The one who had spoken was a woman who looked absolutely ancient. Her hair was grey and thin, and she was hunched over to such a point that straightening up surely was impossible. The woman was constantly moving her mouth as if she was sucking on something, giving off a harmless vibe. That harmlessness did not extend to her eyes. They were a steely grey and since the woman had spoken they had been constantly boring into the girl’s eyes, effortlessly subduing the girl. This woman was clearly used to leading people, and the girl guessed that people obeyed for other reasons than simple reverence for age. After having suffered her stare, the girl had a hunch that obeying her would usually prove to be the wisest choice. Or maybe at least the safest one.

Standing a respectful step behind her was a man and a woman. Judging by the way they touched each other they were a couple, and a loving one at that. They were both old, but it was a normal kind of old rather than the impossible age of the woman with the eyes. They had the look of a couple just turned grandparents, who was still full of enthusiasm and energy enough to dote on a bellowed grandkid. The girl wasn’t sure what it was that caused her to think that way. Maybe it was something in the way they both held a genuine but reserved smile, like they were both comfortably standing knee deep in a pool of affection. The girl mentally made a barfing sound, after which the woman with the eyes chuckled. The girl felt a jolt through her body. Had she imagined things, or had the old crone actually followed her thoughts?

She shot a sideways look at the old woman who just stood there and smiled. The silence in the room and the presence of the old one’s stare was starting to get to the girl and she shifted nervously in her chair.

“Are you nervous, child?” Asked the old woman, her smile enlarging.

The girl met the old woman’s eyes. “No”, she lied.

The old woman looked at her calmly, evidently comfortable in her domination of the room. The seconds went by and the girl could have sworn she heard the tick-tack of a clock fill the silence, but as far as her searching eyes could tell there was no clock in the room. As time continued to fill the room the girl felt an increased pressure, but the elders seemed to be in no rush. After what felt like an eternity she could feel the old crone reaching out towards her, like a glacial ice conquering a mountain one centimetre at a time. Eventually the old woman’s hand reached her face, and a single bent finger caressed her cheek. It was a soft and careful touch from a finger so worn by time that its skin hung like empty plastic bags from the little meat that remained on it. As the finger finished its path and left her face the old woman seemed content and giggled quietly. “Boy!” She said, apparently addressing the old man behind her. “Tell her the story of the ghost in the valley”, she ordered and utilized a wooden cane to slowly remove herself from the room.

The old man scratched the back of his head. “Uh, maybe we should introduce ourselves first?” He said, his voice relaxed and comfortable to listen to. He got no reply from the old crone who was already gone. This didn’t surprise him and he continued without pause. “I’m Gunnar and this is my wife Karin.” He said and rested his hand on the shoulder of the woman next to him.

“How do you do?” Said the woman and studied the girls face. The woman had an amused twist to her smile, as if she had seen this scene before and found it equally humours every time.

“Good, thanks”, said the girl. “My name is…” She continued but was interrupted by the woman.

“Hanna, yeah we know.” The woman filled in. Hanna had no trouble imagining how things got done in this village.

“So you were lost, were you?” The woman asked.

Hanna was a bit caught off guard at the sudden change in pace. “Uh, yeah. Sure”, she said. The woman narrowed her eyes at this.

“And before you got lost, where were you then?” The woman continued.

“I was in the woods, camping” answered the girl. She thought it was a good enough approximation. She didn’t feel like spilling all the details of how she got here, it would suck if they burnt her on a stake or something.

“And where was this forest that you were in?” The woman asked, her amused smile growing. The girl felt panic build in her chest and inaudibly cursed. This was all going to quick, she needed more time to prepare her answers. She searched her brain for a solution but it didn’t stop to wait for her.

“In the valley?” Hanna heard her moronic brain say. Fuck you, brain. She thought. Now the shit had hit the fan.

“In the valley?, Okay…” Said the woman with the disbelieving tone used by thousands of parents before her. Then she let the silence grow. Hanna was beginning to guess at a relation between the woman and the crone.

“Young girl,” said the woman slowly. “I think we both can agree that is not where you came from. You are hiding something important and I’m not letting you off the hook until you prove to me that you are not a danger too this village”. She finished with a stern look in her eyes. Next to her the old man was poorly trying to do the same look.

Hanna tightly gripped the seat of her chair and desperately tried to come up with a suitable answer. Would they even believe her if she said that she didn’t remember? Her effort proved fruitless and eventually she gave up. She hung her head in defeat and sighed. Here goes, she thought.

Then she retold all that had happened to her since she that night in the army, how she woke up in the valley without her gear and rifle, her run in with the pig-otter and eventually bumped into Olof and Björn.

When she was done she looked the woman in her eyes, trying to judge her reaction. The man had boiled them all some tea and was currently sitting in his chair, absentmindedly stirring his tea with a spoon. The woman had her arms crossed and seemed fully occupied with processing what she had heard.

“What’s a rifle?” Asked the old man.

Hanna turned around with a snap, having more or less forgotten his presence. She was surprised by his lack of knowledge. She really shouldn’t be after having a similar talk with Olof earlier, but it was hard to get over the fact that common knowledge really wasn’t common here. “It’s a, uh…” She said. “It’s like a metal tube that uses a quick burning substance to push out small pieces of metal at great speeds”.

“Ingenious!” Exclaimed the man. He seemed bewildered by the subject.

“Honey,” The woman cut him off. “Maybe we should stick to what’s important?”

“Uh, sure honey,” the old man agreed. The girl got a feeling that he felt that meant moving away from what was actually important.

“Did it have a name, this place you lived at before your… gap in memory?”, the woman asked. The way she pronounced gap made the girl think of someone doing quotation marks with their fingers.

“Sure” answered Hanna, not really sure if she was asking about her county or her city. “I was stationed outside of a small village called Kvarn”.

“But it still contained technological feats like this… rifle you mentioned?” Once again the quotation marks could be heard.

“No, uh well yes, but…” The girl was unsure of how to continue. “That kind of technology wasn’t considered special. Even kids had access to much more advanced things, like smartphones and stuff.” Hanna was beginning to feel that she was actively painting herself into a corner.

“Even a kid like you?” Asked the woman. The way she said it made the girl think this had been settled a while ago. The girl nodded in response, to busy thinking of the implications to answer by voice.

“Ok” Said the woman. “You can stay in this village. In return, I expect your full compliance in all matters”.

Hanna blinked a few times before she agreed. She had the distinct feeling that a trade had taken place. She just wasn’t sure exactly what she had agreed to.

The woman looked at her like she had already moved on and was annoyed that the girl was still taking up her precious time. “Scuttle over to Björn, he will give you some equipment. We can’t have a member of my tribe walking around naked” She said and pushed her out of the building.

The door slammed shut when she was done. When the girl was out of earshot she turned to her husband. Her face immediately dropped some of its business-like harshness.

“Phew!” She said while exhaling. “Grandma really outdid herself, didn’t she?” She asked her husband, who nodded in response. He went over to her and hugged her lovingly as they continued their conversation. “Make sure you learn everything you can from her.” The woman said. The man only continued nodding. “Mark my words, that girl is going to shake things up.” She said, uncertain if that was a good thing or not.

As the girl walked out of the building she paused. She was for the first time alone in the village. It felt like she was at one of those large medieval-fairs that made its participants wear period appropriate clothing. The village was a funny blend of sleepy and active. It had plenty of people moving around but compared to the buzzing vibe of a city it was practically dead. Plus the fact that most people moved about really slowly. Animal sounds could be heard everywhere, and somewhere the rhythmic sound of metal striking metal could still be heard, despite the late hour. If all the RPGs the girl had played had gotten things right, then that was the sound of a smithy.

The girl looked around. She didn’t really know where Björn was, but she guessed that she should start looking in the place where they skinned the animals. It ought to be easy to find her way back there, the village wasn’t exactly big and the walk here had practically contained no turns. But it had gotten a lot darker while she met with the elders of the village, and the girl’s sense of direction was terrible as it was. In the end she picked the direction that felt least wrong and set off.

Fifteen minutes later Hanna was rather annoyed and was for the third time rethinking the direction. This happened to her far too often. She would set about in a direction, then second-guess her choice, change direction and then five minutes later regret changing it. By then she was always more or less lost. It was pitch black by now, and it wasn’t like this shitty village even had streetlights. Or fucking signposts. It was like kilometres between houses where she was from, and they had still managed to put up signposts. The girl grumbled and looked around for some kind of help.

Pretty much all houses were pitch black, which didn’t really help with navigation. The girl walked at random and saw a house with a fire burning outside. A bunch of people was loitering around outside. Not having much choice, the girl walked towards the fire. The ground was more or less all mud with the exception for some random trash strewn about. She guessed that a not insignificant amount of the mud was actually animal dung. She kept her eyes on her feet as she carefully navigated between the least pleasant parts of the ground. As she rounded the last corner before the fire she bumped in to someone, who promptly fell into the mud.

“You fucking twat!” Screamed the mud-diver. It was a girl pretty much her own age. She was wearing some leather armour that looked better than the one Björn wore, and she had several knifes attached to her chest. Her hair seemed to be copper, but it was hard to tell with the darkness and all the mud in the way. Behind her stood a girl and a boy. They both had that dull look in their eyes that better than anything identified a sidekick.

“Are you okay?” Asked the boy as he clumsily helped mud-girl up.

She in turn slapped his hands away from her once she had gotten up, apparently too full of herself for common decency.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Asked mud-girl with a harsh tone and accentuated her question with a shove in Hanna’s chest.

Hanna was beginning to get a feel for where this conversation was headed. She didn’t really have the patience for it, she was pissed off as it was. “Sorry” she said, as calmly as possible.

To no-one’s surprise that wasn’t enough for mud-girl. “Sorry?” She said with a mocking voice. “What should I do with my fucking armour?”

“I don’t know. Wash it?” Hanna suggested. She was beginning to feel mighty annoyed with the whiny girl.

At that Mud-girl stepped up her game. She head-butted Hanna, knocking her head back. Next thing she knew her side was screaming in pain. Forcing her head down she just about saw the knife that Mud-girl had stabbed her with. Her assailant took her lowered head as an invitation and finished her off with a powerful hook that sent her to the ground. With a triumphant look on her face, Mud-girl walked off, sidekicks in tow.

Fucker! The girl thought as she laid in the mud, clutching her side. This was not how she had envisioned things would go. For a while she just laid there breathing. Then she begun laughing. She had imagined herself demonstrating her prowess, but instead she bit the dirt. How did that saying go now again? Toad in a well?

Her musing was interrupted by a familiar face. “I see you have met Birgitta,” Olof said as he was leaning over her. “Are you okay?”

“Nah, I was stabbed” said the girl, and removed her hand for Olof to see.

He knelt down by her side and took a look. “Are you sure?” He said, looking doubtful. “Do you mind if I…” He begun before he trailed off, his cheeks visibly turning red. The girl rolled her eyes and nodded her consent. Olof tentatively pushed his hand under her poncho. The girl would never admit it to his face, but his touch got her pulse running and made her face heat up. He poked his hand around the wound without finding what he was looking for. “Does it hurt?” he asked.

The girl focused on the feeling of her wound, and her face that had been scrunched up in pain relaxed. It didn’t actually hurt. “No” she said, with an audible confusion to her voice.

“It seems the knife only punctured your poncho”, he offered as explanation. He sounded as if he didn’t really believe it himself. They both got silent and it got awkward fast. Meanwhile the boy had poked his finger through a hole in her poncho and was waving it around. When she saw it she laughed and playfully swatted his hands away. She held her hand up towards the boy, and he grabbed it and helped her up.

“Is she always like that?” She asked.

“Most of the time”, Olof answered, a slight sadness to his voice. The girl got the feeling that he had been on the receiving end of Mud-girls temper more than once. “I heard that you went to see grandma and grandpa” he said, in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

The girl raised her eyebrows at this. The relation certainly fit her image of him, pampered as he was. It also reminded her of why she had gone searching for Björn. “Yeah”, she said. “Björn was supposed to give me some clothes. Do you know where he is?”

“He is… occupied at the moment”, was Olof’s answer. The girl was pretty sure of what he was occupied with. It must have shown in her eyes because Olof started to develop a blush again.

“I guess I could help you instead” he said. He sounded as if he was sort of overstepping his authority. Not that the girl cared.

He led them away towards a fairly large building with a large iron padlock hanging on the outside of the door. He fidgeted with the look for a while before it came loose. “Wait here” he said, before he disappeared inside the building. From the inside a lot of noises could be heard, as if he was continually bumping in to stuff. A muffled “Fuck!” led its way out through the door, and a good ten minutes later Olof exited the building. His nose was bleeding from one nostril and he was carrying a pair of boots and some clothing.

“These should be of the right size, unless my eyes deceive me”, he said, and they both froze. The girl didn’t answer, she just raised her eyebrows questioningly. The boy’s face was beet-red. “Uhm, here you go”, he said, with his eyes towards the ground.

The girl couldn’t help but chuckle. “What about a place to sleep?” She asked when it seemed like the boy was done taking the initiative.

His head unwillingly rose from the ground and he looked like he wasn’t very comfortable with how things had turned out. His face was cringed up as if he was hurt, and his voice was weak. It seemed he couldn’t believe what he was about to say.

“Maybe you could sleep at my place?”