Ep. 152 “Kids on Bikes” One-Shot Chapter Two

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Ep. 152 Eberron Renewed “Kids on Bikes” One-Shot Chapter Two

—Rick's Grandfather

Duncan looks for the woman he saw in the camera, but the only sign of her anyone finds is an indent in the grass where she would have been standing. The gang goes to Stephanie's house to review the footage, and Rick points out a disturbance in the image, like something was removed. They head to his place to see if they can find anything in his books.

Rick's grandfather tells them the legend of the huldra—forest spirits that would lure young men into the woods and enslave them. He doesn't know how to deal with them, but he knows people who do.

## Synopsis

Duncan drops the camera and runs towards the hill, shouting at Alex to get to Stephanie. He tries to find where the woman went, but doesn't see anything. Alex runs over to Stephanie, who's been sitting on the hood of her car. She doesn't seem concerned about anything that's just happened. Meanwhile, Rick is doubled over, trying desperately not to puke on the runestone.

Duncan checks if anyone saw the woman, and Rick walks around the runestone, trying to find a trace of her. Stephanie wasn't paying attention.

Right behind the runestone, Rick finds an imprint in the grass that looks like a person might have been standing there. Duncan remembers the camera and picks it back up, but doesn't see anyone. He does, however, see a low battery warning, and with it pops up the rewind option—only, he has to charge it to rewind, so they head to Stephanie's house to use her VCR.

Mrs. Stephenson side-eyes Duncan as they walk in, but doesn't say anything. Alex asks for a sandwich, and she's happy to make him one.

Rick spreads his books out all over the table and gets to work. Duncan rewinds the tape and plays the part with the woman for them. No one sees anything except Rick, who points out some kind of disturbance on the video, like something has been removed. Duncan sees it after Rick shows them, but Stephanie and Alex are still clueless. Rick wants to show his grandfather, so they pile back into Stephanie's car and head to Anomalies & Antiques. Alex gets an ecto cooler for the road.

On their way there, they notice strange bird activity. It's not that they're necessarily acting strangely, but there are a *lot* of them.

Rick brings everyone to the roof to look over his books. (After his grandfather gives Alex an old clacker to play with. Alex thinks it's his to keep and does so.) In the pile sorted Things My Teacher Would Not Tolerate, Rick pulls out a book titled *Anomaly Sightings at the Pineville Runestone*. Duncan takes a look and grabs *The Cursed King of Pineville*. Stephanie is in intrigued by the map with the ley lines. Alex starts reading a Batman comic.

According to Duncan's book, the runestone was place to mark the overpowering of an evil. It states that at some point they brought out a seismologist and did some deep radio pulses, but they found no evidence of a body buried underneath. Some people think the stone was erected by a Viking crew that defeated an indigenous people group, some believe it was a usurping of power within the Viking group. Some think it was some sort of supernatural entity that was overcome.

Duncan flips through his book and finds almost every kind of cryptid in American folklore has been sited at the stone. The opening of the book states, *"Ever since the strange lights written by our Norse visitors, people have often been talking of strange things and unexplained phenomena around the town of Pineville."*

At that Rick makes the connection between the strange lights he saw that kept him up the previous night. They go downstairs to learn what his grandfather knows about it.

His grandpa has several books pulled down on mythical creatures of Scandinavia, having predicted what the kids were up to. Duncan tells him about the tape, and grandpa cautions that there's not a lot in Norse mythology about how creatures might react to being filmed. He tells them about the ley lines: they head all the way back to Norway, and there's a convergence there called the Norway Spiral. He thinks they weren't Viking kinds, but ancient devotees of the Norse gods, following the ley lines. Pineville's isn't the only one—there's one in Ohio, and several in Oklahoma. There's a spirit called a huldra, which is a spirit that protects the forest. He thinks the woman they saw was one. They would try to entice young men to come into the forest and then enslaved them.

Grandpa says that while he knows a lot about the huldra, he doesn't know how to deal with them. But he knows some people.

End of episode.

## Locations

* Anomalies & Antiques
* Runestone
* Stephanie's house

## Quotes

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## Trivia

* First mention of Sheriff Johnson, though he doesn't make an appearance until next episode.

## References and Footnotes

1. ↑ Everyone else is weirded out, but Stephanie is just annoyed that they're pooping on her car.