Her footsteps quickened as she started at a more brisk pace. She continued to move even when her ankles began to ache from the strain. Lot knew that she was no warrior like those she served as patrons at the pub. If there was something that caught her out here, she doubted that it would be friendly. The thought quickened her pace even more until she saw a lamp ahead of her.
"Oh, hello?" She said as she walked towards the light. Her heart calmed immediately when she saw who it was. It was a welcome person. "Father Arne, I see you've come to keep me company here again."
As the light flickered, an old man with a cane came into view. His eyes were glazed over, showing that he was blind. At the sound of Lot's voice, his face flickered with a smile. "Is that you, my dear? I'm afraid that I've very much lost my way again."
Immediately, she put her hand on top of his elbow and led him gently away towards her house.
"It's quite all right." She said soothingly. "There is more than enough food and blankets for the night. It's just going to be another night of us bundling up real tight. I'm sure you'd really like the chair by the fire where you normally drink your soup."
Father Arne licked his chapped lips as the thought of the soup seemed to cheer him up. His steps seemed a lot less labored as they came to Lot's house. She did wonder a couple of times if he had actually gotten lost or not, as his mood seemed to brighten up more and more as they got closer to the farmhouse.
As she approached the house, she could see that there was a light flickering inside. She grew concerned as she wondered if her mother was still up waiting for her, or worse, if her son had forgotten to blow it out, or if he had fallen . . . the answer to her question answered the door as it burst open suddenly.
"Mummy! Gramma was saying that you might not come back with all this dark and the landslide and the ogres and–"
Her mother-in-law's kind face came into view as she saw that her daughter-in-law was bringing in another elderly person. "Oh, Father Arne. I'm so sorry about the little one. He hears bits of news and–"
Father Arne crossed the threshold and nodded solemnly. "Young people do seem to have more to worry about than we did. I'm not quite sure I even knew what an ogre looked like. I think I just assumed that they lived deep in the caverns in the mountains, and then one decided that the house where I used to live was a better place to live than that cave.
"It's all right." Lot said, trying to get everyone inside as quickly as possible. "We just need to get along with each other, and then things will get bearable. We just need to do the best that we can do."
"I like bears." Her son said as if that could make his mother's night any better than it had already had been. It was only getting worse, if Lot was honest with herself and she didn't much like that. But someone needed to earn for the family and with her husband away, she was the only able bodied person who could do such the thing.
It was grim, but it was true.
"Bearable?" Her mother-in-law raised her delicate eyebrows as she ushered in the elderly man to the kitchen table. There was food set there for three. Father Arne then reached out and started to heave his plate with more than a fourth of what was available food. Immediately, their faces fell. As Lot was going to reach forward and stop the discomfort, her mother-in-law stopped her. "You were saying that things needed to get bearable.'
Lot then sighed through her teeth as her son appeared from beside his grandmother, watching their guest start to eat their food. It wasn't really the night she had imagined, but she knew she needed to pretend that everything was ok. Lot looked down at him and tried to give him a reassuring smile. "Everything will be all right, Komi. I'm sure that he's just hungry. He probably hasn't eaten for a long time, and patience is a virtue."