Einar looked down at Ellen who smiled back at him. The crowd glanced at each other. They knew the look. They had seen it many times before. Einar whispered to Ellen, “‘til death do we part” and Ellen shivered at his choice of words. 

 

Chapter 3

“Have we got everything?” Einar asked

Ellen hefted a bag on to her back. “Food, drink, sleeping bags, kitchen sink, yes I think so”

Einar laughed and turned to the ettins and Norns there to wave him off “Bye then, we will return”

Just then Skuld, the youngest Ettin Prophet marched up and handed Ellen a tightly rolled scroll.

“Just one more thing” she said. Ellen and Einar groaned in unison and Ellen unrolled the scroll.

“Oh!”she said, “It’s a map.” Einar looked over her shoulder and frowned

“What are the empty spaces for?” he asked. Skuld smiled knowingly

“They will provide you with help along the way”her smile faded, “You’re gonna need it”

Ellen hugged Skuld and faught back tears.The Prophets hugged her in turn.

“Be brave but be afraid young Ellen.”Urd whispered. Ellen nodded and joined Einar at the end of the track, preparing herself for the unknown

*******************************************

It seemed like they had been walking for hours. It couldn’t have been though otherwise they would be elderly and complaining about joint pain and loss of hearing. Einar sat down on the grass and said, “I’m tired. Sure we have to get on with it but we’re entitled to rest are we not?”

Ellen was exhausted but she was eager to get this over with. She didn’t want to delay the agony of her impending demise. She looked up at the top of the hill they had been climbing “Lets just get over this rise and then we can rest.” Einar sighed and got up slowly to follow Ellen.

         At the top they wanted nothing more than a chance to rest.

“Urd told me that the Norns and ettins were captured in the oddest of places and that the best thing we could do was to find good cover if we didn’t feel up to running at a moments notice” Ellen panted.

Einar was lying on his back. “I don’t know about you but I sure as hell dont feel like running right now” he yawned. Ellen nudged him with her foot and told him to get up.

“But I just got comfy,” he whined.

“Don’t make this more difficult than it is” Ellen begged. She parted some plants and found a hole just large enough for a Norn or an ettin to get through, but not a grendel.

“Hey!” she exclaimed, “Look at this. We couldn’t have found a better hiding place if we’d tried”

“And am I gonna get disturbed again?” Einar asked

“No. You can sleep for as long as ya like” Ellen looked at him, “Within reason of course and no funny business either!”

“Who me?” said Einar innocently and staggered to his feet and followed Ellen into the rather large burrow, letting the tall grass spring back and conceal them while they slept.

************************************************

The burrow proved to have been very useful.

“Look at this,” Ellen said looking down at the savage looking claw marks, “Grendels have been around here.”

“Lucky they didn’t catch us then. We’d be goners now if they had” Einar replied light-heartedly

Ellen couldn’t believe he was being so mind-meltingly flippant. God save them if it came down to that. They wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Lets have a look at this map thinga-ma-jigger then” Einar said, changing the subject

“In there” said Ellen indicating her head towards her pack.

Einar found the map, unrolled it and gasped. “I see what Skuld meant about helping us along the way.” Einar said holding the map up so Ellen could see. In one of the empty spaces there were four lines of text:

 

Though you’ve still got far to go

You’ll find a friend and also a foe

It’s hard to know who trust you should

You’ll find the right one of the wood

 

“What d’you s’pose it means?” asked Einar.

Ellen thought for a moment, “We’ll meet a ally and an enemy and we have to work out who is who and-”

“But how do we know?” Einar interrupted.

“I was just coming to that” Ellen snapped, irritated, “It looks as though we’ll find the friend in the wood.”

“There’s one over there,” Einar pointed out, “In fact, that’s the only one anywhere.”

Ellen shrugged, “On to the wood then”

*****************************************

The wood was dark and damp. It was strange and scary to the two Norns who had not seen anything like this before. Not even the one that used to be the hand had found this mysterious place.

“Now what?” said Einar

“I have no idea,” said Ellen, “ I think that we should stay here and get our bearings first”

They didn’t have time to do much else as a strongly woven net fell from them from above.

“What the?” began Einar

“Oh dear,” said Ellen, “I think we’ve found our enemy”

“How can you tell?” asked Einar

Ellen looked around, “Educated guess,” she said

Suddenly an arrow shot through the air and took the net with it, pinning it to a tree.

Einar & Ellen followed the path of the arrow back to it’s source with their eyes. The unmistakable form of a slender female Norn with long hair was in silhouette at the far end of the wood, but a few yards from the Norns cowering together. The remaining question was: was she friend or foe?