Tara

English 10H
Monday 19, 2009

THE BRIDGE BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Standing outside by my closest friends, I am paralyzed with a gripping fear that even they cannot
understand. The door that stands before me, separating me from my betrothed, is anything but a
comfort. For, while I am quaking with anxiety on this side, Dreng is seething in anger on the other. With
every second his anger grows as if it is one of the harsh winter blizzards. Without notice they will come
from above, allowing us to feel, think, see and taste only snow and its overwhelming cold. That is how
his anger is, overpowering.
“Audley…” Ane says bringing me away from my fearful thoughts and back to the people that are
surrounding me, “You are the Chieftan’s daughter! You can do anything you want too!”
“Ane is right, Audley….” Irwyn says as she wraps my shawl around my shoulders. Being blinded by my
own terror, I hadn’t even known that it had fallen from around me.
“You need to stand up to Dreng! Tell him you are going on the raid with us, no matter what he says!”
Odell whispers in my ear, but her words, just like Ane’s and Irwyn’s, have no affect on me. They do not
know what it is like being a Chieftan’s daughter. My marriage to Dreng is not just any old “arranged”
marriage, it is an obligation. During the winter when conditions are at their worst, our Visigoth Tribe can
count on Dreng to bring back on his sleigh a plentiful amount of kill that will provide us with food and
warmth. It is by having me marry Dreng that my father is thanking him for all that he has done. On top
of that, if I disobey my betrothed’s wishes, my father will be shamed for the rest of his life in this world.
Pride is so important to Papa, the gods only know how he’ll react if I shame him.
“Audley!” The door shudders and the earth beneath my feet shakes as Dreng screams my name in his
callous way.
“Go in there with your head held high.” Odell squeezes my hand as she says this. For my friends’ sakes, I
attempt to hide the quivers my lips make as they form a weak, but reassuring smile. With that, I force
myself to take the first step forward to Dreng’s dwelling, but the second and third steps came from pure
will power because my muscles locked immediately after that first step. Godric, who has been standing
stoically beside the door, pushes it open before I have a chance to reach for the handle. I nod in thanks,
hesitating long enough before entering to notice that he does not acknowledge my gratitude. With a
sigh the door shuts behind me leaving me alone with Dreng.
***
Dreng in general is intimidating. He is larger than all of our men, with bulging muscles and
overwhelming height. He is scarred from battle wounds and tough with calluses, but even more
intimidating, is his voice. It booms as though it is thunder being tossed back and forth between two
mountain sides, and quakes the very ground with just a whisper.
His home is even worse than his appearance. Dreng covers every inch of his wall with the heads
of wild animals he has killed. His blankets are scattered about in a crude fashion and the only thing that
is clean is his helmet and sword that hang in the corner.
“You!” Dreng says rising from his chair and pointing a shaking finger at me. He seems as though he is so
angry that he cannot remember how to speak. Jumping at what may be my only chance to defend
myself, I begin to explain with an even voice,
“Dreng, all the other women in the Tribe will be going to raid the village down the river. Of all people I
should be able to go with you and the other men because my father is chief…”
“NO! As my future wife you will not be going on the raid! Do you actually believe that because your
decrepit “Papa is Chieftain” I am going to allow you to go on raids with the men and me?” I feel my
patience snap as he not only sneers at me but swipes at my father’s honor as well.
“Do you dare to insult the Chieftain of this Tribe?” I shout at him forgetting the overwhelming fear that
had consumed me just moments before. I see the vein in his temple pop. Suddenly, I am off my feet and
eye to eye with Dreng. His grip around my neck is unbearable, but I know that if I panic and try to fight,
it will only get worse. So, I cave into his strength and allow him to hold me above the ground.
“No, woman!” Dreng spits my gender out at me as though it makes me a disease, “Do you dare to
threaten me? With what could you of all people defeat me with? Your old man, Brecc, is a fool! In a
couple of years, when he grows to old to rule over this Tribe, I will defeat him in The Battle. Then, I will
get rid of you, so that there will be no interference with my reign over these pathetic people!”
Dreng’s hold around my neck tightens as he laughs at what he has just told me. As he laughs, my soul
fills up with so much hatred that my vision turns red and I have to bite the inside of my lip so hard to
keep from screaming, that I can taste my own blood on my tongue. I cannot stop now because Dreng
believes that he has won, but I will not allow him to win this fight. Without thinking, I say the first thing
that comes to my mind,
“Dreng, your breath stinks!” Then, just to add a little flavor, I spit in his face.
***
As I hear him roar, I know what is going to happen. So, rather than keep my eyes open and see
it coming, I close them just in time to hear his fist zipping through the air at my face. The force of the
blow shatters my cheek bone and breaks my nose. I felt the bones snap before I hit the door because as
his fist connected with my face, Dreng had let go of my neck so that I would fly backwards. The pain is
unbearable, to the point that I feel myself about to drift out of consciousness.
“Not here!” I tell myself, “You don’t know what his anger will make him do while you are out.” So, I roll
over and manage to stand before he grabs me again,
“Where do you think you’re going, Audley? Back home to your Papa?” Dreng sneers into my ear. He
releases me, I know it is only to swing at me again, but he is too slow. Before he even brings his arm
back, I am out the door and running blindly down the path to my home.
“You will fail Audley, Daughter of Brecc! You will wake up tomorrow and stay home, instead of going on
the raid because you know what is good for Chieftain Brecc’s honor. I will defeat you, Audley! I always
do.” Dreng shouts after me and his words repeat themselves over and over again on my wild run to get
back to where I belong.
The trees seem to bend into an arc above me, but the path is covered with roots making it
difficult to travel on with a swollen eye in fading light. When I reach our hut, I can barely walk from
exhaustion and numerous falls. I lean on the door frame for a time, but instead of feeling rested I only
feel sick. I turn my head and wretch, causing an incredible pain to shoot across my face. When I am
done, I push open the flap to see Papa asleep at the table with his supper of a stew with beef and onions
in front of him. I am too exhausted to wake him or even eat the remaining food. So instead, I make my
way to my warm bed of fur hides and try to lie down gracefully, but end up flopping down anyway.
Before I even hit the hides I am asleep, but suddenly, I feel as though I am falling off of a cliff. It isn’t an
uncomfortable feeling, that is until the falling ends and I am in a pool of water. In this strange dream,
where everything is so real, I open my eyes. I am in a lake, yet I have no need to breathe. While I weave
my way in and out of caves, with sunlight sparkling in the water all around me, I feel like the mermaids
Mama used to tell me stories about. I reach out at a sun ray that is right in front of my eyes, but just as I
see my long, pale finger touch the ray of light, I am no longer in the lake. In fact, I am nowhere at all.
***
“Audley?” A very soothing and melodic voice slips into my dream waking me. As I open my eyes, I
realize I am not at home. I look around myself, trying to figure out where I am, but I have never seen
this place before. I’ve been lying next to a river, that I am actually quite surprised I can see because in
every direction I look, there is a sparkling mist of some sort that is familiar to the fog we had back home,
but it shimmers too much. As I take in my surroundings, I realize that this whole place has a magical
aura to it. The trees’ branches move gracefully in the air, but there is barely a breeze. The ground I’ve
been laying on is soft sand that feels wonderful between my toes. Not to mention, it is too warm in this
place to be anywhere near home, where even in the summer there is a subtle chill.
“There was a voice, just a few minutes ago,” I remind myself, “It was calling my name, but if I am the
only one here, how can that be?”
I look wildly about me and there is no one here besides me! Maybe I am still asleep? So, just to double
check I pinch myself, it hurts and so does my face when I wince!
“Audley, come down by the river, for that is where you’ll find me.” The musical voice calls out to me
again. I look down by the river and at first I see nothing, but then a shape begins to form. So, I stand up
and walk down to see who it could be. As I venture nearer to the river, the mysterious fog begins to
fade away and I see a woman. She is dressed as I am, with a dress and shawl but she is far more
beautiful than any of the women I know from my Tribe and has a radiant glow surrounding her. She is
bending over the river, staring at the pebbles that are tumbling about on the riverbed.
“Do you know who I am, Audley?” The woman turns her face up to smile at me.
“No, I have no idea…” I answer timidly because this woman’s beauty and confidence is so superior to
mine, I feel incompetent.
“Do not think that way, Audley,” The woman says this in answer to my thoughts, “You have far more
confidence and beauty than you think you do. Tell me though, what does Dreng mean by “The Battle?””
“How do you know about Dreng? This is nowhere near home, and news cannot travel that fast!” This
woman has me so bewildered, I forget my manners.
“There is no time for you question me now, Audley. Just answer mine.” Her tone puts me back in my
place because somehow I realize that this woman is so superior to me, that to her, I am just one of those
pebbles on the riverbed.
“He means the fight that determines who is the next Chieftain of our Tribe.”
“And, how do you intend on putting him… well, in his place?” She speaks carefully, as though the wrong
word would cause chaos.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, never mind. Let me just tell you a few things, but you must promise not to interrupt because we
do not have much time.”
“I promise.” I say this feeling as though I am being told to remain quiet by one of the elders of the Tribe.
When, in reality this woman appears no older than I.
“You are no ordinary Visigoth. Audley, you are a leader, a warrior, a mother to many people and a sister
to even more. That is who you are meant to become, not the wife of Dreng. You are meant to lead your
Tribe after your Father is no longer able too. Dreng wants to lead for purely selfish reasons, you on the
other hand are not looking to lead, but only to do what is good for your people. Your only obstacle is
Dreng. He needs to be taken care of.” She looks deep into my eyes as though I am supposed to
understand what to do just from that little bit of information she has told me.
“I am supposed to take care of Dreng?” I ask just to be certain my haunch is correct.
“Yes,” she says as she begins to stand, “It is your duty, to take care of Dreng, because he is a threat to
the lives of all your people. Now stand up, it is almost time for you to leave.” I do as she tells me, and
stand. She reaches towards my injured face with a grimace and says,
“Oh, you took a beating. I’ll take care of it for you.” With that, she runs her cool fingers over my swollen
tissues and broken bones, spreading a deep coolness through them. When the coolness fades away, I
look into the river to see my reflection. My face and nose are no longer the puffy red that I knew they
were immediately after my encounter with Dreng. I look back at the woman smiling,
“Thank you, but who are you?”
She takes a step towards me and places her hands on my shoulders,
“I am Freya, the Queen of the gods, but your time with me is up now. Until we meet again, my child.”
With a smile Freya pushes me into the river, but instead of landing in a river, I land in a lake. So, once
more I am swimming through underwater caves. After a time I notice that I am about to come up on the
surface of the lake, but just before I reach it, I am no longer in there.
***
I jerk awake and look about me, afraid that I have been put into another strange place, but instead I am
back amongst my furs in my home.
“It must have been a dream.” I think, but then as I rub my face, I realize that it doesn’t hurt anymore. I
sit up and feel my wet clothing.
“It wasn’t a dream.” I whisper aloud, to no one in particular. After a moment of just sitting, I realize how
I must take care of Dreng. I look outside, calculating the time I have until dawn, when the men will
prepare for the raid. I have two hours, which gives me plenty of time. I rise from my bed, put on dry
clothing and at a moderate pace, make my way to Dreng’s home. When I reach it, I analyze the
situation. Godric is asleep in front of the house, so I could enter through the door way, but he is a very
light sleeper. So, in the long run I wouldn’t get very far, but there is also the option of the open window
in the back. Making my way around to the back of the house is simple, but getting through the window
is different situation altogether. I almost begin to panic as I see the edge of the sunrise on the horizon,
but then I see a crate right next to the window. I pick the crate up and place it beneath the window,
mount it and then climb through the window. I drop lightly to the ground inside Dreng’s dwelling, and it
just so happens, that I land right at his monstrous feet. He is snoring so loudly, I can barely hear my own
thoughts. Carefully, I sneak towards his sword, and grasp its hilt. I pull it out of its sheath slowly, as to
not make much noise and walk quietly back to where Dreng lies still asleep. I hoist the sword above my
head, silently shout a prayer up to Freya, and come down with a momentum that makes there be almost
no resistance, as the edge of the sword meets Dreng’s neck. In a split second there is blood spilling over
onto the floor, but I can’t notice that. Dreng is done with, and now my people must learn to survive
without his aid. I will never tell what made me kill Dreng, because what was said in the Otherworld was
between Freya and me. She never said I couldn’t tell, but who would? As I stand in front of Dreng’s
home, I lift my head, hoping that Dreng’s soul can still hear me,
“You were wrong, Dreng! You do not always defeat me! For this time, I came out on top and now you
can never fight back!”
***