For three years, they grew their farm and their family. Helgi and Sigrid married in the first spring after the lambing time. By the next spring, the house, long completed, hosted Ingrid, Helgi, Sigrid, Rionan, and the one-year-old. Helgi and Sigrid manned the farm and the animals, while Rionan and Ingrid made the town their ...

Rionan flicked away the lock of hair that had fallen over her eyes. It had grown long in the past year, but wasn’t long enough to properly tie into a braid. She did her best to ignore it and focus on her work. The blazing sun refused to let up while she bent over the ...

Derrick followed Callum as he led them up the drive of a sprawling farmstead to the small house in the center. It almost blended into the landscape with how low it sat. Taylor’s camera shutter accompanied their footsteps as he took pictures of the surroundings.  “The first building was somewhere that way–” Callum gestured off ...

“Tell me what’s wrong Derrick?” Kiara’s gentle voice soothed the jab of loneliness that had cut into his gut. He sniffed and willed the lump in his throat to go down.  “I just miss you,” he said again. “I miss our home.”  “What do you miss most?” He heard her shift on the couch as ...

Derrick stared at the Hnefatafl piece. Outside, the sky had darkened with threats of a storm. Taylor called him back over.  “We need to leave soon if we’re going to catch the bus back,” he said. Kally booed from the pit where she was once again circling the walls. Derrick wondered what she saw that ...

“How old is this piece?”  Kally poked at a sealed bag containing a chipped axe head carved with twining figures that ended in curls or ran to the edges of the metal.  “That,” Mr. Kingsly said while shooing her hand away. “Is a Mammen-style axe head, a little past the period you’re looking for, I’d ...

“Do me a favor, darling, and put that box in the kitchen,” Maggie called. Derrick hefted the box onto the dense oak table. Dr. Keirnan’s house was small and cluttered with paraphernalia from multiple eras. Some of it was labeled, but most were sitting on every bit of counter space in piles, boxes, or bags ...

Derrick, Kally, and Taylor rumbled down the road in Taylor’s truck, dubbed Perseus. With every sharp twist and curve of the mountainous backroad, Derrick wished their destination would appear, or the vehicle would put itself out of its misery and break down. He glanced over at Kally, who was stuck between them and clutching her ...