Turns out, there wasn’t anything fun to do. But it was interesting to watch the villagers and see what everyone was up to. It was all very…normal. The two of them had walked from one end of the village to the other, only stopping when they got to the woods on the other side.

“We should go back.” Signe suggested. “The boat will probably leave soon.”

A loud cry filled the air, coming from the woods.

Johan had just enough time to meet Signe’s eyes before they set off.

They ran through the woods, dodging roots and soft moss as the tightly growing trees shut out the sunlight and the sky above them.

Finally the woods opened up into a big open meadow. The first thing he saw was the monster. Then he saw what it was chasing. A screaming child ran straight towards them.

“What the hell is a grassman doing here?!” He startled, coming to a dead stop as he tok in the view. A grassman was a small creature. At least most of the time. They started out as the roots of plants and trees, which would then mutate into monsters when there was excess good energy in the air. They stayed still underground, laying in wait to use its thorny vines to grab onto unsuspecting humans and pull them under the dirt, suffocating them to then use as fertilizer for the monster to grow bigger.

The kid launched forward and grabbed onto Johan’s leg with an iron grip.

“You take the kid.” Signe said with a grin and crouched down into her axe stance before realizing her mistake and switching to combat. A vine snapped after the kid, but right before it could reach its target Signe jumped in front of them and grabbed it out of the air, expertly avoiding its thorns. With a grin thrown back over her shoulder, she let it pull her in.

“Why me!?” Johan tried to shake the kid off of his led to instead grab him, but it was refusing to let go, only crying louder in fear. Why his leg?! Signe was right there, why didn’t it pick her?

Wait a second, he knew that kid. “Einar?!”

Vines launched at them and Johan quickly pulled the kid into his arms, ignoring the cry of terror, then did the only thing he could do at that moment.

He turned and ran.

Behind him he heard the squishy sound of vines breaking and a shrill screech followed them as the monster was ripped apart by Signe.

Vines shot past, digging up the earth around them and Johan summoned his dagger just in time to cut through one that shot up in front of them. To kill the monster he would need to get to the root, and with the kid with him, there was no way.

As soon as he cut the vine, even more shot up from the ground. Johan could only run as they tried to grab him.

Then another scream filled the air.

A chill went down his spine. That wasn’t the monster.

He stomped his foot into the dirt, using his speed to whirl himself back around. Vines flew past him and he took off back into the meadow.

His heart beat out of his chest, the kid screaming into his cloak, and Johan scanned the area without seeing anyone. There was someone else there somewhere!

Then finally he saw it. A movement in the corner of his eye. There she was! A woman was laying on the ground, trying to get away as the vines gained in on her.

Johan cursed as he changed his course.

The vines reached her ankle and the woman let out a sobbing scream as it continued to wrap up her leg.

Johan gritted his teeth and threw the kid under one arm, raising his dagger in the other.

The vines dropped to the ground and the woman gasped.

Johan came to a stop, hovering over the cut vines, his chest heaved for air as gunk lazily dripped from the blade. Anger raced through him.

Slowly he looked to the woman, teeth clenched, interested in seeing who was stupid enough to bring a child into such a situation.

The woman’s leg was bleeding from where the thorns had pierced the skin-

Then he froze, his eyes catching something.

Her stomach…

“What is a pregnant woman doing in the middle of a monster infested field?!” He snapped and grabbed her hand, harshly pulled her to her feet and ignored her small yelp. If she could play with monsters she could deal with some manhandling.

“Huldra!” The woman screamed and Johan quickly followed her eyes to see… Signe. He took a deep breath, mentally counting to ten.

The woman let out another panicked sob and she tried to curl in on herself but Johan wasn’t having any of it. He pushed the kid into her arms.

With what Signe was doing, they would be safe there for a while.

“Stay here.” He ordered, leaving no room for objections as he ran off towards the fight. They needed to speed things up before the boat left. They had plans!

Without her axe Signe was fighting slower than normal, only using her hands to rip apart the vines, but despite that she was doing fine. Dozens of torn vines littered the ground around her together with shallow stomped holes. Johan quickly caught on to her plan. She was luring the root out!

But he wasn’t the only one that realized. As Signe narrowed in on the root’s location, it got defensive. A dozen vines looked like nothing compared to what was happening now.

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There were no more vines charging for Johan, nor anywhere else in the meadow, instead all of them swarmed together to protect the root. They whipped around each other, digging into the earth and snapping against everything around it.

And Signe was right in the middle of it. Johan watched as it closed in around her, trying to trap her.

Johan knew what he had to do.

“Signe!” He saw her look back, and he threw the knife, watching as it flew through the last little gap, and closed.

Johan quickly jumped back as the ball grew, the sound deafening as the vines whipped at everything in reach.

For a long moment all he could do was wait.

Then his hands slapped over his ears as a hair-raising screech filled the air.

It stopped moving, the vines fell apart and landed heavily on the ground and out came Signe, carefully stepping through the mess and avoiding the worst of it.

“This is disgusting.” She commented with a grimace and Johan agreed. He watched as she tried to untangle dismembered vines from her hair and clothes, wiping away plant gunk as she went. Johan sighed, now she really needed new clothes.

Behind her he saw the root. It was pulled halfway out of the dirt and sliced into multiple pieces. Signe offered the dagger back. “Thanks for the loan.”

He took the dagger back and looked over all the mess. “Come on, we have a boat to catch. Let’s get those two to the chief’s house. He can deal with them.”

“Wait!” The woman ran over, dragging Einar with her. “I can’t go there like this.”

Johan blinked, confused.

“Why not?” Signe asked, squinting at her.

“I..” She hesitated, one hand pulling on a leaf stuck in her hair. “I just…” She faltered off, eyes trailing on the ground.

A thought hit him. A pregnant woman didn’t just drag a child into the woods for no reason.

Johan shared a look with Signe. She seemed to have realized the same thing.

Johan closed his eyes. This was going to ruin their shopping trip. A small comfort was that Signe looked even more mad at that than him.

“Fine. We’ll go to our place.” Johan decided, who knew what stupid stuff that woman would do if they left her alone.

The woman just nodded, head hanging.

Johan turned with a huff, ready to go home and finish dealing with this.

-and immediately stopped.

What way was the house?!

He frowned. He knew where the house was. He could easily find back to it… if they walked through the village. But that woman didn’t want to do that, she didn’t want to be seen.

Johan stared at the trees for a second before turning back.

“Do you know the way?” He asked Signe.

“Uhh...” She looked around. “Not from here.”

For a long moment they looked at each other. How were they supposed to get her to the house then?

Johan stopped himself from looking at the woman. Maybe they should just take the kid and leave her. Really, Johan was more worried about what she would drag the kid into than what she did by herself.

The woman sniffled and broke the silence. “You guys just moved into the abandoned house, right?”

“Yeah.” Signe said and within a second she wore a bright smile. “You don’t happen to know the way do you?”

“I can- I mean.” The woman hesitated. “I mean, yes, I do. I can lead the way if you want me to.”

“Thank you, that would be great.” Signe continued.

The woman sent her a cautious look and took a few steps past them, her red and puffy eyes never leaving them. “It’s this way.”

For a long time they walked in silence. It hadn’t taken long before Einar got tired of walking, so he was now sitting in Johan’s arms. His small face hidden against Johan’s shoulder, and so limp that if it wasn’t for the iron grip on his cloak, Johan would have thought he had fallen asleep.

“So why were you in the woods anyways?” Signe wondered, breaking the silence now.

Johan could see the woman hesitate, the way her shoulders drew up and her fists clenched in clear view from where she walked ahead of them.

“Did you know there were monsters out here?” Signe followed up, now alarmed.

“What- no!” The woman jerked around to face them. “I…” She faltered off, her voice cracking and she sighed angrily and wiped her face as her lip wobbled dangerously.

“I was going to pick molte.” She finally said and let out a sob, trying to keep back more. “We need jam for evening food tonight, but we don’t have any left. So I thought I should go get some berries to make more. It would have been easy! But I was watching Einar so I had to take him with me but he wanted to pick flowers in the meadow and ran off.”

“Can’t someone else pick the berries?” Johan protested, trying to wrap his mind around the situation.

He flinched back as she burst into another round of sobs.

“You don’t understand!” She cried and Johan agreed, he really didn’t. “Molte jam is my mother in law’s favorite!”

Oh. Realization hit him.

“Lady-”

“Astrid.” She interrupted with a hiccup. “My name is Astrid.”

“Astrid.” He quickly corrected, and continued gently. “If your mother in law doesn’t like you there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Your husband should be standing up for you.” Signe added, crossing her arms.

“My husband is dead.” Astrid said shortly, sounding tired.

Johan froze.

Signe’s mouth closed with a click, eyes wide.

“I moved here for my husband after we married.” Astrid explained. “We met when studying and quickly fell in love. We got married and I even got pregnant. Life was like a fairy tale…so bright and amazing. My mother in law never liked me but me and my husband...we were so happy. We were building our family and his love was all I needed.”

Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “But then the reality set in. My baby will be dead from the moment he is born.”

Johan sucked in a breath.

“Before that I hadn’t really cared, you know.” Astrid quickly continued, meeting their eyes as she spoke. “Babies aren’t being born, so what, right? Nobody I knew was pregnant so it didn’t seem like a problem. Not one I would have to deal with, anyways. So when I found out I was pregnant I was so ecstatic, I rushed to tell my husband right away. But my mother in law was there too, and reminded us that it-it doesn’t...” She faltered.

She wiped away a tear before continuing.

“Anyways. Time passed quickly after that. I had an appointment for an abortion in Solstad, but then the landslide happened, turning the water into a horrible nightmare. Everything turned into a nightmare. The next day my husband was killed while fishing. But of course, people don’t die now either! He became one of those monsters!”

Astrid set her swollen, teary eyes on Signe. “And finally you killed him.”

Johan froze.

“I didn’t-” Signe quickly tried to defend herself but Astrid stopped her with two more words.

“Thank you.” Astrid said. “He deserves peace.”

“Oh.” Signe fell silent and sent a wide eyed look at Johan.

Johan stopped a sigh of relief as the following silence. He really wouldn’t have known what to do if the pregnant woman attacked Signe.

“I’m sorry for calling you a huldra.” Astrid suddenly said and sniffled loudly, more tears running down her face.

“You did what?!” Signe asked in shock.

The forest opened up ahead of them before either of them could continue.

Johan could finally see the house! He was about to let out a celebratory yell when he saw who stood in front of it.

“You didn’t turn up at the boat, where were you?”