Time Travel

I'm working on a book for Resplendence which is part of an anthology. The guidelines of the antho are that it's erotic, menage, and shape shifter. All fantastic things. My first book for this year-long antho release is March 1st. I'm pretty excited about it and I've been doing a ton of research on a long forgotten tribe of Native Americans form the 11th and 12th centuries.

Given that time frame, I naturally have a time travel book going here. And per the guidelines, three men are hooking up (which always makes me think of a choo-choo train and attached cars).

My central hero, Flynn, is sent back in time. I won't get into the particulars on how, he just is. And here is where I suddenly get stuck. Does he come back and part of the magic of his transportation is that he suddenly speaks their language? Does he learn it at an expedited rate? This is a novella between 20-24k, so I don't have a year to lapse in here.

Also, this is a shifter, and Flynn is a shifter. But I'm now 4k into the story and first oh no, there hasn't been sex yet. The second oh no is, there's been no shifting. Sigh.

I think I have to go back and have Flynn arrive in shifted form. Which will actually work nicely for the direction of my story. But it does mean he can't start chatting right off the bat. As to the sex... me thinks he must arrive as a naked animal. Makes total sense as animals don't wear clothes. THEN when he shifts to human form, he's still nakey.

Now the problem is the language barrier. *grumble*

Ideas anyone?