CONTENT WARNING: Mentioned/referenced genocide

Back the way she came.

When Greta had fled from her home, she’d never dreamed that she’d ever go back. She’d traveled alone for miles upon miles, days upon days, running from the things that haunted her. If she had it her way, she would’ve stayed in what Esko said used to be Finland for the rest of her life. She didn’t have to travel to fix the world, right? She could just work towards her goals from the comfort of a new home, right?

Who was she kidding? Of course she couldn’t. Greta may have been optimistic, but she was far from being a fool. To achieve her goals, she knew she was going to have to go places. She just… hadn’t expected to be retracing her steps so soon.

They’d already been going non-stop in the direction of the mountains for about two days now, skirting in a wide arc around the fortress that used to be Rovaniemi. Though it was still some days’ travel away, Greta couldn’t shake the feeling that they were getting too close to the border of her homeland. The border not far from her hometown, wherever that was now.

The idea made her feel sick to her stomach.

“This place is fucking creepy,” Astrid announced from up ahead, breaking Greta from her thoughts. They were in a thickly wooded area with a surprising amount of silence in the air around them. Even Helgi, who insisted he knew exactly what he was doing and where they were going, seemed nervous about it with his searching eyes and pinned ears. Occasionally, they’d perk up in alert at the rare sound of the wind.

“Yeah, not a fan,” Esko noted, piping up for the first time in almost two hours. “Back in the city, there was always something making some kind of noise. It’s like walking around with the world on mute out here.”

“Maybe we could sing something? Or make Finner play something?” Greta proposed. Carefully, she stepped over a log, turning to help Esko, who was already scrambling over on his own.

Finner, who was bringing up the rear, snorted. “Not happening. I don’t need to hypnotize any of you.”

“Not even a single little note on your violin?”

“It’s a fiddle.”

“Both of you shut up. Something’s wrong.”

All eyes turned to Helgi, who had stopped dead in his tracks in the underbrush. His hackles were raised, ears flat against his skull in what might’ve been terror. In a straight shot ahead of the group was a massive, rusted machine, still trying to move despite the branches and fallen wood it was tangled in and trapped by. Behind her, Finner drew a sharp breath.

“A Trollkiller,” he whispered. Any self-respecting Troll knew the purpose of such a machine. When the Wild had finally taken back what was rightfully its, humanity had fought back at first. They engineered machines in all shapes and sizes, designed to track down and kill Trolls in a desperate attempt to stop the invasion. Supposedly, not very many were left, and the ones that were had fallen into bad shape, just like this one.

Next to Greta, Esko’s brow furrowed. “A what?”

“Trollkiller,” Astrid answered. She had scrambled back to the relative safety of the legs of the larger party members, pressing herself fearfully against Esko’s calf.

“It’s exactly what it says on the tin,” Finner added. “Doesn’t look like it can get us, but we should travel carefully, just in case.”

Helgi backed slowly towards the other four. “It looks like it was recently trapped. I don’t like that it’s still moving.”

Fear skittered up and down Greta’s spine like some kind of awful centipede. If it was recently trapped, then that meant it could’ve still been out and about earlier that day. If they’d gotten here just an hour earlier, would it have…?

No. Stop thinking about that.

“Looks like the guns aren’t working,” Finner pointed out after a very long moment during which nobody dared to move. “I remember my father showing me a downed one once. Had whatever was making it function ripped out, but all the weapons were still intact. This one looks like the artillery has been destroyed already.”

“Rusted over,” Esko nodded. “That said, I can check. I’m human, and it only kills Trolls, right?”

It was none of her business. It was really none of her business, but as Greta opened her mouth to stop Esko, she couldn’t help but notice the way Finner swiftly grabbed onto his wrist. Yellow eyes flashing with barely-disguised alarm, the young Troll pulled the human back and placed both hands on Esko’s shoulders.

“Absolutely not!” Finner chided like an upset mother. “Look at it. Do you think whatever makes it able to tell the difference between Troll and human is still fucking functioning in there?!”

“Finner, what if I could get close enough to disable it completely?”

“No,” growled the other man, pushing the blonde towards Greta. “Listen, Esko. Whatever fucking death wish you have? It can wait. You are not going to get crushed by that thing today. If those guns are still working, it might fill you full of more holes than a tree inhabited by a family of woodpeckers. It’s not worth the risk.”

Greta watched as Esko glared at Finner for a moment. Then, the former sighed and relented.

“Fine.”

Finner’s face, which Greta had figured always looked like that of an unamused cat, flickered to something she hadn’t seen from him before. Relief. He was relieved. Relieved that Esko wasn’t about to go do something stupid.

So was she. So was everyone.

The machine continued to struggle, but to no avail. As Helgi guided them all in a wide berth around it, Greta almost felt a twinge of pity for it. It reminded her of the stag her grandmother had showed her when she was small, trapped by its antlers in that old barbed wire fence. She had cried for it, and her grandmother had told her that things like this were why all humans needed to die. Of course, she knew better now, and she knew that the metallic construct fading into the distance behind her was nothing like that poor animal in its last moments of life, but the mere reminder was a knife twisted in her gut, a painful pang of sorrow between her ribs. If there was one thing she’d realized as she’d aged, it was that nothing and no one deserved to die. Yes, sometimes it happened, and she had long since made peace with that, but killing something because it was deserved? There was no such thing. That was a bullshit lie she’d been fed since she was a child, and it was a lie she would never fall for again.

---

Camp was simple this time. Helgi and Astrid had brought in a rabbit with some difficulty, and Finner and Esko were attempting to make a stew from what they had. Greta wished she could’ve helped, but seeing the body of the little creature weighed too heavy on her today. It reminded her too much of the infant she watched taken by the flames on the day that sealed her destiny. Instead, she busied herself with building a little grave for its bones, next to another honorary grave for the Trollkiller she’d seen earlier that day. It was foolish, but she pitied it.

Nothing deserves to die.

“Child,” her grandmother’s voice echoed in her head, “For every Troll they have killed, every sin they have committed, we will kill twice as many humans. One day, you will be there to see what a world clean of their carnage looks like.”

NOTHING DESERVES TO DIE!

Nobody Greta had ever encountered had been there for the world before humans took it over. As far as she was concerned, there was no world without the scars etched by humanity. The wounds would heal in time, yes, but there was no such thing as an injury that healed without a mark. She used to dream of the stories her grandma told her about that beautiful future, and yet she figured she knew more about the true nature of people now than that old hag ever did. Not even all Trolls thought the same. She could prove it.

Finner couldn’t have cared less about humans. He was calm and practical, with no interest in the damaged life that had existed beyond the horizons of his lake until recently. Astrid was a far cry from the vengeful women Greta had grown up with, more interested in living life to the fullest and having fun. Helgi was a whimsical nomad with a good head on his shoulders and an equally marvelous heart.

As for humans? Well, if there were any others even remotely like Esko, with his intelligent mind and strong sense of leadership and the compassion he kept tucked away just beneath the surface, then she couldn’t possibly imagine hating all of his people.

Maybe one day, if she was reading him right, he’d learn not to as well.

“Dinner,” Finner informed her suddenly from behind her, startling her straight from her reverie once more. Her friends seemed to be very good at doing that. He set a wooden bowl full of stew in her lap and situated himself beside her. She was instantly grateful that they’d stolen some of that cookware from those ruins.

“Thanks,” she replied. The food smelled delicious, although there was a distinct lack of silverware with which to eat it. She was going to have to take sips instead. “What’s in it?”

Finner paused, as though trying to remember. “Uhh.. rabbit, ground elder, wild chanterelles, and garlic mustard. Basically a bunch of stuff I found in the woods.”

Greta paused. “You’re sure it’s chanterelle?”

“Yeah. Believe it or not, my father taught me to forage for things as a kid. Don’t worry, I triple-checked.”

“Didn’t you just eat stuff raw?”

“Gotta have a balanced diet.”

There was never any arguing with Finner. Answering finally to the call of her stomach, Greta dug in.

Worth it.

Finner watched her with mild concern etched on his face as she devoured her bowl of stew like a ravenous wolf. Greta couldn’t have cared less. The flavor was the best thing she’d tasted in what felt like years, the meat tender and the mushrooms adding a little bit of sweetness. It was gone disappointingly soon, but she pulled away with a smile on her face anyhow, the low light hitting her hair and making it glow around her head like a halo.

“My compliments to the chef!” she declared, playfully elbowing Finner and calling out to Esko. The other blonde turned his head down towards his own bowl, hiding what Greta was almost certain was a tiny smile.

“We made good progress today,” Helgi called from his perch on a rock a little ways from the campfire they’d made. “We’ll be at the mountains in no time.”

Astrid paused her enthusiastic eating to glance over at him. “How many more days?” she asked. Helgi flicked an ear.

“On foot? Who knows. Maybe three.”

“Three seems right,” agreed Esko. “Assuming we’re aiming near Kilpisjärvi, that’s about 417 more kilometers of travel. If we move quickly and don’t take any detours, we should be there in the next three or four days.”

Greta didn’t know much about numbers, so she merely listened in as her companions discussed the distance and the time. At last, Finner stood up and stretched, glancing at each of the other four in turn. “Come on, it’s almost dawn. Let’s turn in early so we can start again as soon as the sun goes down.”

As soon as the sun goes down…

Yeah, better get some sleep. As her companions made for a little tree hollow, Greta quietly followed suit. Tomorrow would be another day. A better day.

For now, I should just try to appreciate the little things.

Nothing was all bad when she had her new friends with her.