Maybe now they would get the answers they wanted.
Gyada was surprised to wake up again. She had felt oblivion take her, and had been sure that finally she would be allowed to die. Clearly, it had not been time for the Valkyrie to take her, nor had her captors been trying to kill her.
She kept still with her eyes closed as she tried to think through what had happened. What had they been trying to do? She spent a while thinking on what they might have wanted. Her body didn’t feel different, but something about herself did. She spent more time trying to puzzle out what it could be. Eventually, out of other ideas, she decided to attempt to take her human form as she did from time to time.
Suddenly, she could feel her bare skin against the rough, rock floor of the cave. It had worked! For the first time in what it seemed like an eternity, she had skin, fingers, feet, no fur and no claws. She breathed in a shuddering breath of relief, overcome with a sense of wonder, joy, and solace, she started sobbing uncontrollably.
It was then that Janna hurried into the room. Gyada shuffled back from the tall, imposing woman. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of her nudity, but rather a spike of fear. This young woman had assisted in taking her down in her more fearsome form. She had no doubt in this weaker form she was similarly outmatched. Janna put a bundle down in front of her cage. She said, “I thought you might like these, come now put them on,” in a calm, soothing voice. Gyada simply backed away a little further and shook her head, having no idea what Janna had said. Janna sighed, picked up the top, shook it out and pointed one finger at the top then at Gyada. Slowly the wild woman moved forward, approaching the fabric as if it was magic. Tentatively she touched it, then ran her hand down the fabric that was far softer than any she had touched before. This was fabric that might even be finer than any she had seen a noble wear.
She lightly gripped it, and Janna let it drop. Boris had wanted to come in with Janna, but Janna had refused. Quite wisely it seemed, now given how skittish this person was in her human form. Two people in the room with her may have overwhelmed her and made communication even harder. Especially since they apparently shared no common tongue as Janna had run through greetings in every language she knew.
What they had here was a person unsettled by their surroundings, scared by the unfamiliarity of everything around her. Eventually, Janna got Gyada into her clothes, although she had refused the underwear. The buttons had also been a problem, as for whatever reason, her fingers were clumsy despite being only slightly bulkier than the average woman’s. Once she had Gyada calm again after getting her dressed, Janna led her out of the cage and over to a small table. The table had a tray with a large bowl of food, water cup, and a loaf of bread.
Boris had quietly slipped in and sat down next to Janna, putting his arm around her and just looked at Gyada. Fortunately, the smells of the food had Gyada completely distracted and unconcerned when he did so.
Janna pointed out how to use a cutlery to Gyada, but Boris lightly touched a hand and shook his head. It was entirely likely, given that she was multiple centuries old, that she had never eaten with cutlery before. She ate somewhat clumsily and with haste, leaving quite a mess by the end of the meal. Her face went bright red when she saw how much food had fallen off her plate, but both Janna and Boris just smiled and shook their heads at her. After the meal had been finished, Janna led Gyada to a room that Boris had told a sergeant to relinquish.
When the sergeant had found out why, there had been no complaints.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Gyada went into a room with a raised sleeping mat, thicker than any she had experienced. With everything that had happened in the last few hours, she still felt very tired. When she lay on the mat, she found it more comfortable than she had used, including anything when she had been human before.
Soon, sleep overcame her.
The next few days were very frustrating for Boris and Janna as they sought to communicate with the woman who had been the Beast. It had taken two days to explain names and identify themselves to her. It was as if she had lost something of the concepts of being human and was slowly rediscovering them over the first week.
Their breakthrough came when they passed Shen practicing Kurtherian with TOM. She started speaking to them slowly and awkwardly in that strange language, as she was unused to speaking to anyone anymore. Eventually, they got her history from using that language.
TOM was amazed at how fluent her understanding of Kurtherian was, even if her Kurtherian speech was slow and methodical at best. Over the following weeks between TOM and Shen, they managed to teach her the basics of Russian and English.
She stubbornly refused to tell either of them of her past stating that it would be disrespectful to their leaders. When asked who she believed they were, she pointed to Boris and Janna. Everyone had smiled when they heard that.
She would be in for a bigger shock when or if she finally met Bethany Anne. She had identified the leaders of this base, so it could be said at least she hadn’t lost an understanding of human leadership roles. When she wasn’t practicing the language with TOM and Shen, Janna familiarized her with modern amenities. Although she still refused to wear a bra, complaining that they were torture devices, she did take to wearing other undergarments.
Boris busied himself continuing the setup of the defenses of the town, and the training of the men and women with weapons. They drilled in the responses they should take in an emergency. He insisted that everyone in the town should at least know how to fire a weapon, both rifle and handgun. He would not have a town under his protection be such an easy target again.
Gyada was unsettled by the fact that she could no longer hear the voice that had been her constant companion for centuries. She was now without that companion. Janna suggested that perhaps a young Were at her side would aid her. Allow her to adjust to this new and confusing world. Help her find a feeling of balance and purpose.
Moscow, Office of the Department of Settlements, Russia
“So, you called me here, Evgenni. Pulled me out just as the first buildings of my new settlement are going up. What the fuck is going on you son-of-a-bitch? We had an agreement. I could choose two places to settle my people from existing NVG bases. There was no restriction on this, yes? With how many decided to stay away we decided only one. “Boris glared at the political appointee. Evgenni was sweating heavily, despite the cool in the room they were in.
“Boris, this is not the agreement we made. The agreement was you take over any two bases that the NVG had held in Siberia and settle there. “Evgenni responded in a calm tone despite the obvious fear he held for Boris. Through the sweat and the light fidgeting, he was actually holding up extremely well. “I am sure that some sort of arrangement involving military personnel assisting in the security of…”
“Yob tvoyu mat’! Evgenni, you stupid son of a bitch. I will not risk having my people killed on political orders after what they have already been through. Do you understand pizdyonysh? The government did nothing… NOTHING… To protect my people when the NVG went after them them the first time. The military was involved in attacking them. “Evgenni’s face was steadily getting redder as Boris continued, and he opened his mouth to interrupt. Boris raised a hand to forestall any comment. “You let a proklyatyh nemeckih fashistov… German neo-Nazi… gain an incredible amount of influence and power within and without our military, and you expect me to sit here and accept you putting military forces amongst the people I protect? Nyet. I will support the government as I can, but my people have been through enough. Hell, for all I care you can deny the military’s protection if someone externally decides to target the town. “Boris sneered at the political appointee.