Through the Gate: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 1

by L J Dalton Jr

  The meal was great, roast lamb, pork, vegetables, dark bread with lots of butter and soft cheeses. Plus, some really good red wine. Not too tannic, a bit fruity and went down easily. Mike decided to go easy on the wine. Alivina was sitting next to him and while she wasn’t being overly flirty, she was having an effect on him. He would later learn that it was the pheromones that she was giving off because she was fertile. He did notice that they both sat at the end of the bench with him being at the very end. Between himself and the next woman sat two men. He didn’t know that this was done so that the pheromones Alivina was giving off would affect the two men. Their wives intended to benefit from the increase in their husband’s libido from the pheromones. Mike was totally clueless about all of this.

  Before they started eating Mordt stood up and was saying things. There was a lot of foot stomping and Mordt hell up his hands for silence. The foot stomping stopped. Ok thought Mike, foot stomping must be their clapping. He heard his name mentioned and Alivina was tugging on him to stand up. It was embarrassing because he was as hard as a rock and it was pretty obvious. He gritted through it and waved while there was a lot of foot stomping. There were also things called out mostly by women that caused more foot stomping and cheers. He thought that they were making comments about his obvious hardon and what Alivina had planned for him. He felt himself blushing like a teenage boy standing there facing down a girl’s parents prior to a big date where they planned to get cozy.

  The end of the meal was some sort of sweet soft cheese mixed with dried fruits and drizzled with honey. Like the rest of the meal, it was delicious. After the meal was over, Alivina took him by the hand and led him out of the hall and to the house he had been put up in. They got in the door and she immediately grabbed him and gave him a passionate kiss. The hormones were raging in her. This was the natural reaction to her being fertile. She knew that Mike was affected as well. This was going to be intense not only due to her mounting desire, but lore as well. Women all over Cornu, shared the best ways to get the most seed out of a man when pregnancy was possible. It wasn’t simple wantonness, it was practical. The more seed the better chance for conception. It was always suspected that this was true. Doctor Jorgenson’s work had proven to the scholars that it was the seed of the man that was the limiting factor in getting a woman pregnant when she was fertile. Pregnancies were rare and any chance to increase them needed to be taken.

  Alivina was quickly out of her shift and pulling Mike robe over his head. Once they were both naked, she pulled him into the big bed. Mike was totally aroused; he couldn’t remember being this aroused. He was next to her in seconds. He was somewhat surprised that they just didn’t start screwing. But that wasn’t in her plans. She rubbed his erection and he could feel some sort of lotion. She then rubbed herself all over him, which got him more and more aroused. When she sensed the time was right, she mounted him and slowly rose up and down. She was ‘milking him’ as her mother would say. It took a long time and then when he was almost ready to climax, she grabbed him and rolled them over, so he was on top. This was to get the most seed possible into her womb. There were a last few seconds of frantic coupling and then both of them had intense climaxes. Mike was drained. He doubted if he would have anything left to have sex for the next month. Both of them quickly fell asleep with Alivina wrapped around Mike. He did manage to pull the blanket over them. In the morning she was up like a shot. She gave him a quick kiss and hug and was dressed out the door in no time.

  Alivina recognized a change in herself almost immediately upon waking. The urge to mate was down to a normal level. From what she had heard from other women, this usually meant that she was pregnant. She was ecstatic, but it would take a couple of days before the healer could confirm it. She on the other hand, had no doubt. She slipped out of bed, while Mike slept and went to tell her parents. Her mother agreed that this was a good sign. They were all extremely pleased.

  Mike was just finishing up coming from the latrines. He figured out that the bath water was used to wash the waste somewhere. He was pretty sure it didn’t go into the river. Plus, they had toilet paper. It wasn’t Charmin, it was a bit rough but more than serviceable. When he walked into the house, Alivina leapt into his arms and showered him with kisses. There were other people there, several women and men. One of the women looked a lot like Alivina, he guessed that they were related. The woman didn’t appear that much older than Alivina. Probably a sister was what Mike thought. It was actually her mother. Everybody was making noises that seemed like congratulations and everybody was sky high with joy. This was confusing to Mike. You get congratulated for having really great sex with a hot woman? Everybody in the village seemed to know that they’d had sex the night before. Heck, with all the noise they’d made, you’d have to be dead not to know. So why was he being congratulated and being treated like he’d just hung the moon. One more strange thing that he didn’t understand.

  They went to the communal dining hall and took a seat at one the tables. Alivina was simply glowing. All the women and men seemed to be congratulating them. Alivina was nodding and acknowledging everyone. Mike took to smiling and nodding as well. The meal was a porridge of what tasted like wheat with dried fruits and nuts with honey drizzled over it. There were platters of biscuits with preserves and butter along with what looked like ham. Mike dug in; he was famished. During the meal Mordt got up to make an announcement. It was met by cheering and foot stomping and Alivina stood up and dragged Mike to his feet. What the hell is going on he thought? Did we just get engaged or something? He sat down and looked at her quizzically. She was a sharp girl and patted her stomach. Had he knocked her up? How could she tell? Was he going to be a father? How did they know so fast?

  Mordt asked them to stay after the morning meal. He brought out a parchment map. After some patient explanations, Mike grasped that this was a map of the country called Nordia. Mordt pointed out Vinfarm. That gave Mike an orientation and he started to point to things on the map. The mountains to the south were the Sud. The river that ran west to east was the Ro. The big cities were named off, the nearest was called Midport. Mordt pointed to a city on the river Ro, at the sea. He called it Nordport and he pointed to Mike and then to Nordport. It took Mike a couple of minutes to catch on. Then he mimed him going to Nordport. Both Mordt and Alivina nodded vigorously and said yes. That was one of the words he understood. He looked at Alivina and she shook her head and pointed down and then to Vinfarm on the map. Mike got that she was going to stay here. He had a mixture of relief and a little sadness. He got the impression that he should leave in the morning.

  The rest of the day was spent in preparation. He cleaned the AR-10, reloaded the magazines and did other things to get ready. Since he was going to be walking in the woods, he changed back to the 16” barrel. The suppressor was removed and stowed in the gun bag. It added to much length to the barrell. This was easier to maneuver and at the distances in the woods was more than accurate enough. There was still plenty of ammo and his experience was that he might have to use more up. The bipod came off as well. He’d collected his brass and thought that maybe he could hand load them into something useful. As to food, he thought that he could make it at least to Midport with the food he had, but more would be nice. He was thankful for his money belt, nobody might know what a Krugerrand or American Silver Eagle were, but gold was gold and silver was silver. They could be used to buy things he needed.

  As he was getting ready, he mentally reviewed what was going on. Everything so far had seemed extremely real. The terrain, the fauna, everything was too detailed to be a dream. The smell of cordite and blood, you can’t mistake that smell. The bodies of the bandits or raiders, they were real as well. Food, the taste and the sensation. Then of course there was the intense sex with Alivina, that was way too real to be just a dream. He needed to seriously consider the possibility that he wound up somewhere strange. If that was true, then how to get back, if he could. Mike put the thought of not ever being able to get ba
ck out of his mind. He'd act as if he could get back. If not he'd deal with it when he had to.

  When he was done, he had Alivina lead him to where the weapons that they’d taken off the raiders were being stored. Mike carefully examined them. He wasn’t an expert in historical firearms, but these were clearly flintlocks. From the looks of them, they weren’t made on a production line, each part looked to be individually made. There weren’t any ‘bullets’, balls and powder wrapped in paper. There were just powder horns and a pouch with balls in them. The powder horns were made of animal horns. The nozzles where the powder came out were either the narrow end of the horn or in some cases bronze. They had ramrods on the guns and in the stock was usually a small storage space. It contained fabric patches to clean the barrel and small screw object. He realized that this was a bullet puller. If the musket had to be unloaded, this was used to extract the bullet. The steel in the swords and knives wasn’t that great either. He didn’t have an electron microscope, but it looked a bit rough. Ok, this screamed early 1700’s. The farm equipment screamed later. Also, the breeding of the animals. That may or may not have been 1700’s. His history on that was a bit fuzzy, but his suspicion was that kind of breeding came later. The names, Guernsey, Merino, Angus; that was just too much of a coincidence.

  He didn’t need to worry about food. Alivina came through there she showed up with packages of hard sausage, cheese and some dried fruit and vegetables along with a wine skin. It was more than enough. Mordt also gave Mike a parchment that was sealed. He assumed that Mordt was giving him a ‘safe passage’ note.

  As he packed and got ready, he debated over how he should proceed. The first option was to set off to the east and then go north and hit the road by the river. The problem with that was he didn’t have good maps. He could be sure to hit the road, but where. He could be three miles west of his intended destination and not know it. He just didn’t have a good enough map.

  The other option was to follow the river down to the road and then go east. That was easy he could do it. The problem was the ‘main force’ was probably down there. He could easily hide from them or if they were under attack by the authorities he could help. Hopefully, by the time he was at the road, the authorities would have dealt with them. He was pretty sure that once the alarm was raised, they would be in real trouble. The raiders would be trying to get away and wouldn’t want to deal with Mike. By going down the river he wouldn’t get lost and he could join up with the force sent out to deal with the raiders. That would make everything easier for him.

  That night he and Alivina had sex again. It wasn’t the frantic coupling of the previous night. She turned out to be an enthusiastic lover. Mike did his best and based on her responses, he was successful. He did learn the terms for various part of the female and male body. He’d be careful in using them until he knew more. They might be risqué terms and could get him in trouble.

  The next morning, he was seen off by Alivina, the village headman and a number of the villagers. He was dressed in cameo, with his vest on and the insert in the vest. He didn’t have the Kevlar vest underneath his shirt as he didn’t think he needed it, but he had clean clothes and fresh food. That was a positive. His rifle slung in front of him and the pack was a good 85 lbs. Mike had decided that he would stay on the game trails, to avoid running into the ‘main force’. He was taking the same trail they had taken. He hopped that he wouldn’t have to deal with them at some time in the next few days. There were enough places to just hunker down and let them pass. The village had scouts out as well. They’d have a tough job taking the village, if it was closed up.

  What Mike didn’t know, was that the various viruses and microbes on Cornu that targeted humans, were already in his system. They were starting to make subtle changes to his physiology. Eventually those changes would accelerate, and he would go through the ‘Choosing’.