pt 3
In case it wasn't already somewhat apparent, my grandfather was an odd sort, he never liked staying in towns or normal houses and almost always carried these little runes and charms on strings, I always found it neat and when I was younger I would often ask what they meant and I'd listen to the stories for hours.
My mother always had a problem with him visiting; I'd overheard her talking to my dad about allowing Dana to fill my head with "crazy nonsense" on more than one occasion but he'd often shrug it off and say something along the lines of "It's good for him to learn a little about dad's culture". The point is that it was only after I really started to get a look at the cabin and the Word Wall that these things started to sink in.
He was definitely a little odd at times, the first day we went out to chop a few trees•down for firewood and he would very specifically point out which trees we were going to cut but only after pressing his ear to them and listening to see if it was "unmarked". When I asked him what he meant by that he said that some trees were special to the forest and we shouldn't touch them, otherwise the tomtenissar would get angry and we really didn't want that.
For those who don't know, tomtenissar are part of Scandinavian folk lore, they basically look like garden gnomes and act sort of like santa clause, at least that's how they are portrayed now
Growing up my grandfather would tell me about these little monsters, about how they would chew open peoples doors and windows in order crawl into houses at night and whisper things to the sleeping person, the people would sometimes go crazy, wandering out into the woods or ranting in incoherent babble, other times they would just be sort of... different. Either way they were freaky little bastards but I stopped believing the stories around the same time I figured santa was bunk.
Dana really isn't known for his sense of humor so hearing him say that was more than a little strange. I sort of awkwardly laughed at it and he looked at me and said
>"Think I'm joking? Keep that up and you won't be seeing the summer" 1891 625KiB, 1920x1080 Anonymous sun 31 Jul 2016 No.697391667 Quoted By:
That shut me up pretty quick, I still didn't particularly buy the stories but I still made sure not to tap the trees that he said were "marked".
We finished loading up the sleds we had brought with us and at that point Dana said, >"Let's go this way; I want to show you something before we get back."
Following him, it seemed to me like we were making a wide arc instead of going straight back but I wasn't going to argue.
As we walked I noticed there were no animal tracks, as in absolutely none. Even on the way to the cabin I had at least picked up on a few prints from rabbits or moose and the like. When I asked why we hadn't come across any despite being so far in the woods I was told that
>'They don't like it here; know to stay a ways off" "Why's that?" I asked back
>"These woods aren't safe for much of anyone after darkO least of all critters." Anonymous Sun 31 Jul 2016 20:38:36 No.697391851 Quoted By: >>697391667
After walking a while longer we reached a high at the edge of the section of forest we were, Dana pointed out beyond the now sparse treeline, what lay past it was the vast snowy rises and falls of the untamed wild, honestly it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. There was an overturned tree and he motioned for me to sit on it.
For a little while we just sat there taking in the view until he sighed
>"Now I know you are going to be new to all this for a while but I think you ought to know, things are different out here, I need you to trust me when I tell you something or else it could get both of us killed, you understand?"
I said I did, I figured that he had taken my reaction to him talking about tomtenissar to heart. He may be strange but he means well so I figured I would humor him and make things easier for the both of us. That would prove to be a very bad idea.
Once we got back and finished stacking the firewood Dana broke out more of our dwindling provisions and as we were cooking he said that tomorrow we would need to go hunting, if we caught anything he would show me how to properly butcher and animal.
We ate and settled in for the night but as we were settling in he told me that if I ever got up in the night to use the outhouse to the side of the cabin that I should always bring a candle, no matter how bright the moon was and that if it goes out I should come back inside right away. With that he set a small dangling thing up on the door >Pic related
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