Lorna Dane loves rocks and math (compassrose) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-11-02 01:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alex summers (havok), lorna dane (polaris) |
Who: Alex and Lorna Summers
Where: Dakota territory
What: time traveling
When: 1890 and 11/1/2013
Warnings/Rating: PG
Status complete
Alex groaned as he felt his head stop swirling and whirling. There had been a voice and laughter, and an explosion, and Nate yelling… damn it. He groaned as he sat up, rubbing his face and looked around.
“Oh for the love of Christ!” He looked down and sighed, gently petting Lorna’s hair. “Wake up, love. We’ve got some odd moments ahead.” They were on top of a hill, and in every direction below them were buffalos. And far off, he spotted a man on a horse, barely a speck from where they were.
Oh boy…
Lorna groaned and pushed her hair back. “Don’t mess up my- oh.” She blinked, then stood. “Uh, where’s everyone else? This isn’t the future, huh?” She squinted in the sun at the man on horseback. “Maybe you should go talk to him. I’ll stay here.” She took off her backpack and hugged it to her chest.
Alex nodded and kissed her long and slow, then left his backpack with her, glad he was dressed in jeans and a simple shirt instead of something more outlandish. And boots., God bless his love of boots. Then he was walking, and carefully making his way through the herd, waving a hand to get the man’s attention. The man saw him, as did a dog, and they both came toward him quickly. Alex slowly raised his hands to show he was unarmed, even if he had a gun and bullets back in the pack he had left with Lorna.
“Who are you? What are you doing out here?”
“My name is Alex Dane, and I got attacked, and left for dead a ways out, been wandering, and resting, for a few days, and I'm not sure where I am, really. May I ask who you are? And where I am?”
The man winced, and nodded, calling his dog back. “I’m Roger Hastings, and this is my mutt, Greg. You’re in the Dakota Territories, near Lux. Where were you headed? Are you alone?” The man’s kindness and kind tone made Alex relax, as did the fact that his hand never went near his gun.
“”We were headed out west, trying to take the Northern route to get there, since there was trouble to the south. Lost a lot of time in the mountains with snow… which reminds me, when is it? What month?”
He chuckled, trying to look embarrassed at losing track. The man chuckled. “I know how that is. Came out here ten years ago, before the territories were founded, and in the middle of winter, fool that I was. “It’s January, just became 1890. Didja head out before word about the war came?”
Alex, still reeling from the year, swallowed and shook his head. “We were in a small town, didn’t hear much.”
“Well, Lee surrendered, and the war is over. The North won.” The man shrugged. “Not that it means much here, mind you. We all mostly are just living to survive and take care of our own.”
Alex nodded, relieved. Holy God, the Civil war! Thank the lord they had avoided that! “Me and my wife only managed to escape with a few things left over, in some bags made by some of the others in the train. afraid we look a bit weird with the clothing we managed to acquire. And, ah… some dye got on my wife’s hair, from dyes being carried, and… her hair is a mite strange right now.” He tried to make his speech very Easterly, recalling his youthful accent, and hoped it sounded silly enough to not make him too weird
The man waved a hand. “No worries stranger. We’ve seen a lot of oddness. The town has been through some crazy times, and we lost a few outliers during the latest winter. Old man Simon’s place is empty now. He died, and his widow packed up her kids and left with the last winter train.”
The seeming ease the man rattled on made Alex smile, and he nodded.
“If you’d like to avoid trouble, you could stead there for awhile, maybe longer if you can handle it. No Indian troubles hereabouts right now, so you should be fine, if you keep your heads down.”
He went about explaining the way, then glanced at his herd of cows, near the buffaloes,m but not too close. “Got to get back to my steer. If you need help, I;’m the nearest farm south. Good luck, stranger.”
And he turned and went off. The dog gave one more bark at Alex, then ambled along after him.
Alex stared after him, then sighed and turned to head back t Lorna.
When he arrived at her and the little hill they had woken on he sighed and sat down. “Hey, baby? You are not going to believe this one…”
Lorna waited patiently, digging around in their bags while Alex talked to the man. They had some devices that Nate thought would be helpful, and a solar charger. She snorted at the GPS. That would be useless. She’d thought to bring some astronomy books so they could determine the season and day with that. It was useless in the daytime, but she was glad to have it.
By the time she’d taken stock of everything Alex was back. She packed everything in and laughed. “There’s not a lot I won’t believe at this point, baby.”
“We’re in the Dakota territories, year, 1866. Something went wacky with the time machine, I’m thinking. “ He nodded. “We found a herder who is willing to be nice. He says there is an abandoned farmstead just a little north of here, and that we can live there if we can. Doesn’t seem like he much cares, really.” Alex sighed and sat next to her.
“I never was one to be a cowboy, personally.”
Lorna laughed a little, shaking her head. “I never thought my kitchen farm was training me for the real thing. I wonder if it’s cattle or plants?” She stood up and stretched. “Which direction? We should get going.”
Alex dug out his compass, checked it, then pointed. “Thataway. “ He grinned at her. “If we’re careful, we could fly, and zoom there quickly. From his description, I’m thinking it’s a few miles out.”
Lorna nodded. “Okay. Hang on to your stuff.” She lifted them up, peering over the nearby hill. “I see it. No animals, but that doesn’t mean anything.” They darted off quickly, staying just above the treetops. Almost as soon as their feet left the ground it began to snow.
Alex clung to her and shivered as he looked out across the snowy landscape. “Of course it’s snowing. This is going to get interesting.” He kept track of their course with his compass, directing her despite the weather, and snuggling close. The farmstead was not far by air, but the snow was already raging as he pointed down toward a sprawling two story house with a number of outbuildings. “There!”
Lorna shivered, clinging to Alex for his heat. She nodded when he pointed and headed for the house, using her powers to open the door. She was shaking with cold and lightly dusted with know when they touched down. “Oh man, why January? Two more months and we’d be a little better off.”
“I know. Come on…” He led the way into the main room and sure enough there was a hearth, and a large supply of wood laid by it. ”God bless homesteaders.” He soon had a slow fire starting, with some kindling, and was slowly feeding it.
“We should check the place, see if the last family left any food. According to the man I talked to, it was abandoned due to death during winter and war, so… there might be a lot.” Especially with winter keeping people from looting it.
“Or nothing. We’ll see, I guess. Just hope there’s wood for the fire.” She took off her shirt and fumbled around in her bag for the sweatshirt she’d brought along. “I guess we’ll split up? I’ll go upstairs you explore this floor?”
Alex nodded. “Sounds like a plan… wait, no. No splitting up. Lets go together. Too many horror movies started this way.
Alex nodded. “We can case this level, then the next one.”
Lorna laughed, but she couldn’t argue with that logic. She took Alex’s hand and nodded. “Alright, then. After you.”
Alex led the way back into the hall, and to the first door, carefully opening it to reveal a room that appeared to be a large closet, stuffed with some winter coats and boots, all old and perhaps handed down. There is a chest, empty, and not much else there. “Those might come in handy.”:
He grinned at her and slipped into a coat, ignoring the slightly musty smell and feeling warmer already. Down the hall came a jakes, an indoor toilet that had a hole down into a running water pipe… the water of which was far below and still running. Despite how it could be there were flowers in a pot in here and it did not stink. “Someone took good care of this place.”
“I see that.” Lorna said with a laugh. “Wait, did we somehow get a place with running water despite our expectations?” Well, kind of running water, but close enough. “Heck yes.” She giggled and bounced forward. The next room was the kitchen, which Lorna was happy to see. “Oh man, wood burning stove. Luckily, I can cook on that thing.” She bounced excitedly and began looking around for wood.
Alex chuckled and looked around, finding flint and steel and a couple of lanterns, soon having them burning merrily. He kept going, opening a door to find the small spices and dried goods pantry, another closet next to the back door, and then a floor door that led down stairs to a meats and veggies cold pantry. And to a store of wood. He brought some up, and some salted beef, and potatoes.
“Think you can get these going if I fetch some water from the well?” He had spotted one in an almost outside area next to the kitchen, a washing up area with a well to draw water from.
“You think the well’s frozen?” Lorna asked. “Otherwise it’ll probably be fine. There’s some canned stuff I saw while you were poking around, that would be fine, too.”
“I don’t know. I’ll let you know in a minute.:” He stepped out and yelped in the new chill, then trod toward the well, thankfully not far away and enclosed next to the kitchen. He eyed the top of the well water which seemed iced over and then blinked at the thing attached to one of the two ropes hanging next to the well. “Well, damn, these people aren’t dumb, are they?” And he lifted the surprisingly heavy thing and dropped it into the well, watching as it slammed down and shattered the ice atop the water. “Yes!”
Carefully, he hauled up the weight and put it next to the well, then began lowering the bucket attached to the other rope.
With two lowerings and raisings he had filled the first big bucket, and several more times had filled the other two buckets as well. Then he came back inside, first carrying the two buckets, then the last one, and closing the door securely.
“There!”
“Oh. Metal buckets. Sorry, I should have done that.” Lorna shook her head as she built the fire a little more. “This will be ready for cooking in a while. It takes some time for these things to heat up.”
“Nah. You’re working in here.” He smiled.”We’ll have to work together here and work hard, but we’ll be fine until we get rescued.” Someday. Somehow. He knew that things would be weird and for this to have happened at all was bad.
“No worries. I think some snuggles are in order anyway.” He hugged her tight.
She nodded, resting her head against his chest. “In here, at first. I want to warm up all of my body, not just the parts plastered to you.” She smiled at him, stroking his face softly. “This will be strange, but maybe it will be awesome, too.”
Alex smiled at her and snuggled her close. “It should be. I mean, it’ll be hard work, but… I think it could be fun, too. Riding the range, working the fields, living in this time… heck, with our powers, and the fact that we both know how to work hard, this should be kind of cool.”
She giggled. “Oh man, I’m glad you said that. I think this is going to be awesome.” She sounded like she could barely contain her glee. “No crazy events, no more dreams, just us and our own hard work staving off starvation for a while. Then we go back to the future and feel smugly superior because we’re self-reliant.”
Alex chuckled and poked her. “More than likely. yes. You and me and just our own life.” he grinned at her and kissed her, hard. “If we like it, we can always change out the beachhouse for a farm when we go back.”
Lorna grinned. “One plan at a time, sexy butt.” She kissed him and groped him thoroughly. “I should start that soup, by the time it’s done we’ll be hungry.” She could at least get the water heated up, and the canned veggies soaking.
“Yes dear. I guess dear.” He winked at her. He kissed her and groped her too. “Yes, please?” He knew the meat would take some time to soak down to eatability.
“I guess I can’t let you starve,” she joked kissing him softly before she started pulling out knives and forks to prepare the food. “Have a seat and warm up, I’ll be ready for snuggles soon enough.”
Alex settled before the stove, but to the side and watched her. He was lucky. A lot of women would be screaming and losing it now. But not his wife. She was rocking this thing. He couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.
“Love you.”
She hummed as she cooked, and smiled at Alex when she put the pot on the stove. With that done she knelt between his legs, kissing him softly. “Love you too. Now help me heat this place up a little bit.”