Page 14 of Viking Unchained

Torolf just rolled his eyes at him.

“I like your friend Geek. He has been most helpful.” Merrill “Geek” Good was a Navy SEAL teammate of Torolf’s. He had been working with Thorfinn this past week whenever his military duties allowed.

Until Thorfinn figured out how to return to the past, he had decided to join the elite warrior group. In truth, fighting was all he knew. He had already had his first interview with the commander, who conveniently happened to be wedlocked to his cousin Madrene.

Torolf nodded. “Geek is a good guy, but, man, you need all the help you can get, and Geek can’t work with you full-time. So, I suggest you use both of them . . . Blake and Geek. If you want to try out for SEALs, you need to be believable. At the least, you have to be able to fill out the freakin’ forms.”

“I am more than ready.”

“In your opinion.”

“Who else’s opinion matters?”

Torolf sighed deeply. He did that a lot around Thorfinn, when he was not muttering curses under his breath. “Look, you’ve got to pass the ASVAB test.”

“Arse-what?”

“Not ass, ASVAB. It’s a multiple aptitude test.”

“Well, that explains it.”

Torolf did the swearing-under-his-breath exercise. “Presumably no study is required for that test, but still Geek thinks you need to study to the test. Once that’s over, you should be able to handle the physical requirements of the PST.”

“Another test!” He groaned.

“You’ll need to be able to swim five hundred yards in less than twelve and a half minutes.”

“I was born swimming.”

“Do forty-two push-ups in under two minutes followed by a two-minute rest. Then fifty sit-ups in under two minutes, followed by a two-minute rest. Then six pull-ups, followed by a ten-minute rest. Then run one and a half miles in boots and long pants in less than eleven and a half minutes.”

Thorfinn could feel his face heat up. “What a lot of foolishness!”

“Gotta do it, buddy.”

“If you can do it, I can do it.”

Torolf did the eye-rolling exercise again. “And you better cut that damn hair. Hilda says it’s clogging the drains after you take a shower.”

“I will cut my damn hair when I start SEALs. Not before. And Hilda should talk! Her hair is longer than mine. Really, Torolf, how could you have married such a shrew?” How a man of seeming intelligence like Torolf could have bound himself to a waspish female like Hilda was beyond Thorfinn’s understanding.

“You provoke her. Besides, if you want a shrew, that would be Commander MacLean’s wife, Madrene.

My sister. Hilda is nowhere near as bad as Madrene. We like to say she drove my father out of the Norselands with her nagging.”

“On that I must agree. Still, can you not tame your wife better? She tortures me with her black looks of condemnation, and her sharp tongue, and her overall annoying presence.”

“You torture her right back.”

“That is neither here nor there.”

“I love her.”

“Pffff! I wish you joy of her.”

“Have you learned nothing about women’s lib in your tutoring sessions?”

Turning in his chair, Thorfinn yelled through the open doorway to Hilda, who was feeding Styrr in the scullery. “Didst wash my codpiece?” he inquired arrogantly, just to watch her back go stiff and to make a point with Torolf.