Capturing the Cavedweller's Heart

by Shanna Hatfield

  He boldly studied her, uninterested in half-hidden glimpses of this woman who could laugh like a child or twist his heart into knots. Something about her, something beyond his ability to understand, made him feel like he’d finally found a missing piece of himself.

  But how could that be? Up until he walked into that cave, he’d never seen her before. Never even dreamed she might exist.

  In need of a distraction, he asked her questions about the church service, the man named Jesus, and the one called His Father.

  As Hannah explained, Thor felt as though something in him had found a soothing place to rest. He could believe in God’s creation of the world, of the beauty that surrounded him.

  “And this BC that you say when you speak of ancient times means before the birth of Jesus?” he asked.

  “Yes. Before Christ.” Hannah smiled at him. “I’m sure it’s a lot for you to try to understand.”

  “No. It is good,” he said, thinking of the son of God coming to earth as a baby and taking on the sins of the world. He was still trying to grasp the idea of sin, but he liked the thought of someone watching over him.

  Suddenly, Hannah squeezed his hand with a look of excitement. “Come on. I just thought of something you’re going to like.”

  Hours later, Thor had forgotten about anything else, except perhaps Hannah, as he sat at the kitchen table with a stack of paper and a pile of colored pencils, regular pencils, and pens. After he watched several videos on her tablet and studied guides showing the basics of drawing, she’d left him at the kitchen table, consumed with the need to create.

  It had taken a few tries before he decided he liked a regular pencil best and worked with it.

  By the time Jill and Hannah returned to the kitchen to make dinner, Thor had several sheets of paper covered with drawings.

  He’d started with drawings of animals he knew from his time: mammoths, lions, deer. He’d drawn Beena’s favorite flower. Then he found more step-by-step guides on how to draw faces and sketched his sister and Lusk. He’d just finished a drawing of Ilee when the women walked into the kitchen.

  “How’s it going, Thor?” Jill asked as she opened the refrigerator and took out a pitcher of lemonade. Thor liked the sweet, tart drink but preferred the bubbly sweetness of Dr Pepper.

  “Fine,” he said, glancing at her then turning his attention back to Hannah. She stood beside him and picked up the drawings he’d made.

  “This is incredible,” she said, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze. “I can’t believe you drew all these this afternoon.”

  Jill came over and set a glass of lemonade on the table for him then studied the drawings. He was leaning over one he’d started of Rachel, hiding it from their view.

  “Who is this baby?” Jill asked, lifting the one of Ilee from in front of him.

  “My daughter,” Thor said.

  “Oh, she’s adorable,” Hannah said.

  Thor was pleased and proud to hear her say so.

  “Is her hair dark?”

  He nodded. “She has black hair, and her eyes will be dark like her mother’s.”

  “Are there many in your clan with eyes the same color as yours?” Jill asked, looking from the drawing to Thor.

  “No. I am not blood of the clan. My mother found me as a baby and talked my father into keeping me. No one knows where I came from, but I am the only one with pale skin and blue eyes.”

  Jill gave Hannah a look he couldn’t interpret. Hannah shrugged then smiled at Thor again. “I hope you like chicken. We’re going to fry one for dinner.”

  “Chicken? That’s the bird that makes the eggs we had for breakfast.”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Hannah said, turning away to help Jill prepare the food.

  Thor continued drawing while the aromas of food being prepared made his stomach growl. He had no idea how he could possibly be hungry with all the good food he’d eaten, but he anticipated enjoying another meal.

  “Let’s eat outside, then we won’t have to disturb our budding artist,” Jill said, tossing a smile at Thor.

  He looked at the table covered in his drawings and supplies. “I will clean it.”

  Hannah waved a hand at him as he stood. “No, it’s fine. We can eat outside.”

  Thor continued drawing until Jason came into the room carrying Rachel. The baby babbled and held her hands out to Thor. He took her and bounced her on his knee while Jason went over to where Jill worked and got his hand slapped for trying to snitch a bite.

  “Man can’t get even get a taste in his own home,” Jason lamented.

  Aware of the deep affection between Jason and Jill, Thor knew he teased his wife, especially when Jason popped his mate on her bottom and strode outside with a rag in his hand.

  “While Jason cleans off the table, I’ll set out plates. Instead of hauling everything outside, I think we can leave the food in here,” Hannah said.

  “Agreed,” Jill said, setting a platter of golden meat on the counter and taking a bowl out of the refrigerator.

  Soon, Thor sat at a table outside, beneath the shade of a big umbrella, enjoying his first taste of crispy chicken fried to perfection. Potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob and more sliced melon completed the meal.

  He ate so much, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to move, let alone eat again, but two hours later when Jason announced he wanted to make ice cream, Thor anticipated the treat.

  The following day, after he’d carried his few belongings out to Hannah’s Jeep, he returned to the house. He found Hannah in the kitchen, smothering Rachel with kisses. Jason and Jill leaned against the counter.

  “Your kindness this weekend is much appreciated,” Thor said, hoping he’d chosen the right words. “Thank you.” Solemn and slightly nervous, he handed Jill a piece of paper.

  She took it, gasped, and then smiled. “Oh, it’s perfect, Thor. So perfect.”

  Jason grinned at the drawing he’d made of Rachel. “It looks just like our sweet girl.” He held out his hand, and Thor now knew to shake it. “Thanks for this.”

  “My pleasure,” Thor said, and he meant it. He enjoyed creating the drawing as much as he had meeting the people of Hannah’s clan, her family.

  Hannah glanced at the drawing then back at Thor. “You really are good at this. Maybe you’re an artist with amnesia.”

  He didn’t recognize the word amnesia, but it didn’t matter. She still didn’t believe he was from the past.

  Hannah started to hand Rachel to her mother, but the baby squirmed and held out her hands to Thor. Eagerly, he took her and cuddled her close, savoring the wonderful scent of her. He wished his daughter could smell that fresh and clean, could wear the cute little clothes that Rachel had, but that wasn’t meant to be.

  “You are a precious treasure, Rachel. Know that you are loved,” he whispered in the baby’s ear before he handed her to her mother.

  Hannah gave Jason a hug then hugged Jill as she held the baby. “We better get on the road,” she said, hefting the bag with her computer.

  Thor took it from her and carried it to the Jeep while she bid her family goodbye.

  “Come back anytime, Thor. We’d be pleased to have you,” Jason said from where he stood on the front step. He and Jill waved as Hannah started the Jeep and drove away from the house.

  “This is a good home,” Thor said, watching the horses in the pasture as they headed down the driveway. “I don’t know if I can eat horses again.”

  “You better not.” Hannah scowled. “Unless you’re starving, and only then as a last resort.”

  “I will track down a mammoth before I eat a horse.”

  She gave him a long look. “We’ve got a long drive. Why don’t you tell me how one goes about tracking and killing a mammoth.”

  “I might, if you believed I’d killed one.”

  Her eyes widened, as though his statement caught her off guard. She didn’t speak right away. It was a few miles down the road before she looked a
t him. When she placed her hand on his arm, Thor stared at her fingers, so long and delicately formed. So different from anything he’d ever known.

  He raised his gaze to hers and felt sucked into the emerald depths of her eyes. Something lingered there he couldn’t define or entirely understand. Her hand gently squeezed where it rested on his arm before she settled it back on the steering wheel. A sigh rolled out of her on a long breath.

  “It’s not that I don’t believe you, Thor. There is no doubt in my mind that you believe every word you’re saying. I’m just not convinced they’re true.”

  He frowned. “You think I lie?”

  “Not intentionally. What if you hit your head and don’t recall who you really are, where you came from?”

  The fact she still didn’t believe him made his heart ache, but he couldn’t blame her. From the little he’d seen this weekend, the world was vastly different from his time. It was no wonder she couldn’t bring herself to believe him. At least not yet.

  Hope curled in his chest and glimmered in his eyes as he came up with a plan to win her trust. “I can prove I tell the truth.”

  Questions flew across her features as she looked at him. “How?”

  “What if I showed you where to dig up something I buried? Something no one of your time knows about?”

  “Well, then I guess I’d have to believe you, wouldn’t I?” She grinned. “Are you really going to take me hunting for buried treasure?”

  He nodded and crossed his arms across his chest, pleased with his idea and her reaction to it. “I am. As soon as we get back.”

  “Rest up, then, because I’ll hold you to it.”

  Thor leaned back against the comfortable seat and watched the landscape fly by as they returned to the Painted Hills.

  Chapter Nine

  “You need a…” Thor stopped speaking and looked around, as though he couldn’t recall the word he wanted to use. He picked up two shovels and gave her a curt nod then walked past their current dig site.

  Hannah hefted her tool pack on her shoulder and hurried after him. “Where are you going?” she asked, falling into step beside him. Her legs were just as long as his, although his torso was longer, making him a few inches taller.

  He didn’t speak, just continued walking. Abruptly, he stopped. “Do you know where the edge of the lake would be?”

  Hannah nodded. “From the terrain, we think it might have been here,” she said, taking a long step forward. “You can see the variances in the soil.”

  Thor handed her the shovels then squatted down and squinted, as though he was trying to envision a landscape that existed thousands of years ago. Finally, he stood, took the shovels from her, and started walking.

  “What are you looking for?” Hannah asked, but Thor remained silent.

  Finally, she gave up questioning him and followed as he walked around what she assumed might have been the edge of the lake.

  The only sound he made was when they happened upon a snake slithering across their path. Thor shouted triumphantly as he killed the snake with the shovel faster than she could blink. Its rattles shook even after he’d cut off the rattlesnake’s head. He started to bend down to examine it, but Hannah jerked him back.

  “They can bite, even after they’re dead. Rattlesnakes are poisonous.”

  At his curious glance, she used the shovel to show him the snake’s fangs then explained why it had rattles on its tail. Quickly, she dug a hole and buried the head then cut off the rattles and gave them to Thor. He seemed thrilled as he tucked them into the pocket of the shorts he wore.

  Hannah had purchased him two pairs of cargo shorts, more T-shirts, and a pair of hiking boots. If he was going to be with her at the dig, he needed appropriate clothes. He’d gotten almost as excited over the ball cap she’d purchased him as he’d been about the straw cowboy hat.

  “Come, we search for treasure,” he said, moving forward again. She followed as he led her on a hike that took them about half a mile from the dig site. Thor studied the hills around them and patted a tall rock that was shaped a little like a cathedral with jagged edges on top.

  He took a few steps away from the rock and began digging in the soil. Hannah watched him, hesitant to dig, to disturb the earth. Curiosity kept her wondering what he searched for.

  “Are you going to watch, woman, or help?” he asked in a low, harsh tone.

  She caught the hint of a smile and a teasing gleam in his eye. Hannah leaned on her shovel handle. “It’s more fun watching you work.”

  Thor grunted and tossed a shovelful of dirt at her. She jumped away before it landed on her, pleased his good humor had returned. In truth, she’d much rather watch him dig. Watch the play of muscles beneath the soft cotton of his shirt or his leg muscles, visible beneath the hem of his shorts, bunch and strain as he hefted the shovel.

  Hannah released a dramatic, entirely feigned sigh of indignation then moved beside Thor and began digging.

  “What are we digging for?” she asked.

  “You’ll know when you see it,” he said, continuing to scoop away dirt. “But you’ll have to do better than those puny scoops of soil. We’re digging through thousands of years of dirt, you know.”

  Hannah grinned at him and took off her pack. She pulled on a pair of supple leather gloves then went back to shoveling. They worked in silence as they continued to dig. When they had a hole about three feet wide and four feet deep, Hannah stopped and took two water bottles from her pack. They weren’t cold, but it would slake their thirst.

  Thor guzzled his in just a few swallows then handed her the empty bottle as he returned to work. She wanted to sit on a nearby rock and study his every movement, but she finished her water, tucked the empty bottles in her pack, and returned to shoveling.

  When the hole was close to five feet wide and six feet deep, Thor stopped shoveling and hunkered down to study something poking through the earth they’d disturbed. Hannah had remained up on the surface, widening their hole, while Thor had climbed into it to make it deeper. He held a hand up to her.

  “Bring your tools, Hannah.”

  She grabbed her pack, placed her hand in his, and wasn’t a bit surprised when he grasped her waist and gently set her down beside him.

  Thoroughly rattled by how wonderful it had felt to be held by him, she forced her attention back to the matter at hand.

  “There,” he said, pointing to something white gleaming in the dirt. “Clean that off.”

  She took out a brush and grinned at him. “Getting awfully bossy, aren’t you.”

  He gave her a teasing look and grabbed the brush from her hand.

  She took another from the pack then knelt in the cool dirt and brushed until she could make out the slight curve of a large bone.

  “Oh, my goodness! Is that what I think it is?” she asked, glancing at Thor. “You’re kidding me!”

  “We left the bones we didn’t use out here,” he said as though it was of no importance as he continued cleaning away soil.

  Hannah sat back and stared in wonder at an intact head of a cave lion.

  In that moment, she knew. She knew Thor had impossibly but miraculously found his way from the past to her present day. She knew she cared for him. She knew she could trust him.

  “This is amazing, Thor. What else is here?” she asked, smiling at him.

  He sat back on his heels. “Bison, camel, horse, and bear bones. You might even find a few mammoth bones, but not the tusks. We used those.” He studied her a moment. “Do you believe me now?”

  “Of course. As crazy as it sounds, as unbelievable as it seems, I will concede you are a cavedweller from 10,000 BC.”

  He glared at her. “I told you before, I’m not a cavedweller, except in the winter. We live in dwellings by the lake.”

  “I know, but I like teasing you.”

  The cocky smirk he tossed at her made her feel suddenly overheated. “I like it, too.”

  Hannah straightened and pulled her cell phone fro
m her pocket.

  “Who are you calling?” he asked.

  “My friend Bailey Morgan. She’s a paleontologist and will go wild for this.”

  Thor’s brow creased in a frown. “What is a paleo…?”

  “Paleontologist,” Hannah said. “They study fossils, like I study artifacts.” She snapped a quick photo of the bones they’d dug up and texted it to Bailey along with a message. Her phone rang, and she answered it, telling Bailey they’d discovered a cache of animal bones. When she hung up, she grinned at Thor.

  “Bailey would like to meet you. Are you up for a little trip?”

  “Sure,” Thor said. He tossed a shovel out of the hole then reached for Hannah.

  She backed away from him. “Don’t even, for a minute, think you’re going to throw me up there like you did that shovel.”

  He laughed and lunged for her, but she backed against the loose earth behind her.

  “Just bend your knee, and I’ll use it for a step,” she instructed, pointing to his leg.

  Thor bent his knee, and she stepped on it then pulled herself out of the hole. She bent down to offer him a hand to climb out, but he took a running step and used the shovel in his hand as a vaulting point to propel himself out of the hole.

  Hannah was impressed. It took her a moment to regain her senses and stare down in the hole they’d created. “We should tarp this to keep anything from messing with the bones. I have one in my Jeep.”

  Thor helped her tarp the hole and fasten down the edges with rocks so nothing would disturb the bones, then they drove to the bunkhouse.

  Hannah changed her dirty clothes and washed up after showing Thor where he could bunk in the room with Sam and Erik. No one else was there, but she assumed the rest of the team would trickle in, if not tonight, then early in the morning.

  When she emerged from her room, Thor had changed into a clean pair of shorts and T-shirt and washed the dirt from his hands and face. For a caveman, he didn’t seem to mind her affinity for keeping clean.