"Mom, I'm going out to see Erik!"
"Alright, Aya! Be back before sundown!"
Aya, daughter of Hillaria and granddaughter of Illaria, smiled as she ran out of her house toward the nearby forest. Like her mother and grandmother, she was strikingly beautiful and yearned after by most of the lads in the village.
Her grandfather, Alaric, had died of old age, and her father was killed during an encounter with goblins. After losing both, the women decided to travel further north to a smaller village that had recently sprung up.
It wasn't what Aya wanted by any stretch. She had wanted to stay where the other girls she used to play with were and the old ladies she helped, but she had been only ten at the time of their decision.
Now, with Aya single-handedly hunting and feeding the household, she was nearing eighteen, and the sacred bonding between two individuals, Erik and Aya, was being discussed.
A beautiful blonde young woman and a charming, baby-faced blonde man beginning to show the first signs of a beard; it was a simple, innocent match for her. She briskly walked in heavy fur boots and coat toward his home.
Along the path, several small fields dotted either side, with small mounds of animal excrement piled.
"Aya!"
Boris, an old man, smiled as he approached with a small wave. His legs shook as he walked, each step supported by a walking stick.
"Can you pick me some wintergreen berries if you're visiting Erik?"
"Of course," she beamed. "Want some hawthorn too?"
"If you could! Thank you Aya!"
"No problem! Will I find you down by the river?"
Winking, he waddled across the path. "Like always!"
Sighing, she shook her head. "You'll catch a cold or worse if you stay out too long."
"Bah! Don't sound like my wife!"
"I'll tell her you said that."
"No, no, no," Boris said quickly, briefly and stiffly turning back to her before continuing on. "I'll give you a fish."
Aya smiled sweetly. "Thank you Boris!"
Boris grumbled as they parted, and she continued on toward Erik's home.
It was a typical northern house with timber walls and a thatched roof.
"Erik, are you home?" she called out.
"Around back!"
She tilted her head and wandered around to find him cutting firewood for the approaching winter. Despite working up a sweat, he kept his heavy fur coats on against the harsh, biting wind.
"Don't you think that's enough?" Aya asked, eyeing the multiple heaped piles.
Erik glanced at her and swung the axe again. "It's not just for me. Your parents and some of the neighbors asked for some. It doesn't hurt to cut more as a precaution either."
"Oh? I didn't know you asked them."
"Yeah," he shrugged. "Why not? I've got spare time after catching the boars."
"That's sweet," she smiled as she sat down to watch him continue working. "Boris asked for some winterberries. I'm going to pick him some and hawthorn... he'll give us a fish in return!"
"A fish? What did you do?" Erik chuckled.
"Nothing," Aya smiled innocently, twirling her hair. "May or may not have mentioned his wife when he said I sounded like her."
Erik paused before nodding. "That'd do it."
"He said I sounded like her!" Aya defensively replied. "All I did was mention he'd catch a cold if he stayed by the river for too long!"
"Damn, you do sound like his wife—just kidding!"
Erik sidestepped nervously with a mischievous snicker before stiffening. Unamused, Aya stood up and walked slowly over to him.
He placed the axe head on the ground, tensing the closer she got closer before she gently grabbed his earlobe and pulled his head down to her height.
"Say something like that again and you won't be a happy man later," she whispered into his ear.
"Yes, ma'am! Sorry, ma'am!"
Letting go with a triumphant smirk, the two of them locked eyes before Aya gently pecked him on the lips. Unsatisfied, Erik pulled her in for a deeper kiss.
She smiled and giggled before pushing him away.
"Come on," Aya sweetly teased. "We've got to pick Boris his berries."
"Berries...? Oh yeah, berries!" Erik sounded confused and withdrawn before his tone shifted upbeat. Holding his axe opposite side from her, he said, "Let's go do it!"
"You really care for Boris, don't you?" Aya rolled her eyes as she picked up a small basket under the overhang of his thatched roof.
"Of course I do! Especially when my sweet darling is there with me as an incentive!" Erik grinned. "Seriously though, I like Boris! He taught me how to fish and listens whenever I have a problem. Fishing is honestly easier than hunting too but I prefer deer or boar meat."
"Why?"
Erik shrugged. "I just do. Sometimes the fish taste is just too much. I never get tired of red meat though."
"Hm," Aya hummed, glancing down at her hand before looking back to him as they began walking out together. "That's like me and rutabagas. I prefer rutabagas to turnips."
Pulling her in sideways, he innocently said, "So red meat and rutabagas for our bonding?"
She fell silent and closed her hand. Looking up at him, she silently nodded, smiling and hugging him as they walked.
"Yes."
Erik chuckled again as they walked out together to a clearing where bushes hugged the treeline on the opposite side. Hawthorn bushes dotted the slope, with winterberry bushes poking out through the foliage.
"Ooo! Look how many there are!" Aya beamed, running forward with childish excitement. She immediately ate one before plucking others for the basket.
She breathed out softly as her breath felt icy, her mouth burning faintly with a strange frosty sensation mixed with sweetness.
"It's good, but I wish it didn't feel like my mouth was frosting. There are so many berries to choose from and—"
Without warning, a hard tug flung her backward as Erik shouted. Aya flinched, closing her eyes instinctively when she heard a loud, wet thunk and felt a warm spray across her face.
"Erik?!" she screamed, eyes flaring open.
A goblin, its head partially severed, glared at her with bloodlust as it hung from a tree, supported only by Erik's axe.
Ripping his axe out and the body crumpling to the ground, Erik scanned the tree line frantically before pulling Aya to her feet.
"There's always more than one! Run!"