Autumn of Elves

by Joanne Vruno

  “I never thought of that. If she’s starting to see creatures, her powers could arrive at any time, even in her sleep like my transporting skill did. She can’t be in school and vanish, poof, out of the classroom. How could even Silver hide that? The whole class would know about her powers. How are we to help her control them if we don’t even know if she’ll get them? This isn’t good. I need to talk to Grandma without Emily. I need to go now!”

  I repeated in my head: Send me to Grandma’s. Send me to Grandma’s. Send me to Grandma’s, and I arrived in her kitchen where Grandma was having a cup of tea.

  Instead of looking startled, Grandma just smiled. “I was wondering when you’d arrive. I knew you would ­realize we needed to talk. How’s Emily? What did you let her know?” asked Grandma.

  I sat down at Grandma’s kitchen table. “She seems fine, maybe because she doesn’t know the extent of the dangers out there for someone who can see hidden creatures. She does know trolls can be a threat. I read that from the book, so she understands there are some dangers, at least. Then, just like that, she realized both you and I had to know about the troll and that we were protecting her by leaving. She asked if I could see the tomtes too. I didn’t think lying was a good plan, so I said yes.”

  “Hmm . . .” said Grandma. “I’ve been trying to figure out how much we should tell her. What are your thoughts, Aly? Is she scared or interested? As you talked to her, did you get a sense how she was handling this special knowledge?”

  “Grandma, I don’t know. At first I thought we could just teach her to ignore creatures, but then, Enar wondered what would happen if Emily got guardianship powers in a public place. At school, for example. What if she transports herself or someone else from her classroom? Maybe she should know ahead of time that this might happen so she doesn’t repeat thoughts in her head? It’d make the news if she just vanished from school one day. How do we protect her?”

  Grandma was nodding. “I thought of that also, but she may never get those powers. She may not be a guardian. Because it runs in the family, she might have the power to see creatures but not be destined to be a guardian. Just seeing creatures can be deadly by itself, though.” She paused a moment, and I saw her expression firm. “I think we move ahead, with teaching her how to ignore creatures for a start. I was going to suggest you and the tomtes start training her after school before your mom gets home. Do you think you’re up to becoming the teacher now?”

  “I already felt like the teacher when we were going through the book. We stopped at trolls. I need to read up on the creatures later in the book so we can do them for a lesson.”

  Grandma gave a decisive, quick nod. “Then that’s what we’ll start with. I’ll explain more to her tomorrow.” Grandma patted my hand. “Aly, we’ll get through this and keep Emily safe. After all, she has two guardians, you and me, protecting her along with more creatures than she can possibly guess.”

  “Grandma, she really wants to see an elf. If she ever gets to meet them, I want to be there. She just loved reading about them.”

  Grandma chuckled. “She’ll most likely get to see them down the line. You had better return now. Try to get some sleep, dear.”

  “Thanks, Grandma. It helps me relax a bit to know she’s to get some training.” I smiled at my grandmother as I said, “I know . . . I need to stay calm.”

  I returned home with another poof, and shared my conversation with Elsa and Enar.

  Five

  As Emily and I entered Grandma’s kitchen the next morning, I saw on the table the familiar books I’d seen numerous times over the summer. Grandma had set three plates out with the family’s traditional Grandma Johnson’s cookies on them, and then went to the fridge for milk for us. When we were all seated, she started teaching.

  “Emily, Aly’s gone through these books off and on all summer,” she began. “I’m going to cover a few very important areas, then I’ll let her teach you the others. The most important aspect to your being able to see any creature is secrecy. Both Aly and I will sound like a broken record on this point, but someday you’ll understand our persistence.

  “Many hidden creatures have lived with humans since the start of time. Some are friendly and will become your friends, while others can be extremely dangerous. It’s hard to know which is which without training. Some very dangerous creatures are also very tricky and will pretend they’re friendly to lure you away. So we’ve decided it is always better to ignore any creature unless Aly or I have introduced them to you.”

  I saw that Emily’s eyes had grown to the size of saucers, and a cookie she had lifted from her plate still ­hadn’t made it to her mouth.

  Grandma, I knew, would have noticed this as well. She smiled warmly at Emily and said, “With that being said, I’m going to introduce you to two of my closest friends. They’re tomtes. Lina and Berg, you can make your appearance.”

  Around the corner came the two tomtes that quickly approached me with a hug and then turned and bowed to Emily. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Miss Emily, even though we’ve watched you grow up.”

  Emily looked taken aback a bit with the appearance of the tomtes. She quickly glanced over to me as she spoke. “Aly, these two look like the two in our house!”

  I chuckled. “That’s because they’re the parents of our tomtes, Elsa and Enar.”

  “Oh,” said Emily, looking directly at the tomtes. “Excuse me. It’s nice to meet you. I haven’t met your children yet, but I have spent many hours watching television with them not knowing who or what they were.”

  “You weren’t afraid of them?” asked Grandma.

  “No. They didn’t seem like they’d hurt me. Plus, I wasn’t sure they were actually real. I thought I made them up. That’s why I never told anyone about them. I thought Mom and Dad and Aly would worry about me if I spoke of the two of them. Now I know they’re real and not part of my imagination,” said Emily with a smile.

  “We’re very real” said Lina, taking Emily’s hand in hers. “Our job is to keep your home safe from intruders, fires, accidents, and anything else that would be harmful to the building and the people inside. We can’t go to sleep at night until all the rooms in your house are checked and safe.”

  “So I never have to worry after watching a scary movie that a monster’s coming after me?” asked Emily.

  “No, as long as a tomte is around your home, you’re safe,” answered Lina as she smiled at Emily.

  “Wow, that’s so cool!”

  Everyone laughed at Emily’s reply.

  “Now, Emily,” Grandma said with a shake of her finger, “nobody can know about your tomtes, or the tomtes could be put in danger.”

  “How?” asked Emily.

  “Well, if word got out, media organizations may come to investigate your claim of having creatures in your house. People would flock to your door in hopes of seeing or capturing the tomtes. Even though other humans may not see them, your home would be put in the spotlight. It would cause more attention than you’d ever want. Your family would be under scrutiny, your lives would never be the same. Plus, other creatures could overhear the talk about your tomtes and decide to eliminate them. You see, not all creatures want humans to know they exist. So, can you keep this knowledge a secret?” asked Grandma.

  Emily gulped, then nodded mutely.

  “Emily, this is why I didn’t tell you up front that Grandma and I also saw the troll,” I said. “We had to make sure it actually was the troll you were talking about. I brought the book to you to find the answer. It’s really tough at times keeping this a secret, but I’m always going to be around so you can talk to me about anything. I’ll try to answer all your questions. If I don’t know the answers we’ll ask Enar and Elsa and then Grandma, all right?”

  “All right,” Emily agreed. “Why can’t Mom and Dad see the creatures?”

  Gra
ndma sighed. “We don’t know for sure. It seems only girls from my side of the family inherited the ability to see creatures. My mom could see them and so could her mom, but my dad and my son, your dad, can’t.”

  “So tomtes are friends. What about trolls?” asked Emily.

  “Well, not all tomtes are your friends, just us and the twins,” said Berg. “We tomtes can be leery if other humans see us. That’s why we stay hidden when your grandmother has company. We don’t know who may have the power to see us. Never approach a tomte other than the four of us. We’ll always be very loyal to you.”

  “Trolls won’t ever be your friends,” warned Lina, “They may be tricky enough to act like your friend, but never fall for their words.”

  I said, “Emily, trolls are very dangerous. I ran into two at the mall this summer. Trolls come right up to people and try to copy their words and movements. I’m going to train you how to act around them, but for now if you think you see one, turn around and walk away from it. Do not look at or talk to it! Just move away quickly, all right?” Chills ran up my arm as I relived the troll encounter from the summer. I couldn’t let Emily go shopping with Mom or Dad without me being there.

  Grandma said, “In fact, Emily, I’m going to have Aly become your instructor to teach you how to be safe. When you get home from school each day, she’ll put you through a session of creature training. You’ll have an hour or so before your mom comes home. I’ll try to have both of you girls over on weekends to see how it’s going. Until then, no talking about creatures in public, and no approaching your tomtes when you’re around your parents or friends.”

  “Can I meet the tomtes in our house when we get home?” asked Emily looking hopeful.

  “Sure,” I said. “I’ll ask them to come to my room to meet you. We need to speak quietly though, so Mom and Dad don’t hear us. That may be your first challenge, learning to ignore the tomtes when our parents are home. If I whisper to them in my room, Mom and Dad can’t hear their voices, but would wonder why I’m talking to myself.”

  Grandma dropped us off home around three. Emily was eager to meet Elsa and Enar and by the reception we got from them as we entered my bedroom, that desire went both ways. The two excited tomtes and Emily made quick friends. Watching their interactions, I came to the realization it must be kind of rough being a tomte and not having much interaction with the members of the household. Elsa and Enar waited twelve years before they had me to talk to and now seemed excited to also have Emily.

  Six

  I felt overwhelmed as I left for my first day of school. Not only was I wondering who would be in my classes, where my locker would be this year, if I’d like my teachers—thoughts I usually had at the start of each school year—I also was worried about Emily. I tried to keep calm and stay focused on the present as the day went by but my thoughts kept creeping toward what Emily was experiencing.

  I relaxed a bit when I thought of the grade school building and the new security measures installed two years ago. No person or creature could just walk into the building. A camera viewed every visitor for approval from the office before they were allowed admittance. If a creature wanted to enter they’d have to sneak in with a human visitor, and there just wasn’t a steady stream of those. That made a creature sighting much less possible but not completely impossible with the speed all creatures from myth­ology seemed to have. If one really wanted to get in, they could, being that they were invisible to the majority of ­humans. I sighed. What would be the draw for a creature to enter a school anyway? Oh, no. The lunchroom. Trolls were such gluttons. Luckily Emily already knew they were a danger and maybe would have the sense not to approach one. But would she stare at one? I need to check on Emily! I looked at the clock. It was only ten. Will this school day ever end? My thoughts were interrupted when my English teacher placed a blank paper on my desk. I hadn’t been paying attention. I had no idea what the paper was for. I momentarily panicked, but none of my classmates were writing. They just looked at Ms. Hendrickson expectantly. Maybe she hadn’t explained the purpose of the paper.

  “I want everyone to write down your most memorable event of the summer and how it affected you,” stated Ms. Hendrickson. “This is an exercise for bringing your descriptive writing alive. I know each of you have experienced something unique this summer. If you’ve traveled, had a new baby in the family, solved a mystery, made a new friend . . . something had to have had an effect on you, maybe changed you.”

  I almost burst out laughing. What if I wrote about mine? “Oh, Ms. Hendrickson, I found out creatures from mythology aren’t made up, but real. I met my first elf, gnome, tomte, troll, and dwarf all in one summer. I also now have a new job being a Guardian for a band of light elves. I battled a dwarf and won because I have magic powers.” Yup, summer this year wasn’t just average.

  I had to calm my head enough to write something I could hand in. I focused on the trip up north to the ­Sawbill Trail when my dad and I saw the moose on the road. I brought in the importance of saving this beautiful wooded area of our state. I wrote about the pristine lakes, stars, animals, and serenity of the area.

  I realized at that moment how much the light elves had already influenced me about saving nature. I never focused on it before meeting them. They had dedicated their whole lives to cleaning up our planet even though at times it seemed like a lost cause with humankind’s pollution. I now knew it was something none of us could give up on. That was why I knew I needed to protect the light elves for the rest of my life. They might be one answer to keep this planet thriving.

  Seven

  The clock moved extra slowly during school but waiting for Emily to come home seemed like a lifetime. I tried to keep myself busy as I gave instructions to the tomtes on what we were going to cover with Emily today. All of my plans were shot as Emily burst into the house.

  “Aly, Enar, Elsa, something’s in my school! When it was time for silent reading in social studies, I heard two tiny voices talking above me, saying, ‘That one must be Emily. She has the long curly hair Silver told us to look for.’ For the rest of the day, I was scared to death something was going to grab me. I wanted to look up and see what creature was on the ceiling, but you told me not to let them know I know they’re there. What could it have been? Who is Silver, and how does she know I have curly hair? Could the troll be called Silver? Grandma said my name at the fair when the troll was stealing cookies. Is that how it got my name? How in the world did it find where I went to school?” Emily was shaking as she spoke.

  Both tomtes went to hug her as they did with me when I was afraid. I just tried to figure out how to handle this. Silver must have sent something into the school to watch over Emily, but what? The elves are supposed to stay hidden. Do I tell Emily about Silver? I wonder what Grandma would say. I have to tell her something. She’s terrified.

  “Emily, come sit down on the couch with me,” I said, patting the cushion next to me. Both tomtes looked at me as if trying to guess what I’d say, “Silver is one of Grandma’s creature friends. I can’t tell you any more about her than that right now. Grandma must have asked her to send something into the school to watch out for you. Whatever you heard talking is friendly, not dangerous. They’re stationed there to keep you safe. Creatures can move very quickly, so fast human eyes can’t see them while they move. One could enter your school undetected. It’s when they stand still that you might notice them. Until you have completed your training, you’re vulnerable. So a safeguard must have been put in place.”

  Addressing the tomtes, I said, “Enar, would you mind showing Emily how you move from place to place?”

  Enar stood up and sped out of the room. All Emily and I saw was the door move until he reappeared in front of us when he stopped.

  “I didn’t even see you move!” Emily said in surprise.

  “All creatures have enormous speed,” I explained. “Some will move around you and
some will plow right into you as a game. Dwarfs love to bump humans and also swear at us. Trolls like to get up close to human faces and taunt us. Tree sprites like to tickle your nose and look you directly in the eye. There are many ways creatures can try to get a reaction from you. And, of course, most people don’t see a thing. But we do. That’s why we need training. A human can never react to a creature or they’ll attack.

  “Today we start your training. The first thing I want to cover is your breathing. If you sense a creature’s near, keep your breaths normal. Don’t let your breaths speed up or get too deep. Focus on what your normal breath is like and try to keep that pace. When a person’s scared or nervous, their breaths increase. A creature can detect that. So right now, focus on how you’re breathing.”

  Emily sat still and listened to her breaths.

  “Good. Always be conscious of your breathing. This can be very difficult if a creature’s right up against you or startles you. We don’t know if you’ll see more creatures than trolls and tomtes so, to be safe, we’re going to train you as if you can see all creatures. The fact that you heard voices in your classroom makes me think you’ll be able to see all creatures. I have no idea what those creatures might have been, do you two?” I asked, looking at Enar and Elsa.

  “Maybe a sprite or fairy, but they are rarely inside buildings. Both like the outside, open areas,” replied Elsa.

  “Well, whatever they were, they’re not a threat to you,” I told Emily again.

  Emily reminded me of how I felt when I first heard this information. She looked as terrified and nervous as I remembered feeling. I wanted to tell her it’d get better, but I was still trying to adapt to this new life and wasn’t positive it would get better. My powers made me less afraid but we didn’t know if Emily would get any. Right now, her life was very scary, not only for her, but all of us. We knew more about the dangers than she did.