Winterfrost (13 page)

Lolland’s winter landscape became a blur beneath Bettina as she and the Pedersens’ goose soared into the clouds. At first, Bettina held on to the goose’s neck with a grip so tight, she feared the goose might stop breathing midflight. But as the bird’s powerful wings settled into a steady rhythm of up, down, up, down, Bettina’s heart stopped racing and her own breathing fell into perfect time with the flapping. Only then did she loosen her grip and relax.

The white goose seemed to know exactly where she was going. When Bettina gathered enough courage to look over one side, she saw houses and barns that looked like toys, and fields and farms that were laid out in squares as if someone had thrown a patchwork quilt of whites and grays over all of Lolland. She tried to look for landmarks that would tell her where she was, but quickly discovered that looking down while flying didn’t agree with her stomach. She drew in a long, deep breath and kept her eyes on the clouds ahead.

Time stood still. Had she been flying an hour? A day? Or only a few minutes? She risked another quick peek down. No more winterfrost. They had left behind a winter wonderland and entered a dismal gray landscape. The sun, just as in the days before, was nowhere to be seen.

Timelessness offered Bettina plenty of opportunity to think. What would this angry nisse Ulf be like? Bettina imagined she might have to bargain for Pia’s return, but what did she have to bargain with? She came with only the backpack Pernilla had provided. Back at home, the Larsens had very little that others didn’t have. There were some of the latest electronic gadgets, computers, and such, but Bettina had a hard time imagining that these would be of much use to a nisse.

The Larsens owned a few antiques, passed down from Farfar’s family. One treasured heirloom was a shiny gold pocket watch that had belonged to Farfar’s grandfather. Perhaps a nisse was like a leprechaun, taking interest in objects of value, like gold. But the book hadn’t mentioned such a trait, and having met Gammel, Pernilla, and Hagen and having been in their home, Bettina was doubtful that gold would appeal to any nisse. Even a wayward nisse.

Up ahead, the empty beet and hay fields and forests became fewer, and small clusters of buildings appeared. Bettina took a deep breath and looked straight down. Below her, she spied a church steeple and a grain elevator. They were flying over a town. Buildings were packed tightly along curving streets that led right up to what looked like water. Bettina sat up straight and strained to see past the goose’s neck. Sure enough, on the horizon Bettina spotted boats. Lots of boats of all sizes as well as ships crawling into the harbor. Bettina knew where they were. But the goose showed no signs of descending. They wouldn’t be landing in this familiar coastal town. Bettina and the goose were flying directly for the sea.

Many hours seemed to pass with nothing but steel-gray clouds above and a matching sea below. Bettina’s eyes grew heavy, but she was afraid to sleep for fear she’d loosen her hold on the goose’s neck and tumble from the sky. Far down in the sea, she could see the Askø ferry, and she had a hunch they were following it to the small island north of Lolland. It made sense that anyone trying to avoid people would hide out on Askø, especially in the wintertime. In the summer, the island was popular with tourists packed into summerhouses. But in the winter, Askø was nearly deserted.

Sure enough, just as the Askø shoreline came into view, the Pedersens’ goose started her slow and steady descent toward land.

It was high noon when the Pedersens’ goose set down lightly on the icy island of Askø, but the sun was nowhere to be seen. There was no winterfrost here. No magical winter wonderland. Just steel gray and cold. By the time Bettina slid from the goose’s slick white back, freezing rain had begun to fall and the wind drove every drop angrily toward her face. They had flown over the ferry dock, over the dock house, and over the lonely summerhouses that occupied the shore. They had flown into the heart of the small island, where Bettina could not see one sign of humanity whatsoever. A perfect place for an unhappy nisse to live. But where, exactly?

“Well?” Bettina turned to her feathery tour guide. “What now?”

The goose honked once and took three running steps. Should she run after the goose? Perhaps she was showing Bettina which way to go next. But before Bettina had time to decide, the Pedersens’ goose flapped her wings several times and took off toward Lolland.

“Wait!” Bettina yelled into the wind. “Don’t leave!”

But the big white goose never glanced back.

“Thanks for the ride,” Bettina muttered.

She was getting used to her new state of tininess, but even so, she found the enormity of everything around her quite overwhelming. She’d been left in a field of dried brown winter grasses that swayed around her and towered overhead like flagpoles. It was impossible to see over their willowy tops, so she started walking in the direction of the small forest she’d seen before the Pedersens’ goose had landed. A nisse trying to hide would likely make a home in the forest, wouldn’t he?

At her current size, even small rocks created an enormous challenge. And even though the island wasn’t very big, Bettina knew that her little legs would only carry her so far before the gray sky overhead turned to black and darkness set in. Would she even make it to the woods by then?

Above, Bettina heard a sharp cry.
Ah-ahh! Ah-ahh!
A seagull soared over, then dipped low. Bettina ducked, protecting her head with both arms. She’d seen how a gull had snatched Klakke. Was she next?

But the gull sailed back into the gray clouds overhead, and his cries faded as he disappeared over the sea. Bettina lowered her hands, her heart pounding. She continued toward the woods, still aware of the occasional forlorn call of a distant gull. Soon there were no more cries, and an eerie silence filled her ears. Cold, icy rain fell. The air hung around Bettina’s neck and shoulders like a wet towel, and she shivered. Askø in winter was not the lush, sunny haven she and her family had enjoyed on summer holiday.

With only the squish of her boots in the wet earth below, Bettina pressed on. At last, she came to a place where trees and bushes began to replace the tall grass. As she walked, the trees grew taller and closer together until she found herself deep in a wooded area. Overhead, the breaks between the treetops seemed few and far between. At least she was out of the rain, if not the cold.

Now what?
Bettina wondered. There were no paths, no way to tell in which direction an unhappy nisse might have made his home. She looked for anything that might be slightly out of place. A thin layer of ice covered the leafy forest floor. Brown dried leaves clung precariously to half-bare winter bushes. Nothing stirred. Not even a leaf moved in the cold, still air.

And then Bettina heard something. Not a seagull. Not a bird of any sort. A whimper? Her heart raced once more. Pia?

Bettina stood perfectly still and listened, her eyes scanning the dull, lifeless forest for some sign of movement. Again, a sound. A tiny call.

“Bettina?”

Bettina sighed. It wasn’t Pia.

She searched the underbrush to no avail.

“Bettina. Up here.”

She lifted her eyes from the forest floor to the treetops. A small figure, red hat tilted to one side, hung awkwardly by the back of his coat on the lowest branch of a birch tree. His brown-booted feet dangled, swinging impatiently.

“Klakke!”

With an embarrassed grin, he waved one small hand. “Hi, Bettina.”

Bettina grinned back. Despite his role in Pia’s disappearance, she had developed a certain affection for Klakke, and that fondness now warmed her chilled bones from the inside out. She wanted to throw her small arms around the little fellow and squeeze him with delight, but she couldn’t. He was well outside of her reach, even on the lowest branch.

Klakke’s cheeks grew pink, perhaps from the cold or more likely the awkward situation in which he found himself.

“I seem to be stuck.” Klakke sighed. “I think that crazy bird meant to drop me at Ulf’s house, but instead I got caught in this branch.”

Klakke was indeed in a predicament. And Bettina wasn’t at all sure how to get him out of it. She reached as high as her small arms would allow. She missed him by what seemed to her to be several feet, but in reality was probably only a few inches.

“Don’t worry, Klakke,” she said. “I’ll get you down.”

Bettina searched the forest floor for something that might be useful, but everything seemed either too small to be of any use or too large for her to pick up on her own.

“There!” Klakke pointed to a very long stick.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been a small thing for Bettina to pick up the stick, but at present, her circumstances were far from normal. The stick was enormous and as big around as a log!

“Just try it!” Klakke’s legs swung higher with excitement. “You may be surprised.”

Bettina shrugged and bent to grab the stick. To her amazement, it was incredibly light for something so large.

She dragged it close to the tree.

“How . . . ?”

“Nisse strength,” Klakke explained.

“But I’m not a nisse.”

“No, I guess not, but somehow you managed to become our size, and it looks like you’ve got the strength to go with it.”

Your size will always work to your advantage.

Bettina smiled. Gammel was right again.

“I, um, don’t want to seem impatient,” Klakke began, “but could you . . . ?”

“Oh! I’m sorry, Klakke!”

Bettina rested one end of the long stick against the branch where Klakke hung. The other end she planted firmly in the wet soil.

“That looks sturdy enough. Can you climb down?”

Klakke grabbed the stick. He pushed and pulled and turned and twisted, but he still couldn’t loosen the back of his jacket collar from the tree.

“You’ll have to come up,” Klakke said apologetically, his face redder than before.

Bettina stared up the slanted stick. It seemed a long way from the ground to her new friend. She hoisted herself onto the makeshift ramp, and, much to her surprise, she was able to scramble to the top just as quickly as she had climbed the ladder to the haymow in the barn at home many times before. By the time she reached Klakke, Bettina was beaming with confidence.

“Don’t you worry,” she told him. “I’ll have you unhooked in no time!”

It only took one try for Bettina to unsnag Klakke’s brown coat from the tree.

“Whee!”
Klakke hollered as he slid down the stick to the ground below. “I’m free!” (Klakke wasn’t used to spending too much time in any one spot.)

Bettina laughed and descended with a bit more caution.

“Thank you, Bettina Larsen!” Klakke stared at her intently, and a huge grin spread across his round face.

Bettina was excited to meet Klakke face-to-face at last. This was the nisse who lived in the barn, watching her do her chores, sometimes helping. And sometimes, perhaps, causing a little mischief ? She remembered the time just days before when Pia had giggled while peering high into the barn’s rafters.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” Bettina said. She extended her hand, which Klakke shook enthusiastically.

“You were very brave just now, climbing up to save me,” he told her. “You remind me of someone.”

“Do I?” Bettina was curious. “Human or nisse?”

“Nisse, of course,” Klakke answered. He knew so few humans. “She’s my twin sister, Klara.”

“You have a twin?” Bettina started. “Ah, yes, of course you do! I should like to meet her someday.”

Klakke looked wistful for a moment. “I should like to see her again someday,” he said. “It’s been far too long.”

The young nisse said no more about his sister. He just continued to smile at Bettina, perhaps a bit tongue-tied in her presence. It was, after all, his first nisse-human interaction, except, of course, for the brief moments he had spent with the adorable baby Pia.

Pia. The very reason both Bettina and Klakke had come to Askø. And although neither could be certain, both held on to the same hope. The hope that Pia was close by. And the hope they’d see her again very soon.

As if he could read her thoughts, Klakke said to Bettina, “We should go speak to Ulf.”