home of a half-naked man almost three times her age who also was supposed to be in medical quarantine. His response -- a shocked "What the hell? -- was a bit milder than what King had anticipated."

When Annie suddenly dropped to her knees before him and kissed him full on the mouth, King's eyes widened, heart pounded, and brain whirled. If Bran hadn't already been about to kill King, he most certainly would now!

"If he's infected, I'm infected," Annie challenged, "so ... I might as well go with ya'll."

Bran was in obvious shock and anger. For his part, King was shocked as well ... and so very very much inappropriately excited; how the fuck could his cock be growing at a time like this?!?

Annie stated without any doubt in her mind that she was going with the three men -- King, Bran, and Paul -- to rescue the former's friend. King wasn't sure he would have used the word friend to describe the young woman now in the clutches of apparent slavers, but he didn't argue it either.

Annie argued that she was the perfect person to participate in the mission, and after she was sent out of the hut, her father confirmed all she had said ... and more. King was shocked to hear that the teen had taken lives in the defense of her community. The post-apocalyptic world they lived in could be a dangerous and sometimes brutal place, and King himself had taken lives. But Annie was so young and -- while not wanting to think himself sexually discriminating -- a young woman ... no, a girl.

"She's right," Bran said about his daughter's statements about being right for the mission. "She's as suited for this as anyone else. And now, this...!"

"I didn't touch her!" King said suddenly, believing that Bran was misinterpreting what had happened here. "That kiss! That was our first kiss. I mean, it was -- will be -- our only kiss. I mean ... nothing happened here. I woke up and she was here. I didn't sleep with her!"

Bran didn't respond to King's declaration of innocence with regards to his daughter, which King took as the man's belief in what he was saying. Bran only told him, "Get up, get dressed. We're going."

After Annie's father departed, closing the hut door behind him, King sat there another long moment, willing his involuntary and inopportune hard-on to settle down. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Stop that shit! he cursed his cock. Finally, he hopped up, dressed, packed some supplies in an animal hide bag he'd been provided the day before, and -- now flaccid -- headed outside.

King found only Bran still outside the hut, talking -- from an appropriate distance, now that he'd been inside the quarantine hut -- to some of the Council Elders and others interested in what was about to begin. Bran eventually turned, headed to and past King, and said simply, "Let's go."

They descended to the beach, where Annie and Paul had already finished loading the boats and pushed them close to the surf line. King was initially surprised to find that they were taking two of the small sail boats rather than just one, but Bran explained that the quantity of supplies and the expected -- or hoped for -- addition of a fifth occupant on the return trip necessitated two craft.

They pushed the boats out into the calm sea, boarded, and paddled until they were past the breaking waves. The sails went up, filled with the wind of a mild breeze, and off they went. King had never sailed a small boat like this, but he was a quick study, and after just an hour or so of gentle tacking to port and starboard to efficiently use the winds, he felt like a veteran.

Occasionally, King glanced toward the other boat and the mission's only female member. Annie looked so at ease out here, which only impressed King further. He tried to think back to when he was her age, but not only had it been so long ago, there had been so much living in those years as well.

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

A hard day's work had led to a good night's rest, leading to King sleeping right through Annie's secret arrival at and into the quarantine hut. When he awoke and saw her there, he sat up quickly in shock.

"Good morning," she said as if she wasn't doing anything wrong. "Before you freak out!"

"What the hell...?" he responded, most definitely freaking out. "What're you doing here. Your father's gonna have a fucking fit!"

Annie told King about her Papa telling her about the planned trip to rescue the survivor from the Elizabeth. She was talking a million miles an hour, obviously trying to keep King from interrupting her. He was still too shocked by Annie's presence to form an opinion about her reasoning.

She finished speaking about the possibility of her father catching whatever King might have, "...if he gets sick and dies ... I'd rather be dead, you understand?"

He didn't immediately respond, his mind still spinning around her simply being here. She offered out a steaming cup of mate, which King hesitantly took. Only now did he realize that the bedding was exposing him low to his waist, nearly revealing his groin. He tried to be inconspicuous about pulling the blanket tighter around his hips. Only now, after realizing that he'd nearly flashed himself, did King's cock begin stirring. Down! Down, boy! King chastised himself. Wrong fucking time for that!

"Makes sense, doesn't it?" Annie asked about her reasons for being here.

"Makes sense?" King asked surprised. "No! Absolutely not!"

He sipped at the hot drink, grimacing at the sharp bitterness; the honey made it palatable, but only barely. King had a moment to think about what Annie had done, and he began to understand where she was coming from, even if he didn't agree with it. He looked to a small pot cooking over the little fire she'd stoked while he slept. He asked, "May I?"

King wasn't entirely sure what the mush was made of -- some locally harvested grass seed that the villagers ground, soaked, and boiled -- but, with some more honey, it was tasty and filling both. He studied Annie as he carefully ate the steaming food. "Listen, I understand what you did and why. But--"

That was all the farther King got before he heard a familiar male voice beyond the quarantine hut door calling, "King, are you awake? I brought food and mate. We need to get up and around if we're going to get to Black Rock before nightfall."

The man outside was, of course, Annie's father, Bran. King looked to Annie, panicked again as he was when he first saw her in his hut. There was no way to prevent Bran from knowing that his daughter was in here, but then, King knew that Annie wanted it that way. If she didn't invite her father inside, King would.

(OOC: Bran is a shared character, who Annie2002 is going to write next. I'm eager to see where she takes this, heeheehee.)

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

"Feel better?" Annie asked when she rejoined King near his hut.

"Like a new man," he answered, very honestly. He hadn't felt this clean in weeks, even back to before he left New Eastport on the Elizabeth. "Thank whoever made these clothes. They're great."

Annie spoke of a communal dinner, to which King said, "I'd love a plate, thank you."

As she hurried off, King ogled her backside, smiling yet again. He wanted Annie badly, and -- if he was reading the signals correctly -- she wanted him as well. King understood the Council of Elder's concerns about him possibly being infected with one thing or another and accepted their order for isolation. It was keeping him from discovering whether or not something would happen between him and the beautiful young woman.

Of course, quarantine wasn't the only thing that might stand in the way of him bedding beautiful, sexy Annie of Greenland. There was, of course, her father as well. King had found Bran's approval of him spending time with his daughter as encouraging. But just as he might have been misreading Annie, King might have been misreading her father as well. King didn't know anything about the community's breeding program, of course, so he couldn't know that his contribution of genetic diversity to the village's population was already a thing of thought and even conversation amongst key people, including Bran.

When the girl returned with food and water, she asked him more about the world in which he lived. King first considered the warning Bran had given him about undesirable knowledge before telling her that that world of interest to her really wasn't that interesting.

"Things out there aren't than much different than they are here, really," he said, trying to sound believable, even though he was lying his ass off. This community was so simple compared to such places as New Eastport or the Carolines or New Memphis. He continued, "They hunt, they fish, they build new homes for their growing populations. People pretty much stay where they are."

That was a blatant lie, of course, one that he knew Annie would call him on when she recalled the reasons behind him reaching Greenland. He corrected, saying, "I mean, for the most part, people live and die without ever having gone more than a dozen miles from where they were born. I'm the exception, of course ... but ... there aren't many people like me."

King began to fear that he was going to slip up, to say something Annie would realize was bull crap, when he saw Bran coming to join them. He reminded Annie of her duties, told King his request to visit the interior of the island had been approved for after his quarantine ended in ten days, and told him he could help with the shore traps and snares if he wished."

"I accept," King said to one and all of the man's offers. "And again, so you don't have any concerns about me, I fully understand the reason for quarantine."

Annie left, Bran left, and King retired to his hut ... where he again grasped his cock to images of the beautiful teen writhing energetically as she straddled his waist.

***********************

The next day was much like the one that had preceded it: King rose, cleaned up, waited for Annie to bring him breakfast, walked the snare trap route with the girl's father, then descended to the beach to help with the fish traps.

It was high noon when a horn sounded from the tallest of the cliffs flanking the village trail, repeating a pattern that was unfamiliar to King. He didn't know what it meant until he caught Annie looking up and down the beach, more precisely to the waters just beyond it.

Soon, he caught sight of a sailboat nearing from the northeast. Annie explained that it was the crew that had gone to look for more of his people. It seemed to take forever for the boat to reach a spot just east of them, where it finally turned and used both the wind and wave action to reach the shore. By the time they had, people from the village had descended with water and food. King, of course, was directed to stay away to one side.

The two men in the boat looked exhausted. They didn't hesitate to partake of the provisions brought to them before making their report to Bran and a couple of other Elders who'd come down to the shore. King couldn't hear what was being said and stood at one point to move closer, only to be urged back to his sitting spot by the spear-wielding Paul, who had already often taken it upon himself to enforce King's separation by threat.

Seeing the two men look his way often, King knew that what they were reporting involved him. When Bran glanced his way with a look of concern, King stood a second time, telling the threatening Paul, "You have a choice, asshole: stick me with that thing and see what happens, or tell Bran I want to know what the fuck they're telling him."

Paul looked like he wasn't entirely sure how to react, which he didn't have to do when Bran called, "Sit, King. I'll be right there to tell you what we've learned."

The villagers who'd responded both helped the exhausted scouts toward the village trail and pulled the boat up the beach to a safe distance from the changing tides. Annie spoke to her father a moment before he sent her up the hill as well. Finally, the youngest Elder moved over closer to King to speak with him.

"These two men sailed north toward Black Rock," he began. "It's a little village not unlike our own, about 30 kilometers to the north. Along the way, they found what was likely wreckage from your ship. They investigated ... and ... King, they found more bodies. Two of them, both male."

Bran looked hesitant to continue, leading King to ask, "What...? What is it? What aren't you telling me?"

"They continued on to Black Rock, where..." Bran began, pausing to draw a deep breath, then release it in a sigh. "There was a survivor, King. A woman--"

"What? Who?" King asked with obvious shock. "What was her name?"

Bran gestured for the other man to remain call. "They don't know what her name was--"

"How could they not know her name?" King challenged, stepping forward a couple of steps. Seeing Bran back instinctively, King threw up his hands in a calm gesture similar to the one Bran had used and backed up a step. "Sorry. Sorry, I just ... how do your friends not know her name? Didn't they ask? Didn't you ask?"

"The people of Black Rock don't have her," Bran explained. "They aren't the ones who found her."

"What the fuck...?"

Again, Bran gestured for calm, then explained, "A trading party from an inland village were the ones who found her ... on a beach north of Black Rock. They beached in Black Rock to trade and said that they had a female to trade."

"To trade...? Again I ask, what the fuck?" King was beginning to get angry. He'd almost lost his life trying to save the girls from being sold into sexual servitude and/or forced marriage, only to have some Greenlanders capture her and offer her in trade for, what, cheese and goat jerky? He asked, "Where is she now? Did your friends trade for her?"

"No, of course not," Bran said. "The people of Black Rock aren't like that."

"But the people who have her are?" King asked.

"Some of the Clans trade in people, yes," Bran said with a disturbed tone. "We don't."

"So, when do we go get her?" King asked. When Bran only stared at him, he asked with an expectant tone, "We are going to get her ... right?"

Bran began, "You're still in quaran--"

"Bullshit!" King snapped, again stepping closer to the other man before coming to a stop. Pointing up the beach to the northeast, he said, "That woman is my responsibility. I'm the reason she's out there, being held captive by these fuckers. I'm responsible for getting her back ... for keeping her safe ... for keeping her free."

Bran knew there was more here than the other man was telling him and asked, "Do you care to explain this, King? Who is this woman to you, and why is she your responsibility?"

King turned away and took a few steps before coming back, then turning away again, pacing essentially. Finally, he told the other man about how he and others had mutinied aboard a slaver's ship, stealing it and its cargo -- 12 young women destined for the sex slave trade -- and sailing away. He explained about their intended destination -- Ireland, England, Spain, or wherever the current and winds took them -- and about how the storm had ruined their plans.

"This woman isn't anyone to me," he continued, clarifying, "What I mean is, she isn't my woman or wife or anything like that. But she is my responsibility. I have to save her. There were 12 of them ... girls, I mean ... girls and young women. I don't know which one survived, but if she did, there might be even more of them. You gotta understand ... don't you? You have a daughter. What would you do if Annie had been taken and offered for sale?"

Bran again took a moment to just stare at King in silence. He knew what he would do if Annie was ever taken by slavers, and that action ended with him covered in blood, his or theirs or both. But he also had to consider King's quarantine. The man's isolation wasn't something easily ignored or overridden.

"I need you to be honest with me, King," Bran said, stepping forward to within the distance he'd been maintaining since the newcomer's arrival. "Are you certain beyond a doubt that you are free of disease ... the Bug or otherwise?"

King opened his mouth to speak, but Bran quickly raised a hand in a stop gesture before continuing, "Because if I take a chance on you ... if I violate the quarantine ... and you are sick, with anything that could be hazardous to my people ... I can never come back to them."

"I'm not sick," King said with a sincere tone. "I promise you, Bran. New Eastport was free of disease when I left. No Bug, no measles, no chicken pox ... nothing. I promise."

Bran contemplated his next words and actions for a long moment. Looking up the trail, he caught sight of Annie, Paul, and a handful of others standing there watching the two men talking on the beach, wondering how the conversation was unfolding.

"We'll leave tomorrow," Bran finally said. "You, me ... I want Paul to come with us." He saw the grimace on the other man's face and smiled. "He is skilled with the spear and bow and braver than any other man in the village. If we get into trouble, you won't want anyone else at your side ... except maybe me."

"Just the three of us?" King asked.

"We're not going to fight these men," Bran explained. "We're going to explain to them that this woman belongs to you--"

"Well, she doesn't belong to me," King responded.

"Do you want her back or not?" Bran asked. He didn't wait for King's response, continuing, "We're going to tell them she belongs to you and that they need to give her back."

"And if that doesn't work?" King asked, already knowing what his own response would be.

Bran responded in the way King had hoped, saying, "Then we'll be glad we took Paul with us."

With that decision made, Bran ordered, "Return to your hut, get a good night's sleep. We'll leave at dawn."

Getting a head nod from King, Bran turned and led the other man up the hill. When they got close to the others, Bran waved them all to go home, clearing the way for him and quarantine man. When they reached the hut, Bran told King, "I will explain this to the Council. They'll accept it. They won't like it ... but ... they'll accept it. I'll bring you breakfast and mate to get your heart pumping."

"Don't forget the honey," King said, recalling how awful the caffeinated drink had tasted.

They smiled to one another, and just before King headed into the hut, he caught sight of Annie and smiled to her as well. Once in bed, it took King forever to finally fall asleep.

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

"It's a nice place to grow up," Annie said after King had said her home was nice. "The ocean, the mountains ... good, loyal, friendly, hardworking people. What's not to love?"

King had seen a lot of places in his life, more even than he'd told Bran in an earlier conversation. He seen both the good and the horrific of what a post-apocalyptic world had to offer.

As her father climbed the trail toward their position, Annie called out, "Papa, hvorfor klatrer du op ad denne bakke?"

The primary languages of the village were Danish and English. The former was a remnant of tiny Denmark having once owned the much larger Greenland; the latter had resulted from the simple fact that many of the village's original inhabitants had spoken English, either as a first or second language. There were other languages spoken here, too, according to a conversation with Bran. King didn't know what they were, though, he thought he'd heard German and an Inuit dialect as he was passing through the village.

"I'm climbing this hill," Bran translated, for King's benefit, "to tell you that you have chores. I'll keep King company."

Annie was reluctant to leave, playing the hurt little girl role, at least until she caught King watching her with a smirk. She left, promising to see King soon.

"Can't wait, he said, chuckling. To himself, he murmured, "Can't wait to see much more of you."

As King and Bran began their walk across the mountainside, they spoke about the former's desire to see what was on the other side of the pass. King had seen the ocean and the shore already; he wanted to see what remained of the interior of the island of Greenland. Bran said he'd take it up with the Council.

Then, regarding providing King some extra freedom -- and company -- during quarantine, Bran opined, "I'm sure that Annie would be willing to keep you company."

"I'd like the company," King said, trying not to sound too overly excited about the offer. He added for the benefit of the Elder and father, "I'll remember to keep my distance."

King joined Bran in checking snares placed all along the mountainside. He was impressed with how well they made out, returning to the village with a trio of nice sized hares. King sat at a safe distance to watch a woman and her daughter gut, skin, and cut up the animals before tossing them into stew pot.

King could see in the faces of some of the villagers a desire to speak with him, but they'd all been warned to keep their distance. At one point, a toddler rushed King's way, only to be intercepted by his mother. King laughed as the child struggled for his freedom. Bran was nearby, talking to some of his community members.

"I should get in that bath," King told him. More than anything, King just thought he should isolate himself again before the nature of the quarantine was violated.

Back at the hut, King found everything he needed to take a bath. He heated water over a larger than normal fire, poured it into a large, old, dented tub, stripped down, and slipped into the water. He moaned at the feeling, thinking better than sex. His mind went to Annie again, imagining her sitting in the water with him. He scrubbed himself almost raw, leaving the surface of the water filthy. He would rinse himself with clean water, but not before he relieved himself at more mental images of a naked Annie.

King donned a new set of clothes he'd been provided. They were a bit large, a bit loose, but they were of surprisingly good quality, a combination of wool, fur, and hide. He would have expected these materials up here in the north; down in Caroline, they were harvesting and processing cotton, using 19th century processes to make cloth for clothing, ship sails, and other uses.

Dressed, clean, and even smelling good, King went outside to sit in the sun. From his temporary home, he watched the villagers as they went through their day.

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

“He already did,” Annie said when King asked for her father to send more search parties out. She explained that waterborne teams had gone out north and south to the toward the nearest communities. "It will be a couple of days before we hear back.”

King was delighted at this news. At the same time, though, he was disturbed. He knew it was more likely that they'd find more corpses than survivors, if either were found at all. He looked back out at the sea again. It was a clear day with no fog or low-lying clouds, enabling King to see far beyond the ground-level horizon of 12 miles from here up the hill. It all seemed so peaceful and perfect, so unlike the pre-apocalyptic world that had led them all to this time and place.

"I'd like to just sit here a while, if that's okay," King told Annie. If he wasn't required to return to the quarantine hut, he wanted to get some more fresh air, enjoy the scenery, and -- if Bran allowed it -- even climb the trail to the pass and look down into the interior of Greenland. He mused, "I like it here. It's nice."

"Aftermath" (closed, but feel free to read along)

"No offense taken," King said when Bran informed him that he would be watched over by yet a second villager, this one a man. Honestly, he wouldn't have minded being alone with Annie, but King understood the reason as it was coming from both a village Elder and a father. He joked, "The more the merrier."

King put the now empty dishware back into the basket, stood, and said, "Let's walk." Then, remembering the news about his shipmates on the beach, he suggested, "Maybe uphill?"

As they headed slowly up the hill in the direction of the village, Annie began hitting King with questions that he was sure had been building up since the moment she'd found him unconscious on the beach.

“Where's Newfoundland…?”

"Where's Newfoundland...?" King asked, "or where's Newfoundland from here?"

King thought for a moment about what Bran had said about knowledge and his preference that King not spread it. He didn't see anything wrong with answering this question, vaguely anyway. "Newfoundland in an island that is -- or was? -- a province of a country called Canada."

That was more or less true. Newfoundland, the island, was actually part of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. King didn't really think he needed to make that clear to Annie. "As far as where it is from here...?"

Again, King recalled Bran's warning. "I can't really tell you that, because I don't really know where I am. Your father said this was Greenland, but where in Greenland? Newfoundland could be to the west, the southwest, the south ... don't know."

Again, that was more or less true, excepting the fact that there was no way that Newfoundland could be south of Greenland. Again, King didn't think he needed to be clear on that.

“What's there…?” Annie asked.

"Not much, really," King said, chuckling. "New Eastport was a fishing village. They hunted and foraged in the forests, too."

“How many people live there…?” she pushed on.

"A hundred, I guess," King lied. "It varies."

In truth, New Eastport was a thriving city of almost a thousand residents. They were fishers and hunters like King said, but they were also sea merchants. In addition to more than 40 fishing vessels, the city had a fleet of 20 or more merchant ships that sailed southwest down the New England coast of the United States and northwest along the coast of Labrador, sometimes even venturing all the way into the Hudson Bay.

He thought it best not to mention the extent of New Eastport's impressive merchant fleet. And if he wasn't going to tell Annie about that, he certainly wasn't going to tell her that one of their most profitable trade products was people, specifically females. In fact, the cargo of the small sailing vessel from which King had been thrown into the sea by Mother Nature's fury had included a dozen teenage girls destined for the Caroline slave market.

King and three conspirators -- all of whom had been shanghaied to crew the vessel -- had killed the captain and his loyal crew and hijacked the ship. They'd planned on sailing east for Ireland, England, Europe, wherever, in an attempt to find freedom for all aboard. Obviously, that hadn't happened.

“Are they just like us…?”

No, they most certainly aren't, King thought to himself. But Bran's words kept coming back to him, so he said instead, "Sure, I guess. They work hard, play when they can ... have babies."

“Why'd you leave…?”

King couldn't help but laugh at that question. He would have loved to tell her the truth as it would make him look like quite the hero. But ... Bran! "Like I told your father, I'm a wanderer ... an adventurer. I wanted to see someplace new."

“Where were you trying to go…?”

"Europe," he said, thinking that Annie certainly at least knew the name of the continent that included the country that at one time owned all of Greenland. "Specifically, Ireland or England."

“Who was with you…?”

Again, King would have loved to answer that question in detail. I was freeing a dozen women even younger than you who were going to be sold as sex slaves or forced into birthing children with men they likely would have preferred to avoid. He couldn't say that, so he said instead, "No one in particular. I was just a crew member, earning my passage by working the rigging. It was a two masted schooner. That's a sailboat, in case you didn't know."

Then, Annie asked a question that he hadn't expected but -- as soon as she asked it -- realized that he should have. “Are you married?”

"Married ... me? No," he said, chuckling softly. "I would never do that to a woman." He saw Annie's reaction to his answer and thought maybe he should explain further. "What I mean is ... I'm not the settling down type. Over the last twenty years, I've lived in more than a dozen places. I like to move around ... to see new places ... to meet new people, like you and your father and the rest of your people. If I married, she'd have to pull up roots and go with me. I ... I don't think that's fair."

As they'd been talking, they'd reached and passed through the village; dozens of people -- men and women, old and young -- had stopped what they were doing to simply watch the stranger and his escorts. The man who'd joined King's escort had met them at the top of the hill -- why climb down if King was climbing up, after all -- and he'd followed behind by a couple of dozen yards.

They finally stopped when King could see the ocean out over the cliff to the east. He found a place to sit and just stared at the sea, wondering whether any of the conspirators or the girls they'd been trying to save had made it ashore.

"I think we should look farther up the shore ... down the shore, too," he said. "If I could make it, someone else might have. They could be hurt ... or lost ... dying of starvation or dehydration or injury. I want you to promise to ask your father to make an effort to find them ... please."

King looked up at the mountain pass and shook his head. It was quite a trail to navigate to perform trade with other communities inland. He found himself wondering what it looked like beyond that pass and the mountains flanking it. He remembered reading in an old book that the ice sheets covering Greenland had compressed the land so far downward that if those sheets ever fully melted away -- which, of course, they had -- that Greenland's interior could become one or many freshwater lakes; or -- if connected to the sea -- become a massive inland saltwater bay.

Maybe, if King were one day allowed to ascend through that pass, he would get his chance to see that the former of those two options had actually occurred. (Map)