An Angel Called Peterbilt by Gorg Huff

Author:Gorg Huff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0CGMCJZQM
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2024-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

Gada’s house, Fort Peterbilt

December 25, 1005 CE

Gada opened the door to his house and looked out at a snow-covered field. Fort Peterbilt was looking awfully festive as Christmas morning rolled around. There was a Christmas tree near the Peterbilt. It had brightly colored strings tied to the limbs and little sacks filled with nuts and sweet treats. It made Gada smile.

Shane, Miriam, and Norman had told the locals all about Christmas and Santa Claus. Gada had questioned the parents about the celebration. The thing was, none of the Peterbilt people had been of the “don’t celebrate Christmas because it’s a pagan holiday” sort.

“It’s mostly an excuse to have a nice feast and give presents to the children,” Alyssa explained.

“And each other,” Michael added, with a grin at his wife. “Good food and good fellowship.”

As it happened, the priests of Hocha also had a celebration held on the shortest day of the year, but that celebration involved the sacrifice of young women in order to persuade the gods to change their minds and bring back summer.

Yes, Gada thought. This is much better than what they will be doing in Hocha in a few days. First, it doesn’t involve killing teenage girls.

In a little while Santa Claus would be welcomed into Fort Peterbilt and the jolly old elf was bringing all sorts of presents to good little girls and boys.

He smiled again at the snow-crowned Christmas tree and went back inside to get into his Santa outfit.

* * *

Over the next four hours, Gada went around the homes in Fort Peterbilt and delivered presents and treats to every house. And every house was decorated, including Christmas trees and Christmas feasts. All in celebration of Jesus deciding to be born into a human body to end forever the practice of human sacrifice.

He reached the Peterbilt and noted the rumble as its engines idled, keeping the interior warm and powering the lights and other stuff. The first Christmas since the arrival of the Peterbilt people was a white Christmas.

The most popular present was a carved and painted Peterbilt truck with wheels that actually spun. And, of course, a pickup truck. But there were also scarves and shirts, because knitting—or maybe it was crocheting—had been developed by the folk of Jabir.

He gave Melanie the scarves.

* * *

Melanie smiled and shook her head. All she’d been able to tell the locals was that there were little hooks on long sticks and women could use them to make cloth of a sort. That had been enough, as it turned out. The locals had brought her several examples of hooks and she’d approved the ones that looked most like what she’d remembered. Then the women had gone off with thread and experimented. Melanie wasn’t at all sure what they’d come up with was either knitting or crocheting, but it seemed to work.

Melanie got half a dozen knit scarves. They used a hemp thread that the locals had had before the Peterbilt people had arrived.

Then they all went back

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