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It's an adult story and anyone not of legal age should stop reading now. It contains some transgender concepts but those concepts add to the story. If those concepts offend you, then stop reading now and go seek medical help for yourself. If those concepts don't offend you and you're of legal age, then I think that you're going to enjoy this story. There is one small area that some people might find disturbing but it was necessary to include that descriptive scene to help define the character's story.

Request that your comments about this story be posted on the web site with the story where the Webmaster (Sapphire/Fictionmania) provides that comment capability and a copy also sent to mellin6695@aol.com Because I get so much junk mail which I discard without reading, please put either "waldo" or "eric" in the subject line otherwise I'll never read it.

Eric

By Waldo

*******

It was warm in the Norse cabin because of the roaring fire in the huge fireplace. In the corner of the cabin, three women stood patiently around the bed watching the woman in labor. She was moaning and obviously in pain from her advanced stage of childbirth and there obviously wasn't anything that the trio of women could do to help the young almost- mother except to wait.

The oldest woman among the trio of midwifes helping the woman had a smear of blood on her ancient wrinkled face as she sat between the new mother-to-be legs and tried once again to help the new baby to emerge from the pregnant woman's body. As the baby's head began pushing to leave the mother's womb, the old woman's hands skillfully manipulated the mother's flesh and the baby to guide it into the world. This time, the baby's head finally came out far enough so that the old woman could grab it and helped ease the newborn child out into the world. With the mother giving one last scream of pain, the old woman pulled the child from within the mother's body. A moment later, her small knife had severed the umbilical cord from the baby and the sounds of a crying baby filled the cabin's walls. As one of the old women cleaned the baby, one of the other women turned to the four-year-old girl who had been patiently curiously watching the child-birthing process and waiting by the fireplace for her opportunity to help her mother.

"Girl, go tell your daddy that it has happened."

The young girl's legs sprung into action. She ran to the cabin's door and pushed the heavy door open. A gust of cold northern wind instantly whipped through the cabin instantly negating the heat coming from the roaring fire in the fireplace. Outside the cabin, there were several inches of fresh snow on the ground but there was a tramped-down path leading from the cabin to the small town surrounding the harbor. From the cabin, several Norsemen's large boats could be seen tied to the wharf where the boats were weathering the winter. It was a large village composed of about seven hundred Viking warriors and their women. The girl ran down the path toward the center of town.

She was running as fast as she could run with her short legs as she headed toward the largest cabin in the town. The noise coming from inside the cabin was loud as inside the large cabin several drunken Norsemen continued to celebrate their successful previous summer's pillaging voyages. Running into the cabin, she paused momentary as her eyes adjusted to the dim light within the large community cabin. Seeing her father sitting at the large table in the center of the cabin with his friends, she ran toward him.

As soon as he saw the young girl enter the room, the large Norseman took one last swig of grog from his huge tankard. It was obvious that he had been sitting so that he could watch the door and had seen his young daughter enter the lodge. Wiping the foam from his thick beard with his sleeve, he questioned the girl as she breathlessly stood in front of him.

"Is it a Boy, Dora?"

"I don't know, daddy. They told me to come get you."

Rising to his feet, he pulled his sixteen-inch-long knife from his scabbard and slammed the point of the knife hard into the table so that his big knife marked and reserved his spot at the table. The rough wooden table was scared with many cuts from where many men had previously embedded their knives already over the long cold winter. The knife was a signal to the other men that he would be back shortly and that they had better not touch his mug of grog or take his seat at the table.

He wasn't tall but then neither were the other men in his village. He was maybe five foot four inches tall which was average height for a man of that era. With his broad muscular shoulders and heavy body, he looked to be almost half as wide as he was tall; especially with the thick layer of warm furs covering his body. He had a thick full beard, as did all Norsemen to protect their faces from the winter cold but his beard and hair was a flaming red color which stood out among the dark and gray beards of the other Norsemen. There were some men with blonde beards but the majority of the men had dark beards.

Waving a hand at his daughter to order her to go back home, he stumbled out of the cabin as he began the short journey back to his own cabin and new child. The freezing cold air outside the cabin sent a shiver down his back as he plodded along the path. Although he was drunk, he noticed how his daughter was running in front of him and was obviously excited over the arrival of the new baby. But then his daughter was a girl and didn't have much to look forward to in her future life except children. Too soon, some young boy in the village would claim his only daughter as the boy's future wife and then his daughter would do the only thing that a woman was good for; which was to spread her legs and to bring a bedtime joy to a Viking warrior. Looking up at the cloudy sky, he mumbled a silent prayer to several of his Norse Gods that his new child was a boy.

Arriving at the cabin, he barged in. Two of the midwifes were sitting in the chairs around the fireplace while the third midwife attended to his wife. One of the sitting women was holding the baby in a blanket. Going straight to the old woman holding his newest child, he asked the question foremost on his mind.

"Is it a boy?"

The old woman had been expecting his question. She knew that he wouldn't be interested in his wife's health yet because this man was like all the other men in their village. A boy child was heavily prized because a boy represented a future Viking warrior to someday man the boats in raids on other villages while a girl was just another mouth at the table to feed.

Nodding her head, she gave the answer that he wanted to hear.

"It's a healthy baby boy."

She couldn't see his mouth because of the thick beard but from the sudden twinkle in his eyes, she knew that he had a big smile underneath the thick beard. Rushing to the woman, he ordered "Let me see my son."

Handing him the child wrapped in the blanket, she watched him as he held the small baby in his arms and stared at his new son's face for the first time. For several long seconds, the new father examined his new child's face, then he pulled the blanket back exposing the baby's body so that he could personally verify for himself that he finally had the son that he needed to continue his role as Chief. After seeing the small appendage between the baby's legs which clearly proved that his wife had finally given him a son, he covered the baby's body up with the blanket and walked out of the cabin carrying his child. He had to go introduce his new son to his friends and cronies.

Holding the blanket-wrapped baby tightly in his arms to keep it warm, he rushed back to the community cabin. As he came into the cabin, his friends saw him returning and the loud noise where they were laughing eased into silence. Going to the usual spot at the table where he always sat and where his knife still marked his place, he unwrapped the blanket once more. Grabbing his new baby firmly by the leg, he lifted the child out of the blanket letting the blanket fall to the dirt floor. Holding the upside-down baby high by the one leg, he ignored the baby's cry as he introduced his new son to his friends and let them see for themselves that it was indeed a boy.

"This is my new son. I shall call him Eric after myself. Some day, the new Eric the Red will make this village famous and proud of his raiding accomplishments."

******

By the time that the young Eric the Red was three years old, everyone in the village knew the young boy and his best friend, Olaf. Between the two of them, they were constantly in trouble as they played together and freely roamed the town. Olaf was two weeks older than Eric but the young red-headed boy was obviously the leader of the two young boys.

That year when the senior Eric the Red returned from his summer voyages for the winter, the father had one more small voyage to make before the winter snows stopped all voyages. Taking his young son to the wharf, the father boarded a small two-man skiff and set sail once again.

For two days they sailed along the coastline as the father headed to a small town north of their village. Arriving at their destination, the father took his son to the Witch's cabin. Holding the potion in the small bag to protect him and his son from the Witch's evil magic, he threw a small piece of gold onto the floor at her feet as he demanded that she use her power to see into the future.

"Old woman, what is my son's fate?"

The old woman took a kettle from the fireplace and poured some hot water into a large mug. Then she dumped some powder into it and told the boy to stick his finger into the hot water. After the boy was goaded by his father to comply, the old woman studied the way that some of the powder still floated on top while the majority sunk to the bottom of the mug. Peering into the water to use it to aid her "vision", she began telling the boy's future.

"You have a very unusual child. His fortune isn't similar to the other children's fortune that I have foretold so far. I see symbols of pain but only for a few years. I see symbols of a long voyage. I see clouds within the water; clouds which signify troubled times which could be the pain but then I see the clouds parting which indicates a period of peace after war. Yes, the clouds eventually part and then the future looks brighter. I see symbols of your child bringing prosperity to the village. I see unification. Your village and other villages shall join together to be led into a bright future. I see symbols of leadership. Clearly your child is destined to be a great leader some day."

"Anything else that you can see, Old Woman?"

She stared into the water for several long silent seconds then looked up at the father with a puzzled look on her face.

"The future isn't always easy to see or to correctly predict. I see a woman in your son's future but I can't tell what her involvement is. I can sense that without the woman that your son has no future. I'm not sure what that means except that someday his path is closely intertwined with the path of a woman. As long as they are both on the same path, then he will become a great leader. But without her, he won't live."

"Who is she? When will he meet her? How will he know which woman?"

Shaking her head as she poured the mug of hot water onto the floor, she signaled that the séance was over.

"The future will occur or will not occur. It is up to your son to know and to decide about which woman his path will eventually cross. When it is time, your son will either make the correct decision or will die. That is how you will know which woman's future is mixed with his future. If you son lives, then he made the right decision."

Drawing his knife, he grimaced as he threatened the old woman.

"I came here for you to tell my son's fortune. You have told me nothing."

"I have told you everything but you have listened to nothing. I can't tell you specifics because I can't see specifics. I can only see generalities. If the woman was in this same room and I told her future to her, then I could tell if that specific woman's future intersected with your son's future. It is up to your son to find that woman."

Sticking his knife back into the scabbard, the man snapped at his son "come on boy, we're going home."

As soon as they were out of the Old Woman's cabin, the man mumbled more to himself than to his son.

"Fool old woman. It was a waste of time to come here. No woman will ever influence my son's destiny. He will make his own fate."

*******

"Eric, young Eric is only five years old. He's too young to learn the ways of the warrior. Why can't he go play with Olaf? Why must he practice with that small wooden sword that you made for him?"

"Because young Eric is a Viking, Mother. He needs to know how to use a sword so that it feels natural to him. Sooner or later, he's going to need the skills that I am teaching him. Believe me when I say that someday his skill with a sword is going to save his life. My son is going to be the best swordsman in this village. I'm determined that someday my child shall be the best warrior that this village has ever seen."

*******

By the spring of young Eric the Red's ninth birthday, he was a young version of his father. However instead of being fat and broad like his father, young Eric was slender because of his very active childhood.

Because of his father's almost constant training young Eric in how to defend himself, young Eric was also very good in using a sword.

That spring, the senior Eric made his son the same offer that all father's made their sons at that age.

"My boy, in a few weeks as the ice in the harbor starts melting, I'll set sail once again. This summer, I'm taking you and Olaf on my boat so that you can learn how to be a sailor and warrior. Next summer, you and Olaf shall sail with Olaf's father on his boat to give you experience with working for other crews. The following summer, you shall be eleven years old and old enough to become a full sailor on my boat. It's time that you learn how to protect yourself in a fight because beginning this summer, you're going to learn how to be a warrior. And someday when you are much older and I'm an old man, my boat shall become your boat.

Someday you shall take my place at the helm of my best ship."

******

That winter, both families were proud of their ten-year-old sons. Both boys had been involved in a few skirmishes as part of the raiding pirates.

Young Olaf had a three-inch scar on his leg from a knife wound from one of the battles that the boys had actively participated in while raiding the southern countryside. The wound would have been worse except that Eric had bravely leaped onto Olaf's attacker's back and slit the man's throat with his knife. Both boys had proved that they were fearless and were capable of taking care of themselves.

That winter, both proud fathers let their sons join them at the community cabin for some grog. After all, they were now young Viking warriors who could die any summer in battle and they deserved the honor of drinking with their fellow Viking warriors.

Coming out of the community cabin one cold winter day, young Eric saw his older sister carrying the filled buckets of water back to their cabin.

Because Dora was a young single woman, she wasn't permitted in the community hall to drink and party as were the young Eric and Olaf.

While women were permitted in the hall with their man, single women were permitted only if they were willing to sleep with any man who wanted her. Thus in the small village, there were two classes of single women. Virtuous young women like Dora who was still looking for a husband or slutty women who had a different husband every night.

Seeing Dora carry the heavy buckets of water back to their cabin, young Eric was very glad that he had been born a boy. He had a future as a Viking warrior while his sister had to be content with only being a girl.

Because she was fourteen years old, Eric knew that his father expected her to quickly find a husband and to move out so that there would be one less mouth at his table to feed. If she didn't voluntary find a husband this winter, the father would force her to marry someone the next winter. As a Viking wife, Dora could expect to spend the winters with her husband coming home drunk almost every day from the community cabin and being horny. Then she could expect her future husband to sail away every spring and to return in the fall. While her husband was gone for the summer raids, it would be her job to maintain their home and garden. When her husband returned from the raids, she would be expected to spread her legs nightly for him and to quickly bear him as many sons as her body could produce. Once she bore the children, the woman's life revolved around raising the children while the men were either raiding or drinking to celebrate their raids.

While Eric was only ten years old, he already knew which girl in the village that he would take for his wife someday. The girl that he had picked for himself was now only seven years old but by the time that he was ready for a wife at age sixteen, she would be thirteen and also ready for a husband. Granted he might return with a captured young wench from some raided village and might have two wives but that was acceptable as long as his strong arm and sword could defend his wives.

Being a Viking was a hard life. Being a Viking's wife was just as hard if not harder. Eric was glad that he had been born a boy instead of a girl.

******

That spring young Eric and Olaf boarded Olaf's father's main boat for their summer voyages. While each boat in the small fleet was large enough to carry the thirty-man crew and pirated loot for several weeks at sea, the boats seemed tiny to the two almost-eleven-year-old boys who liked the freedom of being on land. While the senior Eric sometimes joined Olaf's father in mutually raiding some of the larger villages, both ship masters liked sailing alone. That way, they didn't have to bother about sharing any loot or victory stories.

After three weeks of sailing, Olaf's father was off the coast where he planned to start his summer raids. Their usual plan was to land near a village and to attack quickly, escaping before an alarm could be spread.

During the early attacks in the season, they typically pillaged only. Later in the raiding season when they were doing their last attacks prior to returning home, the Vikings were permitted to capture a few women and boy children. Returning with a hold full of loot and a few golden-haired women was a good year for any Viking warrior.

As they approached the coast where Olaf's father knew a large village existed, a sudden storm caught them off guard. For two long days and nights, the small boat was tossed by huge waves and strong wind gusts.

With the storm clouds blocking the view of the stars and no sight of land, they were lost and didn't know exactly where they were. Thus it wasn't a surprise when in the middle of the night, the boat crashed into some rocks because the waves had caused them to drift too close to shore.

As the boat quickly broke up on the rocks, young Eric and Olaf found themselves adrift holding onto a large jagged piece of timber from the sunken boat. Two hours later the waves washed them onto the shore.

Starved, bruised from the tossing of the sea and cold from the frigid water, both boys eagerly abandoned the beach and moved in-land to try to find dry shelter where they could get warm again. They knew that when the storm finally ended that the locals would see signs of their destroyed boat and would start searching the countryside for them. As Vikings, they knew that their enemies wouldn't aid them and would probably kill them if found. After all, the only reason that they were in that foreign area anyway was because they were there to raid and pillage the village so they couldn't expect any pity from the locals.

Finding a sheltered overhang underneath a cliff, the two tired boys huddled together to share their warmth and they quickly fell asleep because of their exhaustion. They were still sleeping soundly the next morning when the soldiers found them under the overhang. Jarred out of their sleep by the soldiers grabbing their arms and jerking them to their feet, the two boys were quickly disarmed of their knives and their hands were tied. Although they were captured, they knew that they were lucky because the soldiers hadn't killed them yet. The only thing that had saved them so far had been their obvious youth and the soldiers were interested in learning everything that they could learn from their youthful and now harmless prisoners.

An hour later, the tied boys were dragged into a cabin and thrown on the floor in front of the local leader. After ten minutes of questioning, the leader decided that the boys weren't going to willingly tell him anything so he decided to see if he could force one of them to talk. Looking at both boys for a second to see which boy he thought might be more willing to talk, he decided that Olaf was the one that he could intimidate the easiest after he demonstrated to that young boy that he meant business.

Pointing at Eric because Eric appeared to have the strongest will of the two boys, the leader gave instructions to his men.

"Strip the pretty red-haired boy naked and tie him to the table."

With Eric's arms and legs tied so that he was bent over the table spread- eagled with his naked youthful butt vulnerable, both boys were helpless to prevent the leader from stealing Eric's virginity. While Eric couldn't do anything to stop it, nor to stop the tears that were trickling down his face, he didn't give the leader any additional satisfaction by yelling or screaming. Instead, Eric grimaced and silently promised himself that once his hands were free, that he would kill the son-of-a-bitch that was dishonoring him.

When the now-happy leader was finished servicing himself, he started asking his questions again. Eric was still tied to the table and the fully clothed Olaf was kneeling with two large guards surrounding him.

"Where are you from? How many of you are there? Where did your boat sink?"

Again both boys didn't answer his question. Every time that the leader asked a question, Eric looked at Olaf and mildly shook his head signaling to Olaf that they would survive any punishment that the local leader could give them. When the leader noticed that Eric was signaling to Olaf to not cooperate, the man decided that the boys needed some more convincing that they should be cooperative. Pointing at Eric again, the man ordered his guards to "untie that boy and spread him on top of the table."

A few seconds later, Eric was lying on his back on the table and the guards were tying his arms and legs to the table so that he couldn't resist them. When Eric was totally restrained so that he couldn't even lift his hips from the table because of the ropes, the leader stood over him holding a sharp knife as he threatened Eric again.

"Boy, you don't understand that I intend to learn everything that you know. And I'm not going to play games with you. I'm going to ask you one more time and you had better answer my questions. Otherwise…."

He rubbed the cold dull edge of the knife against Eric's belly, moving the knife around Eric's groin to signify what he planned to do if the boys didn't cooperate this time.

"How many of you are there? Answer me quickly, boy."

As the gloating leader leaned over Eric's face to get the answers, Eric responded by spitting in his face and yelling "Olaf, don't talk, no matter what the bastard does to me."

Angered by Eric's continued defiance, the leader turned his knife over so that it wasn't the dull edge of the knife rubbing against Eric's testicles any more.

*******

He knew that he hurt. He knew that he felt very confused, dazed and pained. But that was all that Eric knew.

The pain in his head and the strange burning sensation in his groin was too painful to allow him to think logically. He knew that he had felt some excruciating pain that caused him to pass out but he couldn't remember what caused the pain nor where he was at. As he started shaking his head to try to start his brain working again, the simple motion caused the pain in his groin to become even more intense again. Groaning loudly, he attracted the attention of Olaf who was nearby.

"Shhh, Eric. I had to tell them what they wanted to know. They were going to carve you up some more. When I told them about the boat wreck, they hauled us out to this barn while they went looking to see if I had told them the truth. They left two men to guard us but I think that we can slip away if you can walk. Can you walk if I help you?"

It began coming back to Eric. The shame, the misery, the agony of the rape and the gloating face of the man who had raped him. He was able to remember that but he still couldn't remember why his groin was hurting so much. Lifting his head, he discovered that he felt very weak and that the slightest movement caused every part of his body to hurt. Looking at his naked dirty chest, he saw a small pile of bloody rags resting on his groin. Something about the blood and the positioning of the rags caused some vague memories to be recalled. He remembered the man's face. He remembered spitting in the man's face. He remembered the feel of the cold knife blade pressing against his groin. He remembered….

The shock of the memory caused Eric's body to tense. That movement caused another wave of strong pain to whirl through Eric's body.

Groaning loudly, he reached toward the pile of bloody rags on his groin.

Olaf's hand grabbed Eric's hand and stopped it.

"You don't want to look. He cut it off. He cut everything off."

A new memory filled Eric's mind. He remembered screaming as loud as he could scream when the man grabbed his peepee and balls with one hand and used his other hand to slice them off. He remembered the man holding the bloody pieces of his body up to show Eric the damage and that's when Eric passed out.

Now that he knew why he was hurting, he had to see for himself. He had to see how much damage had been done to his body.

With one push, he knocked the bloody rags from his groin and stared at his very different looking groin. Olaf's voice confirmed what he was seeing.

"He cut your dick and balls completely off. Blood was squirting everywhere and I thought that you were going to bleed to death. So I started telling him what he wanted to know. When he saw that I was cooperating in return for your safety, he had one of the men bring in a hot piece of metal to cauterize the wound so that you wouldn't continue to squirt blood everywhere. He wants you to stay alive until he gets back from where I've sent them. When he comes back from where I told him to go, if I told the truth, he might let us live. If I lied, then he's going to carve your body up some more."

Olaf was right about the damage to the boy's body. Eric's groin was now flat. There was a nasty burn in the area where his dick and balls used to be. The burn would soon heal but Eric had lost his manhood forever.

Without his cock and balls, he would never be a man. He could never father any children nor could he ever be able to fuck a woman.

"Look Eric, we've got to try to get out of here. The two remaining guards think that you're hurt too bad to travel and that I won't leave you. We've got to get out of here before they come back. I've stolen some food and I'm ready to get out of here."

"Where are my clothes?"

Olaf helped Eric to get dressed although it was obvious from the frequent tears streaming down Eric's dirty face and the painful jerks that the boy could barely survive the pain. When Eric was dressed, Olaf helped Eric stand. With Eric's arm around Olaf's shoulder, they started to walk out of the barn. After only two steps, Eric's sweaty face and painful expression showed Olaf that his young friend was hurting too badly to walk yet. Recognizing that Eric couldn't walk, Olaf leaned forward to ease Eric into the piggy-back position that they used when they were kids playing. Although that carrying position was also painful for Eric, it enabled Olaf to carry his friend so that they could try to escape.

Less than ten minutes after they escaped the barn, Olaf knew that he couldn't go much further with Eric on his back. Already the young boy was getting tired from being bent over with the extra weight on his back.

After another ten minutes, Eric pointed at a nearby blackberry thicket and groaned "I can't go too much further. Let's hide in there for a few hours. They won't look so near the barn because they know that we have to put as much distance between us and them."

Easing into big thicket, Olaf found a place next to a big log where they could rest and hide. As he eased Eric onto the ground, Olaf noticed that there was signs of fresh blood on Eric's clothes around his groin. As soon as Eric was flat on his back, Eric began describing their options.

"I can't go any further until my body's healed more. You're going to have to abandon me and try to escape without me."

"No, I won't go without you. You need me to look after you."

"Shut up, Olaf and listen to me. I'm hurt too much so I don't think that I will be able to travel for at least another week. If you stay with me then we will both be caught. If you leave now and get a couple of hours away from here before letting someone see you, they will look for us in the general area where they saw you. My only chance is if you make them think that we're further away from the barn so that I can hide here. You must leave me here because I will slow you down. You must make them think that we're someplace else so they won't search here. Because of my injury, we both stand a better chance of returning home if we separate now."

After a few minutes of futile argument, even the very scared Olaf had to agree that Eric was right. The injured boy would slow them down too much if they tried to escape together. If the enemy thought that they were elsewhere, they wouldn't search so close to the barn giving Eric time to heal. So Olaf gave Eric all of the food that he had stolen and showed his friend where the nearest water was so that he could drink. As Olaf reluctantly started to leave, Eric gave his friend one last piece of advice.

"When you get an hour away from here, make sure that someone sees you so that the word gets out that we're in that neighborhood. Then run as fast as you can to get as far away as you can. Make your way to Point Lookout and wait for one of our returning boats. When you see my father, tell him that I'm all right and that I'll be home as soon as I can get there. Don't tell him what they did to me. I don't want anyone to know yet. Not even my parents."

******

With Olaf gone, it gave Eric the opportunity to do something that he couldn't do as long as his friend was there. Eric cried.

Although he was almost eleven years old, he was still a boy who didn't understand why the man had castrated him and couldn't tolerate the pain. So he cried.

******

For the rest of the day, Eric stayed in the thicket and hid. A couple of times he could hear people close by who were obviously searching for any of the wrecked sailors. The day passed slowly as every movement, every breath caused Eric to feel the pain from his wound. He would frequently move and cause the wound to start bleeding again.

When daybreak came, he was still bleeding and knew that he had to get help or he was going to bleed to death. Reluctantly he came out of the thicket and began walking slowly, knowing that he didn't know where to go. The only place that he knew not to go was back in the direction of the barn because they would surely kill him if they found him again. So he walked and wandered not knowing where he was going.

In addition to the pain, he was feeling feverish and weak from the loss of blood. So he was staggering and sometimes walking in circles. Somehow he found his way to a road. Still not knowing which way to go, he started walking in the opposite direction away from where he had been mutilated. After about two hours of walking down the road he began to realize that he might have made a mistake. His current direction appeared to be taking him away from where he knew that village that they were going to raid existed.

Too weak to go much further, he laid down on the road and waited. He couldn't go much further.

That's when he heard the sound of the approaching cart. It was coming from the same direction that he had just left. With his strength almost gone, he was barely able to whimper when he saw the cart coming around the bend. When he saw that it was driven by a woman, he smiled. A woman would recognize that he was nothing more than a hurt boy and would be more likely to take care of him. When he saw her stop her cart and jump off, he raised his head to try to smile a brave smile at her but he couldn't. He didn't have the strength left to do anything more strenuous than simply groan. Then he passed out.

******

Hilda glanced back at her strange cargo in her cart. On top of her few possessions was the unconscious small boy that she had found lying in the road. She had rolled him over and almost screamed when she saw that the clothes on his lower body was soaked with his blood. Pulling down his trousers to find the source of his wound, she cringed with disgust and pain when she discovered the severity of his damage. She spent a few minutes using his bloodied clothes to wrap the wound better to try to stop the bleeding again then had placed him on her cart. Once he was situated so that he wasn't moving, she began pushing her old mule to walk faster. She had to get the boy to someone who could help him. She knew that there was an Old Gypsy Woman about a hour further down the road.

******

"Can you help him, old woman?"

"Maybe. He's lost a lot of blood. I can stop the bleeding but if it gets infected, he's going to die. Who is he? Is he your son?"

"I don't know who he is. I found him on the road. I think that he's a Viking. I heard that a ship wrecked during the storm a couple of nights ago and that a few of them washed ashore."

"Viking? Then they will be looking for him. That explains why they cut his cock off. We should let him die. He can never be a man now. Without his balls, he's not going to grow much either. Because he was so young when he lost them, his body is always going to be more like a slender woman's body than a man's muscular body."

Hilda's firm voice showed that wasn't a option.

"No! He might be a Viking but he's only a boy. He's about the same age as my daughter was when she died from the plague two years ago. I refuse to let him die."

"Very well. I'll do what I can to stop the bleeding. I might have to cauterize that wound again to get it to seal correctly and to stop the bleeding."

******

After two long days of intense fever, Eric's condition began to improve.

The Old Woman's combinations of exotic herbs and frequent cleaning of Eric's wound combined with Hilda's intense mothering had resulted in the wound beginning to heal. Although Eric's mental state had been one of almost constant confused delirium, the young boy had sensed that the woman was taking care of him and he had put his life into her hands. As a result of that bonding between them, when Eric's fever began to wane and he was able to think more lucidly, he felt a strong sensation of respect toward the woman. The woman's healing hands, reassuring voice, and constant doctoring of Eric had resulted in the boy's mental state changing dramatically.

For the last several years of his young life, Eric had been constantly pushed by his father to "be a man" and to give up his childhood to become a young warrior. Hilda's soft hands cooling Eric's fevered brow and her soft words encouraging him to "forget about the pain" resulted in Eric mentally retreating a few years to when he used to hang onto his mother's long skirt. Hilda frequently laid in the bed beside Eric and held him in her arms, smothering his face against her warm bosom and telling him "that everything is going to be all right".

By the fourth day of Eric's bed rest in the Old Woman's cabin, Eric's wound had healed enough so that his constant fever had dropped and he was able to move slightly without causing the wound to start bleeding again. He was still hurting and his only relief was when Hilda would lay in bed beside him and hold him in her arms as she talked to him about all the wonderful things that they would do together once his body had healed.

The combination of events had resulted in Eric's tough boy personality fading and being replaced by a softer more child-like personality as Eric began to think of Hilda as being the loving mother that he always wanted.

*******

On the morning of the sixth day at the Old Woman's cabin, the Old Woman came back from the nearby village and told Hilda to come outside with her so that they could talk without Eric hearing them.

"They found two Viking men hiding about five miles from here yesterday and hanged them. It's got the whole village in an uproar again. They're looking for more of the wrecked men so that they can get revenge against them for the frequent raids by the Norsemen over the many years.

Everyone is aware that two boys were found and that one of them was castrated before they escaped. Everyone for miles around is looking for any Viking and they are going to hang anyone that they find, even the boys. Sooner or later, they are going to come here and find him. I want you to leave with him. I don't want them burning down my cabin because I felt sorry for the boy and took care of him. You have to leave today."

"But where will we go? I can't go back to my old village because my former man will beat me again. I had left him so that I could seek a new life somewhere else. And what will I do about Eric? I won't turn him over to them. How can I travel with him when they are looking for a Viking boy?"

The Old Woman's scrawny crooked finger pointed at Hilda's cart containing her few possessions.

"I saw when you opened your trunk that you've got a child's clothes packed in your trunk. Throw away the boy's bloodied clothes which identifies him a Viking and dress in your child's clothes. Have him pretend to be your child."

"But those clothes belonged to my dead daughter. He can't….."

Hilda's pause showed that she realized what the Old Woman was suggesting. For five seconds, the two women looked at each other as they mutually thought the same general thoughts. When Hilda began speaking again, the frown on her face was replaced by a mild smile as if she was beginning to enjoy what she was proposing. She changed her mind as she realized what the old witch was suggesting.

"……the clothes would disguise him. They are looking for a Viking boy not a Mother traveling with her daughter. He's the same size that my daughter was when she died from the plague so the clothes would fit him. He could wear a scarf on his head to hide the fact that his hair is shorter than a girl's normal hair length. I could hide him in plain sight."

"Aye. There's a large village about two days from here that is further in- land so they don't get raided by the Vikings as much as the sea-side towns get raided so they won't be looking as diligently as the people around here. You could go there, start a new home and in a few weeks the townspeople will forget about the wrecked Vikings and then you can help the boy to escape. By then, he'll be totally healed and ready to return home."

******

"Eric, we have to leave. They are searching for you. If they find you, they will kill you. I want you to put this on."

"But that's a girl's dress. I won't do it. Give me my knife and I'll…."

Hilda laid on the bed and quickly pulled Eric's head to her bosom.

Talking to him in her best "everything will be all right" voice, she began soothing his anger.

"I won't let them kill you but you have to help me. There are too many of them for you to fight and you must run away with me. Together, we can…."

It took ten minutes of coaxing and pleading before Eric relented. After all, Hilda had taken care of him so far and he trusted her plus the pain that he was experiencing was so severe that he didn't want to argue with her.

So he let her throw his old clothes into the fireplace and to help him put on the girl's dress and boots that Hilda had dug out of her trunk. Then she tied one of her scarf's around his head to hide his short hair and to soften his appearance. Pulling a few strands of Eric's red hair down over his forehead to create some bangs, Hilda handed Eric her knitting needles and ball of yarn to hold to add to Eric's disguise. With Hilda's assistance, Eric climbed onto the cart seat beside Hilda. A few moments later, Hilda guided her mule away from the Old Woman's cabin.

They had been on the road about twenty minutes when they encountered the first group of local villagers searching for any Norsemen. The villagers were armed with a mixture of pitchforks and axes. One of them grabbed the reins of the mule to stop it while another one asked "Have you seen any strangers, woman?"

While Hilda answered their questions, Eric glanced at the villagers and tried to keep his fear from showing. He recognized one of the villagers who had been in the barn when they castrated him but the man had made one quick look at him then obviously ignored the "little girl" sitting on the seat beside the woman. After Hilda answered the questions that the man was asking, they turned loose of the mule's reins allowing Hilda to drive away from them.

A couple of hundred feet down the road, Hilda said "Your disguise is working. They saw you but didn't see you. I think that if you had been wearing a boy's clothing that they would have looked at you much closer."

"You're right. I knew one of them and he looked right at me without seeing me."

******

By the time that they arrived in the far-away village two days later, Eric was feeling more comfortable with his disguise. They had been stopped five times and each time been turned loose because the villagers were looking for Viking men, not a mother and daughter. As they entered the new village where Hilda intended to try to find an unused cabin to call home, Eric was looking forward to being able to get off of the cart seat and to rest in a normal bed again for a few days; then he was going to try to escape. As they came into the village, Hilda defined the rules for Eric.

"You'll need a more appropriate name. I'll call you Erica from now on to help you get used to the new name. You'll wear the scarf to hide your short hair constantly until I've locked the cabin door for the night. There will be other children but you can't play with the boys the way that you normally play with them. You will have to play with the girls so that no one suspects your true identity. And Erica….."

There was a painful look on Hilda's face as she began to discuss the subject that she had to make sure that Eric understood.

"……if anyone discovers that you're not really a girl, then they will quickly discover why you're impersonating a girl. If they capture you again, they will surely kill you. If they capture you, then they will probably kill me too for sheltering you and not turning you over to them.

My life is in your hands. You have to pretend to be a girl and to be my daughter for your safety and for my safety. Do you understand?"

The thought of this kindly woman potentially being killed simply because she had helped him scared Eric. Slowly shaking his head to acknowledge that he understood the danger that they were both in, he also reaffirmed that he would do his part.

"Yes, 'Mother', I promise to be your dutiful daughter. Just don't ask me to wash the dishes."

******

It was a large village of about twelve hundred people. Hilda had her choice of about twenty abandoned cabins. Picking one that was a little further from the center of town so that the nearest other cabins weren't too close, she began the task of emptying her cart while the exhausted 'Erica' rested on the old feather tick mattress in the cabin. Although the new daughter wanted to help, it was obvious that the combination of the recent injury and journey had drained all of the child's energy so Erica was instructed to rest.

By sunset, Hilda had been able to unload her few possessions, to clean the interior of the cabin and had also met a couple of the neighbors who had invited the newcomers to share the evening meal with them. Politely turning the neighbor's generous offers of friendship, Hilda pleaded tiredness although the real reason was that she knew that Erica wasn't ready for close scrutiny by anyone. While the lad's disguise was good enough to be accepted by the guards at the village checkpoint, the child's still somewhat androgynous appearance combined with the boyish personality and mannerisms would create suspicions in the neighbors after a few hours of mixed family environment. Now that Hilda had time and the privacy of the cabin's walls, she wanted to improve her new daughter's disguise.

The last several days of caring for the injured boy had restored strong motherly feelings that Hilda had thought had been destroyed after her real daughter had died of sickness two years earlier. After caring for the lad's wounds in an intensely intimate situation for the last several days and then constantly seeing the boy wearing the deceased daughter's clothes for the last two days as they traveled, Hilda knew that she had been given one more chance to be the mother of a daughter.

Although Hilda had initially thought that she would take care of the boy only until his wounds had healed enough for him to travel and that then they would go their separate paths, the strong sensation of motherhood had caused her to change her plans. Yes, the boy might think that he was only going to only spend a few more days with her then to slip away to journey to that faraway remote pickup point that the Vikings had established for picking up lost warriors. But as Hilda had seen the exhausted child still wearing her deceased daughter's dress and scarf sleeping on the bed while she cleaned the cabin's interior, Hilda knew she couldn't let the boy leave. With Eric gone forever, her own life would be empty once again; devoid of the cheerfulness and companionship of a child that needed mothering.

As the realization that she couldn't let Eric eventually leave when the wounds had healed began constantly filling Hilda's thoughts, her plans began changing. Although the strong motherly feelings that she was experiencing didn't care if she had a boy or girl as her child, she strongly wanted to have another chance to raise a daughter. She missed her deceased daughter and seeing Eric dressed in her real daughter's clothes for the last two days had caused her to think of many reasons why Eric should become Erica forever.

Back at the Old Woman's cabin, Hilda had many discussions with the wise Old Woman about Eric's future. Because castration of enemies was a standard humiliating practice so that the victor could permanently steal the loser's manhood, the Old Woman knew a lot about what Eric could expect to experience.

The knowledgeable Old Woman had declared that because Eric was so young when he was castrated that his youthful body hadn't started growing into a man's body yet and that Eric's future adult body definitely wouldn't look like a grown man's body. Without the balls to give Eric's growing body the manhood, Eric's body would remain slim and delicate as he aged. His shoulders wouldn't be as wide. His muscles wouldn't be as naturally thick. His voice wouldn't change into a deep baritone when he turned thirteen. His beard would never grow because his facial beard growth would never change. Without the balls changing his body, Eric's skin and complexion would remain soft after puberty thus retaining his boyish pretty facial appearance. Without the balls to inject manhood into Eric's growing body, there was a strong chance that his future non- muscular chest could slightly change to have small feminine fatty protrusions that looked similar to a real woman's small breasts; nothing as big as a half-apple but something that looked like a small flat stack of pancakes underneath his skin. Because the boy's cock had also been cut off, the boy would never be able to pee again while standing upright but would have to squat like a woman for the rest of his life. The boy would never be able to have normal sex with a woman because he didn't have a cock. The boy could expect normal men to ridicule him and to treat him more like a woman than a man simply because he didn't have a cock anymore. When there was work to be done or battles to be fought, the boy could expect other men to leave him behind with the women because he didn't have a big muscular body like the other men. While the other men wouldn't treat him like a normal man because of the obvious difference in his future body from the other men's bodies, they also wouldn't treat him as a woman either because he didn't have a pussy or tits. Yet, there would be a lot of men who would treat him like a woman just because of his soft appearance. So the boy was going to have a future where men shunned him because he didn't look like one of them and women would avoid him because he wasn't one of them either.

Recognizing that if Eric returned home, that his life wouldn't be what he expected it to be as soon as his villagers found out about his injuries, Hilda knew that she had to do what she could to convince the boy to stay with her and to permanently live as a woman. It was to Eric's advantage to forever be Erica and it was to ease Hilda's strong desire that she had a daughter to raise.

So as the lad soundly slept on the bed in the corner of the room, Hilda sat in a chair in front of the fireplace and thought about various ways to convince the young boy to totally abandon his plans to return home and to also convince him to give up his real identity.

******

Hilda was cooking the morning breakfast in the fireplace when Eric awakened after a long night of solid sleeping. Smiling at the lad, she began mixing lies with the truth to get the boy to thinking the way that she wanted him to start thinking.

"Good morning, sleepyhead. You slept soundly. I had to check you a few times to make sure that you were still alive."

"It felt good to lie down on a real bed again, Hilda. I dreamed about…."

"Shhh, remember your promise to me. You were only going to call me 'Mother' just as I am only going to call you 'Erica'. We have roles that we have to constantly play so that no one discovers your secrets. Speaking of which, while you were asleep I talked to some of the neighbors. They found a Viking somewhere nearby yesterday and hanged him. Looks like they are going to be on the lookout for you and your friends for several more weeks. It's a good thing for you that we've got a disguise for you that will keep you safe. The villagers know that Vikings frequently travel with young boys to give them raiding experience but they also know that the Vikings never travel with young Viking girls so they won't be looking at unknown young girls the same way that they are currently looking at young unknown boys. So you are going to have to pretend to be my daughter for a few more weeks. That will be good for you because it will give your body plenty of time to heal and to give you time to get your strength back. Besides it will be fun for you. You can look at them searching for you and you'll be standing right beside me knowing that they aren't seeing you because of your disguise. When you eventually return home this fall, you'll have so many tales to tell your friends about how you outwitted these villagers for weeks."

"Uhhhh, weeks? I don't think that I can……"

"Sure you can. As a young girl, you'll be able to blend in with the other villagers and to learn all about us. When you eventually return home after living here with me for a few more weeks, you'll know so much about our villages and security that you'll become an invaluable guide for future raids. The reason that you Vikings only raid seaside villages is because you don't know the local in-country roads and how to find the in-land villages that are never raided. Just think, on a future raid, you can show your men where to hide the boat then lead them in-land for a day's walk and then where to find riches that have never raided before by other Vikings. Then you will also have to know the countryside so that you know how to lead your men back to the boat so that you can get around any checkpoints that the villagers set up. The knowledge that you gain while you live here with me pretending to be my daughter will someday make you the most famous Viking warrior ever. Someday the Viking warriors of your village will sit at their tables and brag about how the famous warrior Eric The Red lived for awhile as Erica The Redhead and learned all of our secrets. You'll be famous because you dared to do what no other boy would do. You used your pain and injury to better yourself. Yes, you can do it. And I will help you as long as you make sure that I am protected from any dangers from your future raids. How do you like your eggs, Erica?"

"Uhhhhh, well done……Mother."

The smile on Hilda's face showed that she was happy that Erica was reacting the way that she expected. The young boy now had a couple of very important reasons that he accepted as to why he should pretend to be a girl and why he shouldn't immediately leave when his body healed so that he could travel again.

******

After breakfast, 'Mother' began the next stage of her plan to improve 'Erica's' appearance.

"Erica, you have a beautiful thick mane of red hair. I wish that my dark hair was that wonderful color. But your hair is too short to pass for a girl's hair because it's cut too short. Why, it barely covers your ears and almost reaches to your shoulders. We've got to do something so that you don't have to wear a scarf all the time to hide your short boy's haircut.

Sit down on this stool and I'm going to use this heated stick to put some curls into your hair to make it look fuller and more feminine. Then…"

"NO! I refuse to let you destroy my hair. No Viking Warrior would…"

"But you're not a Viking Warrior yet. If you were, you would be hanging from a rope tied to that tree on the other side of town. You're a boy and we're trying to make sure that you grow up to be the person that you want to be. The only thing that I'm going to do is to put some curls into your hair so that you don't have to constantly wear that scarf. The curls will give you a more feminine appearance so that your short haircut doesn't look so much out of place. You can always wash the curls out of your hair by sticking your head under water and brushing your hair straight again. Now which do you want to do? Constantly wear the scarf as long as you live with me or let me fix your hair so that you fool everyone? Quickly, I don't have all day, Erica."

The scared look in his eyes showed that her answer was having the desired effect. He would cooperate with her because he trusted her and also because he didn't have any choices.

"You're sure it will wash out?"

"Yes. Now sit down and let me do my job. I want you to watch what I'm doing so that you can learn how to do it. You will have to do this every morning when you get out of bed. I'm going to expect you to look correct by breakfast time every morning. Understand, Erica?"

"Yes, Mother."

"Also as long as you're living here with me pretending to be my daughter, you're going to let your hair grow out some more. The extra length will definitely help improve your disguise. When you're finally ready to leave my home and to go to that faraway place where you said that your Viking friends frequently check for any lost souls, you're going to need to be able to maintain your disguise without any help from me. Traveling as a pretty red-headed curly-long-haired young girl will be easier than trying to slip through the various checkpoints as a short-haired boy. Then when you get to that pickup point, you can cut your hair short again and wash out the curls as well as change into boy's clothes at that time. Now sit down here and watch what I am doing. You want to heat the end of this small wooden stick near the fire so that it's warm enough to curl your hair but not so hot that it burns your hair. Then…."

Twenty minutes later, the beaming smile on Hilda's happy face showed that she was satisfied at the dramatic change that the curls and new fluffy hairstyle had made in Erica's appearance. Although the short haircut wasn't typical for a young girl, the curls, bangs, and fluffy brushed style added so much femininity to the thick mane of red hair that it looked very acceptable for a young "girl". The new somewhat feminized Erica didn't need to constantly wear the scarf any more to hide her short hair.

Pointing to the bucket of clear water in the corner of the room, Hilda gave Erica the opportunity to view the new hairstyle.

"Go look at yourself in the water's reflection. Ah ha, I can tell by the startled look on your face that you don't recognize yourself. That's what we want to do. We want to make you look less like a boy and more like a girl. That new curly hairstyle will make it easier for you to fool everyone.

Now, why don't you lie back down on the bed and let me examine your body. It's time to change your bandages."

Erica laid on the bed, lifted up the end of the dress to expose the thick wrapping of bandages around the waist and spread the legs wide so that Hilda could easily get to the bandages. Hilda quickly removed the bandage and frowned when she saw the ugly wound. She didn't frown because it wasn't healing correctly but frowned because she felt the pain and discomfort caused by the ugly damage to the boy's body. The daily applications of the poultices that the Old Woman had showed Hilda how to make, had cleared up the infection and started the wound to the road to healing. But it still looked nasty. Staring at the flat nasty scab covering the area where Eric's gentatilia used to be attached to the outside of his body, Hilda didn't say anything as she confirmed once again that the castration had been smooth with the contour of the boy's body so that there wouldn't be a ugly stub reminder protruding out when the wound finally healed. There was a small body opening that had to be carefully cleaned after every time that Erica peed for the next several weeks so that it didn't get infected but overall the wound looked like it was healing.

With the bandages removed, Hilda gave Erica the opportunity to squat over the pee pot to get the morning urination out of the way. Then she cleaned the wound, put on a fresh poultice to help the wound heal then put on a clean bandage. With that morning ritual out of the way, Hilda began the next step of her plan.

"Erica, you look like a girl but there's still something not right about your disguise. Walk across the room for me, dear."

As Erica did as Mother requested, Hilda began trying to improve Erica's mannerisms.

"No, dear, you're walking like a bull going into a barn. Your shoulders are too stiff, you're leaning too far forward, you're walking too fast, and you don't look dainty. Watch me, then try it again."

The second time that Erica crossed the room, the frustrated look on the new daughter's face showed that following Mother's direction wasn't easy.

"This doesn't feel right. I feel stupid."

"But you look great, my dear. With more practice, it will feel very normal.

Do it again."

For the next hour, the new mother and daughter practiced the movements that Hilda wanted Erica to adopt as normal movements. In addition to teaching Erica how to walk, Hilda worked on the new girl's methods for sitting, using hand movements to emphasis words, standing, smiling, and acting "dainty". Erica was a quick learner and although there were frequent complaining, the new daughter did as Mother requested. By the end of the hour of practice, Hilda noticed that Erica was getting tired but that the movements now looked normal for a young girl. Thankfully Erica's voice sounded like a girl's voice so that they didn't have to work upon that area.

While Erica took a nap to restore her energy, Hilda sat in the chair and smiled to herself as she thought about the progress that she had made with the new girl so far. When Erica awakened and obviously felt refreshed, Hilda began the next stage of her training.

"Looks like the nap gave you some energy. Do you feel like going for a walk with me down into the village, dear?"

"Do I have to? I would like to…."

"Yes, dear. You need to go with me. You need to gain confidence in your new appearance by seeing that when people look at you that they are seeing my pretty daughter, not a dangerous Viking future warrior.

Remember every thing that we practiced? You're going to have to walk and act just the way that I showed you. I've got something that I want you to carry in your arms as we go for our walk. It was my daughter's doll and I think that she would be happy to know that…."

"NO!! That's a doll. I refuse to play with dolls. I won't do that."

Putting the cloth doll back on top of the trunk, the look on Hilda's face showed that she was displeased with Erica's refusal but that she wasn't going to make a issue of it yet. Eric still had a long way to go before he was really Erica and Hilda recognized that it was going to take more time and a lot more work.

Running her hairbrush through her own hair for a second, Hilda put the brush down as she gave Erica a command that she knew the new girl would obey.

"Come, dear, we're going down town to show you something that the neighbors were telling me about last night."

Walking slowly so that Erica didn't have to rush and could walk the way that Hilda insisted, they began the slow journey from their cabin to the center of the village. On the way, they passed several people and Hilda made sure to greet each of them. She even stopped at least four times to introduce herself and her daughter to the villagers. At one of the meetings, she told Erica to introduce herself to a young girl walking with her mother. The slight tremor in Erica's voice was noticeable but that was to be expected. Some children were nervous when they met new people.

"Hello, my name is Erica."

"Hi. I'm Bertha. You must be a new girl. I've never seen you before. Do you want to play with me this afternoon. I've got another doll that you can use."

Seeing the obvious terror on Erica's face at the threat of having to play with a girl, much less to play with dolls, Hilda responded for the scared youth.

"Bertha, that's a pretty name. My grandmother's name was Bertha. I'm sure that Erica would like to play with you but we have some things that we need to do today. Maybe later in the week the two of you can get together for a few hours. It's been nice meeting you."

As they walked away from Bertha and her mother, Hilda tried to make the meeting of the little girl as a positive occurrence.

"See, Erica, Bertha accepted you as being a real girl also. That's how well your disguise is working. You need to relax a little and to enjoy it. Ah, we're almost to the center of town. That's what I wanted to show you. Do you know him?"

Seeing the dead man hanging from the tree with a noose around his neck, Erica instantly recognized Olaf's father.

"That's what the villagers will do to any Viking that they capture. They caught him day before yesterday and are leaving him hanging there as a reminder that there are a lot of Vikings running loose around here.

That's why it's very important that you practice what I've been showing you to help you perfect your disguise. You don't want to end up hanging from the same tree branch so it's very important that you totally become 'Erica' to hide from them. I certainly don't want to be hung from the same branch because I sheltered you so I'm going to insist that you keep practicing and doing the things that I tell you to do. Now do you understand why it's important that you walk, talk, and act like a girl?"

The scared look on Erica's face as the youth stared at the bloated recognizable face of his best friend's father showed that seeing the dead man hanging from the noose had the expected shock value. It was obvious that the boy now clearly understood what his fate would be if he was found and why it was so important to listen to Hilda as she tried to improve his disguise.

Still holding Erica's hand, Hilda turned around and slowly began walking back toward the cabin.

"You're taking big steps again. Smaller steps. That's right. Remember to put the front foot right in front of the rear foot so that it will put a little wiggle into your walk. That's right, my dear. Smile at the woman sitting on the porch. Make it a happy smile. Good girl. Now tilt your head the way that I showed you and twirl a lock of your curly hair around your finger as you pretend that you're asking me something. See, she's smiling back at us. She thinks that you're a cute girl with nice curly short hair.

You've fooled her."

As soon as they entered the cabin, Erica walked to the trunk and picked up the doll that he had refused earlier. Holding the doll's leg so that the cloth doll dangled from his trembling hand, the new little girl nervously asked "how do girls play with these things?"

"First, you have to know the doll's name. It's Margaret. Then you have to talk to it until it feels normal talking to it as if it were a real child. After that it becomes easy to play with it."

******

Sitting with Bertha's mother that same afternoon as they watched the two young girls playing nearby with their dolls, Bertha's mother confided to Hilda that she was glad that her daughter had a new playmate.

Although Erica was playing stiffly and not really showing any interest, Hilda knew that Erica's attitude could be attributed to being around new people.

"Bertha is having so much fun. Her former best friend was a year older than Bertha and had recently given up playing with dolls to flirt with boys. Bertha isn't ready to give her doll up yet and it's good to see that she's found someone who enjoys playing with dolls as much as she does.

How old is Erica?"

"She's going to be eleven on her next birthday."

"So is Bertha. Then I'm afraid that she will also change too quickly from being a child to a teenage girl. I'm not looking forward to the day when she puts her doll away and starts talking about some silly boy. There's already been a few young men who have told my husband that they want to court Bertha when she gets old enough to start messing with boyfriends instead of dolls. I noticed that Erica is limping and isn't jumping around the way that Bertha is moving."

"Yes, my daughter fell off of a horse a couple of days ago and hurt her leg. I'm sure that in a week or two, she'll feel more like her old self and will be more active."

******

That evening after Hilda removed Erica's bandage, she told the young girl that she couldn't use the pee pot any more.

"Peeing in that thing makes the cabin smell. Now that you've got the bandage off, I want you to go outside and find some place away from the cabin to pee."

"But the neighbor's might see me."

"So what? They saw me squatting and peeing today. I saw them peeing today. The only thing that they are going to see is that you're squatting to pee just like a normal girl. Go pee and then I'll clean your wound one more time and put on a fresh bandage."

When Erica came back inside, Hilda cleaned the wound and rebandaged the wound. Then she sat in front of the fireplace and handed the hairbrush to her daughter.

"Here. I've taking care of you for the last week. It's time that you started taking care of me. All daughter's brush their mother's hair."

After showing Erica how to brush long hair and how to put it up for the night, Hilda gave another surprise to Erica.

"This cabin only has one bed. I didn't get much rest sleeping sitting up in the chair last night. From now, you and I are going to share the bed just as any mother and daughter would share a bed. Get in bed while I make sure the fire is banked correctly for the night."

A few seconds later, Hilda looked at Erica lying on the bed and shook her head as if something was wrong.

"No dear, you've forgotten something."

Going to the trunk, Hilda picked up the doll and handed it to Erica.

"This is your baby. All girls sleep with their babies. To make your impersonation perfect, you have to do everything that a real girl would do."

Climbing into bed with Erica, Hilda continued her instructions.

"Snuggle up next to me. That's right. Rest your head upon my chest so that you can feel my heartbeat. Put your baby between us so that both of us can make sure that your Margaret is safe tonight."

With Erica's head resting on Hilda's arm and her small hand clutching the doll, Hilda began telling her new daughter the same stories that she used to tell her real daughter. Stories that had been passed to Hilda by her own mother and stories that every mother told their small children.

After a few minutes, the obviously tired Erica drifted off into sleep with her curly head resting on her new mother's breast and her small hand holding onto the doll's arm.

*******

The next morning, it took Erica a long time to curl her hair and to brush it the way that Hilda wanted to the short hair to look. But the new "she" finally got it looking curly and appropriately fluffed to satisfy the mother.

Once the hair looked right, Hilda removed the bandage and sent Erica outside to do her morning business in the bush. Then she cleaned and reapplied the bandages.

After breakfast, Hilda momentarily considered showing her new daughter how a young woman was supposed to clean the dishes after a meal but decided to postpone that lesson. Telling Erica to take her doll outside and to play for awhile, Hilda began cleaning up after breakfast.

It was while she was washing dishes that she heard voices outside. Going to the doorway, she saw that a young boy, about fourteen or fifteen years old, was talking to Erica who was tightly clutching her doll against her chest. Instantly she knew that the boy had obviously heard that there was a "new girl" in town and he had come to introduce himself. Although Erica was only ten years old, girls of that age were already being courted by boys a few years older so that when both kids were ready for marriage, they had already worked out the arrangements between their families. From the way that he was talking to Erica and from the way that the new young girl was acting slightly confused, it was obvious that everyone knew why the boy was there. Knowing that Erica needed a little help and some private instruction on how to handle boys, Hilda went out to join them.

"Hello, I'm Hilda, Erica's mother. Who are you?"

"I'm Lars. I live over there. I saw Erica earlier this morning and knew that she was new so I came over to welcome her."

After a few minutes of idle chitchat, Hilda thanked the young boy for coming over and reminded Erica that it was time to do her chores. Once they were safely inside the cabin and Lars was walking back to his cabin, Hilda laughed about the incident.

"Girl, you're doing such a good job of fooling everyone into thinking that you're really a girl, that you've got the local boys all hot and bothered. He wants to be your boyfriend. That's perfect and just what we need. I think that you ought to let Lars become your boyfriend."

"It is? Why?"

"Our goal is to make everyone think that you're a girl. If it's known by everyone that you've already got a boyfriend then the other boys won't be hanging around you. It's easier to deal with one boy than to put up with several boys hanging around you constantly flirting with you. Only problem is that sooner or later, you'll have to let him kiss you once so that he knows that you accept him as your boyfriend. Only have to do it once, then you can make him keep his distance. I think that it's time that we had our motherdaughter discussion about the birds and bees."

******

Erica wasn't a happy girl. The new young lady didn't like the discussion about the birds and bees nor what was expected of her. Although she practiced with Hilda on what to say to boys and how to act around boys, she obviously didn't want to do anything with a real boy. But all Hilda had to do was to remind Erica of the body that was still hanging from the tree branch and the young lady would become more ladylike.

That afternoon, Bertha came to play with Erica. Because Hilda had been expecting the girl, she had practiced the new boyfriend discussion with Erica so that Erica would feel somewhat more comfortable talking about having a potential boyfriend.

Sticking her head outside frequently to make sure that the two girls were having fun and that Erica was acting appropriately, Hilda let the two girls play for most of the afternoon then called in Erica. It was obvious that Erica's energy was drained and that she needed to rest.

"How was your playtime, dear?"

"All right. Bertha is nice and I feel comfortable being around her. I just wish that she liked to do something other than play with dolls but I'm getting used to saying 'goo-goo' and talking to Margaret as if it were alive.

I'll be glad when I've healed so that I can leave."

******

As Erica and Margaret napped on the bed, Hilda was busy analyzing what had occurred so far and what needed to occur to get Erica to postpone when she planned to leave and to eventually cancel leaving.

By the time that Erica awakened from the nap, Hilda had a plan. In a few weeks when Erica was healed sufficiently so that wound wouldn't impact any long-distance traveling, Hilda would tell Erica that the villagers had discovered the remote pickup point. Then Hilda would find someone who could write and they would send a message to Eric's father telling where to pick up Eric next year. That would delay Erica's leaving for a year.

******

A week after moving into the cabin, Hilda knew that Erica's wound had healed sufficiently so that the bandage and three-times-a-day poultice wasn't needed any more. It had been almost two weeks since the damage had been done and it would be at least six more weeks before it was totally healed. So they discontinued applying that poultices but Hilda continued to examine the damaged area at least twice a day to make sure that it didn't get re-infected.

With the wound healing and the pain subsiding, they began to get out more often and to meet other people. By this time, Erica had so much confidence in her impersonation that she was quite comfortable meeting and talking to new people. She was also getting used to Lars coming by for a few minutes each day to talk to her as well as spending a few hours each day playing with Bertha. Hilda had observed that Erica had quickly relaxed when around Bertha and even learned how to enjoy the playing with Bertha and the dolls.

At night, she would curl up in bed beside her new mother and describe the day's events as well as how she really felt about the various occurrences. Every time that she described something about Lars, there would be a funny little constant smile in the corners of Erica's mouth as she talked about her wanta-be-boyfriend's obvious attempts to establish that type of teenaged relationship with her. Thanks to Hilda's daily coaching, Erica had quickly established control over Lars so that she was the one who controlled their discussions and actions. Erica was pleased with the way that Lars tried every way to impress her and to get to spend more time with Erica.

That night, Erica had laughed out loud when she described how Lars had hung upside down from a tree branch and then tried to get Erica to do the same thing.

"All he wanted me to do was for me to accept his challenge and to hang upside down so he could see my bloomers. I'm no fool. I knew what he was doing and why. I wanted to show him that I could do it just as easily as he did it but I remembered what you had told me. He's my friend but he's still just a boy."

She also described something that Lars had said that obviously made her think about the way that she looked.

"He said I was pretty. Am I pretty?"

"Of course you are, dear."

*******

As Erica's body slowly healed and the pain dissipated so she could live a more normal life, they had quickly settled into a comfortable routine.

Every morning, they would awaken curled up next to each other and spend a few minutes happily talking to each other. In his previous life, Eric had only occasionally slept with his mother on those occasions when his father was out to sea or else too drunk to come home. When it had become too cold for the young Eric to sleep by himself, he only had a dog sleeping with him to keep him warm. So it was a real treat for Erica to have a "Mother" to sleep with every night and to make it interesting to awaken each morning. Hilda quickly correctly assumed that Eric's childhood had been almost non-existent because his father had pushed him to grow up too fast and his real mother hadn't been much of a nurturing mother.

Although it was a pain to spend so much time before breakfast curling her hair with the hot stick, Hilda made sure that it was fun by laughing and carrying on with Erica while she made breakfast. Then after breakfast, Bertha either came over to play for awhile or Erica would go over to her new friend's place to play while both mothers sat and talked.

While Erica claimed she was only playing with the dolls to aid in her impersonation, Hilda had noticed that when Erica had nothing to do at home that she frequently talked to the doll as she continued to play with when she didn't have to.. She also carried the doll with her a lot and slept with it tucked into the crook of her arm every night.

In addition to Bertha, they had also met several other girls roughly the same age as Erica so some afternoons was spent playing with another girl at her house while Hilda became friends with the girl's mother. Hilda made sure that Erica's days were filled with fun and games, either by playing with someone her own age or by doing something that was a mother-daughter adventure.

Lars also made sure to come by every day and Erica was surprised one day when Lars joined Erica and Bertha in playing house. One night Erica told Hilda during their night-time gossip session that Lars wouldn't have lasted in Eric's Viking community; that either the other boys would have beaten Lars or one of the men would have toughened Lars up. Boys in Eric's village were supposed to be tough and playing was something that children were encouraged to not do.

Hilda could tell that Erica's smile was frequently a real smile and that she enjoyed her new life. The only problem was that Erica didn't realize yet that she enjoyed her new life and identity. Almost every night as they did their mother-daughter bedtime talk, Erica would talk about what Eric was going to going to do when he got home.

*******

About six weeks after Eric became Erica, the wound had healed sufficiently so that there wasn't any pain any more and Erica was able to move naturally again without any pain or discomfort. There was still a nasty-looking scab over the area but it had almost totally healed so that it there was only a thin layer of scab.

That night, Erica said something that made Hilda's heart almost stop.

"Mother, I think that it's time that I started preparing to leave. The secret pickup point is at least two weeks of walking distant from here. Then there's no telling how long I will have to wait until the next boat stops to check to see if there is anyone to pick up. The sooner that I get to the pickup point, the quicker that I'm able to return home and to resume my real life."

"Is that what you want to do, Erica?"

"Yes, mother. Even though I've grown to like being here with you, my real home is there. I must go to back to claim my destiny."

"Erica, do you remember the man that I showed you that was hanged?"

"Yes, mother. He was the father of my best friend and Captain of the boat that sunk."

"Erica, before he died, they tortured him. He told them where the pickup point is. Ever since then the villagers have been watching that area. I understand that in another village that they have hanged a ten-year-old boy and two men in the last few weeks."

The sudden agitated movements by Erica as she jumped from the bed showed that Hilda's "white lie" had achieved the desired result. Erica nervously paced the floor as her hand kept wiping away the tears that were oozing down her cheeks.

"They hung Olaf. I told you about him. He was the only other boy besides myself on that boat so that had to be who it was that they hung. They killed my best friend."

"Come here, dear. You need a hug."

As Hilda held Erica in her arms, the child started sobbing.

"There, there, dear. I'm not going to let them hurt you. You're safe with me. In a few months they will get tired of sitting out there waiting for anyone to show up and will leave that area alone. All you have to do is to just wait a little longer before you go out there. I'll tell you when it's safe for you to try to go back home."

******

The "white lie" worked.

Erica now believed that the villagers had also hung the ten-year-old Olaf and that they were watching the pickup point for more Viking stragglers to hang. The false news that her best friend was dead and hadn't made it back home upset Erica so that she temporary postponed her plans to return home.

The morning after the "news", Erica announced to Hilda that she wasn't going to give up her plans to return home and that there was no rush to return home.

"Mother, I have to go back. I will stay here until it is almost fall then I will have to leave. I will try to be at the pickup point as the last boats are coming back home."

"I understand, Erica."

*******

The first three or four days after the news was revealed to Erica, it was obvious from her grumpy demeanor and limited interaction with her friends that she was depressed. But after a few days of moping around and getting over her inability to return to her real home again, she began to act more like her normal self and started laughing again.

By the end of the week, she was back to normal and acting like any normal ten-year-old girl.

*******

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, Happy birthday Dear Erica, happy birthday to you."

The unexpected secret birthday party surprised Erica. All of her friends were there and Hilda had baked a cake for everyone. Erica cried because no one had ever celebrated her birthday before. Hilda even had a gift for her; a new dress which she had been secretly making for the last few weeks.

That night as Hilda and Erica snuggled in bed together talking about the party and the surprised look on Erica's face, Erica began crying again.

She said something that Hilda understood but that Erica didn't understand.

"I'm crying yet I'm happy. I've never cried before when I was happy.

Thank you, mother, for the birthday party."

******

Summer passed quickly. All too soon, the leaves started changing color and there was a mild chill in the morning air. Erica's normal bubbly personality seemed more subdued as if there was something that she was thinking about that made her sad.

During one night-time bedtime discussion, she said the words which Hilda had been dreading to hear.

"It will be winter soon. I will be leaving in the morning to go to the point. I have to try to go back home."

"I understand, dear. Do what you must do."

The next morning when Hilda went outside to get the firewood for the morning breakfast, Hilda's scream scared Erica. Running outside, Erica found Hilda lying on the ground and groaning loudly.

"My leg. My leg. I think that I broke my leg."

Erica ran and got Lars and his father. The two men lifted Hilda and carried her back into the cabin onto the bed. Although the father said that he didn't think that her bruised leg was broken, Hilda kept insisting that it was broken. When the man started to go get someone to come take care of the leg, Hilda refused and told him that she would take care of it. She "didn't need anyone to doctor her".

As soon as Lars and his father left, Hilda had Erica find two branches as long as the length of her leg to use as splints and then used bandages to tie the splints onto her leg. When her leg was sufficiently bandaged, she gave Erica the bad news.

"With my leg broken, I won't be able to walk for at least a month. Maybe as long as six weeks. But I know that you are leaving today. Go ahead and leave. I'll be all right. I'll find someway to take care of myself. Don't worry about me. The neighboring women will make sure that I've got something to eat every day and they'll get their husbands to make sure that I've firewood to keep me warm. I'll be all right. You go ahead and leave. I'll survive somehow."

The ruse worked. Hilda hadn't actually broken her leg but had hit the fleshly part of her leg hard with a stick several times to create the bruises, then she had laid down on the ground and screamed for Erica.

With Erica thinking that her mother had a broken leg and wouldn't be able to take care of herself for several weeks, there was only one decision that Erica could make.

"I'll take care of you, mother. I won't leave you alone. I will leave next spring to go back home."

******

The snows came quickly and heavily. By the time that the first snow fell, Hilda's leg had "healed" so that she didn't need to walk with her leg bandaged with splints any more. As soon as she "was able to get up and move around again", she made sure that her cabin was always filled with Erica's friends to keep the young girl occupied and happy.

It might have been a long winter because of the many snows but a couple of times, Erica admitted that it had been the best winter of her life. By the time that the springtime warmth finally started melting the snow, Erica had elevated Bertha from being best friend status to being "my sister". The two girls were constantly together and always giggling about something as they shared secrets that only young girls understood.

As the first blades of green grass started showing through the snow, Hilda made several silent observations.

Since the child had become the young girl called Erica, they hadn't cut her hair except to keep the bangs trimmed. Her thick mane of "curly" red hair was longer and had grown to an almost acceptable girl's length.

Although Bertha and Erica were the same age, Erica had been slightly taller than Bertha last summer. Now Bertha was slightly taller so she was obviously growing while Erica's growth appeared to have slowed down. Hilda suspected that the loss of Eric's balls had caused the change in the Erica's growth pattern.

There were other changes in Erica, most noticeably changes in her attitude, personality and actions. Erica smiled a lot more so that the happy smile had become a natural part of her bubbly strongly feminine personality. At first, Hilda had to constantly coax and tease Erica to get her to smile instead of constantly frowning. Now she smiled anytime that anyone said anything or looked at her. It was difficult to recall what she looked like without a smile on her pretty face.

Erica's complexion was still baby smooth and didn't have any indication of beard growth yet.

She had stopped biting her fingernails after the decision last fall to stay longer. In addition to letting her fingernails grow out and keeping them trimmed regularly, the other appearance practices had become part of her normal routine. She curled and brushed her hair as soon as she arose every morning. She wouldn't go outside without first making sure that every lock of her hair was brushed perfectly in place. She no longer liked playing in the mud because it got her clothes dirty and she made sure that she had on clean clothes every morning.

The most unusual changes was that she had also openly accepted Lars as her boyfriend thus setting him up as someday being her expected potential future husband. Although she had told her mother that she had entered into that courtship relationship with the boy was only because it was something expected from a young girl of her age, Hilda suspected that there were more personal reasons for that unexpected decision and secretly thought that Erica was becoming more girl than she pretended to be. That relationship between the couple had been sealed with a kiss one cold wintry day when the two of them went outside supposedly to collect firewood but had come back inside acting strange.

They had left the cabin laughing and teasing each other but came back silent and sitting across the room from each other looking strangely at each other. That night Hilda had coaxed the truth from Erica. They had gone into the woods to find firewood and had thrown several snowballs at each other then got into a wrestling match. While they were rolling in the snow, Lars with his larger, stronger body had wound up on top of Erica and had pinned her while he kissed her. Then he had apologized to her about stealing the kiss. After he let her up, she had started to rush back toward the cabin but he calmed her down. After they each gathered a little firewood, they walked side by side as they came back toward the cabin. Just before they got to the door, she kissed his cheek and told him "that it was alright", that he hadn't insulted her by stealing the kiss from her.

There was one other change which Hilda had seen coming but as the temperature warmed up so that everyone was wearing less clothes, she confirmed that her suspicions were correct. Bertha had just the slightest hint of budding breasts underneath her blouse. By the end of summer, she would be more woman than girl the way that her youthful body was filling out. That expected change in Bertha's appearance meant that Erica should also be displaying a similar change to her own body to keep everyone from being suspicious about her real body. To simulate the expected change in Erica's body, Hilda sewed a little band of cloth that could be wrapped around Erica's chest. Within the cloth, she created two shaped pockets that she filled with dried sawdust and some dirt to give the pockets the right shape, weight and appearance of small breasts. So on a bright spring morning, Erica began adding another ritual to her morning dressing. Every morning she would tie the cloth around her chest and hide the shape-changing garment underneath her blouse. The weight of the sawdust and curved shape of the pockets made it look like she had also started blossoming into a young woman during the long winter months. Hilda knew that every few months for the next several years that she would need to sew another band of cloth with just a little bit larger pockets and each time add a little more sawdust to the pockets to give Erica a slowly increasing breast size and appropriate shape of a young woman.

Hilda had chosen that mixture of sawdust and dirt because within the sewed pockets, it had the right weight and feel so that not only did it create an illusion of jigging but it also felt like the real thing if anyone happened to squeeze Erica's breasts through her blouse. Someone such as Lars and his curious hands who considered Erica to be his girlfriend and to be his personal property.

The change in both girl's bodies also started another change. More boys started hanging around the cabin to flirt with the girls and the girls didn't play with their dolls as much as they used to play with them. By the time that they celebrated Erica's twelfth birthday, the two little girls had grown up to be two young women in the way that they acted and looked. Because Bertha was now obviously more interested in boys than in playing with dolls, Erica also had to pretend to be more interested in boys. While Erica told her mother that she was "only pretending", Hilda could tell that there was some real interest.

Most of the boys were rough which was similar to the way that Eric used to be. Only Lars was soft and gentle. So because she was more able to control Lars, she continued to accept him as her boyfriend to keep the other boys from brothering her.

There was another change. At first Erica had talked almost every night about how she wanted to go back home. She only occasionally made that type of statement now. As it got closer to fall, Hilda kept waiting for Erica to announce that she was leaving but Erica never said anything until the morning that they awakened to discover that the first snow of the winter had arrived. Looking out at the light layer of snow on the ground, Erica tried to pretend that she was disappointed but Hilda could tell that her daughter was secretly relieved that the snow had finally fallen. Returning to her chair beside her mother's chair next to the fireplace, Erica resumed her sewing as she announced her plans.

"Looks like it's too late in the season for me to leave to go to the point now. I'll have to wait until next summer."

Hilda knew that she had won. By her actions, Erica had demonstrated that she didn't want to leave Hilda and would remain living with her as her daughter forever.

*******

That winter was slightly different from the previous winter. While Hilda and Erica spent a lot of time staying indoors and talking, they also had a lot more company than normal. In addition to Bertha being in their cabin, Lars was also there almost constantly.

Hilda put a bench seat against a wall then she would sit in her chair facing the fire in the fireplace so that her back was turned to the young couple on the bench to give them some privacy in the small cabin. They would sit behind her and talk to each other with frequent bouts of giggling whispers. There were several times that their talking/whispering stopped and there was just the sound of heavy breathing followed by awkward silence. Erica didn't have to tell Hilda that Lars was kissing her because Hilda already knew.

Hilda had also recently increased the size and shape of the cloth pockets that simulated the appearance of breasts on Erica's body. Not only did Lars noticeably like the way that it made Erica's girlish body look more feminine but it was very apparent that Erica also liked the womanly change in her faked body shape.

There was another of those mother-daughter bedtime discussions when Erica said something that she had said before. But this time when she said it, she seemed as if she was pleased that it had been said to her.

"Lars said that I was pretty. He thinks that I'm pretty."

If Erica wasn't busy doing something with Lars then Erica was with Bertha whose body had also matured more over the summer. The two girls talked constantly and through the nighttime bedtime chats that Hilda and Erica had every night, Hilda learned that Bertha had almost gone too far with one of her boyfriends recently. Seems that Bertha told her mother that she was going over to Erica's cabin but instead went to a nearby barn to meet her boyfriend. They went into the hayloft and made a comfortable place in the hay where they smooched until the inevitable almost happened. Bertha became so enthused with her kissing and petting that she let the boy slip his hand up underneath her blouse so that he could play with her titties. Fortunately the feel of his calloused hands rubbing across her soft skin had scared her so that she jerked away from him and ran out of the barn without going any further. Erica also confided to Hilda that if it had been another one of Bertha's boyfriends who she liked a lot better that Bertha probably wouldn't have stopped that other boyfriend from going too far.

After Erica drifted off to sleep holding her doll tightly against her chest and curled up next to Hilda's warm motherly body, Hilda couldn't sleep.

She was worried about what Erica might do if she found herself in a similar situation with her boyfriend in a hayloft.

Two years earlier when Hilda had seen the wounded Eric and knew that she had to find some way to hide the boy, she had transformed the boy into looking like a girl simply to help him escape. But after only a few days of mothering the injured boy dressed in Hilda's deceased daughter's clothes, Hilda had felt a strong sense of motherhood that made her want to keep Eric as Erica forever. As the possibility of the villagers looking for a injured Viking boy decreased, Hilda had come up with more reasons as to why Eric should remain Erica longer. When the boy's body had healed so that he could have left to go look for his people, Hilda had created new reasons for Erica to continue her masquerade. Then when Erica had discovered that she liked her new identity, new home, new mother, and more importantly her new gender, Hilda had been extremely happy. They both liked their new roles, Erica as the dutiful pre-pubescent daughter and Hilda as the doting mother who had been given one more chance to live her life through her young pretty daughter's life.

But as with all children, time had passed too quickly and the child had grown up to become an almost-young-adult. Although Erica had lived the first ten years of her life as a boy, the last two years of constantly living as a girl had drastically changed Erica's personality so that she was now more female than male. For the last year, she really hadn't been impersonating a girl because internally she had become the girl that she had been pretending to be. Erica was more Erica than Eric.

The only problem with that acceptation of her feminine identity was that she still had a boy's body. Or rather had what had been born a boy's body that had been subsequently changed into a Neither-body by that madman with his knife. The two years of life without balls had kept her body small, delicate looking and soft. She didn't have tits nor a pussy so anyone seeing her naked body would be able to determine that she really wasn't a girl. She didn't have a dick and balls any more so anyone seeing her naked with her thick curly red hair, soft complexion, soft babyish face and feminine mannerisms would know that she really wasn't a boy either. While she obviously wasn't either of the two sexes because of the respective negative physical attributes, she also wasn't enough of either gender to be classified as that specific gender either.

Remembering the many reasons that the Old Woman had given Hilda as to why the child couldn't be a boy anymore, Hilda knew that they couldn't move away to another village and try to transform Eric back into a boy again. The only option was for Erica to remain Erica and to learn to function sexually with the limitations of her body.

It would have been very nice if Erica could have remained young and innocent forever but it was obvious that she was growing up and soon she would be expected to take a mate. It was clear that Hilda was going to have to expand the basic "birds and bee's" discussion that she had previously told Erica. The young woman was going to have to be mentally prepared to deal with boys with exploring hands and itchy groins. The young woman was going to have to know how to cope with a young man with raging hormones.

Hilda knew that Erica would soon be placed in a situation where she was going to have to become a real woman and would have to be prepared to explain to that boy why she didn't have tits or a pussy. But more importantly to continue her impersonation, Erica would have to be able to convince that boy that her strange body was the body of a real woman.

To do that, Erica would need knowledge and skills that the typical woman didn't possess until after a few weeks of marriage.

*******

Two nights later after many hours of introspective silent thoughts about her problem, Hilda decided to address the situation during their nightly mother-daughter bedtime discussion. With Erica's head resting on Hilda's outstretched arm and Erica holding her doll against her own chest, Hilda began her expanded discussion about the birds and bees.

"Dear, I've been thinking about what you told me about Bertha the other night. What would you do if you found yourself in a similar situation?"

"Nothing. I'd get out of there. I know that I don't have any place in my body to put his dick so I won't let myself get into that situation. Besides I've got Lars under my control. He does only what I want him to do. We kiss a little, flirt a lot and tease a lot but that's as far as we go."

"But what if it wasn't Lars? What if you went out to the barn to gather eggs and someone grabbed you then pulled you into the hayloft. Suppose that it was grown man who was much stronger than you. A man who wasn't going to take 'No' for an answer. A man who had to have a woman and you just happened to be that woman. What would you do?"

"Do? I couldn't do nothing. I don't have a pussy so he couldn't put his dick into me. He would be mighty disappointed to jerk my bloomers down to see that flat groin that isn't male or female."

"Dear, sooner or later, you're going to find yourself in a situation where you're going to have to satisfy a man sexually. When a man gets the fire burning deep within his groin, he typically won't listen to reason until after he's been satisfied. I need to tell you about other methods to drain a man's passion and how to effectively use your other body cavities for the most effect. We'll start with your mouth. While you might think that what I'm about to describe is distasteful, it's actually quite enjoyable for everyone if done right. You see……"

******

Three weeks later, Erica came running into the cabin. She had left earlier to go to Bertha's cabin and had come back much earlier than expected.

>From the way that she came running into the cabin, her mussed hair, traces of straw sticking to her skirt, her obvious fake attempts to smile and her nervous actions, Hilda knew that something had happened.

Something that obviously included a boy, a hayloft and Erica's growing curiosity about interactions between men and women.

Being a wise mother, Hilda gave Erica the opportunity to decide when to discuss the daughter's activities of the last few hours. Normally Erica was very bubbly and vocal about her activities; but her silence and timid actions showed that something had happened to her that either scared or confused her. After half an hour of watching Erica sit in front of the fire silently staring at the fire without seeing the burning flame, Hilda had to know what happened to her.

"Ok, girl. I know something is wrong. What happened? Did you go to Bertha's cabin? Tell me the truth or I'll go ask Bertha's mother. If I discover that you're lying to me, I'll take a switch to your legs."

"I didn't go to Bertha's. Lars asked me to meet him…..at the barn. I went expecting to kiss him a few times and to play-wrestle a little with him.

Same old harmless stuff that we've doing lately. It started out the same.

He kissed me. I gave him a kiss that I knew would set fire to his toes.

Bertha told me how to stick my tongue into his mouth and to…..you know. It was a little more than he could handle. He dragged me into the hay again. I pretended to resist him because I liked him being rough with me. As he laid on top of me and kissed me, I felt very strange inside. I had never felt like that before. Oh, I had felt all tingling inside before but this time was different. I felt very weak and found it difficult to think about anything but Lars. I wanted him to…..to do things to me. When he slipped…..when he slipped his hand up under my blouse, I didn't stop him. As his hand came up my belly toward where he expected to find my boobies, I remembered how you had told me to prepare my man for finding my flat chest. I told him that I hadn’t grown any titties yet and he didn't seem too disappointed that my chest was still flat. He played with my nipples as he kept kissing me. The fire and strange feeling in my groin grew so hot that I couldn't think. I was holding tightly onto him and trying to force my tongue as deep into his throat as I could. I was having so much fun and felt so strange that I almost didn't feel him slipping his other hand up my legs. When I felt his hand trying to get into my bloomers, I realized how far I had let him go and that he was about to discover my secret. I tried to stop him but couldn't. He's so much larger and stronger than me. He was trying to find my pussy and wouldn't listen to me. Somehow I remembered what you had told me a few weeks ago. So I grunted 'I want to give you a blowjob' and that stopped his hand. In one quick move, his hand came out from under my dress and his other hand from under my blouse. As he rolled over on his back and began pushing his trousers down, I knew that I had an opportunity to escape. Although I wanted to run away from him, something was keeping me there beside him. So when he…when he pulled it out, and I saw it all big and purple, I knew that I couldn't leave. I felt like I had to have it. I knew that I had to be a good girl but because I felt all strange and furry inside, I didn't want to be a good girl any more. So I laid between his spread legs and let him put it into my mouth so that I could see what it felt like. I was only going to go so far and then…….but……"

Erica began crying. Rushing to her, Hilda held the young girl's head tightly against her motherly breast as she tried to soothe the sobbing child.

"There, there, it's all right. When I was about your age, or maybe a year older, I found myself in a similar situation. My first major boyfriend also talked me into sneaking out of my parent's house and into a barn. So I know what you're going through."

"No, you don't know. I liked it. I liked the feel of his cock in my mouth. I couldn't get enough of it. And when he squirted his hot salty fluid into my mouth, I almost cried because I wasn't ready for it to end yet. Then he just laid there with a funny look on his face and his trousers pulled down around his ankles. I still felt hot and full of passion but he was acting as if he wanted to roll over to go to sleep. I wanted more. I wanted a lot more. I wanted him to hold me. I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted him to do it again. I started feeling frustrated as well as tingly all over. I felt like I was going to explode but couldn't. That's when I ran out of the barn. I didn't know what else to do."

Kissing the top of Erica's mussed head as she gently plucked a sliver of straw from the hair, Hilda tried to find some way to sooth the young girl's confusion.

"I understand. I like to have oral sex with a man too. I suppose that you were feeling frustrated because you did everything for him but he didn't do anything for you. Well, girl, welcome to being a woman. You are now officially a woman. Now that you are a woman, you're going to have to learn how to better control your man and to find some way to obtain mutual satisfaction. We'll talk some more tonight. I know some tricks that might work for you."

*******

For over a week, Erica made sure that she didn't see Lars. Although he came over every day to talk to her, she refused to let him into the cabin by telling him that she felt sick. Then she let him in one day but made sure that Hilda stayed in the cabin with them while their mouth's talked garbage while their eyes silently held the type of discussions that only lovers understood. Because Hilda was pretending that she didn't know the truth behind their lover's spat, she couldn't do much to help them resolve it. It was clearly something that Erica was going to have to resolve for herself.

A few days later, Erica made her daily trip to Bertha's cabin for the afternoon. When she came back, her normally perfectly brushed hair was mussed again, there were traces of straw on her clothes and there was a happy smile on her face. Again she was strangely silent for the first hour as she sat languidly in front of the fireplace staring into it with that enigmatic happy smile on her face. When she did speak as she looked into the flickering magic of the roaring fire, there was a noticeable huskiness to her voice and a slow unenergetic aurora around her.

"Mother, Lars and I made up so that we are sweethearts again. He's going to come over tomorrow to ask you to let me marry him."

"I see. Well, you're just thirteen now and you'll will be fourteen this summer. I'll let you marry whomever you wish to marry when you turn fifteen although I would prefer that you wait until you're at least eighteen."

Turning her head so that she was looking her mother directly in the eye, there was a strange all-knowledgeable gleam in Erica's twinkling eyes.

"Fifteen? I don't think that I can wait that long. Did you tell me that you got married when you were only fourteen? Why can't I get married this summer? I know that he loves me and I think that I love him too."

"Yes, I did get married when I was fourteen. But I was pregnant and didn't have too much choice about getting married or when I got married.

My angry father told my prospective husband that we were going to get married the same day that daddy found out that I was pregnant. I don't think that you're pregnant, are you?"

It was a sarcastic question. There was no way that Erica could get pregnant.

"Ummmm, I feel very pregnant right now. I'm still so full of his warm fluid. I was going to Bertha's when I saw him taking his mules to the barn so I followed him. After we kissed and made up, I led him up into the hayloft and undressed him. Then I let him undress me and we slipped under an old blanket as we held each other and kissed. He knows now that I don't have tits or a pussy. The best thing is that he doesn't care. I showed him that I didn't need a pussy. He thinks that the scared area between my legs is where I got badly burned when I was a child and that my pussy grew shut. He now knows that I can't ever have any children but he doesn't care. He just wants to be my man and we discovered how to make each other very happy. I spent all afternoon with him under that blanket and making love to him. I'm truly a woman now."

"I see. Well, young lady, this is my cabin and I make the rules. Because of your special circumstances, I don't want you to get married until I think that you're ready for marriage. Understood?"

Erica slowly nodded her head before she answered.

"Yes mother. I want your blessing and although I don't agree with it, I'll abide by your marriage rule. However I've discovered that I like to fuck so I'm going to let Lars fuck me as often as I can find some place private to spend a few hours with him. Good night, mother, it's been a long wonderful day and I'm going to bed."

******

Even in her sleep, Erica continued to smile. She had made the transition from being a little boy to being a little girl playing with dolls to big woman playing with cocks in only a few years.

It was an awkward situation for Hilda. While it was very common for girls coming out of puberty to get married to older boys, it wasn't what Hilda wanted for Erica. She wanted her daughter to spend a few more years living with her, replacing the daughter that had died years earlier and then eventually Erica marrying some man. Hilda didn't want her only daughter married to some man and living in a faraway cabin with her husband. It would have been very different if Erica could have children and could quickly give Hilda a grandchild to spoil but that was impossible.

Hilda liked Lars. He would make Erica a good husband and would take care of her. Now that he knew Erica's "secret" about how her "pussy had grown shut as a result of the severe burn between her legs", he was proving that he was the man that Hilda thought he was. He accepted Erica as being his woman although she was flat-chested and didn't have a pussy, knowing that in every other way she was the woman for him.

The only problem was that Hilda wasn't ready to give up her perfect world of having a daughter yet.

******

About two weeks before the first green blade of grass was expected to poke through the rapidly melting snow, Erica surprised Hilda with an announcement after coming back from Bertha's cabin.

"Bertha's going to tell her mother tonight that she's pregnant. I think that her father is going to make sure that she's married in the next couple of days. Bertha wants me to be standing by her side when she gets married."

******

It was a beautiful wedding. The groom had some puffy bruises on his face from where he had apparently been in a very recent fight. All during the wedding, the groom kept looking over at Bertha's father and acting nervous.

Other than the immediate family, no one suspected why the young couple had so quickly decided to get married nor whom the groom had obviously been fighting. Bertha looked radiant as she stood by her husband-to-be and said her vows. Hilda noticed that the equally radiant Erica frequently glanced at Lars and her happy eyes silently said something along the line of "we are next to get married".

Bertha and her husband moved into a nearby abandoned cabin that afternoon. Erica and Lars had helped their friends to clean the cabin and to get it ready for their honeymoon.

******

When spring finally melted all the snow, Hilda noticed that Erica didn't say a word about going to the point to get a ride home. She had obviously given up on ever going back to Eric's village and back to that life as a Viking boy.

Hilda had once again increased the size of Erica's "breasts" so that she looked appropriate for her age and body size. By this time, her long hair had grown so that it was hanging about three inches down her back and looked extremely luxuriant. She continued to curl it every morning although as it grew longer, it took her longer to fix it the way that she liked to look.

Her face was still as soft and boyish as ever without any sign of scruffy beard like that mess on Lar's face. Her slender face, long hair, smooth complexion, constant happy smile and bubbly personality had changed her face from being a pretty face to being a beautiful face. While she had also grown slightly taller, she was the same height as the other girls her age. Her narrow shoulders, slender body and general feminine appearance made her look totally natural. Other boys around town had also noticed her and frequently hung around the cabin to try to take Lars place as her boyfriend but she would only mildly flirt with them as she continued to make sure that Lars was her one and only boyfriend.

True to the Old Woman's prediction, she had grown taller but was still slender and narrow without any massive muscles. Her voice had also remained soft and high pitched which Hilda expected to be her normal voice for the rest of her life.

The healed wound between Erica's leg was covered by a slender patch of reddish pubic hair with a small section of hair missing in the middle.

>From five feet away, her groin looked just like a normal woman's groin until closer examination revealed that there weren't any flappy vagnia lips and narrow slit between her legs; but just a small belly-button like hole which she used for peeing.

There was just the faintest indication of fatty tissue beginning to form on her chest as a result of the testicle removal. Over the next couple of years, Hilda hoped that fatty area might get slightly bigger so that it might eventually look like she had some small pancake-sized breasts.

There was just enough puffy chest so that if anyone accidentally saw her naked chest that they wouldn't think that they were looking at a boy's flat chest.

The biggest change in Erica was in her attitude. She had gone from being a child to being a woman who considered herself to be the equal of her mother. While she listened to Hilda and obeyed her, there was just enough teenage rebellion so that they frequently argued; with the most common argument being about Erica's relationship with Lars.

Erica found some way to have sex with Lars about once a week. She either did it over at Bertha's cabin with Bertha's blessing as the friend would sit outside her cabin or the young lovers would find some quiet barn. Part of Hilda's discomfort over the situation was because she didn't have a man of her own yet her daughter did. Hilda hadn't had sex with anyone in a few years yet Erica was having sex almost weekly. Hilda was "doing without" yet the sexually active Erica couldn't "do without it".

Erica admitted that she liked sex and that sex made her feel more like a woman so Hilda tolerated her daughter's aggressive sexual desires knowing that Erica didn't have to worry about getting pregnant.

When they had Erica's fourteenth birthday party, one of their friend's asked Erica "what do you want for your birthday, girl?"

Her answer, as she looked at Lars, was simple. Her eyes said one thing but her mouth said something else.

"To be fifteen."

******

That year the Vikings raided the coastline villages again. They didn't get close to Hilda's inland village but it caused the villagers to once again go on the alert. When Erica learned that a village close to the coast which was about a day's walk away had captured a Viking, she talked Lars into escorting her to that village. As Erica packed a small bag with some food for them, Hilda asked the young woman what she expected to do when she saw the Viking.

"I don't know. If I know him, then I probably won't do nothing. I don't want to risk having anyone recognize me yet I've changed so much over the last three years that I don't think that even my own father would know me now. If I don't know him and have no fear of him possibly taking word of me back to my old village, I might ask him a few questions. I want to know where the Vikings are now picking up any lost souls. I want to know if my father is still alive. I want to know if they gave Olaf a Viking funeral when he didn't return."

Three days later when they returned from that village, Erica was strangely silent as she sulked around the cabin. At first, she was only responding to Hilda's questions with a simple "yes" or "no" then her tone of voice turned slightly nasty as she began questioning Hilda.

"Mother, you told me that a local village hanged my best friend that year that we found each other. Which village was it?"

"I don't remember, dear?"

"You also told me that the villagers had tortured Olaf's father before he died so that he revealed the pick-up point. Who told you that, Mother?"

"I don't remember, dear. It was so long ago."

"Mother, the captured Viking that we just saw had been on my father's boat. That raiding party a few days ago was led by my father. I told that Viking that I had a friend hiding who had been on the boat sunk four years earlier. I told him some names of the people on that boat and from our village that proved that I knew someone who had to be from our village. He told me that Olaf was still alive and was sailing with my father since he lost his own father. Olaf was also in the raiding party. The captured Viking wouldn't tell me the name of the pickup place although I knew it. He only said that they were still using the same area. A few hours after I talked to him, they hung him. Mother, why did you tell me Olaf was dead? That disheartened me so much that I didn't ever feel like going back home again."

There's a time to lie and a time to tell the truth. Recognizing that another lie would further anger Erica, Hilda told the truth.

"I didn't want to lose you. If you thought your friend was dead, you wouldn't try to catch up with him. I didn't do it to hurt you but to help you to give your body time to appropriately heal. I also lied about what Olaf's father told them. He told them nothing before he died."

"I see. Please don't ever lie to me again, Mother. I've always been truthful with you and I expect the same from you."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. My father is somewhere nearby. If I went to the coast, I could probably predict where they will strike next based upon the currents and knowing what my father looks for in a good raiding site. If I didn't find him that way, I could surely find him when he stopped to see if anyone was at the pickup point on his way back home. I know that the way that I look now would probably startle him but I could cut my hair again and change into a man's clothes so that I looked more like he remembered."

"Don't treat me this way, Erica. Are you going to abandon me? Abandon the life that we've created with each other?"

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Mother but I'm going to do something."

******

Four days later, Erica arose early and began fixing her hair. She seemed mighty happy and cheerful which was more like her normal self.

"Good morning, Mother. I've finally decided what I'm going to do about a lot of things in my life. Although I've still got a strong desire to eventually return to my real home, I know that I would be an outcast there because of the way that I've 'changed' during the last few years. Whether I tried to resume my life as a male or continued to live my life as a woman, I know that I would feel out of place and would feel lost in that world. While we both know that I'm not really a woman, I feel and think so much like a woman now that I don't think that I could even resume life as a male again. Therefore this is probably going to be my home for the rest of my life and this life as Erica will be the identity that I will live for the rest of my existence. It was a momentous decision for me to give up my life as Eric and to accept my destiny but it was the only decision that I could make under the circumstances. Now that I've made up my mind as to whom I'm going to be for the rest of my life, I've also decided that I'm going to marry Lars today and to move in with him. I know that I'm not fifteen yet but do I have your permission."

It wasn't stated as a question but more of a command. If Hilda didn't give her permission then Erica would threaten to leave to go back to the Vikings. Either way, Hilda was about to lose Erica forever. By giving her permission for the marriage, at least Erica would remain in the village where Hilda could see her on a frequent basis.

"I welcome Lars as my future son-in-law."

"Thank you, mother. You're invited to the wedding then. I'm going to go tell Lars after breakfast that we're getting married today. He doesn't know it yet. Then we will spend this morning finding us an empty cabin.

Sometime this afternoon, we'll get married."

Erica's voice turned husky as she described the rest of her plans.

"Then tonight, I can make love to my new husband in my new home and can fall asleep in his strong arms. In the morning, I will awaken in his arms once more and we can make…..Mother, do we have time to make me a new nightgown? I want to look very pretty for Lars tonight."

*******

It was a beautiful wedding. Erica had a garland of flowers in her hair and was wearing her best dress. Bertha's six months-of-pregnancy belly looked very strange on the otherwise petite young girl. In a few months, Bertha would be giving up her dolls forever replacing the cloth dolls with the first of her own children.

When the wedding was over, Erica hugged her mother and whispered "You don't know how happy I am today. Years ago when you changed my life so drastically, I never suspected that this wonderful event would ever happen to me. I can only say thank you for persuading me to give up that unhappy life and identity as a puky-assed boy. I love being Erica. I love being a woman. I love Lars. I'm going to love being a married woman.

I'm going to love sleeping with my husband every night. My life is perfect.

I love you, Mother. Thank you."

******

It was three years after Lars and Erica's wedding when the Vikings struck an unexpected raid on the Village. Normally the Vikings stayed closer to their boats but years of raiding the coastline villages had resulted in the coastline villages being more prepared for the raids and also having less to steal. The bold strike so far inland resulted in the raiders capturing a lot of gold. It also resulted in Bertha's husband being killed by the raiders. Thankfully Lars was on the far side of the town out working a large farm plot that he farmed. By the time that he rushed back to town to protect his family, the raid was over, forty some villagers were dead with another fifty wounded and everyone was upset.

Bertha's husband had been working a farm plot too but it was on the side of town closest to the coast. When the raiders came through, they easily killed the unarmed man. That left Bertha a widow with a two-year- old boy and with her pregnant again.

Immediately after the dead husband's funeral, Erica made a generous offer to her best friend.

"Why don't you move in with Lars and me? Lars is a good provider and I'll help you with the kids."

*******

Less than two weeks after Bertha moved in with Lars and Erica, the three of them re-established their relationship. Lars assumed the role of father to Bertha's two-year-old child and her unborn child. He also assumed the role of husband to Bertha as Erica moved Bertha into the same bed with her and Lars so that the three of them slept together.

While there were other men in the village who wanted to become Bertha's husband, the young woman was happy living with Erica and Lars.

While their love life changed drastically as a result of the additional woman, it also improved by adding more variation to the union.

While Erica had been very close to Bertha's child before the raid, she became even closer with the child living in the cabin with them. The child became Erica's surrogate child. So living in very intimate conditions with Bertha also caused Erica to somewhat experience normal things that she could never experience such as pregnancy.

As it got closer t