Chapter 2

I started walking again and went back to the porch and sat down. She reached over to the dipper, dipped some water, and handed it to me. I smiled my thanks and drank. After a moment, I pointed to my chest and said, "My name is Tom. Your name?" I pointed at her.

She said, "Elena."

I smiled and said, "It's good to meet you, Elena." She looked at me baffled but smiled back. She had a pretty smile.

"I am from Atlanta, Georgia, USA."

She looked baffled. That worried me as the USA was very well known in the world even if Atlanta might not. "USA is United States of America."

She still looked baffled, "America?"

Uh-oh. That was not good. She seemed to be intelligent and someone here could read and write. I thought it highly unlikely that any literate person would not know America. I went to the ground and took a stick and drew North America. She looked at it and then me blankly.

I then said, "Europe?" She shook her head. "Poland?" She shook her head. "Berlin?" Her head shook again. "Latvia?" Head shake. "Croatia?" Head shake. "Caspian Sea?" Head shake. I decided there was more to what was happening than had thus far met my eye.

I had noticed that there was little, if any, cloth in the cabin. The coverlet that I had brought to Elena was made of skin with bead work. I began to worry now about when or how far back into the woods I might be located.

I tried one last thing. I made a steering motion with my hands and a motor noise with my mouth and mimicked motion. She looked at me like I had lost my mind and then giggled. I realized that she had no idea about cars or trucks or I was particularly bad at descriptions. Not for the first or last time, I wondered what had happened to me.

I let it go and leaned back carefully against a post trying not to make my back hurt. Walking in the creek had helped my feet a lot. I decided to go back to the creek and lay in it and let the cool water wash more of pain away. I stood up and walked over to the creek which was maybe thirty feet away and in clear sight of the porch. I turned away from her, took off my pants, and got into the water allowing it to cover me. After a moment, she rose up carrying the coverlet around her and walked over to the creek about ten feet from me. She slipped the cover off and quickly moved into the water. As she lay in the water, she sighed.

We lay in the water and both of us eased our pains with the cool water of the creek. I stayed there until I was thoroughly chilled. I rose out of the water and faced away from Elena and wiped my body as dry as I could. I pulled my pants back on and then faced Elena. She was also out of the water and was wrapped in the coverlet. We went back to the porch and she continued inside. I was glad I had cleaned up from the woman's death. The place was still dirty but it was new dirt. I don't think she or the woman would have allowed the place to be so dirty. She went to the fireplace and started a fire with kindling and striking together a pair of rocks. She fed the fire and put on a pot of water. She sprinkled some flakes into it. Shortly, the aroma of tea came from the pot.

"Tea?" I asked. She nodded. Thus began our language lessons. It turned our that she wanted to learn English almost as much as I wanted to learn her language.

I could tell her intelligence was there as she began to point out different items and slowly said their names. I followed up with saying them and then saying the English equivalent. She pointed at the wood and outside. She made the motion of carrying firewood inside and I nodded and went for wood. When I came back in, she had dressed. I grinned and went back out for more wood. When I came in the second time, she motioned with her head to go again and said, "Brrr!" I nodded and went back for still more. After two more trips, she seemed satisfied. She also had a shirt of skins for me to wear. I put it on. It was short and wouldn't quite close across my chest. Elena looked impressed. She was almost as tall as Buckskin which was well short of my height.

In the cabin, there was a bed and a table with a bench on each side. I sat on a bench at the table. There was another room but I couldn't see into it. The only light was from the fire and it cast much heat but little light. Dark had come quickly and, with the dark, a chill. I was a little surprised as it hadn't felt that cold last night but I let it go thinking shock or who knew what. Anyway, the cabin was snug and the fire warm.

Elena prepared a simple stew and served it in wooden bowls with wooden spoons. I had seen little metal. Something was worrying the back of my mind but I didn't have enough information to evaluate it or the circumstances. I had the bad feeling that I was in the past compared to my time or the future. The future didn't look promising, if that was what it in fact was. As she served, she sat across from me and said a quick prayer but didn't cross herself. That suggested Christianity but not Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. "Baptist?" I asked.

She looked up at me startled. "Dah." Her face looked troubled.

I smiled at her and said, "Okay. That's good." Actually, it wasn't. That suggested to me that I was from her past, my future, and the future wasn't good. I checked my cellphone suddenly thinking about it again. No service at all. It was working there was no signal. My watch worked but it was simple and didn't depend upon anything outside. I thought more now about the contents of my pockets. I had a few coins, my money clip with some paper money, my knife, a comb and handkerchief, the lighter, and my keys. Not a promising start for restarting or building civilization.

We practiced language for the rest of the evening until late. Elena yawned and I smiled. I put my head to one side on my hands, closed my eyes and pantomimed being asleep with a soft snore. She grinned and pointed at the bed. She rose and went into the other room after banking the fire. It was chilly that night but not terrible. I slept through until morning when I smelled the aroma of tea again. Tea, with a slab of dark bread and a thick slice of cheese, was breakfast. After breakfast, she began to gather things into two packs. She jabbered at me and pulled me outside. She stopped while I gathered my spears and Buckskin's bow and arrows. We left the cabin crossing the stream and moving away from the water. It was cooler than it had been in the days before but not as bad as I had imagined it might be. Elena's pack had leather blankets and a bit of food and clothing She gave me one with the pot and bowls with more blankets. That wasn't much to take from her home. We walked for over an hour until she allowed us to rest. While we rested, she took a stick and started to draw a map on the ground.

She said, "Cholka" and waved her arm around. "Georgia" and she tried to expand the arm waving. I understood that Cholka was part of Georgia. I guess that gave me a better idea of where we were. She now drew with the stick. She made a squiggly line and an "X" next to it on our right. She put her finger on the mark and said something. I nodded. I then put a mark on the ground with my hand to the left and said "Here" pointing at the ground after standing. I then walked from the creek and the cabin location to my spot with my fingers. She nodded. I was getting it. She continued to draw and, much further to our left, she drew a spot and said, "Meriesk," or something like that. I understood that we had a destination of sorts. I wasn't sure what was there but it was a direction.

We continued our hike. I sure wish I had shoes but the burn seemed to have toughened my feet. She had no shoes nor had Buckskin so I didn't feel too bad. We crossed another creek before stopping for the night. Elena placed our stuff on a limb of a tree and made motions of drawing the bow. I nodded and we left. Hunting was something I understood and had been a bow hunter. I had been practicing with the bow while we walked. We were on a game trail heading into the wind. So Elena knew something about hunting, also. We found a good ambush point and settled in. It was starting to get dark when I saw the small deer come down the trail. I had an arrow out and notched. When I judged it was close, I shot with one quick, easy movement. It was a good shot and the deer was hit just behind the shoulder and ran only about twenty feet before dropping. We stepped out and took it. I opened my knife and managed to field dress it on the spot. Elena took my knife and cut off plenty of meat and we left the carcass for other animals. We were back in our camp and she started a fire while I continued to gather wood for the night. She also built a simple lean-to to prevent any wind from reaching us easily. I looked at it and chuckled. She looked at me strangely. I held up a finger for attention and then lay across the back with my feet sticking out one end. She laughed then and began to add to the length of the lean-to.

Every day, we worked on language as we walked. It took most of two weeks but, by then, I was able to speak simply and be understood. I also learned about the area. It was interesting but not necessarily good news.

I learned some history and a bit of geography. I still didn't know for sure when this time was but it seemed that time was about the same here as at home. It was roughly two thousand years after the birth of Christ. The churches were Catholic, Baptist, and Pentecostal. The more I listened to the explanations by Elena and, later, by others, the less I was inclined to go with those titles as they were not even vaguely like our systems of churches. All three had a politicized hierarchy that controlled the local churches and they were not friendly to one another as each was considered blasphemous by the other two. Running into the wrong group could be fatal.

There was a Russia north of here but it wasn't known other than by name and references by Baptist priests, some of who apparently came from there. Georgia seemed to be a loose confederation of small groups bound by language and religion. South was Turkey though it was called Babylon. It was Pentecostal in name though that didn't mean anything to me. It appeared that Islam either never happened or failed. Mohammed was unknown thus far in my travels. It took a while for me to figure all this out.

England and France, at least by those names were unknown as was Germany. Elena knew of a Gaul but, other than far to the west, had no idea of a location. Greece, as a name, and Italy were unknown. There was some vague knowledge of a city named Roma but no definite location and no impact locally.

Engineering was the final big difference. There was little. The internal combustion engine had not been invented nor were firearms except for big unwieldy cannon that had a limited number of uses before the barrels were useless. Steel was non-existent and the iron did not make for good gun barrels. Powder was of irregular quality. Elena found my pocket knife to be a wonder. They didn't even use the wheel for much. I was surprised as a cart seems so basic.

It was a different world and, unless I could figure a way, it looked like I was stuck in it. Elena and I were good companions right now who were traveling in a common direction. How long that would last and what the situation might be later, I had no ideas.

Many nights later, we again camped by a stream which gave us a chance to bathe. Getting clean had never been a fetish of mine but the limited chances to be clean have made it more important here. Also, the hot days and cool nights made for a sweaty Tom My shirt made of skins didn't breathe. As soon as it was warm enough every day, it came off. I had had a tan before but I was darker now. I had bagged a couple of rabbits during the day and Elena had started them cooking on skewers that she made using my knife. I went to the stream and bathed while she worked on supper.

When I came out, she left me to watch the food and went to clean up. She came back carrying her wet clothes wrapped in a chamois type skin that worked pretty well as a towel. Another one didn't work as well as a wrap as her body was revealed as she walked. I had decided that she was younger than I by a few years after being with her for a few days. She looked tantalizing in the simple wrap.

As she walked to our fire, I noticed again that she had a great figure with smallish breasts that rode high and firm, a small waist, reasonable hips with a pert ass. She walked with a dancer's grace though I was sure she had never had any training along that line. My penis lurched at the sight because the wrap just covered her breasts and only came down to just below her hips! It also showed all of one side of her body as she walked. Altogether, she was a beautiful package displayed fetchingly.

The rabbits were done as was a herb broth in the pot. We ate the rabbits still on their skewers and spooned the broth from the common pot. She hadn't dressed but, at least, the split from her wrap was on her side that was away from me. My cock was hard and eating the food was difficult as my mind was elsewhere. It would have been worse if the split had been on my side. I told myself that it had been over two months since I had had sex with Robin and it was acceptable to be horny with a pretty girl kneeling next to me almost naked. She had built the standard lean-to with a tree to help while I had bathed. We finished eating. She turned to me.