The cup in the forest

(Anne Collins)

Per and his girlfriend Nina live in a big town in Norway. They are on holiday and are
near a big forest.

Per stops the car. He and Nina walk in the forest.

The forest is dark and quiet, and Nina is afraid. She is cold.
Nina and Per go back to the car.
Per falls over a tree but he is OK.

Then he sees some strange heavy stones. He puts his hand under the stones and
finds a hole. Carefully Per puts his hand in the hole.

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In the hole Per finds a cup. It is very old and very interesting. There are strange
words on the cup.

Nina looks at the cup, too. She thinks the cup is beautiful and very expensive.

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Nina is cold and afraid, and she doesn´t like the forest. They go back to the car.

Suddenly Per stops. He looks into the trees and sees a tall man.
Nina looks, too, but she can´t see a man.
Per looks again. He thinks he was mistaken. Maybe he just saw a tree.

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Nina and Per drive to a small town and find a hotel. The people are friendly. Nina is
happy. Near the hotel is a museum.

Per and Nina will take the cup to the museum the next morning.

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Later, Per can´t sleep. He goes to the window and looks out. He sees the tall man
again.
Per opens the window and shouts to the man, “Who are you?”
Nina hears Per shouting and looks out of the window.
She can´t see the man.

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Per and Nina take the cup to the museum. The curator looks at it carefully.

Per says that the cup is from a hole under some tall trees in the forest.
The curator says they must take the cup back to the forest at once.

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The curator reads the words on the cup. They say that the cup belongs to Hakon.
Hakon is an old Viking name. There are some Viking graves in the forest.

Per and Nina´s cup is from Hakon´s grave. They must take it back.

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In the hotel café Per says they must take the cup back to the forest.
Nina thinks Per is crazy. Hakon is only a dead Viking!

Per is afraid. The cup belongs to Hakon. Suddenly Per sees Hakon across the room.

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Per runs across the room but Hakon is gone. He goes back to the table, and now
Nina is gone! The bag with the cup is gone, too!

Per runs and sees Nina in the car. She is driving away very fast. She has the bag with
the cup.

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Nina is driving very fast. The cup is expensive and she is thinking about the money.
She is taking the cup to Oslo. She wants to sell it.

Nina is not afraid of old stories about dead Vikings.

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Per runs to the museum and finds the curator.
The curator says Nina must return the cup to Hakon. There are strange stories about
Viking ghosts.

Per takes the curator´s car. He must find Nina. She may be in danger.

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Nina drives for many hours and it is dark. There are no towns or cars or people. Only
dark forests.

Nina thinks about money again. She is happy.

It begins to rain and suddenly Nina sees a strange man on the road. His face is dark
and angry.

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Nina screams. She is afraid. She can´t stop the car. She can´t see the road. She can
only see the man´s angy face and his cold eyes: the eyes of a dead man.

The car hits a tree and falls into the river. The car, Nina and the cup are in the river.

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Later, the police come and take the car from the river. Nina is in it and she is dead.

Then Per sees a tall man. He is walking into the forest and he has the cup.
It is the ghost of Hakon and now he has his cup back.

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