The Huldra Hostility

by Michael Almich

  As Shy started to taste the moldy taste of soil and leaves, he remembered! He focused his brain in one last burst. With his sandy hair sticking up from the ground like a mushroom, he thought hard that this nightmare was just that… a dream.

  He felt a relaxation in the roots. In a rush, he continued through the process. This wasn’t real. It was a figment of his imagination and had no power over him. His left arm came free of the dirt! There were no vines or branches still grasping it!

  As he continued to focus his mind, he heard screams from the end of the line. These were different. They held a different tone. Shy knew he had to continue to focus, but the jubilant nature of the yells drew his attention. Soon others joined in.

  Shy was now unburied up to his waist. He turned and yelled to Portia, “This isn’t real. We can control it! Imagine yourself free. Through grimaces she gave a slight nod. Shy saw her eyes squeeze shut tight. Her face contorted. Then he saw it. The branches relaxed ever so slightly. She must have felt it for her eyes popped open. She let out a quick breath and gulped air, and refocused her energy. Shy joined in.

  The yelling was getting louder from the end of the group. Suddenly, with a whoop of joy, Henry ran up. He was free!

  “It’s Eddie!” Henry yelled. “Eddie brought his axe and is teaching those trees a lesson!”

  He dropped to his knees in front of Shy and began to scoop away dirt.

  “I’ve got this now.” Shy said. He pointed to Portia, “Help her!”

  By the time Henry had stood and made his way over to her, Finn, Sawyer, and Ralph came bounding up the path. Shy almost had himself free, now, and was working on his final leg. The remainder of the group came running up the path, led by none other than Eddie.

  The boy was brandishing his axe like a weapon and had a glare of glory in his eyes. He saw Shy, and passed him with a quick nod. He went straight to the tree that held Daniel, and swung a mighty blow. The tree shuddered, and Daniel started to slide from its grasp. Several of them made a net with their arms at Ralph’s behest. Upon the second blow from the axe, Daniel slid down into their arms.

  ***

  With everyone free, they paused to talk about next steps. No one really wanted to talk about the horror they had just been through. Everyone did, however, want to talk about how Eddie had come to the rescue. He seemed to be a different kid. He was open and joking. Shy gave him a high five.

  Henry was relating all of Eddie’s heroics to Daniel, who had regained consciousness, and now had only a lingering headache. Daniel really seemed to be in disbelief. After hearing the story, he approached Eddie slowly.

  “Eddie, I guess I owe you an apology. It couldn’t have been easy to try to fit in to our group… an’ we never really gave you a chance. You saved our butts!” Daniel said as he gave Shy a quick glance; a look that said, you were right.

  Eddie seemed a little sheepish, but Shy also detected a hint of pride.

  “It wasn’t just you. I didn’t try real hard to be friendly. The Professor convinced me not to be, so it wasn’t just my fault…” Eddie tailed off softly.

  “It just goes to show, we should never judge a book by its cover.” Shy said. “How someone or something appears on the outside at first may not be what they are really like on the inside. We should already know that by now. Just look at the Glamour…” Shy trailed off from his rant when he saw Portia smiling at him. He smiled back. He did want the other boys to think about that though. They simply never gave Eddie a chance.

  “Wait… what?” Daniel jumped in again. He addressed Eddie, “You mean Morrie? Morrie told you to not be nice to us? What exactly did he say? Was this at the beginning of camp? Why would he say anything like that? He didn’t even know us.”

  Before Eddie could answer, Daniel, his mind having kicked into full gear, bombarded him with a barrage of questions. Every time Eddie started to answer, Daniel thought of, and blurted out, another question. Henry, as usual, chimed in. He and Sawyer were fascinated with the Moriarty aspect of the story.

  Shy waited patiently until Eddie had answered all he could about Moriarty, stealing the potion, and following the group. He reminded the other boys about how he had run into Morrie at the Mall of America at the end of the school year. A squirt gun spray to the crotch certainly didn’t seem to warrant Morrie’s reaction though, Daniel pointed out. Something was fishy.

  Inside, Shy agreed with Daniel and the others. The Morrie angle needed more investigation, but he was impatient to move. He couldn’t look at the trees the same. He kept envisioning that they may start moving again. Then, in a panic, because he realized how his thoughts had helped to end the nightmare, and didn’t want them to create it again, he would change his line of thinking. He wondered if the attack of the trees was the evil power that the bysen had alluded to, or had it just been their own fears of the dark forest, come to life from their thoughts? Regardless, he kept glaring at the trees, thinking about how they better stay away from him or he would grab Eddie’s iron axe. The trees shuddered slightly in response.

  Shy found himself twisting Gust’s watch. They no longer had a guide, the bysen had escaped. It had slipped away at some point during Eddie’s dramatic rescue effort. They were now stuck in the middle of a creepy, thick, semi-alive, forest with no guide. They never should have trusted him. Shy couldn’t understand. He kept replaying in his mind how the bysen tried to tell him how to save himself. It really seemed like it was trying to help. Maybe, just like people, fairy creatures weren’t all bad or all good. They might have a little of both. Or, was it all just a big calculated plot to get the kids trapped. Shy just didn’t know.

  However, he now had an idea. If he could think the trees to stop, could he think his way through them to Gust? Isn’t that how they had gotten this far? The bysen must have been using this method to get them this far.

  While the others continued to talk, Shy turned in the direction that they had been travelling with the bysen. He stared at where their trail ended. He tried breathing in and out slowly and evenly, like he had heard you do when you meditate. He focused on the trees and tried to force the limbs apart with his mind. He pictured an open pathway between them. He pictured an open tunnel appearing, with Gust at the far end.

  The trees again shuddered, and very slowly they began to pull apart. He had to focus and picture branches and vines unwinding from each other. It was difficult, and he began to feel beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He now had a path of three or four feet cleared.

  “SHY!” Portia said in a panic as she rushed up to him.

  All of his concentration broke, and the trembling movement of the trees ended.

  “Are you OK?” She asked with concern in her voice.

  Shy just nodded. He supposed that he did look strange, sweating and staring into the woods with his teeth clenched. He took Portia’s chin and turned it toward the path he had begun to form.

  “How? What did you…?” She began.

  The others now began to join them. Daniel looked to Shy for explanation.

  “I was able to begin to free myself from the trees just as Eddie came to our rescue… So were you after I yelled that to you…” Shy nodded to Portia. “I thought… what if we could think our way through the forest? So I decided to try. I pictured the forest spreading apart and making a path, and I pictured Gust standing at the end of the path. I thought, maybe that will get us where we need to go. I mean, we no longer have a guide, we no longer have the box, and we haven’t found Gust yet. We need to try something.”

  “And you made this much path?” Daniel nodded towards the gap in the foliage.

  “Yeah, but it was hard. I was sweating. It’s almost as hard as just cutting through it with the axe. I wouldn’t be able to get very far doing this.”

  “What about if we all did it together?” Daniel asked suddenly. “And Eddie could use the axe to help. I think these trees don’t like the iron in the steel head of that axe any more than that bysen liked the chain. How do you do it?” Dani
el questioned Shy. His planning gears were turning now, and he wasn’t going to be deterred.

  Shy tried to explain and then Daniel tried to do it. A look of concentration froze onto Daniel’s face. The trees limbs and leaves started to quiver.

  “Everyone, help Daniel!” Shy said.

  All around the kids turned to stare at where they hoped to form a path. Branches groaned, and little by little a dark green tunnel began to form, much like it had with the bysen.

  Shy had yet to join in the effort. Once he saw that it was working, he pushed Eddie to the front and said, “Fairy creatures hate iron. Whether it is fairy magic or these trees are actual fairy creatures, they aren’t going to like that axe head. Get up here and help to cut our way through.”

  Eddie nodded in response and shouldered the axe, and moved into the lead. Then, he raised the axe. He swung hard into a branch. It cut clean through! Other branches nearby recoiled.

  All of Eddie’s practice for the Camp Games shone brightly now, as did his face. He wielded the axe like a pro. Shy could tell he was happy to now be part of the group. He went on to wonder if Eddie fully realized the predicament they were in, but there was no time for those thoughts.

  Shy now joined in the effort, and they really began to make progress. At times they would falter a bit, and Eddie would come in swinging his axe. They were working at a walking pace. Occasionally Shy would glance back. Their pathway would inevitably close up behind them He wondered if their thoughts were truly leading them where they wanted to go… to Gust. For all Shy knew, they could be traveling in circles, exerting themselves until they were too exhausted to go on. He shivered. He needed to have hope.

  Finally, the types of trees began to change. They went from broadleaf draped with vines, to a type of pine. Their spacing thinned out, ever so slightly. The sun peaked through the tops of the trees occasionally now. It was still daylight here. Shy’s stomach rumbled. He figured it must be close to morning back at camp. What would happen when they were all found to be missing? It would be a national news event! They would bring out dogs and have search parties, but Shy didn’t think they would ever find the trail. Even if the dogs were able to sniff their scent through the Glamour, which he doubted, and they followed the kids past the waterfall, they would never get back unless Shy’s group found the box.

  Daniel, called a halt from up behind Eddie. Shy had dropped back to walk with Portia. Daniel wanted to plan out what they were going to do when they finally found Gust. They were all famished, so over a mish-mashed meal from their bundle of supplies, they talked about what they might come across, if there would be guards, if he would be tied up, how they would escape, and what they would do next, after the rescue… how they would try to find the box. None of them really wanted to think about the latter.

  The box lingered in Shy’s brain, though. The stress was getting to him. It almost made him want to curl up in a ball and close his eyes. He quickly glanced at Portia, who was listening to Daniel. If she heard the way Shy was thinking, she would laugh at him. She wouldn’t want to be with a coward like he was. But, he thought, these were two insurmountable tasks. How can they keep going on?

  In the end, Shy remembered the clichés his dad would always throw out: one game at a time – one foot in front of the other – it’s gut check time – rub some dirt on it and get back in there – not over ‘till the fat lady sings. He realized that he needed to tough it out. He needed to have hope. There was nothing else to do. What was it that Tom T kept telling him last summer? You can.

  He tuned back into what Daniel and Henry were saying. They were arguing. Henry said Daniel’s plan was too complicated. Daniel seemed angry that anyone would doubt his plan-making ability.

  Shy observed Ralph. The quiet boy was looking from one to the other. His head looked like it was watching a tennis match. He seemed to sense Shy looking at him, and turned. He made eye contact with Shy and raised his eyebrows. Shy motioned him over.

  He slid from the group quietly, like everything he did, and followed Shy out of earshot of the others.

  “How you doing?” Shy asked as they continued to walk uphill away from the others.

  “OK, but Shy… I’m scared. If we don’t get that box back… well, I’m just saying… we should be looking for that and not Gust!” He looked a little sheepish at that, like Shy might think he was being selfish.

  “I know, I know. I am worried too.”

  They were coming to a bit of a ridge. Even more light was coming down through the trees now. As they crested the ridge, Ralph turned to look at Shy, as if to say more. As he turned, Shy’s eyes got wide and he dropped immediately to the ground.

  “Ralph, get down!” Shy whisper-yelled.

  The other boy responded quickly by flopping next to Shy. He looked at the trees on both sides, panicked.

  “No,” Shy said, “not the trees. Look down there behind you… in the little hollow.”

  Ralph crawled to face the way Shy was facing. As he raised his eyes above the top of the ridge, he let out a long, soft whistle.

  There in the small wooded valley below, was a veritable army of unseelie fey! The far side of the valley was steeper and rocky. Shy saw movement in the entrance to a cave. Tied spread eagle to the wall of the cave, was Gust!

  “You see the far side, by the cave?” Shy whispered.

  “Yeah… Gust… but even more importantly,” Ralph whispered back, “look over by the group of reds…” he pointed off to the right.

  Shy shifted to look in the direction Ralph was indicating, and a huge smile crept onto Shy’s face. Things were starting to go their way.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “They are waiting for something or someone”

  Shy sent Ralph back to get the others and warn them that there may be guards. They needed to be silent and unseen. He peeked his eyes back over the ridge. He just couldn’t believe their luck. There, sitting radiantly on a large boulder, surrounded by reds, was the box!

  Shy tempered his joy. He realized the insurmountable odds facing them. There had to be at least a hundred of varying types of unseelie fey milling about the hollow. He started to count them, but quickly gave up as the goblins moved so quickly with their jerky, jumpy way of getting around. They resembled crickets from this distance, leaping onto tree trunks as a means to propel them forward. Shy noted that Gust was not really being guarded. He almost seemed to be a forgotten captive.

  Much of the activity surrounded the area with the box. Goblins and trolls kept trying to get a closer look. The reds, facing outward and circling the boulder and the box, were warding off the curious.

  Shy watched one goblin approach. It was moving slowly and cautiously for a goblin. It held its glittering gold-tipped spear out in front of it… pointing it first at the red on its left, then at the red on its right. The gnome-like creatures with the wizened faces and the red hats just looked impassively back at the approaching goblin. The other goblins in the crowd began to get excited, hopping to and fro. Finally, when the daring goblin was just several feet from the boulder, the red on its left simply pointed its bow and fired a strike through its torso. The crowd of goblins silenced immediately.

  Shy couldn’t turn his eyes away as the red proceeded to sling its bow onto its shoulder, and calmly walk up to the dead goblin. The other reds adjusted to fill the gap in their circle. The red quickly pulled a long knife from its boot and in one swift motion it slit the throat of the goblin. The goblins in the crowd hopped back as one, and the red took off its hat and began to massage it into the outpouring of blood from its fresh kill. Shy felt the acids in his stomach begin to swirl, and he dropped below the ridge.

  At this point the other twelve of his group now began to filter up towards him. Shy saw Daniel directing them to spread out. Shy caught a quick glance from Portia, who was following Claire to the right side of the ridge. Shy’s heart ached for just a moment, wishing Portia was coming to wait with him. Daniel and Ralph, however, were making their way up towards Sh
y.

  “What’s the plan?” Shy whispered anxiously when they got within earshot.

  Daniel gave him a look that said, just be patient. He scooted up next to Shy on his stomach and carefully raised his eyes above the ridge. Shy didn’t want to think about the red’s bloodthirsty ways, so he stayed put and let Ralph join Daniel.

  Finally, Daniel tapped Ralph and he scooted back down. Ralph remained.

  “You haven’t seen any guards, huh?” He asked Shy.

  “Not up here….They don’t seem very worried… and they don’t seem to be guarding Gust. I almost think we could sneak around the top of this hollow and then sneak down and cut him free.” Shy said as he glanced at Sam and Eddie, nearby, peeking over the ridge for a look.

  Daniel nodded, and leaned his head back with his eyes closed, in thought.

  Ralph lowered his head below the ridgeline, slid back down and said, “They are waiting.”

  Shy crinkled his brow, and Daniel opened his eyes and said, “What?”

  “They are waiting for something or someone…” The small boy hesitated now, much less confident saying it into Daniel’s now open eyes. “They have the box, so they don’t care about Gust anymore. He was only a means to lure the box here. Those reds are guarding the box, and the rest of them are just waiting for something to happen. They are excited though…”

  Daniel nodded slowly. Shy wanted to sneak down and rescue Gust right now, but he could see the gears turning in Daniel’s head, thinking, planning.