Halla. How long shall you be gone?
Kari. Two days at the most.
Halla (goes to him and touches his shoulder). I beg you to stay for my sake! We have lived together for sixteen years, and now let us also die together.
Kari. I know your way of hiding your will. Now it is your will that I should stay, but this time you are foiled.
Halla. You cared for me when I fled with you to the hills. You told me there was no one like me in all the world. You carried me across the streams, until I grew strong enough to ford them myself. You risked your life to get the things you knew I liked. Have you forgotten?
Kari. I have forgotten nothing.
Halla. And all the nights we slept with the heavens above us! Was it not blessed to feel the morning breeze over your face and to open your eyes and look into the blue sky? Then you kissed me and said that you loved me.
Kari. You shall not stop me from going.
Halla (turns away from him). I know why I have this fear of being alone. It is because I am so far away from every living thing, and there's no sun and no stream here. (Turns toward him.) If we feel that we must die, you can close the smoke-hole, and I will fill the hut with smoke. We shall lie down side by side. (Touches his hand.) I will take your hand, and we shall dream that we are going out into a sand-storm together.
Kari (harshly). Now leave me in peace.