Chapter 4

I was lucky, for I had entered between two trees and there was another in front about 30 yards away. I managed to bring the car to a halt and I leapt out checking where the shimmering was. I noted the exact position and at eighteen minutes past it stopped.

I got back into the Range Rover, managed to get it turned and arranged so it pointed straight to where the shimmering appeared. After parking I went to the trailer and noted the rope which secured the tarpaulin to the trailer was untied. Pulling the tarpaulin back I saw Mary curled up on my camouflage netting.

"What the hell are you doing there?" Was all I could say.

"I just had to come; I want to help you look for Kenny."

As she was saying this she was uncurling and climbing out of the trailer. As she did I glanced up and down at her outfit.

"I only brought enough supplies for me. It is going to be difficult with the two of us. I see at least you dressed to rough it, what else did you bring?"

"Only two changes of clothing and a spare pair of shoes."

"No food, bedding a tent?"

"No, I'm sorry."

"As you can feel it is a lot colder here than it was back in our time. It is going to get a lot colder too," I explained.

"You are right, it does feel colder."

"Well you will have to get used to it, you will have to share the sleeping-bag with me, I have an outsized one. So for the next three months you will have to forget your vanity. You must do as I say, always, I can assure you if we have arrived in the period I think we have, they are cruel and have funny customs."

"I will do anything you say, so that I can find my Kenny."

"Mary don't build your hopes up too much, for he may be dead."

"I am going to keep hoping."

"Well come on then help me get this car hidden, I don't want it to be found."

After covering it with the netting, I cut branches off the trees and put them around the edges breaking up the outline even further.

We were definitely in the middle of a forest, and it was the same as I had met before, oak and hazel with plain trees interspaced, the undergrowth was quite thick in places as far as I could see. I wonder why these portals seemed to be in clearings and open spaces, was the thought that went trough my mind. Just as well for if a tree or building was in the middle it would have been disastrous.

Once we had hidden the car, I examined the ground around the trees, propped against one was a bag with about a dozen soggy newspapers dated three years before.

"Well Mary, we have the first clue, Kenny was here, this is his paper round bag."

Mary dashed over and snatched it from my hands, clutched it to her chest, and started to cry.

Too much time had passed for any trail to be visible, so we had to decide which way to go. The most obvious was straight ahead, but I chose to climb a tree and see if I could see anything. I climbed the tallest I could see and got as high as possible, I am glad that I did. From the south-west I saw black smoke rising from a fire, away on the horizon and just barely visible.

I climbed back down and put my pack on, just like the one Marjorie had, with the tent on top and the sleeping-bag on the bottom. The tent this time wasn't bright, but a camouflaged one, as well as the sleeping-bag, my gilly suit was on top of the tent.

"Come on Mary, we will soon find out exactly where we are; there is a big fire over in the south-west."

"How can you tell which way to go in all this," suggesting with two hands the woods.

"When we get back you will know these woods better than your own home. Get that pack on and follow me and keep as quiet as possible."

For four hours I moved in a south-westerly direction, only occasionally glancing back to see if Mary was following. Then just ahead the trees became thinner and I could see what had caused the black smoke, the people were brush-burning, which was a way of clearing land.

I lay down and dragged Mary down also, then crept forward and viewed with my binoculars, the open area in front of us. There were three men, working the fire, and they weren't dressed in furs, but in rough weave shirts, tied at the waist and with cloth wrappings on their legs. On their heads were pointy hats made of hide, and on their feet hide shoes. This was a different time period to my last visit.

"Well we won't learn anything lying here," I said to Mary. So I took Mary's hand and helped her up and we walked out into the clearing, with me holding my rifle in the crook of my left arm and with the safety catch off, the strap on my Browning loose.

The three men just stood and watched us approach. As I got near "Greetings, we are strangers in your land looking for our kin," I said in Gaelic facing one of the men, but addressing the three of them.

"Why do you talk in the language of the Ancients?" The taller of the three asked.

"That was the way I was taught to speak the language."

"You are welcome stranger, my name is Aldhelm, and my friends are Odda and Ricbert." The other two nodded as their names were mentioned.

"I am called Charlie and this woman is Mary."

"Come we were just returning to our village, going for our midday meal," Aldhelm mentioned.

"We are much obliged."

"Does your woman not speak?" Asked Aldhelm.

"She is from a different place and does not understand the tongue."

"What are you saying?" Butted in Mary.

"We are being invited to their village. I said you don't speak their language as you are from a different place."

"If this is England, why don't they speak English?"

"The English language hasn't been formed yet, this is Gaelic, the language spoken all over Europe."

"How will I ever ask about Kenny, no-one will understand me?"

"No they won't, so you leave everything to me. This was why I didn't want you to come. You will be more of a hindrance than a help."

"Your woman speaks a strange tongue, I can't tell one thing she says," Odda said with a worried look on his face.

"Women, whoever understands what they say," I jested to take their minds off Mary. All three laughed at this remark.

We followed these three back to the village, I could now see about half mile away. It was sited on a small hilltop and was just a group of houses. The hill was encircled with two trenches. Instead of the stout walls, this village had outward pointing sharpened stakes, each about eight feet long. The depth of the stakes was about 8 feet, and sited between the ditches and the houses themselves. A barrier which could be moved and the saltire shaped logs were attached to a long log in the centre. (This type of barrier is still used by the Army and Police in our own time.) This could be pulled into place blocking the only roadway into the village. All around the village were small cultivated fields.

The houses were still the same round houses, with a thatched roof and basket-weave walls, and smoke coming from the hole in the roof. They at least hadn't changed, so maybe we weren't far from the time I was last back. What had changed was the clothing and they had fields with crops ready for harvesting, so they had changed to an agrarian society, instead of foraging.

Also there were as many fair-haired people as dark-haired, so I'm estimating that we have come forward a bit in time from Janesville period. As we got nearer I noticed outside almost every doorway, stakes with human heads stuck on them.

"Mary whatever you do don't scream, the Celts take heads in battle and proudly display them outside their doors. I can see that nearly every house has at least some outside them."

"But these are Englishmen, how barbaric."

"Mary, England doesn't exist yet, but these are our forefathers and I can assure you they take heads."

The five of us continued into the centre of the village. There were twenty of these round houses, I counted them as I entered, and the centre was on the highest point of the hill. Here was open ground, with logs forming a circle and a circle of stones in the middle for a fire. It was obvious that this was their meeting place, but with the weather here I doubt if they held many meetings.

Coming to meet us from one of the houses was a Druid, I recognised him by his dress, and he was exactly dressed as Brecea had been.

"You are not of these people, from what lands do you come, and what is that you carry in your arms?" He asked, no welcome just an enquiry, but he spoke the same Gaelic as I had been taught by Marjorie and her friend.

"Yes, we come from a different land than this and we are seeking others from our land that may still be here," I answered him. Ignoring the question about the gun I was carrying.

"You speak the language of the Druids, not of the people, how is this so, for you are not one of us?"

"No, it's a complicated story and I would rather not discuss it. The thing I have in my arms is my weapon, it kills at great distances," I decided to tell him.

"Come sit, I will talk with you."

It was like a signal to the villagers who had gathered and knowing that their presence was not wanted, turned and walked away back to what they were doing previously.

Mary couldn't get much closer to me, she was gazing at the skulls stuck on the posts and gripping my belt. When I sat down she sat very close.

"Yes many years ago, there were some strangers, who could not speak our language, and were dressed as you, they were taken as slaves, and may be still in the land. I will ask the other villages as I visit them. If they came from your land, why couldn't they speak the language as you do?"

"I have lived among your people, they haven't, and that is why I can speak to you."

"All people, speak as I, except in the manner of speech, there is no difference."

"What is your name Druid, I would like to know, the last Druid I knew was named Brocae," I asked to get away from any further probing; I don't want them to know too much.

"That is a revered name of a Head teacher from Mona?"

I could see he was puzzled. How could I know Brocae for it was obvious he had been dead for a long-time? I could see he wanted to ask further, but I wasn't going to tell him anything. Well not at this meeting anyway.

"Yes I know. I'm called Charlie."

"I am Leodwald, I too study at Mona."

Just then two women came with three plates containing a stew; the plates were made of tightly woven grasses, so tight that no liquid dripped from them. They handed one to each of us, with a wooden spoon. I noticed that they still had the bad habit of not washing and they gave off a very strong body odour.

At least some progress had been made. They were using plates, and not just using their hands into a pot. The stew was as good as you could get it and contained various vegetables that I recognised. I was that hungry I would have eaten anything. Mary too seemed to enjoy it for she had cleared her plate before me or Leodwald.

"Where are the villages that took my people slaves?"

"In the west, it was the village just over there," pointing to the north-west, "that captured them, and sold them as slaves, I think."

"We will go to that village and enquire."

"Go in peace, seldom do I get to speak so freely with someone, may we meet again."

My Gaelic was extremely better, and I was glad that I had taken the extra lessons, brushing up on what I knew, and adding considerably more.

"Please thank the people for the meal, we will be travelling now, I hope too that we will meet again." I put out my hand and the Druid clasped me at the elbow, I responded by clasping his. So this was the handshake of the period, I must remember that.

Mary and I walked down the ramp and beyond the defences and made for a North-Westerly direction.

"These people are filthy, don't they ever wash?" Mary exclaimed.

"No, they rub goose fat on their bodies to keep out the cold, didn't you notice how they smell?"

"Yes it was foul wasn't it?" Mary replied. By this time she had released her hold on my belt and was walking alongside me.

"Why are we going in this direction?"

I had completely forgotten that Mary had understood nothing of the conversation I had with the Druid. "This village we are going to captured some people in the past, who were dressed like us and sold them as slaves."

"You mean these people may have sold my Kenny into slavery?"

"It's not as bad as it sounds Mary, we will find him I'm sure."

After about three hours the light was fading and we had been walking along the banks of this small river, enclosed either side by thick woodlands, with no sign at all of any human settlements.

"Mary, let's call it a day, we will have a hot meal and I am dying for a cup of tea. We can carry on tomorrow."

"I was wondering when we would stop as I'm completely knackered."