Page 38 of The Very Virile Viking

"They are off stoking up the fire in their bellies so they can flame little boylings like you," Magnus said.

Angela made a teeing sound. "Do you think it's wise to scare children like that?"

"Are you scared, Hamr?" he asked.

"Bloody hell, nay! But I will tell you what is scary: sending a wee boyling off to fight dragons without a bow and arrow."

Magnus exchanged a quick smile with Angela, who must be starting to understand his son's persistence about owning a weapon.

In the far distance Magnus could see row after row of grapevines, many, many hectares of land… all filled with growing things. And, if his eyes did not play him false, there was a large vegetable garden closer to the house. He couldn't wait to explore everything.

He turned slightly in his seat and his eyes connected with Jogeir's. He saw the same appreciation of the land reflected there. My little farmer boy . They both smiled.

But first there was the Blue Dragon keep and its mistress, Grandmother Rose, to be met. He glanced at each of his children in turn, cautioning them to be on their best behavior. After all, this might very well be the goddess who had called them here.

The van came to a stop. He took Lida out of her car seat and stepped out onto the cleared area in front of a large wooden house of a most unusual design. It had covered verandas all around and highly carved eaves and rails. His blood began to race, and there was a peculiar buzzing in his ears as he observed his surroundings.

Of a sudden he noticed the very lady from his dream fog—an older replica of Angela with white hair.

But this goddess was wearing full-length, shoulder-to-ankle den-ham braies , and she had a smoking stick dangling from the fingertips of one hand, which she immediately dropped to the ground and stomped on with one white cloth-shod foot. Then she held both arms out wide, not for her granddaughter, Angela, but for Lida, crooning, "Oh, you adorable baby, you. Come to Grandma Rose."

And Lida, to everyone's surprise, did just that, with a wide, smiling, "Goo!"

Grandmother Rose took Magnus's measure then, head to toe, with a pause at his armrings and Viking attire. Then she nodded to her granddaughter. "You're right. He's like a tree."

Magnus arched an eyebrow in question at Angela and mouthed, A tree ?

Angela shrugged at him with a winsome blush on her face.

His other eight children began to pile out of the van, and Grandmother Rose's eyes grew wider and wider at the sight of each of them.

"For the love of a troll!" Kirsten exclaimed. "They have a horse which they keep indoors."

Everyone turned to see the large animal loping down the wooden steps in front of the keep. It must have emerged from inside the building.

"Kirsten, you are such a lackwit," Njal declared with a superior sniff. "That is a dog, not a horse."

It was indeed a dog—the size of a small horse—and it was licking the face of each of the children, wagging its tail in a friendly fashion.

"It's Jow," Angela told them, laughing as the giant dog licked her in welcome, too.

"Jowl. 'Tis an odd name for a pet," Magnus said.

"Not Jowl, Jow. It stands for Just One Week. That's how long he was supposed to stay."

That made as much sense as anything else that had happened to him in this land… which was not much.

Angela smiled at him as she spoke.

He hated when she smiled at him like that. It made his stomach knot and his lungs go breathless.

Between the dog licking, which gave him certain carnal ideas, and her winsome smiles, he was going to be in a sorry state before the afternoon was over.

Finally, as the barking and giggles and squeals died down a bit, and Angela stopped smiling at him, the grandmother shook her head as if to clear it of the amazing scene unfolding around her. Then she returned her attention to him. Stretching out an arm, she shook his hand firmly, "Hello, there, young fellow. Welcome to the Blue Dragon. I'm Rose Abruzzi. You can call me Grandma Rose."

He nodded and said, "I am Magnus Ericsson. And these are my children." He pointed to each of them in turn. "Lida, Kolbein, Hamr, Jogeir, Njal, Dagny, Storvald, Kirsten, and Torolf."

She laughed merrily as she nodded one by one at his children, concluding with a loud kiss on Lida's cheek. Then she turned back to him and said, "It's about time you got here, boy."