Ellen stood in front of the cottage breathing in the warm evening air. The sun perched above the treetops. Mists danced too and fro over the wheat fields. Somehow the world smelled fresh, as if the rains from the previous day had washed away all the dust and left the world a better place.

This place reminded her of the cottage she had lived in during the summers with her grandparents, when she had been a little girl. Was it possible that her grandparents and her brother would have ended up in other worlds too? Maybe there was reincarnation of some sort going on all the time. 

A creak behind her made her turn. Eva came out on the doorstep. For once she had removed her headscarf, her straw-colored hair held in a messy braid down her left shoulder. She stepped lightly down the one step from the house. It was as if years had fallen off her in only a day. 

“Let’s go for a walk,” she said.

“Can we go into the forest?” Ellen asked. 

Eva nodded, turned towards the forest. As Ellen walked behind her along the wheat field, it looked like Eva’s hair was alight from the setting sun. 

“Why did you come back?” Eva asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You said that you couldn’t stay at the manor house, but why?”

“There wasn’t any room for me.”

“But that house is enormous, how can’t they have any room?”

Ellen sighed deeply before telling Eva about all that had happened since the morning. By the time she finished, twigs cracked under their feet and towering stems of trees surrounded them. 

“How they treat people is horrible,” Ellen ended.

“That is how it has always been.”

“But one moment I am helping Lars together with Sir Ivan. The next his Sir Ivan’s wife wants to kick Lars out. She was absolutely horrified that I would stay with you.”

“I am glad that you are here. You have such an odd way of seeing things, but it is pleasant,” Eva said.

Twigs cracked under their feet as they walked in the dim light. Ellen saw something that she had been hoping for, blueberries. She leaned down and picked one and popped it in her mouth; it was sweet and fruity.

“What are you doing?” Eva asked.

“Eating blueberries.”

Eva looked horrified, “those are not edible, you will die.”

“No, they are delicious. Try one.”

Eva shook her head. Ellen wasn’t about to stop, they were wonderful.

“If you become ill who will save you?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve eaten these berries many times. Have you never actually eaten blueberries? That’s weird.”

Eva laughed. “Sometimes the way you speak is odd.”

Ellen made a new attempt and held out her cupped palm, filled with berries. Eva picked up one and hesitated before putting it in her mouth. The sound she made was a hum of pure enjoyment. Ellen poured the rest of the berries into Eva’s hands and she gobbled them down. They filled their cupped hands and Eva held out her apron to fill it with even more berries. 

Eva’s apron bulged in front of her as they walked home through the dying light. Ellen smiled at the haul, they would have a luxury breakfast tomorrow. She looked forward to seeing the boys faces as they got stained blue and covered in the joy of tasting something for the first time.

A thought came to Ellen.

“Do you ever pick anything else in the forest?”

“Only lingon-berries in fall. Raspberries only when we find them, it isn’t common.”

“No mushrooms or roots?”

“No, that sounds horrible. And everyone knows mushrooms are poisonous.”

“Not all mushrooms, when fall arrives I will teach you which ones to pick.”

It was so strange; they were starving while they had a forest just a field away. Filled with different things that they could eat. Not being able to hunt or fish didn’t have to matter as much if they had other options.

Despite everything that had happened during the last two days, Ellen felt somehow at peace. There was a dull ache in the pit of her stomach at everything that she had lost. She would build herself a new life. It felt as if she was step by step being welcomed into the home of Eva, Harald and the boys. This life would not be wasted, she could and would, change peoples’ lives.

The trees thinned and the wheat fields came into view again. They could see the silhouette of a man on a horse trotting along the road toward the house. 

“Come on, we should hurry to see who it is,” Eva said. 

Eva quickened her steps while constantly looking down at her feet. She held her apron like a small package, containing the valuable berries. Light was growing scarce and tufts of grass made progress difficult.

Sir Ivan arrived at the house just as they did. Golden buttons glistened in the last rays of light as he dismounted. 

“I’ve had a letter,” he waved it at Ellen, “you’ve been summoned by the King.”