Chapter 7

Where Are We?

“Oh, Mother, that was wonderful!” said a sweet young feminine voice. “I’m so excited! Oh, how beautiful it is! When will the herd be here? Will Kafteinn be with them? I can’t wait to tell Father…”

“Patience, daughter,” said an older female voice, sounding deep and wise.

Kim, Emily, Laura, Andrea, and Darcy all each felt as if they were hearing these voices coming from inside their heads. Blinking as their eyes gradually became accustomed to the bright sunlight, they saw before them a long flat plain sloping off into the distance. They could not see the end of it. It looked flat, but there was actually a very subtle slope to it, and it was covered with a short brownish-green grass. Not a shrub, tree, rock or boulder was to be seen anywhere, but a river ran down the center of the valley. The plain stretched almost five kilometers across and running along its sides disappearing into the distance were huge mountains with snow-covered peaks.

“Wha… wha…what happened?” Andrea stuttered in a shaky voice, looking around in awe.

“I don’t know,” Emily replied in a hushed tone. “Where are we?”

With these words, everyone suddenly found their voices and began to talk at once in a babble of voices.

“I don’t recognize anything.”

“What should we do?”

“Somebody get the trail map.”

“Hel-lo – this is not on the trail map.”

“I’m scared.” That was Kim.

“Don’t be scared, peanut,” Emily told her sister. “Come over here by me.”

“Should we just go back the way we came?”

“I don’t know.”

“Emily, get your cell phone out – let’s call Mom.”

“Good idea, Kim.” Emily reached into her saddlebag and pulled out her phone. The screen was blank. She pushed the “on” button. Nothing.

“It’s dead.”

“Dead,” Laura echoed, peering at her own phone.

“Nothing on mine either,” Andrea added.

“Oh no, what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, what we should do!”

 

“Silence!” commanded the deep woman’s voice they had heard a few minutes ago.

“You heard my mother,” the other youthful feminine voice piped up. “Shut up!”

“Silence to you as well, daughter.”

The girls immediately stopped talking and started looking around for who was speaking, twisting in the saddles, looking this way and that.

“Excuse me,” Emily asked politely. “But, where are you?” She felt like Wilbur the pig in Charlotte’s Web, looking for the spider.

“Below,” said the woman’s voice.

All the girls looked down at the ground.

“Below where?” Emily could not really believe this was happening. Was she dreaming this?

“Below your sister. She has the honor to be in my saddle and in my care.”

“Prinsessa,” Kim burst out. “Oh, Prinsessa, you can speak! Prinsessa, Prinsessa!!”

“Easy, child,” said Prinsessa, “Hush, now.”

“Kim – are you nuts? She can’t talk – she’s a horse! This is some kind of a trick,” Andrea snorted derisively, peering at Kim and Prinsessa. “Did you guys bring me here to set me up for some joke to get even with me? Is that it?” Her voice rose hysterically.

“Silence, silly child,” Prinsessa commanded in a booming voice.

Andrea’s mouth dropped open in a little o.

All of the girls stared in wonder at Prinsessa. Nothing was moving but her large nostrils as she breathed in and out.

“I, I …don’t understand, uh, Prinsessa,” Emily said.

“If you and everyone else will be quiet for a moment, I will explain,” replied Prinsessa patiently.

“Yes, ma’am,” replied Emily.

“We, the horses of Iceland,” began Prinsessa in a lecturing tone, “have evolved over one thousand years as a single herd. We have survived subfreezing temperatures, the elimination of nearly all our food, horrific volcanic explosions, and many other environmental disasters. As a reward for our survival, the great Icelandic Horse God, Sleipnir, the eight-legged steed of Óðinn, gave us special powers. You may think of it as magic, but they are not unlike human strengths. Some of us are blessed with more than others. The mares of our herd have the greatest of these powers. One of the powers includes the ability to speak with our sires from long ago and to travel to them when we are needed. And, of course, we can speak with our minds. Not to everyone, and not always clearly, but we can always speak with each other.”

“But if you can speak to us now,” asked Kim, “why couldn’t you speak to us at home?”

“We did,” Prinsessa told her with a little humor in her voice, “but you humans chose not to listen, or would not have believed we could.”

“I would have believed it! And I’m a good listener!” said Kim staunchly, a bit upset.

“Of course,” replied Prinsessa. “I always knew what you were thinking. And while we could not speak as clearly as we are now, maybe you had some idea of what I was thinking?”

“Well, yes, I do believe that’s true!” Kim nodded so hard, her ponytail bobbed up and down.

“In addition, Kimberly, I have heard you defend me and the other horses many times. You are to be commended for that. Others still have quite a lot of learning to do.” Prinsessa gave Andrea a stern look and she had the grace to look sheepish.

“Now, to continue,” Prinsessa went on, “our great sire has called us to this time and place to help. We have arrived in northern Iceland near the villages of Hólar and Akureyri. It is about 800 years before you were born.”

The mare heard a gasp from the girls and their fear was almost a tangible thing in the air surrounding them. “Do not worry, or be afraid,” Prinsessa tried to reassure them. “Each of your horses can speak with you and all of us will care for you.”

“Ohhhh…” At this point, Darcy was completely overcome by the whole experience. Shocked by all she was hearing and wondering if she was going crazy, her vision faded, little black spots appeared in front of her and sounds became faint. Darcy’s eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out and fell off Hela, landing on the ground with a little thump. Kim gasped and leaped off Prinsessa, running through the stubby grass to her friend.

“Darcy! Darcy! Are you all right?” She flung herself down.

“Oh, that’s just great,” said Hela sarcastically as she put her nose to Darcy’s head. “So typical of a human.”

“Hela,” Kim scolded, “don’t be so mean! How do you expect us to feel? This is a little much for us to believe.”

Hela softly nudged Kim, apologizing, “Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. Move over a little bit. I can help her.”

Kim shifted out of the way, and watched as Hela leaned down and snuffled in Darcy’s hair and ear. A few moments later, Darcy’s eyes opened and she stared up at Hela, locking gazes with her. Calm seemed to come over Darcy, and Kim watched as she sat up, seeming mentally to shake herself off and said, “Thank you, Hela. I feel much better now.”

“You’re welcome, dear.”

To Kim’s surprise, Darcy got to her feet and leaned against Hela’s side, looking expectantly at Prinsessa as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

“Go ahead, girls, and make a proper acquaintance with your horses,” Prinsessa instructed.

Emily jumped off Skessa and gave her a great big hug. “Oh, Skess, all this time you knew just how I felt and what I was thinking! And I had no idea!”

“Yes, it’s true,” said Skessa solemnly, “and while I might not always be the best communicator, I feel like we are both bound together by a love that has always warmed my heart. Quite frankly,” she continued, “I have always had a hard time with emotion. I am a warrior and we tend to bury our feelings deeply. You are different, young lady – I have cared for you greatly since the first time we rode together.”

“Oh, Skessa, I feel the same way!” Emily told her, hugging her neck.

Andrea had dismounted and was eyeing Kedja warily. She stood stiffly and finally said, "How do you do?" and then felt like a complete idiot. What did you say to a talking horse, for goodness sake?

“I understand how you feel, Andrea,” Kedja told her in a serious tone. “You are a good girl at heart and an excellent rider. I enjoyed our ride through the woods together today.”

“Uh…this is all a little strange for me,” Andrea sounded hesitant, but went on, “but I am very happy to meet you and I was impressed with your showmanship skills.”

“Yes,” said Kedja in her solemn and deep voice, “I know you have always thought us ponies, but I think this journey will teach you much more. In addition, you have other lessons to learn and I think you will gain much knowledge about yourself during this journey.”

“I think it is going to take me a while to get used to all of this,” said Andrea, half to herself and half to Kedja.

“Don’t worry,” said Kedja,” things will come together sooner than you think.”

Laura and Aríel bonded right away. Since technically the two were about the same age in horse and human years, they were like two teenage girls thrown together in a bizarre situation.

“Aríel,” Laura excitedly jumped off her saddle, “is this your first trip? Do you have magic too? Are you…”

“Whoa,” said Aríel, “slow down, girl. Yes, this is my first ‘Journey’ and I sure hope I have powers. I haven’t had a chance to use them yet, but I’ll be damned if I don’t get to use them here!”

Prinsessa overheard this and replied with a sharp, “Aríel, watch your mouth!”

Aríel snickered to Laura and they bowed their heads together, giggling.

“I’m glad I got paired up with you, Aríel. Oh my gosh, this is so awesome! I think that the two of us are going to do great things together,” Laura told her, feeling empowered.

“How right you are, my dear. How right you are,” Prinsessa murmured to herself.

Kim, being Kim with her youthful exuberance and flair for the dramatic, ran over to Prinsessa and flung her arms around her neck. With a special tolerance for her young charge, Prinsessa allowed this and returned the affection, rubbing against Kim’s arms.

Prinsessa permitted the girls to get to know their horses for a few minutes. Then she took control again.

“Silence,” she commanded.

Prinsessa moved away from the rest of the horses and turned to face them. The other horses stood in a semi-circle around her except for Skessa, who stepped to Prinsessa’s right side. The girls had let their reins drop and the horses were setting themselves up without guidance. It was the horses that were in charge now. As soon as Prinsessa had spoken, the group fell silent.

“You will not be afraid anymore because I have used my powers to bestow on you a feeling of security and anticipation.”

“Prinsessa, I do feel strange,” said Emily, and the other girls nodded. “I feel as if I should be afraid, but I’m not. It’s more of a feeling that something exciting is about to happen!”

Andrea, who was about to make fun of Emily for sounding so goofy, opened her mouth, but then she realized she felt the same way. Hmm, that was odd.

At the same time, the girls felt their confusion and memories about the trail ride and home soften and fade into the background. The atmosphere around them became crystal clear and sharp, the sky more intense, the detail of each blade of grass magnified. All the girls felt as if they were clearly present in the here and now and could focus on what was happening and what they were here for, not what they had left behind.

“This is good,” replied Prinsessa. “You feel my powers, and soon you will feel more, but do not interrupt. I must speak of serious things.”

The girls listened intently as she continued, “There is a great sire here who has called for our help. His name is Kafteinn, which means “Captain.” When I learned of the problems here, I realized we would need the help of humans from our time. I thought for many days as to how this task should be accomplished. My chief aide is Skessa. We have often traveled here, as there is much strife among the people of this time.”

Skessa bowed her head to the other girls and Emily beamed with pride at her horse.

“It was Skessa,” continued Prinsessa, “who came up with the plan. She thought of it on the night after you, my Emily, had foolishly chosen to battle Andrea. I say foolishly, because you are about to see what real anger, hatred and battle is like.”

Emily and Andrea looked at each other feeling guilty. A part of Andrea felt as if there were something unbelievably weird about this, but another part of her felt as if she belonged here with these horses and these girls. It was an odd feeling, because Andrea never felt as though she had ever really belonged anywhere. She looked at Emily again, and the two shared an unspoken agreement that all things would be put behind them for now and they would move forward together.

“After that night,” Prinsessa was speaking, “Skessa felt the emotions of Karen. She thought of this trip and told me of her idea. The morning after, I spoke with Karen and gave her the plan for the trail ride. I could not speak to her as we are speaking now, but I was able to give my thoughts to her.”

“Mom knew it was you, Prinsessa,” interrupted Kim. “She told us she thought you gave her the idea!”

“Your mother, little one, is very intelligent for a human, but you have interrupted your elder,” Prinsessa reprimanded her.

“I’m sorry,” Kim said, with a twinge of excitement that made it sound like not much of an apology.

“Karen followed through as we had hoped and now we are here. Soon Kafteinn and the herd will come, so I must speak quickly. As I said, I am the leader of this small herd and Skessa is my aide. Each horse and girl has unique and very useful capabilities. Now,” Prinsessa continued, “you can see that we are standing at the end of a long river valley.  At the other end of this valley is a small farming village where we will be going. It is called Hólar and is populated by kind and gentle people. Hólar is also the home of a great herd of our ancestors.  If you look back in the other direction, you can see a fishing village called Akureyri. The chieftain and people of Akureyri are the ones who are fighting with Hólar.”

It was at that moment that the girls realized the woods in which they had been traveling were gone. This was a bit of a shock, and without thinking of Prinsessa’s need to give them more information, they all ran back a hundred yards to look at where the forest had been. What they found was a steep volcanic rock cliff, which tumbled down to a deep fjord. It was surrounded by the same mountains that followed the plain. The fjord led out to the blue sea, which they could see sparkling in the distance, dotted with little whitecaps. At the bottom of the cliff and on the west side of the fjord, they could see a village with boats and people and horses. At this moment, Prinsessa and the other horses ran up behind the girls and Prinsessa hissed, “Get down! You must not be seen!”

All the girls dropped to the grass and lay flat on the ground, peering over the cliff. The horses stood back so they were not visible either.

“The weather has deteriorated in the last few years and food has become scarce for both villages. The chieftain of Akureyri, Siklingur, has gathered weapons and men to battle Hólar in order to take their crops and horses. They have come to Hólar several times, but the people of Hólar were prepared and fought them off. Skessa and I have come back to help with two of these battles. Our sires originate from Hólar.”

This time Andrea spoke up. “Is there another battle coming? Are we to help fight?” The powers Prinsessa had placed within her were taking effect like a drug.

“Something much worse has happened,” continued Prinsessa, restraining the urge to rebuke Andrea for interrupting. “Gígja, the daughter of Arnþor, who is the chieftain of Hólar, loves to ride fast and free over the plain. She has a strong will and spirit, is very beautiful and carries much of her father in her. She is about the same age as you girls, maybe a little older. Siklingur knew she liked to ride out on the plain, and sent spies to hide along the valley and wait for her. A few days ago, they captured her and took her to the dungeons of the Great House at Akureyri. Siklingur has sent messengers to Arnþor telling him that his daughter will be killed if he does not relinquish his rule to Siklingur. Arnþor is so distraught that he has locked himself up in a room and will not speak to anyone. The village is afraid, for they feel that their leader has abandoned them. We are here at the bidding of Kafteinn, leader of the herd at Hólar, to rescue Gígja and return her to her father.”

By this time the girls had slid down the slope out of view and were sitting by their horses looking at Prinsessa and Skessa with eagerness. They were eager to enter into this unknown – and possibly exciting – adventure.

Taking the lead, Laura spoke up first. “Prinsessa, how will we be able to help? We don’t speak the language here and obviously we don’t know anything about being in a war.” The other girls nodded in agreement.

Prinsessa was ready to take questions now, and answered kindly, “I have given you the power to speak and understand the language of the people and the horses here. Like the humans of your time, the people of these villages cannot speak directly to the herd, but they have more intuition of our powers than your people and we can often send our thoughts to them.”

At that moment, Skessa nudged Prinsessa and said, “I hear the coming of the herd! Should I go to meet them and prepare them for what they will find?”

“No,” Prinsessa replied. “Kafteinn already knows I have brought the children and he has prepared the others.” She then turned back to the rest of the girls and said, “Ladies, you must stand and bow your heads to Kafteinn when the herd arrives. Speak only when you are spoken to. I will do all the talking. Daughter, come and stand at my left.” Aríel moved over immediately and looked expectant.

It was not long before the girls heard a thundering roar coming up the valley. They all jumped to their feet and squinted, but could not see anything but a cloud of dust.

“Hela!” Darcy hissed. “Quit eating and get over here!”

“Mmm—bbb—sorry,” Hela said with her mouth full from several feet away where she had found some particularly sweet grass and was eating like there was no tomorrow. She stepped back toward the other horses, still munching, as they began to see the herd galloping toward them. As they had been instructed, they stood and bowed their heads to show submission, although Emily had to elbow Kim, who was still watching the arrivals with fascination.

“Isn’t this exciting?” Aríel murmured to Laura, who was leaning against her, one arm on her back.

“Yes!” Laura whispered back.

Within a couple of minutes, the herd roared up to them and came to a stop. At the lead was a beautiful silver dappled stallion, followed by about a hundred horses of many different colors, but all with the familiar look of their own Icelandic horses.

Kim whispered to Emily with her head down, “That must be Kafteinn; he looks just like Hersir.”

“Sh-h…” was all she got back.

It was, in fact, Kafteinn, and he marched proudly up to Prinsessa, shaking his mane back regally. Unlike the girls and other horses who all had their heads bowed, Prinsessa held her head high. In spite of the fact that she was a good deal shorter than Kafteinn, Prinsessa stood proud and Kafteinn nodded his head in acknowledgment of her supremacy.

“Welcome, great daughter of the far future. We are thankful that you have come,” said Kafteinn in a strong and commanding tone.

“We are of the herd,” replied Prinsessa. “We will always come when you call for us.”

“I see you have brought the humans of your time,” Kafteinn continued, looking around at the group. “This has never happened before, but it will be most helpful.” He paused for a second, then looked at Aríel. “Ah, you have brought your daughter. Welcome, Daughter of Prinsessa, to the land of your sires.”

Aríel looked up into the eyes of Kafteinn and said crisply, “My name is Aríel.” At this, Prinsessa gave her a swift kick with her hind leg and Aríel immediately lowered her head.

Kafteinn laughed. “You have your mother’s fiery spirit, Aríel. This is good, very good. And you are tall and strong. I think you will have great powers and be a grand warrior.”

“Thank you, sire,” said Prinsessa, giving Aríel a side-glance of reproof, “but she still needs to learn manners.”

“No matter,” Kafteinn replied. “There is much to discuss and much to do. We should move away from this dangerous place and head back to the village.”

“We need to do something about the children’s clothes,” said Skessa, thinking ahead.

“We will stop at the farm of Torfi and his family,” said Kafteinn. “This family understands us best, and I will also put a little extra understanding in their minds. I will need to cover some of the truth, for it will overwhelm them. So all of you,” he spoke directly to the girls, “must be careful of what you say. Do not talk of your home to anyone. This family will understand your purpose when you arrive and will think your clothes odd, but will not understand that you are from the far future. We will get you clothes of our time to wear and hide the clothes of your time. Now mount your horses and they will carry you with the herd.”

The girls obeyed, throwing the reins over the heads of their horses and mounting them. The horses mingled with the herd, Hela, Aríel and Kedja chattering animatedly with the other horses. Prinsessa and Kafteinn spoke privately. The girls sat in their saddles, listening and absorbing their surroundings with interest. In a few moments, Kafteinn gave a shout and the herd started off at a canter, following the river up the valley.

As they rode, Laura saw small movements in the grass. Several field mice and even a small fox hustled to get out of the way of the horses’ hooves. Darcy looked over at Kim, who was pointing as a few ptarmigan birds flapped up out of the grass. The two girls grinned at each other and Darcy gave a little nod.